Page 193 of Reaper

Devil smirks at me. “Didn’t want to leave you unprotected. Not sure if that asshole has figured out where we are, but just in case, we figured we’d wait to ride back with you.”

“Thanks, Brother,” I reply and clasp him on the shoulder before turning to the rest of my brothers. “Sorry for taking so long. Some of the Forest Creek guys will be riding back with us—I’ll explain once we get to the clubhouse, so let’s head out.” While they’re trying to hide it, everyone else in the waiting room is trying to listen in and I don’t want this conversation to happen around loose ears.

Twenty minutes later, we pull up in front of the clubhouse. We all head inside and file into Church. Thor texted right before we left that he called Church so we could fill everyone in on everything. Lark hesitates, most likely not sure if she is allowed, but I snag her hand, lead her inside, and shut the door behind me.

Phoenix gives me a chin lift. “Reaper, how about you take over and fill everyone in.”

I guide Lark to an empty chair and then step up next to Phoenix at the front of the room, filling everyone in on both of Lark’s stalkers and how we managed to catch one of them.Then, I tell them about the plans we came up with in Half-pint’s hospital room.

“Like Thor said, Ryder, Smoke, Gunner, Axe, Timber, and Patch, will head out with you today. If you still need more manpower after a week, we’ll rotate out. Keep us posted on how the stakeout goes and what you find at that asshole’s house.” He pauses and looks over at Smoke, giving him a chin lift.

Smoke turns to Lark since the rest of us have known about his trackers since last fall.

“Lark, I don’t know what all you know about the trackers that are imbedded under the skin, so I’ll just get right to it. The rest of us are familiar with them. The trackers are not something that’s available to the civilian world yet, but in exchange for doing my friend’s company some favors, I can get as many of them as I want or need.”

He pauses and gestures for Phoenix to lower the screen. A moment later, the image of the tracker appears on the wall.

“This is what it looks like. It’s not like normal trackers that emit a constant signal. It can be triggered or deactivated in two ways which helps prolong the battery life. The first way is that I can do it on my system. The other is that you can press it three times in a row. While it can go in your arm, the best place for this particular chip is in your hip. It needs to go below the waistband of your jeans and away from where the seam is on the side of your jeans, so it won’t be accidentally triggered. Depending on the use, the battery life is ten years. However, if something happens and it starts to die before then, I’ll get a warning on my computer. I’ll also be doing random checks to verify they are still working but I’ll shut them off as soon as I’m done. When the battery does die, all it takes is just a small incision to remove the chip and at that same time, I’d replace it with a new one.”

“How does it get inserted? Do I need to have an incision done?”

Smoke shakes his head and pulls out a device that’s like a little gun. “This is what we use to inject it under the skin. Then you just need to keep a band aid over it until the skin heals.”

She chews on her bottom lip as she thinks for a few moments. “And everyone in the Forest Creek chapter has them?”

Smoke nods and after a few clicks on his keyboard, the screen changes to show the program he uses. Currently, there are three blue dots and four red dots all in a small cluster on the screen.

“The blue dots are adults and the red dots are the kids. Right now, you’re seeing Mae, Mary, Elvira, Lindsey, Ash, Izzy, and Cassie.” Then he pauses as his mouse hovers over the blue dots until he gets to Mae’s. A picture of her comes up and below that is her name and the coordinates of where she is.

“I’m able to add in more information if needed, but for now I settled on picture, name and coordinates. Now, can those in the room that have the tracker please activate it?” he asks.

I glance around, watching everyone from the Forest Creek chapter reach down to their hip. I look back up at the screen and more dots start appearing on the screen, one after another.

Lark nods thoughtfully, her gaze fixed on the screen. “Too bad we didn’t do that for Star and Crystal—we could have made sure they adhered to the conditions we gave them,” she mutters.

I’m not sure if she meant for anyone to hear that, but I cock my head as I contemplate that thought. It definitely would have helped in those situations. Well, so long as they didn’t have the trackers dug out after the fact, that is. Judging by the look on Phoenix’s face, I’d say he’s thinking the same thing.

“Have you thought about adding blood type and possibly allergies for a quick reference in case of emergencies? At least, I assume you’re able to access this from your phone as well.”

Smoke’s head cocks to the side. “Yes, I can access it from my phone. As for blood type and allergies, I hadn’t thought about it before but that would be easy enough to add since Patch has thatinformation already, I believe,” he says, and Patch dips his head in acknowledgement.

I raise an eyebrow in question to Lark. She takes a deep breath, but nods in acknowledgement.

“If you have more, I’d like to get one.”

“I have more than enough. Does anyone else from your chapter want it? When we get to Junction Creek, I’ll make sure Python has access to the program and that he has rights to add more as you guys grow.”

“I’ll get it,” I tell him, and the rest of my brothers quickly agree as well. I turn to Smoke. “If you’ve got the stock, can you bring more with you for the others that stayed back?”

Smoke gives me a chin lift and then rasps his knuckles on the table. “Of course. Lark, I’ll get you yours here before we leave, but as for the rest, let’s wait till we’re back in Junction Creek so I can show Python how to administer them and set everything up.”

I dip my chin in thanks to him.

Phoenix rasps his knuckles on the table. “Okay, let’s go over the plan one more time before you all head out.”

Chapter 71

Reaper