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“Sorry,” I mutter, feeling guilty for the look in his eyes right now. He shakes his head.
“Don’t be. Those two years I spent with her were the best of my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Just don’t let your girl get away.”
I smirk, feeling more confident. “I don’t intend to.”
* * * *
“Shut up, y’all!” Blaze yells out from the head of the table and a hush falls over the room as everyone turns to look at him. “Let’s run through what we’ve got going on this week.”
I’m reminded of the story I told Carly a few days ago about how I joined the club and even though it started out rough, I know this is the right place for me. I hate to think what I’d be doing with my life without these guys and the work we do satisfies an urge in me to right some of the wrongs I endured as a child. I’ve learned so much about the way my mom thought and why she reacted the way she did to certain things. Knowing all that helped me let go of some of my anger toward her and I just wish she had lived long enough for me to help her.
“Who’s up?” Blaze asks and Storm clears his throat as every head in the room swivels in his direction.
“With me focused on keeping Ali safe, there’s going to be extra work for all of you. I just want to say sorry in advance.”
Kodiak claps him on the shoulder. “Don’t sweat it, brother. We’ve got your back.”
“Thanks,” he says, nodding at him. Blaze nods in agreement and glances down at the paper in front of him.
“Is this list up to date, Streak?” Blaze asks and Streak glances up from his laptop.
“Yep. You’re good to go.”
“All right. We’ve got one protection detail and one transfer this week and from the intel we’ve received, these are both going to be high risk, so I want, at least, two of you on each job. We’ll call in others to work the PI stuff and the shop if we have to.”
When Blaze pulled the club out of drugs and guns, he needed a way to make some money, so he started up the PI business and the motorcycle shop but I don’t think he was expecting them to explode like they did. Sometimes we were even turning away business and Blaze had to hire outside help, so we could still focus on the work we do off the books.
“The protection detail is for a woman named Amber and Rodriguez called us in on this one.”
That little detail grabs my attention as well as every other guy in the room. Detective Rodriguez has been working with us for a few years but it’s usually us going to him to make sure that we stay above the legal line. If he’s coming to us with something, it must be important.
“Why doesn’t he just put officers on her?” Smith asks.
“Amber was attacked and almost killed three nights ago and Rodriguez suspects that information is being leaked out of the department. We need to keep her safe until he can get her into a witness protection type situation.”
“We taking her to Emma’s house?” Fuzz asks and Blaze shakes his head.
“No, until we know why she was attacked and by whom, I don’t want to risk drawing a criminal to my family.”
I can’t help but smile. It’s so weird to see Blaze as a family man now when he’s been alone for as long as I can remember. He and his son, Nix, were estranged for a long time but when Nix came to us for help protecting his girlfriend, Emma, a year ago, it brought them all together. Truthfully, we all became more of a family when Emma came into the picture.
“Moose, you still friends with the guy who runs the motel?”
“Yeah, Boss,” Moose replies, nodding his head.
“Call him up. See if we can keep her there off the books. Tell him we’ll pay double. Now, the other transfer is going to be tricky because we only have a limited window and we have to grab Amy, the wife, and pick her two kids up from school before the husband finds out.”
“How is that tricky?” Fuzz asks, drawing on a cigarette.
“The husband doesn’t work regular hours and there is no telling when he’ll come home. If he comes home and his wife isn’t there, the first place he’ll go is the school, so you better hope you get there first.”
“Can’t we just pick the kids up at the same time that we’re picking up the mom?” Smith asks.
“Nah, the school will only release the kids to their mom or dad. Anyone else tries to pick them up and the first thing they’ll do is call the husband.”
“We gonna have someone tailing him?” I ask, already knowing that the answer is likely no. With us spread so thin, we may not have the manpower for it.
“I don’t think we can swing it. Just be careful and move fast.”
