Page 80 of Intertwined Souls

“The girls, my mom, and Jayce are all at my house and plan to stay there,” Axe says.

Gabe nods in acknowledgement. “Grayson, Nerds, are you guys ready? Most of this will be on your shoulders to explain.”

Grayson’s leg begins to tremble, but he agrees that he is ready along with Nerds. Pulling out of Cade’s arms, causing him to let out a grunt of annoyance, I walk to Gray’s chair and sit down on his lap.

Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I place a kiss on his cheek. “You can do this. You have all the information, now it’s just explaining it all.”

He breathes deeply and wraps his arms tightly around my waist. A single knock comes from the office door, and when Stone pulls it open, Parker pops his head in. “Everyone is here.”

Gabe glances around the room before his eyes land on me. “Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? You can still go to Axe’s house with the girls, and we can handle it.”

Remembering everything Colton said, I attempt to channel the part of me that does understand where he is coming from and not get pissed off at him. Holding his eyes sternly with my own, I respond, “I’ve been ready. I want and need to do this. I’m not doing it alone. It’s all of us together. As a team.”

Blowing out a breath, he stands. “Right. I just had to ask one more time for my own sanity. Let’s get this shit over with.”

When we get out to the main room, Gabe immediately transforms from the soft, kind, family man I have seen a lot of to a hard president who commands respect and attention as he takes over the space. “Listen up! Find a spot to sit or stand. We have a lot of shit to get through, and I’d prefer not to be here all fucking night.”

Colton, Gabe, Nerds, and Grayson all walk to stand in front of the bar while Cade, Ryker, and I stand off to one side, and Stone and Axe stand off to the other side. Noah is in the far corner of the room, by the front door, spinning a switchblade between his fingers as he keeps an eye on everyone.

“You all know that you’re here because we have come across a sex trafficking issue here in Jacksonville. We’ve come to learn that this has been going on for much longer than we thought, and now it’s time that we show them whose town this is. Nerds and Grayson,”—he points to each of them—“have taken the time to compile all the information we could possibly need. So shut the fuck up and pay attention to what they say. Afterwards, you can ask questions, and then we will decide where everyone is going and how this will play out,” Gabe commands the room.

Nerds steps forward and begins talking them through the warehouse, what we’ve discovered, that we believe it’s the only one in Jacksonville, and so on. As he talks, I take the time to glance around the room. I haven’t been introduced to anyone, but there is a large group of bikers, and their cuts say Tennessee, so they made the trip all the way over here just to help us.

There’s another group of bikers that have cuts with North Carolina on them, so they must be one of the more local MCs that Gabe talked about.

And then standing on the opposite side of the room closest to Stone and Axe are ten men. Six of them are in all black tactical gear and are leaning against the wall with their arms crossed. Then there is one guy who is front and center wearing a full suit and has his hands tucked casually into the pockets of his pants.

He stands like he owns the room and fears nothing. His hair is perfectly slicked back, dark like ink above his clean-shaven face. The man directly to his left is also in a suit but without a tie and has his jacket unbuttoned. The other man who is on his right side is in a suit that matches the first man’s perfectly.

They look like they could be brothers. Then the final man is standing on the left side slightly behind the guy with no tie and is in jeans and a hoodie with a—is that a sucker in his mouth?

He meets my eyes and shoots me a wink while flashing his teeth and swirling the sucker around in his mouth. Running my eyes over all of them again, I realize these must be the Kings of Hearts, and if I had to guess, the guy standing front and center is Vance.

It’s easy to assume considering Axe keeps his body slightly turned towards him and has an eye glued to him the entire time. Whatever really happened a few years ago with Presley and them must have been really bad.

I tune back in as Nerds finishes going over all the information we have about guards on duty, the addresses of people who have come and collected people from the warehouse, and what we have observed.

“Are there any questions about everything that Nerds just threw at you?” Gabe asks the room.

A few people have small questions that are easily answered, and then Gabe moves on to who will be going where.

“My team will be at the warehouse along with Vance and his crew,” he says with a nod towards Vance. “Then Savages MC, you will split off into teams of your prez’s choice and head to the addresses we have on the east side of town, while Hardaway MC will do the same but on the west side of town.

“That should cover everything and make it so we can all be prepared to attack all at once, leaving no opportunities for these fuckers to be warned that shit is going down.”

Grayson hands each MC prez a stack of papers that have all the information for each address on them. “Split your guys into groups so each group can go to a house. None of these homes are residences of politicians, police, or judges, where we would need to be concerned with cover-ups, so eliminate and get any victims they may have in their homes to safety,” he says.

“Any victims you find, bring them back here,” Nerds tacks on. “We have a doc on call and also a nurse who will both be here by Sunday to help with anyone who may need help. From there, we will attempt to get information for them and reunite them with their families or help them get set up wherever they would like to be. They will have unlimited options.”

Things get loud again as Gabe ends the meeting and the MCs are deciding who is going to go where. Everyone will need to be at their set location by 10 p.m. on Sunday night. Once they have checked in with Nerds that they’re ready to go, then Nerds will tell everyone when to go into their location.

Gabe walks over and talks with the other MC presidents while everyone else goes their separate ways or visits with people they know. Grayson walks back over to us right as someone else walks up as well.

I feel a possessive hand land on my hip as Cade presses up against my back. The man in the suit who I surmised is Vance looks me up and down as if he is studying an object before running a hand over his chin as his lips slowly tilt up. “You must be the infamous Harley St. James,” he muses.

The intrigue in his voice and the way he seems to be examining me sets me slightly on edge. I raise a brow and take a second to take him in, having to tilt my head back to meet his eyes from where he towers over me.

“And you must be, well, obviously not important enough for me to know who you are since I don’t know your name,” I snark.

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