Chapter 5: CONNOR

The houses were done in a year and a half. We couldn't do everything ourselves because of our duties, but we'd worked on each other's places when we had downtime, and that had sped up the process quite a bit.

Six months after we'd settled in and hung out our shingle, so to speak, we'd caught wind of the shit that was going on around us.

There's no way in hell we're going to let shit like that take root in our backyard. After years of fighting and danger, the name of the game was peace and quiet.

Now for me, that shit had been amped up a notch. I have a woman to protect. I don't want this shit anywhere near her, so the sooner we got to the bottom of whatever this was, the better.

The town's people, after realizing that we weren't here to start shit, had pretty much accepted us with open arms. Well, most of them had anyway, and as far as they knew, we were navy men. No one knew what faction we'd been working for, as that shit tended to be top secret for good reason.

Most of them probably still thought we were a biker gang, which we weren't. We just loved to ride. I could understand how seven rough-looking fuckers all over six feet tall with tats might give them that idea, but we were on some other shit.

Though we were in the midst of a recession with our connections and the Commander's which he'd hooked us up with through papers he'd left behind, we already had some sweet jobs lined up to do construction on government buildings, among other things.

If things kept up and the government didn't fuck up the economy anymore than it already had, we stood to stay in the black for a long time to come.

These days we did a whole other kind of demolition, and I don't think any of us missed the other. War is hell. Now with this new development, we were spending our nights doing recon and shit. I guess old habits died hard.

Whoever was behind it was proving to be a wily fuck, though, because so far, we had nothing. It wasn't easy for seven men on bikes riding the streets at night to be conspicuous, especially in a town where the biggest action was bingo night at the lodge.

Everyone wanted to know everything all the time. Those who'd accepted us were mostly part of the older crowd who'd known the commander, and they mostly wanted to talk about our navy days, which was usually a short conversation unless we made shit up.

We couldn't share the shit we'd done with anyone, but the old guys still liked hanging around us. We'd started hanging out at the local bar to keep our ears and eyes open, but so far, we hadn't seen any unknowns coming and going, which led us to believe it was a local doing this shit.

"So, did we find anything last night or not?"

"We think we're closing in on a few hot spots, but right now, the fuckers are proving to be a little slippery."

Logan passed me a plate of eggs and bacon. For now, since there were no women in our mix, we all tended to gather at one house for meals. Today was Logan's turn for breakfast duty.

I guess to some; it might seem strange for seven grown men to be this close. We pretty much did everything together. But after spending so many years together in some of the most fucked up situations imaginable, we were comfortable with each other.

We ate meals together we hung out together; it was very rare to find one of us alone without the others. We'll never outgrow that pack mentality, I guess. I don't think any of us would know how to be any other way at this late stage in the game. We were in it for life.

***

This whole business with the trafficking thing was a bother that none of us wanted to deal with. We were all just looking to settle down and enjoy the fruits of our labor away from the fuckery.

The old guy who'd first come to us with his suspicions didn't have too much information, but he had enough to peak our interest.

An old pal of the Commander's, he knew a little more about who we were than the rest of the town, so he knew we would want to know about that kind of action in our own backyard.

We'd cautioned him to stay quiet about the things he'd shared with us because we had no idea who or what we were dealing with yet. These characters didn't take too kindly to folks sticking their nose in their shit.

And in our experience, you could never be too careful. Sometimes the least likely suspect turned out to be the guilty party.

He and a few of his friends who hung out down at the lodge swears there's some kind of gang activity afoot. Strange men in and out of town in the last few months and lots of foot action down on the old boardwalk after dark.

He'd reported some type of vessel coming and going at strange hours every few weeks or so. It all spelled trouble to us, but we tried to play it down so as not to scare the old guys half to death.

They all fashioned themselves as PIs or some shit. So to keep them from getting caught up in something that might get them hurt or worse, we'd promised to look into things.

I'm not sure they'd heed us about keeping their noses out of it, though. These men were die-hard patriots who had lots of pride in their little burgh, where most of them had spent their entire lives.

I could see why they loved the place so much. It was quaint and still full of old-world charm. The old homes here were as old as the city; those old antebellum structures that conjured up visions of lawn parties and ladies in period dress. That's how I see Danielle. That old-world genteel beauty and grace seemed ingrained in her.

"Huh, the old guy said he thought they were using the old boardwalk; anything show up there yet?"

"Nope, we checked over every part of that place, and there was nothing. We do have that list, though, and we're still working down the line; we'll get something. So you wanna tell your brothers why you smell like roses?" Logan grinned as the others chimed in.

"Connor, you got laid?" Zak is such an ass; my glare didn't keep his big mouth shut. They all kept trying to figure it out.

"You fucks wanna mind your own damn business?" Damn, it's like we were in a hole in the desert playing the waiting game.

Waiting to blow some fuck's head off his body for being stupid, and there was nothing to do but talk shit to and about each other to kill time. I sniffed myself to see just how strong her scent was on me. Fuck.

"Danielle Dupre." Logan snapped the front legs of the chair he'd been leaning back in back into place with a thud.

"Fuck Logan." I gave him a hard glare. How the fuck did he sniff that shit out? I calmed a little when I remembered that that's how she'd first caught me. It was her scent that had brought her under my radar. After that, it hadn't been hard for the rest of her to reel my ass in.