“Can I ask you a question?” He nods but doesn’t look my way. “You go there? With Lil, I mean. I’ve got your back always, but you know prospects aren’t?—”
“No. I wanted to. I thought she did too, but this was too important to fuck around with. I didn’t want to risk my patch because I was impatient. Guess the joke’s on me because the second I got my cut, I went to find her, only she’d already gone.”
Before I can say anything else, a loud whistle pierces the air. “All right motherfuckers, church.”
I guess everyone who can get here is here. I get up and leave my bottle on the bar before slapping Powers on the shoulder. “Come on. Whatever happens, you need me? I’m there.”
“Thanks, man.”
He gets to his feet and walks in with me. I see a couple of brothers look his way, clearly sensing thefuck youin his aura, but nobody says anything as we pile in and take our seats. The mood in the room is somber. Despite not knowing for sure, we all can guess the likelihood of this being Lil. Does that make me a jackass for saying what I did to Powers? Maybe. But if Citi has taught me anything, it’s that hope is sometimes the only thing that fuels us.
“Alright, settle down. As you all know, we have some news. The problem is, we don’t have the answers to the questions I know a lot of you are going to have. Normally, I wouldn’t call church until we had more, but I didn’t want gossip making the rounds, and this shit get out of hand before we have anything solid,” Havoc begins as G taps away on his laptop.
“So what do we know?” Kruger asks.
Havoc leans back in his chair and rubs his hand over his face. “Byte got a hit—a Jane Doe with a raven tattoo on her wrist.”
“Has anyone been able to identify her?” Probe questions, looking like he might be sick.
“There’s…” Havoc blows out a fortifying breath before he grits his teeth and answers. “There’s too much damage to make a positive ID. G’s tracking down dental records, and Hannibal knows a guy—an ME—who can get a DNA sample for us. We just need to run it against one for Lil.”
Powers fists his hands on the table. Every inch of him was vibrating with barely leashed anger. “She left her hairbrush in my room,” he grits out.
Havoc looks at him and nods. “Bag it and give it to G for safekeeping.”
“Is there anything else? Some kind of fucking clue for us to follow at least?” Crane growls.
“Byte is playing things pretty close to his chest. I don’t know if that’s an order coming down from Hannibal or if he doesn’t want to throw a cat among the pigeons until he knows more. Either way, you know what I know.”
“You said she was too damaged to identify her, so there’s still hope it’s not her,” Circus points out.
“Exactly. Hell, I don’t even know for sure it’s the Raven Souls emblem due to the state of…” Havoc grits his teeth and doesn’t finish, but he doesn’t need to. We all know what he was going to say. The damage to this woman is so extensive that even the tattoo is damaged. That’s both a comfort and a curse.
The room goes silent, none of us knowing what to say. But I can read the murder in everyone’s eyes. If this is Lil, then someone will pay. Nobody touches one of ours and lives to tell the tale.
* * *
I close the door behind me after seeing Con out and arm the alarm. Leaning against the wood, I let my eyes close for a second, feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. I can only imagine how everyone else is feeling.
I take off my cut and hang it on the hook next to the door before toeing off my boots. I do a walk-through, making sure the doors and windows are locked, and stop in the living room when I see Citi curled up on the sofa with a blanket over her, fast asleep. I crouch in front of her and smooth her hair away from her face.
She stirs, blinking sleepy eyes up at me. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself. Star go down okay?”
“She wanted to sit up with Con and watch monster trucks, but I reminded her she’s back at school tomorrow. She went down without a fuss.”
“You’re sure about sending her back? She could have a little more time off.”
“She needs to be a kid. And the school has proven that they take security seriously. They won’t let Star go with anyone who isn’t on the approved list, and we’re going to do a daily password, so only the person who is picking her up that day will know what it is.”
“Smart.”
She shrugs. “King gave me some little trackers to put in Star’s shoes, and Havoc agreed to post a prospect outside of school to keep watch until she’s collected. The principal can’t let them in school, but she has no problem with them waiting just off-site and promises to inform the staff of what’s happening so nobody gets the urge to call the police about a strange man loitering around school.”
I grin. “Yeah, that wouldn’t go down well at all.”
“I figured as much.” She reaches up to cup my jaw. “How did it go?”
