Page 29 of Striker's Yield

“How do you figure?” Twister asks, leaning forward.

Gadget nods to the screen off to the side of the room and points a remote at it. “This is why,” he says as the picture comes up.

On the screen, you can see the men trashing her place. Gadget turns the volume up, and that’s when I hear a man who steps in from her room. “She’s not here again. She was here, though.”

“I still don’t know why the boss wants this bitch so badly,” another man says, kicking at the shredded couch cushion.

“Because he does,” the other one says. “You know better than to question the bossman about his intentions.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck what his intentions are. I’m sick of looking out to snag a bitch who?—”

“Watch it, Micky, you don’t want the boss to find you talking shit about this woman. He has plans for her.”

“What plans would those be, Rob?” Micky scoffs.

“I don’t fuckin’ know.” Rob sneers. “Look, let’s just get the fuck out of here. She ain’t here. I’ll talk to bossman and see what he wants to do.”

“He probably needs to just snag her from that café again,” Micky says, heading for the door.

“It’s a possibility, but we know those friends of hers from the club have that place on radar. One of them lives right down the hall here. We’ve risked enough the times we’ve come in here as it is. He doesn’t want them to cause any more trouble than they already have. He’s not ready to deal with them just yet.”

The two of them make their way out of the apartment, making sure to close the door behind them.

“So, their boss isn’t ready to deal with us just yet? What does that mean?” Burner asks.

“I don’t know, but ‘Marionette’ wants Autumn. He just doesn’t want to go against us,” Gadget remarks.

“Question is, why doesn’t he want to go against us?” I ask, more to myself than to any of them. “That’s what we need to find out,” Twister adds, rapping his knuckles on the table. In the years I’ve known him, this is something I’ve seen him do plenty of times to know he’s deep in thought. He leans back in his seat and nods. “For now, Striker, you stick to your woman as much as possible. Don’t let her outta your sight.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.” There’s no way I’m leaving any openings for anyone to get to her. This means next time I have to go to Devil’s Nirvana, she’s coming with me.

“Good,” Twister remarks and looks around. “Until we have this situation taken care of, we need to be cautious as much as we can. You got an ol’ lady, make sure she’s on alert, don’t let them go anywhere alone if you can help it.”

“We don’t need to take chances,” Horse says. “We’ve had enough bullshit around here. Don’t need more.”

“Agreed,” Burner grumbles.

The rest of church, we put a plan together in trying to locate this ‘Marionette’ guy. I, for one, want nothing more than to get my hands on him. He wants Autumn for some reason, and I’m willing to bet it’s got more to do with the woman herself than just Rick and what he was into working for the guy.

By the time we finish, I pretty much have a plan of my own put together in my head. First things first, getting back to my woman and making sure she’s not working herself to death.

Tonight, I’ll tell her what she needs to know about what’s going on. Then I’ll make sure she understands that I’m gonna do whatever it takes to protect her and make sure she stays safe.

No matter the cost.

CHAPTER 14

Autumn

The bell chimes over the door, and I swear I know exactly who it is before I even look up. Not because of Lila calling out a greeting. I knew it before she even spoke. I don’t know how, maybe I was just able to sense his closeness. It’s weird, but I did.

Him being here right now, though, couldn’t be the worst timing. Not because I didn’t want to see him, but rather because my parents decided to make a trip out after getting a call from Tony.

Stupid Tony reported back to them that things were changing for me and told them that I was seeing someone. I hadn’t told them. I didn’t know how to tell them, let alone if I was ready for them to know.

Mom came in and decided she was going to get straight to work and, in her words, told me to sit my keyster down with my dad. This was both a good thing and a disaster. Mainly because my mom was an amazing cook and baker, she’s the one who taught my sister and me everything we know. However, when it came to her being around everyone else in the kitchen or behind the counter, she can be bossy. More so when she thinks she’s right, though, she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.

Thankfully, I think she’s more or less having the time of her life. She’s been laughing with the others. At first, it was just Tiffany and Athena, then Chris came in, and he’d blanched at her bossing him in the kitchen. He looked ready to blow. At that point, I had to step in to keep him from doing so. When Lila came in, she wasn’t supposed to be there for a shift, but she wanted just to come in since Striker had grounded her, and she wasn’t ready to go home.

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