Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Striker

"I'll be back this evening to pick you up." The last thing I want to be doing is dropping Autumn off right at work and leaving her alone all day, but I've got some things to do today which means I can't hang around here to keep an eye on her.

"I'm fine to go back to my apartment. I don't need you to pick me up," she says, moving away from me and heading for the back.

I follow after her, nodding to a woman who's already there prepping baked goods.

"Hey Tiffany," Autumn greets her. "I'll be right back to help. I'm so sorry I wasn't already here."

Tiffany smiles. "You're fine, I have this handled. Go set your stuff down. Get coffee. I've got this."

Autumn nods and heads for her office. I step in behind her and watch as she stows her stuff away in a cabinet drawer while listening when she starts talking. "Tiffany's part-time here. She can't do full-time. Mondays are the only days she comes in so early because her husband is able to take their kids to school. The other days, I'm in here by myself until right before opening when Athena comes in. I can't afford to be late like this."

"Autumn, you can't do everything yourself," I say, moving behind her. "You gotta give some of the weight to others."

"I have everything under control," she says, turning to face me. "And I need to get in there and help her finish getting everything ready."

"I'll be here to get you later," I tell her again, pulling her into my arms. "You don't leave here without me with you."

"Why?" she asks, tilting her head back enough to meet my gaze.

"I'll explain that tonight after dinner," I answer, not about to get into it with her right now. Not when she needs to get to work and I've got shit to do. "Just listen to me and don't go anywhere without me, okay?"

Autumn holds my gaze, seeming to look for whatever answer she's looking for. Finally, she nods. "Okay, but you're going to explain things tonight."

"I will, Mama." I dip forward and press a kiss to her lips. "I'll be here this evening. We'll go to my place, I'll cook dinner for us, and we'll talk." It won't be things I want to actually talk about, but it's one we've got to have. She needs to know the threat against her.

Letting her go, I move away and head for the door. My gut tells me I shouldn't leave her, but I need to get to Devil's Nirvana. I figure if I head on over there, get my shit taken care of now, I won't have to deal with it later. Then tonight, I can deal with other things. Like the talk I need to have with Autumn.

The sooner it gets taken care of, the faster I can get her ass back in my bed.

First, though, get my shit taken care of, get to the clubhouse for church, then I can get back here to her before she even thinks to leave and go to her apartment. I don't care if we have access to the cameras there. I don't want to take the chance of her going there and then some fucker getting to her when no one's there to have her back.

"You work things out with your woman?" Horse asks brow cocked and watching me closely.

"Yeah," I answer, taking my seat next to Brass and looking at my VP. "Lila get to school okay?"

"Kenny made sure she was up and out on time." He nods and grimaces. "You know she told Kayla and Kenny last night that she got her acceptance letter to the University of Colorado?"

"Come again?" I jerk back, having not heard this yet.

"You heard me." Horse smirks.

"Fuck." I lean back in my chair, shaking my head. "The last thing I need is for Lila to go that damn far away for school."

"I don't envy your position." Twister snorts. "The day Mercy even thinks about dating, let alone heading off to a college, I'll lose my shit."

Considering who his daughter is, yeah, I could see it. Everyone calls Twister's daughter by her middle name rather than her first, which suits her. She might be a little girl, but she's got the men in her life wrapped tight around her finger and could make them beg for mercy because she's already hell on wheels. Just like her damn mother.

"I'd been hoping she didn't get accepted there," I grumble.

"You know the Colorado Charter would look out for her, keep her safe," Hades mutters, tapping his fingers on the table.

"Yeah, and the last time Driver was out this way with Blue, I saw the way he looked at Lila." There's no way in hell I'm letting Driver anywhere near my sister. Brother or not, he's a playboy, and I'm not going to let anyone hurt my sister, which is exactly what he'd do if he got his hands on her.

"Grinder will look out for her," Twister says. "Then again, Driver knows what it's like when it comes to sisters getting with a member of the club."

"Yeah, he's still pissed about Chelsea and Lucky," Horse says and lets out a chuckle.

"How about we drop this subject?" I suggest, wanting to forget about the idea of my sister leaving for school in another state, for that matter. "Let's focus on something else. If I have to think about my sister going away, it'll just piss me off."

"You're gonna be pissed regardless," Gadget states from behind his laptop.

"Did you find something else?" Brass asks.

"Yeah, you can say that." Gadget nods. "Athena and Lucian gave me access to the security camera feeds. I've been going through them for the past two days. Last night, though, someone gave Autumn's apartment another visit."

I stiffen in my seat and focus in on Gadget. "And?"

"The security feed in her apartment showed them trashing it," he remarks, grimacing. "Didn't see the feed until just a bit ago, my fault . . ."

"You gotta sleep sometime," Dragon mutters, speaking to his twin brother .

"Yeah, I know, but shit right now is real," Gadget grumbles and glances around the table. "The men who broke into Autumn's apartment, they didn't go in just to trash it. They were there to take her."

"How do you figure?" Twister asks, leaning forward.

Gadget nods to the screen off to the side of the room and points a remote at it. "This is why," he says as the picture comes up.

On the screen, you can see the men trashing her place. Gadget turns the volume up, and that's when I hear a man who steps in from her room. "She's not here again. She was here, though."

"I still don't know why the boss wants this bitch so badly," another man says, kicking at the shredded couch cushion.

"Because he does," the other one says. "You know better than to question the bossman about his intentions."

"I don't give a flying fuck what his intentions are. I'm sick of looking out to snag a bitch who?—"

"Watch it, Micky, you don't want the boss to find you talking shit about this woman. He has plans for her."

"What plans would those be, Rob?" Micky scoffs.

"I don't fuckin' know." Rob sneers. "Look, let's just get the fuck out of here. She ain't here. I'll talk to bossman and see what he wants to do."

"He probably needs to just snag her from that café again," Micky says, heading for the door.

"It's a possibility, but we know those friends of hers from the club have that place on radar. One of them lives right down the hall here. We've risked enough the times we've come in here as it is. He doesn't want them to cause any more trouble than they already have. He's not ready to deal with them just yet."

The two of them make their way out of the apartment, making sure to close the door behind them.

"So, their boss isn't ready to deal with us just yet? What does that mean?" Burner asks.

"I don't know, but ‘Marionette' wants Autumn. He just doesn't want to go against us," Gadget remarks.

"Question is, why doesn't he want to go against us?" I ask, more to myself than to any of them. "That's what we need to find out," Twister adds, rapping his knuckles on the table. In the years I've known him, this is something I've seen him do plenty of times to know he's deep in thought. He leans back in his seat and nods. "For now, Striker, you stick to your woman as much as possible. Don't let her outta your sight."

"Wasn't planning on it." There's no way I'm leaving any openings for anyone to get to her. This means next time I have to go to Devil's Nirvana, she's coming with me.

"Good," Twister remarks and looks around. "Until we have this situation taken care of, we need to be cautious as much as we can. You got an ol' lady, make sure she's on alert, don't let them go anywhere alone if you can help it."

"We don't need to take chances," Horse says. "We've had enough bullshit around here. Don't need more."

"Agreed," Burner grumbles.

The rest of church, we put a plan together in trying to locate this ‘Marionette' guy. I, for one, want nothing more than to get my hands on him. He wants Autumn for some reason, and I'm willing to bet it's got more to do with the woman herself than just Rick and what he was into working for the guy.

By the time we finish, I pretty much have a plan of my own put together in my head. First things first, getting back to my woman and making sure she's not working herself to death.

Tonight, I'll tell her what she needs to know about what's going on. Then I'll make sure she understands that I'm gonna do whatever it takes to protect her and make sure she stays safe.

No matter the cost.