"I get it, you both feel safe. You are safe here, I promise you. But is it just that you feel safe with my brother? Or is there something more? Because he's never been this way with a woman before, he's like the rest of the guys, a man whore. But I've not seen him look at another woman since he met you." She watches me, looking for a reaction, I think, but I don't know what kind of reaction I'm meant to have.
I lick my lips and bite the inside of my cheek. "It's more than just feeling safe with him. I do like him. I don't want to cause any trouble, Georgia, and I certainly don't want to upset anyone. I can stay away from him, if you want me to?"
"Woah, hold on, that is not what I meant," she rushes out.
I cut her off. "Everyone has been so nice to me here, and I'm so grateful that they want to protect me. I don't want to cause trouble for anyone, and I would hate to think that I had upset anyone. If I had never crashed that car, I would never have met you guys, and you wouldn’t be questioning me right now." The thought that I might upset anyone at this club makes me feel sick.
She steps up to me and places a hand on my arm. "Nova, take a breath. You haven't upset anyone. I just see how my brother is with you, and I wanted to know how you felt about him, that’s all. I kind of wanted to play match maker. Nothing else." She rolls her lips like she's trying to hold back a smile.
"Oh," I breathe out.
"Look, why don't we go take Mason that plate of food and then we can take him to the park?" I flinch and step back at her question, shaking my head.
"I can't. If we leave, then I'd really like it to be at night, I'd rather not risk anyone seeing me." I panic.
"Hey, the park is on the grounds. It's behind the main building; you're not leaving here, and we can go out the back door, straight up to it. Nobody outside of the compound will see you," she says with a smile, grabbing herself a drink.
"Oh. That would be nice. If we can tear Mason away from his drawing book." I smile at her.
As we take a seat back at the table, I notice that some of the men have left, and when I turn around, I see Tongue closing the door to Church. I know the rules, what happens behind that door has nothing to do with me or any of the women and I have no right to ask, but I find myself wondering if Ice is in there.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Nitro slams the gavel on the table and silence fills the room.
"Brothers, Snake is done. The prospects are down there right now with Gears, clearing up." Hands bang on the table in approval as he announces Snake’s demise to the room.
I think they probably could have guessed it, given the state of our clothes. We didn't even have time to go to our rooms to shower and change before we got the call to come in here. Wrath and I had to come in the side entrance, given the state of us we thought it was best not to come through the front door knowing that the room would be full of civilians.
Prez bangs the gavel again to silence everyone. "Brothers, I get that you're happy and we want to celebrate, but this isn’t a fucking happy meeting. We're here for a reason." The mood turns sombre as everyone waits for him to elaborate.
Data clears his throat, and we all turn to him. "Let me just pull up the screen," he says as he messes with his laptop. He's the only fucker that is allowed to bring electronics in here.
The screen comes alive, and we all turn to see images of Nova and Mason filling it, followed by a video of her aunt and uncle at a press conference. We all look between Data and Prez, completely confused.
Nitro grabs the remote control and turns up the volume. Suddenly the room is filled with the sounds of that slimy fucker and his wife’s fake crying next to him.
"Please, if anyone knows who took our niece and nephew, then please call the hotline number. It's been over two weeks; we just want them home safe and sound,"he tells the room full of reporters.
"What the fuck?" Wrath asks, confused. "They think she was kidnapped?"
Nitro shakes his head, then points to Data.
"I've been tracking all communications made by her aunt and uncle since she got here. Her uncle and one of his higher ups have been discussing the best way to get her back. They know she ran, they think telling the world they ran will only raise questions about why, and they don’t think they can cover up the abuse," Data tells us as he pulls up emails and text message between her uncle and someone else.
"Shit," Wrath states.
Nitro clears his throat, and we all turn to look at him. "Data has done a lot of digging over the last couple of days." He takes a drink of his coffee. "He found Andrea Bennett, their mothers’ friend."
"Wait, you did?" I ask, my head flicking between them both.
Data nods and then looks back down at his laptop. I turn to Nitro. "She's on her way, Ice. She'll be here in two days," he tells me.
"Okay," I state. "But how is that meant to help? What is she going to do when she gets here?" I ask, not really sure it's going to help the current situation.
Nitro smirks and then gives a chin lift to Data who taps away on his laptop and then points to the screen.
"Our solicitors are working on the two wills, and Data is trying to find the solicitor who created the bogus one. When Andrea gets here, she'll confirm that she was asked to be Nova and Mason's guardians."
