Page 36 of Break Away (Riot MC Next Generation #2)

“She says there was a car accident, and that other bitch didn’t make it,” Nate said.

I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes. It took a lot not to argue that Ines wasn’t a bitch.

K.C. chuckled at me. “I can’t tell if you’re just that stupid or if your loyalty to Ines means you were in on it with her. Those white boys say you weren’t, but I don’t trust them.”

I opened my eyes and stared at him, unsure how to respond. Part of me still wanted to believe she’d been set up, but I didn’t have anything to support it.

“I wasn’t in on it,” I said, my voice quiet and controlled.

He leaned back in his office chair. “Not like you’d admit it if you were. Got any idea where the money is? Heard the cops tore your place apart, but didn’t find nothin’.”

I shook my head. “Ines didn’t have any money. I had to constantly remind her to pay her half of the rent every month.”

“Did her boyfriend take the money?”

My eyes widened as I reared back my head. “I have no idea. After the accident, I spent the night at my parents’ house. So for all I know, he could have.”

I left out the part about finding him at my place because I didn’t want to mention Rafferty or the Riot MC - though I suspected K.C. knew about my ties to them.

“You ain’t much use to me,” K.C. said.

“I can use her,” a man to my left muttered.

Other men must have filed in behind us since I heard two others make ‘mm-hmm’ sounds of agreement.

My unease turned to fear.

“Could kill her and set up those white boys,” the man on my left added.

Outrage filled K.C.’s expression. “Do you know how much work it takes to move a body? Or anything, Jamal?”

“Those idiots would rat out their mommas. We’d face more heat,” Nate said.

K.C. scrutinized Nate. “You think an awful lot like a cop. But the cops aren’t that smart.”

The tone of Nate’s voice shifted to a deadpan. “Neither are the two men who took your coke.”

“Yeah,” K.C. said after a long moment. He focused on me again. “You been with Toby?”

My brows furrowed while my mind whirled for a moment before realization hit me. “You mean Tobias? No.”

“Hmph,” K.C. muttered with disappointment. “Asshole said he’d been with you.”

“He wishes,” I muttered, then I clamped my mouth shut.

K.C. laughed and the others joined in.

I thought about pressing my luck to ask if I could go home.

K.C. said, “Put her in LaTrease’s room.”

Nate grabbed my hand.

“Not you, Eightball. Let Digit do it.”

Nate let me go, and a man came around from behind me.

He waggled his long, thick fingers at me. “Time for some fun.”

Before he could turn me around, a woman’s voice hollered, “Kevin Calvin, there’s two white boys here!”

As much as I wanted to hope Beast and Tundra were here, every instinct told me that wasn’t the case.

Otherwise, she’d have said two bikers because neither Beast nor Tundra qualified as boys.

For that matter, neither did Rafferty. No, the more I thought about it, the more my stomach felt like a dead weight had taken root inside me.

I expected Tobias and Brantley to come through the doorway.

Instead, it was Brantley and Porter .

KC’s gaze hardened on Brantley, then cut to Porter. “Who the hell’s this?”

“A friend of mine,” Brantley said.

“That don’t answer my question,” KC said.

“I’m her ex-boyfriend and I can help you get the men helping her,” Porter said.

KC stared at Porter for a very long moment. The way he shifted his stare to Brantley, he’d dismissed Porter outright. “My beef’s with Ines. She had my product and I’ve heard she sold two kilos with your help. Now you got this boy with you. Wasting my fuckin’ time.”

Brantley shook his head. “Three Riot MC members came to my place last week. One had a name patch that read, Beast. He said he had the drugs and knew Suarez."

KC made a skeptical noise, not quite a tsk, but close. “Like Suarez knows any bikers. They lied.”

Brantley opened his mouth to argue, but stayed silent.

KC turned to me. “Did you find the drugs?”

I shook my head. “No. Someone broke into my place - twice if you count Brantley picking the locks last Monday. He wanted to get Ines’s ATM card for her crypto account. If anyone could get your money, it’s him.”

“The money was hidden in her bed,” Porter blurted.

“How would you know that?” Nate asked.

“I ask the questions, Eightball,” KC said.

Another man entered the room.

Next to me, I heard Digit whisper, “Suarez.”

“I don’t care who asks the questions, I want an answer,” Suarez said, glaring at Porter.

The power dynamic in the room shifted when Suarez stood in front of KC’s desk. As clear as it was that Suarez was the mastermind, it still felt like a pissing contest - a contest I hated being around.

Silence lingered for a moment.

“Answer me!” Suarez thundered at Porter.

He and Brantley stepped back a pace. Their faces were pale and their eyes wide with fear.

“Uh… I called in the tip,” Porter stammered.

Suarez leaned forward. “Did you call in the tip or hide my fuckin’ money, pendejo ?”

“Both,” Brantley said.

Porter shot an enraged look at Brantley.

“Why?” Suarez asked.

“To get the biker out of the way.” He paused, and added, “I didn’t know there were two more in town.”

“Did you put him up to that?” KC asked Brantley.

“No. He came to me this morning about it. Wanted to know if I’d heard anything about the money being found. I decided to bring him to you.”

Suarez made eye contact with the guy standing next to me, then he tipped his head at me and then Porter. “Take those two to a room. I want to talk to Brantley alone.”

My body went rigid. “No,” I almost yelled. I exhaled and lowered my voice. “He tried to attack me the last time I saw him. Please, don’t put me in a room with him.”

“You were my girlfriend.”

“ Ex -girlfriend.”

“He tried to rape you?” Suarez asked, a trace of gentleness in his tone.

I dipped my chin.

“No, I didn’t. We couldn’t have sex in the car.”

I inhaled and willed myself to keep calm. “You tried again when you shoved inside my apartment.”

“Digit, take him to the garage,” Suarez said.

Relief rolled over me like a gentle wave.

Suarez continued, “Eightball, go to LaTrease’s room with her until I call you in.”

Digit had wrapped a hand around Porter’s bicep.

Porter glared at me. “Lying bitch.”

Nate took me to a room with a twin bed and Bluey decorations.

“He has a kid?” I asked.

Nate stared at me for a moment. “LaTrease does,” he whispered.

This room wasn’t far from the one we’d just left. The murmur of voices rose.

“Tobias broke in, not me!” Brantley yelled.

“That doesn’t sound good,” I muttered.

“No,” Nate whispered.

His phone vibrated with a notification. He glanced at the screen. “Shit. All right, I gotta get back in that room, but I have to tie your hands.”

My eyes slid to the side even as I held my wrists together. “Can you not, and just say you did?”

“Hey, look at me.”

I met his brown-eyed gaze.

“Not gonna tie them tight. You pull on the end, it’ll come undone. Just try not to do that in front of anyone.”

He told no lies, and wound a rope around my wrists, not too tight and did it in what I considered to be record time. Then he was gone.

I debated whether to sit on the bed, one of the kid-sized chairs, a beanbag, or just plant my ass on the floor. Part of me wanted to lay down on the bed, but I hated the idea of a little kid finding me in their bed. Like a messed-up version of Goldilocks.

The beanbag looked inviting, but would be a bitch to get out of in a hurry if someone stormed in here - or worse, if Porter found his way in here.

There was a small window near the bed. I moved the blinds to see what was outside. The window was covered by security bars. On closer inspection, even if I opened the window quietly, I wouldn’t be able to get past the bars without someone hearing me.

I went to the door, and tried the knob. It was locked. With another look at the handle, I saw it had been turned around, and I’d been locked in from the outside.

Who did that to a kid?

I settled on the floor next to the beanbag. The house was quiet. Deceptively so.

My phone was in my backpack… in Nate’s car.

I didn’t know what time it was, but Rafferty expected me to be back by two.

My eyes closed and I exhaled. I hated that he was probably freaking out right now.

There was carpet on the floor, but it was threadbare. My butt began to ache in no time. I decided to shift over to the beanbag. Even if it was hard to get out of it, I figured it was better than being a sitting duck on the bed. As I sat there, willing my mind not to race, I somehow fell asleep.