Page 38 of Hunter

I thought over the options and murmured, “The mailman, Marcy, Sadie, and me. Who was the fifth?”

“Austin Collins. He’s Geoff’s son. The owner of?—”

“The hardware store,” I interrupted through clenched teeth. “I know.”

“Right. Told Deviant, and he dived into the kid.”

“He find any shit that hints at Austin having a history?”

Midnight shook his head, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “Didn’t come across anything official. Even when he went deeper, there didn’t seem to be any kind of pattern.”

“Could just mean this is the first time he’s gone off the deep end for a woman.”

I knew something had been off with that little bastard.

“Could be,” Midnight agreed. “If so, behavior like that shouldn’t go unchecked. Next time could be worse, and someone might get hurt.”

My hands clenched into fists and fury built inside me. “Sounds like the motherfucker needs a visit to The Room.”

“The Room” was a small building on Iron Rogues’ property built on a spot that was the farthest from any of the businesses, homes, and clubhouse. From the outside, it looked a lot like the safehouses we had throughout the south. We used the moniker because it was as dismissive as its exterior. But on the inside, it was very different. The interior had four rooms, a lounging area of sorts, a cell, an interrogation hold, an armory, and a storage space that had a cache oftoolsthat might be needed to aid us in gaining what we wanted.

“Need you to send a couple of prospects here to watch over Sadie,” I growled as I packed up my shit.

He agreed and went outside to make the call.

I quickly pulled my woman aside. “Gotta go handle some club business, sunshine. But you’ll have a couple of rooks here to protect you.”

Sadie clasped her hands together and worried her bottom lip.

I was concerned that she might push for more information. We hadn’t really had the talk about her role in the club as an old lady and that she’d have to accept that there would always be things I couldn’t share with her.

But she shocked the shit out of me again.

“You can’t tell me anything, right?”

“Yeah. I won’t ever lie to you, sunshine. Or keep things from you. Unless it’s club business. Can you handle that?”

“Of course.” Her answer was immediate, and I was tempted to drag her to the back and fuck her because she was so damn amazing. “Is it dangerous?”

“Not for me,” I said honestly. “Since this involves you, I can at least say you won’t need to worry about getting more notes or broken windows again. Turns out Austin was behind it, and I’m gonna make sure he knows to stay the fuck away from you from now on.”

“Wow, I never would’ve guessed.” Her nose scrunched. “Do you think that’s why we had so many things break around here even though Marcy bought all new equipment? Because he wanted to see me?”

“It’s a safe bet, sunshine,” I confirmed with a nod.

“Ugh, what a jerk,” she muttered. “I know it’s just Austin, but…be careful anyway.”

“Always, sunshine.”

I gave her a deep, soul-stealing kiss before focusing on what came next.

* * *

My shoulders weretight with tension when I walked into the interrogation hold where Austin was cuffed to a small metal chair.

It hadn’t taken long to find him because the asshole had been lingering near the bakery, out of sight, but with a clear view of the building.

“Shoulda moved the fuck on the first time you realized Sadie was under Iron Rogue protection,” I grunted. “When it was clear she was mine, you shoulda forgotten she even existed.”

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