Page 23 of Tank

Marx scrubs a hand down his face. “Right. So a solid man that Miss Flora obviously hated on sight. Got it. Fuck if Wire can find anything from those descriptions he’d be a fucking genius. Jesus.” His shoulders slump before he continues. “Fuck, why can’t we ever catch a break and weird shit bypass us for a change?”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Mira comes swanning in with an arm full of books. “Whoa, what did I miss? Why doeseveryone look so serious?” Her gaze travels around the room. Once. Twice. “Hey, where’s your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Fox barks.

“Oh, soz. My bad. I just always see you together so I figured you were together, together. Nothing wrong with that.” She dumps her books on the nearest table. “You guys are hot individually. Together you would be scorching hot. Fire and ice.” She brings her fists together, fist bumping herself making explosion sounds, drawing her hands out making jazz hands.

The women all start talking animatedly about reverse harems, whatever the fuck they are, and then Marx’s whistle rends the air.

“Listen up, we have church in 20 minutes. Chewy, help Wire and Remy, see what they can find on all the shit we got coming at us. The rest of you ladies, would you mind reading some of Mira’s books? We need clues. Fuck, anything that can lead us to whoever is messing with Mira and now us.”

The women all nod eagerly and descend upon the pile of books on the table.

“I want everyone in church, including prospects. Gus?” He tips his head towards his office and Gus drops a kiss on Ana’s head, then his son’s, and follows after Pres.

Since the arrival of Chewy, Pres and Gus have become close friends. It’s a development I never saw coming, given how uptight Gus can be, however the man is a machine when it comes to security and safety. He may not be ex-military like the rest of us, but his training is on point. Thanks to him and his family, the MC has state of the art weapons and gadgets. I can only imagine their meeting currently will be for some new tech or shit. That’s always Marx’s number one. Keep his men and the rest of our ragtag family safe.

“Penny for your thoughts? Or maybe a quarter? What with inflation and all,” Mira quips, her arm brushing mine as she gesticulates, her soft and yet spicy vanilla scent enveloping me.

“Just thinking about security systems.”

She lets out a low whistle. “Wooooooow, that sounds very boring. Here, have a book.”

She shoves a book into my hands, the shiny cover a moody purple and blue. ‘Stabbed in the Feels’ is written in swirly gold script and I can’t help the chuckle that bursts out of me.

Looking up, Mira catches my eyes and gives me a wink, then carries on handing them out to everyone, not just the women.

“There’s too many for just thekotiroto read, so we’ll all have to pitch in. Do you guys have a whiteboard?” She asks, spinning this way and that, looking around the room. “Or, like a really big paper? Somewhere I can write all the weird and wonderful things that happened to me recently so we can cross reference and catch this sucker?”

“Gimme a minute,” Takoda says, disappearing into the storeroom behind the bar. Within moments he returns, carrying a big ass whiteboard.

“Shit, who even knew we had that?” Rider says, pointing at it. “Why do we have that?”

No one seems to know the answer, not that it matters as we all watch Mira draw bullet points on the whiteboard and then in large, pretty handwriting the weird shit that’s happened to her.

“Rescued from a rogue dog by a fighter pilot?” Judge asks, brows in his non-existent hairline.

“Found a strange garden gnome in your petunias?” someone else says.

“She’s an interesting one, your little writer,” Jules’ monotone voice says to my left.

“She isn’t my anything.” He raises his brow at me. “Fine. We’re friends. I like her. She’s … comfortable with herself” “

He stares at me a moment, assessing, his gaze uncomfortable. I’ve stared down worse men, but something about Jules Tombs makes it feel like he sees straight through you. Unlike his siblings, he isn’t quirky like Chewy, or anal retentive but controlled like Gus. He’s not even friendly and congenial like Tav. Jules Tombs is more intense, reserved, and because of that fact I know he would be one hell of a man to have at your back.

He looks toward Mira, then turns back to me. “Weird friendship. You say fuck all and she says too much.”

I grunt at his comment. “Works for Fox and Nitro.”

Something glints in his eye, and his lips twitch. “Yeah, guess it does, doesn’t it?” With that, he saunters off, leaving me more confused than when he arrived.

Typical Tombs.

Mira

“Girl, what the hell type of life do you lead? This shit is nuts!” Nat exclaims, Savage chuckling as he stands behind the couch she’s sitting on, rocking their little girl in his huge arms. He leans forward, gently passing Rosie to her and drops a kiss on the top of Nat’s head. It’s all very swoon worthy.

“Be good, baby,” He murmurs before following the rest of the men into church. Apparently today is their usual church day, and given the livers and whatever happened with Nitro, they could be in there for a while.

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