Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,124

the Feds.

When I strolled over to the room Nyx and Link had headed into, I tapped on the door, the peeling paint coming away under the gentle force of my knuckles—hell, we’d bought a real prize, hadn’t we?

"Who is it?" was hollered from inside.

"It's Cruz."

I heard some mutters, then a, "Come in."

Church was in session, that much was clear. Rex might not be here, but all the other councilors were, which told me it was bad timing.

"I can go," I told them, pointing with my thumb to the door.

"No, we need to talk with you anyway," Storm rumbled.

I blinked at him. "Sure."

Closing the door behind me, I moved deeper into the room, wondering what the issue was.

I mean, it wasn’t like we didn’t have plenty going on right now so I excused myself for my mind being a blur. I could be wrong, but I didn’t think from the scowl on Storm’s face that we were about to discuss the fucking weather. Or the construction job.

“Take a seat,” Link ordered, kicking a chair out at the ramshackle table.

The rooms were grody, and were probably fresh back in the eighties, but they were relatively clean. Without a blacklight.

I didn’t even want to know what kind of nasty shit was going on beneath the surface. That was more than I could probably cope with knowing.

DNA, my one nemesis.

Especially when it belonged to fucking strangers.

Inwardly shuddering as I took a seat at the cane chair which squeaked under my weight, I glanced around the brothers. They were all squeezed inside here, because this place was not built for groups. The khaki walls had old-fashioned lights on them, hovering over the bed so it felt like you were under the spotlight when you were reading. The sheets and blankets were a kind of cream that I figured, once upon a time, had been white, making me doubly grateful for Indy and her place. Then, there was the sofa whose red and green stripes hid a multitude of sins.

At least, they would when three bikers weren’t squished onto it.

“What’s going on?” I asked, casting each of the men a look.

“Lodestar got a hit on a couple of Maverick’s searches,” Nyx explained.

I blinked. “Which searches?”

“Firstly, David.” He cut the rest of the council a look. “They all know what happened with Indy.”

Seldom did I ever feel nervous, but for Indy, I did. “It was self-defense,” I argued immediately, going with my gut because fuck, they looked grim.

Nyx waved a hand. “That isn’t an issue. Mav was looking into him for me, because I wanted to make sure there’d be no bite back. As it stands, he was a good candidate for just going off grid. Then Mav found out his uncle works for the sheriff’s office in Crooks’ County, down in Louisiana.”

“Shit,” I hissed under my breath.

“Exactly.” He scraped a hand over his chin. “Now, I could tell Indy what to do, but from experience, I’ve long since learned there’s no telling Indy shit. She’ll do what she wants and when—”

“Not with this,” I countered. “She’s scared.”

“Indy’s never scared,” Sin scoffed.

“She is. You give her too much credit,” I retorted, pissed on her behalf at his cavalier response. “She killed someone who was threatening her, threatening the MC. She did us a favor.”

“We know she did.” Nyx sighed. “Mav’s searches also confirmed that Tatána was the one who’d planted bugs and shit around the compound.”

“Christ.”

“Yeah. Lodestar found the cloud where the equipment was syncing, and she’s managed to delete it, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we need to know if he shared what he learned with anyone.”

“I get that.”

“Good. So, what you need to get Indy to do is file a missing persons’ report. It’s already been, what, five days since the fucker died? She should have called in by now. We need to twist things around so that she looks like she’s in the clear.”

“I understand. When I get back, I’ll tell her.” Uneasy now, I asked, “Did the Feds ever get near the Fridge?”

“Not according to the alarms Maverick has in place,” Storm rasped, cracking his knuckles. “Speaking of, don’t clear the bath out until we know for sure the Feds don’t have any monitoring equipment on the compound. Last thing we need is our asses hauled in on first-degree murder charges.”

“Sure, I’ll leave it,” I confirmed, though my heart sank. That was going to be a fucker to clean up…

“Can’t Lodestar figure that out?” Nyx asked, jerking his chin