Page 124 of Lost Lyrebird

I enter the bathroom and come back out to tell Stone how disgusting it is and that I’m going to try the one in the restaurant next door.

“I said, all right, babe.”He stares hard at me for a moment, like me interrupting his conversation to tell him where I’m going is getting on his last nerve.As I walk away, I internally smile at this.

I’m mad as hell when I turn the corner of the building to find Deeds smoking a cigarette and leaning against the brick wall.One boot is planted behind him, and when he sees me, a wide-as-fuck grin splits his face.

He tries to hug me and plant a kiss on my cheek in welcome, but I push him back because if even one HOC sees us together, we’re both fucked.

He’s bothered by my rejection but quickly moves on to more important matters.He pushes me for the details I’ve collected since we talked.

I share everything except the new information I discovered the day before I left for this trip.I don’t tell him about Mateo or how I spotted a man in an Aston Martin pulling up to Finn’s place when Finn wasn’t home.Or how Mateo answered the door, and instead of letting the man inside, he quickly stepped out and shut the door behind him.He’d pushed the man back and had the fiercest scowl I’ve seen to date covered his features.

I paused in my gardening.Something about his reaction raised some massive red flags.

The visitor was Hispanic, with short, slick, dark hair, and dressed sharply in a charcoal-tailored suit.

The tension between them escalated rapidly—clipped words, and then the suit slammed Mateo against the exterior wall, pinning him there, and jabbed his finger inches from Mateo’s face.Mateo struggled, tried to fight him off, but the man doubled him over with a punch to the gut, and the boy fell to the ground and started coughing.The suit crouched, said something, then stood and walked off.He peered around the neighborhood, and I quickly got back to my gardening like I hadn’t seen a thing.

He was in his car within seconds and speeding down the street.

I couldn’t do a thing about any of it, except memorize the license plates.

But I had a feeling I knew who the man was, and instead of relying on Bones to confirm it, I planned to do my own digging when we returned to Albuquerque, because this wasn’t information I wanted Deeds to have.It would put Mateo in danger with the Greenbacks if the man was who I suspected him to be, or if I found out Mateo was involved in any way with the Thirteen Devils.

Deeds asks about my progress with the girls in Veno’s circle next.I relay my most recent clandestine meet-up from the other night.But midway through, his hazel gaze veers away from mine and focuses on something behind me.

The low, “Oh, fuck” under his breath tells me all I need to know.

Doom grabs a tight hold of my stomach and twists as I spin around to see who it is.

It’s Griz.

He’s turned the corner, and he’s frozen as his gaze rakes over the two of us.I see it in his eyes, the moment it all clicks into place.

His red-and-grey eyebrows are pulled together, and the wrinkles on his forehead from the glower he’s leveling on us doesn’t bode well.

The alleyway is deathly quiet as he takes his time walking towards us.

He bypasses me.Then he pushes Deeds with such force that he crashes back into the wall.With his forearm to Deeds’ throat, he pins his nephew there, and growls into his face, “I may love you, you little son of a bitch, but like I’ve told your father… fuck with my club, and it’ll be the last fuckin’ thing you ever do.Blood ties aren’t everything in this life.And I’ll cut them without a second thought if you fuck us over.”

“What the fuck you talkin’ about, old man?”

“You tell me.What the fuck is this?”

Deeds’ response is to lie, “Nothin’.Just gettin’ to know each other.”This earns him a solid punch to the face and sends him stumbling down the alley.He stands and massages his jaw, working it back and forth, and rubs it with his palm.“Fuck, Uncle G.”

“Talk now, and no bullshit.What the fuck is this?”Griz motions to me.

Deeds reevaluates his uncle, and he nods while holding his hands up in a peace gesture.“Just calm down, and I’ll explain everything.”

I don’t stay for the whole conversation.I have to get back or risk Stone finding me with them.But later, Griz takes me aside and makes me repeat the entire story.He’s honest and tells me he’s one lie away from taking the entire situation to Cap and letting the chips fall where they may.So if he senses even one untruth spill from my mouth, he’ll do just that.He wants to compare my story to Deeds’.

Griz steals me from Stone for the night and doesn’t make excuses about it.Just tells Stone that I’ll be spending the night with him.Stone’s reaction is to puff up and throw around a pissed off demeanor.But that’s it, because honestly, what can he do?Nothing.

So I spend the better part of the night convincing Griz to help us carry out our plans, that the more people we have working towards the same goals, the sooner we can stop this whole charade and turn the tables on the men who would see the end of both clubs.

Thankfully, my story and Deeds’ add up, and Griz doesn’t turn me in to Cap.It’s a near miss, and it rattles me because I realize that I’m so far deep into this now that one more mistake like the one today, and this entire plan could unravel.

I can’t afford to fuck this up.