Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
GRIZ
“What the hell do you think you’re going to do that we’ve not been able to do?” Marley’s brother demands.
“Marshall, stop it.”
I gotta admit, Marley’s the spitting image of her mom. The only difference between the two of them is their age, and Marley’s got her dad’s eye color.
“Seriously, Mom, this is bullshit,” Marshall sneers. “You don’t need this shit, and neither does Dad.”
“Your sister doesn’t need it either,” I sneer, seriously not liking Marley’s brother. Since meeting him a bit ago, he’s done nothing but piss me off. I’d even taken his side earlier when he and Marley were arguing. “You think your parents have wanted to hold this secret to themselves for as fuckin’ long as they have,” I stretch an arm out in their direction, narrowing my gaze, “I sure as fuck don’t think they did. Your dad did what the hell he had to do to protect his woman, your mother. Just like I’ll be damned if I’m going to standby and do nothing to keep my own woman safe. Maybe if you got your head out your ass, you’d see it the way I’m seeing the situation.” I look toward Marley’s little sister and jerk my chin. “Same goes for you. Lose the bitchy attitude toward your sister and grow the fuck up.”
I didn’t have to be in Marla’s presence long to see that she’s the baby, so she likes to use the fact to her advantage.
“If none of you can do anything to help, then get out,” I say and turn toward Michael. “You said on the phone for us not to touch the car ‘til you got here. Now, I want to know why?”
“Right before moving, Deets tried to kill Anna. Her car had been rigged to go off while she was driving. The fucked-up part of it was, Anna wasn’t driving the car that day. Her friend Beth was. Beth was killed, but there was no way to prove it was Deets who planted the explosive.”
“How do you know it was Deets stalking your wife?” Nines asks, brows drawn together.
“Deets didn’t hide the fact he wanted Anna for himself. Didn’t hide his hatred of me. More than once, he tried to use his position against me. Being in the military helped keep him off my case, but it didn’t stop him from harassing Anna every chance he got. The fact he didn’t hide his stalking only caused the problems to escalate. I had to ship out to my new station, and I took Anna with me. We got married and rarely came back here. It’s best to keep Deets from seeing my wife and the possibility of him picking up where he started.”
“That’s why you didn’t want me to move here and wanted Grandma to leave this place,” Marley notes. “Why not move on, and if he causes problems, take him on? It’s not like you don’t have your own firepower behind you now.”
“Trust me, Lee-Lee, there’s been plenty of times I thought about coming here and doing just that.”
“I wouldn’t let him,” Anna, Marley’s mom, speaks up, curling herself all the closer to her husband’s side.
It’s strange to me that she not only knew my parents—especially my mom.
I remember my mom, not as much now as I have over the years, I have the memories, but there are certain things I can’t recall anymore. It’s those times I end up at my dad’s, he and I’d talk about her. Hell, every year since I was ten, Dad and I’ve always gone on her birthday to her grave, where we’d lay flowers, release a balloon for her, and watch it float to the sky. Some people would think it’s something that we shouldn’t do, but it’s our thing.
“You think because of the explosion it’s Deets that’s trying to get to me now?”
“I didn’t believe it. Detective Deets knew who I was because of all the times I’ve been at the station, but he’s not acted one way or the other toward me. More than that, he doesn’t give me the vibes I usually pick up from those who are creepy, icky, straight-up bad guys, or those who hide the fact they’re bad people. It just doesn’t add up to me. There’s no way Deets could be the one behind this now,” Marley rambles quietly, like she’s talking to herself. “I seriously need to get on a computer and start looking more into this.”
“We need to go look at the car. That will be what tells me if it’s Deets or not,” Michael remarks, having heard his daughter, though he seems to be ignoring what she’s said. That or he might not have actually fully heard her, considering she did speak quietly.
“We’ll go take a look at the car,” I tell him and look directly at Marley. “You want to find Keys, I’m sure he’ll let you help him.”
Marley’s head tilts back, eyes coming to mine. “That would be great.”
“Then go find him, sweets,” I murmur and lower my head to touch her lips. I keep it brief. I don’t have the time to kiss her the way I want.
“Marley shouldn’t be looking into any of this,” I hear Marla gripe.
“Marla, that’s enough,” Anna snaps. “Your sister does this for a living. I love you, but Griz is right, you need to stop with the attitude.”
“Mom, if she hadn’t brought all this up and moved here, none of this would be happening right now. She might not have gone and gotten her car blown up.”
“Marla,” Michael gets there before I do, his tone harsh and terse. “Knock it the fuck off.”
That’s not what I’d have said to her, but it seems to work. If she keeps this shit up, I’m going to lose my shit on her, and it won’t be pleasant.
“You know, Marla, I’m getting really sick of your judgmental attitude. Get over yourself. I do what I love doing while you do what you do. You don’t, then I guess it’s time you and me, go our separate ways.” Marley doesn’t wait for anyone else to say anything. Instead, she stomps away, heading in the direction she’d seen Keys go. I’m sure she’ll find my brother soon enough.
I shoot a glare at Marla, not even going there. Marley would be pissed at me if I said further about where the fuck Marla can go with her bitchy attitude.
“Let’s go,” Blow calls out. “Adams is going to meet us at the garage. Says the forensic team is ready to get to work on it.”
Nodding, I give him a chin lift and head for the door. I don’t bother saying a word to any of Marley’s family. Seems the only one I like so far is her mom. Maybe her dad, but only because as soon as he got the call, he hauled his ass here. Granted, he could have left his asshole son and bitch of a daughter behind.
All that matters right now is finding out if it was indeed Deets who set the bomb on Marley’s car. Once we know one way or the other, I’ll know what my next step is going to be.
“It’s not the same setup for the bomb, but damn sure close. The one that was planted in Anna’s car back then had been hooked to the transmission,” Michael says, straightening from under the hood of Marley’s car.
The moment we got here, Michael went to work examining the car. Now, it was my turn. I wanted to know what I was dealing with, and I wasn’t taking anyone’s word on anything. That is unless you’re one of my brothers, which Marley’s dad isn’t.
While I do my own assessment of the car from beneath it, I ignore the others and focus. The device was easy enough to find the remains of. There was also something else connected to the wires I knew had to be connected to the GPS system.
“Dad, I just got off the phone with Grail and Bash, they’re pissed no one called to tell them about Marley,” Marshall states gravely, sounding more than a little bit pissed.
“They’ll get over it,” I shout. “Torch, I need you down here. Shiner, can you grab my gear wrenches. The eighth and quarter inch ones.” He’d know exactly which ones I’m talking about. They’re the only two I have that are gear wrenches but also adjustable to be able to fit in tight spaces.
“What did you find?” Michael calls out.
“What’s up?” Torch asks, joining me under the car.
“Here ya go, brother,” Shiner says, tapping my leg with the wrenches.
I take them from Shiner before pointing out the wires to Torch. “You see what I see?”
With Torch being a trained firefighter, it doesn’t matter if he’s a volunteer or not, he’s been trained to eye things like this by his dad, who’s also the fire marshal/investigator.
“Fuck me, someone was tracking Marley,” he mutters low enough for no one else to hear him.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I tell him, reaching up to disconnect the wires that were bolted in. “Hopefully, there will be something on this that will help Keys and Marley.”
“Maybe, but with how severely charred it is, it’ll be a crap shoot,” Torch remarks.
“Crap shoot or not, it’s something.”
Who the hell knows, we might find something, something I’m not about to let the cops get their hands on. If this is Deets, I don’t give a shit if Adams can do anything or not, I’ll be killing the fucker.
Moments later, once I climb from under the car, I grab my wrenches and head for the garage to put them away. Torch already pocketed what I needed him to and will take it back to the clubhouse while I deal with Michael and Marshall.
“What did you find?” Adams asks, holding a hand up before I can deny anything. “Off the books questions, man, know you, know the club, you found something, gave it to Torch, what was it?”
“Go ahead and answer him,” Blow states calmly.
Sighing, I walk over to my toolbox before I answer. “Found a device connected to the wires for her GPS. Torch confirmed. He’s taking it to Keys and Marley.”
Adams nods. “If there’s anything they find, I need to know. I get y’all gotta do your thing, but this is still my investigation. I need to know what I’m looking at. And if I need to be looking more into Deets on this.”
The last part he murmurs for only Blow and me to hear.
“We’ll let you know.” Blow nods, confirming what Adams is saying without saying more. Bringing his gaze to me, he jerks his chin. “Time for us to go. Let Adams’s boys handle things from here.”
Nodding, I head for my bike, ignoring both Michael and Marshall. Until they can prove themselves to me, more like until Marshall can prove himself, I’m not sharing shit with them about Marley.
Maybe it’s because I don’t know the relationship between them. Marley said they were all like oil and water when it came to each other, that they loved each other and would do anything for one another. This might be so, but they all need to find themselves in my good books before I let any of them alone with my woman. Not even her mom has been able to get to her since I left. Keys and Scorn were taking care of that. Mostly because Scorn was stationed outside the room where Keys and Marley were held up working together.
I’m sure I’ll hear from Marley about my actions later, but not before she knows the reasons behind the actions I took to keep her safe. When it comes to Marley, it seems I’ll walk the edge of all things to see her safe, not just physically but also emotionally.