Page 17 of Hawkeye

Her glare followed me to the door, but so did the warmth in her eyes.

The meeting was underway when I entered Stryker’s office at the clubhouse. Nomad stood near the wall-mounted map with Cipher at a laptop, while Wraith and Smoke’s replacement on the surveillance team occupied the chairs along one side. Stryker looked up as I closed the door.

“Twenty-one minutes,” he remarked.

“Traffic.”

Not one brother in the room believed me, but Stryker let it go and nodded toward Nomad. “Give him the movement.”

“Three vehicles left the yard within ninety minutes,” Nomad reported, tracing the routes on the map. “First was a box truck headed to a legitimate estate job in Vista. Crew’s still there clearing furniture. Second was a cargo van carrying packing material to a storage property near San Marcos. Wraith’s team has eyes on it.”

“And the third?” I asked, studying the route that ended near central Escondido.

“Company van entered a commercial garage and never fucking came back out,” Nomad explained, his jaw tightening. “Driver switched vehicles inside. Street camera caught a gray pickup leaving six minutes later, but the plate belongs to a landscaping trailer in Chula Vista.”

“He didn’t disappear.” I looked at Cipher. “He changed fucking trucks.”

He turned the laptop so I could see a grainy image of the pickup. “Pulling every camera within six blocks. The garage’s internal system went dark ten minutes before the van arrived, which means the switch was planned.”

Stryker folded his arms. “Think they’re clearing the yard?”

“They’re breaking the inventory into pieces small enough to move without drawing attention,” I answered, tracing the cargo van’s route toward the storage property. “We keep eyes on this location and find the pickup. We hit the yard now, we take whatever shit they left behind and warn every other site to empty.”

Nomad nodded once. “Let them keep moving until they show us the rest.”

“Exactly.” I looked around the room, making sure every man understood the patience involved. “Nobody spooks the yard, the garage, or that storage property. We follow the fuckers and let them build our map for us.”

Stryker began assigning the next rotations while Cipher widened the camera search. My phone vibrated with a message from the detail near the boutique confirming Josie and her mother were inside, and the block remained quiet.

Chet Tippon believed he still had time to scatter the evidence and decide what to do about the woman who had exposed the first crack in his operation. He was wrong about the time, and he had made a considerably worse mistake when he looked at Josie as if she were a problem he could remove. From this point forward, every vehicle he moved would lead us closer, and every road he used would narrow the distance between him and the Black Crowns.

7

JOSIE

Iwas repairing the ribbon support on the shadow box when Calder came into the converted briefing room that had become my workspace. Time had disappeared like it always did when my hands were busy with a delicate task, so I didn’t know he was there until his deep voice cut across the table.

“Club business this morning. You’re coming with me for lunch.”

I looked up and saw that he was already holding my bag. “I packed a sandwich.”

“Peanut butter and fluff isn’t a real lunch.” He tipped his head toward the door. “Jacqueline’s already feeding half the clubhouse, and I want you with me.”

“I suppose I could eat something more nutritious if you insist.”

I secured the box, locked the cabinet, took off my apron, and hung it from the back of my chair. Then he settled his hand at my lower back to guide me down to the SUV.

Calder opened the passenger door, waited until I was in, and drove us toward the clubhouse. The drive through the backcountry only took twenty minutes, and he kept his hand on my thigh the entire time while I chatted away about the work I’d done so far today.

Since we were in a Black Castle vehicle with the Black Crowns VP at the wheel, we were waved through the gate. After parking in front of the clubhouse, Calder led me into the kitchen, where four women were busy cooking.

The obviously pregnant one at the stove turned toward Calder and me with a smile. “Hey, Hawkeye. About time you brought Josie around to meet us.”

One of the two older women wagged her finger. “Yeah, you know how much Mara and I enjoy feeding the girls.”

“Hey, Jacqueline and I are the ones doing most of the cooking here while the two of you gossip,” the woman slicing bread protested.

Calder chuckled at my raised brows and nudged me deeper into the room, pointing at each woman as he introduced her. “Josie, meet Jacqueline, Tamsin, Dot, and Mara. They’ll take good care of you while I’m busy.”