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“Yeah,” I answer, running a hand through my hair. Captain Grier called me yesterday to let me know that the heart found in Izzy’s fridge was a pig’s heart and that it was fresh… like cut from the animal only a couple of hours prior to being placed in her fridge. I relay that information to them.

“Jesus,” Kodiak hisses, shaking his head. “That’s fucked.”

“Why, though?” Henn asks, a scowl on his face. “Just to scare her? She already seems pretty fucking scared to me and that cut on her chest was no fucking joke.”

The image of the gash on Izzy’s chest from where Luca tried to slice her throat pops into my mind and I push it away just as quickly as I nod. “I can’t think of any other reason that he’d put a damn organ in her fridge and light her house on fire but who the fuck knows? He honestly doesn’t seem all that bright.”

“I’d second that,” Chance says.

“Are we still just going off of the idea that it’s these two guys coming after Izzy?” Rooster asks, arching a brow as he crosses his arms over his chest and looks around the room. I’d briefly entertained the idea that Luca and his friend could be working for someone else but with how unorganized they are, it doesn’t seem to be the case.

“Is there something that would make you think otherwise?”

He shakes his head. “Naw, not really. Except for the thing with the cops and the reports going missing.”

“That’s true,” Fuzz adds. “If these guys are as stupid as they appear, how in the hell do they have the power to make files and murder reports go away? That requires money and influence that takes time and brain power to build. It doesn’t really fit.”

“Let’s look into it,” Storm says to Streak and he nods. “See if we can find any evidence of someone else running the show.”

“You got it, boss.”

Storm turns to me. “Anything else to add?”

“Actually, yeah,” I say, leaning back in my seat. “I had my friend, Max, search the area around Izzy’s house and he found a pistol in the brush off to the southeast. He said it looked like someone was camped out there, watching. I don’t know if Luca’s been hanging out there and waiting for Izzy to show up or if he was there the day of the fire and one of y’all scared him off.”

“So, the fire was more than a scare tactic?” Marley muses, studying me and I shrug.

“Possibly. There is no way to tell for sure but that was what went through my head as soon as I got the call. He can’t get to Izzy here, on the compound, so he needed to draw her out.”

“Shit,” Storm hisses, scrubbing a hand down his face. “If that’s the case, y’all shouldn’t leave the property by yourselves anymore.”

Izzy is going to hate it but I nod in complete agreement. She can get mad at me all she wants but nothing is going to stop me from protecting her.

“I agree.”

He nods, looking around the room at my brothers. “I’m not going to set up an official rotation or anything right now but just make sure someone is always available if Smoke needs you.”

They all nod in agreement.

“What about your other case?” Storm asks and I sigh, my mind flicking to the lack of progress that I’ve made in Hazel’s case. I haven’t been able to give it my full attention since Izzy came to stay with me but I haven’t forgotten about her and I’m still just as frustrated as I was three weeks ago.

“I’m stuck on that one and it’s more of the same - corruption bullshit in the department and lost evidence.”

Turning to look out of the window behind him, he crosses his arms over his chest. “Fucking bullshit. I’m so goddamn tired of dealing with these fuckers.”

“Me, too,” I mutter, clenching my fist as I think about the crooked men that run the police force here in Baton Rouge. “Honestly, maybe we just need to handle this ourselves.”

“Thug style?” Jumper asks, his face lighting up as he sits forward and smiles. I scoff and Storm turns back to the table, flicking an annoyed glance at Jumper.

“Who do you want to go after?”

I shrug. “The rapist. I figure if we can’t send him to prison, then we could at least make him regret ever touching Hazel. The problem would be his daddy’s Chief of Police friend.”

“We’d need to be careful, for sure,” Fuzz adds, nodding. “Masks, gloves, no cuts…”

“Thug style!” Jumper says again and I can’t help but laugh at the enthusiasm in his eyes. He looks like a damn kid on Christmas as he bounces in his seat and Storm scoffs.

“Yeah, sure, Jump.” He turns to me. “Take a little more time to see if you can find anything that could be used to get her justice and if not, we’ll talk about what we need to do to get her vengeance.”