Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“This one time, me and my girl, Kenzie, were getting it on—”
“Yes, thank you!” the reporter half shouted. “Please, get back to what you were saying about the man standing on the other side of the pump.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, that freak.” Sunny shuddered. It was scary how good an actor he was. If more than half of the Merchants’ children weren’t called to a life of crime, I had to wonder what their alter egos would’ve done with their lives. “He was weird, dude. He kept mumbling all this freak stuff about the devil being in Cinco, and that it needed to be purified with fire.
“Just like the movie theater. He, uh... He said—” Sunny paused, scratching his chin. It was then I noticed he’d put dirt under his fingernails. No detail too small for his grand performance. “He said something about the theater being cursed with sin, so it had to go too.”
“Shocking,” the reporter said. “For those listening and yet unaware, only a few hours ago, the old Late-Nite Cinema in Rockchapel was the site of a bombing. That very cinema was closed down due to a shootout that tragically claimed the lives of ten innocent people. Mr. Bell, sir, do you believe that was the theater and the sin this man was speaking of?”
“I don’t know. I thought the dude was just crazy and mumbling to the voices in his head. I didn’t realize he was talking to me until he said I’d better repent of my sins. I ran around to tell him to fuck off, but I couldn’t even get close.
“He was wearing dirty rags and his pants were wet and yellow like he pissed himself. He had old bits of food in his scraggly beard, three teeth, and brown stuff caked on his fingers that could’ve been his own shit for all I knew. He damn sure smelled like it—that Brother Abraham guy.”
And now Sienna did laugh, busting up even amidst the seriousness of the situation. Wherever Brother Abraham was, he would not be pleased with this description.
“How worrying,” the reporter cried. “But then, how did you know this guy was dangerous, or that his threats were to be taken seriously?”
“Because he said he has more gifts to leave for the sinners of Cinco, and this was just the second stop. I was going to ask what the hell he was talking about, but then he dropped his tailgate and showed me what he had in the truck bed. Bombs,” Sunny rasped. “A whole bunch of fucking bombs.”
The call picked up. “Mackenzie?” Liam’s voice poured in my ear. “Everything okay?”
“Genny just called.” I told him everything she said.
He was moving before I finished. “Bane, get Sunny. Let’s go.”
Right there on screen, Sunny fished his phone out of his pocket, read the text, and ran off. “Hope you catch the freak. See ya!”
“Wha— Wait! Mr. Bell, wait—”
“Get back!” A loudspeaker-amplified voice ripped through the speakers, making half the patrons in Banana Tree jump. “A bomb has been located on the premises! I repeat, a bomb is on the premises. Calmly and safely evacuate this area immediately!”
Calm and safe did not describe the screaming stampede that tore out of Banana Tree.
Sienna and I plastered against the corner, staying out of the way. On the screen, the cops rushed all over the place, escorting people away from the area, and barking at those not moving fast enough. One of them turned to the reporter and cameraman, and the live feed blinked out just like that.
Only when everyone else was gone did we chance going down the stairs and out into the street where the guys were waiting.
“Let’s hurry, we don’t have a lot of time,” Liam said, leading the way to his car. “We need to get back to the compound and trace that number.”
“Genny said the place was owned by Luca. It’s where they’re keeping the Cardinals.”
“So that’s why the Brotherhood kept that shitstain around,” Bane growled. “They use his network of hellholes to hide their kidnapped enemies. Or disappear them completely.”
Sienna shuddered. “I don’t understand these people, or what they’re after. They hate the Merchants—okay. They think the Merchants are destroying the city—sure. They want revenge—blah, blah, blah. But if you guys are terrible people preying on the innocent, what the hell does that make Luca, Madison, and Vito? How can they pretend to have any kind of moral high ground when they get involved with scum like them?”
We jogged across the street, consumed by the question, but neither of us having an answer for it.
It was a long drive back to the compound, but a tense one. The guys went back and forth on how to find Genny, and how much firepower they’d need to rescue her and the Cardinals. Meanwhile, Sienna and I closely monitored the news coverage of the gas station.