“Motherfucking assholes,” I mumbled under my breath, watching the Jaguar drive away. “Fucking good for nothing bastards. Can’t even do their own damn dirty work.”
“Did you say something?” The cop sitting in the passenger seat turned to look at me. He was the same one who couldn’t keep his eyes off me when they’d taken me out of Kade’s car. I could play with that. I let my face crumple, working myself up to real tears when the other cop spoke up.
“Don’t talk to her, Randy,” the driver snapped. “She belongs to the crew.”
Red hot anger shot up my spine, and I went rigid, glaring at the back of the driver’s head. Hell fucking no. I belonged to no one. I had promised Vic and Juan I’d respect their city. But that was before Kade and Gray had fucked up. I didn’t care where the hell I was. I didn’t want a soul in this world thinking I was owned by someone. I’d gotten out of a life like that, and it would never happen again.
Instead of playing the sobbing, terrified girl I had planned, I decided on a different tactic. Leaning forward, I rested my forehead against the bars that separated the front of the car and the back seat.
“What can we do to come to some type of deal?” I asked, keeping my voice sweet.
The man named Randy jumped, startled that I was so close. He whipped his head around to stare, and I bit my lip, giving him a small grin.
“No.” The driver barked without looking away from the road. “Shut up. We’re doing exactly what Mr. Scott and Mr. Jacobs told us to do.”
I still had Randy’s attention, and I licked my lips, telling him exactly what I’d do if he helped me—or what he thought he would get.
“What did you do to them?” he asked curiously.
“Said the wrong thing.” I shrugged. “They couldn’t care less if I died. They’ll forget they even had me arrested by tomorrow. So how about I give you some attention and you let me go?”
“I said to shut the fuck up,” the driver snarled before looking at his partner. “Randy, don’t even think about it. You do not want to get on the bad side of the Riot Crew.”
“We could just say she escaped,” Randy said, looking toward the front again. “They’d never have to know.”
“And what happens when they want to take it out on you that she’s gone?” the driver retorted.
Randy paused. “Accidents happen. I’ll give you my half of what they paid us.”
As they argued, I lifted myself up and slid my cuffed hands under my ass. It had been a while since I’d escaped handcuffs, but it was ingrained in me to always be prepared. I bit back a groan when I bent my leg as tight as it would go, and I lowered my arms until my leg slipped through. Fuck, I needed to stretch more often. After a bit of a struggle, I bent my other leg far enough to slip through it.
With my hands now in front of me, I slid them under my shirt, keeping my eyes on the men in the front. I fumbled with my bra until I felt what I was looking for. Pulling the thin wire out, I bent it in half and pushed it into the keyhole of the handcuffs. Every single bra I owned had a wire I could slip out and use to pick a lock. And even if I was searched, it would pass as the underwire of my bra.
Anticipation bubbled through me, and I coughed to cover the sound of the cuffs unlocking. I slipped the wire under my leg, knowing I wouldn’t have time to put it back in my bra. I quickly put my hands behind my back, keeping a tight grip on the cuffs.
“No. We’re not fucking doing it,” the driver said. “She’s going to the station like they wanted.”
I was as disappointed as Randy. It would have made my escape much easier if we were going anywhere but to a police station. I could still make it work. I just needed to get away before they got me inside. I’d been careful over the years to never get fingerprinted. As cautious as I was, I was sure my fingerprints were at a couple of crime scenes, and I had no plans to get them put in a police database. Even if this was under the table and they took me straight to a cell, I wasn’t fucking chancing it.
A few minutes later, we pulled into the police station, parking a few spots away from the front doors. I closed the handcuffs and placed them over my knuckles before wrapping my fingers around them as makeshift brass knuckles. Not as good, but still better than nothing.
Randy was still sulking when he got out and opened my door. He roughly grabbed my arm, yanking me out of the car harder than I was expecting, breaking the light hold I had on my own wrist to make it look like I was still cuffed. He pulled my arm in front of me, his eyes bulging when he saw I wasn’t restrained.
“How about you let me go and no one gets hurt?” I tightened my grip around the metal when he frowned.
“Come on,” he said gruffly, tugging me toward the police station.
I planted my feet, twisting out of his grip. He spun around, lunging for me. I swung the cuffs into his ribs, and he grunted, stopping in his tracks. The cuffs ripped into my knuckles, but I barely felt it. Lifting my leg, I kicked him in the center of his chest, knocking the wind out of him. As he staggered back, an arm wrapped around my throat from behind me.
“Don’t make this worse,” the driver warned me. “I don’t want to have to explain to the crew that you got hurt.”
“I’m not the one who’s going to get hurt,” I replied, throwing my elbow into his gut. He was stockier than Randy and was squeezing tight enough that I only had seconds before I passed out. I threw my fist up, smashing the cuffs against his nose.
“Shit,” he bellowed in pain, his arm leaving my neck. Drops of his blood fell on my shirt as I grabbed his arm and twisted until he was facing away from me. I ripped his arm upward, keeping him immobile, slamming him against the side of his patrol car. I released my hold on the cuffs and locked his wrist before leaning into the car and snapping the other cuff to the bars inside.
“You crazy bitch,” he spat out, swatting at me with his free hand. Blood covered his mouth while a steady flow continued to come out of his nose. “I hope you enjoy misery. Because that’s what you’re getting when we lock you up.”
“I’m crazy? You were going to take me to jail for something I didn’t do.” I paused, pondering for a moment. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever been set up to take the fall for something I’m actually innocent of.”
He reached for me again, and I jabbed him in the throat, needing him distracted. He made a choking sound, and I used that free time to wrangle his gun from his belt. I slid it free, spinning around right as Randy was sneaking up behind me. He froze, raising his hands in the air. Nervous sweat covered his bald head when I aimed the weapon at his face.
Stepping away from the car, I kept the gun on him. “I’m going to walk away now. And you’re not going to follow. Not unless you want a bullet in your brain.”
“You can’t kill a cop and get away with it,” he said, not looking very sure.
I shrugged, not telling him I’d done it before. Granted, the two cops I had shot were corrupt as fuck, but that probably wouldn’t help my case.
“What the hell is going on?”
Shock coursed through me, seeing Rylan stepping out of the station. What was worse was the five cops who followed him. After one look at what I was doing, half of them raised their weapons. Fuck me. This wasn’t something I could just walk away from. Not without witnesses. I’d have to leave the damn state.
Let’s hope they all believed the show I was about to put on.
