Page 98 of Steel

Bailee nods. “Note and a black rose. The notes said the same thing as the others.”

Something works behind her eyes, and she nibbles on her bottom lip before I can get my thumb up to pull it out of her mouth.

“Do you think it’s connected to Killer?” she asks.

“Don’t think so, but not going to rule it out, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Before I get the chance to continue our conversation, my phone goes off with a series of text messages, and already knowing who it is, I pull away with a sigh. “That’s goin’ to be the club.”

Bailee kisses the middle of my chest and steps out of my arms. “I’ll go check on Lyric.”

As she starts to walk away, a growl erupts from my chest, and I grab her arm, spinning her around to pull her back to me. “Mouth.”

She lifts a brow. “Bossy,” she mumbles with a smirk, rising to her toes and covering my mouth with hers.

I trace the outline of her lips with my tongue until she opens to let me in, and once she does, I shove inside. We roll our tongues over each other, sipping and savoring the quick taste of one another until I pull away with a groan.

“Now, you can go check on our girl.”

As soon as she’s gone, I pull out my phone and read over Crow’s message telling me to meet them at Sinful Saloon because we had someone litter in the alleyway outside. Deciphering the code is easy as we’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember.

After I reply that I’m on my way, I shoot off a text to Emmy Lou asking if her people are available to keep an eye on my place while I go take care of this. It’s only a few minutes later that she replies to inform me they’ve never not had eyes on my girls when her people weren’t on a case of their own. I asked her the other day how many of them there are, and she told me four. Information about them is sparse, but they own Killer Kitty Inc., a grooming service for fucking cats. That’s the legal cover, anyway. Ain’t fucking stupid, though, and know there’s more to that damn business than grooming some goddamn pussy. Notreally got time to make it my business right now. As long as they keep my girls safe, that’s all that matters to me.

I head to the bathroom so I can tell my girls goodbye. When I knock on the door, I hear some giggles, and then Lyric calls out for me to come in. Her tiny head pokes around the mostly closed shower curtain, and Bailee is sitting on the closed toilet lid.

Leaning against the doorjamb, I fold my arms over my chest and smile at the two of them, finding contentment in the smiles on their faces. “You ladies up to no good in here?”

Lyric laughs again and nods, peeking at Bailee before glancing back at me with twinkling eyes and a mischievous smile. Before I can even get out the words to ask her what she’s up to, I’m being pelted in the face by water.

I straighten from my perch and narrow my eyes at her. “You got a water gun hidin’ in there, Lyra?”

“Of course, Daddy,” she says, smirking and holding up her hot pink water gun around the curtain.

“Well, at least you have great aim,” I reply, grabbing the hand towel from the rack and drying my face off. “Gotta go meet the brothers at the strip club. Pizza will be here soon. Bailee, come with me. Need to show you how to arm the security system. Lyra, love you, kid. Make sure to get to bed. Got school tomorrow. I’ll be takin’ you.”

“‘Kay. Love you, Daddy.”

Bailee slides her hand into mine, and I wrap my fingers around hers tightly, not wanting to let go until the last minute. Sometimes, it seems like she’s going to be taken away the moment I’m no longer touching her. Ridiculous bullshit, but it’s shit thoughts that cross my mind anyway.

I run her through the basics of rearming the alarm system after I leave, having her repeat everything back to me until I’m satisfied that she’s got it down. Then I press the keys to my Bronco into her hand.

“Em has people sitting on the house to keep you and Lyric safe. You won’t notice them unless you need to. If they have to introduce themselves, they’ll make sure to tell you that if you got the pussy, they got the time.” I chuckle when she crinkles her nose. “I’ll explain later. Not what you’re thinkin’ inside that pretty fuckin’ head. You got everything remembered?” She nods. “I’ll have my phone on me. Call if you need me. Here are the keys to the Bronco if you need it for some reason.” I drop a bruising kiss on her lips and step back with a swat to her ass. “Lock up.”

I can’t spot the women anywhere, but their eyes are like sharp venomous teeth along the skin of my back as I march toward my bike.

It’ll be an interesting day if I ever get to meet them in person.

The dancing red and blue lights from the cop cars glint off the chrome of the bikes parked in the back alley. They flicker along the grim faces of my brothers and the LEOs milling about as they go over the scene.

Jake, the Chief of Police, is barking orders at his officers while my brothers stand off to the side by Miranda’s body.

Wraith and Crow walk up to them as I climb from my bike. Needing to hear everything that’s being said, I hurry over to them. I get there in time to catch Jake telling them that he’s never seen anything like this, even when he was chasing a serial killer. That little bit of news shocks me because I thought we knew everything about this man we’ve had as a friendly in our pocket.

Whoever killed Miranda is one sick fuck. She’s posed naked with her hands folded over her stomach. The killer shaved every part of her body. They were methodical about it and extremelycareful because I can’t spot a single strand anywhere on her. That also means there’s no hiding the bruises that litter the inside of her thighs from the sexual abuse she’s endured along with the bruises around her throat from being strangled.

I fold my arms across my chest as I watch the medical examiner do his job. When the light hits Miranda’s face, something through the narrow parting of her lips catches it. The medical examiner gently pries her jaw open and uses a pair of tweezers to snag the Ziploc bag that was stuffed inside her mouth. Inside the clear baggie, there’s a piece of folded paper.

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