Page 52 of Eagle

He sucked in a breath. “I-I don’t know their names, Lawrence doesn’t tell me everything, but I know it’s a motorcycle gang. Not from around here. Is Leona going to be okay?”

I didn’t bother correcting his reference to the club as a gang and ignored his question about Leo. I wanted him worried and afraid for her. “Where were you supposed to take the dogs?”

“To some old, abandoned chicken house out in the country.”

There were plenty of those around—long, metal structures that used to house thousands of chickens at a time. Most of them were abandoned now. You ran across a lot of them when you were driving on the back roads.

“Jesus Christ, location,” Brew growled impatiently.

Ron shook his head. “I don’t know!” There was frustration in his tone. Good. He knew how we felt. “I didn’t go!”

“Where’s Lawrence? I know he paid Leo a visit this morning.”

“I don’t know. He didn’t show up for work today.”

Fuck!

“Where does he live?”

“I don’t know!”

I’d had enough. “What the fuck do you know?”

Ron pressed his lips and shook his head, his pale face turning a bright shade of red. He ran his hands through his shaggy hair. “I just keep screwing up,” he mumbled to himself.

The kid was feeling sorry for himself. I released a heavy sigh and threw my head back on my shoulders, closing my eyes as I tried to think. Leo’s beautiful face was there, taunting me with her smile. If those bastards snuffed out the light...I gave my head a vigorous shake to clear it of any unwanted images, and then pinned my gaze on Ron.

“Okay, here’s what you’re going to do—you’re going to get ahold of your friend and get him to your house. Tell him you’ve decided you’re on board with his little operation and you want to talk.”

“What if he doesn’t believe me—"

“I don’t give a fuck what you have to do or say. You get him to your house. Then you contact me with the time, and I’ll take care of the rest.” I was vaguely aware that Brew had pulled out his phone and was reading something. I hoped it was news that the girls had been found. “Do it, Ron! The longer the Maniacs have the girls, the harder it will be for them!” I wanted him to know how crucial this was, and that I wasn’t exaggerating.

He refused to meet my eyes, staring at the ground instead, and then he nodded and left. I looked at Brew, who was texting now, and waited.

He glanced up at me and shook his head regretfully. “No sign of the van or the girls. They’re heading back to the clubhouse.”

“Fuck, Brother...” I couldn’t finish, clenching my jaw.

“We’ll get them back,” Brew said with conviction.

An idea occurred to me. “Text Wolfe back and tell him to come to my house instead. I live across the street from Ron, and I want to be there when Lawrence shows up later.”

Once he’d texted Wolfe, we took off and headed to my house. I didn’t usually park in the garage unless the weather was bad, but decided that it would be a good idea to hide our bikes so that Lawrence wouldn’t see them when he showed up. I left the door up so my brothers could bring their bikes inside as well.

“We’ll wait for the others to get here,” I said once we’d shut our bikes down.

“We’ll get her back, Brother.”

I stared at Brew for a minute, wondering if he was referring to Jillian or Leo, not wanting to put any ideas into his head. He didn’t offer clarification, but I knew that he knew. Hell, why wouldn’t he know? I hadn’t exactly been covert when I’d kissed Leo at the cookout. Anyone watching with a brain would know that it hadn’t been a friendly kiss.

It had been a claiming kiss.

Was I claiming her? Hell, no. It was too soon for that shit, especially when for months I’d been focused on Jillian. Jesus, I’d created one big fucking mess for myself. I thought that I should just give up on women, because I sure as hell didn’t know what I was doing.

“You going to claim Leona?”

There was no question now that Brew knew which woman I was worried about. I was worried about all of them, but when you cared about one in particular, you focused your worry on her. I sucked in a deep breath. “Too soon for that. I just met the girl.” I smirked. “Need to make sure this isn’t just about lust.”

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