“Then we have our game plan and a place to start. Does anyone have anything else they want to bring up before I wrap up?” Rip asks.
“You reaching out to any other chapters for help?” Indiana questions. “We might need it since this situation is far more convoluted than we initially thought, Rip.”
“I’m gonna inform Rio we may end up needing some backup from him since he’s already aware of our situation. I’m due to head back that way with Gage’s ashes, so I may wait and tell him about how severe it is in person.”
“Do we need to go with you for the funeral?” Indiana broaches, wanting to go just like the rest of us who grew up with Gage.
“I’ll get back with you on that,” he states. “They’re dealing with their own shit and I don’t want to overwhelm them. It may be a small, private ceremony since they’re going to give him a sendoff later. That’s something that I expect us all to attend.”
“We’ll be there,” Indiana tells him as the rest of us brothers nod our heads.
“That all?” Rip asks, scanning us to see if anybody has anything else we need to discuss. “Church dismissed.” That’s all I need to hear before I gather my belongings from the prospect manning the door and head out and search for my three girls.
Zoey was swept up by Indiana before I had a chance to ask her what she was able to discover so I swoop up Elodie and take her with me while I hunt down Letti. We all need a day to decompress after everything we’ve been through so I’m taking Elodie to the zoo, which I bought out for the day earlier when the idea first struck me. My hope is that Letti will tag along so I can get to know her better and spend some time with her. My soul is all but demanding it.
“What are we doing, Uncle Icer?” Elodie asks as she snuggles into me.
“I thought we’d grab Miss Letti and hit the zoo. Just you, me, and her. How does that sound, princess?”
“Can we see the penguins?” she inquires, lifting her head up and fluttering her lashes at me. That act gets me every damn time. How can you say no to a face like that? Simple answer, you can’t. “And polar bears, and giraffes, and flamingos?”
“Yes, as long as they’re all in their habitats,” I answer.
“What’s that?” she asks as we come across Letti. I shush her with a finger across her lips as I approach Letti who’s watching the two of us with a keen eye. When Elodie spots her, she shouts around my finger, “Miss Letti! We’re going to the zoo and you’re coming with us.”
“We are?” Letti asks, her eyes widening as she bounces on the balls of her feet. Seems Elodie isn’t the only one excited about this outing. “Is that safe?”
“I bought the day. Nobody will be there outside of the gift shop employees, zoologists, and us,” I declare. Since I’m going to be on recon duty, I won’t have time to spare for my girls so I’m more determined than ever for her to join us. “It’s safe, Letti. I would never let anything happen to either you or my princess.”
“I believe you,” she states. “I don’t have any money, Icer. Everything I have is back at my apartment. Can we swing by my place to snatch my purse as well as the rest of my belongings that were left behind when I was taken?”
“Not today,” I tell her, my tone apologetic. “We haven’t had the chance to clear it and make sure there’s no threats there waiting for your return. Once we’ve done that, I’ll pack you up and relocate you to one of our safe houses.”
Pouting, she says, “But I need clothes, Viking.”
“He’s not Viking,” Elodie giggles as she corrects Letti. “He’s my Uncle Icer. You got his name wrong, Miss Letti.”
“I did?” Letti asks, slapping her hand over her chest, looking appalled. “I’ll have to fix that, won’t I?”
“Yeth,” Elodie agrees, her lisp that she’s worked so hard to straighten out rears its ugly head. Unlike Zoey, I don’t have the heart to correct her. “You coming with us, Miss Letti? Please say yes.”
“Yes,” Letti says. “I’m coming.”
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Letti
We’re just aboutto hit the entrance to the highway when Icer’s phone pings with an alert. It’s a different type of tone than the ones I’ve heard blaring from cellphones before. It sounds like the emergency broadcast system that plays over the airways when the weather has gone berserk or a child is missing. As it pierces my ears, all of the hair on my arms stand on end—a bad feeling congeals in the cab of this pickup truck like a blackened thundercloud waiting to strike with its wrath, the air thickens, making it hard to breathe and my heart begins to rapidly beat in my chest as he pulls over to the shoulder of the road and yanks his phone from his pocket.
That feeling that’s settled in my gut gets ten times worse when his face shuts down into a cold, callous mask. “We have to go back,” he announces, tossing the vehicle into drive, making a U turn, and pressing his foot down on the pedal.
“What happened?” I ask, reaching up above my head and grabbing the oh shit handle to ground myself with.
I’m afraid, but not for the reason I should be. He’s handling the truck like a professional race car driver. Even at the high rate of speed we’re traveling at, he’s in complete control. He hasn’t jerked the wheel even once and he’s maneuvering us around the cars on the road rhythmically, like we’re dancing with them on the paved road.
“I don’t know for certain, but the alarm was triggered at the clubhouse,” he explains.
