“Did you hear me, Brode?” Hut said, and Jesus Christ, I hated the nickname he’d given me. Never in my life had anyone ever called me that, but he’d taken a liking to it, which meant other people had too.
I cleared my throat and stowed my cell away. “Sorry.”
“Booty call?” Quinn asked, his brows rising up and down on his forehead. I was sure he was trying to banter, but he looked like a psycho when he did that.
The scraping of a chair rang out, but no one looked over at Lola as she pushed out of her seat. “Nah, I don’t do booty calls,” I answered, hating the way they talked.
“You got a woman then?” Quinn asked.
“Fuck me!” Hut roared. “No one gives a shit about his love life. All that matters is the goddamn meet.” Hut’s eyes narrowed on me and then Quinn, trying to drive his point home. “You finally paying attention?”
“Yeah,” I said on a nod, but my attention was pulled away from him as Lola walked through the living room and up the stairs.
“You ready to go then?”
All the guys were standing up, so I joined them, not sure where we were going, but not really caring, because the smile I’d gained from Lola had meant more today than anything else had.
* * *
BRODY
I yanked the door open and sauntered into the safe house, aware of the three sets of eyes focused on me. I hadn’t been able to touch base with any of them for the last four days as Hut had us searching high and low for his mom and Gus. We hadn’t been successful, and Hut hated that.
My teeth ground together as Lola’s face flashed in my mind, the glint of a knife against her throat, and the trickle of blood marking her smooth skin. Shit, she wasn’t safe there. She was surrounded by people who wanted to hurt her, and I had no idea what I could do to help while I was undercover.
“Brody,” Jord greeted as I halted next to his desk.
“Jord.” I tilted my head and turned to face Ryan and Kyle. “Ry, Ky.” I grinned at how their names matched. “How’s it goin'?”
Jord leaned back in his seat and pushed his feet on the floor, giving him a backward momentum to move closer to Ryan and Kyle. “Found out more about Jenna Ford.”
“Yeah?” I leaned against the desk and crossed my arms over my chest. “Who is she?”
“His cousin.” Jord drummed his fingers on the arm of his desk chair. “She’s got a record as long as my arm.” He pointed to a tablet next to me. “Take a look.”
I picked the tablet up and swiped into the system, Jenna’s details already loaded to the front screen. I swiped through all of her arrests but paused on one. “This says she was arrested with an accomplice.”
“Yep.” Jord grinned. “None other than Emerson Hutton.”
“Hut knew her?”
“She ran with him as part of his crew.”
I frowned and placed the tablet down, looking up at the guys. “So why does Ford not want her around?”
“She got out,” Kyle said, standing up and moving toward me. “She chirped like a canary when she was in lockup and Hut wasn’t too happy about that.”
I stared down at my combat boots, trying to piece it all together, but it didn’t make sense. If Jenna had given Hut up, why was he still out there, and more importantly, why was she still alive? I knew better than anyone what happened when you snitched. The old saying was as true as the sky was blue. And why was Ford Hut’s right-hand man? Unless…
I snapped my fingers and pointed at the guys. “Ford’s trying to bring Hut down.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Jord said, a huge grin on his face. “He’s trying to protect her.”
“But what if he’s not?” Ryan asked, his lips in a flat line. “What if he’s just doing what he’s gotta do to survive?”
“We need to find out,” I told them. “We need to know if we can turn him.” I scrubbed my hand down my face. “Maybe one of you approach him and see if you can get him to be a CI?”
“That could work.” Ryan nodded and stood. “We’ll put some feelers out and see what happens. How’s things going on your end? You made headway with the sister yet?”