“It doesn’t mean that,” Destroyer countered, watching Czar’s face.
“No, Czar agreed. “We aren’t going to let anyone stop us. Taking back kids and taking down the trafficking rings is our mission. When we decide we’ve hunted enough, we’ll stop. These are children no one else can recover. If we can let law enforcement get them, we give that to them; otherwise, we don’t leave them out there suffering on their own. Not because we’re scared of someone in the shadows.”
Savage had to agree with that. They’d spent their entire childhood with the boogeyman lying in wait in the shadows.
“We just have to be doubly cautious,” Steele said. “In a way, this is a good thing. We don’t want to get complacent. We’re building a good life here. Settling. Until we decide to stop this, we still have to stay sharp. Knowing we’re hunted too is going to keep us sharp.”
Savage agreed with that assessment as well. “Has it been that quiet, Code?”
Code shook his head. “It’s never quiet, Savage. I’m monitoring a few murmurs right now. One is of a place holding pregnant girls. That just popped up on my radar. No information yet. I have no idea if it even really exists. So many times these rumors are just phantoms. Twice some asshole looked as if he was putting a little girl up for auction, but he pulled out at the last moment. There’s an auction coming up in a couple of weeks as well, but so far, the merchandise isn’t listed. Only the notice went out.”
“Isn’t that alarming? Why wouldn’t they advertise?” Player asked.
Code shrugged. “Depending on who it is, they send the notice and try to avoid law enforcement by not listing product.”
Savage hated that Code had to continually see the things they’d all escaped. He’d never thought about it and the toll Code’s job of constant hunting for pedophiles online could take on him.
“Code.” Deliberately, he waited until the man looked up and met his eyes. “Don’t tell you near enough how much you’re appreciated for what you do for all of us.”
The others immediately nodded. “Yeah, brother. The best.”
Savage rubbed his thumb along the edge of his phone. Never, not in a million years, would he have thought to thank a brother for the service he performed for all of them. He could see it meant something to Code.
Wanted to say you matter to me, angel. Hope things are good there. Reaching out to her brought emotion under control.
Love you so much, Savage. The basket they delivered to the table from you was amazing and so thoughtful. Eden cried. She’s doing all right though.
Basket was from us.
Savage doesn’t like anyone knowing he’s an—and there was a series of angel emojis.
Damn, the woman made him laugh. He looked up and met Czar’s eyes. Shit. Blythe, no doubt, had texted him about the fucking basket. He shook his head, grinning, and looked back down at his phone and the taunting emojis. That woman.
“This fireman,” Storm said. “The one Darby was dating. What do we have on him?”
“Asher Larkin,” Czar announced. “Has a two-year-old son, Caleb. Reggie, the man Eden was married to, has a sister, Lydia. Asher is her son. He’s an only child. He has sole custody of Caleb. He’s a hard worker, and he seems to really like Darby. She broke it off with him after he mentioned to Shark that we had dinner reservations at Crow 287. He came to me like a man and said when Tony asked him if he would let him take Eden out that night, that he didn’t know it was anything more than just that. He hadn’t realized why Darby broke things off with him until Tony said it was a possibility that it was because of their relationship and the reservations.”
“You believe him?” Reaper asked.
Czar nodded. “I didn’t want to. I can tell when a man is lying. He’s a straight shooter. And Darby’s been miserable. Asher doesn’t have anything to do with the Diamondbacks.”
“It’s still dangerous,” Reaper pointed out.
“Darby knows that. She knows what she can and can’t say around him. I’m letting her make up her mind.”
“Shit, Czar,” Storm said in disgust. “It would be a whole hell of a lot easier to kill the bastard. Now we’ve got to watch our girl like a hawk.”
“You were getting lazy,” Alena pointed out. “Gives you something to do.”
Storm glared at her when they all laughed.
“Where are we with Shari Albright?” Savage asked. “I’m not forgetting that she completely demolished Seychelle’s cottage and ruined her parents’ sculpture.”
“While you were holed up in your little love nest with your woman, Savage, Shari went back to San Francisco and hit the clubs hard. She was well known in the party crowd. Liked to do a lot of drugs and party at the edgier clubs. She was with a group of her friends, and right in front of them, Saturday night, she was hitting it hard: mixture of alcohol and drugs, dancing, sex with not-so-nice men, went out on the balcony with her girls and she went over the side. She was laughing too, they said. No one thought she did it on purpose. She was fooling around, doing a striptease on the railing, and then she went over.”