Page 27 of Tank

His lips twitch and then he schools his features, glancing around. “Ana asked me to keep my ear to the ground regarding body parts. As you well know I’m not in the business of transporting anything human, however I have heard of a family-owned funeral home who have been, shall we say, losing things.”

“What kind of things?” Fox asks.

“The kind of things that get sent to beautiful authors.”

Great. So Mira somehow has crossed paths with some madman who has been stealing parts from the dearly beloved. On the upside, it makes the sender a little less dangerous if the organ owners are already dead.

“We’re gonna need the name and location of this home, Roman,” Marx says in a bored tone.

Roman admires his nails a moment, picking at them, not even looking up at Marx. “I’m not sure I can do that.” He holds his hand up as Marx starts growling. “You see, this particular funeral home is under my protection.”

“Why?” Savage demands.

“They’re family friends. They’ve worked hard to make it in the great United States. The founder knew my babushka. Take your pick.”

We all sit and stare at Roman while he continues fucking around, pretending that we aren’t staring directly at him. Any other man would have shit himself by now, but not the man who seems to live to piss us off.

“They take care of your disposals don’t they?” Sniper says in his quiet, measured voice.

At this, Roman looks up, assessing Sniper for a beat. “Well, you can’t expect me to get rid of all those bodies myself do you? Disposal of any type of mammal is very tedious.”

“Is that how you disposed of Diego Cordoza and his men?”

Diego Cordoza was moving women and Roman’s stolen drugs for Eden’s Keep. Roman took care of the problem, but itstill doesn’t sit well with my brother. I know there is history there, but that’s Sniper’s story to tell. If he ever wants to.

“Diego Cordoza and his men did not deserve such pleasantries. Their heads were sent to their families, minus the tongues to encourage them to keep their mouths shut.” Roman’s cold gaze meets Sniper’s, sharing a look with him before my brother tips his chin and relaxes back in his seat.

“The name and location of the home, Roman. All we need is to get eyes on it, run surveillance. We don’t need to talk to anyone,” Marx rumbles.

Roman lets out a sigh. “Fine. I think that can be arranged. However, I may need something in return.”

I try to hold in my groan, Rider and Rhodie are unsuccessful. Marx doesn’t answer, just glares at the other man.

“There’s a strip club in Roxburgh. Spinners. What do you know about it?” Roman says, ignoring everyone around him.

“It’s run by a dodgy little shit head that loves to deal in drugs, women and information.”

“Exactly. I’ve heard that there’s a few loose lipped women in there. I would like my “relationship” with the DRMC kept quiet. Theseshlyukhi,whores may jeopardize that.”

“Consider it taken care of. Now, the name of the funeral home.”

Mira

Well, turns out the planning/investigation meeting with the girlsdidn’t go quite to plan. Instead of nutting out who could be doing this and why or how, we ended up having cocktails to get the thinking juices flowing. I’m not sure how good any of our suggestions are, given that I can’t even read my own handwriting on the whiteboard and my eyes are fuzzy.

“Ana, tell me again how you met that hunk of spunk Roman. He’s so pretty,” I feel my head roll back on my shoulders, so I use my hands to put it back where it belongs.

I blink, and then close one eye to help my focus. Nope, I was seeing things right the first time. Lovely is sitting on a chair, and Chewy is trying to drape Chomper over her shoulders, like a fur stole. Once he’s in place, his funny little under bite snout hanging dangerously close to Lovely’s boobs, she stands and sashays across the room to cheers and claps.

“These people are seriously nuts, but not you hot viking guy. Wait!” I lean closer to a gorgeous blonde man that I have never met who is sitting next to me, feet up on the coffee table next to mine, Nat painting our toes for us. “Where the heckerly doo dah did you come from?”

Viking man chuckles, the sounds vibrating through me, his giant, hard bicep touching my soft, jelly bicep.

“I came with my husband, he’s managed to make it into their little meeting. He’ll be crowing about this for the next two weeks.”

“Ohhhh Saaasha! We met before when you came in with the hot vampire looking guy!” I pat his head because I don’t know why and then I have another sip of the delicious cocktail. I hold it up in the air, the light hitting the bright pink liquid in my glass. “Compliments to the chef!”

Everyone else calls out their compliments to Mama Debs and Pops who are our alchemists tonight. They’re good at it too, possibly a little too good, but I feel great and not stressed aboutdeadlines or livers or not having real people friends and no boyfriend and oh my God I’m going to die alone aren’t I?!

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