WILLOW #2
After years of being around Uncle Mark’s MC, I know that club business is only club business.
I honestly don’t know how Aunt Jaz puts up with it.
It would be like your husband is only sharing half of his life with you, probably less than half, since I know that when you are in an MC, your life revolves around it.
But Aunt Jaz just says that she married the man and not the MC, and that Uncle Mark shows her that she and Sophia are the most important thing in his life, not the cut that he wears.
I can’t wrap my head around the details of how it works, but it does work for them.
Anyone can see how much they love each other; it’s actually kind of gross sometimes. I know that a lot of the guys in the MC cheat on their ‘Ol Ladies with the club girls—that it is their world. But after seeing my parents’ relationship, I don’t think I would be able to accept anything less.
I put my baby into drive and head home. It’s been two weeks since I have been in my safe haven, and I miss being comfortable at home and living by myself. Grey was quiet and mostly stayed in his room, which you would think would be nice, but it just made it feel like I was walking on eggshells.
I never thought I would like living alone; I always loved the house that I grew up in because there were so many people and it always felt full of life, especially since I pretty much grew up on a base that always had people around.
When I officially moved into my house, the silence killed me the first few days, but after the first week, the silence turned into comfort.
I was never able to hear myself think when I lived with my family, which, looking back, was a good thing. After the hospital stays, my mind was running a million miles per hour, but my body was too weak to do anything about it.
That’s why I put so much effort into making every nook and cranny of my home as comfortable as possible, even going as far as having different aromatherapies in different rooms. My idiots made fun of me for having a “girl” house, but to be honest, they are the only guys that I invited over.
I feel myself slowly transitioning to the crazy cat lady, but the crazy snake lady thing is still on the table.
After an hour of driving, I finally pull up to my front gate. I have a sensor on my car, so it opens automatically the second that I pull up. I drive down my circle driveway and park in front of my porch stairs instead of going to the garage, since I have to unload all of my bags from the car.
I see that I have a box waiting for me by the front door, filling me with a sense of dread as a chill shoots up my spine.
I stare at it through my passenger door window, not getting out of the car.
I grab my phone and bring up my app for the cameras that I have throughout my house and property.
When I get packages, they automatically get shipped to Dad’s house, or are dropped in front of my gate in the lock box that I have there.
Nothing should come onto the property, especially without me knowing about it.
When the app comes up, I look for the front gate, which should alert me every time that someone approaches, and it will log anytime that it opens.
But nothing shows in the open and close log, and the motion sensor on the camera was never triggered.
I look up the feed for my front door camera next and it looked like the camera went down, and when it was back up, the box was there.
Shit. I know I can clear my house by myself and neutralize threats, but if I did that, and my family found out about it after the fact, I would never hear the end of it.
I let out an exasperated sigh. All I wanted to do was take a fucking shower and unpack!
Haven’t I been tortured enough with having to deal with Grey’s shit?
I dial the number of the one that I know will keep his cool in any situation.
“Why are you calling already? I know you just landed, we can’t be late for dinner yet.” Gig’s voice comes through my car speakers since my Bluetooth is still connected.
I sigh again, not ready for the swarm of activity that will happen at my house after I tell Gig what’s going on.
“I have a situation at my house,” I say, waiting for it to start.
I know that Gig will keep his cool, but he still gets overprotective and jumps into problem-solving mode as fast as the others.
The only difference between calling him and the other idiots, or even my dad, is that he will actually let me give all the information before he starts to freak out.
“What happened? I’m in the war room with Dad and the others, and you are on speaker,” he says while I can hear the talk starting in the background.
“I pulled up to my house and there’s a package waiting by my front door. Nothing is showing on the gate log and my cameras were down when it showed up,” I say, giving the facts as fast as I can before it starts.
“Did you touch it?”
“Did you get out of the car?”
“Were you expecting anything?”
“How big?”
“Guys! I’m not an idiot! I’m sitting in my car with the engine still running. I haven’t approached. I saw that it was there, pulled up my security app, and called you,” I yell into the phone. Their questions are giving me a headache.
“That’s my girl! We’ll be there in fifteen minutes, Will. Just wait in your car until we get there.” My dad’s comforting voice is less frantic now that he knows I didn’t do anything stupid.
“I know, Dad. I’ll wait here, but can you do me a favor and only bring the idiots with you?
I know everyone will want to check it out, and I’m too tired to deal with a possible bomb on my front porch and a shit ton of people tracking dirt on my floors from their boots,” I try to reason.
He knows that I traveled all day and don’t have the patience for people messing up my clean house.
Mom was just as much of a clean freak as I am, so he knows the drill.
“You got it, baby girl. It’ll just be me and the boys.
We’ll tell the other guys tomorrow after we handle it,” he promises, and I let out a breath and deflate.
I know that everyone over there cares about me.
They are family, after all. But I don’t want to upset everyone, especially if it’s nothing.
All I know is that after all this drama first thing when I get home, if those are the new penguin socks that I ordered, heads will fucking roll! And I will give a one-star review!
Fifteen minutes later, my dad’s Escalade pulls up to my gate and it opens for him, thanks to the sensor that I gave him and my idiots.
All of the doors open, and four pissed-off-looking men step out, looking all around my property for any visible threats.
They’re all wearing their normal work clothes of T-shirts and cargo pants, but they also have tactical gear on that I’m sure they grabbed on the way out of Vital.
I won’t be offended that they think I didn’t already scan the property from my car and video feed from the cameras; I know they can’t help it.
Now that they’re here, I open my car door, get out, and walk over to them.
Still looking around over my head, my dad grabs me first and pulls me into a tight hug.
I’m not sure if it is because I have been gone for two weeks or because of a possible threat that made it onto my front porch, but I let him hug me for a minute before he lets go.
I then get the same hug from each idiot.
“Did all the cameras go down when the drop happened? Or just the one at the door?” Gig asks, getting straight to the point the second that he releases me from his hug.
“All. While I waited for you guys, I checked all of the feeds to see if I could get an ID, but they were all dark.” Knowing that, he will need time to work this one out.
He is going to go through every possible reason for the blackout, and then go through any entry points to my security system that he designed.
All of us move towards the porch, and they slowly merge in front of me, trying to shield me from danger.
They know I can take care of myself, but they are on auto pilot right now, so I don’t point it out to them. They are all on high alert.
Gig shifts to go first, pulling a device out of his pocket that will detect any explosives. When he tries to pass Dad, Dad grabs the device from Gig’s hand and nudges him to the side.
“I’m older, so I take the risk,” is all Dad says as he continues to the box, leaving Gig looking annoyed. Dad will always put himself between danger and his kids whenever he can. It’s nice when I get the confirmation that it’s not just me.