“What’s going on?” Tate asked, bouncing one of the twins on his hip and making a funny face at her.
“I’ll tell you as much as I know.” I led them down the hall after smiling at a woman I should have known the name of, but didn’t.
“And that is?”
“Drew saw a Nav in town.”
Tate almost stumbled, and Sloane walked into his frozen form, obviously unaffected by the statement. There was no way she could have picked up what that would mean in the few months she’d been tangled up with the club. One look at Tate’s face, though, and she understood without a long-winded explanation about club politics.
“Rival MC?” she asked.
“A big one with a long reach. They’re dangerous,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to scare her, but she needed to know the basics. “So we’re here until the boys can figure out the best course of action and move us in the right direction.”
I could see that Sloane wanted to argue. I knew that she had cheerleading practice, and they had another competition in a few weeks, but I also knew that she understood how bad things could get if a rival club rolled in and mixed things up, especially as she and her family were now friends of the MC and under our protection. We were all making sacrifices, and she was accepting hers with grace.
Tate bounced Khloe in his arms and watched me with his furrowed brow. The club was his life now, and he took that seriously. He may still want to play football and maybe go to college one day, but all paths would lead back to the Hounds for him and knowing these guys as well as I did, I couldn’t fault him for that.
“Where did Drew see him?”
“I have no idea. I swear, I’ve told you everything I know. Drew needed to consult everyone else before he could tell me anything solid. As soon as I know, I’ll tell you anything you need to know.”
“Needto know?” He huffed.
“Yes.Need. You’re sixteen, Tate.”
“Old enough.”
I gave him a look of complete disbelief and shook my head. I didn’t remember being quite that pushy at his age, but then again he was a monster of my making. He wanted to be an adult too soon.
“Just help with the kids and let me know if y’all need anything. As soon as Autumn’s here, I’ll send Libby in to help, too.”
The two of them nodded, and Sloane took the bag from me as she bounced Kim to her other hip with a nod of acceptance. Tate leaned in the moment they were out of earshot, and I was sure he was complaining about being in the dark. He could suck that crap up because I was shrouded in the same shit and I had to keep the calm around here until we could figure out our next move.
Deeks and Autumn were the last to arrive at The Hut, and their arrival spurred on the shutdown of the gates and the sealing of the perimeter. The pawnshop had its shutters down and was locked up tight. A couple of the repossessed trucks were parked up against the closed gate to reinforce that entrance, too.
The moment they were over the threshold, Deeks disappeared to talk to some of the other patched members, while Autumn dropped her bag next to a couch closest to us and flopped into it, pulling me down with her.
“I don’t—”
Autumn silenced me with one swipe of her arm, a proud smile warming her features. “You’ve done your job well. There’s nothing more to be done. No kids running around anddestroying everything they touch. No weeping women staring at the women their men had probably screwed long before they were ever together. Everyone has a drink, and there's no chaos to be found. Just take a minute.”
“I’m so glad you’re here,” I confessed, dropping my head on her shoulder and finally noticing what she’d seen on her arrival. Everything was in order and somewhat calm. It was nice to know that Drew’s trust in me was well placed and I was up to the task as his old lady. I wasn’t sure how long this lull in the chaos would hold. In fact, I was pretty sure the moment the doors to the war room were thrown open things would turn into absolute disrepair as questions were thrown out.
I took a moment to absorb everything around me. If there was any doubt in my mind that this group of men had a plan in place for any contingency that was now destroyed. The machine that was The Hounds of Babylon had a thousand moving parts, and every single piece knew what was expected of them, all the way down to the prospects who were out walking the perimeter like soldiers walking the front line. The patched members, who appeared to be doing nothing more than standing around and talking, were—upon closer inspection—actually making plans for fortifying the walls and organizing places for people to sleep.
No matter how things appeared on the outside, each and every person was doing what had been tasked to them—including things as mundane as replacing empty liquor bottles and beers from the stockroom. The whole thing made me feel lazy for sitting.
“How is Sloane?” Autumn asked quietly so the women close to us couldn’t listen in.
I heard the deeper meaning to that question underlying the simple one. The implication of the Nav’s involvement in Sloane’s attack wasn’t something I’d considered when I’d explained the situation to Sloane and Tate earlier. Looking back on my interaction with them even now, I knew that was a stretch.
“She’s dealing with everything as best she can,” I said cautiously and lifted my head to meet Autumn’s eyes. “When I mentioned the Nav, she didn’t even blink until she realized that she needed to be in lockdown with us. I’m going to go ahead and say whoever this Rifleman is Drew saw, he wasn’t a party to what happened to her.”
Chewing her bottom lip in thought, Autumn nodded. “It would have been a stupid move on their part. She’s not just protected by the club, she’s the chief’s daughter. I would like to say I couldn’t see their charters decision makers going that low, but I don’t know much about the club or their members. I just know our guys would never do that to a teenage girl.”
Nodding my agreement, I took another glance around the room as my leg tapped with all the nervous energy that was bundled inside of me. “I agree. I can’t see the Navs sanctioning an attack on a teenage girl, especially not the daughter of our police chief. It’s just asking for trouble. They’d be pulled over on sight. Seems like a hassle they’d rather do without.”
“Which leaves a big question mark over who she’s protecting and what they have over her.”
