Chapter 21
Alessa
The cop cars hadn’t even left the driveway with Zane before we ran inside to get dressed, including Holden. Ryder broke every speed law to get here, surprising the shit out of me. Something big changed between them today.
Busting into the station, I don’t stop at the scared-looking receptionist behind the desk. We shove through the main doors where I know Zane is, and everyone gives us a wide berth.
“Where is he?” I growl at one of the cops I saw at the house.
“Interrogation.” I turn to that voice and come face to face with the Chief of Police, Hartley Cruz. He’s one of the youngest ever to gain the title, and he fucking hates me. The feeling is mutual.
“He’s coming with us,” I demand. “Now.”
“Can’t do that, Ms. Poletti,” he says with a sneer, green eyes narrowed at me. “He’s the number one suspect.”
“For a man that isn’t even fucking dead?” Gage snorts, leaning against one of the desks. “Nice detective work.”
“Are you willing to answer some questions?” Hartley asks, knowing I’m not going to. “Or are you still sticking to your story of Jay kidnapping you?”
My blood starts to boil at the insinuation that I’m lying about the hell I went through.
I didn’t step foot in here after that, so Zane must have told them.
I jerk the folder from Ryder’s hand when he holds it out for me.
Slapping the folder against the closest desk, I stab my finger at it.
“There’s your proof,” I hiss. Holden made copies of everything in the event we would need it, including stills from the videos of Zane and me locked up in that fucking basement. “Where’s your proof?”
Hartley shakes his head. “This is a closed investigation.” That means they don’t have shit.
“Fine,” I declare, catching sight of Zane through the window in the back. Without waiting, I march back there, swinging the door open. “Let him go.”
“You don’t have any authority here!” the cop who arrested him says, standing up.
I step further into the room. “Want to test that theory?”
“Let him go,” Hartley speaks up behind me. “But this isn’t over.”
They unlock Zane’s wrists, and he steps straight to me, sliding his arm around my shoulders. “This is fucking over,” I grit out. “The next person who steps foot on our property will be the last move they make. Do your job and stay the fuck out of my way.”
I go to step around to leave, and Hartley grabs my arm to stop me. Wrong move, asshole. Before I can react, all six of my guys are standing to their full heights, stepping up behind him, more than ready to throw down. Police station or not.
“Back. The. Fuck. Off.” Zane growls, knocking Hartley’s hand away and pulling me toward the exit.
“You one of them now, Zane?” Hartley calls out when we’re almost out the door. “Seven years down the fucking drain.”
Zane turns around slowly. “The only thing I missed out on in those seven years was her. She left you the evidence you need. I suggest you take this seriously.”
As we step outside, a handful of the guys Zane used to work with stand around Ryder’s Explorer. Paying them no mind, we all slide in with Zane, Holden, and me in the very back, with me between them. Gage turns around from his spot in the middle to look at us. “You good, bro?”
“Yeah,” Zane answers, sliding his hand into mine. “They’re grasping at straws.”
“Can you find out what they have?” I ask Holden.
He nods. “As easy as breathing.”
“I don’t understand,” Leo comments, turning around. “How the hell has he convinced an entire police department that he’s dead, and why?”
“Holden will find out,” Ryder answers. “He wants them to think he’s dead, so no matter what the fuck happens, Les and Zane will be blaming a dead man.”
Zane squeezes my hand in his. “Then we make sure this asshole is a dead man.”
We sit in silence for the rest of the ride, then meet in the living room to figure out what to do.
Zane pulls me down on the loveseat between him and Ryder, Dex in his usual chair, and Gage and Leo on the couch.
Holden disappears to his office to hack into the police servers to see what they have on Zane.
No way in hell am I letting Zane go down for something he didn’t do.
“We need to draw him out,” Dex says quietly.
“How do you suppose we do that?” Ryder asks, turning to him. “The only way we do that is…” he trails off when he realizes what Dex means. “No way in fucking hell are we using her to draw him out!”
I grab his hand with my free one; Zane still has a death grip on the other. “I told you I wasn’t hiding anymore, Ryder. This is the only way we end this.”
“We still have Viktor out there too. It isn’t safe,” Ryder argues.
“I have an idea, but Ryder, you’ll have to trust me. I won’t put myself in that situation again,” I promise, telling the truth. That taught me a lot about the risks I was taking with my safety; I won’t do it again. It doesn’t mean that I’m spineless, though.
He takes a deep breath. “What’s your idea?”
“Ghost and Squid’s crews aren’t enough pressure on Viktor.
It needs to be us. As a team.” I thought about this yesterday, but things escalated before I could mention it to them.
My body pressed between them flashes through my mind; I subtly squeeze my thighs together at the ache it causes.
Watching and hearing everything going on was easily the hottest thing I’ve seen.
The guys let go of everything just to be there with me.
“What does that mean, Pretty girl?” Gage asks, sitting up on the couch.
“We go old school,” I grin. “We start busting his shit up.”
“If that doesn’t work?” Dex asks with a raised brow.
“We start burning shit down. There is no fucking way he’s not still pissed about us tearing his house apart and taking Nina.
If I can get Viktor to slip, I can find out where Jay is from him,” I say, and I can feel the excitement roll through me.
I missed this part where we got to wreak absolute havoc to get what we want.
“I’ll get ahold of Alexey, Dmitri, and Micah. See if they want to help.”
The mention of Micah sends a pang of hurt through my heart. He’s avoided the house since we brought Zane here, and we’ve barely spoken. I get messages from him checking on me, but that’s it.
“Mateo will be back tomorrow,” Leo adds with a smile. “He’ll be in.”
“What about Evander?” I ask. Evander left two weeks after I went missing, and I don’t blame him. The night he talked to me at Nina’s, he looked sad and so fucking tired.
Leo shakes his head. “Mateo said probably not. He doesn’t think he’s ready.”
“Do you know why?” I can’t help but ask, hoping he told Leo what happened.
“Nope. He’s tight-lipped about it, saying he won’t put that on me.”
What the hell happened between Micah and Evander to cause Evander to run from the country?
Micah won’t say shit either, which makes me even more curious.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I shoot a quick message to Micah to come to the house in the morning and then pull up Evander’s text screen.
We’ve talked off and on, usually checking on each other.
Hope all is well. Miss you around here.
Evander
I’m okay. Glad to hear you’re doing good. Miss you guys too.
How’s Cabo?
Evander
Surprisingly boring.
Maybe you should come back home with Mateo. We’re about to have lots of fun with the Russians.
Evander
*insert thinking emoji* Consider me intrigued.
I’ll think about it. Take care of my brother.
Always.
“They have a body,” Holden announces when he walks into the room. He hands me his laptop before stepping behind the loveseat to watch the screen.
Frowning, I scroll through the evidence against Zane. “Body burned beyond recognition. Dental records pending,” I read aloud. “Bullet wound through the forehead.” My heart sinks to my feet. “They matched the ballistics to Zane’s service weapon.”
“What?” Zane says harshly, looking at the screen. “I turned my weapon in the day I quit. The day after we got back.”
Holden reaches over and clicks open a different file. “Look at this.”
“Anonymous emails?” Zane asks, looking up at Holden.
“It says that someone in the department is getting anonymous tips leading them everywhere. They led them to the body. But it doesn’t say who’s getting them,” Holden answers.
“Anyone else in that department corrupt enough for this shit? It sounds like Jay has someone on the inside,” Ryder asks, scrolling through the rest after I hand him the laptop.
Zane rakes his fingers through his hair. “Plenty,” he admits. “I saw all kinds of shit go down while I was there.”
“Anyone close to Jay?” I ask.
“A couple.”
“Give me names,” Holden says, taking the laptop from Ryder and sitting on the couch with Gage and Leo.
Zane rattles off a few names, and Holden starts typing at his usual fast speed. Zane raises his eyebrow at me; I smile. No one is better than my hacker. Give Holden ten minutes, a computer, and an internet connection; he will find out anything you need to know.
“We need to look at Jay’s dad,” Leo suggests. “He might have cut him off, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know where Jay is.”
“That’s a good idea,” I agree. “I’ll see if Alexey and Dmitri want to shake him down.”
Dex laughs. “You’re sending the terror twins?”
“Stop calling them that. They aren’t that bad,” I argue, then pause. “Okay. Maybe they are. But they’re on our side.”
“Thank fuck for that. Those fuckers creep me out,” Leo says with a fake shudder, making me laugh.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Beautiful,” Zane says, pulling my attention to him. “Where’s Playboy?”
Holy shit. I completely forgot Playboy was Zane’s informant. “He’s with G and Boone.”
“I fucking knew it,” Zane says with a laugh. “I figured if anyone could get him clean, it was them.”
“You tried to help him,” I say, remembering Playboy telling me Zane sent him to rehab.
Zane shrugs, uncomfortable. “He’s not a bad kid. He stayed clean for about six months after that. I cut him off after I realized he slipped.”