Page 11 of Shattered Pieces

“You’re going to get yourself in trouble,” he said, making me snort.

“Why do you care?”

“You really have to ask me that after all these years?” he scoffed, giving me a dirty look. “You’re family to me, D. We might not always see eye-to-eye, but family usually doesn’t. I don’t want to see anything happen to you.”

“She didn’t betray us.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I know her. I wasn’t with her like Skeet, I have a different perspective. I can feel it in my chest that she didn’t fuck us over. She tried calling us for help and we didn’t answer. Of course, she would call someone else that she knew could deal with that mess,” I insisted, watching him nod slowly as he took a long drag of his cigarette.

“If Skeet doesn’t believe her, then how can you?”

I couldn’t exactly bring up the shit with Skeeter and Marco, so I shrugged.

“He’s taking it personally. You know how much his falling out with those guys messed him up. Of course he thinks he’s been betrayed again.”

“You’d bet your life on it?”

“Yes, I would,” I said firmly, and he let out a sigh.

“Then you’d better hurry up and get to the bottom of it. I don’t think that girl fucked Skeet over either.”

At least someone here believed me. Everyone else was celebrating her being shoved in a cell.

“I can’t just visit her or go on her call list. You know Skeet can access that kind of shit,” I said quietly, and he rolled his eyes.

“Then you ask the people around her. Go and ask Hunter what the fuck happened. If you need to get a message to her, surely he’d be able to. If not, Josie probably can. Hell, you could probably even get Josie to get the lawyer to help.”

“If you hear anything⁠—”

“I’ll let you know,” he answered, rapping his knuckles on the desk as he stood. “Be careful, brother. Skeet’s losing it, and I have no idea what will happen if he thinks you’re turning on him too.”

I nodded, watching as he left the room, and I considered my options for a few minutes before checking the cameras. Skeeter was sitting at the bar with Caden, the others milling around having a laugh, most likely at Rory’s expense.

I kept my eyes on them as I pulled my phone out and found Hunter’s number, calling him before I could change my mind.

It rang a few times, and I was starting to think he wasn’t going to answer when he finally picked up.

“I bet your boss doesn’t know you’re calling me,” he said dryly, inhaling and telling me he was smoking.

“Can I meet you tonight? On the down-low?” I asked, making him pause before he sighed like he was tired.

“Yeah, man. What time and where?”

“Pine Valley. I’ll text you when I’m leaving the Shed and tell you the spot. It might be late. Skeet will get suspicious if⁠—”

“I know. Be careful,” he warned, knowing how much shit I could get in for this meeting.

We hung up and I cleared the call from my call log, feeling like an asshole for doing it behind Skeeter’s back, but knowing I had no choice. He wouldn’t listen while he was so angry.

Time dragged all damn day, and Skeeter suddenly seemed to remember I was in here and wandered in with a huff.

“Are you still sulking?”

“Yep,” I grunted, leaning back in my chair. “We’re allowed to have different opinions on this shit, Skeet.”

“Not with this. There's a right or wrong side, so make sure you pick the correct one,” he stated, eyeing me. “I know you’re hurting too, but you can’t be waving your gun at the guys when they did nothing wrong. Do me a favor and go home. I need us to be on the same page, and it’s obvious today we’re not. We need to take five before shit goes south, okay?”