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“How’s River?” the three of them asked, almost in unison.
“She’s fine. I left her sleeping at home since there was no school today.” I would have rather brought her with me, or at least dropped her off at Uncle Bash’s house so she wouldn’t be left alone, but she’d whined and pouted when I’d tried to wake her up. Unable to leave without knowing she was protected, I’d set my Glock on the bedside table and made her promise to use it if she needed to. Gun safety was something every kid in our family learned at an early age, so I knew she could and would use it without hesitation.
But knowing Ramirez was out there, trying to take out someone I cared about and didn’t care who got caught in the cross fire, made me anxious to get back to River.
Max walked over to us, his dark hair falling over his forehead as he eyed me hard. “How’s my cousin?”
“Good, man. Tired but good.”
He gave a nod, but he seemed distracted as his eyes scanned around the room. “Ryan arrived last night. He’s still here, along with his mom and about twenty guards.”
“Fuck,” we all grumbled.
The MC worked for the Vitucci family, doing protection runs from the West Coast all the way to New York. Drugs. Guns. Even willing women at times. They had strip clubs all over the States, and sometimes they had girls who wanted—or needed—a change of scenery for whatever reason. Vitucci wanted to make sure each girl was relocated safely.
But just because we worked for them from time to time didn’t make them our boss. We had our own work that needed our attention without having to babysit them when they came to visit.
“He wants to leave five of them here to watch over Nova,” Max informed us, his jaw clenching. “Like we can’t take care of one of our own.”
“Now that we know there’s someone after Nova, we won’t let her go anywhere unprotected,” Jack told him. “We can work in shifts. Take her to school, stay with her all day if we have to, and then drop her off at home. Whatever it takes, man. She will be safe.”
I nodded along with the others. No one was going to touch Nova as long as we were breathing.
Uncle Bash, Uncle Hawk, and my dad came out of the office at the top of the stairs, causing everyone to grow quiet as our prez, vice president, and the enforcer joined us. On the bottom step, Uncle Bash lifted his hands.
“We all know what happened yesterday.” Everyone nodded or grumbled, a few of the brothers muttering curses. “The mayor and the sheriff canceled school for the day while they plan to make the school safer. Ben’s going to put a deputy at each school, but there aren’t enough cops. I say we give them a hand. Starting Monday morning, we’re going to be taking shifts. I want no fewer than two brothers at each school’s entrances. Also, someone needs to be with the teachers who are doing bus and parent drop-off duties. After all the kids are safely inside, there will be a brother at each entrance to the school, so we know who is coming and going during the day. And then when the final bell rings, we’ll have two at each entrance and one helping with bus duty as well as parent pickup.”
There were a few complaints, but mostly everyone was in agreement with our prez’s plan. Plenty of my fellow brothers had kids who went to public school, so they wanted to ensure their safety. Nova might have been the target, but that put anyone who was in close contact with her in direct danger as well.
“We will be coordinating with Ben and Raven on this, so expect a text with your schedule and which school you will be stationed at. Each and every one of us will be taking a shift, so if your scheduled time interferes with work or another obligation, let our queen know, and she will switch you for a time that does work.”
He broke everything down for another fifteen minutes, answering questions as they were thrown at him. Once that was dealt with, he brought up whose turn it was to go on the next run and then ended church.
While the others didn’t wait around and headed for the door, I pushed through the crowd to get to the prez. “Uncle Bash,” I called out. He lifted his head as I reached him and my father. “I’m going to be at the high school with River, so tell Aunt Raven she can schedule me for every day. Morning and afternoon shifts. I don’t care.”
He nodded. “We figured you would want to, Mav, but I’ll remind Raven.”
“How is Nova?” I asked him.
He grimaced. “Her arm is hurting her today, but she hasn’t complained about it because Ryan is at the house with her. But she can’t hide the pain in her eyes.”
“Does she need anything? I’ll bring it over with River,” I offered, knowing my girl would want to stop by and check on her cousin in person.
“I don’t think so, but call Raven and see if she needs anything before you stop by.” His gaze landed on something behind me, and his eyes darkened.
Turning my head, I found Colt standing a few yards away, glaring at me. I already knew his dislike of me was most likely permanent now, so I decided to ignore the hate in his eyes and shifted my gaze back to my uncle. “If you don’t need me to do anything, I’m going to pick up my girl and drop by your house before we go to work.”
“Yeah, kid. See you later.”
Dad slapped me on the back. “I’ll be at the shop later. River doesn’t have to cancel my appointments for the day.”
“I’ll let her know,” I assured him b
efore heading for the exit.
River was sitting on the couch when I walked through the door drinking a cup of coffee. Her eyes were barely open as she sipped from the mug, her hair a sexy, tangled mess around her shoulders and her clothes rumpled from sleep. I stopped midstep after closing the door, entranced by just how beautiful she was and how fucking lucky I was that she was mine.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, her eyes opening a little wider when she saw me just standing there, looking down at her.
