“Welcome to the land of the living,” Rawlings announces.
“Had us going there,” Jackson adds. Tessa’s worried look is both relieved but cautious. Topaz offers a grin, but I can sense she’s nervous.
I huff out a sigh, “Y’all might as well tell me. No sense of beating around the bush.”
Memphis’s the first one to speak up. “Obviously, the Bronco is charred.”
“Hell, I wasn’t thinking that it was going to survive,” I add.
I’m not worried about the Bronco. “Where are we in our plans? I might have been sleeping beauty the past two or three days, but things must have gone down,” I fold my hands in my lap.
“Everything was going according to plan,” Rawlings explains. Rawlings may have given me a hard ass time about this and I may have come off as ungrateful, but one thing is for sure, he might be the only one that isn’t afraid to be blunt. “But Cedric shared some information with us, and we took it upon ourselves to force a next step after you.”
I cock an eyebrow, “So that’s why you said something about the fronts.” I looked at Keola.
We took care of the fronts.
Keola squeezes my thigh, his signal to make me listen.Remember what happened last time? When the caveman took you out of the building?
“It means that we took back what was ours and we sent a message of their own,” Jackson notes.
I nod my head, “I got that notion. Question is, did we get back a message as well? Because the last one, that was fun and all. But I would rather have no more injuries, please and thank you.” I try to make light of the situation, but maybe it’s not the time.
The men look around, but D.R speaks up, “We got a message back.”
“And? Do we know what they have on the club? I’mma take it that they put two and two together.”
Rawlings just nods. Less response, but a huge answer.
It doesn’t take a genius to interpret that. Falcons must know by now that they don’t have much of a leg to stand on. They might as well that Cedric has been found.
“Do we have any element of surprise?” I raise the question.
“We could try to play it off, saying that Cedric isn’t in our care or that he slipped off the property. But judging by the Bronco incident, they at least know your involvement in this. Prez, if I could speak freely.” D.R looks for approval and is granted it, “They knew that Tessa was involved from before, she was threatened after she sniffed around.”
“After the argument with Alexander, knowing his true involvement, that’s when it started. It only escalated,” Tessa remarks, bringing back her truth.
D.R continues, “So, we can stop hoping that they don’t know both the foundation and the club’s involvement with the interference of it all. But like Tessa, I think this is where Lottie’s incident could, and I say that loosely, come into play.”
Keola growls, his protectiveness rearing its dominating head, “We’re not using her as bait.” I can see the wheels spinning in his head, and one miscommunication and the man would be flying on the table. I bring his hand higher on my thigh, right at the heat coming from my pussy. Just being near the damn man is an addiction.
He quickly settles down as I soothe his short temper. “We don’t know if they think I’m alive or not. What high point are we playing at?”
“Back to the original idea, we could play dumb, not having Cedric,” He points back out.
“But Cedric wouldn’t be used as a pawn?” I ask to just reassure myself.
“Correct. We’d just deny it and move along,” D.R says.
It could work, protecting what we have already. But I recall the look on Cedric’s face between his rescue and the explosion, I don’t think his guilt has washed away.
Joaquin grumbles something. I turn my attention to him, but he slouches in his seat. “Speak up now, brother.”
He looks nervous, “I’m not over the fact that we let this happen?”
“Want to be a bit more specific?” I raise an eyebrow. Any more and my face is going to be frozen.
“That we let this, the explosion, the bomb, into the compound.”
