Chapter 2 #3
"Yes. There was an empty beer bottle on the counter, and the toilet seat was up.”
"What's that about? The toilet seat?" Dagger scratched his scruffy jaw.
"I know that sounds stupid, but I remember having to put the seat down to use the bathroom before I left to drop Oliver off. When I got home just now, the seat was up again." She sifted a hand through her long blonde tresses.
"And the empty beer bottle?” Jed asked.
“I don't keep beer in the apartment. I stopped keeping it around when my brother died. Someone left it on the counter." She pointed toward the offending glass bottle. Glancing down the hallway, she chewed her bottom lip. “Is that what I think it is on my bed and panties?”
“Yeah, babe. It is,” Race responded. All three men shared a look before he asked, “Jed? What are you thinking?”
“I think we need to put a camera in here, pointing toward the door, and another outside, also pointing at the door. What if we put motion detectors on the windows?”
“Sounds good. Set it up,” Race agreed.
“I’ll call Jackson to take care of it.”
“Wait! How much is this going to cost?” Sadie rubbed her hands up and down her arms again. “I only have a little money that I was able to hide from Crockett. If it’s too expensive,” she didn’t need to finish the rest. She didn’t have a lot of money. Trick had been right. Jed might have fucked up.
“It’s not expensive, and we’re paying for it. This is our rental property, so it’s our responsibility to keep you safe,” Race tried to reassure her.
“Oh. Okay.” She rubbed her head like she was getting a headache.
“You want to come hang out at the club while Jackson gets everything set up?” Jed offered.
“No.” She was back to chewing her bottom lip and looking around her apartment. Her space had been violated, and she likely didn't feel safe right now. “I really need to clean my bedding, and I have to pick up Oliver after school.”
“Okay, darlin’. Let me make a call.” Jed stepped away and called Jackson.
“Hey,” Jackson greeted him.
“Hey. I’m here at Sadie’s apartment, and we’ve got a problem. Someone broke in, and we need to set up some security here. Do you have time to do it?” He watched her from across the room as Race said something that had her nodding.
“Damn. Really? Someone broke in?”
“Yeah. Someone’s messing with her. Left her toilet seat up when she knew she had left it down. Left an empty beer bottle on the counter, and she doesn’t keep beer in the apartment. And someone jacked off on her bed with her panties.”
“Son of a bitch. Who the hell would do that?”
“I know who my money's on, but I can’t prove it.” Jed rubbed the back of his neck.
“Tinker?”
“Who else? She had a run-in with him Friday night at Bottoms Up and now this. Can’t be a coincidence.” He was more likely to be hit by lightning than for someone other than Tinker to be responsible for breaking into Sadie’s place.
“Damn. I can’t come right now. Harper’s sick, and I’m going with Calliope to take her to the doctor.” The muffled sound of a baby crying sounded over the phone, quickly followed by a shushing sound from Jackson. “So, what are we thinking? A couple of cameras? Motion sensors? Some kind of alarm?”
“Yeah. That all sounds perfect.” Jed watched Sadie put away her groceries, politely offering Race and Dagger something to drink, which they declined.
“If it’s not too late after I take care of my girl, I’ll swing by and get what I need.”
“What happened to the stuff we used when we were doing surveillance on the Phantom properties?” Watching her closely, he saw just how much this break-in worried her.
Her movements were quick and efficient, if not automatic.
She appeared to be going through the motions while her mind seemed a million miles away.
“Race had me add them to the cameras already installed at Bottoms Up this morning. Said he wants as many chances as possible to catch Tinker at something.”
“Okay. Do the best you can and take care of your girl. Give me a call when you can come by.”
“You have somewhere she can go if I don’t make it there tonight?” Jackson asked.
“Yeah. I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry.
We got this covered until you can do your thing.
” He said goodbye and hung up. He shoved his phone in his pocket and returned to the other three.
“I’ve got bad news. He and Calliope have a doctor's appointment for Harper this afternoon and won’t be able to pick up what he needs until after.
He said he’d do his best to set it up ASAP. ”
“Oh. Okay. That’s fine.” She rubbed her forehead again. “Please tell him not to hurry on my account. I want him to be able to deal with his family without worrying about me and my problems.”
“It’s okay. He’ll get to it, and it's not a problem.”
He felt like shit. Everything bad that was happening to her was because of another biker club.
She didn’t ask for any of this. She hadn’t been in Redemption long before another biker was fixating on her and messing with her.
He truly feared Tinker might get violent with her after last night if given half a chance, and because of that, he shocked the shit out of himself by saying, “I’ll stay with you as long as it takes Jackson to set everything up.
That way you won’t have to be alone, and you won’t have to worry about Oliver. ”
“Oh. Okay.” Was it his imagination, or did her shoulders relax just a little?
Race caught his eye and nodded toward the door. “Sadie, Dagger, and I are going to take off. If you need anything, you have my number. Don’t hesitate to call. Hear me?”
“Yes,” she nodded her head. “I hear you. And thank you.”
Race smiled and nodded his head before he walked toward the door.
“I’ll be right back,” Jed told Sadie, and met him and Dagger on the landing.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Race asked as soon as the door closed behind him.
“Yes. I’m going to hang out here until Jackson gets things hooked up.” The way Race was intently watching him made him squirm. “What? You think I should push her to go to the clubhouse?”
“Of course not. She’s been through a lot of shit because of the Phantoms. I’m not sure she’s in a place to give you a shot.”
“A shot?”
“Never mind.” Race started for the stairs, tossing over his shoulder, “You’ll figure it out. Call me if you need me.”
Jed didn’t wait for them to descend all the way down the stairs before he let himself back inside.
His heart skipped a beat when he didn’t immediately find Sadie where he had left her in the kitchen.
He ventured down the hall and found her standing beside her bed with a trash bag in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other, staring at her panties like she expected them to jump at her at any time.
“You want me to do it?” She jumped at the sound of his voice. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“No. I got it.” She reached over and grabbed her panties with the tongs and immediately shoved them in the trash bag.
She disappeared down the hall, presumably to throw it away.
While she was dealing with that, he started wadding up the blanket, making sure to keep the cum in the middle.
He was debating how he was going to shove it in the small washer in the stacked unit when she caught up with him in the hall.
“It’s not going to fit," he told her.
“No. It’s not.” Jed turned to find her biting her lip, trying not to laugh.
“I’m debating burning that.” Sadie pointed at it.
“If you really like it, we could take it to the laundromat. Do we have enough time before Oliver gets dropped off?”
“Yeah. He won’t be home for another hour and a half.
Where’s the closest one?” She passed him in the hall and disappeared into her room.
She came out a couple of minutes later, carrying the sheets from her bed.
“If we wash that, we’re washing it all. I’m not taking any chance that whoever did that to the covers didn’t do it to the sheets. ”
“Good idea. We’ll need to take your car.”
“Okay.”
* * *
Jed
They weren’t at the laundromat for very long when he noticed she was rubbing her head and closing her eyes. She had a bad headache, or it was working its way into being a bad headache. He’d offered to run across the street and buy her some Tylenol or ibuprofen, but she’d declined. Stubborn woman.
As they waited for her laundry to wash and then dry, they spent their time watching other people doing their laundry.
Occasionally, they tried their hand at conversation, but it was mostly superficial, generic stuff.
That was until one woman in particular made a production of shaking out her barely there panties before folding them, making sure she had his attention when she did so.
It wasn’t lost on him that this whole display was for his benefit.
Had he been alone, he might have struck up a conversation with the woman, and who knows where things might have progressed from there.
Sadie’s snort of derision told him she hadn’t missed the woman’s intention either.
“What?” He turned his attention to her.
“Nothing,” she shook her head.
“Obviously, there’s something, so spill it.”
“It’s just that woman over there waving her panties around for your benefit sees me sitting here next to you, but doesn’t care.
How does she know that we aren’t together?
Sure, neither one of us is wearing a ring, but how does she know we’re not in a relationship?
It really pisses me off when women do that.
It’s rude, and it’s pathetic. Can’t she go after a man who isn’t with a woman?
I mean, where’s the sisterhood?” She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes again.