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Tatum whacks her hands to his shoulders. “That’s where I come in. No one will get within a foot of us with me. I promise you that.”
“I thought you’d come with us, Tate.” Hayley keeps her voice soft and her head down. “You have experience with...” Her voice trails off. We haven’t told Tatum yet, but I know Hayley wants to more than anything. I can’t blame her for wanting to share her pregnancy with another woman, especially because Tatum has helped with the donor population for decades, and she has been there for every delivery in our hotel, ensuring that each mother has everything she could possibly need.
“Experience with what?” Tatum glances at Hayley and then to me. “What aren’t you guys telling us?”
“We’ll tell you when we get back. It’s important not to say anything here. We don’t know who is listening.” Sawyer gives Tatum a shake, pulling her attention away from me and Hayley before one of us gives in to her demands. “Plus, I need your badass with me.”
Tatum narrows her eyes but relents to his comment, straightening her back and keeping her head up. “You better tell me the second we return to the Bella. I mean it. I’m going to obsess over it until you do.” And it will be a total shock for her, considering the circumstances.
“Deal,” Monroe says, smacking her on the back, treating her like he does everyone else. “Now, you know the drill. Check in every five minutes. If I don’t hear from you, shit will go down. We want you to be fast. Mesquite and his crew are waiting to back us up in case.”
“We got this. Go on and take care of our girl. Let me know if anything goes down. The laws encompass the whole city, so if anyone tries anything, you know what to do.” Sawyer holds out a blade. “Here, Hayley. You shouldn’t need it, but I want you to have it in case.”
Monroe chuckles. “I think she’s good, man. She has about ten other knives on her.”
“Eleven is better.” Sawyer brushes his lips to her forehead and scrubs his hand across my head, annoying the shit out of me.
We stand around and watch the double doors open to the application lobby, and I spot at least a dozen different formal coven heads and only two other crew leaders. Those fuckers. They have divided us, weakening the crews compared to the covens. If we had time to intimidate the fuckers, they wouldn’t even be here, but they are taking advantage all the same.
“Brentwood is meeting us just outside. Make sure you break into the security system and change the feeds. We don’t want anyone knowing that we’re meeting him.” I keep my voice low and stroll forward, holding Hayley against me as she locks her legs around my waist and crossing her ankles, securing herself to allow me to keep my hands free.
“Already done. We should have about ten minutes until they realize they’ve been hacked. So hustle your asses. Everyone spread out. We don’t need our group drawing attention. Just keep a good lookout around us.” Monroe pulls out a gun, choosing a weapon that will help keep distance while also giving him the chance to slow someone down before he attacks if he has to.
We don’t care if they make us look weak. We’re not so hot headed to solely rely on our hand-to-hand combat like some of the leaders and other coven heads. They allow their security to have guns, so we just carry them ourselves. What the fuck ever. We know we’re powerful without them. We don’t need to prove shit.
I pick up my pace and run at vampire speed, blurring the world around me and giving me narrowed vision to focus on the world straight ahead. I cut left and head toward the back exit leading to a small alleyway between the two towering buildings.
The others abandon my side and spread out, circling us all and keeping out of sight. Brentwood knows I’d never come alone, but I also trust him enough not to try anything. It would be stupid on his part, considering if the leadership falls, he’s still safe if he stays on our side.
“Knox, over here.” Brentwood rests his back against a metal door in an alcove leading into the building next door. It used to be a mall, but it is long since been converted into housing for the cousins loyal to the leadership. I think this might be Narcisa’s region, but I can’t be certain. The leadership has always kept all locations and territories a secret. There is no obvious map with who is where except for what we have documented ourselves.
I race up to Brentwood and offer my hand out, keeping my other on Hayley’s lower back. “I’m glad you could meet with me. I don’t want any of this on the record. You know how it is. Especially with the threat of redivisions.” I pull out the sonograms and the chart I have for Hayley and hand them over. “This pregnancy slipped past us, and I just wanted your opinion. The donor swears she’s not as far along as we’re saying, and I worry that maybe something happened, and her mind was wiped or something.” I hate lying about this, but it was the best explanation as to why I’m bringing this supposed pregnancy to him.
“It’s not necessarily uncommon for a fetus to be measuring ahead but let me just check things out for you. You say she’s supposed to be seventeen weeks?” Brentwood gazes at my sonograms, drinking everything in.
“Yeah.” I don’t add any other comments, because I don’t want him to overthink things. I just want him to determine if there’s anything I need to worry about.
“The fetus measures about twenty-four weeks. It looks good though. Healthy numbers. You might want to do another complete anatomy scan if you haven’t already. I can go over those as well. But you were right. Definitely not seventeen weeks, and something isn’t adding up if that’s what the donor says. Sorry man. I wish I had better news.” Brentwood hands me the papers back. “Hopefully you can figure out who’s behind it. No donor should have to face this. I fucking hate it. I heard some of the leaders want to implement a new system, inseminating all capable donor females to increase population growth. They are going to turn La Vega upside down. It’s a nightmare. They are tired of trying to remain civilized with donors and think that once the threat of the crews is over that they’ll be able to just do whatever the fuck they want.”
Hayley inhales a sharp breath. “What?”
I hug her tighter. “Don’t worry, vixen. We won’t let that—”
Brentwood growls, cutting me off. Hayley digs her nails into my shoulder, her fear nearly palpable. Spinning around, I catch sight of three figures rushing in our direction.
I unholster my gun, aiming it.
Fucking hell. It’s Alexander and his coven brothers. They look out for Hayley’s blood.
Chapter ten
Hayley
Can’t Be Tamed
MyearsringasKnox fires his gun, shooting Alexander’s coven brother between the eyes, sending him to his knees. Monroe materializes behind the other guy and jabs a knife into the back of his neck, cracking it backward and attempt to break it.
Alexander slows down and holds his hands up in surrender. “Don’t fight me. I’m only here to talk to my baby doll. I will let these injuries slide if you give me five minutes of her time.”
