There were a million thoughts running through my head at Drew’s last words, and a million and one questions I needed to ask. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t time to fire rapid inquiries at him and get the things we needed to do done. The club operated like a well-oiled machine, and from the way Drew was driving, his first priority had been me. As flattered as I was, I knew there were other places he needed to be, and he should be answering questions everyone else would have. For now, I just had one very pressing thing to verbalize before I picked up my phone and executed his commands.

“That’s all you had to say.”

I pulled my bag around and fumbled inside for my phone as Drew grumbled under his breath. Starting with Sutton, I made the needed calls, moving on to the school to release the kids, and then Harry to get the MC into gear—all orders given by Drew as he drove and I executed them, giving each person I spoke to as little information as possible. I was just hanging up from Deeks who was with Autumn at her place when we pulled in through the gates.

This plan of action was like circling the wagons. It was a call to action; all of our charter members were expected to head toward The Hut. Some brought their spouses and children; others went out of their way to pick up known friends of the MC. Once everyone was in place, the gates were locked and the talking started.

Harry was disappearing into The Hut as Drew slid the van to a complete stop and dragged me across the bench seat and out of the same door as him. It was only my quick thinking that stopped me from being choked to death by the seatbelt, and I cringed as the metal belt hit the window on the return. He didn’t even bother to wait for me to climb out myself, just dragged me into his arms. I was left to kick the door closed as the roar of three bikes grew louder just outside the property line. The sound made Drew stiffen so his shoulder became a concrete block wedged under my sternum.

“Ouch,” I grumbled, my hands clawing at his back so I wasn’t in quite so bad of a position. When I glanced over my shoulder, I was happy to see that the riders were Kenny, Moose, and one of the other guys wearing a full helmet, which made it impossible to tell exactly who he was.

“Get ready, darlin’,” Drew whispered in my ear as he lowered me to the ground and watched the patched members roll into the yard. “Shit is about to get real.”

“What’s next?” I asked, offering a half wave to Kenny as he swung his leg over his bike.

Drew grabbed my face in his hands and pulled me closer. “Time to be the old lady. I’ll take the guys to the table. I’ll need you to take care of everyone in The Hut. Autumn will help you. You think you can do that?”

I smiled up at him, my hands rising to cover his where they warmed my cheeks. “I’ll make it work.”

“I’m going to do something stupid, too. I’m going to go against protocol and tell you to send Sutton into the room. But ten minutes after I’ve gone in with my men. I’m going to have to warn them first, but he needs to hear this. If the Navs are connected to Jacob, I need someone from town to be able to fill in some gaps for us. I’m going to need to keep communication open with him. If the Navs had anything to do with Sloane…” he trailed off, shaking his head softly. “Not that that’s their style. If it had been one of them, I doubt she’d have gotten away. Although, I suppose it fits with her story. Someone she’s never seen before, and they’d have the motive to hurt her just to piss us off. But we don’t know anything for sure and for now, we need to discuss all options. Keep the women and the kids occupied so they don’t panic. Some of the men will stay out there with you. As soon as we’re done, I’ll come and find you.”

I nodded my understanding and rolled my shoulders back, pushing against his hands in a silent request for a kiss. He brushed his lips against mine briefly, but it was enough.

The moment we were inside it was easy to see why they needed someone to take point. All the men knew exactly what was expected of them. They moved things around, made people comfortable, and there were even a few prospects setting up the table in—what I’d dubbed—the war room. It was the families by proxy that seemed to be causing the chaos. Some of the women with younger children were huddled together, their infants held to their chest. Some of them even had to juggle that with holding on to toddlers, who obviously wanted to explore.

Squeezing Drew’s hand, I released it, threw him a wink and headed toward our room so I could dump my things onto our bed. When I returned, I made a beeline for the HWs standing along one side of the room looking a little bemused by the sudden overcrowding. I approached Libby first. Until Autumn got there, I needed help, and she was my biggest advocate in this group. Together we delegated tasks to the other women asking some to keep the younger children in my room where there were toys for the twins laying around and a television for them to watch. We sent a couple more to man the bar and hand drinks out to anyone who wanted them. The rest were to welcome families and members and do some damage control with the more freaked out people in the group.

Once the Hounds had gone to their meeting and closed themselves off from the rest of The Hut, our lives became a little easier. The others began to focus and pay attention to what was going on around them. The prospects and patched members who were not at the table were watching the surveillance screens because they were now in control of who entered the compound.

When I saw Sutton’s cruiser pull in, I slipped past the patched Hound at the door and went out to help him with the twins, and send him to the table where the conclave was taking place. Drew and the others had been sequestered for a good ten minutes by then, as Drew requested. Warning Sutton to knock first, I sent him off to the inner sanctum, while Tate and Sloane—who had followed him in on Tate’s bike—helped me shuffle the twins back to my room where the makeshift daycare was.

“What’s going on?” Tate asked, bouncing one of the twins on his hip and making a funny face at her.

“I’ll tell you as much as I know.” I led them down the hall after smiling at a woman I should have known the name of, but didn’t.

“And that is?”

“Drew saw a Nav in town.”

Tate almost stumbled, and Sloane walked into his frozen form, obviously unaffected by the statement. There was no way she could have picked up what that would mean in the few months she’d been tangled up with the club. One look at Tate’s face, though, and she understood without a long-winded explanation about club politics.

“Rival MC?” she asked.

“A big one with a long reach. They’re dangerous,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to scare her, but she needed to know the basics. “So we’re here until the boys can figure out the best course of action and move us in the right direction.”

I could see that Sloane wanted to argue. I knew that she had cheerleading practice, and they had another competition in a few weeks, but I also knew that she understood how bad things could get if a rival club rolled in and mixed things up, especially as she and her family were now friends of the MC and under our protection. We were all making sacrifices, and she was accepting hers with grace.

Tate bounced Khloe in his arms and watched me with his furrowed brow. The club was his life now, and he took that seriously. He may still want to play football and maybe go to college one day, but all paths would lead back to the Hounds for him and knowing these guys as well as I did, I couldn’t fault him for that.

“Where did Drew see him?”

“I have no idea. I swear, I’ve told you everything I know. Drew needed to consult everyone else before he could tell me anything solid. As soon as I know, I’ll tell you anything you need to know.”

“Need to know?” He huffed.

“Yes. Need. You’re sixteen, Tate.”

“Old enough.”

I gave him a look of complete disbelief and shook my head. I didn’t remember being quite that pushy at his age, but then again he was a monster of my making. He wanted to be an adult too soon.

“Just help with the kids and let me know if y’all need anything. As soon as Autumn’s here, I’ll send Libby in to help, too.”

The two of them nodded, and Sloane took the bag from me as she bounced Kim to her other hip with a nod of acceptance. Tate leaned in the moment they were out of earshot, and I was sure he was complaining about being in the dark. He could suck that crap up because I was shrouded in the same shit and I had to keep the calm around here until we could figure out our next move.

Deeks and Autumn were the last to arrive at The Hut, and their arrival spurred on the shutdown of the gates and the sealing of the perimeter. The pawnshop had its shutters down and was locked up tight. A couple of the repossessed trucks were parked up against the closed gate to reinforce that entrance, too.

The moment they were over the threshold, Deeks disappeared to talk to some of the other patched members, while Autumn dropped her bag next to a couch closest to us and flopped into it, pulling me down with her.

“I don’t—”

Autumn silenced me with one swipe of her arm, a proud smile warming her features. “You’ve done your job well. There’s nothing more to be done. No kids running around and destroying everything they touch. No weeping women staring at the women their men had probably screwed long before they were ever together. Everyone has a drink, and there's no chaos to be found. Just take a minute.”

“I’m so glad you’re here,” I confessed, dropping my head on her shoulder and finally noticing what she’d seen on her arrival. Everything was in order and somewhat calm. It was nice to know that Drew’s trust in me was well placed and I was up to the task as his old lady. I wasn’t sure how long this lull in the chaos would hold. In fact, I was pretty sure the moment the doors to the war room were thrown open things would turn into absolute disrepair as questions were thrown out.

I took a moment to absorb everything around me. If there was any doubt in my mind that this group of men had a plan in place for any contingency that was now destroyed. The machine that was The Hounds of Babylon had a thousand moving parts, and every single piece knew what was expected of them, all the way down to the prospects who were out walking the perimeter like soldiers walking the front line. The patched members, who appeared to be doing nothing more than standing around and talking, were—upon closer inspection—actually making plans for fortifying the walls and organizing places for people to sleep.

No matter how things appeared on the outside, each and every person was doing what had been tasked to them—including things as mundane as replacing empty liquor bottles and beers from the stockroom. The whole thing made me feel lazy for sitting.

“How is Sloane?” Autumn asked quietly so the women close to us couldn’t listen in.

I heard the deeper meaning to that question underlying the simple one. The implication of the Nav’s involvement in Sloane’s attack wasn’t something I’d considered when I’d explained the situation to Sloane and Tate earlier. Looking back on my interaction with them even now, I knew that was a stretch.

“She’s dealing with everything as best she can,” I said cautiously and lifted my head to meet Autumn’s eyes. “When I mentioned the Nav, she didn’t even blink until she realized that she needed to be in lockdown with us. I’m going to go ahead and say whoever this Rifleman is Drew saw, he wasn’t a party to what happened to her.”

Chewing her bottom lip in thought, Autumn nodded. “It would have been a stupid move on their part. She’s not just protected by the club, she’s the chief’s daughter. I would like to say I couldn’t see their charters decision makers going that low, but I don’t know much about the club or their members. I just know our guys would never do that to a teenage girl.”

Nodding my agreement, I took another glance around the room as my leg tapped with all the nervous energy that was bundled inside of me. “I agree. I can’t see the Navs sanctioning an attack on a teenage girl, especially not the daughter of our police chief. It’s just asking for trouble. They’d be pulled over on sight. Seems like a hassle they’d rather do without.”

“Which leaves a big question mark over who she’s protecting and what they have over her.”

“And isn’t that a huge thorn in our sides? It feels like those walls are suddenly closing in on us again, Autumn, just when things were starting to calm down. If something happens now, the town and all the trust we’ve built with them will go to Hell.” It seemed like a petty thought to have in the grand scheme of things. Lives were on the line here. Our futures were possibly being threatened, and there I was concerned about what light was being cast on us from the town. The only explanation I had was the waves of chaos still swirling in my head.

Before Autumn could so much as formulate a reply, Libby rushed toward us giving me a sweet I need something smile.

“Everything okay?” I inquired before she had time to say a word.

“That depends on your interpretation of the word.” Libby snorted but smiled again in an attempt to show she was joking. “Nothing to panic about, just the kids getting restless. Sloane mentioned snacks, and I volunteered.”

“That much fun?” I teased.

“I swear, being in that room is the best form of birth control there is. And you can quote me on that.”

“Considering you’re dating my kid brother, I’m very happy to hear that.” I pushed up from the couch I’d been sharing with Autumn, and she nodded in understanding. If something came up while I was grabbing the pantry keys, she would take care of it. There were no words for how much I loved that woman.

Libby and I took our time heading to the back of The Hut and wound our way to Drew’s bedroom so I could get the keys from my bag. I’d put a lock on the pantry door after the midnight raids became utterly ridiculous. I knew who the worst offenders were, and breaking in had become a game to most of the guys whenever the mood struck. The incursions had started after a threat to lock the doors from me, which had instigated even more thievery and left us with absolutely no food one night—as well as a huge mess in the kitchen for me to clean up. So I’d put a lock on the damn thing and left the challenge unspoken. If someone got in, they’d earned the plunder in my opinion. Everyone else had to hunt me down for the keys if I forgot to unlock the damn thing in the mornings—a rod I’d made for my own back.

Libby leaned against the jam of the door as I dropped my ass on the bed and started to dig for my keys. My purse wasn’t even that big, which made the stab of the envelope against my hand all the more compelling. I’d never kept much in there, so the cumbersome envelope was out of place.

“Ayda?” Libby asked.

“Oh, sorry.” I dug for the keys and unclipped the one for the pantry, which had a skull and bones keyring and tossed them to her. Libby snatched them from the air and smiled at me, not reading my strange mood.

“I hold the power of sustenance.” She rattled the key and gave an exaggerated evil cackle accompanied by a small dance.

I gave a dutiful laugh, and that was enough to send Libby on her way, while I pulled the plain security envelope from my bag and stared at the strange words written in the same scrawl as the other note.

Bullets don’t take corners.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

It was much more cryptic than the last message and more insidious, too. Bullets don’t take corners was an asinine statement designed as a warning of sorts. Were they saying that the danger was in plain sight? That seemed too little too late if they were referring to the Nav Rifleman.

He’d already been seen.

I was still puzzling the riddle out when the din of noise from the main room disappeared and left my ears ringing in the unexpected silence. There was only one thing that could cut through the noise like that: the guys had come out from their isolation.

I stuffed the envelope into my bag and left the room, rushing to the bar and pushing the strange warning to the back of my mind. Some things just needed my attention more than others.