“Where’s the product now?” I asked.
Sheer terror washed over Oliver and he started frantically shaking his head. Batta raised the device and wiggled it in front of Oliver’s face. “My ass! It’s in my ass!” he screamed.
Batta tossed the device to me and stepped away with his hands held up in surrender. “No fucking way, Prez. I love this club, but I am not getting that out of his asshole.”
Copper covered his mouth with his hand as he tried to stifle a laugh. Bronze, however, didn’t even try to mask his amusement which resulted in the entire room erupting in laughter. “Relax, Batta, no need to open the vault,” Copper said and doubled over with laughter.
Any other time, I would’ve been laughing right along with them, but my girl was in trouble and we were clearly missing something. I rubbed the back of my neck. It seemed like most of the pieces were there, I just couldn’t put them together. I paced the room, well aware of all the eyes on me.
“What are the drugs in?” Splint asked. When Oliver looked at him clearly confused, he added, “Before you, uh, put them in your body, what did you put them in?”
“A condom,” Oliver said quietly.
“Thought so. Uh, Prez, we need to get him to the hospital. If that condom breaks, and we all know how easily that can happen, we’ll have a body to deal with.”
“Fucking hell,” Copper cursed. “Someone was trying to steal your drugs. You hid them in your ass. They attacked you when they couldn’t find them. You gonna stick to that story or do I need to send you to the hospital without a tongue?”
“I’ll stick to that story,” Oliver promised.
“If you don’t, what happened here today will be like a trip to the spa compared to what I’ll do to you,” Copper said in a low and menacing tone.
“Have Coal and Savior drop him at the ER. If anyone sees them, they can say they found him stumbling around on the side of the road and stopped to help,” Copper announced.
The brothers started to clear out while Coal and Savior started untying Oliver. They were about to help him to his feet when a thought suddenly occurred to me. I fixed my eyes on Oliver and said, “Didi Warren.”
His head turned to me and it was clear he knew the name. “What about her?”
“Who is she to you?” I asked, choosing my words carefully.
“She was my cousin’s best friend.”
“And who’s your cousin?” I asked.
His head dropped and his shoulders slumped. “Her name was Paisley, but she’s dead, just like everybody else,” he said sadly. For a moment, a very brief moment, I almost felt sorry for him.
“Spazz,” I called out.
“Already on it,” he said as his fingers pecked away at his phone. Seconds later, he had the information I wanted. “Paisley Ellison died from a drug overdose twelve weeks ago. She was twenty years old. According to another article, she died the day before she was supposed to enter a rehab facility. Apparently, her mother is on the county council and has made numerous statements criticizing ‘the lack of actions being taken to address the county’s rapidly growing opioid crisis,’ her words, not mine.”
“I didn’t realize we had an opioid crisis in Devil Springs. I mean sure, there’s always been some drugs floating around here, but I don’t recall there ever being many overdoses in this area.”
Spazz nodded in agreement but continued to study his phone. “I’m going to go see what else I can find. Hopefully, something that will help River,” he said.
“Thanks, brother,” I said and clapped him on the shoulder.
Once he left, I realized I was alone for the first time that day and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Every unoccupied second was filled with worry for River. Was she okay? Was she in a cell by herself? Was she hurt? Was she scared?
I felt completely helpless. She was my woman. I was supposed to protect her, take care of her, comfort her, love her, and I couldn’t do any of those things. “Fuck!” I roared as I sent the empty storage rack crashing into the opposite wall.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Judge
The morning of River’s bail hearing we packed the courtroom. Mom and I were in the front row with Dash, Kennedy, and Batta. The rows behind us were filled with the Devil Springs Blackwings and the majority of the Croftridge Blackwings.
We sat quietly while we waited for the proceedings to begin. Tina entered the courtroom and walked to her designated seat without so much as a glance to anyone else in the room.
A middle-aged, balding man in a suit entered shortly after Tina and took a seat at the prosecutor’s table. Unlike Tina, he surveyed the room on the way to his seat and then turned around to take another look once he was seated.