“Man, Sylvie just gave birth,” Rhash reminded him. “No way Creed is gonna come up here, and I can’t even tell them. He’d have my balls, because if Sylvie knew this shit was goin’ down, she’d be up here and all over it, even nursing every two hours.”
Fuck.
“Raid and Deacon,” Knight pushed and finished, “And Nick.”
Rhash nodded.
He shoved the pod in the machine and it started to do its magic.
He stared at it as it did and said softly, “Chew Lannigan redefines the word stupid. The man should have left town when he had his shot.”
“Yeah, he should’ve,” Rhash agreed.
Knight watched the rich, frothy dark fill his glass cup.
“We’ll find him, Knight.”
They would.
Or someone would.
Chew Lannigan’s days of freedom were over.
Lee
Seven thirty that morning . . .
Lee Nightingale stood in his office at his private investigations firm with his men Luke, Vance and Hector.
“We need to get in this,” he growled.
“Knight’s mobilized. Hawk’s already in it. Valenzuela. Chaos. The cops. We join in, we’re gonna be bumping into each other looking for Lannigan,” Hector noted.
“Eight women dead, Hector,” Lee reminded him.
“I don’t like it either, Lee,” Hector bit out. “But any uncoordinated operation is clumsy, it could be dangerous and last, it could work in that fuckwad’s favor. More important, this motherfucker targets women. And I’ll be the first to say I don’t want my wife in his sights.”
Lee felt his jaw go tight.
He didn’t want his wife in Lannigan’s sights either.
Not to mention Luke’s, Hector’s or Vance’s.
They’d already had their fill of that.
Lee looked to Luke. “Call Knight. Call Hawk. Call fucking Valenzuela. Hank. Mitch. And last, call Tack. Tell them, we got anything to offer that doesn’t include boots on the street, we’re on it.”
Luke nodded and stepped away, pulling out his phone.
Before Luke made his first call, Lee gave his last order.
“Rock Chick shut down. Any of them know this is happening, they’ll apply pressure and we’re all fucked.”
On that, without a word, just three looks, he knew he had total agreement.
Iustitia, Tribus, Honoris, Observantia, Fidelitas
Rush
That morning, a quarter after eight . . .
Rush’s eyes opened and all he saw was Rebel’s hair.
He was just awake.
But he was still wiped.
Not a lot of sleep the night before, interrupted sleep last night. He was running on empty.
But they had a lunatic to find and he had two protective men in his house, so he couldn’t wake his girl, fuck her, and pass out again.
He had to get his ass up.
He did it, but he did it carefully, so he didn’t wake her.
He made sure the sheet was over her before he hit the bathroom, took care of business, washed his hands, brushed his teeth and went back in to wet his hands, pulling his fingers through his hair three times.
That’d keep the front back.
For about five minutes.
He needed a haircut about four months ago.
But Rebel didn’t want him to cut his hair.
And she’d gone for Joker, “the bearded one,” first when she was giving him shit about which brother would be next.
So his hair was gonna stay that way and the beard he’d unintentionally started growing when he didn’t shave on Sunday (or Monday, or since) was gonna come in.
He walked out, tugged on the jeans he’d worn yesterday, a fresh tee, then on bare feet, glancing at a sleeping Rebel, her hair all over his pillows, his lips turned up and he left the room.
He moved down the stairs, along the hall and stopped dead when the doorway to the kitchen was in his sights.
Diesel was sitting on a stool, turned to the side, wearing a loose tee and cutoff sweats, his feet to the rungs, long, sturdy legs spread wide so Maddox, in worn-out pajama pants and his own tee, could stand between them.
Maddox had a fist full of Diesel’s hair, using it to tug his head back, and he was going at his man’s mouth.
Rush really could not call it with these two. What he’d heard last night and the goliath Diesel was, even if Maddox was far from a slouch, he’d have said Diesel was top.
The dominant hold and position Maddox right then had, not to mention his overall manner, he was top.
Maybe they swung both ways in all ways.
Whatever.
They stayed long, just from the noises, he’d have no choice but to find out.
Rush was about to back away when Maddox sensed him, broke the connection, took his hand from Diesel’s hair and looked right at