Page 80 of Daddy Issues

“What do you mean?” My question was spoken low enough there was no echo. But that fear in my belly exploded now, shooting cold prickles all over my skin. "Maybe you should clear out yourself."

"I can't do that. I'll get my patch, even if it kills me." The ominous tone in his voice made me tremble. Puck had said he had club business to handle. This left me wondering exactly how bad things were going to get. “I just wanted you to know I didn’t set that shit up so that you’d get hurt. Despite what you think or shit I’ve done…” He choked a little, took another swig, and his phone dinged.

“I’ve got to go, just…take care of yourself.” He stopped at the end of the tunnels, ducked down so I could see his face. “And keep an eye on Puck’s kid. I don’t have anything concrete to take to Jester, but I don’t like how interested Jerry Wayne is in Eli.” A shadow passed over his face, a dark reminder of the life he’d lived before the desert kids.

If Ghost was worried about Eli, then I was, too.

“Hey…” I scrambled over toward his end, stepped out, and hugged him tight. “For what it’s worth, I really did love you.”

“Yeah, me too.”

I don’t know how long I stayed in the tunnel after he left, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was too deep in something he had no way out of. And that in some strange way, it was my fault.

Puck

We stood on the roof of an office building out in the middle of an old missile testing site. We’d been there, anxiously watching a faded warehouse, for nearly an hour.

“This is my spot. I can scope out everything from here.” Merc twisted a dial on a set of binoculars that looked like they came straight out of Mission Impossible, pressed them to his eyes, then handed them to his dad. “Jester’s on his way back.”

With my naked eye, I could see the van moving to the gate.

“Never doubted him.” Cam grinned beside me.

“Shit, I did. You gave that mother fucker twenty-four hours to come up with a way in, to scope the place out, and he came back with a way in and an inside man.”

“Insidewoman,” Cam corrected. “What can I say? He’s good at what he does.”

Memories of that night with Jester and Kenna snaked their way in and I was thankful I had on shades. Had it not been forhim, I might not have what I have now. Cam was right, it was just what he did.

A few minutes later, the clang of boots on metal heralded Jester’s triumphant return. “Sorry it took so long. Penny does more with that big ass mouth than talk.” His grin was wide and toothy.

Cam rolled his eyes. “Jesus, brother. Did you find out anything useful?”

“Ghost was on the money with it. The warehouse will be closed when the delivery is made, and Penny is the last one to lock up. She’ll leave the side door open for us, that the only people who stay late are the manager and the janitor. I saw the manager, that’s an easy take down. Ghost confirmed it was just one old guy they dealt with.”

“When does the buyer come in?” AP asked, lighting a cigar and puffing acrid smoke into the air.

“Early the next morning, Penny says a gray van swoops in twice a week right as her shift starts.”

“All we need is a distraction.” But Cam was smiling in that way that told me he was about to fuck all sorts of shit up. “I’ve got Gunnar and Ivan coming up from White Pines. Time to teach Black Challenger a lesson.”

“Kick around Jerry Wayne’s son, and he won’t be wondering why his crew is late getting back.”

“Exactly.”

And from there, we hashed out the details. Jester, AP, Dekes, and Merc would take the van and disrupt Jerry Wayne’s delivery. The rest of us would make nuisances of ourselves. Whatever Cam had cooking for that was getting him all amped up. Savage was loyal to the core, but the man was a fucking chaos gremlin.

I’d need to convince Kenna to watch Eli. Not that it would take much convincing.

“So?” Jester stayed behind, blocking my path, as the rest of them took the stairs.

He was an annoying bastard when he wanted to be, and currently he stood between me and all the dirty things I wanted to do to my woman.

“What?” I walked almost right into him and would have shouldered past him had it not have knocked him backward down the steps.

“You take her off the market?”

I snorted, kicked his shin with the side of my boot, and started down the stairs when he finally moved. “She was never listed.”

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