Thorn
I drummed my fingers restlessly against the table in the questioning room as I waited for them to send someone in to interview me. I knew they were giving me time to think things over, to decide what I really wanted to tell them. The thing was, I planned to just tell them the truth. I should never have helped Katia with anything; I knew that now.
Especially since I'd gone against Dorian's wishes in doing so.
Mostly, I wondered what Dorian would do now, with the Sigma Saints in disarray. I wasn't exactly sure what sort of evidence the feds thought they had on Katia and Silas now. Katia at least would be going back to a more secure prison for the rest of her original term; she wouldn't be getting out any time soon. But I had to assume that Silas was somehow being implicated in all of this as well…
The door swung open and Gabi stalked gracefully into the room, falling into a chair across from me. “Well, well, well, Thorn Riley,” she said in her silky voice. “I have to say, I'm impressed. Nabbing not one but two women out from under the nose of Silas Eaves takes skill. Are you sure you aren't an undercover agent as well?”
I snorted, twisting my fingers together. “It didn't really take skill when it came to freeing Jess,” I pointed out. “If it had, I wouldn't be sitting here.”
Gabi leaned forwards. “I'd like to believe you're innocent in all of this,” she said, her eyes glinting a little. “But you're going to have to give me a reason to let you go.”
I bit my lower lip. Surely she couldn't be suggesting that she wanted to just let me walk clear of all of this, right?
“Do you know how Katia Sin escaped from prison?” she asked.
I frowned and shrugged a little. “Not entirely, no,” I said. I hadn't paid close enough attention to the news story; I'd been more shocked to learn that Katia was already out of the prison. But when I thought about it, I was even more surprised. I could remember a few flashes of the video tape in my head, and I didn't recall there being any blood or anything like that. If Katia hadn't fought her way out using the guns… “No, I have no idea how she got out,” I said, realization dawning on me.
Gabi was trying to help me out of this.
“What do you know about Silas Eaves?” she asked, switching gears a little.
“Most of what I know about him is hearsay,” I admitted. “I've heard he's not a very pleasant guy and that he's been involved in a lot of the top schemes of the Sigma Saints. But I don't know that much about him personally.”
“And yet you were there in the Sigma Saints' national headquarters talking to him and Katia as though you were all best buds.”
“I made a deal with Katia,” I said, shrugging a little. “Silas Eaves was keeping a good friend of mine as a captive. I told Katia that she could have my life if Jess walked free.”
“And the explosives?”
“I meant that quite literally,” I said, smiling sharply. “I told Katia that she could have my life if Jess walked free. I planned on setting off the explosives and ensuring that Silas and Katia were both caught in the mess. I wanted to ensure that they weren't able to hurt anyone else in the future.”
“Vigilante justice,” Gabi muttered under her breath, a small smile on her lips.
“I'm not sure if it was justice or not,” I said truthfully. “That's for you all to decide. I just knew that based on what I know about the two of them ... well, the world would have been a safer place.”
“Except that you admitted yourself that you don't really know much about Silas Eaves and that what you do know is based off hearsay,” Gabi argued.
I stared at her, wondering if she was actually helping me at all or if this was just hearsay. I thought suddenly of Dorian, of his insistence that Katia and Silas be removed from their positions of power in the Sigma Saints, about how the organization needed to be rebuilt without them in it.
“You need to talk to members of the Sigma Saints,” I told her. “There are plenty of people who want Katia and Silas removed from their positions. People who think that the organization has become too much of a criminal activity lately, full of brash and impulsive, and bloodthirstyleaders.”
“And who might you suggest I talk to?” Gabi asked, leaning forwards again.
I shook my head, leaning back casually. This might doom me, but I had no desire to be the snitch. “You'd have to talk to one of the Sigma Saints,” I told her again. “But I'm not one of them.”
There was silence in the interrogation room. I could tell Gabi wanted to ask me more, to get me to snitch the names of everyone involved in the organization, but I couldn't do that, no matter if it meant I was going to jail or not. That would just make new enemies for me and continue to put Jess in danger. I hoped, of course, that Dorian had already spirited Jess far away from here, got her set up back at home. But even there, she could be found if someone had a big enough grudge against me.
I refused to be their snitch.
To my surprise, Gabi stood up and walked around the table, offering me a hand up. “Well, in that case, Thorn Riley, I have no further questions for you,” she said. “I'll make sure that all charges against you are dropped.”