Always Crew - Tijan Page 0,47

a number. The system’s alarm turned green. We were good to go.

The bowling lanes still had their orange neon strips showing with enough light, so we didn’t need extra lighting. The office was different, though. I reached into my pocket, handing Bren a flashlight, and then we were both moving through the rooms.

Bren went inside the first one. She was sweeping over the desk, so I moved to the larger room, and I didn’t need to go anywhere else. I stepped inside the room, my light catching the image of someone on the wall, and I stopped in my tracks.

I hadn’t wanted this to happen, but here we were.

There were three walls set up around the desks, and smack on the left wall was a picture of Bren’s father. Derrick Monroe. He’d lived a hard life. The fights with Channing, Bren’s mom’s cancer, then the drinking. The drinking had been a constant. He looked like a different man when he came to Cain. Softer. Humble. Beat down. But he was a member of the Red Demons now, so how long he could keep that up was anyone’s guess? I’d done my research, just like I always did.

Red Demons came to Roussou, started messing with Channing, and I knew there could be spillage over to us. There had been, but not enough to be too concerned. Then her dad joined up, and my alarms had been going nuts ever since. It’d been a matter of time before this happened, where Bren’s world would cross paths with them. Now I just wanted to know if she’d been hired with the idea of using her to get to her dad, or they brought her in anyway, and were keeping her out of the shitstorm for her own good? How’d that work with Channing reaching out?

I couldn’t tell, but under Derrick Monroe’s picture were Bren’s and Channing’s. His kids.

Jesus.

This. Right here.

This was why they didn’t want Bren inside.

Her picture was on the fucking wall.

So were the rest of us.

Bren would’ve lost it seeing any of our images up there.

They had strings connecting us to Bren. All of Channing’s guys were under his. His woman’s picture. Her brother’s. There were stickies put up with information about each of us. If we were affiliated or not. All of us were not Red Demon affiliated, but we were crew affiliated. Wolf Crew. WC was put on Bren’s, mine, Zellman, and Jordan’s stickies. Channing’s guys had New Kings, NK, written next to their names. They even made note of who was also bounty hunters for Channing. And the long string that attached Bren’s dad led to Maxwell Raith.

I knew about Raith.

He was the Red Demons’ President. Smart. Ruthless. Dangerous. But he told Channing that he owed his life to Bren and Channing’s father. Beyond that and that their MC was growing fast, I didn’t know much about him. Maxwell’s picture was center in the middle wall. There were pictures and pictures of men underneath, ones I didn’t know.

I took my phone out, starting to snap pictures when Bren came in.

I had to move fast.

I stopped my phone and moved toward her, blocking her flashlight as I did. I grabbed her arm, my mouth to her ear. “You need to trust me. Let me cover this room. Take as many pictures as you can from the other rooms and go to the truck.”

She tried to pull her arm away. She couldn’t say anything. Neither of us knew if her voice would be recorded and recognized, but she growled under her breath, so slight I hoped it wasn’t caught.

“Please.”

She ripped her arm away but left.

And I could breathe easy again.

I couldn’t waste time. I took as many pictures as possible, getting everything on the board. I noted the guy’s picture in the middle of the right wall, and all the images underneath. There were a lot of images under that guy, but after getting everything, I moved to the table.

Papers were picked up, pictures snapped of them, and put back down exactly as they were first placed.

It took me ten minutes, and I didn’t even like that it was that long.

Bren was finishing in the first office. She came out when I did. I swept my light to the third office, but she shook her head. I didn’t know what that meant, but when she headed for the exit, I went to make sure that office was covered. It was a hangout room. Magazines were left opened. A couple books.