Page 52 of Tank

Mira snorts, her hand pumping mine a couple of times. I pump hers back and also try to hide my smirk. I glance at Mira at the same time she side eyes me and I have to look away before I get the giggles. What the hell have I become? Happy? Giggly? Smiley? I shake my head to clear it and tune back into what the girls have found out.

“There’s nothing much in the van. Just some fast food wrappers and his employee badge to some funeral home in Ironwood.” Blanche says.

“Wait, what’s the name of the funeral home?” Nitro asks.

“Willow and Iron Funeral Home.”

“He’s our man. I’m sure if we show Flora a picture of him she’ll recognize him as the Orc guy,” Gus comments.

“He also has the opportunity to acquire the parts he’s sending to Mira.” Savage adds.

“I don’t think it’s him,” Chewy states, matter of factly, her fingers tapping quicker.

“What the hell do you mean it isn’t him?” Rhodie looks at the top of her head, puzzled look on his face.

“I don’t think it’s him either,” Mira pipes up. She looks around the room before turning to look at me. I love when she addresses me and me alone, no one else. I’m sure a whore for her attention and I don’t give a shit. “I have very few male readers,” her eyes dart to the Pres before landing on me again, “It doesn’t make sense that it would be him.”

“Unless he’s obsessed with you,” Dex offers, causing a growl to escape me.

Mira grins up at me and pats my chest, snorting, “Nope, that’s not a thing.”

Marx looks thoughtful for a moment, before turning back to Chewy. “Why do you think he’s not the guy?”

“Same reason as Mira. And he said ‘she isn’t paying me enough for this shit’. When we asked why he was working for Whitney in the first place, he said he wasn’t. Someone else is pulling the strings, and it’s a woman.”

“You know, there is one very fun, very fast way to find out,” Pops says in a bored voice.

“Rev Room?” Chewy asks, her face filled with hope.

“What’s the Rev Room?” Mira whispers, leaning into me. Her warm breath teases my Adam’s Apple and I have to fight to stay focused.

“Um, it’s where Chewy likes to interrogate people. The Ol Ladies all chill out in here so you’ll be in good company,” I smile gently down at her and hope like hell she accepts that her place is here, in the nice warm common room that won’t be filled with a grown man’s screams for mercy.

“Oh I like the sound of that! I think I really need to see this place for research.” She nods seriously.

“Doll, that’s a no can do. It’s not because you’re a woman or anything like that, but it’s for plausible deniability. We need to keep it strictly on a need to know basis.”

“Will the Tombs’ be in there?”

“Well, yeah, but they’ve been doing this shit for a long time. They may be a little different, but they’ve worked with the best of them, CIA, FBI, they know how to lock things down.”

“And you don’t think I can?” She turns to look at me front on, and I can see the confusion, and maybe even hurt in her beautiful green eyes.

“That’s not it, Doll.” I take a deep breath, letting it out slowly, gathering my thoughts. Mira waits patiently, as always. “I know you write torture and murder and all manner of horrific things, but writing it and seeing it happen to a real life person, hearing their cries and screams, is not something that you can ever forget. It’ll take a piece of you and I can’t have that. I love you exactly as you are, kind, funny, a little ridiculous and a lot clever.” My big ham-sized fists, as she calls them, reach to cup her face, my thumbs grazing over the plump apples of her cheeks. “You’re light Mira, in a world full of shade. Am I an asshole for wanting to keep you that way?”

Her eyes dart between mine, looking for the lie and finding none. A small smile plays on her lips, then grows in size, “Did you just say that you love me, Tyson Jingleheimer Schmidt?”

Laughter bubbles up in my chest and I set it free, tipping my head back, causing my brothers to throw me a few shocked looks. “That is most definitely not my name, Doll,”

She shrugs one shoulder, “Sounded good to me,”

Her eyes twinkle and I gently press a kiss to her plump pink lips, lingering for a moment. “I meant every word I said.”

She lets out a gentle sigh, then turns to the room, jolting when she sees that everyone has been watching the whole exchange. “Um, hi,” She sing songs and waves awkwardly. “Cover me,” she hisses at me. “On the count of three we’ll slowly edge to the doorway, escape all the eyes on us,” she frantically whispers.

“You know we can hear you, right?” Rider asks, a cocky grin on his face.

“No! You didn’t hear anything!” Mira yells, pointing in his direction then letting her finger glide around the room at the shit eating grins on everyone’s faces.

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