Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“Money talks, Bonnie. You would be surprised what people would do for cash. Those foster families are doing it half the time for extra money that they get for those kids. We roll in, find the worst ones, and we offer them a hefty sum to report their kids as a runaway and allow us to take them. I’ve rarely had one disagree. The ones that do, don’t get a chance to speak out.”
I swallow the lump in my throat.
What does that mean? He kills them.
“Everyone has secrets, Bonnie. We find out all their secrets before we go to them. Then, if they don’t agree to sell the kids, we give them a glimpse of what their futures might look like if they don’t give us what we want. Daniel was the only one to fight us, to dig deeper, to try and play the system and he was ended for it. After that, we were smarter about it. We made sure we were picking the families who we knew were struggling.”
To know if a family is struggling, he’d have to have access to financial records.
Whoever he’s working for, has their finger in a lot of pies.
“You’re disgusting,” I grind out. “Those kids have had it hard enough. They deserve better.”
“Well, thanks to your little biker, they got better...until now. That club is going to be removed from the picture, so I can continue without them in my way.”
I knew that Bill was suspicious of the club, hell, I was too. I thought they were involved, I knew they were into more than they were letting on, but I could have never guessed they were actually helping those kids. I made a mess of all this. If I had just trusted Western, I might not be here right now. Bill wouldn’t have the upper hand. The club wouldn’t be in danger of losing everything.
I screwed up.
So damned bad.
This all goes so much deeper than I could have ever imagined.
Did Bill know that all along? Was he playing me purely just to get the club on edge, to have the chance to dig deeper, to have them make a mistake? With him, it’s hard to know. He’s smart, there is no denying that. He couldn’t have gotten away with what he has, if he wasn’t clever. There has to be a way to bring him down, to make the world see what kind of man he is.
Colt said once, you have to take down the King. What if we were to just cut the King off at the knees, put a chink in the chain, wound him so he’s forced to come out of hiding?
Would that be enough?
Maybe taking Bill out, will bring forward the man behind all of this.
Right now, though, I have to get out of this car.
Bill has always made it clear he’s not letting me go.
He’s going to make sure I don’t see the light of day again.
That’s not going to happen.
We drive, and as we do, I come up with a plan.
It’s not a good plan, but it might just work.
Bill is sitting behind me, but he’s to my right so he can sit comfortably with the gun pointed at me. He’s on the backseat. If I crash the car just right, I can probably wound him enough for me to be able to get out. At least, put him in a daze long enough for me to escape. The only problem with my plan is...I might just end up hurting myself just as bad if I’m not careful.
I’m willing to take the risk, because if I don’t, I’m going to die regardless and I’m not going down without a fight.
I begin scanning the road for the perfect tree, the perfect ledge, anything that will get me out of this car and away from this man. The further we go out of town, the thicker the trees on the side of the road become and I know now is my chance to finish this. I take a deep breath and glance at Bill in the rearview mirror. He has the gun sitting in his lap, but his hand is covering it, ensuring I know he can point and aim at any moment.
He looks down at his phone and I know it’s my only chance.
Taking a deep breath and sending a prayer up above, I swerve off the road. Bill yells out, startled, but his voice only lasts seconds as the car slams into a tree. I brace on the steering wheel with my hands tightly wound around it as my body jerks forward. The crunching sounds of the car impacting the tree are louder than I would have ever anticipated.
My fingers slip off the steering wheel as the car does a dramatic spin, and my head slams down over it. The car then comes to a stop, a sizzling sound can be heard from the back. It takes me a moment to gather my bearings, but I know I have to move quickly. The hit on the tree is not as good as I’d like, and mostly the front is impacted, but I don’t take long to stop and think about it. I unbuckle my seatbelt, throw the door open, and run.