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Ike stepped through the crowd and held out his hand. “Didn’t think I’d get to see your ugly mug again so soon,” he said.
Dare clasped his hand. “Shut up, ya bald motherfucker.” A rumble of laughter went through the group.
“Come on in,” Nick said. “We’ve been working on a plan for tonight.”
“Lead the way,” Dare said, even though he and his guys knew the building like the backs of their hands after having helped protect it. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the industrial metal-and-cement stairwell, and then they poured into a huge room on the second level. With cement floors, exposed beams, and brick walls, the big rectangular space looked like the warehouse it had probably once been, though now it was filled with exercise equipment, a giant makeshift table around which Dare and his guys had eaten numerous meals, and a big computer setup in the back corner—the team’s nerve center, where Marz could usually be found clacking away.
They formed a big circle around Marz’s desk, some guys sitting on metal folding chairs and others standing. Who’d have thought that the Ravens would find themselves standing side by side with a bunch of highly decorated Army vets once, let alone twice? But Nick and his men were good guys—guys who understood the values that the Ravens prized. And that was more than enough for Dare.
Nick pointed to an enlarged map tacked to the wall. “We’re advocating using the same garage location where the original deal went down. We know it and have planned ops in that location before. Your men know it. And as usefully, it’s in territory that the Iron Cross doesn’t control right now, which means they’re not going to want to spend any more time there than they have to and are going to want to keep a low profile.”
“Whose territory is it?” Dare asked.
Marz pulled out a sheaf of papers. “A group called the Black Soldiers. They’re small, but they’re on good terms with a few other gangs around the city, which gives them friends if they need them. Official thinking is that the Iron Cross isn’t going to want to give their rivals a reason to band against them, not before their position is more secure. Things are too volatile right now for anyone to get too cocky.”
“One can hope,” Dare said, nodding. “The garage makes sense, and the fact that we know it gives us a tactical advantage.” His gaze went to his guys, and Maverick, Caine, and Phoenix all nodded their agreement. “So let’s play this thing out.”
The group of them spent the next hour brainstorming strategy, personnel placement, and contingency plans should plan A go fubar on them, as plan As were wont to do. Maybe it was overkill, but Dare didn’t want to take any more chances with his guys than he had to. And that went for the Hard Ink team as well. They all had too much to lose, a point that was driven home when a group of women poured in through the door on the far side of the room carrying trays of food and drinks to the big table.
Nick clapped Dare on the shoulder. “Figured y’all might want a quick bite before we get this show on the road. Becca’s idea.”
“She’s a good woman, Nick,” Dare said.
“The fucking best,” the guy said, a look of contentment on his face that Dare would pay good money to feel himself. Just once.
Around the table, a new round of greetings took place. Becca Merritt was Nick’s girlfriend and an ER nurse who’d helped patch guys up more than once during the recent fights. With her blond hair and blue eyes, she looked a lot like the girl next door, but from everything Dare knew, she’d proven herself a fierce ally of Nick’s over and over again. Sara and Jenna Dean were red-haired sisters who all the Ravens had gotten to know pretty well after they’d played a role rescuing Jenna from one of the Churchmen who’d apparently gone a little fucking crazy over her. Marz’s lady, Emilie Garza, was probably the woman among them Dare knew least of all—though he’d heard tale of the gut-wrenching scene that’d played out when she’d found her brother’s slain body dumped outside Hard Ink the same day Dare’s guys had been killed. And then there was Nick’s sister, Kat, a bad-ass chick Dare had gotten to know decently well because she’d taken more than one shift in the sniper’s roosts they’d operated during the height of the crisis.
Everyone dug into the food, and Shane and Sara made their way over to him. “We were wondering how Haven and Cora are doing,” Shane said.
Dare wasn’t surprised that Shane and Sara would want to know—from what Dare understood, Shane had been the one to find the two women locked in the basement of the Church Gang’s storage facility. Once the women had been rescued, Sara had taken them under her wing until the plan for the Ravens to grant them shelter had come to fruition. “They’re still at our compound,” Dare said. “We’re working on a plan to get them set up someplace new as we speak. A whole new life, where Haven can be safe from her father and his whole organization.”
