Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
GRIZ
Not taking my eyes off Marley, I listen to my brothers murmuring beside me.
All I can think about is how I nearly lost Marley. I don’t know what happened for her to have not been in the car when it went up in a ball of fire, regardless, I’m glad she wasn’t. I’ll have to ask her about it once I’m able to get her out of here.
“Sniper’s on the way with his truck. He’ll take your bike to the clubhouse,” Shiner says, getting my attention.
I glance at him briefly before nodding and returning my focus to Marley.
“I got the prospect bringing the tow truck. Already told the officers we’ll take it in,” Lucky mutters. “They didn’t seem too happy about it, but I told them she’s one of ours. Only thing is they think of her as one of theirs as well.”
“What exactly does your woman do, Griz?” Scorn asks.
“She’s a process server, serves papers for the court clerks, frees up the deputies, and she’s a skip tracer,” I grumble my answer and frown, noticing Marley seeming to argue with the paramedic. I’m betting she’s refusing to go in to be further checked out. “Someone broke into her house Friday while she was at the diner.”
“Why didn’t you call us about it?” Shiner demands.
Turning toward him, I give him the only answer I could. “Let’s just say Marley isn’t like other women. She walked into her broken in house, only room in disarray was the living room, and she says it was nothing more than child’s play.”
“Seriously?” Lucky snorts. “And how else is she different from other women?”
“She works with, well, she used to, two bounty hunters before she moved here. And she’s also hardheaded enough to look into something that happened years before she was even born.”
“What is she looking into?”
I shift a look to Scorn at his question. “I’ll fill y’all in on all of it later. I already asked Keys to go and redo her entire security system at her house this morning. I also asked him to see if he could make a copy of what she had in that box of letters. I didn’t get to read them all and wanted to have the chance to do that.”
“You think this could be related?” Shiner asks.
Nodding, I return my attention to Marley, who is hopping off the gurney. Guess she’s got the paramedic to relent and leave her alone. That or she’s just doing what she wants anyway.
“You should take her to the clubhouse,” Lucky suggests.
“Yeah,” I agree.
We had plans for the evening at her place, but those won’t be happening now, not after this shit.
Marley needs to rest. I’m sure she’ll protest, but to rest, she needs to be in the safest place she can be. Right now, that’s gonna be at the clubhouse surrounded by men who can watch out for her. I already know she’s not gonna like it. One thing I’ve figured out about my woman is she’s very independent.
“Soon as Sniper gets here, I’m taking her to the clubhouse. Let the cops know they can talk to her there.” I wasn’t about to let them talk to her on the side of the road while her car sat there charred.
My brothers nod, and I move away from them, making my way to Marley just in time to hear her snap at the paramedic that she didn’t need to go to the hospital. She was fine. At least that’s what she was telling them. I could see the truth in her expression. She was in shock. I couldn’t blame her for it either.
It was just my luck that we’d been coming back and decided to take the way we did to the clubhouse. After having been out handling club business, I’d been more than ready to get back and then get to her place. If it hadn’t been for the smoke that caught our attention and we wanted to check it out, we’d have turned around went to the clubhouse a different way.
I’m not one to believe in higher powers or anything like that, but even I gotta admit fate stepped in on this one.
“Scorn will keep an eye on her,” I tell the paramedic. Being that both he and Torch were volunteer firefighters, they have the skills to know what to look for. “If anything happens, we’ll get Marley to the hospital, deal?”
“Guess it’ll work,” the paramedic gripes and walks off.
Turning fully to Marley, I wrap an arm around her waist and hold tight. “Come on, sweets, let’s get you out of here.”
Nodding, she doesn’t say anything but rather lays her head against my shoulder. Instead of letting her walk, I scoop her in my arms and carry her away from the wreckage toward where my brothers were waiting. I notice immediately that Sniper has already made it along with Blow and Nines.
“Keys?” Sniper stretches a hand out, holding a set in his hands.
“Appreciate it,” I tell him and make my way past him and the others. “Need to get her out of here and to the clubhouse.”
“Why are you taking me to the clubhouse?” Marley murmurs quietly.
“Scorn can’t keep an eye on you if you aren’t at the clubhouse, baby. And until the car cools off enough to look it over and figure out what caused the explosion, I’d prefer you to be where no one can get to you.”
“Okay,” she relents without an argument. This was good cause I didn’t want to argue with her about her safety.
Not bothering to look around at anyone in the crowd that had gathered, I carry Marley away, more than ready to get her out of here. My brothers could handle watching the crowd for anything or one that might spark an interest into who could have been behind this.
“Adams is going to come to the clubhouse in a bit after we get the car towed to the garage. He wants to look at it first.” Blow states, walking next to me. “I think I might follow and take a look at it myself.”
“You do let me know what you find.”
“My car started making a funny noise,” Marley whispers, lifting her head marginally from my shoulder. “I pulled to the side of the road and just popped the hood and got out when it happened.”
So, that’s how she survived it. She noticed something off and stopped on the side of the road to check it out.
Fucking hell. My woman saved her own damn life just by being observant.
“You need to let your grandma know you’re okay,” Sniper grunts, speaking directly to Marley.
“She shouldn’t know anything about this so soon.”
Sweet Marley. She doesn’t know how fast word travels around here. Her grandma probably got the call within minutes of it happening.
“I’ll swing by there and let her know,” Shiner grunts. “I need to go by there any way to pick up the caramel clusters she made for Milo’s birthday.”
“Damn woman and her sweets.” Lucky chuckles. “The woman makes a batch of her cookies for Chelsea every damn week, and my woman won’t even give me one.”
“Maybe if you’re nice enough to her and say please, Grandma Ryan will make you your own batch.”
Chuckling at Marley’s statement, I make it to Sniper’s truck. Scorn reaches around and opens the passenger-side door for us. I step around him and set my woman inside. Without a word, I buckle her in and move back, closing the door and sealing her safely in the confines of the truck.
Taking a breath, I twist to face my brothers. “I’m gonna get her to the clubhouse. I need someone to go by her place and pick up some things for her. I know she’s gonna want some of her work stuff and clothes.”
“I’ll get Chelsea, and we’ll go over and grab what she needs,” Lucky states.
“Appreciate it.”
“See ya back at the clubhouse in a bit,” Blow states, tapping the hood of the truck as he backs away.
“Yeah.” Starting around the truck, I look to Sniper, “Think you can go by the diner? Ask Deloris for Marley’s usual and two of the specials for the day.” I figure since we’re not gonna have dinner at her place, I could get her something I know she’ll enjoy.
“No problem,” Sniper agrees.
I nod to the others as they start to the bikes. Getting in behind the wheel, I start the truck and put it in reverse.
“Someone blew my car up,” Marley murmurs quietly. I’m sure she’s probably talking to herself, but still, I heard her.
“We’ll find out who did it, sweets.” Reaching over the console, I grab her hand and bring it back to my lap. “Blow is going to take a look over it after they get it towed. He’s got an eye for finding shit. So does Nines. They’ll probably call in Calyx to take a look at it as well.”
I could see Nines calling Meadow’s biological dad. Considering his profession, he’d be able to find something faster than anyone else. Still, the car needs to be gone through with a fine toothcomb to find anything and everything that could have been a part of the problem.
“My phone was destroyed. All of my cards. My wallet. My birth control pills.”
We hadn’t talked about that shit, and I fucked her more often than not without a condom on. I knew I was clean. I didn’t have to worry about her having anything. It was one of the things Keys had in the report on her. Granted, he hadn’t put in there she was on the pill.
“We can get you a new phone. Same with all of your cards. But don’t worry about any of that right now. We’ll handle it all later after you’ve rested and had a chance to process everything that happened.”
“I need to call my dad.”
Cocking a brow, I glance at her briefly before focusing on the road once again. “Why?”
“I told him I’d call him this evening. I promised I would. He said if I didn’t, he was calling a family meeting, meaning my brother and sister were going to get involved.”
“Wanna enlighten me into what they’ll get involved in?” She’s not making sense to me.
“In the fact that I’ve been short with my parents since I asked them about the stalker my mom had. Marshall, Marla, and me at a family meeting is not a good idea.”
“Now, you want to explain that?” As far as I knew, she loved her brother and sister. I heard the affection she holds for them in her voice the first time she mentioned them to me.
“Remember me telling you about not liking to share? Well, because my siblings and I are like oil and water. If I don’t talk to my dad, he’s all but siccing them on me.”
Ahh.
Sibling rivalry.
The best kind of relationship you can have. They might fight, but they’d do anything for each other.
“You can use mine to call him. We don’t need you stressing about anything more. You’ve been through enough, I think, for the day.”
“Thank you,” she whispers on a breath.
“No problem, sweets. Once we get you settled at the clubhouse, you can make your calls.”
If I had it my way, she wouldn’t be calling anyone. I’d hold her up in my bedroom and keep her there until I knew for sure she was out of harm’s way. Meaning, until I found the fucker who tried to kill her.
After having spent the weekend with her, inside her, I knew deep down she was meant always to be mine. I could kick myself for almost fucking it all up with her. It’s a good thing I’d been able to convince her otherwise. I had enough of riding on the edge of what I wanted. I decided to go full-on out to do whatever it takes to make sure I got what I wanted, as well as keep Marley right where I have her.
Anyone who comes after her, I’ll kill before letting them get to her.