Meeting ten tonight.
All right. That gave him enough time to shower and eat. His stomach growled as he stood. He glanced over at the quiet house next door. Still no lights. Fuck. Had she eaten? Was she sitting there in the dark? Why?
Because she was scared of him?
He groaned and ran his hand over his face, exhaustion weighing him down. He didn’t have time for this. She wasn’t his responsibility. Just because she lived next door and she’d been trying to do something nice and he’d snapped at her, didn’t mean he owed her something.
Yes, it does, asshole. Fuck. He wasn’t used to anyone outside the club doing something for him without a motive. In fact, most of the time even those fuckers had a motive. She hadn’t seemed to have any motive at all other than wanting to help him.
Wandering inside, he put the envelope down next to his keys and wallet so he didn’t forget to take it with him. He picked up his phone to order a pizza. Without thinking about it too hard, he ordered a second pizza for next door.
The least he could do was make sure she ate.
Pushing her out of his mind, he headed to the shower.
* * *
“Shit. What fucker took these?” Ink demanded, glaring down at the photos as though they’d give him the answers he desired.
Duke leaned back in his seat, taking another drag of beer. He wished he could have something stronger, but he didn’t want to stay the night in his room in the compound which was out the back of the main bar, behind a big concrete and wire fence.
So he nursed a single beer as he sat in Reyes’s office and watched his closest friends study the photos he’d received.
“Nothing on the envelope, no note, damn fucking rude really,” Razor drawled.
Duke looked over at Jason who was frowning but didn’t offer anything then over to Spike who scowled, but kept his gaze on the door as though expecting it to open at any moment. Sometimes it was hard to figure out what was going on in Spike’s mind. He didn’t talk much.
“These are all photos of us doing surveillance on the senator,” Ink said.
Yeah, that’s what Duke had discovered after he’d had a chance to look them over. He snatched one out of Ink’s hands. He turned it over and pointed to the image of a fox’s head.
“Anyone know what this means?”
Spike grunted. “I might. Heard rumors of someone called the Fox. Assassin for hire.”
An assassin? What the fuck?
“I’ll ask around,” Spike said.
“It’s got to be a warning. To back off the senator,” Reyes stated.
Duke nodded.
Ink rose and started to pace. “Why are we even bothering with watching the senator?”
“You want to let him continue what he’s doing?” Reyes asked quietly. “I know it’s fucking annoying but now is our chance to watch him, while he’s here in Billings rather than spending most of his time in Washington where we don’t have eyes on him.”
“We never used to give a fuck what anyone else did so long as it didn’t involve us,” Ink spat.
“Ink,” Duke said in a low, warning voice knowing Reyes wouldn’t like any disrespect. He wasn’t an asshole like their last leader, that prick didn’t give a shit about anyone but himself, but Reyes still wasn’t someone you wanted to cross.
Reyes stood silently and the tension in the room ratcheted higher.
“We got a problem, Ink?”
Duke tensed. Ink stared at Reyes then let out a deep breath and ran his hand through his blond hair. “No, fuck no. You know I don’t have a problem with you. Christ, I just don’t want us getting in a mess like we ended up in with Bartolli. If we’re getting a warning from a fucking gun-for-hire then is it not a sign we should fucking stop?”
“Bartolli is dead,” Reyes said in a deep voice. “I took care of that.”