Page 69 of Wolf.e

We secure the perimeter and notice the busted fencing in the distance.

“That has to be fixed by end of day. Call Stevens Metalworx and have them out here this afternoon,” I tell Ax.

He nods.

When we’re satisfied with the exterior, we head back in where things have calmed down a little.

“It was a superficial cut,” Flipp tells me about the woman as I breeze by him to get my phone.

The rest of the guys follow and do the same. Someone is already sweeping up and I hear Kai on the phone with the window replacement company. This isn’t new to us. Attacks happen more often than we care to admit, and we need to be prepared after what we did to Gator. The thing that makes no sense is that people don’t just come onto our property like this and it’s the second time in two weeks. How would anyone know exactly when we’d be in Chapel? Everything in me screams that something is wrong, but I can’t put my finger on what.

I pick up a brick off the floor. Pulling the paper attached to it free, I inspect carefully. It’s printed photos of Ax and Layla unloading his bike in their driveway after the wedding. Of Robby and his ol’ lady Margo through their kitchen window eating. Flipp and his teenage daughter at her soccer game.

“Fuck, boss.” Ax mutters, holding a brick and photos of his own. I take them from him, they’re much the same—my men in various stages of their lives, at their homes. A note is buried inside Ax’s, ransom style, that says, “No one is safe.”

I move to the chapel, leaving Ax in the main hall as his phone starts to ring. Picking up another brick off the floor, I rip the photos free of the elastic holding them. There’s five of them and they’re all of me. But not just me, of Brinley too. One through the second story window of her den, I’m shirtless and holding her dad’s bottle of scotch.

One of her heading out the door of the design studio midday with Dell. Me leaving her house the night I was with her and there’s a note inside that says, “In war, avoid what is strong and instead, always strike at what is weak. Have we found the president’s weakness?”

The last paper in the stack slips out from behind the others and a fury I’ve never felt—a deep, dark wrath—rises from a place inside me that I haven’t allowed to see the light of day in a long fucking time. It’s Brinley walking out of the local coffee shop by herself, only this time someone has scratched her face out with a red sharpie and scrawled the words “dead bitch” across the bottom of it.

“Boss!! We gotta fucking go, now!” Ax yells from the next room. He peers into the chapel, gripping both sides of the door.

I’m already moving toward him. The look he’s wearing confirms everything I already know.

Brinley is in trouble, and I was naive enough to think this wouldn’t touch her, even if I stayed away from her.

Of course it fucking would, carnage follows on the heels of every single thing I do.

Layla holds her phone close as we walk. I glance down and take notice that it’s dialed a phone number and the call has been answered. She never pulls it up to her ear and it’s not on speaker.

“That’s Aiden Foxx, he’s the DOS vice president. His half brother runs their club. He’s really, really bad news. Don’t make eye contact, act like you don’t know anything about anything. We’ll be back to Crimson in a minute,” she says way louder than warranted then hangs up the phone as we close in on him. I realize she was letting Ax know what was going on without letting this man know she was on the phone.

Aiden doesn’t take his eyes off us the entire time we walk to the office building, closer to him. He appraises us with the same commanding glare I’d expect from Gabriel.

“A word, ladies?” he says in a deep timbre as we cross the final stretch of sidewalk to my office doors.

I look at the door, so close yet so far, then back at him. His green eyes pierce through me. Layla reaches in front of me, her arm stops me from moving any closer.

“You have something to say, you can say it from there. And this is my friend, she doesn’t need to be here, she just met me for lunch.”

Layla faces me. “See ya, thanks for the visit,” she says, clearly thinking he’s here for her. But what I see in his eyes when he smirks in my direction tells me everything I need to know.

He’s here for me.

The second his eyes flit from hers to mine, like she’s not interesting him in the slightest, I know I’m right.

“Nah, she knows why I’d wanna talk to her, don’t you, Brinley?”

Layla’s breath hitches and her arm drops from me.

“We’ve been watching the Hounds of Hell for years, same as they watch us.” He pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket as he speaks and then tips his head down as he pulls one out with his teeth and lights it up, drawing the smoke in with a deep breath before he continues.

“Never seen your Pres with a woman. So, you see, Brinley, you’ve piqued our interest.”

“She was a one-night stand,” Layla says, and I wince.

I know she’s trying to help but it strikes something, nonetheless.

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