"Wolf is hunting Lex, isn't he?" she asked, sounding like she already knew the answer.
But I gave it to her anyway. "Yes."
"I know it's not right of me, but I really hope he finds him before Reign, Cash, and Repo catch up."
I exhaled a sharp breath, thankful she said it so I didn't feel so wrong to think it. "Me too."
"Then let's just sit here and be not-right together, yeah?"
"Yeah," I agreed, snuggling back down into the comfort of the big, warm bed.
A while later, getting in beside me, but on her side to avoid chafing her sore back, she broke the silence. "One night, Cash came in while I was sleeping and picked up one of my books..."
"Oh no," I groaned, smiling at the awful thought. Lo, badass leader lady that she was, was also a hopeless romantic. This was proved by the fact that she devoured endless smutty romance novels. It was something I used to tease her about all the time.
"Then he started reading one of the sex scenes. Out loud."
At that, I felt a laugh, inappropriate given the situation, but uncontrollable, burst from my lips. I threw my head back and let it wash over me, an image of the sexy blond biker sitting there reading a dirty scene to an embarrassed Lo crossed my mind... it was just too good. "Were you mortified?"
"Words can't even describe."
"Did he tease you about it?"
Her smile went soft. "No. He tried to force me to relax, not be embarrassed. Then, well, stuff happened."
I felt my smile turn a little devilish, "Stuff, huh?" I asked with an eyebrow wiggle. "Is he as good as the word on the street?"
"God, babe... so much better."
I laughed. "It's good his STD check came back clean last month then."
It was her turn to burst out laughing. "We should probably stop monitoring him so closely from now on."
"Hey, if he's got nothing to hide then he shouldn't..."
"I think I love him, Janie," she broke in, the words tripping over one another. When I didn't immediately respond, she gushed on, "I know it's fast. It's... too fast. It doesn't make sense and..."
I shook my head, silencing her. "Lo, when has love ever made any kind of sense?"
"I think he loves me too," she admitted, her voice a little hopeful.
"He fucking better," I said immediately and she smiled. "He doesn't see what a prize he's got with you, he's an idiot. I mean... he is and idiot..."
"Hey," she broke in, trying for offended, but she was smiling too much.
"I'm kidding. He's good people, Lo. You know I'd tell you otherwise if I didn't think he was."
"Janie... I know he's got a wicked reputation of being a vicious son of a bitch," she started, watching my face for a reaction, "but I think Wolf is a good man too."
I felt my face go soft and could see the anticipation on her face. But it was too soon. I didn't have anything to tell her yet, not really. Her and Cash moved fast and furious, both of them with the balls-to-the-wall personalities that they had. It didn't surprise me that once they got over their initial hangups about each other that things progressed quickly. She had a whole night's worth of stories to tell me. I had next to nothing.
So I stayed silent and listened while she talked.
Eventually, she tired from pain, me tired from tears, we both drifted off to sleep, Harley and Chopper standing guard by the door.
We woke up with no word from Cash, though he had promised Lo he would keep her updated. A knot of fear and panic twisted tightly in my stomach. Why weren't they keeping in touch with us? Was there simply nothing to report? Or were things bad and they didn't want to tell us, worry us?
Lo attempted to keep the mood upbeat. She cooked. She caught me up on the goings-on at Hailstorm and in the town in general since I went MIA. In a town as wild and mostly lawless as Navesink Bank, a week out of the loop meant there was a lot that went down that you missed.
She passed out that night, I stayed up and read, trying to pretend I wasn't freaking out inside.Her cell rang early the next morning, making her fly up on the bed, awake in a split second and fishing her phone out of her back pocket. "Cash?" she asked almost frantically into the cell. There was a pause, her face both fell and twisted in amusement, a combination I didn't know how to interpret. "As if that's possible." Another pause. "What's up, Shooter?"
If she had been looking at me, she would have seen my entire body jolt.
Shooter.
There was only one person around with the name Shooter.
I knew him from reputation, being a contract killer, the best damn sniper I had ever seen.
I also knew him from the night of the bombing.--It all started on a night when I couldn't sleep. I sneaked out of the barracks and moved across the quiet grounds to get to the command center where I could get some privacy. Then I powered up the laptop and I just screwed around for a few hours. I wasn't looking for anything in particular when I found a forum that had a thread by a woman named Alex who had information on Lex Keith and was looking for someone else with either more information or a way to bring him down.
And, well, I couldn't help myself. I opened the thread and I scrolled down. Not only was Alex a brilliant hacker, she was dedicated. With the sheer amount of information she had on Lex, from browser histories to where he got coffee, to the names of the foster families he had lived with growing up. From the looks of it, she spent years collecting the information. Some of it was useless, just nonsense. But she had other things too. She had information on the rape kits from women who claimed Lex Keith had assaulted them. Worse yet, she had pictures and videos that she must have stolen from Lex's hard drive.