Page 73 of The Devil's Conflict

Dozer’s lips purse at that, but he doesn’t argue.

“That should be good, Thea,” Bullet says. “Thank you, and please continue on decoding the rest of those journals. Tell Cryos of all the new places you find once you do so we can plot this out.”

She nods, getting to her feet. I walk her to the door. When we’re outside the room, and I know I can’t be overheard, I murmur in her ear, “Thank you, baby girl. And for that smart mouth of yours putting those assholes in their place.”

She glances up over her shoulder at me and gives me a slow smile. “Don’t worry, I’m used to men just like them. I’ll see you later.” Then she walks away, without looking back. I watch her for a moment, and then I head back into the room.

Sitting at the table, I look back at Bullet. “Which one do we attack first?” I ask.

Bullet doesn’t look at me for a moment, just continues to stare at the screen with the locations that Thea gave Cryos to put on the map. “Most of these places, I remember them being where Bull used to bring us to store our own shit way back when, though a few of them are shifted. Same general area. I’m not fully convinced Bull didn’t have other locations that he never wrote down, but we can’t focus on those now.”

“And did Bull have a favorite number or shape?” Silver sneers, earning laughter from their men.

“He did, actually,” Bullet says coldly, and their laughter dies immediately. “As did the man who I’m sure was the one who made up this stupid code. Because Bull certainly wasn’t smart enough to devise this. And that would leave those closest to him. And the one who probably created this code, he had a thing for skulls and knives. And every tattoo he sported had the number four in it. Because his soldier number had a bunch of fours in it and it was the one number he remembered seeing when he was shot at and almost knocked out by enemy fire in one of the wars he served in. When he came to, the only thing he saw was the tattoo on his arm with the number four in it.”

“And most of those locations have a four in it,” Shadow notes pointedly.

Silver looks disgruntled that he’s once again proven wrong. I imagine that it stings for him to realize he’s not as smart as he thinks he is, but that’s too fucking bad. The bastard needs to be taken down a few pegs.

“This is the last time I’m going to fucking say this,” Bullet says as he gets to his feet. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you all do with your club and how you handle your business. We asked for help from you, and instead of coming in and handling shit, you question every fucking thing we do.” He looks sharply at Arson. “I’m seriously questioning this alliance. I have too much on my plate, and the snide remarks, the disrespect you show us and our women, I’m done with it. So make your choice now. You help us out, keep your opinions to yourself, you respect our women and our decisions, or you get out and we consider ourselves finished. Those are the only two options.”

“You asked us here, Bullet,” Arson reminds him icily. “And you bringing in a woman to our business means?—”

“Our business,” I interject fiercely. “Our business that will not affect your women or your children. But will affect ours.”

“It’s ours by extension,” Dozer argues. “We’re involved, and we get in shit and they call on her, we’re fucked. You might not be into the shit we are, but one word from her and the consequences will affect our women and children.”

I acknowledge that with a slight incline of my head. “And you’re telling me that none of you have involved women in your business at one point or another? Nothing that unintentionally slipped out, or that touched them in some way and they had information you needed?” A few of them shift uncomfortably, giving themselves away. “That’s what I thought.”

“I’d also like to point out that none of you have heard any of the women talking about what is going on around here, despite them knowing parts,” Hulk rumbles calmly. “Because if you had,you’d have been in here bitching about it immediately. Thea won’t be the exception. She knows that too much is at stake.”

“What I want to know is if you’re staying or leaving?” Bullet demands abruptly. “The choice is yours, Arson. But if you stay, the snide remarks, the questioning, it’s done. I’m not spending more energy dealing with you while also fighting a war. So choose.”

Arson looks at his men, a silent conversation happening. Finally, he looks back at Bullet and says, “I can’t argue that the information Sniper’s woman gave was a big break. And while we don’t like how you run shit, we agreed to help, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’ve had a damn good relationship for years, Bullet, and I’m not throwing that away. And to be blunt, we need your route to get our shit through. more than I want to fight about women and their place in your club. So, we’ll drop it and we focus on taking down this Vlad asshole.”

Bullet eyes him for a moment before he nods and sits back down. “Good. Now, we need to pick which place we’re going to hit first, and I want to do it before the night is done. I’m not letting Vlad think he’s made us run scared.”

And with that, we set to work.

THIRTY

THEA

I will not hide away while others fight.

My eyes areblurry as I finally decide to take a break and head downstairs to get something to drink. The sun is setting and the men have all been in the Church room for hours. Theo is now guarding the door and he nods at me when I walk by. I look around but don’t see any of the other women. Maybe they went to bed. Or they’re all doing their own thing. Either way, Rose was the only one who came up to see me in the last few hours, and that was mostly to make sure I wasn’t wasting away in Sniper’s room.

I’ve managed to decode half the journal in the hours since I left the Church room, and just like I thought, there is a pattern starting to emerge, but I can’t quite figure it out yet. But I know I’ll get there. Except, I need to get some food and water or I’mgoing to be useless in a few hours. My head is starting to ache so that means it’s definitely time to take a break.

When I walk into the kitchen, I hear laughter coming from outside. I look out the window and see all the women and kids outside, Crypt standing guard just a few feet away, head on a swivel. His face is dark, hard, and I get the sense that he doesn’t want to be out there. Or, that he’s not keen to be out in the open like they are now. I get that, but if they’re outside, that means someone has said that there isn’t much danger, right?

I make myself a quick sandwich, grab a water and a banana, and then head outside. Might as well get some fresh air and sunlight, I guess. Macy sees me first as I head their way. “Auntie Thea!” she squeals excitedly, running toward me. The other women all grin.

“Hey, sweetness,” I say with a smile down at her when she reaches me and wraps her arms around my hips and hugs me tight. “You out here practicing how to break out of that jail your Daddy keeps mentioning?” I tease her.

She looks up at me, rolls her eyes and says seriously, “Daddy’s silly. Does he really think that I would want to break out when I can just rule everything in there?” Then she releases me and rushes back to her mother, who is fighting hard not to laugh at her statement.

“I’m putting that on her birthday card to him,” Quinn manages to get out when I reach the picnic table they set up. “He might have a stroke, though.”

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