Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
However, underneath all that power was the typical love and loyalty of his breed. He was extremely affectionate with King and anyone he grew attached to, snuggling to express his approval and love.
He was wary of every new brother at first, sizing us up and deciding whether we could be trusted. But he’d quickly grown comfortable with us, and now he demanded affection, especially from the ones he clocked as suckers.
Which apparently included me.
That got a low rumble from King—the closest thing we ever heard to a laugh, unless it was his wife or son amusing him. Then he lifted his coffee with one hand and waved off the bullshit with the other. “You all done flapping your dicks, or can we get to the point of this meeting?”
“Aw, come on,” Ace cut in, sliding his phone into his pocket and reaching for the coffee pot. “Pretty sure none of us have seen Kevlar flinch over a woman before.”
“Didn’t flinch,” I said evenly. “Just not fucking around.”
That raised eyebrows among brothers who had already claimed their woman, prompting the single ones to roll their eyes. But our prez just watched me steadily, as if he was staring into my fucking soul. Sometimes I wondered if he actually had that ability—his intuition could be freaky.
King nodded once, then gestured to me and jerked his chin at Wizard. “Get us up to speed.”
Wizard didn’t lift his head. “Kevlar’s been tracking a black market pipeline that was running too close to our territory to be ignored. Ghost tech and custom weapons, rare shit you don’t sell unless you know who you’re dealing with. Flagged a few familiar breadcrumbs about a month ago. We’ve been keeping an eye on it since.”
“Why haven’t we moved on this?” Ink asked in a deceptively mild tone.
“Because there were no signs of weapons retail anywhere near Riverstone,” I answered. “Not even within a hundred miles.”
Tomcat’s brow furrowed. “The fuck are they doing if they aren’t selling?”
“Eventually, we realized this was a branch pipeline, not the main. They handle storage, safe nodes, couriers—where and how the weapons are cached temporarily, then redistributed.”
“What’s that got to do with the Hounds?” Fallon asked.
“They’ve been moving closer,” Wizard grunted. “Probing the area, testing security and blind spots. Shit like that. They’re looking to see if they can run a path to the terminal node through Hounds territory.”
Cross’s eyes narrowed. “Using us as cover because no one would think to look for that shit in an area under our protection.” His gaze swiveled to King. “You knew about this?”
It wasn’t really a question. When it came to the club and our territory, there wasn’t anything our prez didn’t know about. The real question was left unsaid. Tomcat wanted to know why they hadn’t been told earlier. It wasn’t as if everyone was fully informed on every bit of club business, but I could understand how my brothers could see this as a big enough problem to loop everyone in.
King nodded. “This was minor bullshit at first. Wasn’t ready to jump into a war if it could be avoided.”
“Plan was to scare ’em out of our territory and pass their info to the feds,” Blaze muttered.
“What’s changed?” Ink pressed, tapping the table once again.
I jumped in to answer that one. “Didn’t need to loop everyone in until it got personal.”
Ace cocked his head. “And now it’s personal?”
I leaned forward, bracing my forearms on the table. “They’re sniffing around a woman.”
Ink’s easy expression vanished. “Her?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, then moved on, not yet ready to talk about my relationship with Maren. “A week ago, she served four men at the diner and noticed something. I saw the footage a couple of days later and had already marked them as ones to watch. Too quiet, subtle tactics, and practiced hands. But Maren eventually picked up on it. Wrong vibe, wrong movements. It was nothing but a pause in her step and a slight slip in her smile, but I noticed.”
“Which means they could have too,” Cross surmised.
“One of them did. He was watching her carefully after that, and I could tell she was uncomfortable. The whole thing made me uneasy, and it was clear real fast that she needed protection. Despite her intuition picking up on their unusual behavior, she’s oblivious. Too sweet and innocent to see the dangers all around her. Wizard tapped into any surveillance available, traffic cams, security feeds at the bar, and all that.”
“Not that he needed it,” Wizard piped up, tossing me a smart-ass grin. “He was stalking her in person most of the time.”
I glared but didn’t take the bait. “Over the past five days, we’ve caught the same black SUV trailing her multiple times. Never the same driver or parked in the same place twice, but always the same car. She had no clue she was being watched.”