Page 49 of Fallen Flame

Alice slowly turned her head toward her. The smug look on her face said everything before she opened her mouth. “As if I really gave the man a choice.”

Karmen laughed into her coffee.

Wendy shook her head. “Poor Wrecker.”

Alice waved one hand. “He’ll survive.”

“Will he?” Nikki asked.

“He has so far.”

“By sheer luck,” Karmen muttered.

Alice smiled sweetly. “Luck had nothing to do with it.”

The women laughed and even Eden joined in.

I sat back in my chair with my spoon resting inside my bowl and watched them.

This was breakfast to them. Just another morning filled with coffee, teasing, people talking over one another, and someone making plans that would probably turn into an argument with Wrecker later.

For one quiet second, I couldn’t help thinking how much fun it would be to belong to something like this.

Chapter Eleven

Oliver

Church was already filling by the time I walked into the room.

Wrecker sat at the head of the table with Nickel on one side of him and Dad on the other. Everyone else crowded around the long table, taking their usual spots while the door shut behind the last few guys.

I slid into the empty chair beside Arlo. He leaned closer. “You’re late.”

“I’m not.”

“You were almost late.”

I ignored him and looked toward Wrecker. His expression told me this wasn’t going to be a quick meeting. His jaw was tight, and one hand rested flat on the table while the other slowly drummed against the wood.

Mason leaned forward in his chair. “Please tell us you have something on the Northbound Reapers.”

Ender nodded from farther down the table. “We need to put the rest of those guys in the ground.”

“That’ll happen once we figure out where the hell they are,” Nickel replied.

Wrecker stopped tapping his fingers. “They’ve all just fucking disappeared.” The room went quiet. “No one knows where the hell they are,” Wrecker continued. “We’ve checked every place we knew they used, called in every favor we have, and came up with nothing.”

Dad folded his arms over his chest. “They didn’t vanish.”

“No,” Wrecker agreed. “They didn’t. Someone is helping them, or they had somewhere ready to go before this shit started.”

Neither option was good.

If someone was helping the Northbound Reapers hide, then we had another problem we hadn’t identified yet. If they had planned this far ahead, then we’d underestimated them.

“But we’ve had some movement,” Wrecker added.

“Movement how?” I asked.