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“They get a plate?”

“A partial from one of the cameras. And a make and model. I sent it to G—figured he’d likely find it faster than the cops.”

“I’m running the data, just waiting for a hit,” G confirms.

“How long will this put you out of commission?”

“Not long. A week, max. Like I said, we were prepared for the worst. I have the money to cover the damages. So though I’ll claim on the insurance, I won’t need to wait for the payout to fix it.”

“Alright, good. I take it there were no confirmed sightings of James?”

Kruger’s already shaking his head before Havoc has finished asking.

“As much as I’m glad as fuck everyone is okay, it’s only going to be a matter of time before he hits again. And I doubt we’ll be so lucky again.”

“My guess is he’ll be pissed. I mean, I could be wrong—this could all be part of the game to him—but I feel like he stepped up with the school and then the shelter. This feels almost like a step back,” I tell him. “I can’t put my finger on why. I just thought the escalation would be more.”

“I’m with Powers,” Toot agrees. “He’s supposed to be making us sweat, so either he’s trying to lull us into a sense of complacency, which I just don’t buy, or he has something else coming our way too.”

“That’s the vibe I was getting. But fuck me, it would be nice to be wrong for a change.” Havoc rubs his hand over his head.

G’s laptop chirps. The VP types rapidly as we wait for an explanation. “Got a hit on the car. A call came in to the FD.”

Mack sighs. “Fire department likely means they burned it out, probably to destroy the evidence.”

G looks up from his screen. “Our contact says there’s a report of a charred body inside.”

“We’re not fucking lucky enough for that to be James.” I snort.

“No, we’re not. But if we can ID him, we might be able to figure out his ties to James, and that might be enough to find where he’s hiding out.”

Crane leans forward. “He won’t be far, that much I’m sure of. Guys like that like to see the destruction they wrought too much.”

“Unless it puts him at risk. He was sloppy at the end there with Citi. He expected Pig to tie up loose ends. But if he’d known him half as well as we did, he’d know Pig couldn’t do fucking shit right.”

Dice grunts in agreement, while Hoops nods. None of us liked Pig, though none of us suspected him of working for James. So maybe he wasn’t completely incompetent because he sure as hell never let that slip.

I eye Circus. He says nothing, but clenches his jaw and stares down at the wood grain.

“I’ve got everyone on alert. Blade and Inigo are heading in, as are Stitch and Mime from Sons of Purgatory. Hannibal’s had a few issues with a neighboring MC, so his guys won’t be here until next week. Scope has a couple of guys ready if we need them, but he already has some people doing recon over in the UK. I don’t want to leave him too thin on the ground if I can help it. I couldn’t reach Viper, but Zero said they have it covered, whatever the fuck that means.”

A knock at the door has us pausing.

“I swear to god if that’s Con again,” Havoc grumbles as he stomps over to the door and yanks it open.

But of course, it’s not Con standing there because he’s covering at the gym. It’s a pale-looking Tink.

“What’s wrong?” Havoc barks, clearly reading her wary expression the same way I am.

She holds out her laptop and swallows. “I think G should look at this.”

G jumps up and heads over. “What’s wrong, Tink?”

By this point, Havoc is ushering her in and pushing her around to the head of the table. He eases her down into his chair before he takes the laptop from her and passes it to G.

“Tell me what happened, cupcake.”

“I was working. Well, I was procrastinating by checking my emails. And then, all of a sudden, the laptop started acting weird, and…things started to pop up.”