Morse nodded. “Tap and I have been trying to track down the IP address, or addresses, the emails were originally sent from, but whoever it is has gone through a lot of trouble to hide his tracks. In my experience, innocent men with good intentions don’t fuckin’ hide their location.”
“You and Tap can’t find him?” Link asked, sounding both impressed and concerned.
I understood where he was coming from. I’d only gotten a glimpse of what Morse and Tap could do, and those nerdy bastards were downright terrifying.
They shared a look. “Oh, we’ll find him,” Morse replied sounding confident. Finding this elusive bastard was clearly personal, which made me wonder exactly what was in the emails. “It’s just gonna take a little time.”
“What do you need from us?” Link asked.
“She needs a room to rent and protection until we get this shit sorted. I’d like to bring it before the club for a vote, because Amelia’s presence could possibly put the club at risk. I don’t know the lengths this psycho will go to in order to get at her. From what Tap and I have found, he doesn’t fuck around. I don’t see him leaving her alone.”
“Good.” A brother named Zombie said, cracking his knuckles. “Let the motherfucker come.”
Chuckles and nods of agreement drifted around the room.
“What kind of punk-ass little bitch threatens a woman with Bible verses?” a brother named Buddha asked.
“The kind that needs Jesus,” Frog said. “Wouldn’t mind settin’ up that meeting.”
Link stood and stepped forward, scanning the room. “She’s family. We don’t turn our backs on family, regardless of the risks.”
His word sounded final, and silence settled over the club as we all waited for him to continue.
“Any fuckin’ objections?” he asked, narrowing his eyes and scanning the room again.
Link was a good leader who sacrificed a lot of time and energy to run this club and there was shit he expected from us in return: loyalty, courage, patriotism, honor, respect. The same shit he’d demanded from his Special Forces team. And from what I’d seen, the club always rose to the challenge.
Not one hand went up. Nobody objected.
“She’s family,” Tap repeated, watching Morse. “We got your back, brother.”
“Good. It’s settled.” Link returned to his seat. “Your cousin can stay as long as she needs, Morse. Godspeed at finding the motherfucker harassing her. Let us know if you need anything else.”
Although I’d only been with the Dead Presidents for a short time, there had been multiple instances that the club made me proud to be a member. This was one such moment. They didn’t need details, didn’t need to talk to the woman. She was family and in trouble, and that’s all they needed to know. They’d take the risk regardless.
Still, the lack of questions disappointed me, because every answer I found just created more questions, and I really fucking wanted to know what was going on with Mila.
7
Mila
I’D STAYED IN a lot of places over the years, but this was the first time I’d called a renovated old fire station home. Even if it was temporary. Levi and a guy he referred to as “Bull” carried my bags up two flights of stairs, past the community bathrooms Levi pointed out, and into a bedroom only slightly bigger than the one I’d grown up in. Bull left after setting my luggage down, but Levi lingered, watching me.
“It’s not much,” he said. “But you’ll be safe here.”
A plain queen-sized bed with no head or footboards was pushed against one wall with a small wooden nightstand beside it. A loveseat sat against the opposite wall, with a dresser positioned between it and a set of sliding doors. Curious, I slid the door open to reveal the small, guest bedroom-sized closet. It was a far cry from my flat back in Ottawa, but it was clean.
“It’s perfect. Thank you.”
He nodded. “The club has a meeting tonight, where I’ll ask if you can stay, but like I said, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. These guys like playing the hero, and I don’t see them dumping you out on your ass. Either way, we’ll figure it out.”
If his club didn’t let me crash here, I had no idea where I’d go. Finding Levi had been my Plan A, and there was no Plan B. Since Rishi had been killed in his suite, even thinking about checking into a hotel filled me with crippling anxiety.
“Thank you.” I must have said those words at least a dozen times since I’d arrived. My gratitude was all I had to offer, and it seemed completely inadequate for everything he was doing for me.
Levi gave me a reassuring smile as he perched on the arm of the loveseat. “We’ll find these guys, Meals. It’s what we do. If—by some miracle of a chance—anyone comes looking for you here, they’ll have a shit-ton of vets to get through to get to you. In the meantime, get some rest. You look old with those bags under your eyes.”
“At least I’m not an asshole,” I shot back.
