Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Boop. Boop.
“Who are you talking about?” Legend asked. “Their name, Jacques.”
“You’re not going to believe this. It’s—”
Boop!
Sound blared in my ear, spinning me around. Bellowing, I jumped out of the way as the car rocketed up the curb.
“Arsenio Creed, Jacques Stone, Legend St. James, Roan Banks, and Cairo Sharpe.” Davidson heaved out of his police car while two more rolled up, pinning us in on both sides. “Put your hands up and get on your knees slowly. You’re under arrest.”
“What?” Ivy screeched. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Davidson didn’t even look at her. He trained his gun between my eyes—the grin tugging his lips clear as day. “Don’t make this difficult, mayor’s boy. Get those hands up.”
Moving only my eyes, I gazed around at the officers whipping their guns back and forth between Roan, Cairo, Legend, Jacques, and Ivy. We outnumbered them, but they’d squeeze off a few shots if we attacked, and then we wouldn’t outnumber them at all.
Slowly, I raised my hands. “Officer Davidson, there seems to be some mistake. We haven’t committed any crime.”
He belly-laughed. “You said that with the best straight face, Creed. Very believable, but I’m afraid your mommies aren’t getting you out of this one. We’ve got evidence, witnesses, video. The five of you will be breathing stale prison air for two life sentences.”
“Evidence and witnesses to what?”
That tugging grin morphed into a full-blown, shit-eating smirk. “The murder of Scott Cavendish.”
My brow cracked. I was not expecting that.
“Sheriff Sharpe should’ve never been in charge of that case, considering his son was the main suspect. I smelled a rat from the beginning. When I took over, I investigated properly and the evidence led exactly where I knew it would. It’s over, boys. Your free rein in this town is over.” His finger twitched on the trigger. “I said on your knees. Hands behind your head.”
“No. Wait!” Ivy lurched forward, swinging three weapons to her.
“Stop! Don’t move!” we shouted.
Jacques caught her, snapping her to his chest. He bent his head, whispering something in her ear. The officer grabbed and pulled him away, forcing him onto his knees.
We all dropped—folding our hands behind our heads and getting cuffed in front of a gathering crowd. One by one we were loaded into the car. Ivy’s pale figure was the last thing we saw as we turned the corner.
It was a silent ride to the police station—for us. Davidson kept up a steady string of triumphant chatter about how he solved the town’s most notorious case, and that the Acting part in Acting Sheriff would be removed after everyone found out that Jack Sharpe hid evidence and tried to let his murderous son and his friends go free.
He kept up his bullshit all through finger-printing, photographs, and shoving us into the small-town station’s cramped cell.
I faced him as the bars slammed shut. “I don’t understand this,” I said, not letting my voice carry. “He gave us instructions we had every intention of carrying out. Why tell us to go to that party if he was just going to have you pull this? What was the point?”
Davidson laughed. “You really don’t understand, do you?” He glanced over his shoulder, then turned his smile on all of us. “Nothing has changed. The plan is still for you to sacrifice the Ellises tonight, or the sheriff dies. Too bad the five of you never made it to Hunter’s Crest. You got caught up in some legal trouble and the clock ran out on Jack Sharpe.”
My eyes sharpened. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“You’re supposed to be intelligent, Creed. Do you need me to spell it out for you? I don’t give a shit about Steven Ellis or his sons. On the contrary, I’m quite fond of the man. He intends to see me live the life that I’m meant to. I”—he thumped his chest—“should’ve been the sheriff of this town. I should’ve been mayor. But you know what? I’ll settle for stepping up in Jack’s place until it’s time for me to move to my obscenely large mansion on a private island with my wife and two mistresses.”
“The mistresses are for her, yes? Because no way that woman can stand having your wrinkled one-inch dick anywhere near her.”
His smirk flickered. “Reduced to penis jokes? Pathetic.”
“Why not? You don’t think I’m taking you seriously, do you? You arrested us on campus. It’s all over school by now, which means your boss knows we didn’t back out of the plan. You screwed it up.”
Davidson shrugged. “Changes nothing. He can’t get to either of us here, and once you five are transferred to the correction facility upstate, you’ll be useless to him. As will the sheriff. I, on the other hand, am vital to him and his plans for Bedlam. I’m the fucking sheriff. I make his crimes go away. I bring his victims to him.”