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“Can you just pick one name and stick to it?”

I shake my head. “Nope. This annoys you more, and it’ll only encourage you to jump me and have angry hate-sex.”

“Very mature.”

She can pull off a resting bitch face well, but I know better. And it gives me a jolt of electricity through my body knowing that I’m depriving myself until I can take my sweet time with her, and no matter what she says, I will be doing exactly that.

I press ignore on my phone. That damn no caller ID again. I don’t have time to scream my annoyance down the phone, not with a crowd of people around.

“Worked with the footage the twins sent me,” Kyle says. “Tracked two possible facilities, one is a shipping container graveyard, the other an industrial scrap metal playground, both have invisibility from the public and the perfect camouflage.”

“So we need to go check them out.” Surprise, surprise, Star is ready to go bang down their door and nail their asses.

“Hold up.” Brew flicks his gaze to her. We’re all sitting around a large booth table at the diner next door to the hotel, planning our next move. “We’re not at that point to go bangin’ down any doors. These assholes have guns, sweetheart, big guns, and they won’t take too kindly to us sniffin’ around askin’ questions.”

Before Star can cut back in, I say, “So we’ll go in the scrapyard, pretend to be lookin’ around while you two take the shipping yard.”

“Hey, what about me?” Halo pouts.

“We’re in the stakeout van.” Riot grins. “You don’t even have to call shotgun and I’ve got good snacks.”

“You know on a stakeout you have to actually watch what’s goin’ on?” Haze grumbles. “Not be makin’ out on the job.”

Halo’s cheeks flush just a little but Riot just grins even wider. “You both know I’m multi-skilled.”

Halo laughs. “This I have to see… Wait… I didn’t mean… I just meant, like, guys can’t usually do more than one thing at once… Shit… Digging a bigger hole here.”

Star looks anxious; her gaze is off somewhere else, her jaw tight and her fists balled. I know she wants to go in guns blazing, but that’s not how we do things. And I’m sure if this wasn’t so close to her heart, she wouldn’t be contemplating it either. Maybe it’s not a good idea that she even come with us, but I know for a fact we’d have to tie her down and gag her, and I don’t think that would go down well.

“Haze is right, gotta keep our eyes on the ball. Me and Star will check out the scrap yard, see what we can find. In the meantime, if the boys find anythin’ their end at the shippin’ yard, we reconvene then.” I glance at each of them.

I mean, I do rank higher in the club than Brew or Haze, and I’m no higher or lower than Riot, but he has been at the club longer and is more street smart than I am. But everyone knows Brew and Haze live by nobody’s rules, and that might be a good thing where this investigation is concerned. Nobody knows us here, which is even better, and none of us are wearing cuts.

“Sounds like a plan.” Brew tucks back into his all-day-breakfast like he hasn’t eaten in a week. “Not like we have a huge backup, so no doin’ anything stupid.” He casts a glance at Star, which she chooses to ignore.

She’s barely touched the muffin in front of her, or the coffee. “Eat.” I nudge her softly with my shoulder. “Not leavin’ until that’s gone.”

“I’m not a child,” she mumbles, picking at the paper around the damn thing.

“No? Then finish it and we can go.” A part of me knows that I’m pushing all the boundaries with her. I know she’s independent. She’s strong. But I also feel deep in my bones she needs stability, and in some weird way I think I give that to her. Or maybe I’m crazy and it’s just my imagination. Either way, she’s not getting rid of me.

I’m here to see this thing through, no matter what. I also know getting information out of people, even if we do find something, won’t be a piece of cake. People don’t talk unless there’s violence involved, or money thrown at them.

With Star, she’s unpredictable. She’ll either knee me in the balls and tell me to fuck off, or do as she’s told if she feels like it. I’m pleased when I see her take a chunk to her mouth and slowly chews.

“Good girl,” I mutter.

Her eyes flick to mine and there’s that look again. The vulnerable look that clouds over her pretty green irises. The one that makes me want to fold to my knees and do whatever it takes to make her happy again. But I know this can’t be fixed until we find Tilly. Star is always gonna be broken until we find out the truth. And not for the first time since I met her, I wonder if she truly is ready for that.

15

ESTELLE

We’re close. I can feel it. Every step that we take feels like one step closer.

The scrap yard is exactly how it sounds, but worse. It’s a maze. There are literally dead cars, chunks of steel and everything else in between strewn around in some kind of disorganized chaos. It has to be the size of at least one football field. While we’re looking around, Kyle is tapping into the security cameras to see how far back they go. Everything feels so close, yet so far.

The dogs behind a chained fence bark at us. They look as vicious as they sound and I have no doubt the owner would probably let them out to maul us if he really knew what was going on here.

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