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The men laugh, but it’s Evander that speaks up. “Zig. It’s gotta be Zig.”
I try to protest, but everyone agrees with him, including my traitorous twin. With a put-out sigh, I nod. “Fine, assholes.”
“Feeling the love here, boss man.” Crew laughs, the others joining him.
I flip him off before downing the rest of my beer.
“As much as I want to stay and have my say, I’m going to go and play with my daughter.” Luna stands and looks down at us all, emotion making her swallow before she speaks. “I can’t tell you what the right thing to do here is. As the leader, Zig, you have to weigh what’s right for all of you, not just Salem.” She holds her hand up when I clear my throat to speak.
“But that woman—she’s something special. The kind of special that doesn’t come along twice in a lifetime. How she landed here with you all is irrelevant, but she did. And I can’t think of a better group of men to protect her.” She looks at me and Oz, her face softening. “Or to love her.”
“You have any words of wisdom, oh wise one.” I smirk.
“Sometimes you need to listen to your head, sometimes you need to listen to your gut.” She grins, turning back to the group. “And sometimes you throw all logic out the fucking window, and you just do what your heart tells you is the right thing to do.”
She leans over Oz and kisses his forehead before walking over to me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and kissing my cheek. “I love you both. Hell, I love you all, and I think you might all need Salem just as much as she needs you.”
I squeeze her arm and watch her leave, closing the door behind her. Facing the guys, I blow out a breath and lean forward, resting my forearms on my knees. “I know you’re playing catch-up here, E, so we can fill you in after if you have questions. We’ll also need to get the votes from anyone not here.”
“I watched on the feed. I know what happened and what she can do. I’ll keep it long enough for the rest of the guys to see it, then erase it. Nobody else needs to know.”
I nod in thanks before looking at the others. “Ideally, Oz and I would like to stay here and make a home with Salem. She’s never or will ever live a normal life, but we can make it as normal as possible. She deserves a family, and we can give that to her—not just the two of us but all of us. But you’re all smart enough to know it won’t be that easy.”
“The clinic in Mexico was blown up, but there will be other people who know about her, and they’ll come for her too. And when they do, we’ll need to be ready because there is no way in hell they can take her. They’ll have to peel her from my cold, dead fingers,” Oz snarls.
“This place is huge, but nothing much has changed since I came here except tech updates. What about if we expanded and fortified the building or buildings? We can add top-of-the-line security, dig tunnels, and put a fail-safe in place. By the time all of us are done, not even the president himself could get in here without our permission,” Crew suggests.
The others nod their agreement and start throwing out suggestions. A warm heat fills my belly. I look at Oz and see him looking back at me with a fierce expression on his face that I’m sure mirrors my own.
“Are you guys sure? I can’t guarantee how this will play out.”
“There are no guarantees in life, Zig. Not for men like us. I don’t know how else to say it, but this just feels right. Like it was supposed to be this way, or something less pussy sounding.” Slade huffs, making Oz and the guys laugh, while I just grin at him.
“Fuck you all.”
They all laugh harder. “Alright, calm down, assholes. So, we have a plan? And everyone is one hundred percent on board?” I ask again, wanting to make sure.
“You know, I’m almost offended that you keep asking,” Jagger says. “Do you want us to change our minds?”
“No, but this is big, and it’s only going to get worse.”
“Then who better to deal with it than a group of badass motherfuckers like us?” Hawk adds, flexing his arms.
“This is what I like about you, Hawk—you’re so humble,” Creed drawls.
“I’ll show you just how humble I can be if you suck my dick.” He licks his lips, making me roll my eyes at the two of them.
“I’ve got something to say.” Evander clears his throat, grabbing our attention. “I haven't found any viruses, malware, or backdoors in our system. Neither did Creed. If we didn’t find anything, then we weren't hacked.”
I look at Greg. He was the one who told me the system had been compromised all those months ago.
“Cooper.” He grimaces. “He said someone was in the system. I wondered how with all our encryptions.”
“They didn’t. And Cooper didn’t have the tech knowledge to hide his tracks, so he didn’t touch it at all. From what I can tell, he just planted the seeds that it was breached and shut the system down. He had to say something to account for the plane being fucked with. He needed to shift focus away from him and put it on them,” Evander states.
“Only he didn’t know I needed all hands on deck because of it. I didn’t know which of our files they had hacked, so I had to assume they all had been.” Greg looks like he wants to puke at the admission.
“You made the right call, even if it didn’t feel like it. Which is why when Oz and I are back out in the field, it will be you we leave in charge. The only difference now will be that Salem’s safety takes priority.”
