“Cameras are for show.”Our point man for this deal, a guy I know only by the name Elliott, discreetly angles his chin toward the security equipment mounted above us. “System’s not connected.”
I shake the man’s hand and search his eyes. “Right. We checked that out before we agreed to meet here.”
He doesn’t need to know how much intel we’ve done on this operation. He just needs to know that we have. This ain’t our first rodeo, but it is our first moving this amount of product for this particular client. We don’t normally meet, but for a job this big, I demanded an in-person location on a busy Saturday when the recycling center would be open with lots of foot traffic.
I’m supervising this gig. Viper, our enforcer, and Hawk, our road captain, are handling it with me while Savage is parked in a strategic position in case anything goes down.
None of us are wearing our club leathers oranything that could make us easy to identify later. Viper and Hawk look like they’re dressed up for Halloween in soccer dad outfits. They won’t exactly blend, but with their golf shirts, sunglasses, and baseball caps, they’d be tough to pick out of a lineup. That’s all that matters.
Despite the summer heat, I’m in a long-sleeved button-down shirt that covers my tattoos, black jeans, and dark glasses that I only remove when I look Elliott in the eye. Elliott and I nod at each other, the CEOs of our respective organizations, so to speak. Then our guys get to work.
Savage and I walk back to our bikes and climb on, but we don’t leave. We watch, taking everything in.
This job means a shitload of cash for the club. And when a job pays that good, there’s always a reason. My guys are on high alert for any sign of cops, feds, or even the competition. We’re not the only ones in town who want to be on the receiving end of a paycheck that’s going to be this big.
Even still, not one of us wants anything to go down that could land us in lockup. Or, in my case, back in.
It was one thing going away when my daughters were little. They didn’t understand why Mommy and Daddy didn’t live together or why sometimes Daddy had to go away for months—even years—at a time. It was normal for them, and they just lived it, spending Father’s Day visiting me across a table with more supervision and cameras than a reality TV set.
But they’re teenagers now. They know what it means if Daddy gets arrested. Convicted.Sentenced.
I don’t give a fuck what happens to me. Sometimes in this life, the juice is worth the risk of the squeeze.
But the older my girls get, the more I realize that nothing is more important than being here for them. And I don’t just mean alive—I mean not behind bars and being free.
I’ve got a bigger plan in mind, and while this deal is probably the worst possible way to go about it, the money we make is money I need if I want to get my girls for good this time.
Taking care of Shayla, though, has proven a longer and harder job than taking her out would have been. But I’m not that man. I don’t hurt women or children—not unless they come for me and mine and ignore a clear first warning.
I give nobody second chances.
One of the reasons I’m here today at all is so I can take care of Shayla and my girls the legal way. The right way. And there’s no chance I’m letting that plan go to shit. No matter what.
A sudden buzzing breaks through my focus on the handoff taking place in front of me. When I’m on a job, no one gets through to me on my cell phone.
Nobody except my daughters.
I don’t bother to check the first buzz of a text alert. I’ve got a special tone set up so I always know, day or night, if Holly or Daisy is trying to reach me.
But the first buzz is followed by a second. And then the damned phone starts ringing.
I swipe the lock screen and almost dismiss the messages until I catch a look at the text. I glare downinto my phone, trying to make sense of what I’m reading.
“You got business?” Savage lifts his chin at me. “Take it. I think we’re cool here.”
I nod at Savage, my eyes never leaving the quiet transaction happening ahead. When they look about done, I scan the text from the unknown number.
Dad, it’s Holly. I’m borrowing a phone because I don’t want Mom to know I messaged you. Daisy and I are in trouble.You’ve gotta come now.
Like a volcano bubbling before it bursts, my guts are churning before the blood turns to ice in my veins. Whatever the fuck is happening, I need to get to my daughters, and I need to get to themnow.
I listen to the voice mail, which is incredibly hard to hear because Holly is whispering from some place that’s noisy as fuck. She leaves an address and says to get there as soon as we can, or to call this number when I see the message.
“You got this?” I shoot Savage a look.
He nods slowly toward Hawk and Viper, who are discreetly putting bags of aluminum cans inside the covered bed of a pickup truck instead of dropping them here. A couple of those bags will have cans filled with a product my guys have been hired to move. The rest are just normal, nothing to see here, empty cans gathered up for recycling. The only difference is we’re taking them out of the recycling facility when we leave.
“Looks like they’re about done.” Savage nods.
