Chapter 20
Take Care of Number One
Ivy
After I dressed in a turquoise and gold paisley-patterned baby-doll dress, we went downstairs and found Gamble with Ricochet.
Gamble had his phone to his ear. “Yeah, sweetheart. I texted you, but if we’re doin’ breakfast, I can’t let that wait until you decide to unlock your phone. I’m not sure Ivy can handle me and your brothers when we’re hangry.”
He paused, then said, “I met her ten minutes ago.”
Another pause.
“No, we’re at the clubhouse. If you can’t haul ass over here, we might be able to hit a truck stop off I-10 at 301.”
“No,” Ryan and Ricochet said at the same time.
Gamble chuckled. “Seems that’s off the table. Don’t sweat it, I’ll swing by your place when we’re finished.”
He grinned at whatever she said. “Love you, too, and I’ll tell Ivy you said, ‘hey.’”
Ricochet stared at Ryan. “Our own sister says ‘hey’ to her, but nothing for us. Can you believe this shit?”
Ryan grinned. “Yeah, ‘cause she knows Ivy wants to bolt.”
“I didn’t say that,” I muttered under my breath – even if deep down I absolutely yearned to bolt.
Ryan leaned toward me. “You didn’t have to,” he whispered.
Gamble tucked his phone away. “There’s a Krispy Kreme off 103rd Street. Let’s go there.”
“Donuts?” Ricochet asked, his tone laced with judgment.
“Yeah, because we don’t have the restaurant back in Biloxi.”
Twenty minutes later, we were crowded into a small plastic booth and Gamble had put away his third donut.
He tipped his coffee cup at me. “How did you meet Nickel?”
My eyes darted to Killian, not that he could help me, and I turned to Nickel. “Doesn’t he know?”
He gave me a half-frown, and looked to his dad. “You knew I had a concussion. Didn’t Cynic mention how I got it?”
Gamble swallowed a sip of coffee and put his cup down. “Abby probably didn’t pass that along to Fiona, so one of you needs to fill me in.”
I shared about the first time I went looking for Lark, and meeting the triplets. Ryan took over to tell him about our abduction, and getting hit in the head.
Gamble shook his head as a smile spread across his face. “Never a dull moment with you three. Good to know some shit never changes.”
I turned to Ryan. “You didn’t tell me the bastard came to the bar last night. And that he followed you.”
Ryan twisted his head to the side, as though he hadn’t meant to mention it with me around.
Ricochet chuckled. “Don’t worry. We left the bar together, and split up halfway to the interstate. Really, Rusty followed me, not him.”
My eyes widened. “That’s one time. What are you going to do the next time?”
“Calm down,” Ryan muttered.
Suddenly, I didn’t care that his dad was sitting across from us and I slowly turned to give him some side-eye.
“When are you gonna learn that phrase never works with women?” Gamble asked.
“Yeah,” Ricochet chimed in, laughing.
“It’s fine,” Ryan said.
“Sure,” I muttered, grabbed my coffee, and took a sip.
“Your mother’s gonna love her,” Gamble said.
I swallowed and put the cup down. These people were acting like we were a sure thing.
Then again, as long as Ryan didn’t cast me aside, we probably were.
After donuts, Ryan and I rode back to the clubhouse. Ricochet followed his dad to Mickayla’s place.
As I stood, waiting for Ryan to dismount, I said, “I’m sorry if I kept you from being with your sister and your dad.”
He turned to me. “Don’t sweat it. I’m around Mick and Kill all the time. Love seeing Dad and I’m glad you got to meet him, but I’m not missing anything.”
He grabbed my hand and we went up to his room.
Once he shut his door, I asked, “Any chance I’m going to the office today?”
He twisted his hands up. “How’s your boss going to react to Rusty coming in and accusing you of killing his cousins?”
My eyes slid to the side.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. Hate to ask you to do it, but if you got a vacation day, it’d be good to take one. Between the shit Rusty’s spewing, and you having an obvious wound, your boss is going be suspicious and someone will call the cops.”
“Great,” I whispered. A thought struck me and I held up a finger. “I have an idea.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Ivy—”
“No, really, hear me out. What if I go to the cops myself?”
He opened his mouth, but I put a finger to his lips.
“The less my boss knows, the better off I’ll be. Plus, this way she isn’t going to wonder why I might know something about a missing person—”
“People,” he corrected.
“Right, but it’ll keep my boss out of this, and maybe let us both get back to normal.”
After a long moment, he nodded. “I heard what you said.”
There was a difference between hearing me and listening to me, but I wasn’t going to point that out since I wasn’t sure where Ryan fell on that spectrum.
“Okay,” I muttered.
“Have you ever been questioned by a police officer?”
I grimaced. “No.”
“Are you good with answering the same question over and over and over, especially when there’s little to no variation in how it gets asked?”
I gave a small shrug. “My answers won’t change.”
He aimed a lopsided smile at me. “You think that. The problem is the cop is going to be watching your body language, and what your eyes do when it’s the fourth time he asks that question.” He gave me another squeeze. “And no matter what, you’re probably going to give something away.”
I narrowed my eyes. “How would you know? Is that more info from your mom being a public defender?”
His head went to the side. “A little bit. More of it’s from Dad and his Riot brothers. There’s nothing like getting grilled by them, and they aren’t even former cops. It’s that they’ve sat through questionings with cops.”
“But there ought to be something we can do to take control of this situation.”
He stared into my eyes for a beat. “If you really want to go this route, I’ll call Volt, see if we can get the club lawyer to go with you.”
“Why would I need a lawyer?”
“Better to have someone there and not need them, than to not have them when you need them, babe.”
“That makes sense,” I murmured.
“How’d you get that black eye?” he asked, and from his tone of voice, I knew it was his attempt at a test run.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I said.
“That’s a bad start already, Ivy.”
“Well, I didn’t want to say I walked into a door. That’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah, but cops are accustomed to women saying they walked into a door. You’re too much of a good girl to go to the cops, honey. You’re gonna be so tempted to admit that Boyd or Campbell hit you… That’s going to throw into question why you wouldn’t report it when it happened.”
“You’re right,” I said with a hint of disappointment. I softened my tone. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“Which one was it that hit you?”
“Boyd.”
Ryan shook his head. “Should have stabbed him again.”
I tipped my head back and laughed. “That’s mean.”
When I righted my head, I discovered him staring at me with a serious expression. “Nobody hurts you ever again, Trouble. Not in any form, no matter what.”
“You sound like Chad.”
“Yeah, because he told me not to hurt you and that hurt comes in many forms. I want you to explain that to me, but you can do that after we work off our donuts.”
I grinned and ran my hand up to his neck. “Oh, and how are we going to do that?”
“A run,” he said.
My face fell. “I don’t run, Ryan.”
“Today, you should try.”
I chuckled. “No. When the zombies show up, I’ll start running.”
He huffed out a single laugh. “By then, it’ll be too late.”
“Yes, but your brains will be tastier than mine.”
Ryan leveled a solemn look on me. “At some point, Rusty may come looking for you. If he isn’t full of shit and he’s got an in with the Corrupt Chrome MC, you might have more than one man coming after you.
It’d be better if you could outrun someone for at least a fifty or hundred yard dash…
That’ll be enough of a start that you could hide, get to a vehicle, something. ”
I stepped out of his hold. “That’s also a big part of why I carry a gun, keeps me from having to run.”
“Ivy, I’m serious. You need to stay safe. Did you bring any gym clothes?”
My lips stretched out with my grimace. “Can’t say that I did.”
He eyed me up and down. “You can wear my shirt and a pair of my gym shorts – they’ve got a string that’ll keep them from falling off.”
My mouth dropped open. “You’re serious about this.
What about my gun? No joke, smart people stop in their tracks, and I’m pretty sure I proved that I don’t have any problem hurting these assholes.
” I glanced to the side. “I should probably talk to someone about that, but…” I glanced back to him.
“When it’s me or him, I’ll take care of number one, honey. ”
My phone rang with the ring tone I’d assigned to my boss. I dug it out of my purse and took the call.
She started speaking before I could even greet her. “Ivy! Did you call that new client yesterday?”
“I did, and I left word with Shayla that I did.”
“He says you never spoke to him.”
Yeah, seemed Rusty was adept at lying.
“Did Shayla make a note that I contacted him and he was threatening?” I asked.
“She did, but how threatening could he be over the phone? Take Anderson with you—”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Huntington didn’t say what real estate service he needed. Buying, selling, rentals, he didn’t mention any of it.”
“Then why would he ask for you specifically?”
I had to come clean at least a little. “He thinks I know where a friend of his is, but I don’t know Rusty or his friend.”
Belinda sighed. “Okay, fine. This one sounds like a dud. What time will you be in today?”
“I’m taking another PTO day.”
“Do you have closings scheduled?”
“No, ma’am. I’ll follow up on some inspections and appraisals, but those are just phone calls.”
“All right. Keep me posted, you’re on track to hit a million in closings, I don’t want you to lose any momentum.”
A tentative smile curled my lips. “Neither do I.”
I ended the call and saw Nickel lounging in bed. “Rusty called for you, I take it?”
I gave a bitter half chuckle. “More like he’s telling my boss that I didn’t do my job. Lying bastard.”
Ryan nodded. “He probably expected that would force you to call him.”
I nodded once. “What time do you have to leave?”
“Two-fifteen. Same as yesterday.”
“Is there any chance I could go to my place?”
“Babe, I’d rather you be somewhere I know is safe.”
“How about we go to Mom’s? You can meet her, check out the lay of the land, and leave me there until tomorrow,” I suggested.
He stared at me for a long moment. “I’ll meet your mom, but I’m pretty sure you liked me coming to you last night. Damn sure seemed that way in the shower.”
I felt my cheeks heat. “Well, sure and—”
“If I’m tailed, I can’t lead them straight to your people or your home.”
I twisted my lips to the side. “What if—”
“Trouble, come here.”
Hearing him call me that gave me a bizarre thrill.
I wandered to the bed. He moved over and patted a spot next to him. Once I was situated on the bed, he pulled me close and kissed the top of my head.
“What’s the problem? You did fine being here yesterday.”
With my index finger, I drew circles on his abdomen. “Yes, but I got stir-crazy. I’m not sure I can deal with that today.”
His chest rose with his deep inhale. He leaned toward the other nightstand and grabbed his phone. “Let me check something.”
He tapped the screen a few times, then I heard the whoosh sound effect of a text being sent. “I think Tic is gone until Saturday. If so, you can hang in the common room. If you get uncomfortable, you come back up here.”
I grinned up at him. “Thanks, Ryan.”
That earned me a dry look. “Don’t thank me. I haven’t heard back yet.”
“Right,” I said, leaning a little more of my weight against him.
He chuckled. “You aren’t fooling me, Trouble. It’s time to run, and you’re coming with me, so get up.”
Ever so gently, he gave me a nudge and I stood.
He went to his closet and tossed a shirt and a pair of shorts on the bed. “That’s for you. If you can’t get the drawstring tight enough, we’ll find some safety pins.”
I eyed the shorts like they might bite me, then looked at Ryan. “Not that you care, but you’re losing major cool points because of this.”
He stalked to me. “Better to lose cool points than lose you.”
I gave a short head shake. “You’re way too good at being sweet.”
His fingers came to my chin, he tipped my face up, and he kissed me short and…more sweet. “C’mon, it’ll be good for you.”