Page 48 of Hate So Deep (Hate #4)

NOW

Lauren

The following morning, I’m picking at my breakfast when Dad appears at the threshold of the dining room.

When I meet his solemn gaze, I drop my fork to my plate, dread suffusing my bones.

This is it. Am I ready to go to jail?

“Sweetheart,” he says and then his shoulders fall, just as Celia appears from the kitchen.

“What is it?” she asks.

Since the fiasco with the police, I’ve been spared the specter of going to school. Cat left fifteen minutes ago, and Dad should be on his way to work.

“I received a call from Jones,” he says. “They plan to arrest you. If we go down there willingly, it will be better.”

Better for whom?

Numbly, I push back from the table mumbling, “I just need to brush my teeth.”

I mean, fresh breath while you’re in jail must be a priority. Right?

“I know this is scary, sweetheart but as soon as we figure out bail, I’ll get you out. I promise,” Dad says.

Bail? Is this really happening to me?

To my surprise, when I stop in the kitchen after changing and cleaning up, I find Colt and Finn sitting at the table.

Colt looks up and I eye his frown while Finn stands and walks around the table.

With tears in her eyes, she wraps me up in a hug and says, “I’m so sorry, Lala.”

“Thanks,” I mumble, nodding to Cat when she appears in the door.

“Ready?” Dad asks.

“Yeah,” I rasp.

“We’ll be here when you get back,” Colt says.

“Really?”

He nods and I turn away, a kernel of warmth wrapping around my heart which fades once we arrive at the station, and I’m put under arrest.

The rest is a blur.

Only later, as I roll over in the hard as fuck bed and look at the two women opposite does it sink in.

I’m in jail and I may never leave.

It takes two days of sitting around and going out of my mind before my hearing is set and I enter the courtroom in fucking handcuffs while my dad and Celia look on, my mother conspicuously absent.

I plead not guilty with my heart in my throat and close my eyes when the judge announces bail to be set at half a million dollars.

Convinced that there’s no way my dad can get that much money, I’m surprised when the officer calls my name while I cry silently in my bunk before following him from the room and down the hall.

Dad’s waiting for me once I’m released and I step into his arms, never so happy to see him in my life.

Dirk

Unfortunately, it’s come down to the wire and I have a decision to make. Colt informed me two days ago that Lauren was arrested and although I had held out hope that something would lead the detectives away from her, it’s not happening quickly enough for me.

While I know that Lauren could not have possibly killed Aimee, the police don’t have the same insight and as far as I know, they’re still looking at the two murders as linked in some way.

The truth has a way of coming out eventually but in the meantime, it’s Lauren on the chopping block. This simply will not do, which is why I’m forced to outreach the fucker who holds the power to ruin my plans before I act on anything.

Hate is not someone you mess with unless you want to end up in a body bag, but he has eyes and ears everywhere and to double cross him could mean disaster.

The only possible way to make this work is to give him something he wants in exchange for what I need but I have to proceed with caution, otherwise I may not leave here alive.

“You want to do what?” he asks, his icy blue eyes boring into mine.

“It’s the only way,” I say, and he shakes his head.

I can’t tell from his expression which usually alternates between cold and colder whether he’s displeased but it’s never good to be the messenger when it comes to implying that you might be encroaching on his territory.

“You’re a crazy fucker,” he mutters, dropping to the floor from where he was leaning back in his chair before resting his forearms on the desk.

His eyes roll over the room, the back office of a cleared-out warehouse before he says, “Why would you do something so stupid. Is this about the girl?”

Although we don’t usually cross paths and I don’t care about his reputation, this fucked up scenario forces me to reveal shit no one needs to know.

I can’t go around Hate though. The consequences could be deadly and it’s not just me that I have to worry about.

Hate doesn’t discriminate when it comes to pain, if you can feel it, he’s willing to dish it out.

“He was an asshole,” I say, splaying my hands. “He got what he deserved but there’s too much other shit wrapped up in it.”

“The Holmes girl,” Hate mutters and I nod.

Does he know anything about what happened to her? Would he take her out if it came down to it?

I don’t know but he sure as shit isn’t going to admit it to me.

“What do I get in return?” he asks, raising a brow. “You’re already skating on thin ice, Evans. I don’t make deals just to break ‘em.”

“I know. It’s not ideal but it’s the only way. I have something you can use,” I say, and he cocks his head.

When he waves his hand, I pull the key from my pocket and drop it on the desk. It rolls across the surface before Hate picks it up and says, “What’s this?”

“It’s twenty years of shit my father compiled on every dick in this town. It’s his bankroll and it could be yours…”

Yes, I told my father we had a deal and I’m keeping to my end. I’m not revealing what he knows about the governor’s daughter. Nope, instead, I’m giving the power to someone else who may be an asshole but at least he’s honest about it.

My father stands behind his holier than thou attitude. Hate doesn’t fucking care.

“All this for Stark?” Hate mutters. “Little weasel.”

“Yes…”

“On one condition,” he says.

“Anything. I’ll do anything,” I say, and he smiles.