“Tell him I’ll be pulling the security tapes,” Outlaw said. He was our technical wizard and IT man.
“Outlaw’s going to review the tapes and see if he sees anyone. Be safe and we’ll see you soon.” After I hung up with him, I looked at the guys.
“He wants us to get everyone to his house. They’ll be back as soon as they can. Let’s go get Zara and the kids to the house. One of us will stay with them, while the others search. I have a bad feeling about this.” Back inside the clubhouse, Zara and Jake were busy calming the crying babies in the panic room. The noise had startled them awake. I took Caeden from her since she had both him and Corrine in her arms.
“Baby, we want you and the kids to go to Bull’s house. It’s safer. Just until the others get back.”
“What was it, Demon?”
“Someone threw what looks like a grenade over the wall. It put a crater in the front lawn. It didn’t get close to the clubhouse, but I’d feel better if we moved further inside the compound.” She didn’t argue. I could see the concern and maybe a little fear on her face. She started for the door. The others followed us.
As soon as we were inside Bull and Jocelyn’s house, I got her situated with the kids. I looked at Jake. “We need to go out and look around. You stay here and keep all the doors locked. You don’t open the door unless you know it’s one of us. They’re your responsibility, Jake. Keep them safe.”
“I will. Don’t worry.”
Zara grabbed my arm. “Why are you going out there? Do you think someone got inside?”
“I don’t know, babe. It’s unlikely, but we want to be sure. Try to relax and we’ll be back soon.” I gave her another kiss. This one she responded to. I reluctantly pulled myself away from her. Maverick, Tate, and I went to search. Outlaw had stayed behind to search his computers while we brought Zara and the kids to the house.
The three of us went outside and split up. Maverick went to search the front of the compound, Outlaw to the east and me to the west side. When we were done, we’d head toward the back together. Walking along the side fence, I thought about the explosion. It made no sense to throw a grenade. It wasn’t done to put a hole in the wall. It hadn’t hit a structure. I couldn’t think of how someone could sneak into the place.
We didn’t make it all the way around before my phone buzzed with a text from Bull, telling us to come to the clubhouse. I hurried back there. When I got inside, I saw that Jake, Zara, and the kids were there as well. I gave her a quick hug.
“Go to the house with Jessica, okay?”
“Of course. See you later.” She followed Jessica out of the room. I didn’t want either of them alone. I followed the others into an emergency church. All of us sat down at the table. The mood was tense. Anger permeated the room. Bull cleared his throat and banged on the table with his fist. We all came to attention.
“Tell us what happened, Demon. Then I want Outlaw to tell us what he’s found on the security tapes.”
“We were all inside the clubhouse, in the common room with the babies, talking and playing darts. Out of nowhere, a loud boom sounded, and the place shook for a second or two. Jake and I got Zara and the kids into the panic room, while Maverick and Outlaw went to investigate. Tate was at the gate. They checked on him while I looked around the front fence. He was fine. He said he’d seen a dark SUV come slowly down the road. He was busy watching it, so he didn’t see who snuck up and lobbed the grenade over the fence. Next thing he knew, a loud bang went off and knocked him on his ass.
“That’s when I found the hole. Maverick and I went to the fence to check it out. Outlaw went to check the security tapes and Jake stayed inside the clubhouse with Zara and the babies. We didn’t see anyone or find anything other than scuffing in the dirt, where someone stood and threw it over the fence. I have no idea what they hoped to accomplish by throwing it over. I mean, if they wanted inside, they should have hit the gate or even the wall. It would have likely made a hole for them to get through. We walked the front perimeter and then went back inside after I called you. We electrified the top of the wall and gate too.”
Bull looked over at Outlaw. “Okay, I guess it’s my turn. Check out the screen.” Outlaw pointed to the projector screen. It came on to show the SUV Tate had described. It slowly crept past the front gate and had barely passed by when there was a loud boom.
A screen change showed the SUV, but it was on a camera along the fence where the grenade had been thrown. The time stamp showed it was earlier than when it had rolled past the gate. A masked figure, dressed all in dark clothes, was seen running up to the wall in a crouch. He stopped and looked around before lobbing a grenade over the wall and taking off at a run. Further down the road, we caught sight of another vehicle waiting. He jumped into it, and they took off. We all looked at each other baffled.
“That’s all I found so far. I’m running everything from an hour before the explosion until afterward. I have to watch each camera’s feed and there are a dozen of them. I have four done and am working on the fifth one. Give me another two hours, maybe three, and I should be through all of them. The two vehicles didn’t have license plates, so I have no way to track them through the DMV.”
I knew we were all disappointed that was all he had, not that it was his fault. If there was something to find, Outlaw would find it.
Ajax interjected, “We need to find out who it was and eliminate the threat. Jessica is certain it was her family. I think so too. She’s worried the other women and kids will get hurt. She was telling me she needed to leave before I came in here. I think I talked her down, but she’s torn up. You all saw her vomiting. It was because of this.” Groans rang out around the room.
“Shit. We can’t have her wanting to leave. When shit like this happens, they get crazy and go. The hormones don’t help either. Make sure to keep an eye on her. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Rebel said. He should know. His woman had done just that not long ago.
“I will. If we don’t have anything else, I need to go check on her. She laid down to take a nap at the house,” Ajax stated.
“No, that’s it for now. We’ll maintain a lockdown. Outlaw will continue to work on the tapes. If you need help, Outlaw, reach out to Smoke. He can be another set of eyes and possibly Everly,” Bull instructed. They would be a help if we needed them. Smoke was the computer god for the Dublin Falls’ guys, and Everly was his equally brilliant wife. I hurried to go to the guesthouse when we hit the common room. I’d seen Ajax stop to talk for a minute to one of the guys. I needed to see that Zara and Jessica were doing okay. I knew this had to be driving Ajax crazy.
As I got to the house, I saw the front door was ajar. Warning bells went off in my head. There was no reason for them to have left that door open. I drew my gun and slowly eased into the door at a crouch. A quick search through the house revealed Zara lying unconscious on the concrete back patio. My heart jumped in my chest. I fought not to go straight to her.
There was no sign of Jess or anyone else. Rushing out to Zara, I picked her up and ran toward the clubhouse. I was so damn rattled, I didn’t even text for help. I was almost there when Zara stirred. She blinked at me in confusion then started to struggle to get down. I ignored her, as I burst through the door.
Ajax and the others all looked up at me in shock. Zara had blood running down her face from a cut on her head. She was trying to boss me around. “Put me down, Demon. I’m fine.” I ignored her as I took her toward one of the couches.
Ajax ran over to us. “What happened?”
“I found her out behind the guesthouse. She was out cold. I just grabbed her and came here. She woke up as we were coming through the door,” I explained. She slapped at my hands, which were running all over her to look for other injuries.