Page 6 of Clover

“Even if we have to, you know none of them would hesitate to help. We love you, Nix. And we love Clover too. She’s already like a sister to me, and I would do anything to keep her safe. As I’m sure, you would too. This is what families do. We help one another. Even the asshole self-absorbed ones.”

I can’t bring myself to laugh at Beau’s joke, but he does get me to calm down. Looking up at him sitting in the chair across from me, a little bit of my initial hate and panic subsides. Unfortunately for my pride, he’s right.

While Beau has been talking me down, Zander has pulled out his phone and is now talking with Griffon or my Pop.

There is another person who knows about my feelings for Clover who is very resourceful and doesn’t ask questions. Pulling out my phone, I dial.

“Who are you calling?”

I ignore Beau’s question and wait for Arrow to answer his phone as I stand and pace the room.

“Yellow?” Arrow answers on the other end.

“Arrow. I need info, and I need it now.”

“Yeah, boss. Whatcha need?”

I can always count on Arrow to do what I need, when I need it, without question.

“I need to know where Braxton is right now. And I need to keep eyes on him until further notice.”

“Sure thing, boss. Is there something goin’ on I should know about? Why you keepin’ eyes on captain douchebag?”

“Clover’s missing, and I’m one hundred percent sure Braxton has something to do with it.” My voice breaks a little with the growing anxiety in my heart. I’ve never felt more useless and helpless in my life than I do right now. And I need to remedy that. I need to know what Braxton is doing and where he is at all times. Maybe he’ll get arrogant and lead us straight to Clover. It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility.

“Why that worthless sack of shit. You need me to soften him up a little, boss?” Arrow, already ready and willing to beat down the bastard, and as much as I want to let him and join in, we can’t just yet.

“More than anything, but not yet. We need to know what happened to Clover and where he took her. If we touch him now, he won’t tell us a thing and will probably go to the council. We need to hang back first and see if he leads us to her.” The words come out through clenched teeth. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would say no to beating the shit out of Braxton motherfucking Shaw. But finding Clover is more important. If that doesn’t show the level at which I am severely in love with this girl, I don’t know what does.

“Are we bringing the rest of the fam in on this?”.

“We’ve called Griffon and Pop for now. I’ll let you know if we need to call anyone else. For now, just get eyes on Braxton and report back to me.”

“You got it, Nix. Whatever you say, man. I’ll call you when I have something.”

“Thanks, Arrow.”

Hanging up, I stuff my phone in my pocket and take a deep breath. The first step is finding out where Braxton is. Then we can start the hunt for Clover.

“What do we do after we know where Braxton is?” Zander asks from his spot, perched on the couch arm with his phone still pressed to his ear. Probably informing them on everything we know so far.

“We can follow him, for starters. See where he goes. Possibly leading us straight to Clover.” Continuing to pace, I make my way around the room, shaking off the adrenaline pumping through my veins. It’s helping my nerves, which is keeping me from punching another hole in the wall.

“Then what?” Rosie asks on a soft sob, still wiping away remnants of her tears from her cheeks. She’s always so tough on the outside that sometimes I forget she has soft spots inside her too. It’s rare to see Rosie emotional, and it only hurts me more seeing her tears. Knowing Clover could be crying similar tears at this moment. Or not. More than likely, she’s pissed the fuck off right at this moment. I can only hope her anger keeps her from being scared.

“Well, depending on if he leads us to Clover or not, we call up a few others and go get her. If he doesn’t lead us to her, well…Then we strip search every property he owns till we find her.ThenI rip out his spine through his throat.” Anger laces my words as I practically spit them out.

“Griffon says he’ll send some men to check Braxton’s places outside of town. See if he took her there.” Zander calls to me from across the room.

“If he’s still in town, I doubt he took her anywhere too far,” I say while I pace in front of the living room window.

“Better to check everywhere just in case.” Zander returns to talking to Griffon on the other end of his phone. He’s right. If I were thinking clearly and not through a thick haze of rage, I would be saying the same thing. I’ve dealt with situations like this before. Not an abduction per se, but tracking down someone who doesn’t want to be found. It’s not my specialty, but I’m no first-timer. If Hunter were in town, he could find her in a matter of hours, I’m sure. If this goes on too long, we might have to call him in.

Heat boils in my veins. The confines of my house driving me stir fucking crazy. I need to get out. I need to do something, break something or someone. Rage has built up inside me to the point where I need a release. My body responds to my brain's autopilot to search out and destroy, leading me towards the front door again. Before I reach the nob, Beau is there, grabbing my hand and redirecting me to the den.

“I need to hurt someone.”

“I know.” He agrees. Still leading me away from the door and any possible chance I have to actually do just that.

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