Chapter Seventeen
Let it Die
Romeo
I scowled at the wrecker backing in to take Shiloh’s little pickup out of Buzzby’s parking lot. There wasn’t much left. The tires were gone, as were the doors. The windows were smashed, same with all the lights, and the hood had been ripped off to reveal someone had taken an ax to the engine. The sideview mirrors were nowhere to be found, and the truck’s tailgate hung onto the rest of the truck by one sad little hinge. There were also ax punctures throughout the truck’s body and interior, especially the driver’s seat, tearing up the seat until it was nothing but exposed stuffing and springs.
The message was clear.
This was what they’d do to Shiloh once they caught up to her.
Fuckers.
Too bad for them that they’d never lay a glove on her.
My attention shifted from the wrecker to Zee, who’d left the diner with two cups of coffee in hand, one of which he handed to me. “Anything?”
“Tight-ass manager won’t cough up any security tapes, because we’re not the proper authorities.” His sneer was so spectacular it was a wonder it didn’t strip the asphalt off the parking lot. “I ask you, how would it fuck up the tapes if he just let us watch it a couple of times? It’s not like we’re confiscating his precious videos. I just asked to take a look at them.”
“This is the asshole who fired Shy for standing up to her rapist, so no surprise there.”
“Clown-haired fuck-nugget,” Zee muttered, then lifted a shoulder. “Anyway, Tomahawk went across the street to that pawn shop. Turns out he knows some of the peeps who work there, so we’re hoping to get something out of that. It’s just a formality, though. We know who did this.”
“Yep.” Hades and his crew. Had to be. “Always good to have confirmation, though. We’ll take what’s left of Shy’s truck back to the barn and see if there are any other calling cards they left behind.”
“Other calling cards?”
I nodded. “Ajax found the truck’s tires and the front bumper around back in the alleyway, exactly where I gave Marvel his ass-whooping. Made a nice little arrangement with Shy’s insurance papers—complete with her name and address right on top.”
“Really?” For a moment Zee looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. “Well, well. Look at Hades and his trained assholes trying to be all tough with their messaging. Too bad all they managed to do was make themselves look as weak as a fart in a windstorm.”
“Yeah, going after an unarmed civilian woman’s truck isn’t exactly what I’d call a power move.” It did, however, make me so pissed off I couldn’t stop myself from fantasizing about heading straight over to Hades’s crib so I could smash a few heads together. Which was exactly the response that old bastard was trying to provoke—get me or Tyr so mad we did something stupid. That left me with nothing left to do but grind my teeth and try to make it up to Shy as best I could.
“It really shits me, brother.” Zee scowled as we watched the sad husk of Shiloh’s truck get secured to the wrecker. “Whatever happened to leaving civilians and family members out of club business? It’s like they think they can do whatever the hell they want with this poor woman. At this point it’s a wonder she puts up with any of our shit.”
I really didn’t need to hear that now. “She’s strong, and she’s smart.”
“You can’t smart your way out of being constantly fucked with by people who look just like us.”
“My woman can tell friend from foe.” Or that was what I kept telling myself. But even I had to admit there had to be a breaking point. This woman—my woman—had been through so frigging much, even before I knew she existed. Enough was enough. “Shy still inside?”
“Yep, talking to that dark-haired waitress friend of hers.”
“Who’s with her?”
“The waitress with the dark hair?”
I glared pure murder at him.
“Oh, you mean your ol’ lady. I left that prospect with her, Arthur. Would you believe he’s telling everyone his road name is now King?”
“One single prospect’s not good enough,” I muttered, hands balling into fists as I turned and started for the diner. I halted just a few steps later when the glass door opened and Shiloh stepped out into the sunshine, wrapping her jacket around her like she was freezing to death. She was trailed by the prospect, a young kid with shaggy hair who looked like he was trying to be Shiloh’s second shadow. Good. Anything less and he and I would have had words.
“I can’t believe what a jerk Dubya is.” Shiloh looked disgusted while Zee did a quick fade toward the wrecker to give us some privacy. “My truck was trashed overnight, but he didn’t call me when he discovered it when he opened this morning. Can you believe it? That would have been the first thing I would’ve done if our roles had been reversed, but not Dubya. Oh, no. He tried to explain that he’s not in the habit of keeping phone numbers of people he’s fired, but that’s a bunch of bull. Even if he had deleted my number, he still could have called Heather to get my number. He just chose not to.”
Asshole. “Did he call the cops?”
She shook her head. “According to him, he didn’t want to get the diner involved in gang warfare. He was just going to call in a wrecker to clean up the mess, then stick me with the bill. Apparently he would have had no trouble getting in touch with me for that.”
I glared at the diner. Dubya needed to pray we never crossed paths again. “What a guy. Makes me wonder how he’s gotten this far in life without a spine.”
“Ask a jellyfish, I’m sure they’re related. And sticking me with a bill is one thing I’m worried about.” She nodded at the wrecker now hauling the suspended chassis of her truck onto the wrecker’s payload. “Either the repair bill on my truck is going to be through the roof, or my insurance company is going to call it a total loss, and that means I’ll need a new car. Again, a through-the-roof expense. I’m really watching my pennies as of now, so how much is it costing me to have my truck hauled away?”
“Nothing.”
“Romeo—”
“Baby, this was obviously a response to me beating the shit out of Marvel. That means it’s my bill to pay.” I had no problem coughing up the cash for this. Totally worth it.
“Obvious?” Her expression was pinched with tension, and for a moment she looked like the weight of the world was crushing her. “You sound like this was a well-thought-out message, and not some mindless violence against my truck because they couldn’t get their hands on me or my brother.”
“There’s no reason why it can’t be both.”
“Can they get their hands on my brother?” Clearly barely hearing me, she looked to me with such a stressed-out expression I wanted to tear the world apart. “I don’t even know where Josh is. After he left my apartment with you and Tyr, I don’t know where he went. Is he safe? Does he have any idea how dangerous things are for him right now? How do we know he’s not in trouble? How do we know he doesn’t need help, or that an ax has been taken to him?”
“Shy, take a breath, please.” Rage that she’d been made to feel fear surged through me so fiercely it was a wonder the whole parking lot didn’t shudder with it. I caught her up in my arms and held her close, trying to wrap myself around her so the world couldn’t get at her. “I’ve got your brother tucked away in one of our safe houses—a safe house so hidden that even Tyr doesn’t know where it is. He’s fine, trust me on this.”
“He needs to know about this.” Her voice was small but determined as she settled her cheek against my chest. The move was so vulnerable and so unlike Shiloh it made me hug her that much closer. “He needs to know how dangerous the world is for him and me. I mean, not that he’d care about how much danger I’m in, but he needs to know how serious things are so he can keep himself safe and alive.”
The rage grew to engulf her brother, and everyone else who’d let her down, including myself. “He knows, baby. Don’t worry about Josh. Just focus on yourself, yeah?”
“That fuck-everyone-else kind of attitude might work great in the biker badass world, but it’s not who I am. It never will be. Josh is my family, Romeo, so that means I care about what happens to him, even if that feeling isn’t mutual. His enemies took an ax to my truck because that’s what they wanted to do to him. For all we know, that’s already happened, and he’s lying in bloody pieces somewhere.”
“I’d bet my last dollar he’s doing better than you right now.” When she just shook her head in a hopeless kind of way, I cupped her chin to bring her gaze up to meet mine. “You know, I’m not sure how to take that comment about my fuck-everyone-else attitude, since I’ve never been that way, especially with you.”
“I didn’t mean you, specifically. You are amazing. You take my breath away every time I turn around with how wonderful and protective you are. I guess I’m talking about the brotherhood only looking out for the brotherhood.”
“Generally speaking, that’s exactly what families do, so maybe try looking at my brothers like that—like family. And since I know how important family is, I can arrange a meet-up between you and your brother. Would that make you feel better?”
Relief poured into her eyes, giving me all the answer I needed. “Can you make that happen?”
“I can.”
“Oh my God, that would be amazing.” She offered a shaky smile before it almost immediately slid off her face. “But… wait.”
“What?”
“Let’s think this through. Would meeting up with Josh be a smart thing to do? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see him right now just to make sure he’s still breathing. But… I don’t want to put him in any more danger than he already is. Odds are good that Hades has eyes on me, especially now that they’ve ax-murdered my truck. They’ll want to see what kind of reaction I’ll have. They might even be waiting for me to go off to wherever Josh is. So if you take me anywhere near my brother, isn’t that just playing into their hands?”
Now she was thinking like a Gravedigger. “We’ll bring him to you, and we’ll do it under the cover of a church meeting that’s already planned for tomorrow. It won’t set off any alarm bells.” Or alert Hades’s mole, whoever the hell that was.
“A church meeting?”
“All the Gravediggers have to attend church—a meeting,” I explained, lifting a shoulder. “That’s where club business gets talked about and any problems get settled. After church, we usually blow off some steam by having ourselves a party, complete with the three Bs—bonfire, barbecue and beer. I’ll see if I can get you a face-to-face with your brother after church. Sound good?”
“Sounds great.” Watching the tension drain from her face was worth everything, before she snuggled back against me. “Thank you, Romeo.”
“Don’t thank me yet, because I’ve got some bad news for you.”
I felt more than heard the pause in her breathing. “What?”
“You can’t go home.” I cursed under my breath when she stiffened all over again. It was always one step forward, two steps backward with Shiloh, and I was getting fucking tired of it. “Hades made a point of setting your car insurance card—with your address on it—on top of your truck’s tires stacked up in the alley behind the diner. They’re sending a message.”
“And that message is ‘You’re paying too much for your auto insurance?’”
“More like, you took one of ours—your brother—so we’re going to take one of yours, which would be you. That was to be expected when we got Chef away from Hades, so we put all our members on alert. But instead of targeting one of our brothers, they’re targeting you. Which is fucked up,” I couldn’t help but add. “You’re a civilian. Everyone involved understands you don’t have anything to do with our world. But Hades keeps showing us he doesn’t give a damn about respecting the rules, so fine. Until further notice, you’re living on Gravedigger property and staying out of that bastard’s reach.”
“But…” She looked at me with dawning horror. “That’s insane.”
“Maybe. But it’s also your reality, and it’s not negotiable.”
“I can’t just pull up stakes, Romeo. At the very least I have to go back to my apartment to pack. All I have are the clothes on my back. I don’t even have a toothbrush or an extra pair of underwear, or… or anything.”
“After we’re done here, I’ll take you shopping to get you everything you need, and once this is all over I’ll take you car shopping. It’s my fault they took their anger out on your truck and left pieces of it on the exact spot where I beat the shit out of Marvel. The least I can do is get you some new wheels.”
“Romeo, no. The last time I was forced to live on biker property…” She shuddered, and though I was still holding her, the look in her eyes told me she was a million miles away in some nightmarish place that I couldn’t reach. “No. No, no, no. I can’t go through that again.”
“Shy—”
“I’m serious. Being stuck in that clubhouse… it was three days of the worst kind of hell. It killed me, or at least it killed the person I used to be. It also destroyed my family and life as I knew it. I don’t think I can bear to live on biker property again without wanting to die. I’d rather just take my chances and start running.”
“No.” The thought chilled me so bad it hurt, and I moved to clamp my hands on her shoulders to I could look her dead in the eye. “Listen to me, Shy. This won’t be like last time, you hear me? You won’t be locked up in some Rumpus Room where every swinging dick can just walk through to have a shot at you. You’ll be staying at the Barracks, with your own private room and bathroom. I’m hoping you won’t want to just hole up in there and not come out to socialize, but I would understand if that’s what you want to do.”
She seemed to take her time absorbing this, to the point that I thought she wouldn’t respond. Then she glanced at me. “What about if I stay at your place? Just a temporary thing,” she added hurriedly, as if the words couldn’t get out fast enough. “I’m not saying we should move in together or anything. That would be crazy.”
“It would definitely be crazy to have you move into my place now,” I said easily, trying to massage the tension out of her shoulders. “It’d be crazy, because I’m not going to be there now that things are escalating with Hades. After this latest shit Hades pulled with your truck, I’m betting Tyr’s going to pull in everyone who’s vital to the organization, and that includes me. What do you say we save space in the Barracks by sharing a room?”
“Seriously?” The terrible tension was still there in her expression, shadowing her brow and sucking all color from her face. But the way her gaze clung to mine gave me hope. “I wouldn’t be forced to live in a common area of the clubhouse like… like human livestock in some twisted pervert’s petting zoo? I could have doors that lock?”
Swear to God, I’d kill Marvel and Hades for what they’d done to her. “Yeah, baby. You can even lock me out, if that’s what you want. I’m just hoping you won’t.”
“Things have moved so fast today that I can barely even process which way is up, but I do know one thing—I couldn’t lock you out. Not now.”
I didn’t like the open-ended sound of that. “But maybe later?”
“I can’t handle the thought of later. It’s taking all I’ve got just to keep it together in the present.” The final crash of what used to be her truck locking into place brought her head around to watch the wrecker slowly back out of the parking area. “Goodbye, truck. You were wonderful. I’ll miss you.”
The sadness in her voice tore at me. “We’ll get you another one.”
“It’s like all the pieces of my old life are dying. My apartment, my truck, my job… There’s almost nothing left of it.”
“Then let it die, Shiloh.” At the sound of her full name, her eyes swung back to me. When I saw pure misery swimming in their depths, I wanted to punch something. “You don’t need that old life anymore.”
“Who are you to judge that?”
Ah, good. There was still some fight left in her after all. “I’m the guy you wouldn’t let in because of that old life. There was no room for me in it. There were too many walls that cut you off from the rest of the world, and that’s no way to live—alone, isolated. A frozen princess in her lonely tower. I’m glad that old life of yours is dying out, because whether or not you’re ready to admit it, that life was slowly strangling you to death. Life is meant to be lived, Shy girl. Experienced, savored, wallowed in. It’s supposed to be messy and loud and chaotic.”
“That doesn’t sound as appealing as you think it does.”
“It’s better than the grave-like stillness you’re used to.”
The look she gave me was a kissing cousin to a death glare. “That’s a bit much. My life was never grave-like.”
“You weren’t putting yourself out into the world and living before I came along, so I stand by my words. There’s no need to mourn the loss of a life that died out a long time ago, Shy. Instead, thank your lucky stars you’ve come alive now, and you’ll never again be frozen and alone. I’m here now, and I’ll live and die doing my best to make sure you’re happy you chose to come alive for me.”