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Terry watched me for a moment, making sure I wasn’t going to shoot him. I couldn’t help the snort that left me as I waved him away. He was right, but I didn’t have the first goddamned clue what to do about it.

Chapter Thirty Five

Leighton

Az and Craig were in the living room when I came down the next morning. Their eyes were focused on the TV, and the tight set of Az’s jaw told me something was wrong. He lifted the remote and muted it the moment he spotted me.

“Where’s Joey?” He asked.

“Fuck if I know,” I shrugged. “I haven’t exactly seen him since that night in his room. From what my guys have told me, he’s been holed up in that warehouse of his getting things back up and running.”

“Someone made a move last night. Three homes set on fire and a dozen bodies. Craig already hacked the coroner’s office and confirmed most of them are Jackals, but four of them were ours.”

“Fuck.” I hissed. “Where?”

“Not anywhere near the locations the ones you brought me last night gave up. They didn’t have anything beyond the rest of their own crew to give me. We already knew that from Jen though, so that wasn’t a surprise.”

“Someone slipped him intel he didn’t bother sharing with the rest of us.” Az bit out. “That’s the only thing that makes sense. Fucking hell, I knew after that fucking wall of his that he’dgotten secretive, but I didn’t expect this.” Az tugged at his hair in frustration. “We had a plan. Take advantage of the Jackals going ghost as long as we could to prepare, dig up everything we could find, then take them on. What the hell was he thinking?”

Craig leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “How did we let him get this far gone? No way the Jackals don’t retaliate for this and we’ve got no way of getting intel without getting one of ours killed because Joey decided to go rogue.”

“I might be able to do something about intel.” I offered. “But you two will have to deal with Joey if you want him to keep breathing.”

“Fuck!” Az shouted, tugging at his hair again before giving me his attention. “Find out what you can. I’ll send someone to hunt down Joey and we’ll deal with him later.”

“On it,” I replied, stepping back and heading upstairs to my bedroom.

I took the stairs two at a time in my hurry, practically running once my feet hit the second-floor landing. The second I reached my room, I made a beeline for my nightstand, where my phone was still plugged into the charger. Dialing a number I knew by heart, I put the phone to my ear and waited.

“Leighton?” Sarah answered on the third ring. “Quite a show you boys put on over on Twelfth and Poppy.”

“Wasn’t an authorized hit.” I replied.

“Shit. What do you need?”

“Anything the Urchins can find. One of ours went rogue and decided to get revenge on their terms instead of ours. We need to prepare for the backlash, but we can’t put boots on the ground to get what we need.” For some reason, my mouth had decided to protect Joey instead of naming him as the idiot who went rogue.

“Whatever you need, Leighton. You know the Urchins have your back. Always.”

“Thanks, Sarah. Call me when you have something and we’ll set the meeting.”

“Sure thing, Leighton. Keep your ass alive in the meantime. You may be a Horseman now, but you will always be family. Don’t make us attend your funeral.” She ended the call without saying goodbye.

Az. Craig and I all holed up in Ian’s office for the rest of the morning. Craig worked on his laptop, doing whatever it was he did with the thing to gather information, while Az put out calls to our men to find Joey. None of Joey’s crew answered their phones, and I could tell it was ratcheting up Az’s temper with each man who sent him to voicemail. Just when I was sure he was about to explode, my cell phone rang in my pocket.

“Sarah, you got something for me?” I asked, not bothering with a greeting.

“I think so. Where do you want to meet?”

I rattled off the address of a safe house we’d recently secured and told her we’d meet her there in about an hour. The tension from Az’s growing temper seemed to evaporate as I set the meeting, and by the time I ended the call, he was looking at me with something akin to hope.

“Craig and I will go with. Once we have the intel from your contact, we’ll head over to Joey’s new warehouse and see if he’s still there while you hunt down his crew and see if you can’t get some fucking answers out of them. Where’s Victoria? She’s going to be pissed, but I want her to stay here. This isn’t like the hunt you took her on, the Jackals are most assuredly looking for us and will shoot first if they spot us. She’s not ready for that kind of heat.”

“She was still asleep when I came downstairs.” Craig said. “If she hasn’t made her way in here to find us, I’m guessing she’s not up yet. Itwasa long ass night.”

“Make sure. If she is, leave her a note so she knows we’re out. She can be pissed about it later when we get back.” Az replied.

Craig met us at the front door ten minutes later, confirming that Victoria was still sleeping and he’d left a note. We loaded into the SUV and drove to the safe house in silence. Something that seemed suspiciously like anxiety coiled in my chest as we made the nearly hour drive, warring with the need to protect my woman and family. I was so wound up that I didn’t wait for Az to put the vehicle in park before I was climbing out of the door when we pulled into the driveway of the small cottage we’d secured as a safe house.