He pulled my head down to sear a kiss across my lips, and suddenly I didn’t feel like talking anymore.
If he might die tomorrow, then I didn’t want to waste today.
* * *
Ace
What I hadn’t told Emma was that I needed that extra day to run this war vote past my contacts at the FBI.While the club was no longer controlled by that organization, we had an informal agreement to keep them apprised of any projects we undertook that might involve their interests.Going to war with a club that sold drugs, ran guns and trafficked in women and children?That absolutely qualified as being of interest to them.While we didn’t have to abide by any orders they threw our way, we acknowledged that it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interests if we inadvertently fucked up a mission they might have spent months or even years setting up.If they had undercover agents in place, we could get them killed.
I left Emma sleeping soundly in my bed and headed to the communications room.Shadow looked up when I entered, not bothering to remove his feet from his desk.A glance at the monitor in front of him showed a fantasy landscape with monsters and dragons wandering through a forest littered with purple and blue trees.
He nodded at the vacant chair on the far side of the room.“Your woman sleeping?”
“Yeah.Should be down for a while.All this shit is new to her.”
“Saw her talking to the twins yesterday.Seemed like she’s a good one.She going to stay?”
“Fuck, yeah.Just not sure if she’s aware of it yet.”I crossed the room and sat down.“Encoding and protocols set up?”
Shadow nodded.“Affirmative.Line connected faster than most times.Got the impression the boys in Washington were expecting you to contact them.”
“They are not dumb.If they knew who was moving into our territory, and I’ve no doubt they did, they’d expect us to respond.”
“Not to mention your house getting blown up.Can’t possibly have thought it was an accident.”Shadow sat up straight and killed the video game feed.His hands moved over the array of blinking lights and buttons in front of him.“Closing all the incoming and outgoing lines except the one you’re using.Don’t want to chance a security breach.”
“Yeah.Wouldn’t want that.”I leaned forward and waited while the computer completed a retinal scan.A few moments later my contact’s avatar appeared.
“What’s up?”His conversational skills did not include social niceties such as hello and how’s it going.
“The club we discussed a few days ago is moving into our territory.”Might as well get right to the point.“My old lady witnessed a murder, and they’ve got a hit out on her.Blew up my house.Just lucky no one got hurt.We plan to take them out for good.ETA twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
“The top brass is aware of your housing situation.They send condolences.Haven’t finished the background check on your old lady yet.That murder she witnessed is not on our radar either.”There was a brief pause.“Mission anticipated, and conditionally approved.Sooner the better.Intel has it they have an arms shipment coming in the next day or two.We would prefer that didn’t happen.Our wish list also includes termination of their President, Vice President and Enforcer.All three are extremely dangerous and we do not, with emphasis on DO NOT, want to give them the grandstand of a public trial.This is not a sanctioned hit, but there will be bonuses if things go well.”
What he didn’t say was that they were willing to pay us to take these guys out.Diplomacy required the situation be handled with finesse.
“Wish list noted.Will pass on to my guys.”
“Appreciate that.You need any hardware or boots on the ground?”
“Nah.This is just a heads up.When they bombed my home, it became personal.Club tempers are running a little hot at the moment.”
“Totally understand.Let us know if you need our help.Pre-Op or mop-up.”
“Will do.Ace out.”
I shut down the connection and set the headset on the desk.
“Good to go?”Shadow glanced over at me.
I nodded.“Yup.When Deuce and Preacher get back, we move out.Bit of a rush on it now.Arms deal going down, and our friends would prefer that doesn’t happen.”
“Sounds good.Enough of that shit on the street already.”Shadow resumed his pose with feet on the desk and turned the video game back on.Picking up the discarded video controller, he turned his attention to the screen in front of him.“Need to kill a few more Orcs before dinner time.”
I nodded.“I’ll let the others know.”
Shadow smirked.“About the Orcs?”
“Asshole.”I threw him a side eye.