Page 108 of What Lies Within

"Shit." I cover my face with one hand—thumb and middle finger pressed on either side of my brow. "Don't suppose anyone aside from Turnip had the goddamn tracker on their phone?"

Hammer chews his bottom lip. “What do you think?”

“Fuck me.” I glance about the room, count the assholes in it, then return focus to the men before me. “Viking? Kane? Where are they?”

“Kane’s still sleepin’, as far as I know,” Minion states. “And Viking has gone to locate Tyke with Rigs.”

“I thought Rigs was stayin’ at a mutual’s house last night?” Dumbass thinks we don’t know about the girl he’s danced around since high school, but we do.

“He was,” Hammer says. “Until I woke him up.”

“They checkin’ in?”

“What do you think?” Minion barks. “We’re not fuckin’ useless.”

"Yeah. I know." I sigh and lace my hands behind my head. "I'm sorry. It's just… shit. Alone? He got a fuckin' death wish?"

Minion’s focus drifts over my shoulder. I know without needing to turn around who it is he looks at. “Don’t think so, Dig. It’s just personal.” He returns his gaze to me. “You know that.”

I do because I've been there myself. Made stupid choices from a mix of pride and anger. Got the goddamn scars to prove it.

"Where were they when you last heard from them?" I ask. "I'll gear up and head out, too."

“No.” Minion lifts an eyebrow. “You won’t.”

“Why the fuck not?” My goddamn brother is on a suicide mission, fueled by some irrational guilt at shit he ain't wholly responsible for, and he wants me just to sit around?

“Digger?” Rae’s careful question has me bite back the protest poised on the tip of my tongue. “What’s going on? I’m getting real worried.”

I turn to my woman, chest fucking ripping in two. I should be out there—protecting Tyke's back like always. But I see what Minion alluded to: Rae needs me here. Telling her nothing doesn't protect her from the truth; she knows this is to do with her, Terry, the whole fucking mess. All I do by keeping her in the dark is spare the details.

“Where is Tyke, Digger?” She repeats the question. Firmer.

She deserves more respect than blind ignorance, especially when it involves my brother, the other love she has.

Fuck.Of course. I asked last night what our partnership looks like going forward, how we work.Thisis how we work. Why make a promise with my brother to protect and care for thiswoman if all we planned to do was carry on business as usual and abandon her? The whole fucking reason why sharing her works is that while one of us takes care of business, the other can be here, with Rae, taking care of what's ours.

Rae is complex and, at times, a lot to handle. But that isn't a bad thing. It's just something two men can do better than one.

"Gut feelin' is that he's gone to see Terry," I cede. "I asked Minion to tail him today when I got the feelin' he might try to do this, but Tyke slipped out before anyone knew anythin'."

She sucks in a sharp breath. “Oh, my God. I fucking woke up when he got out of bed, Digger.” Tears line her lashes. “I thought he was using the bathroom. I just… I went back to sleep because I didn’t think?—”

“Rae?”

She jolts, snapping out of her spiral, gaze seeking mine.

I set my hands against her flushed face and duck to level our eyes. "It weren't your fault. Okay?"

“But—”

"Nothin'." I look over her shoulder and seek out Maddie. "It'll be okay. We got brothers out there for him. It'll be over before you know it, and he'll be back here, safe and sound."

Rae sighs, startling when Maddie slips an arm around her shoulders. "Come on." My niece levels me with a scathing glare, then adds, "Let's go somewhere quieter. Theboyscan take care of things.”

Minion's phone rings behind me as the girls head toward the sofas. I tear myself away from Rae's retreating form, shunting my hands in my pockets in tense silence while our enforcer grunts one-word answers for his side of the conversation.

“They’ve caught up,” Minion shares with me and Hammer once he pockets his phone. “As expected, Tyke’s bike is outside Terry’s residence. With Kane’s.” He shifts his attention to Maddie near the newly lit fire.

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