“No matter who he is, we need to know if he came here looking for the kids, or looking for Joe.” Dex demands of the room.
“Both,” Joe coughs. “He came here looking for me. He thinks I know where the girls are.”
“Well, you do now.” Dex says, hands on hips. “I’m calling Church.”
Marx raises his brow and smirks. “Sure thing, Prez.”
The men start to file out of the common room, leaving me with Joe and some of the Girl Gang.
“Stay here and take care of your friend, babe. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Vex drops a tense kiss to my crown and storms out of the room.
“Oh girl, I may be in pain and only have one working eye but woooo, that man is fiiiiiiine!”
I snort, looking down at my friend. “He is, and he’ll help me take care of everything. I’ve got you Joe.”
She relaxes, a little, laying her head back on the table.
“Ah, cher, let’s get you somewhere a little more comfortable, yah?” Damian moves to lift her small body off the table, but is blocked by Justice stepping in front of him.
They stare at each other for a moment before Damian raises his hands in the air with a grin.
“You can rest in my bed.” Justice gently slides his hands behind Joe’s shoulders and under her knees, lifting her ever so gently. He cradles her against his chest as he moves through the room, heading to the hall where the prospect and guest rooms are.
“Well, would you look at that,” Mira whispers, eyes on my brother-cousin. “I feel a book coming on.” She takes a notebook and pencil from inside her bra and plops down onto the couch.
“Don’t worry about her, she always does that,” Ana says, waving a hand in the air at her friend.
“Now, more importantly, we got an asshole woman beater on the loose, and two little girls to keep safe,” Blanche says, hands on hips.
“So, show us where the weapons are, Loyal,” Lovely grins.
I give her a nod and rise to my feet. I had already pieced together that the girls witnessed someone murder their mother, but now that I know it was their very own father that did it and he came here and beat my friend to find out where they were? Nope. Not having it. I’ve spent my life with men who treated women and children that way, and never again will that happen on my watch.
Chapter 9
Vex
I’m seething as I storm into Church. I need answers. I get that to keep the girls safe all Loyal and I needed to know were their names and that they witnessed a murder. But to not tell us that it was at the hands of their father? That’s important shit to know. How are Loyal and I supposed to help them when we don’t know what we’re dealing with?
“You lot are familiar with this fucker, so bring us up to speed. What are we looking at?” Dex asks Marx as soon as his gavel hits the table.
Marx looks to Fox and Nitro, tipping his head in Dex’s direction.
“As you know we’ve been working with Moss to clean out the dirty cops in his department. From what we can tell Hitchens was your typical badge-wearing bully when he worked for El Serpiente. Now it looks likely he’s cut out the middle man, so to speak, and is working directly with the people who employed El Serpiente,” Fox starts off, looking at my brothers around the table.
“This guy, Matthew Thompson.” Wire hits a few keys on this laptop before spinning it around, showing us a picture of some hardass looking guy with a nose that has clearly been broken.
“Left the military and has friends in high places, and fucking low places. He also has a lot of fingers in a lot of pies.”
“What kind of pies?” Sniper asks suspiciously.
“Black market military grade shit. Think high end. Security, weapons that sort of thing, along with the usual drugs and run of the mill guns,” Wire answers.
“Girls?” Dex asks.
Wire shakes his head, “He doesn’t move them. Acts more like a broker, a middle man between scumbags selling and scumbags buying.”
“And this Hitchens guy you’re looking for, the twins’ father, works for him?”
