Page 35 of Cipher

“My temper’s fine.”

“Doesn’t look fine from here,” Ghost drawled.

“Haven’t destroyed shit, have I?” I had a famously slow fuse, but when the fire finally hit the dynamite, the blast was usually lethal.

“Yet,” Hawkeye added, his gaze resting on me with enough familiarity to make lying pointless.

“We need Pike. He either knows who controls the county access or can take us to somebody who does.” Stryker leveled me with a gaze that made it clear to anyone who saw it why the man was our club president. “He’s hands-off for now.”

I pressed my lips together and remained silent, but Ghost released a disappointed breath. “There goes my afternoon.”

I understood the logic because I had reached the same conclusion before walking into the room. Understanding didn’t make the idea of Pike moving freely through Sable Canyon any easier to swallow.

“He stays under surveillance every second until we know who he reports to.” Stryker looked toward Nomad and Falcon. “You own him. Office, house, vehicle, routine, meetings, dead drops, all of it. Use civilian trucks and rotate faces. I don’t want him seeing the same man twice. No contact and no pressure. If Pike meets a deputy, contractor, dispatcher, or somebody who looks like none of those, Cipher gets the name before the bastard finishes walking away.”

Falcon’s mouth shifted as he looked at the image. “And if he spots the tail?”

“Then the motherfucker following him will lose their patch for being so damn incompetent,” Hawkeye answered dryly. “And Pike doesn’t get the chance to warn anybody.”

Stryker’s gaze locked on me. “Stay on Pike’s digital trail and keep pulling at Stowe. Nomad and Falcon handle the physical watch. I know you want to do both, but you can’t spend every hour following this asshole and still find the rest of the network.”

“I’ll find it.”

“Know you will.” Stryker’s eyes hardened. “Then we decide what the people behind this earned.”

Nobody at the table needed an explanation of what that meant. Whatever sentence a court would eventually impose on these assholes would not satisfy the code every Black Crown lived by.

14

BEX

Corbin let me know when he was pulling through the gate, and I went out on the porch to wait for him since Jacqueline was comfy on the couch. When he pulled up in front of the house, I hurried to the motorcycle, excited to see him again even though it had only been seven hours since he dropped me off.

Before I climbed on behind him, I gave him a quick kiss. “Missed you.”

“Me too, baby.” I pulled away, but he wrapped his palm around the back of my head to hold me in place so he could claim my mouth. His tongue swept in to tangle with mine, and I whimpered when he finally lifted his head. “Needed that.”

“Same.”

He twisted around to grab my helmet from the saddlebag and handed it to me. After doing the strap under my chin, I climbed on behind him and snuggled against his back.

I enjoyed the ride back to his house, not talking even though we had a built-in comms system in our helmets. When we got back to his house, he finally told me, “We identified the man who came to Nina’s house. Private investigator. Nina’s ex paid him to find her since her address was protected.”

I hung my helmet on a hook in the garage before turning toward him. “He better lose his license for that. She had a freaking restraining order against her ex. The PI should’ve seen that as soon as he started investigating.”

“He’ll lose a fuck of a lot more than his license,” Corbin growled, his dark eyes filled with determination. “And he’s not the only one who’ll pay. Someone inside helped Pike create the response gap to give Nina’s ex the time he needed.”

“But then I messed up the plan.”

“And they know it.” Corbin settled his palm on my lower back to guide me into the house. “Which is why we’re tightening security more. From now on, you only move between secured locations. Wrangler will handle transportation when I’m not available. He’ll use unpredictable routes and occasional decoy vehicles so there’s no set pattern anyone can figure out.”

He was even more protective than my dad, but I didn’t chafe against the constraints. I knew I was in real danger, and he was only trying to keep me safe. “Okay.”

One of his brows arched as he glanced over, clearly expecting more pushback.

“I’m not going to argue against a plan that makes sense.” I shrugged. “And I appreciate that you’re telling me the truth instead of deciding I can’t handle it. I’d rather know what we’re up against than be left in the dark, and you’re giving me that when you probably don’t want to.”

“I’ll always give you what you need, baby.”