Page 146 of X's and O's

I’d tried so hard to be respectful of the fact Hawk was studying and actually needed the laptop he owned. But he hadn’t seemed to mind me sneaking down here in the evenings and quietly sitting on the porch, typing out pages and pages of words that all came back to the way I loved Violet with every inch of my fucking soul, and I was so damn sorry it had taken me this long to realize the best thing that had ever happened to me was right there in front of me.

Hawk took pity on me and pointed at the laptop sitting on their dining room table. “Go on then, lover boy. Go do your thing.”

I gave my Barbie back to Hayley Jade, who made me promise to come over again tomorrow so her Barbie could teach mine how to rollerblade. I promised and got up, taking the laptop and slipping outside onto the porch so I wouldn’t interrupt Hawk getting her off to bed.

I opened the computer, and the screen came to life. I put in Hawk’s password, one, two, three, four, still vaguely amused over his lack of concern for security.

I opened a new document and had literally gotten as far asDear Violet, when headlights bounced across the front of the house and Grayson’s car stopped out front.

He got out, his tie already off and his shirt collar loosened, jacket slung over his arm.

His clothes were the only relaxed thing about him though. There was a frown etched deeply into his brow, and his mouth was pulled into a tight line.

“You okay, Doc?” I called to him instead of a greeting.

Because he didn’t seem okay.

He shook his head. “I stopped up at the main house, looking for you.”

I stiffened. “Problem?”

It was a stupid question, because I already knew there was one, just from his body language.

He sat beside me. “I don’t know. Maybe. Trig and the others have been watching a bunch of the guys on the list. One of them is causing some concern.”

“Okay. Who?”

“Adam Dickson? Apparently you know him.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I do. Leader of the 27s. He’s a piece of shit, always running his mouth and starting fights. Likes to beat up women from what I heard.”

“If that’s what’s being said about him publicly, then I probably don’t need to tell you that he’s likely actually done a lot worse.”

I nodded. “There were plenty of rumors about him in prison. That he liked to rape and torture women. That sort of shit. Never knew if it was for real or if he was all ego and talk.”

“Trig and the others were watching him. But he suddenly disappeared two days ago.”

“He was working at the Dead End.”

“Not anymore, apparently. Trig talked to one of the waitresses there. They haven’t heard from him. Didn’t even call in sick or anything. Just hasn’t showed.”

I shrugged. “Probably a good thing. Why are we worrying about that?”

“I don’t know, but it’s been bothering me for days. Might be because I don’t like the idea of him walking around unchecked. If he’s skipped town, all that means is he’s hurting people somewhere else. Somewhere we aren’t watching him.”

“I don’t like that either, but we’ve probably got bigger fish to fry, don’t we?”

Grayson nodded distractedly. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m probably grasping at straws because this whole thing has me rattled.”

“Don’t like being the prey, rather than the predator, huh?” Not that Doc was really what I would consider a predator. Couldn’t say the same for the rest of us.

“No. Do you?”

“Not even a little bit. But either we’ll find whoever it is targeting us, or we’ll kill the entire list trying.”

The urge to put my fingers around Dickson’s tattooed throat and squeeze was so fucking appealing. It kinda pissed me off that he was suddenly not around so now I probably wouldn’t get a chance.

“You and Whip and X are still keeping an eye on Violet, right? I don’t like that she was at that house on Olympic Drive. All of this has happened after that, and I’m still not convinced the two aren’t somehow linked.”