Page 7 of Iron Hearts

“True story,” Shadow said.

“So, what, we just going to lull them into some false sense of security? Let ‘em run amok?” Toad asked.

“No,” Renegade said. “We’re going to move fuckingfast.”

“Element of surprise,” Pope said, grinning. “I like it.”

“Yeah, who doesn’t?” I murmured, already running the logistics of this run through my brain. “Rally here?” I asked.

“Best bet,” Shadow agreed.

“Cool,” Renegade said. “Sounds like we don’t even have to put it to a vote, but let’s do it anyway – by the book. All in favor of riding down to Ormond Beach and fucking some shit up?”

Every hand shot up.

“By unanimous decision, let’s make those calls, Shadow.”

“You got it,” Shadow intoned, pushing to his feet.

“You take Jacksonville, I’ll take Ocala?” I asked.

“Time is of the essence,” Shadow agreed.

“Bet,” I told him.

CHAPTERFOUR

Rarity…

“Rarity, oh thank God!”

Shit. Mom was here.

I sighed as she rushed to me in my hospital bed and wrapped me in a hug so tight I thought my head would squeeze off.

I was supposed to be an only child. My mom and dad had struggled with fertility issues, and when I’d been born, I’d been namedRarityas an ode to the fact I was supposed to be their only one.

I was twenty-four, and I had three younger brothers. A set of identical triplets that my mom had come upsurprise! I’m pregnant!When I wasnineteen…They were all four years old now, and right before they’d been born? Dad had died on us. A stupid accident. So here was Mom with three newborn sons, and I, her only daughter, wasstilla rarity.

Unfortunately, that sometimes meant that Mom went overboard on the overprotective helicopter parenting where I was concerned. At the same time, she was just as bad about the boys. She’d had them so late in her forties it’d been a dangerous-as-fuck pregnancy, and I’d been terrified I was going to lose her, too, in childbirth. And so soon after I’d lost Dad?Woof.Let’s just say that when the boys had been born, I’d bawled more over the fact that Mom wasokaythan over the fact that I had three new, amazing baby brothers – but she didn’t need to know that.

Some things were just best kept to yourself, you know?

Anyway, the whole thing had been a fucking rollercoaster. More so when it’d fallen tometo be the other adult and parent figure.

Dad had made damn good money when he was alive, and my salary at the Iron Horse and my other job at a craft store wasn’t anything close. But we were making it. Barely. Some of it in part due to my mother’s overbearing parents moving into the house with us, some by virtue of my mom’s full-time job at the DMV.

Holy hell, was it rough making ends meet, though, even with the house being very nearly paid off thanks to Dad’s life insurance. The homeowner’s insurance waswildthanks to hurricanes picking up in frequency, speed, and destructive power, and they werekillingus. Feeding three growing boys was no joke, either. Add cars aging out and blowing up, gas and groceries being sky high, keeping three boys in clothes and shoes when it felt like something new was having to be bought week to week, and the fact that the three of them were still young enough to want to dress alike and would throw a fit if they didn’t always get to? Yeah, I know, I know, they should have to suck it up, but you try telling my mother that. Especially on top of her guilt of Dad being gone, which was in no way her fault.

It was just a stupid accident!

“Mom, Mom, Mom!Stop!I’m fine! I’m fine!” I got her to stop fussing. She leaned back, overwhelmed and mascara and eyeliner tracking muddy down her face.

“I don’t want you working there!” she tried. I shook my head, grinding my teeth against the sudden wave of nausea that tried like hell to swamp me.

“No, no, no, and no!” I said. “Absolutely not. We’re not doing this,” I declared, and she scowled at me.

“It’s too dangerous,” she tried to argue. “Just look at you!”

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