30. Andrie
Andrie
Idon’t know what Xander expected to find when he came back that afternoon, but the three of us, laughing and playing vintage video games on a screen bigger than a movie theater’s, likely wasn’t it.
“Jeez, Andrie. You’re playing a game, and you’re still the slowest driver on the planet. Kick it in gear and push him into the wall,” Junie reprimanded me. She’d just wrecked her character’s car, forcing her to restart.
“If I go any faster, I’m just going to go off course,” I complained.
In less than a minute, Juniper’s character passed me as if I were standing still.
“If you don’t pick up the pace, the entire race is going to pass you,” she warned.
Then she giggled manically as she shot at Raptor, causing him to curse when he was sent back to start with one less life.
“The game isn’t about how perfect you can drive.
It’s about winning and blowing up others in the process. ”
With that, Junie’s character crossed the finish line, doing donuts to celebrate. Raptor demanded a rematch as he and the rest of the field—then myself—finished the race.
Chuckles from behind us had me turning around. “Face it, babe. Even playing a game, driving isn’t your strong suit. Unless we’re trying to stay off police radar—then you’re our girl.”
I blushed at Xander’s gentle teasing. “Did you have a good time shooting?” I asked, noting his relaxed stance.
A flicker of excitement crossed his features before he schooled his expression. “It appears as if you aren’t the only new hire for Accardi Tactical. After we get everything with Hardy squared away, I’m going to be working with Gretchen Moore. She needs an apprentice, it seems.”
Raptor looked over his shoulder to Xander. “Make sure you have Brody show you the new training building sometime after you start.”
Narrowing my eyes at Raptor, I started to put pieces of a larger puzzle together.
I knew Lessia had put Raptor—who’d been with the Army Corps of Engineers in another life—to work adding the underground infrastructure to her new land purchase.
Raptor had also inspected and maintained the tunnel pathways the operatives used to get to and from a base of operations in the city.
He’d even been a part of designing the escape routes for Matteo’s new house.
I also knew from Gretchen that the update to the training building, where the dogs had several mock scenes to train in, had been unplanned until Lessia had stepped in.
Apparently, it had been decided that someone who knew more—or would soon know more—about the organization needed to be within easy reach of an entrance and exit point.
The smooth-looking operative returned my knowing stare with a wink. Clearly, he’d either known about the offer or had already reached the same conclusion.
“Do you want to join us?” He motioned to the screen. “Maybe you can defend Andrie’s honor and help me put this one in her place. She’s won six out of ten so far.” Juniper stuck her tongue out at him.
“I’m afraid my childhood didn’t leave time for games such as this. Vik has been teaching me some, but this doesn’t look anything like what we’ve been playing at his place.” Xander tilted his head, studying the screen.
“It’s because it’s ancient. At least, in the gaming world.
But I’m not about to let anything that needs to be connected to the internet down here, and it’s fun to revisit the classics,” Juniper explained.
“These are actually easier to play, and even if the graphics aren’t as sharp as the ones today, they still require focus to keep up with what’s on the screen.
It’s a great way to let loose for a bit.
” She took a breath, steeling herself, and offered her controller to him.
Xander, bless his heart, smiled down at Juniper, not realizing how big of a move it was for someone as technologically connected and socially anxious as her to give up their security blanket.
But instead of taking it, he gently pushed it back into her hands.
“I’d love to learn. But as I understand it, if you’re the winner, then I need to be your official challenger.
Raptor, if you haven’t taken her down in ten games, then I’d have to say you need to hang up your dreams of an upset.
Let a rookie step in and see if they can do any better. ”
The four of us played for another hour, Juniper wiping the floor with all of us repeatedly in a variety of games, even when the two men tried to team up against her. We’d eaten our weight in popcorn, chips, and junk food by the time Lessia, Brody, Jolene, and Josie called it a day.
“Is this fair?” Jolene asked Josie, teasingly. “We spent most of the day stuck with someone training us on the ins and outs of the office, procedure, and security protocols, and they’re here playing games.”
Juniper stuck out her tongue. “My department is all bent out of shape that I got hired without them even knowing there was an opening, and that I got my own office. They’re all pouting right now and leaving me the hell alone, so I don’t have to keep up appearances.
“ That news might have her sisters backs straightening, but Junie seemed completely oblivious as she reached for her third bag of chips, protesting when Josie snatched it from her hand.
The glare the two sisters were exchanging had Jolene stepping up, preparing to referee, when a beeping interrupted.
Junie scrambled to her feet, almost bumping into Brody, who steadied her before she ended up back on the floor.
Not acknowledging him in the slightest, Juniper raced to her computer, her fingers typing before she’d even sat down.
“Man. Grimm’s going to be so pissed,” she muttered, more to herself than the rest of us as we gathered behind her. She pressed a button on her phone while typing with the other hand, never taking her eyes off the screen.
“What?” Grimm’s voice sounded as Juniper’s cell connected to a speaker in the room.
“One of the men you and your guys roughed up went to the police to charge you with assault. Of course, they jumped all over that once they realized your home address matched the club address. When the little weasel realized he might buy himself some goodwill with the cops if he threw you under the bus, he offered up incentive, claiming he’s seen you all dealing and using drugs there.
And he says you store all your black-market weapons under the floorboards.
We all know he’s never been there, but I’m betting he’s assuming if he can get the cops in the door, they’ll find something incriminating. ”
She rolled her eyes as Grimm cursed creatively, then continued, “They’re afraid you might have a mole in the department and that’s why they’ve never been able to pin anything on you before.
Right after the warrant was signed, they started rolling your way.
I’m guessing you have fifteen minutes at most.”
We heard Grimm ordering someone to close the gate to the parking lot and stall and for someone else to wipe the server to the surveillance system. “We’ll be ready in five. Thanks for the warning. I don’t suppose you could …”
“Almost done. Check in after.” Juniper was already typing before he got the words out, and a second later, Xander’s phone pinged.
“Fifty?” he asked, not understanding the code.
“Five-oh. Cops,” she elaborated when it was clear he didn’t understand.
“It’s not much of a code, but it’s not supposed to be.
If the police see it, it just adds to the thought that the Iron Wraiths can’t be all they’re hyped up to be if they’re this unsophisticated.
The smart cops know better, and it drives them nuts.
I sent it out to everyone not at HQ right now so they don’t end up showing up while it’s being searched.
The less people the police see or interact with, the better.
Grimm will have anyone else there leave. ”
“Won’t that just solidify their thoughts that they have a mole?” he asked, new to this game the MC had with the local police.
Juniper nodded. “Which will keep them looking at their own department. Or maybe giving the court clerks a hard look. No one would know I’m in their system.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And if they do?”
She shrugged, looking unconcerned. “If the feds haven’t found me crawling around in their network, you can bet the locals will never track me either. Besides,” she said with a wink, “I might know their head tech consultant.”
I was starting to remember why the triplets originally weren’t settled in Texas when we’d been given new identities.
Having Juniper and Lessia in the same state was a bad idea.
If either one of them got a wild hair, the other was sure to be on board.
Between the two women, I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything they didn’t have their hand in or could get information about.
Xander must have had a similar thought. “Just what can’t you do when it comes to computers?”
Her smile was half-mischievous, half-maniacal. “Nothing, my new friend. There is nothing I can’t do with one of these babies in my hand.”
We left Accardi Tactical a while later, still no closer to finding Hardy but a lot more settled about the entire matter.
When you pretty much played hooky all day in a hidden room eating junk food and laughing with friends, it was hard to stay stressed.
Xander, too, seemed to be back to his normal self and not at all the fragile man who’d climbed into my bed last night.
“Would you like to go out to eat tonight?” he asked, his fingers squeezing mine as we held hands. “Or are you filled up on potato chips?”
Before I could answer, I got a text. “Vik says everyone’s going to Matteo’s to hang out since the clubhouse is still being searched.”
“Grimm has to be loving that,” Xander said.
I winced. Grimm was definitely going to be out for blood after this—even if he couldn’t get to the actual man causing all the issues at this moment in time.
The Iron Wraiths ran the streets in the city, but they generally kept their criminal pursuits away from where they lived to keep everything mostly peaceful and somewhat clean.
Gangs might deal a little coke or meth on the streets, but they knew better than to get too greedy or draw too much attention.
The areas around MC hangouts were certainly dangerous, but only to other people like them—they didn’t allow for innocents to be drawn into their business.
Which kept the police without a trail, too.
This, however, wasn’t something Grimm could afford to let go.
Not if he meant to keep his control. Whoever had gone to the police had made a grave error.
Instead of taking his licks and learning from the warning, he’d gone and publicly tried to get one over on the Iron Wraiths.
Even if Grimm wanted to, his father would come back and beat his son himself if Grimm didn’t respond to the threat the man had made against the club.
There were already several vehicles and motorcycles at Matteo’s when we arrived. I’d made Xander stop so we could pick up some ice and soft drinks, knowing the men had covered the beer portion in spades.
Wyck, Shade, Vik, Jasper, and Whisp sat around a picnic table, while Matteo and a large black dog were by the grill. Savage came out of the house, holding baby Ava in one hand and a swing in the other. Gretchen was behind him, carrying a beer and wearing an amused expression.
“The princess is here. Now, we can get started,” Savage announced, trying to set the stand for the swing up with one hand as he spoke.
Shade rose. But instead of helping with the swing, he grabbed the baby and walked off with her, talking nonsense as he did so.
“I don’t know why you bothered having Tristan bring that thing out,” Matteo said to his girlfriend, taking the beer from her. “It’s not like any one of these guys will let her be the entire time they’re here.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” she said, shaking her head in bemusement. Despite all this time around the MC, she still wasn’t used to the fact these bikers were all suckers for kids. “And that was Tristan’s beer.”
Matteo winked at her as Xander and I stopped next to them. “I know.” He drank half of it down in a single swallow.
“We brought more ice and some drinks,” I said by way of greeting. “I figured the guys had the harder stuff covered, and it always seems like y’all are prepared for an entire contingent.”
Gretchen laughed. “Yeah, the guys come over at least a few times a month, sometimes even once or twice a week. We’ve learned to keep enough food on hand to feed everyone a few times over.
Today, you’re in luck—we’ve having steak, corn, potato salad, and two entire sheet pans of cake.
The men all have a sweet tooth, so make sure you get a piece early because there won’t be leftovers.
” She wrapped an arm through mine. “Come on, I need some girl time, and we have two cakes to frost.”
I tossed a glance over to Xander as I was dragged off, but he just gave me a little wave as I stumbled up the stairs.