“I… shit, Sniper! Don’t look at me that way. Your face already spells you want to blow my head off, and this is hard enough to tell you.”

I suspect she is going to own up to what she might have said to Piper. And it is about fucking time. Piper has never truly cut me off before.

“Spit it the fuck out, Luce,” I growl and tilt my shades to the top of my head. I want her to see the anger in my eyes.

“I may have led her to believe that we are closer than what we really are and that maybe we sleep together on a regular basis—”

I jump up and the bar stool makes a screeching sound as it flies across the floor. “You fucking did what?” I roar.

My hands fly to my head and I pull my hair. It finally makes sense. Piper kept going on and on about how our friendship was a fraud and how she thought she didn’t mean more to me than what she really does.

“You have no fuckin’ idea what you did. That girl is the fuckin’ sun in my eyes! The shit she’s been through and the smile she still has is a fuckin’ bloody miracle. Our friendship is nothing, and I mean not a fuckin’ inch to the miles long that Piper’s and my friendship is. Do you know she is the first girl I have ever cared about?” I growl and pace at the same time.

Lucy stands up and directs my attention back to her. “You cared about Christina…”

Christina! Fuck that bitch. I thought I cared about her. Big fucking difference. That was all false. My brain tricked me into something I desperately wanted.

“Are you really that fuckin’ idiotic, Luce? Really?”

This isn’t happening. Piper is not laid up somewhere thinking she means jack shit to me. This fucking cannot be happening.

“You said so yourself,” Luce exclaims.

What the fuck. Anyone with eyes can see the difference between the shit I had with Chris and the connection I have with Piper. It is on an entirely different playing field.

I stop pacing and push up right into Lucy’s body with my chest and peer down at her. “You better hope I find her, alive, because if I don’t, our past won’t save you from my motherfuckin’ wrath,” I seethe.

Lucy’s mouth opens and closes as if she is this little lost guppie who can’t find her goddamn words.

“I’m sorry,” she yells as I retreat before I fucking kill her.

I don’t bother to swing back around, and I don’t waste words accepting or denying her apology. It means little to me.

“She’ll be reprimanded, Sniper. I’m sorry,” Dizzy says quietly as she passes me.

I snort. Why the fuck aren’t these bitches over in the other building? Times have changed. Braxxon has ordered them to the live-in, and yet, here they are all up in my motherfucking space.

I stomp into the Chapel, shut the door behind me, and wait for my brother to get off of the phone. He holds his hand up and nods into the phone. Why do people fucking do that? The person on the other line can’t fucking see your dumbass. Another human flaw. Proves we are all just a bunch of dumbfucks living until we aren’t living anymore.

By the time I sit down, Braxx hangs up the phone.

He holds his hand back up to stop me before I can say a word while he lights a smoke, inhales, and then lowers his hand.

“What’s the news?”

My brother points down at the map. I didn’t see on the table when I came in the room. Big, red circles mark six locations.

“Pipe and Jinx are at one of these locations,” he reveals.

“We have the man power. Why aren’t we out there getting her?” I clench my hands into tight fists.

“I already know what you’re askin’. The brothers are splittin’ up. Some are stayin’ at their posts. The rest will meet us back here and then I will assign locations for each group. If we hit them at different times lookin’ for her, brother, they will move her. We have to hit every place at the same time. Yeah?” he questions.

I exhale a sharp breath, lean against the back of my chair, and tilt my head up. I am aggravated, worried, and fucking angry. My girl is more than likely starving, and who knows what the fuck she has gone through.

“Don’t let what I’m about to say piss you off.”

Oh great. Those words don’t reassure me at fucking all. I tilt my head to the side in a motion to tell him go on, spit it out.

“See those two small bags right there?” He points to two duffel bags.

My face has to read confused because that is what I am. Straight up confused.

“They have clothes in it for Piper and Jinx.”

Okay, now I am fucking stupefied.

“Pyro is taking Jinx to Berry’s house, and you’re taking Piper to your house,” he instructs.

Why would we fucking split them up? They will need one another after whatever it is they have gone through.

“Pyro will have Akela and Ripley escorted over there when he calls them. You, on the other hand, know Piper the best, so you’ll be alone with her. I will be sending the Doc to both locations. That’s who I was on the phone with. Asshole raised his rate. He said he’s sick of doing house calls for hurt women, and frankly, so am I. This shit has to stop, bro. Women didn’t get hurt around us before last year.” He sighs as he taps his Zippo against the wooden table.

“We didn’t really care about women until last year, so maybe we didn’t notice women were getting hurt.” I offer up the truth to him.

My brother gives me a rare look, and I know I am only to witness it because no one is around, but the look is sad and laced with regret.