AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There,” Levi says as she points to some flowers that are clutched in the woman’s hands. “It’s a cluster of marsh marigolds. If Fang and his crew are hiding the women near there, then that vastly narrows down where they’re located.” Levi spins around and snatches Smoke’s laptop from him.
Once again, my jaw drops in shock.
Smoke doesn’t letanyonetouch his laptop. He’s very particular about his electronics, but here he is looking over her shoulder as she brings up an overview map of Forest Creekon his fucking laptop. After a few clicks, she reaches out a hand, making a ‘give me’ gesture. Smoke pulls his stylus out from a pocket inside his cut and gives it to her without a word. She circles three areas of the map and gives the stylus back to Smoke.
“Why are the marsh marigold’s the key to Fang’s location?” Tripp asks.
Bear slams his hand on the table as he grins at Spitfire.
“Shit. You’re right, little ninja. Marsh Marigolds grow in wetlands. Those three areas are where you’ll usually find them around Forest Creek, with the largest cluster in that top area that you circled.”
She nods as her smile grows. “I bet if you scout these three areas, we’ll be able to find where Fang and his crew are hiding the women. My bet is that it’s the northern one, as the marsh does take a notable bend in the forest which matches with the mumbled words I swore I heard. Thor, I’m also betting if you were to give an ‘anonymous’ tip to Creed, that they’d be able to swoop in and hopefully rescue the rest of the abducted women. As long as we aren’t seen, then Fang won’t know it was us that tipped off the Feds to their location. Unless he has an inside contact, that is. But something tells me that Creed would keep our names out of his reports.”
Spitfire looks between Thor and me nervously as she gnaws her lip, almost as if she’s worried about her practically taking the reins and driving a meeting she technically isn’t supposed to be in. It also hasn’t escaped my notice that she said ‘we’ and ‘our’. It feels like she’s referring to everyone as her family, which makes me want to talk to Thor soon about something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.
Smoke sends a glare at Thor and me before wrapping my Spitfire in a hug. “Relax, kiddo. You didn’t do anything wrong except for not waiting for a response before barging in. However, based on what we know now, I doubt you’re in trouble.”
Normally I’d be pissed or annoyed at someone laying his hands on my Spitfire, even one of my brothers, but this is weird. Different. Almost like a hug you’d give to a family member. Now I really wanted to know what happened before she came outside earlier.
I give him a chin lift, recognizing what was happening, and he dips his head in return before turning his attention to Thor. He cocks an eyebrow at Thor, which seems to snap him out of his trance, but before Thor can say anything, someone clears their throat.
“Uh, can I ask something?”
We all turn toward Gunner, who looks like he’s barely holding in whatever it was he had to say. Thor gives him a chin lift, and almost immediately, the words fly out of Gunner’s mouth.
“What the fuck, Smoke?You avoid all women. You don’t let anyone touch your electronics, especially your laptop, and here you are hugging our Pres’s and Enforcer’s Old Lady like it’s no problem and youlet her use your computer.What the fuck, dude!”
Laughter spills out of everyone since they know he’s giving Smoke shit, and the tension I saw earlier in Levi seems to evaporate before she falls into a fit of laughter, too. The laughter from my brothers intensifies when she reaches up and plucks Smoke’s baseball cap off his head before putting it on and slipping her long hair out the back. Smoke’s face lights up in a smile and he pulls her in for another hug. She turns tentatively to me, with an eyebrow raised in question. I give her a chin lift and the smile that lights up her face is breathtaking.
As the laughter dies down, Smoke clears his throat as he looks down at Levi, who had moved to hug Thor. I give a chin lift to Patch, who was putting the pictures back into the box and set it off to the side. I’d grab it after this so we could have Ryder try and run some prints.
“To answer your question, Gunner, that’s what a brother does for a sister who’s in trouble.”
You could have heard a pin drop at what Smoke was implying.
Levi stares at him in shock before her gaze snaps to me in disbelief and I nod. She looks up at Thor, and when he nods, an ear-piercing squeal leaves her mouth as she dives toward Smoke, giving him a bone-crushing hug of her own.
“I have another brother!”
I can’t believe it. I knew earlier, when I had practically begged Smoke to let me go outside, something shifted in him. I just had no idea what had changed other than his steel-gray eyes lost some of their hardness. The fact that he just claimed me as his sister blows my mind.
It’s true what Gunner said earlier. Smoke avoids women like the plague, but when I first noticed him watching me not too long after I got here, I thought he was worried that I’d screw over the club somehow. As time went on, he almost seemed surprised that I hadn’t.
Then there were the few times since then when we passed each other in the halls. He would verbally respond to my ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ instead of just grunting. To say I was shocked when he hugged me as he tried to calm me down while my men and half of my family might be walking into a trap is an understatement. A man who, for some reason, refuses to allow women to touch him, was hugging me and talking soothingly in my ear to try to calm me down.
When Smoke caught onto my train of thought earlier, something seemed to click between us and it’s similar to how I am with Alexei and Sasha. We don’t even need to talk sometimes because we’re usually thinking the same thing.
In all honestly, I’d been warned to never touch his electronics, especially his computer, but today I acted without thinking. Too concerned to find out where the women were being held to even think about the trouble I could be in for touching his stuff.
A knock sounds at the door and out of the corner of my eye, I see Dragon walking over to answer. It takes me a moment to snap out of my thoughts, but when I hear Sasha’s voice, I realize she’s brought what I asked her to.
I pull back from Smoke and when Dragon comes over with a very familiar bag; I take it. Thor leans down close to me and whispers in my ear.
“Let me say a few things first, and then you can have the floor.” He kisses my temple and then walks forward, rapping his knuckles against the table to get everyone’s attention. When everyone calms down, Thor nods at Smoke and me.
“We’ll need teams to go and search each location Wildcat and Smoke pointed out, but remember that at first, it’s just a scouting mission. If we are going to give a tip to the Feds, we need to be damn sure we have our facts straight. Ryder and Bones, work with Smoke to see what all you can come up with. We’ll meet again to plan the stake out after you’ve found more out.”
Everyone gives him a chin lift and then Thor waves me over. Clearing my throat, I try to stomp down my nerves.
