Always Crew

That’s all he said.

I stood there, staring at the list, but I wasn’t really seeing it.

They didn’t want me in the field or in the office all day. I was trying to quell my instant alarm because it shouldn’t be about me, right? If it was, then that meant Harper had talked last night, and they’d already been looped in?

But no.

Well.

Yes.

They would’ve kept me out of the office all day, keeping me close, but not in, and then I’d be fodder for when the cops came to arrest me. A trickle of alarm and sweat went down my spine at the same time. Maybe I should call Channing? He wouldn’t turn me in. He’d rip me a new one, but he wouldn’t send the cops after me.

“What are you doing? Go get the coffee. We were up till three tracking a bounty across state lines. We need our caffeine.”

“Right.” Coffee first, then figure out if I was being paranoid or not.

My phone rang when I was coming back from getting their lunch.

The morning had been slow at the bowling alley. After handing off the cartons of coffee when I first arrived, the door had closed and I’d been left alone behind the bar and register. That part of the job was easy. A few large groups had come in. One was a family with three little kids. The most help they needed was laying down the gutter ball stoppers. The other group was a bunch of retired ladies, all wearing tutus and crowns. One threw glitter on me and said, “You’re now a sparkly princess.”

She thought that was cute. I didn’t think it was.

Seeing it was Channing calling now, I hit the speakerphone when I was in the truck. “What’s up?”

“What’s happening there?”

No greeting. Just the abrupt question, and hearing my brother’s no-nonsense tone, everything went on alert in me now.

I shoved down a knot forming in my stomach. “What are you talking about?”

“Dad called, said there was a big bust by you. You know anything about that?”

Relief hit me hard and I almost swooned, I was so lightheaded. He wasn’t asking about Harper, or my maybe impending police arrest. He was talking about my job job.

“Oh.” I laughed, my voice hitching. “I have no idea.” I frowned, the alarm being moved over, but an unsettling sensation taking its place. “They kept me handling the bowling lanes today.”

Silence.

I was getting sick of these damn silences.

“They didn’t let you in?”

“What?”

“Their offices. Did you go in at all?”

Okay. Now my stomach was starting to roll. It was never a good sign when it began to roll.

“No. They kept me out all day.” Dad. “What’s going on?”

Was Dad involved?

“Shit.”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry. Stay in schoo—”

“Channing!” But he’d already hung up. I stared at the phone and growled. “I’m not in school, you asshole.”

I was being kept out of the action again. I was getting really, really, super really sick of it.

I could…

No. I couldn’t.

But …

No. No. No.

A super-duper bad idea, and I couldn’t believe I just thought the words super-duper.

So not a good idea.

But …

He did give me his phone number, so that meant he had a cell phone. And I bet he would tell me? Wouldn’t he?

Would he?

Gah. Now I didn’t know.

Dark Bren. What would she do?

Did I really want to think like her again? After how many orgasms Cross gave me to push the dark Bren down…did I really want to awaken her? Oh, man. She’d call. She wouldn’t give a fuck. Then she’d probably go off and skewer someone who looked at her wrong. Then she’d end up in jail, so yeah, I was kinda in the same place as last night since any minute now I was expecting the cops to roll up.

I pushed down the nerves, ignored how my arms were shaking, and dialed his number.

It rang.

And rang.

And rang.

Then he picked up. “Bren?”

My mouth was suddenly dry, and my throat cracked. “Dad?”

BREN

There was a raid on a Red Demons’ warehouse.

That’s what my dad explained. He wasn’t involved, but a lot of the Red Demons were, and there were thirty warrants out for their arrest. Thirty. Only four had been captured in the raid, and two were big wigs in their entire network. One was my dad’s friend, the President of the Red Demons, Maxwell Raith, and their Vice President, Ghost. I was assuming that wasn’t his real name, but it’s what my dad said. Max and Ghost. They were the important ones and the ones who every cop and every bounty hunter in the tri-state area were all gunning for.

“Dad, I thought they were by Roussou? In Frisco.”

“Nah, honey. They’re growing fast. They’re all over. Was just in Texas, last I heard, but now I’m guessing they’re back.” He paused, then saying, almost shy, “Your brother tells me that he got a job for you at a bounty hunting business in Cain. That’s real good. I think you’ll fit right in there.”