Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 187

"Freeze! Put your hands in the air!"

Rex and his crew had barely finished laying into the second bike when a voice cut through the darkness like a whip.

They snapped their heads up, completely stunned. When the hell did the cops get here?

Standing right beside the officers were several men in crisp suits and ties, wearing the Green Bikes logo.

How did the cops and the bike company find out so fast?

They never would have guessed that someone had called them in before they even started swinging.

And the moment that first hammer struck, it had triggered the specialized trackers embedded inside the bikes, instantly alerting the regional maintenance department.

The police gathered the evidence, slapped handcuffs on all five men, and hauled them straight to the precinct.

Inside the interrogation room, the five men remained surprisingly calm, openly confessing to the vandalism.

But when the officers dropped the bomb—thirty bikes, a two-thousand-dollar fine per bike, and three months behind bars—their eyes nearly bulged out of their skulls.

"Isn't the fine only a thousand bucks a bike? Since when is it two grand?"

"We only smashed ten of them! Why are you charging us for all thirty?"

"Aren't we just supposed to get a couple weeks in jail? Why thirty-seven days?"

"Oh, so you brushed up on the law before you did this?

That proves this was premeditated. Who put you up to it?"

The thugs fell dead silent.

"Not going to talk?

Fine. You have three days to cough up twelve thousand dollars each in fines. If you don't, we'll take extreme measures.

And just so you know, intentional destruction of property over five thousand dollars crosses the line into a felony."

Panic finally set in. These guys were no strangers to the inside of a cell.

If they didn't pay up, the police would freeze their accounts or seize their personal assets to cover the cost.

If it came to that, the punishment would be far more severe.

But a twelve-thousand-dollar fine was a pill they simply couldn't swallow.

They had only been paid ten grand each so far, and now they were staring down the barrel of thirty-seven days in jail. Was the boss behind all this really going to leave them hanging?

The four subordinates shot piercing glares at Rex.

Nobody went around smashing bikes for fun unless a wealthy backer was footing the bill.

"Are you kidding me? Another two hours?"

"I'm begging you, just two more hours. It's the final stretch.

If she doesn't handle this by then, we rat her out."

"Fine. Out of respect for you, Rex, I'll wait two more hours."

"I appreciate the loyalty, boys. When we get out of here, the first big score goes straight to you."

He was giving Mara two final hours. He was doing everything he could. He could only pray she rushed in to save them.

But inevitably, they were met with bitter disappointment...

Meanwhile, at the Mercer estate.

Lacey carefully carried a bowl of hot soup into Mara's study.

"Sweetheart, drink this."

Mara had been behaving perfectly lately. The moment she got home from school, she'd choke down a quick bite and dive straight into her studies.

She had to keep up with her current classes while desperately catching up on the old ones. It was exhausting just watching the poor girl.