Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
GRIZ
Walking into the clubhouse after finishing at the garage, I find the men I’m looking for in my Prez’s office.
“Got a minute, Prez?” I ask, looking between him, Nines, Keys, and Markus.
“Yeah,” Blow says, nodding for me to come in. “What’s going on?”
“Got served these papers earlier today.” I hold up the wrinkled papers and hand them straight to Markus. “It’s a bullshit protective order.”
Markus takes the papers immediately and scans over them. “Do you know this Hattie Deets?” he demands, holding the papers up.
“She’s my ex. I broke it off with her when I found out she was a cop’s daughter. She didn’t like the fact I’d broken it off with her because she hadn’t told me. But in my book, a lie’s a lie,” I tell him with a shrug.
“And you haven’t been in contact with her since you broke things off?” Markus asks, handing the papers over to Blow.
“No. I haven’t contacted her. I’ve been busy between work at the garage and doing stuff for the club. I haven’t even been to my house in weeks,” I tell him and throw my arm out toward my brothers. “Everyone in this room can attest to that.”
“He’s right, man’s been on a mission,” Nines says, nodding.
“Thanks to him, we’ve got all our work at the garage complete and no cars waiting to get worked on,” Keys grunts.
“And this woman hasn’t come around here or anywhere else you’d be?”
The repeated question is starting to piss me off. I get that Markus is just doing his job and asking questions even if it’s the same question phrased in different ways.
“I haven’t so much as seen her or spoken with her. You can have my phone to check. Key can look up records if you need them. I’ve got nothing to hide.” I didn’t. I was an open book to my brothers. I didn’t hide shit from them.
Thanks to Hattie, I nearly fucked us, and I wasn’t going to do that again. No bitch was worth the headache it would bring on. Hattie was a lesson learned. Yeah, I’ll admit I’d thought about her. I couldn’t get her out of my head, but then I was introduced to a woman who wouldn’t even give me her name.
I’d even put on the charm a bit to get her to tell me her name and give me her number, only for her to get in her car and drive away. Even now, I wanted to know her name more than I wanted to deal with this bullshit.
It’s a good thing I’d thought to take a picture of her license plate.
“We’ll handle this first thing tomorrow. The court date is this coming Wednesday. Maybe we can have this resolved by then and have it dropped. Otherwise, we’ll have to go in front of the judge. She’s saying you’re harassing her.”
“Can get you the recorders, I ain’t doing shit.”
I don’t know what she’s thinking, claiming I’ve harassed her. Please, I ain’t spoke to the bitch since the night I ended things. I’m not some sick fuck that has to stalk a woman.
“I’ll look into it and see what I can find out.” Markus nods and looks to Keys. “Thank you. Can you do a little digging for me?”
“I’ll get you what you need.” Keys grunts and cocks his head from side to side. “Don’t worry about it.”
“While you’re at it, can you look up the name to this plate number?” I ask as I pull my phone out of my pocket and send him the picture of the car’s plate.
“Yeah, you wanna tell me why?” Keys grunts, brow cocked.
“Just wanna know who the woman was that served the papers. I hadn’t seen her around before, and y’all know our town ain’t that big.” It’s not exactly a lie. I do want to know her name. I also want her phone number. I wouldn’t mind having her under me for a night or two, but that’s all I’ll allow myself to enjoy.
There’s no way I’m taking chances again when it comes to women. Especially one as sinfully sexy as this woman was. They’re nothing but trouble and trouble is something I don’t want any part of.
“I’ll find out and let you know later,” Keys says and looks back to Markus. “I’ll get the information you need as well. Shouldn’t take me too long.”
“Sounds good,” Markus agrees and shifts his gaze to Blow. “I’m out of here. I’ll call ya later if anything else comes up.”
“Hopefully, nothing else does,” Blow mutters, rising from behind his desk, eyes coming to me. “You got anything going on today?”
“Nah, I was gonna go to the house and chill. Why? Need me for something?”
“Think you can go with Shiner and Surge out to the farm and get a stock on what we’ve got. There’s a shipment coming, and we need to have the right numbers for when we ship out both what we’ve got in stock and the new shit,” Blow says, crossing his arms.
“Yeah, I’ll help out. You know I ain’t got shit goin’ on,” I tell him. “If you need me to go on the run as well, I’m down for it.”
“We know you will, brother,” Nines states, clearing his throat.
“I’ll go ahead and head out,” Keys says, shuffling past me and closing the door behind him.
I glance to the door then back to my Prez and VP. “Someone want to tell me what’s really going on?”
Nines looks at Blow then back to me.
“We’re just worried about you, Griz,” Blow finally answers.
“I’m good.”
“You’re going on all the runs. Working overtime as hell and volunteering to do shit that not even the prospects do,” Nines mutters.
“Ever since that shit went down with your ex, you’ve been doing everything you can to make up for something that wasn’t even your damn fault,” Blow grunts. Stepping around his desk, he leans against it.
I let out a heavy breath and shake my head. “It might not have been my fault, but we were raided all the same.”
“Who’s to say we weren’t gonna be getting raided as it were?” Nines demands sarcastically. “We might have been pissed at the time, but it’s done and over with. You ain’t got to make amends for shit that wasn’t on you to begin with.”
“Nines is right,” Blow grumbles. “We’re brothers, Griz. All of us. We all do our part to make sure everything gets done. Stop taking on shit all the damn time. You’re our Road Captain and do a damn good job securing all of the club’s runs. Just do your job and your part as a brother to this club.”
I stare at them all for a beat, unsure of what to say. If I hadn’t been dating Hattie, we wouldn’t have had to deal with the raid in the first damn place. “Don’t know if I can agree that it wasn’t on me.”
“Brother, we could have been raided and ended up fucked. If you hadn’t overheard your ex on the phone, we wouldn’t have known the raid was happening and would’ve been sitting ducks.” Blow has a point.
“Just leave the shit in the past, man, and move on,” Nines says, coming up next to me and slapping a hand on my shoulder. “Can you do that for us, brother?”
“Yeah,” I grunt, nodding. I can’t believe my Prez and VP decided to have some type of intervention with me. Clearing my throat, I jerk my thumb toward the door. “I’m just gonna shower here then and head out to meet Shiner and Surge.”
“Sounds good,” Blow mutters, pulls out his phone, and smirks. “Storm needs me to get to the house. Seems the boys are all down for their afternoon naps, and she’s ready to have some adult time, as she’s put it.”
“No offense, Prez, I don’t need to hear about Storm wanting some adult time. I know it’s her way of telling you to get home and fuck her.” Nines snorts.
“At least my ol’ lady knows what to do with her free time.” Blow chuckles and shoves his phone back into his pocket. “I’m outta here. See y’all tomorrow.”
Leaving Blow’s office ahead of him and Nines, I make my way to my room while sending a text to both Shiner and Surge. Shiner was the closest thing I had to a best friend, and he’d been the one I told first about what was happening with the raid and my ex. He made sure to have my back, and I appreciated that when I brought the whole situation to Blow’s attention.
Wanting to get out of here and get to the farm to help them, I take a quick shower and do my best to shove thoughts and everything else out of my head. It’s total bullshit with that stupid bullshit protective order I was served. I mean, what the fuck is Hattie thinking? Is this her way of fucking with me for breaking things off with her? I hadn’t even seen her, and I changed my number just after to keep her from being able to contact me.
I didn’t want her to have any way of contacting me. I probably could’ve just blocked her number, but changing it ensured she couldn’t get a hold of me, period.
Hopefully, Markus will be able to get this shit handled without me having to deal with anything else. I don’t want to have to go in front of a judge and tell him that I’m being accused of something I didn’t do. Judges seem to always have a way of siding with the alleged victim and not with the actual wronged person.
Shaking the thought away, I shut the water off, get out, dry off, dress, and get my shit together. Time for me to get to the farm and get done what needs to be done. I don’t have time to think about bitches and the headaches they come with. That includes a certain red-haired beauty that I still need the name of.