Page 3 of Stone

Fox’s eyes narrowed as he leaned back in his chair. “Doesn’t change my answer, Stone.”

The warning was clear in his tone, but my fury and desperation blinded me. “Need to know they’re safe,” I said through gritted teeth.

“I would tell you if they weren’t. And like I’ve said many times, you’ll be my first call when the time is right.”

“Who decides when the time is right?” I growled.

Fox leaned forward, and his eyes hardened, the cold depths clearly showing the ruthless leader we all feared and respected. “You questioning my decisions, citizen?”

I swallowed hard and shook my head.

“Thin fucking ice, Stone. Now sit your ass down and wait for the others. We have shit to deal with.”

I needed this meeting to be over as soon as fucking possible. Before my rage consumed me, and I did something stupid.

“Need your head in the game, Stone,” Fox continued. He handed me a slip of paper with a date, time, and address. “Gonna send Viper with you. You need someone to watch your back.”

Translation: I needed someone to make sure I didn’t lose focus and muck shit up.Fair enough.

I knew he wouldn’t tell me anything else until the others arrived, so I took a deep breath and tried to calm down as Iambled over to a couch and dropped down onto it. The paper crumpled as my hands curled into fists, and I rested them on my thighs.

Maverick was grinning smugly when he and Viper, our tail gunner, walked into the room together. “Molly needed my help with something,” he told Viper.

“Guessing it was the same thing Rhiannon neededhelpwith,” Viper quipped.

“Seriously?” I snapped. “You’re late because you were fu?—”

“Don’t finish that sentence, Stone,” Fox interrupted with a scowl. “Unless you want an ass-kicking that would put you in traction for a month.”

I pressed my lips together, holding back the caustic remark that was on the tip of my tongue. Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned back into the couch.

“You’re being more of an asshole than usual,” Viper observed as he took one of the chairs at a small, round table on the opposite side of Fox’s desk.

I frowned intensely at him but remained quiet.

“He’s pissed at me,” Fox explained, not sounding nearly as angry as I expected.

Viper raised a brow, and Mav huffed as he went around the desk and settled himself against the wall just to the left of the prez. “Britta?” he guessed.

“She’s eighteen,” I growled.

“And we still haven’t eliminated the threat to them,” Mav argued. “As soon as we do and it’s safe for them, you’ll have their location.”

We’d been working on taking out the organization that was targeting Marylin and Britta. It was unusual for us to take this long to get shit handled. However, we had to take down the boss for the girls to be truly safe. His name and location were so closely guarded that our only option had been to start at thebottom of the ladder. No one knew the players in the group who were above their direct supervisor, so we interrogated one and moved up to the next, then did it again. Sometimes multiple people were on the next rung, which meant hunting them all down until we figured out who had the information we needed to continue to climb.

Glaring at Mav, I unfolded my arms, and my hands curled into fists again as I rested them on my knees. “I protect what’s mine.”

“Enough,” Fox barked. “Do not question my orders, Stone. I’ve let you get away with a lot of shit when it involved Britta because I understand your frustration. But if you take it too far, I’ll have your patch. Understood?”

I watched him warily for a moment. He was right. It was rare for the prez or VP to put up with the kind of shit I’d been giving them for the past two years. Clearly, I’d reached their limit. So I nodded and tried to relax.

Fox jerked his chin up and down with finality, then turned to face his computer. “An informant just passed along word of an auction he’s heard about. Gave us a time and location, but he wasn’t sure how accurate the intel is.”

“Fuck,” Viper muttered.

“Same motherfuckers?” I asked.

“Looks like it.”

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