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Chapter 36

Bash

Eighteen hours earlier

Unease washed through me as I watched my brothers and Prez riding out. As much as we planned and prepared, we had no idea what they would be riding into. Anything we thought we knew about Crow, any assumptions we would have made about his actions, were useless. It was a hard truth, realizing just how much we missed. How can we anticipate his moves when we don’t even know this person anymore? Was he always there, hiding inside of him?

Shaking those thoughts off, I made my way back into the clubhouse. My phone pinged with notifications, and I opened the message from Match first.

Lilah is staying with Beth. I’m out front. Alarms on. All doors locked.

Good. One less thing to worry about. Beth was more comfortable in her own home, and for the time being we were okay with that. The slap of my boots against the wood floors rang out as I made my way to Keys. The noise reverberated throughout the clubhouse, an eerie quiet had settled over the place like a hush.

Since Crow’s attack on Fee, the clubhouse had undergone several changes. One of the first was moving Keys into a bigger space, with as much equipment as he needed to monitor every inch of this place, plus our brothers when they were on the road. He had recruited his own prospect Hunter. He was a boy genius, a hacker Keys caught online and tracked down in person. The two of them worked side by side these last few months, all hours of the day and night making sure nothing was missed.

Our gear was upgraded too. Keys outfitted all of us with top-of-the-line tech. Not only could he monitor us visually, the motherfucker could track our vitals too—at least, to an extent. The biggest contribution, though, was the trackers he had created.

They worked like dental fillings. A tiny tracker was bonded to a tooth, then hidden beneath a crown. We all had them. The tech wasn't anything revolutionary, but it got the job done. They were practically impossible to detect; most scanners wouldn't pick them up. The crown was made from a material that blocked the tracker’s signal, keeping it hidden until it needed to transmit.

Footage of pavement disappearing under tires, the feed from various helmet and body cams displayed were playing on several screens. A headache started forming as my eyes tried to keep up with all of the visual data but it seemed impossible. Keys insisted he had a system for it all; a method to the madness. Right then, I was trusting him because I didn’t see how it was possible to follow all of that shit.

Sitting next to him, her legs tucked up underneath her while her fingers sped across her phone was my wife. Pausing, I took a minute to appreciate this moment. The future was uncertain, how long or short this would last is still unclear. But Fee and me? We were forever. No matter what happened, we would get through it; together.

“He’s got a nice ass.” My beautiful, devoted wife muttered. Red filled my vision.

“The fuck you say?” Both Keys and Fee turned to look at me, neither of them fazed by the anger boiling under my skin. My wife studied my expression and a sassy smirk crossed her face. She would pay for that tonight.

“Your sister,” Fee replied, waving her phone in front of me. “She already clocked her guards and, I quote, ‘He’s got a nice ass. Could bounce a quarter off it, not great for stealth.’” I rolled my eyes.

“Tell her to behave and focus on school.” Fee stood up, making her way toward me, closing the distance between us.

“This is a conversation I will gratefully back out of. You two can discuss it without me.” My girl told me, wrapping her arms around my waist, those copper eyes looking up at me; daring me to disagree. I bent down and kissed her quickly, knowing anything longer wasn’t possible and I couldn't afford the distraction.

The rest of the day passed in a tense blur, everyone on high alert, waiting for something to happen, but nothing had…yet. They guys made it to the first stop safely, catching a couple hours of sleep at a motel before getting back on the road.

We had been in contact with all of our charters as well as some different clubs we knew were enroute to where Crow was hiding out. We were all on high alert, waiting for something to happen. The lack of action was almost as stressful as the fear or what could occur.

Early the next morning, I awoke with a jump. Fee was still fast asleep, her pale skin shining in the predawn light. Pressing a kiss to her shoulder, I quietly got out of bed and made my way over to Birdie’s crib.

“Hey there, baby girl.” I cooed as Birdie blinked those blue eyes up at me. Holding her in my arms, I let her soft weight settle me. The anxiety and unease from yesterday hadn’t left me; only grown. Not having time to spare, I changed and fed my girl before waking up her mama.

“Baby,” I whispered, Birdie in my arms as I stroked Fee’s back. My wife did not like getting woken up; there were days she was up at the crack of down running a mile a minute. Other times when she did sleep in, any disruption to her slumber was taken as a personal attack. Her eyes blinked open slowly, confusion and anger warred on her face but passed the moment she saw our Birdie girl.

“Maaaammmama!” Birdie cooed and I frowned. Still upset that she hadn’t said Dada yet. Reaching her chubby arms out for Fee I passed her over, watching as my two girls cuddled together.

“Gonna go check in with Keys. You good?” I asked. Fee nodded, pressing a kiss to Birdie’s hair as she snuggled against her.

“Send me a text, let me know if anything happened while we were asleep,” she replied and I bent down to give her a kiss. Birdie tried to wiggle between us, so I made sure to give her enough kisses as well before finally dragging myself away from my family.

Each step away from them required a layer of mental armor, the transition from husband and father to brother and interim president. By the time I got into the command station, I had a list of things to go over with the crew. That all went out the window when I walked into chaos. Keys and Hunter were both on phone calls with other charters—new footage coming in.

“Movement here!”

“Us too! Fuck is that a molotov cocktail?” The voices rang out and I watched as all the screens filled with fire.

“Bytes, what the fuck is going on?” Keys addressed the tech guy who worked out of the Nebraska charter.

“Two of the clubhouses were hit at the exact same time. We caught the guy before he could do any damage here. Getting him downstairs now.”