Page 61 of Heartless
I paused in my search and pulled the door open. “When?”
“Right now, as soon as we can get everyone together. Reap’s on his way to pick up Mari and Jandro from the hospital now.” Gunner’s eyes lowered from my face, hovering at my collarbones. “Nice hickeys, dude.”
“Shit.” I slapped a hand over the marks on my chest, much to his amusement. “Is this about the assassins?”
“Yeah.” His expression turned solemn. “Reap’s not fuckin’ around anymore. We’re hitting them back, ASAP.”
“Okay. Anything from the meeting last night I should know?”
Gunner only smiled as he turned away. “I’m sure you’ll find out everything you need to know today.”
The conference roomwas already crowded by the time Gunner and I arrived. Normally, the press of so many bodies in a confined space would drive me to a panic attack. But as I squeezed my way in, I felt okay with only a few deep breaths. Not great by any means, but good enough to not look for an immediate escape route.
It wasn’t just Steel Demons in the room—their women too. Tessa, Andrea, and Noelle stood huddled together, with Big G looking sour across the room from his ex-wife. General Bray’s soldiers also lined the walls, standing at attention. The governor and Josh, bandages on the assistant’s face and hands, talked with General Bray near a window.
I even spotted the Sons of Odin, the black raven and horned viking helmet on their cuts, to the right side of the room as they mingled.
“Shadow,” T-Bone greeted with a lazy smile.
“Who invited you fuckers?” I returned.
They laughed as we all clasped fists and slapped each others’ backs. Maybe I was starting to get the hang of this sense of humor thing.
“We’re honorary Demons as far as I see it,” Dyno grinned. “Saved your sorry asses enough times.”
“Since you’re Grudge’s brother, you’re a Son too,” T-Bone said.
“Mari hasn’t tested us to see if we’re blood-related yet,” I remarked. “Not that it matters.”
“Mm-mm!” Grudge shook his head emphatically.
“Glad you agree, brother.” I knocked my fist against his and went to stand next to him against the wall.
“Speaking of, where is your little lady?” T-Bone stroked his beard as he scanned the room.
I nearly corrected his assumption that she was mine, but decided against it. “Coming with Jandro soon.”
Reaper’s voice cut through the murmurings of conversations from the room only moments later. “Make a path, move! Give the VP some fucking room.”
People jumped quickly out of the way, all talking fading to silence as they made their way inside. Over everyone’s heads, I could see Mari holding on to Jandro’s good arm, the other one still in a sling. Somehow, he still managed to get both arms through the holes of his cut.
His steps were slow and slightly unbalanced due to the walking boot encasing nearly the entire bottom half of his leg. Reaper walked on his other side, his eyes scanning the faces in the room as if daring anyone to say something out of line. But everyone only looked on with respect as the three of them made their way to the conference table.
Because of all the extra people here, this wasn’t a church meeting in the traditional sense. But a gavel and a block still waited for Reaper at the end of the table, where he took his seat with Hades at his side. Mari helped Jandro settle into the seat next to him, then stepped back to stand with the others lining the wall.
Jandro nodded at me, indicating I should take the seat next to him. Mari smiled at me as I approached the chair, and Gunner took his place on the other side of Reaper. Our president hit the gavel once, the clack of wood echoing throughout the otherwise silent room.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” he began, his voice softer than any church meeting I’d attended before. “I invited you all here because this matter affects all of us.” He paused for a deep breath. “Four Corners is in danger. And the people who want to topple this place are trying to do it from the inside.”
Stony faces looked back at all of us sitting. Either everyone already knew, or at least suspected this, or was trying to look unafraid.
“We’re facing a general who has also used MCs to do his dirty work for him,” Reaper went on. “If we come at him with military force, he’ll be ready. Expecting it, more likely. What we need to do is slip under his defenses, just like he did here. The only thing is,” Reaper sighed, leaning back, “he’ll recognize most of us. Fuck, any traveler approaching his territory from this direction will be regarded as suspicious. So we need to get creative. It’s not just scouting we need anymore. We need to know what General Tash is thinking, planning, even feeling. We need someone to plant inside who can get us information. And we’ll need them to stay there, for an extended amount of time.”
My president took a moment to meet the gaze of everyone in the room. “This isn’t going to be easy. I will order someone to do it, although I’d much rather not do so. I wanted to put it out to anyone, see if there’s any volunteers or another solution that I’m missing. But no one is leaving this room until we have a mission set in stone.”
Slick stepped forward. “How will this inside person get information to you, president?”
“We’ll have rendezvous points where you can leave coded messages for either Horus or Munin to pick up.”
