Chapter 9

Shortly after Tessa woke from her nap, she, Harper, and Scotty left Bree's room to go to the cafeteria. They were being tailed by Conner. Tessa's entire body ached. Her lower back was the worst. Even her elbow wasn't bothering her as much as her back. She was debating on going across the parking lot to the private medical building to see Dr. Pedaleck. After the beating her body took, she might need a muscle relaxer. There were only two that she knew of that were safe to take while pregnant, as long as Pedaleck agreed.

"Look," Harper stated quietly, "I hate being one of those friends who relies on their other friend for their profession, but I have a question and Google is no help whatsoever."

Tessa snorted. "Let me guess, according to Google, you're dying and should be writing your last will and testament?"

Harper laughed. "Yeah. Pretty much."

"Go ahead and ask." She put her right hand on her baby bump. "But if I have any education questions when it's time for this one to go to school, I'm calling in your IOU."

Harper grinned widely. "Deal."

The elevator dinged. Scotty rushed inside. The women followed and then Conner. He stood right in front of the doors like a guard dog.

Tessa rolled her eyes. After being attacked three times, she understood Bear's need for security. However, escorting them to the cafeteria and back seemed extreme. This hospital was where she worked. She had been attacked alone in the parking lot. Not inside the building with hundreds of patients, doctors, and nurses present.

Harper lowered her voice. However, they were in an elevator, and Tessa was pretty sure Conner could still hear the question based on how he fidgeted. "I got my IUD out over four months ago. But the, uh," she pointed to Tessa's belly, "factory isn't producing."

Out of the corner of her eye, Tessa saw Scotty was oblivious to his soon-to-be mother's conversation. He was reading a poster on flu symptoms on the elevator wall as if it was a map to Narnia.

"Did you talk to your OB?"

Harper shrugged. "Not since the removal. She originally told me it could take one cycle for the hormones to get out of my system. But it's been three cycles. Four is coming up soon."

Tessa caught Conner's face cringe in the metal reflection of the elevator door and fought a laugh. Men turned into giant babies when it came to women problems.

"I'm no expert, but I can tell you that every woman's body is different. Your cycle changes every five years. Based on what I assume your age is, you seem like you're right around that timing too." She reached over and squeezed Harper's hand. "Give it time. I'm sure the factory will start producing results soon. If not, make another appointment. It, uh, might not be you."

Conner hung his head forward just as the elevator doors dinged open. He stepped off like he was heading towards a firing squad. Tessa and Harper exchanged a look before having to look away or risk bursting out laughing.

As the four of them were crossing the main lobby, an older woman stood from the waiting chairs. It looked like she was approaching them. Tessa wasn't wearing scrubs or her lab coat. She didn't recognize the woman, but that didn't necessarily mean she hadn't treated her.

Conner quickly stepped between them. Tessa was about to tell him to stand down so she could talk to the patient, when Harper let out a surprised, "Mom."

Scotty, Conner, and Tessa all stared at Harper. Tessa knew that Harper's father was the sheriff and wasn't on speaking terms with Harper, but Bear hadn't said anything about her mother.

Conner stepped back slightly. He still kept himself between the women, just no longer blocking. Since they were visiting Bree and trying not to draw attention to their presence in the hospital, Conner wasn't wearing his prospect cut.

Tessa placed Harper's mother in her late fifties. The woman had short curly hair that was more gray than black. She was shorter than Harper, who was five-eight. Tessa estimated the woman to be five-five. She was dressed in a long skirt, white blouse, and tan cardigan. Tessa thought she seemed more prepared for church than a hospital.

"What are you doing here?" Harper finally managed to get past her shock to ask.

"I'm leaving your father," Mrs. Hannigan announced quickly. "Or rather, I've left him. I didn't…" Her voice trailed off. "I was told you might be here. I don't have anyone else to go to other than Paige. I was hoping you might be able to help me."

"You left Dad?" Tessa was sure she heard elation as well as surprise in Harper's voice.

"I—" Mrs. Hannigan had yet to look up. She was still studying the floor. "I have the right to divorce the man who got my son killed."

Tessa caught Harper's flinch, as well as the look that passed between Harper and Conner. There was definitely more to that story.

Scotty took advantage of the silence to wedge himself forward. "Mommy, who is this lady?"

Harper jumped, as if she'd forgotten Scotty was also there. Tessa caught her look of self-deprecation before she forced a smile onto her face as she looked down at her soon-to-be son. "Scotty, this is my mom." She looked up at her mother. Mrs. Hannigan was staring at Scotty with wide eyes. "Mom, this is Scotty, Lucky's son. I'll be adopting him once we're married."

Mrs. Hannigan's eyes bounced between Scotty and Harper. "You're getting married?"

Harper nodded. Tessa had to wonder how long it had been since the two of them spoke. At least the five months that Lucky and Harper had been engaged.

Tears appeared in Mrs. Hannigan's eyes. "You tried to tell me he was a good man. I'm sorry I didn't listen."

"Are you really leaving Dad?"

Mrs. Hannigan nodded. "I don't have any of my things. We had to sell my car. After he left for work this morning, I just walked out. I hoped I'd run into you here. I can't… I can't face Paige."

Tessa didn't know who Paige was, but guessed daughter or daughter-in-law based on Mrs. Hannigan's reaction.

Harper stepped forward and took her mom's hands. "I can't blame you for leaving Dad. I can't even blame you for taking so long to do it. If it's a place you need, we have a spare bedroom. But I wish you'd talk to Paige, Mom. She misses you."

"You've spoken to her?" There was surprise in Mrs. Hannigan's voice, but also sorrow.

"Almost every day," Harper answered. "She doesn't understand why you've cut her out. She feels like she lost you and Richard together."

Mrs. Hannigan winced, looking away. "I can't… Not yet."

"Do you need help getting your things from the house?"

"There's not much left. We've had to sell so much."

Harper shook her head. "Doesn't matter. We'll go get it after we're done here. Come," she gently pulled on her mom's hand. "There's some people I want you to meet."

Bear hobbleddown the hospital hallway. Lucky was with him, as was Steel. Both men were walking slower so Bear could keep up. His back was practically on fire by the time they reached Bree's hospital room. As soon as he sat down, he was going onto Amazon to search for extra tall crutches. His back was not going to survive otherwise.

Bree's hospital room was more crowded than Bear had anticipated. Angel had returned earlier than the others. She hadn't stuck around for the third interrogation. Instead, she'd left Scar with instructions to "make it painful" and then left to be with her new daughter. The man, Freddy Myles, was another of Crisco's cronies. Crisco had heard about Bree's "death" during surgery, but still wanted verification. When he couldn't get ahold of Camden or Stewart, he sent Myles to check the morgue. Myles's instructions was to take a picture of the corpse and, if possible, cut a lock of her hair. No one, not even Myles, understood that last order.

Though Myles denied it at first, Camden tried to bargain to get his testicular restraints removed by claiming that Myles liked to play with the captives before they were filmed. Further questioning revealed that Myles did rape the victims prior to their videoed murders. According to him, they were going to die anyway, so what did it matter. He refused to answer whether he'd touched Bree or not.

The others left Myles to Scar. Camden, to his horror, was not released from his restraints, nor was he going free.

Keys had confirmed that Camden did have a sister, Denise, who lived in Philadelphia and had stage two ovarian cancer. Steel told Keys to dig into her financial status. If the club could help her out—anonymously—they would.

Angel was sitting on Bree's bed. Bree was raised up in a lounging position, so not to put pressure on her incision. Angel had her arm around Bree's shoulders with Bree's head on Angel's shoulder.

On the cot was Tessa. She was sitting up with pillows between her and the wall. Her broken elbow was also resting on a pillow. At her feet was Scotty, who was drawing in a coloring book.

Cage was sitting up in his bed eating a jello cup. Based on the amount of empty jello cups on his hospital table, there was a possibility he'd cleaned out the nurse's stash behind the counter.

Conner and Gus were standing by the bathroom door, looking bored out of their minds.

Jenna, Harper, and a woman Bear had never seen before were sitting in the window sill. He placed her around Jenna's age in her late fifties. Cage and Angel seemed fine with her in the room, though Bear didn't understand why a friend of Jenna's would have been allowed in.

Lucky looked equally confused. He was distracted from asking though because Scotty spotted his father and had run to him.

Bear took advantage of Scotty's absence on Tessa's cot to join her. He placed the crutches against the wall. Balancing on his good leg, he picked her up, sat down, and placed her between his legs. She grinned widely at him. For as much as she complained about her lack of height, she did love it when he picked her up and manipulated her body to his will. She reached down and placed the pillow she'd been using under her elbow under his cast. When she leaned back against him, she put his left arm under her cast and draped across her extended belly.

Bear couldn't wipe the grin off of his face. Apparently, she manipulated his body to her heart's desire too.

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her hair. "Hey, Mama Bear."

Closing her eyes, she leaned back against his broad chest with a long sigh. "Hey, Papa Bear."

"How's our cub?"

"Hungry. Which shouldn't be surprising, considering who her father is, but is because I literally just ate."

He chuckled. "Ate something normal or gross?"

"Cafeteria options are always slim for what your daughter is craving, but I found an egg salad sandwich that smelled good and added some peanut butter to it."

Bear made a gagging sound. She slapped her right hand against his thigh, giggling.

Louder, he said to the room, "Anyone got any food for Mama Bear?"

Cage held up a jello cup. "My donor nurse has a crush on me. She gets me anything I ask for."

"And the best you could do is jello cups?" Bear inquired as the cup and a plastic spoon were passed from person to person until it reached Tessa.

Tessa opened the cup, sniffed, and immediately pushed the cup away from her nose. "Ugh, no."

Bear took the cup and pressed the foil covering back down to help cover the smell. He passed the cup to Angel. "What do you want to eat, honey?" he asked Tessa.

Tessa's face scrunched up in thought. "Tuna." Bear was about to send one of the prospects to go get her a tuna salad sandwich, but she continued. "And apples. Peanut butter, of course. Strawberries definitely. And avocados. Pretzels. Not the crunchy kind though. A soft pretzel with spicy mustard. Oh, and some onion rings."

Bear had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing and gagging at the same time. When he got his reaction under control, he called over, "Prospect!" He didn't care which one. It was Gus who came over. "Get out your phone. You're going on a scavenger hunt for food."

After Bear had reiterated Tessa's list, she added, "Oh, and pickles please. The good ones from Subway."

From the expression on Gus's face, Bear was guessing he was wishing he hadn't volunteered for this task.

"I'll text you if there's anything to add," Bear told the man with a shit-eating grin.

Gus just nodded and headed out.

"I feel bad that he has to go out and get all that for me."

Bear rolled his eyes. "Honey, he's a prospect. It's his job to shut up and listen for an entire year. He has to do anything a brother or an ol' lady asks of him, or he'll have his cut pulled."

"A full year? How much longer does he have?"

"Gus should be coming up on his year. I think Conner has three months left. Quinten still has five or six months to go."

"And what happens after his year is up?"

"There's a vote. Has to be unanimous too. If one brother votes no, he doesn't get his rockers. He either has to do another year to prove himself or he's out."

"Have you ever voted no for someone?"

"Me personally or the club?"

She paused then said, "Both."

"Me personally, yes. There was this guy right around our second year. Real jerk. Thought every task we asked of him was beneath him. I didn't like how he treated the Honeys either. At that point, we were still new enough where the prospecting time was only six months, because we were trying to build membership. Anyway, when it came time to call for a vote, I don't think there was a single yes for him."

"Ouch. Bet that had to hurt."

"Bulldog and Scar had to escort him off club property. He threatened to sue us too."

Tessa snorted. "Guessing that didn't go over very well."

"It did not."

"What happens in five or six months when Quinten patches over and you don't have any other prospects?"

"We're always recruiting. If there aren't any prospects, the Honeys pick up certain jobs and the brothers just have to handle the rest on our own. However, we've never not had a prospect."

With recent events, the club hadn't been actively recruiting. They hadn't had the time and it was low priority in retrospect. However, Bear didn't mention that to Tessa. She was unaware of the troubles with the Castillo cartel or Harper's family's involvement.

"Did you have to prospect? You said you were an Original, but I'm not sure what that means exactly."

"No. None of the current officers had to prospect because we were there when the club bylaws were created. The seven of us formed the club. Some things we took out of MC traditions, like my position as Road Captain not getting a vote unless there's a tie, and other things we chose for ourselves, like allowing women to prospect and join."

Angel leaned around Bree's head to face them. "I knew Bulldog from my years in the service. When he reached out to me, I was beyond shocked. They hadn't changed their bylaws because I wanted to join. They were already open to having women in the club before I even knew about them."

Tessa smiled. "Very modern of them."

"Still didn't stop them from giving me—" Angel paused, looking down at the fourteen-year-old in her arms. "From giving me the garbage jobs as a prospect."

"You can say ‘shit' in front of me," Bree told her.

"Nope. We live in a clean house. No cursing."

Bree rolled her eyes. "I almost died. Doesn't that give me a little leeway to curse?"

"Nope. In fact, I'm going to make a swear jar for both the house and the tattoo shop. With this lot," Angel indicated to Bear and the other brothers, "we'll pay for your entire college education within the year."

Bree's grin faltered. "I don't think college is in my future. I haven't been to school in," she flinched, "years."

Her reaction was understandable, considering the hell she'd suffered through in the last two years of her life. Myles had given some details that made Bear glad Angel hadn't been present for. No one should know those details, including him.

He started to rub his hand over Tessa's belly where their cub rested, waiting for her next meal. It was scary, bringing life into this world full of monsters. Bear was comforted by the fact that, if something ever happened to him, Tessa would still have the club. He'd claimed her, cut or no.

They'd left Scar and Bulldog behind to deal with the scum in their cellar. Stewart and Camden were already begging for death when Bear and the others had left. Myles had collaborated everything Stewart and Camden had told them about Crisco and was to receive the rapist special.

Unlike the bodies of Connelly, Richard Hannigan, and Marcos that had been used to send a message to the Castillo brothers, the question of what to do with Myles, Stewart, and Camden had risen. Bulldog claimed he'd take care of it. Bear didn't want to know and therefore didn't ask.

Looking at Bree now, the concern for her education and future, Bear hoped Scar made Myles suffer.

Angel combed her fingers through Bree's hair. "One day at a time, baby. I already talked to Harper. Once you're home and situated, she'll give you a test to see what you know and what grade level you're at. If you're below where you should be, she agreed to homeschool you until you're ready to join your peers."

Bree still looked worried. "What if I don't want to go to school? Can she homeschool me until I graduate?"

Harper, having heard her name from her seat in the windowsill, came over to Bree's bed. "That's not a question we need to ask or answer today. You literally just had a kidney transplant yesterday. Worry about your health today and we'll talk about your education later on."

Bree nodded slowly. "Okay."

Harper squeezed Bree's hand and then went back over to her seat with Jenna and the woman Bear didn't know.

He lowered his lips to Tessa's ear. "Who's the woman sitting with Jenna and Harper?"

She turned her head up to whisper in his ear. "Harper's mom. She was waiting for Harper in the lobby earlier. Seemed like she'd been there for a while too. Said someone told her Harper would be at the hospital."

Thatwas Cindy Hannigan? She seemed too mousy for having caused Harper the trouble she had when Lucky and she had started dating. Although, anyone who'd been married to a bully like Ronald Hannigan would have a cowering demeanor.

She seemed comfortable around Jenna though. Like this wasn't the first time the women had spoken.

Bear glanced across the room to see Steel watching his wife and Harper's mother. He had an odd feeling it had been Steel who'd told Cindy Hannigan where she could find her daughter. What was the connection between Steel and Hannigan's wife though? How did the two even know each other?

"Why was she looking for Harper?"

"She left the sheriff. Said she's divorcing him." Bear's eyebrows rose. He hoped their conversation was private enough not to be overheard. "Something about him being responsible for getting her son killed. Are they talking about Harper's brother? I mean, they have to be. Unless it's a stepbrother. Regardless, I didn't know Harper had lost a sibling."

This definitely was not the time to go into Harper's family history. Especially with Harper and her mom sitting only feet away from them.

"Her brother," Bear whispered. "I'll tell you what I can later."

Tessa nodded in agreement.

About twenty minutes later, Gus returned with Tessa's shopping list. Despite Bear's stomach's reservations about what he was about to witness, he loved seeing how Tessa's face lit up at the sight of the food. Totally worth it.

The following Thursday,Steel called for Church. The entire club was in attendance with the exception of the prospects, Angel, and Cage. Though Cage had been discharged from the hospital, Steel had not made it a requirement for him to show and Cage had stated he wanted to stay at the hospital with Angel and Bree.

Tessa was on club property. She, Harper, and Harper's mom were overseeing Bear and Tessa's home being delivered. As a modular house, it was arriving in sections. The floor plan Tessa had picked out had not been in stock in Pennsylvania but a New Jersey store had had one on their lot. Bear had paid out the nose for the additional delivery miles as well as getting it so soon.

He wasn't wealthy by any means, but he'd been alone for many years with minimal expenses. He was fine nearly draining his savings if it got their home here faster.

Scotty's sister Sissy had come to take Scotty out for the day, so he wasn't underfoot. Scotty loved everything construction and would have distractingly been asking the builders questions.

Bear's new crutches had arrived. His back felt so much better without having to be bent in two while walking, or hopping. Sometimes being six-six had as much downfalls as being five-two. With parents of two different extreme heights, Bear was exceedingly curious to discover what height their cub would eventually have.

He just had to wait fifteen to eighteen years to find out.

Bear took his seat at the conference table. It was custom built with the club's logo of a smiling demon with two crossing rifles behind it etched into the center. Other than the officers, it was open seating during Church. Steel sat at the head of the table with Lucky to his right and Bulldog to his left. Demo's seat was to Lucky's right and Scar's seat next to him. On Bulldog's left was Jumper with his service dog Aerial and Bear next to him.

Everyone filed in. Keys sat next to Bear and pulled a laptop out of his shoulder bag. Then he pulled out a monitor extender, clipping it behind his laptop screen. The dual monitors expanded outward, giving Keys a total of three screens. He had the keyboard attached to the laptop as well as a silicone one he unrolled on the table to the right of his setup.

Bear raised an eyebrow but, before Keys could respond, Steel pounded his gavel against the table to start the meeting.

As usual, Scar was the last in the room and closed the doors behind him. Bear had a feeling he did this so the brothers wouldn't be tempted to try to engage him in conversation. Sissy and Harper were the only two people Bear had ever seen successfully have a conversation with Scar—without Scar ever saying a word.

Steel glanced around once to make sure he had everyone's attention. "It's been almost a month since Bree was found by Bear in the middle of the road. Her active pursuers have been captured and their punishments served. Scar and Bulldog disposed of their bodies yesterday afternoon. However, there is the matter of the pornographer known as Crisco. From what Myles, Stewart, and Camden told us, Bree's situation is not connected to the Castillo cartel. The fact that there are two sex traffic rings in our area does not sit well with me. Keys has been looking into the information given to us during the interrogation."

Steel indicated for Keys. The former Naval Intelligence officer looked around the table. "I've tracked down the warehouse where supposedly Crisco works out of. Based on satellite imagery and confirmed by public record, it's an old paper factory. I contacted a buddy of mine over at the NSA and he got me a thermal reading. It is definitely active." Keys flipped the extended monitors around so everyone could see what he was looking at. Bear scooted his chair closer to Keys, looking over the man's shoulder. Five or six images of the same floor plan rotated on the screen. Some red heat signatures' locations were the only thing that changed with each picture. "As you can see, as of three hours ago, there were three heat signatures outside and five inside. The three outside are most likely guards. Based on the location of these two," he circled two inside with a stylus on his screen, making a white circle appear, "I'd guess that they're captives. They're in the same location. Floor plans don't indicate there's a room where they're stationary. My thought is cages or they're chained to the wall. The other three move around. It's unknown if one of them is Crisco."

"Do we have Crisco's legal name?" Bulldog asked. None of the men they'd tortured had known it.

Keys shook his head. "The building is owned by a shell corporation. Funds are transferred in and out of a Cayman account."

Steel wrapped his knuckles on the table. "Here's what we need to decide. How far are we taking this? Ohiopyle was an accident. We were there to do surveillance and had no choice but to intervene. If we go to Cottonville, it will be our decision to intervene. We've already captured and dealt with the men who attacked Bear and Tessa and were meant to dispose of Bree's body. We could turn everything we have over to the Feds at this point and allow them to take care of Crisco."

"Do the Feds even know about Crisco?" Demo asked. "He's creating pedophilia pornography and snuff videos. Is he even on their radar?"

Keys spoke up. "That's not how the dark web works. It's more complicated than building a website and uploading videos or pictures for people to buy or view. You have to use an anonymizing browser and that's just to gain access, if you know what you're doing. Think of dark web as a maze of endless tunnels or a borderless puzzle. Every time you think you found something, there's another puzzle piece missing. It's endless codes, encryptions, and secret tunnels. You can't just Google what you're hoping to find.

"Crisco has a rotating algorithm protecting his site, a good one. The only way I found it was by searching for Bree." Keys winced. "That sounded bad. I mean that I found her video. The one of her…attack. Even though Crisco took it down, it was still online and, once it's out there, it's very difficult to destroy." He looked down the table at Steel. "I did take down what I could though.

"My point is that there's no way to know if the Feds are aware of Crisco. They could be aware of the snuff videos but not who is making them or where. It's not like the actors introduce themselves or show their faces. There's nothing in the videos to identify locations."

"So even if we turn the evidence we have over to the Feds, there's no guarantee they'll be able to make it stick to Crisco?" Bear said sourly.

Keys shook his head somberly. "Everything we have is circumstantial. If we'd turned Stewart, Camden, and Myles over to them as witnesses, maybe. But the cops are slow. And there's a strong enough firewall that Crisco would know if the cops started poking around. He'd just pack up and move locations, adjust his encryptions, and start all over."

"Question," Pumpkin spoke up. "You said you found his site. How do we know he isn't already moving and adding all that encryption stuff because you were there?"

Keys actually looked insulted. "You think I'm sloppy enough to be caught like that? Besides, I recognized the code and was able to counter it."

"Like you know the hacker who is running the site?" Bulldog asked.

"Not personally. But I've seen the code before. He or she knows what they're doing." Keys looked down the table at Steel. "I can shut it down, but not remotely. I can take everything down, and not just Bree's original video but all of it. And any system connected to it."

"Meaning you have to be in the warehouse to do it?"

Keys hedged his next answer. "Meaning I either need to get onto the developer's system or a computer that's connected to their system. It might be at the warehouse. It might not. The developer might be across or out of the country. I doubt Crisco is the one actually running the encryptions."

Steel pondered this a moment. "So even if we attack the warehouse, there's no guarantee we'll get Crisco or be able to take down the site. I'm not sure it's worth that risk. With those odds, we might as well turn what we have over to the cops. Let them take that chance."

Bulldog shook his head. "I disagree. Cottonville is close enough to Mount Grove to still be in our territory. We're going to allow a pedophile and murderer to work in our territory?"

"I don't like it any more than you do," Steel snapped. "We don't have enough information. We don't even know what Crisco looks like?—"

"No," Keys interrupted, "but we know someone who might."

Bear cleared his throat. "You mean to ask Bree if she remembers what the man who bought her, and may or may not have raped her but sure as shit had her raped and tried to kill her, looks like?"

Keys flinched at Bear's harsh but accurate description. "She's our only eyewitness who might be able to."

"We had three others," Ghost pointed out. "But they're now dead and buried."

Bear never thought he'd regret their deaths. And he didn't. More of, that they didn't get a description of Crisco before their deaths. If they moved forward with taking Crisco down themselves, they were going to have to get Bree involved. Angel was not going to be happy.

"Beyond what this asshole did to Bree," Ranger spoke up, "what about the others he's hurt? Where is their justice? We have the locations of the bodies Camden and Stewart disposed of for Crisco. I say that we give to the cops. But Crisco himself? He hurt one of ours. Doesn't matter that she wasn't ours when he hurt her. She's ours now. And we protect what's ours!"

Bear nodded in agreement. "Dumb and Dumber may have screwed up his orders, but it was still Crisco who ordered Tessa's attacks. They believed her to be a witness, even though she hadn't actually seen them. They almost killed her and my cub on his orders."

"And you," Lucky added. Bear hadn't forgotten—he just didn't consider himself as high of a priority as his girls.

Steel tapped the table to silence everyone. His eyes roamed the room, watching each of them intently. "I understand the gut instinct to act. That drive each of us feel to protect our loved ones and home is what drove us to serve our country with honor. Though we are all either discharged or retired, we still possess that drive. When we created the Via Daemonia, we did so for camaraderie and to help some of us acclimate back into civilian life. We agreed to assist Sheriff Longhill. Things obviously changed following his stroke and Sheriff Hannigan's arrival.

"We can't blame this one on lack of faith in our police, gentlemen. We took care of the present threat. I want Crisco dead and gone as much as the rest of you, but I don't want to bury any of you in the process." Steel let out a long sigh. "I know if we put it to a vote we'll be going after Crisco. My vote might even surprise you. However, I need everyone to consider the repercussions. I am no longer the only member with an ol' lady and/or children. Lucky, Bear, and Angel have now joined the family ranks. We are protected here, but the clubhouse and property are no fortress. We need to consider our families and how to protect them. Not only if the police come chancing after us, but if there are repercussions from taking Crisco down. We don't know who his allies are."

"We don't have to announce it was us." Everyone turned to Bulldog. "When we left for Ohiopyle, we left our cuts behind. Only reason anyone knows we were involved was because we had to call in the Feds. This time, we get in and out without anyone knowing it was us. Hell, not all of us have to go. We can leave some of us behind to party at Demon's with their cuts on. Create alibis."

"Can run it like a SRM," Ghost input, referring to a special reconnaissance mission like he used to do as a SEAL. "Only three or four of us go."

Steel drummed his fingers on the wood table. "How would you run it?" he asked Ghost. He held up a finger before Ghost could answer. "I'm not saying it will happen. I am asking how you would run it."

Ghost nodded once. "We go in soft and quiet. Ideally, I'd like those of us with special forces training to go. I don't know what training Scar has, but he's a shoe-in. Ranger too," whose moniker was chosen to honor his time with the Army Rangers. Ghost looked across the table at Jumper, the only other former SEAL in the club. "I don't recommend Jumper going."

Jumper didn't look offended—he looked relieved. He nodded his appreciation to Ghost. His PTSD was too easily triggered for him to be of assistance, despite his advanced training.

"Just the three of you?" Steel inquired.

"Keys said he would need to be there, but he wouldn't be in a combat capacity," Ghost added. "Ideally, we would clear the area and then he'd come in."

"I was Navy Intelligence," Keys snapped. He was typing away on his computer and didn't even look up as he spoke. "Most of my career might have been behind a computer screen, but I was still an officer. I can handle myself in combat."

"I said ideally," Ghost reiterated.

A chiming brought everyone's attention to Bulldog. He pulled out his phone. "Scar says he might need me there to reign him in."

Everyone turned towards Scar, but the man was sitting in his seat like he hadn't moved. He was looking down and didn't make eye contact with any of them. Bear hadn't even seen him move to send the text message.

Scar was an unknown in the club. Since he never spoke, the others didn't know his history. Bear couldn't recall if he'd ever been told what branch Scar had served in. Bulldog had been the one to recruit him, stating he wanted Scar to be his Enforcer. As far as Bear knew, Bulldog was the only one who knew Scar from before the VDMC. Due to that, Bear assumed Scar to have been Army, but didn't know for sure.

Steel tapped his knuckles on the table to get everyone's attention again. "I agree. If," he emphasized, "we do this, the team will be Ghost, Ranger, Bulldog, and Scar. Keys will go as intelligence." Meaning he wouldn't be part of the infiltration team. "The mission would be to capture Crisco, free any hostages, and to take down his website."

"Actually, it doesn't work like that—" Keys stopped talking at Steel's raised eyebrow. "I'll take care of it."

"The rest of us," Steel continued, "will be either here, at Demon's, or home. It might seem convenient to have a party on the same night, especially since we're supposed to be in mourning."

"Agreed," Lucky added. "Some of us don't party anyway. It would be suspicious if we are suddenly seen partying just to create an alibi."

Steel nodded. "I like this plan better than a full-on assault." He looked to Bulldog. "Let's get Angel and Cage on the phone so we can vote."