“It’s close,” he confirmed. “The river is actually connected to Caddo Lake. It’s about forty miles from here. Right next to the fuckin’ prison that I just got out of.”
I was already gathering up my things.
“Let’s go,” I said.
He was already shaking his head. “No can do. Remember, your mother called about Hiro. She and your dad have a thing tonight. Either you have to stay home, or I do.”
I plopped back into my seat.
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Just call me if you get anything, okay?”
He winked and moved so that he was pressed against me, his mouth only inches from mine.
“Love you, baby.”
My ire melted somewhat. “Love you, too, Troup.”
Then he was gone, leaving me alone in my office all over again.
It was four days later that we caught our first break.
At least where it came to Cannel.
The other ladies that were funneled out of the city didn’t have the same lucky break.
• • •
“Are you sure this is it?” I asked as I stared at the wall.
The rather large, rather high, brick wall with razor wire topping the massive thing.
“According to the legwork that you and your husband did, and the computer searches that Hunt did, this is it,” Trick grumbled.
Trick and Hunt were two of the five men that Lynn had somehow finagled their butts out of prison.
Trick, Hunt, Sin, and Zach were here today on this op.
Four very large, very intimidating, quite likeable despite the fact that they’d all gone to prison for murder, attempted murder, and fraud, men.
Men that I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, would protect me if shit hit the fan as we breached the compound.
I didn’t know them all that well.
They were all standoffish. All of them were also quite tight-lipped when it came to their personal information.
Talking to any of them was like talking to a man that had zero things to say.
However, I knew that they were all good men.
Good men sometimes did things for bad reasons.
Patrick Wheat, better known as Trick, was one of those men.
“I know,” I said to Trick. “But what I’m saying is, it looks like no one is home.”
“Maybe that’s the point,” Sin commented.
I looked over at him.
He was wearing a tight black t-shirt, black jeans, and black motorcycle boots.
The black motorcycle cut that he’d been wearing over the t-shirt was currently on the ground by his feet while he shrugged into a bulletproof vest.
“I think that you’re supposed to treat that better,” Laric said as he kicked dirt toward where Sin had laid his cut onto the ground.
“He is,” Zach snapped.
Zach was the only one of them all that had come from a motorcycle club background. His father was actually a current member of the Dixie Wardens MC. The Dixie Wardens was one of the biggest clubs in the United States.
If anyone would know, Zach would. I could also offer my observations from being around my uncle Trance, who also happened to be a part of the Dixie Wardens MC.
“Well I didn’t know what to do with it while I put this stupid thing on that she’s insisting I wear,” Sin grumbled.
“People will see you fuckin’ around with it like that, people like my father, and know that you’re not serious,” Zach grumbled.
“You told your father the truth,” Sin countered. “So it doesn’t matter what we do and don’t do around him.”
“If you want people to think we’re a real motorcycle club, we have to act like it,” Zach contradicted as he shoved the magazine into his gun and racked a bullet into the chamber. “Now, what are we waiting for? I have a burger that’s calling my name.”
“One of those ones from the corner store in Souls Chapel?” Hunt teased from his position in the van.
Though Hunt was very capable of protecting himself while invading a building, he would be hanging back with me while the rest of them breached it.
A, he needed to be where he was to keep an eye on the cameras and an ear out for anything going wrong in the cyberworld. B, Trouper didn’t want me left alone.
With the possibility of Cannel being in the building behind that gate, we all thought that a woman’s presence would be best in case she was there.
Which was why I was currently standing next to the van feeling anxious.
I knew that they’d be okay. But my logical brain and my irrational brain didn’t always see eye to eye.
Plus, the idea of my husband going in there made me break out in a cold sweat.
I’d done a lot of soul searching over the last couple of days, and I decided that, despite my need to get Cannel back, my mental health wasn’t going to allow me to do anything quite that daring just yet. Or ever.
But I was going to help Hunt where I could.
“Ready,” Sin grumbled as he threw the cut back over his shoulders and shrugged into it.
Zach shoved his gun into the small of his back while Trouper cracked his knuckles.
The rest of them, Lynn, Laric, and Bruno, followed suit as they all spread out in different directions.
Hunt and I stayed where we were, monitoring surveillance.
“Can you hear me?” Hunt asked as he spoke into the microphone.
“Check.”
That ‘check’ came a total of seven times, and then there was radio silence.
“It’ll be okay,” Hunt whispered, startling me.
I looked over at him.
Out of all the people that I’d met recently, the men of the new Souls Chapel Revenants MC club, Hunt was definitely the most approachable.
He was also the only one that’d not gone to prison for murder or attempted murder.
Well, not directly anyway.
“I know,” I admitted. “My research is solid. Your intel is solid. Troup guarantees that this’ll be an easy in and out. They’ve done surveillance on this place. You hacked into security feeds and the alarm company. I know that it’ll be okay. I’m just… I hope that she’s okay.”
She probably wasn’t.
She’d been held prisoner for so long that she was likely pretty fucked up.
But there was no way to know for sure.
We just had to wait and see.
“There Sin is.” Hunt pointed at the first screen.
“What does the person that has their app open see?” I wondered. “Do they see a loop or something?”
“I hacked into their app. Their feed shows an ‘update app now’ and then there’ll be trouble with the app. It was easier than taking over the feed,” he answered, sounding slightly offended.
I laughed. “It’s not that I’m doubting your abilities, Hunt. It’s just that I really, really want to make sure that this goes right. That, and I’m curious AF.”
“Why do you say AF? What’s that even mean?” he asked. “Why don’t you just say ‘as fuck?’”
“Because I have a small child that I hope won’t grow up to have the mouth of a sailor,” I answered. “And I’ve decided that there’s only one way, and one way only, to make sure that he doesn’t curse.”
“By saying ‘AF’ instead of the real word? Because I gotta be honest here, darlin’. Your husband is a smart motherfucker, like a man that could seriously surprise someone with the amount of intelligence behind his eyes. It’s intimidating at times. And you can’t be stupid to do what he’s done in his life. And so are you—smart, I mean. It stands to reason that your kid’s gonna be just as fuckin’ smart. Which brings me back around to my point. That kid’s going to know what ‘AF’ stands for,” he jabbered.