Page 75 of Dirty Secrets
He sent a text as we all headed back into the house, Beckett, Maddox, and Zavier all turning their attention to a laptop as Beckett pulled it out to check their own security to see if the car had been past more times than we thought.
Jett and I stood back and let them deal with it, my eyes constantly flicking towards the window to see if the car came back. It could have been a coincidence, or it could have easily been someone coming after one of us.
Beckett’s house was already a target, due to all of them being tied in with the street crews and their parents’ empire, but Zavier also had his foot in the door with a lot of dodgy shit.
Despite him pulling away from it all, that didn’t mean the past wouldn’t come and bite him in the ass.
I doubted someone was following me, but I couldn’t assume I wasn’t a target without proof, especially with how big the skin trade was getting. Not to mention the prick’s who’d killed mybrother could still be out there watching us, or my father might have racked up debt with someone bad.
It wouldn’t even surprise me if he’d used me as collateral for a loan, knowing he wasn’t going to pay them back.
“Got it,” Zavier announced as he held his phone up, showing us a picture of the license plate that one of the Thieves had sent through. “Cruz said it’s registered to a woman from Lake Rowland, but anything he digs up about her is weird.”
“Define weird,” Maddox grunted, crossing his arms and eyeing him.
“Like, the woman died eight years ago,” Zavier answered dryly.
“Maybe she has a husband or kid that drives it and they never switched it out of her name?”
“Doubtful. She’s legally registered as deceased so there’s no way the government has let someone continue registering the car under her name. Even if that was the case, the car was only registered under her name three weeks ago.”
“So, identity theft is what we’re working with,” Beckett shrugged, taking Zavier’s phone without asking, not that he seemed to give a shit. “I’ll send this to Mom so they can all keep an eye out for it too in case it’s a crew issue.”
“How do we track someone down who uses a fake identity?” I asked, looking straight at Beckett for an answer. “Do we just track the car and see who gets out of it?”
“I’ll throw some cash at Cruz and get him to monitor it, yes,” she answered as she gave Zavier his phone back. “I don’t particularly believe in coincidences, so keep your eyes open. Whoever’s driving that car is looking for something, whether it’s one of us or just information, I don’t know. Better to be safe than sorry.”
Zavier beckoned me closer, showing me his phone screen. “Cruz said the car seems to have left the area and is headingtowards the Heights, which is kind of a bad thing because there’s less fancy street security, so they’ll lose them until they pop up somewhere else.”
“Should we call the guys to let them know? What if they’re heading to our house?” I asked, not hiding the slight panic in my voice. The guys could hold their own, but we had no idea what we were up against.
“Go ahead and call them. Even if it’s nothing, you’ll feel better. I’ll send you the photo so you can show the guys,” he murmured, ruffling my hair affectionately. Beckett motioned for me to use the spare room for privacy, and I headed along the hallway to shut myself in the room, trying to figure out who to call.
I wanted to call Logan, but we were trying to avoid suspicion, so I called Reid instead.
“Hey. Everything okay?” Reid asked the moment he answered, concern in his voice.
“We’re not too sure, to be honest. I wanted to call and let you know there’s been a car driving past Beckett’s, and we think it’s watching one of us. Cruz ran the license plate and it’s a stolen identity of someone who died. The car is heading towards the Heights, so I’ll send you a picture of it for you to keep an eye out for. We don’t know why it’s hanging around, it might be crew stuff and has nothing to do with us at all, but we wanted to be careful.”
“Cruz is watching it?”
I put the phone on speaker so I could send him the photo, replying as I did it. “Yeah. Beckett’s going to pay him to monitor it.”
“If it keeps appearing, maybe we should all carry again.”
I preferred my knife, but I didn’t want to get that close to someone to defend myself if the other person was carrying, so the gun was a smart idea if this person was following us.
“Maybe. We’ll talk more at home. I just wanted to let you know.”
“Stick by Zav, okay? I’m with Logan, so I’ll let him know to keep an eye out too. Stay safe,” he answered before hanging up, and I blew out a breath as I pocketed my phone.
I couldn’t handle more bullshit. Between my shitty parents, the death of my brother, and Reid’s accident last year, I was tired of fighting.
The door opened and Zavier stepped inside, closing it again behind him.
“Hey. You okay? Did you talk to the guys?”
“Yeah, they’re going to keep an eye out,” I mumbled, rubbing a hand over my face. His hand snagged the front of my hoodie, and he tugged me against his chest, sighing as he wrapped his arms around me to rest his chin on top of my head.