Stone nods, catching on.
“But if it’s more than one person involved in this, they might catch on to it and warn the others,” Cryos interjects.
“Could it be possible that we have someone in our group and someone from the Misfits working together?” King wonders. “I mean, maybe Vlad has someone in our MC and he figured out something on one of the Misfits to hold over them or coerce them into helping betray us?”
“If that’s the case, then we would need to make sure that some of the groups are just our people so we can catch them,” Viper agrees.
“Is Thea up to continuing to look at the journals?” I ask Sniper, making him stop his pacing to look at me.
“She’s still in pain, but she told me earlier she was going to try and work on them again,” he finally answers, jaw clenching. “She’s determined to keep working on it, and I’m sure once she hears that Hulk is missing, she’ll insist on it. There’s also a chance that something in those journals might give us a clue on where Hulk might be being held, and she’ll want to find that as soon as she can.”
I’m still not sold on if her being around the women is going to be a good thing, but Thea is tough and smart, and without her, we’d still be chasing our tails to try and figure out where Vlad has been operating. “Alright. If it’s too much for her right now, we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way with boots on the ground, but we still have a few places that we can check out in the meantime. We might be able to figure out where they’re holding him in one of those.”
“We need to grab one of their men and get the information out of them,” Sniper adds. “Could be that one of them might be able to lead us to them.” Everyone else nods in agreement.
“Alright, here’s the plan. We need to get to work on getting Hulk back, but we need to be careful how we do it. Shit’s going to already be going around the clubhouse now that Cobra has been brought back and Hulk didn’t, but we keep this on a need to know. We tell everyone the facts, and we let everyone know that Frost and Bowie are working on tracking them. I want you all to keep an eye on faces and body language. Anyone that seems off, nervous, smug, or anything off, make a mental note and send it through text communication. Don’t care if one of them is worried they’re going to shit themselves and that’s all it is. I don’t want another brother dead because of this bullshit.
“We’re going to check out the other locations that we haven’t checked yet, and then we’ll also make up a few other locations that we claim are in the journal as additional dummy locations or ones that have changed over time or something. We see what information ends up going out. Cryos, you keep digging on your end to see what you can dig up. Everyone else, keep your eyes open to see if you can grab one of Vlad’s men and see what we can get out of them. Everyone else, no one goes out alone. You let someone know who you’re with and where you’re going. And we’re going to get to work on finding Hulk as fast as we can. Put the word out to your informants, and we go as hard and as fast as we can. We’re not taking any chances. We bring our brother home no matter what.”
Hammer and I worked to bring this club out of the dark ages, and I’m not about to let it fall back. I’m also not about to leave a brother behind, and I won’t lose one either.
CHAPTER SIX
AVERY
I’m raising two smart-asses.
I’m sotired when I finally get home that I almost miss that both Sawyer and Isla are waiting for me in the living room, pale-faced, as if they’re sure I was never going to come home to them. My heart plummets to my stomach at the sight of them. “Are you alright?” I demand as I rush to shut and deadbolt the door. “What happened?”
Both of them rush forward, falling into my arms and holding me tight. “We saw men outside and knew they took you,” Isla rushes out, her nails digging into my back where she’s holding on to me. “And we heard them talking outside that they had orders to come in if you didn’t cooperate.”
“Grabbed the bat,” Sawyer adds, and I glance over to see his baseball bat near the couch, easily within reach.
My heart clenches and I hug them tighter. “I’m so sorry, guys,” I murmur, kissing their foreheads like I did when theywere younger. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this with me. It’s not fair.”
“It’s not your fault,” Sawyer reminds me firmly, pulling away.
He doesn’t look a day over his sixteen years, but his dark brown eyes are far too old. While he should be out enjoying time with his friends or getting his first girlfriend, he spends every evening and spare moment he has making sure to be here for me and Isla instead. And I hate it. I hate that he has to deal with this.
“Mom’s the one who fucked us over,” he adds bitterly, an angry scowl covering his face.
“Language, Sawyer,” I admonish without much heat, which he promptly ignores.
“Why do they keep taking you?” Isla demands. “How much could Mom owe them that would have them constantly taking you?”
I fight not to wince at that question. I’ve kept the information from them on purpose. I don’t want them to worry. “I’m not giving you specifics,” I say when they open their mouths to argue with me. “The less you know, the less chance you’ll slip up and say something you shouldn’t.” They try to argue, but I hold up my hand to quiet them. “I’m not saying that you would ever do that on purpose, but even the slightest slip of the tongue and it could be the end of everything, including you. I’m protecting you.”
“But what happens if they never go away?” Isla whispers, terrified. “Or what if they kill you and then come for us?”
It’s a worry and one that’s kept me up at night since this entire thing started. It’s not like we have family, and I certainly don’t have any friends that could help. I wouldn’t want to involve any of them anyway. “I’m working on that,” I promise them. “For now, they need me, and they’re not going to get rid of me. Just keep your head down, make sure every door and window are locked, and the deadbolt’s engaged, alright?” They nod, thoughthe fear in their eyes is nearly my undoing. “Alright, it’s late, so go and get ready for bed. I need a shower and catch some sleep since I have an early shift in the morning. Okay?”
Isla and Sawyer share a look, and I nearly groan. I don’t like that look at all.
“So, I kind of forgot that I have a project due tomorrow morning,” Isla tells me with a sheepish smile. “I did the work for everything that has to go on it,” she rushes to add as I groan. “I just need something to attach it to, and since those guys were here, I didn’t want to leave to get it just in case.”
“And how the hell did you forget about it until now?” I ask, annoyed. I glance at the clock. Hell, it’s almost ten o’clock and I need to be up at five in the morning to get ready for a six o’clock shift.
“I’ve been stressed,” she pouts. “I just need to stick it to something and we don’t have anything here big enough.”
