“Good idea,” Wolf said, pulling his bike keys out of his back pocket. “Who’s riding with me to those warehouses? We can do inventory while we’re—”
“There’s always gonna be someone,” I said abruptly.
The guys turned to face me as I shifted the sucker into my cheek.
“Look,” I said, my stare staying connected with the screen. I didn’t want to miss a single second of Brielle’s presence there. “There will always be someone out there. Someone who wants to get to us. Someone who wants our turf. The point is that we make sure we keep whoever the fuck we don’t like underneath our thumb.”
Dee smirked. “Blackmail.”
I pointed at him. “Exactly. That’s what we need. We don’t need firepower or bloodshed. What we need is something to hang over their sorry, fat little heads.”
“More shit than we’ve already got?” Locker asked as he thumbed mindlessly over his shoulder.
I shook my head. “Having records is different than having dirt, and we have surprisingly little dirt on those motherfuckers. Remember why we started chasing that bitch down in the first place?”
Wolf nodded. “It was the only shred of dirt we had on them.”
Axe finally chimed in. “Who’s on this next patrol route?”
Locker and Rocker raised their hands and spoke in unison. “Me.”
Axe turned to face them. “Go back to Plan A patrol routes, but when you’re not patrolling? Be digging.”
“On it,” Wolf said, marching out of the room.
Rocker checked his watch. “We can start our patrol a bit early. You up for a milkshake, Locker?”
The man barked with laughter. “The fuck kinda question is that? Come on, we can start on the opposite end of town and work our way back.”
They bumped fists before they headed out of the living room, and I noticed that our silent prospect was nowhere to be found.
“Anyone got eyes on Jax?” I asked as I shifted the sucker into my other cheek.
And that was when a cell phone filled the air around us with its ringing.
“Dee?” Axe asked.
I turned and found Dante holding out his cell phone. Not his personal cell phone, but one of the multitudes of burner phones we utilized for work purposes. The grin on his face was positively devilish, and I peeked over at Axe to see if he had the same look. To see if I had been slow on an uptick, or if I was really supposed to be in the dark.
And he looked just as confused as me.
“Yeah?” Jax asked when he finally answered.
“You got eyes on our girl?” Dee asked.
“What?” I asked flatly.
Axe rushed to his side. “Where is she? What’s going on?”
I rushed to Dee’s other side and listened intently as Jax spoke. “Sure do. She’s home sweet home with her parents.”
His phone dinged and Dante’s long ass fingers swiped across the screen, revealing the sage green façade of a cookie cutter house out there in suburbia. The pristinely trimmed grass matched the crisp white driveway as the golden numbers of the house twinkled above the double garage door. But, before I got a better look at the place, another picture came rolling through.
“Southview Avenue,” I muttered to myself.
“Plan A or B?” Jax asked.
“What?” Axe asked curiously.
