Page 57 of Dancin' with Demons

“She needs to be on full lockdown,” Catacomb says before I even get the office door closed behind me.

“Ain’t gonna help,” I mutter.

“Why not?” he snaps as he sits his ass against the front of my desk.

“Prez,” Reaper says with a huff, “look at the picture. That shit was taken inside the damn gates.”

Takin’ Raylynn’s phone out of my back pocket, I unlock it, pull up the message, and hand it to Catacomb. He takes it, starin’ at the screen with narrowed eyes, the tell-tale redness of his anger flushin’ his neck.

“Can you pin-point where this was taken from,” he asks, holdin’ the phone out to Hardwire.

The brother takes the phone as Circuit grabs his bag from the floor and slides his laptop out, openin’ the top as Hardwire plus Raylynn’s phone into a cord and then pushes the other into the USB on the side of the laptop. After a few moments of the Geek Squad whisperin’ back and forth, pointin’ at the screen, whisperin’ some more, Hardwire glances at Cat.

“They ain’t wrong, Prez. Whoever took this had to be maybe ten, fifteen feet away from Raylynn and Savior. Any further and they’d need one hell of a lens to get this clear a shot.”

“Not to mention you can see just a hint of the front gates in the bottom right corner of the picture,” Circuit says. “That means the person was behind ‘em, shootin’ toward the street.”

This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I’ve never been a runner, not from some shit like this. Bein’ an Enforcer, avoidin’ problems really ain’t my thing. I’m more of a face ‘em head on and fuck up the assholes kind of man. But that was before Raylynn, before Savior. It’s been a long fuckin’ time since I’ve had someone I cared about enough that runnin’ was even a thought, let alone a real option.

Right now, protectin’ her is the only thing that matters, though, so runnin’ ain’t off the table.

“Care to share whatever you’re thinkin’ about while you’re tunin’ us out, Renegade?” Catacomb’s sternness snaps me back to the room, all four brothers starin’ at me.

“Maybe we need to run,” I say, more a question to myself than a statement to ‘em.

“Renegade?”

Shakin’ my head, I bring my gaze up to meet my president. “I want to say we can protect her, Cat, but I don’t know it that’s true.”

My cell phone dings loudly from my back pocket, and I pull it out, pressin’ the side button to illuminate the lock screen. There’s a new text but instead of a number, it says,privateand a chill runs down my spine. “Prez.”

Walkin’ over to stand next to him as I unlock the phone, he leans in to read with me.

Private: Want to share? She can take a lot of cock at once.

My hand shakes slightly as Catacomb reads the fuckin’ thing out loud.

“Give me your phone,” Hardwire snaps, snatchin’ it out of my hand and tossin’ Raylynn’s onto the small table next to him so he can plug mine into the computer. After a moment, he lets out a low whistle. “Damn. Encrypted sender. Thing is bouncin’ off proxy towers like a pin’-pong ball in the fuckin’ Forrest Gump movie.”

“You need to get Raylynn in here,” Reaper says, gettin’ everyone’s attention. “I know you don’t want to tell her shit, but we need to see what she remembers about the day this was taken.”

Catacomb nods, and Reaper heads out of my office, leavin’ the door open behind him. A few moments pass before Raylynn comes in, Reaper behind her.

“Come here, little love,” I say, holdin’ my arm out. I’m glad she doesn’t hesitate to come over and stand next to me so I can put my arm around her shoulder.

“Is everything okay?”

“I wanted to ask you about the picture,” Catacomb says in a much gentler tone. “Do you remember what day that was taken?”

Raylynn nods and takes a deep breath, standin’ a little straighter before movin’ to stand in front of me and lean her body against mine. “A week or so ago. You and Renegade were in your office and Savior wanted to play with that hula hoop Archangel got her, so I took her outside for like twenty minutes. We came back inside right before you guys came out to the common room.”

“Anyone come outside while you were out there?”

Raylynn taps her foot as she thinks. “Uhm, yeah. Archangel came out for a moment and watched Savior try to hula hoop. Two of the clubwhores, damn it what are their names? The one that likes you,” she looks over her shoulder at me, “and I think the other one has a food name.”

“Snackcake?” I say, my eyebrow quirkin’ up.

“Yeah,” she says, “that one.”

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