Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“Makes sense,” I said as she finished with her last towel, went to put it back in the basket, then thought better and passed it to me instead. “Thanks.”
“Have a good workout,” she said, giving me that big smile again. “I’ll have your smoothie ready when you’re done,” she added, turning to put the towel basket in its place beside the counter.
I moved in, getting right to work since I didn’t need to change or store shit in the lockers.
I was about an hour into my workout when I saw several cars pull up on the street. Two patrol cars and a car I recognized immediately, even before my brother slid out of the seat and stood beside the door for a second, speaking to one of the uniformed officers.
Yeah.
My brother.
The cop.
Detective now, apparently.
I say ‘apparently’ because we didn’t speak. We hadn’t since I’d gotten my patch for the club. From that day on, it seemed we were enemies. Each of us on the other side of the law.
We looked a lot alike.
Same height, dark skin, brown eyes, square faces, strong jaws, kind of stern brows. The only real difference came from my many hours spent in the gym, building bigger muscles. He was fit under his gray suit, but not as bulky as I was.
The hell was he doing here?
Nothing on the street was really open yet, outside of maybe the diner.
Then I watched with a strange tightening in my stomach as four officers and my brother moved toward the gym’s doors.
I’d put my weights down before they even got buzzed in by a concerned-looking Everleigh.
Were they here for me?
I racked my brain, trying to find any situation that might point back to me. But I couldn’t think of anything. Not in recent history, anyway.
But there was no one else here, save for a woman and her gym bro boyfriend.
I took several steps forward, watching my brother move up to the desk as the uniforms flanked either side.
That tightening feeling in my stomach intensified as my brother’s hard, disapproving gaze watched an uncomfortable-looking Everleigh.
“Everleigh Barker, you’re under arrest—“ he started, and my fucking heart plummeted.
Everleigh?
What the fuck could Everleigh have ever done?
I was still taking steps forward as one of the cops moved toward her.
“For drug trafficking,” my brother finished.
What the fuck?
Drug trafficking?
Everleigh once confessed she’d never even touched weed, even though it had been legal for ages in the state.
No goddamn way was she trafficking drugs.
“What? No,” Everleigh said, eyes huge as the cop demanded she put her arms behind her back. “No, you have the wrong person. I’ve never even touched drugs,” she insisted, and I couldn’t understand how my brother didn’t see she was telling the truth.
“You have the right to remain silent—“
“You have to have the wrong person,” Everleigh said as the cop continued to Mirandize her as he cuffed her, then started to push her out from behind the desk. “I didn’t… I wouldn’t,” she said, eyes pleading with my brother.
And that cold bastard was completely unmoved.
Rage bubbled up as I took another couple steps forward.
Everleigh caught the movement, and she turned those pleading eyes to me.
I wasn’t unmoved.
I was moved.
I was fucking gutted for her.
“I didn’t do this,” she insisted, eyes round and watery. “I didn’t.”
“I believe you,” I said, nodding as her lower lip trembled.
It was only then that my brother’s gaze finally slid in my direction. If his eyes were cold before, they were fucking frigid then.
“Of course you do,” he said, disdain dripping from his tongue.
I ignored him, and the way his blind hatred still cut, even after all these years, and focused on Everleigh instead.
“Don’t say a fucking word except asking for a lawyer,” I told her, tone deadly serious because I knew how easily cops could talk in circles until you were so turned around that you finally just admitted to shit. Even if you didn’t do it.
She nodded to me before she was pulled outside.
I was watching her be pushed into the backseat of a cruiser when my brother spoke.
“Poor girl, but I guess if you wallow around in the mud with pigs for long enough, you become one too,” he said, making my gaze cut to his.
This time, it was my tongue dripping venom.
“Funny. I only see one pig here,” I said, watching as his gaze flicked fire before he banked it down.
But it was too late.
I knew I got to him.
He knew I knew.
“Your little girlfriend is going away for a long time,” he said before turning and walking out of the gym.
Not if I had anything to say about it.
CHAPTER TWO
Everleigh
It all happened in a blur as I found myself sort of outside of my body, watching as I was searched, fingerprinted, had my mugshot taken, and was placed into a cell.
What the hell was happening?