My father looked at me and I knew what he was thinking. Was it worth risking his men for? Did saving Declan mean enough to him or was he just collateral damage. I pleaded with my father without saying a word. Warren’s arms tightened, and I knew he was giving my father the same look. Warren wanted to do this for me. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Hudson.
“What about the locale?”
Ink spoke then, telling my father about the area around what I presumed was the address they said to go to. I didn’t know the local area anymore. I didn’t even know if the place they had chosen was local. It could be miles away. And the longer they stood here deliberating, the longer they had to hurt Declan.
I was so close to the edge right now. The cut on my head was aching, the pain shooting through my skull was almost debilitating, but it was nowhere near what Declan was suffering.
“It’s no riskier than anywhere else, given the situation,” Ink concluded. “All we need to decide is if we’re in.”
I sucked in a breath, a sob breaking out and Warren pulled my face to his chest, turning me away from them all, no doubt giving them a hard look.
“We let them do this, they’ll think we don’t care about my sister.”
“That isn’t true. They know this guy means nothing to the club, they’re desperate.”
I didn’t recognize whose voice it was, but I wanted to turn around and rip out his vocal cords for even saying it.
“Easy, Wave,” Warren murmured, running his hand down my back again, still not letting me turn away from his chest.
“Dad, we can’t let them kill an innocent man,” Warren said, and it showed how much this meant to him referring to him as dad, rather than King or Prez. “It’s not even about that. It’s about her,” he added. “You heard Wave, this will kill her too. Is that what you want? To destroy your own daughter.”
“I don’t mean any disrespect VP, but this isn’t our fight.”
“What? Let me go,” I struggled but Warren was stronger than me, he tilted my chin up to look into his face again.
“Stop, Wave. Please, you shouldn’t even be here for this discussion just let me handle it okay?”
The others had continued arguing as my twin tried to handle me. And it was taking a lot for me to let him. The one voice I hadn’t heard was the one I needed to hear from the most. I turned my head and found him amongst the group of men. He had his hands on his hips, and he was staring at the floor in complete silence. It was as if he wasn’t even in the room.
“We’ve already lost Itchy over this, are we going to lose another brother? Look, I get it, this is your daughter, and I would die to protect her but she’s right here,” Banshee pointed at me, and I realized he was the one opposing this so vehemently. “We could be walking into an ambush, and you all know it.”
Everyone was quiet, and I was about to burst out of my brothers arms, steal a bike and get Declan myself when Hudson spoke.
“You’re right. It likely will be an ambush. That’s why we can’t all go.”
“Hudson,” I spun out of Warren’s arms and stared at him in shock. Tears filled my eyes as he stared back at me, his jaw hard.
“I said we can’tallgo,” he said tightly, drawing his eyes from mine and looking to Dirt. “We fell for it once, we left, and they attacked the compound. So we make them think we’re not leaving. A few of us head out, we leave the bikes behind, take a truck and to anyone watching, we’re not going running when they think we will.”
My jaw dropped open. He wanted to save Declan? He was arguing against the officers in the club, for my ex-boyfriend.
“Hustle’s right,” Ballistic said.
“We send three men,” Hudson said. “Scope the place out before we decide what to do, Ballistic can bring his sniper rifle to cover us, if he’s still alive, we go in and get him out.”
Hudson didn’t look at me when he said that. Everyone in the room already knew it was a possibility Declan was dead by now.
“I’m going,” Warren said.
Ballistic nodded. “Let’s go.”
Warren turned me to face him. “Go to the house and stay there. We’ll get Rosa to come straight over. Promise me you will stay there and let them look after you okay. Waverley,” he shook me slightly.
I wanted them to save Declan of course I did but they wanted to send Hudson and Warren after him? I didn’t want to lose any of them.
“We’ll bring him back.”
Hudson’s voice broke me out of the stare off with my twin. I turned to look at him and it was like looking at a stranger. Something about the way I reacted to Declan being harmed changed something in him. About us. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I couldn’t dwell on it now.
