“She’s been working as hard and as fast as she can. She’s got more done, and I just gave the information to Cryos to pinpoint. She said that the pattern with them is starting to emerge, but she needs to see it on a large map. She’s resting now because her arms are hurting, but as soon as she wakes up, Cryos will show her a map with the locations we have already done up there.”
I nod, but before I can reply, I hear a scoff come from the other end of the table. My head turns and I stare down at Silver, who looks like he’s smelled something rotten. My eyes narrow,but he holds my stare, uncaring. “You’d think she’d be more concerned about getting our brother home than napping. Maybe instead of waiting for her, you put the map up and let the rest of us look at it. She’s not the only one with a brain, you know. Though, I guess that’s how things are being done here. The men can’t look at something without a woman getting her eyes on it first.”
I can all but feel the violence rolling off Sniper at the blatant disrespect. “Arson,” I say in a sharp warning tone, pinning him with my stare instead.
Arson glances at Silver before he holds my gaze and replies calmly, “He’s not wrong, Bullet. Why are we waiting for your VP’s Old Lady to wake up before we look at it? I get she’s a big shot on this kind of thing, but that doesn’t mean we waste time waiting for her.” He dares to look at Cryos and orders, “Pull it up and let us see.”
Cryos doesn’t move, just looks at me. A move that has Silver’s jaw clenching and his mouth thinning, and Arson’s eyes narrowing.
“Perhaps you forget that you are a guest here, Arson,” Sniper states, voice icy. “You have no right to order anything.” Then his eyes move to Silver. “And if you insult my woman again, I’ll beat your ass. You’re already on thin ice with me, and one more word from you about her, and brother and allied club or not, we’ll be finished.”
Silver’s face flushes angrily, but Arson stops him with a hand when Silver opens his mouth to retort. “And you would do well to remember that our club brother was beaten and left for dead and we want justice for him,” Arson returns shortly, tone sharp and biting. He doesn’t bother addressing Silver’s disrespect.
“And our brother was taken,” Sniper returns. “Do not think that one is worse than the other. Cobra has his life, and you have not lost another brother in recent months due to these fuckers.Do not sit there and talk and act like it’s anywhere close to the same thing.”
“Enough,” I say before anything else can be said. I give Arson a hard look. “You are here as an ally, and you don’t order our club around. Just like you wouldn’t appreciate me doing it to yours. Further disrespect to our women and I’ve already told you what will happen.” I look at Silver. “That was your one shot. Any more and he has every right to take you down. And I might just help him.” Silver’s gaze is hard, but he nods anyway. “Now, before all of this stupid pissing contest started, you’d have noticed that Sniper never once said that we wouldn’t look at the map first. Just that when his Old Lady woke up, she would have a look too. So all of you can calm the fuck down. Cryos, please pull up the map.”
Cryos nods and clicks a few keys. I asked Shadow and Viper to carefully keep an eye on any expressions while we’re having Church. Someone is going to slip up. The emotions running high in this room right now make it the perfect time for someone to reveal something when they think no one else is watching them.
The moment the map is up on the screen, people shift in their seats, and they lean forward to take it in. I look at it myself, and I can instantly see some of the spots that Bull liked to frequent when we were young and stupid.
“It looks like a broken spiral. Kind of. Loosely,” Milk says after a moment of silence.
“There’s too many breaks and the plots don’t really make a shape,” Whiskey chimes in. “Need to start reviewing your shapes, kid. They’re just a bunch of dots on a map. If your old President was smart, he wouldn’t want a pattern that would be easy to identify anyway if someone figured it out.”
Milk doesn’t react, but his lips turn down in anger at Whiskey’s statement.
“Do all the coordinates have a four in them as Thea mentioned?” Sniper asks Cryos.
“All of them but a few, just like the original ones she mentioned.”
“Is there any significance in the ones that don’t have a four in the coordinate?” Frost asks, leaning forward. “Maybe we’re focusing on the fours, but maybe it’s the ones without that are important. If the guy who did this knew the rest of the club knew his obsession with fours, then maybe he’d try to avoid that number just in case.”
Interesting. I rack my brain to try and remember what it was that Bull liked as well. It would be just like him to make sure that his own spin was on things. Pain sears me because Hammer would have known. He always knew shit like that. And the ass never wrote anything down, so I can’t go looking for it anywhere either.
Cyros clicks a few more keys and takes off all the coordinates that don’t include the number four, leaving only about ten dots, but nothing immediately stands out to me. I peer at the locations closer, trying to place them in my mind of what is in those places.
“Son of a bitch.” Viper laughs humorlessly. He looks at Cryos. “Put the locations of our businesses over them with another color.” Cryos’s eyes widen and he quickly does as asked.
I straighten when I see the locations are almost an exact match, with mirroring dots almost right on top, but just slightly off.
“You mean to fucking tell me that Vlad and his men were operating right under our noses this entire fucking time?” Stone hisses. “There’s no way that we wouldn’t notice that shit. Especially not the security office. We had cameras everywhere.” He looks at Cryos for confirmation.
Cryos nods, his lips pulled down into a deep frown.
“What are those buildings?” Arson asks. “The ones that aren’t right on your locations?”
Cryos answers after a quick search, “The locations put them one block either behind or ahead of ours. Other than the bar location. That one is a bit further down the road, but that makes sense considering how far out we have the bar. And from what I can see, they’re all at other businesses. A bakery, a coffee shop, a jewellery store, and a storage facility. The storage one is closest to the bar. Could be where they are storing things before they send them out to the next location.”
“We need to check those out,” Arson announces. “Maybe your man is in there, and if not, we might be able to grab one of theirs to get some answers.”
I nod. “We’re looking for our man, so Arson, I’d like our men to work together. One of our guys with one of yours. Then?—”
“The last time that happened, it ended up with one of our own almost dying,” Magnum snaps. There’s an agreement through many of the others. “Your man might be gone, but he didn’t protect our guy, and you expect us to put ourselves in your hands again?”
“Cobra went off on his own and didn’t stick with Hulk,” Shadow returns icily. “If he had stayed with Hulk, maybe this would be a different outcome.”
“You trying to blame our brother?” Crook demands, getting to his feet, fists clenched as they pound down on the table. “How do we know that your man didn’t leave ours for dead?”
