Chapter 5 #3
The second was a prototype, but one Ranger volunteered for.
After Cameron had made Ranger remove his dog tags where his tracker was, and Becks had mistakenly removed her wedding ring in hopes of alerting Ghost that something was wrong without knowing she was also removing her tracker, Keys wanted to come up with something that wasn’t as invasive as an injection but also couldn’t be removed easily off their person.
So Ranger was now Keys’ guinea pig for a custom-fitted tooth-mounted tracker, complete with a microphone and receiver that automatically turned on if Ranger hit his panic button.
While a part of him was irritated by the constant overwatch, he also knew that this allowed him certain freedoms until he earned back the trust he’d shattered with a single needle.
Check-ins with Ghost, Becks, and Cross were just another part of his new routine, but with knowing the unpredictability of working the tow truck, Ranger could understand why the additional securities were necessary.
And it wasn’t like the microphone was on all the time.
That would be a total invasion of privacy, which, for Keys, was saying something.
Even in the heat of the moment, Ranger would have never considered having sex again if he knew there was a possibility that Keys was listening in.
It was just there in case of an emergency.
So long as Ranger experienced no issues with the tracker, Keys planned on fitting every club member and family member with one. The hard part was going to be the club kids, but Keys planned on speaking to a dentist before he even attempted including the club kids.
The door burst open so fast that Ranger shot upright in bed, dumping Toni’s purse, with her phone and gun inside, on the floor.
Once he placed Susan Brown with Toni Anderson, he realized where he knew her name from.
He was doing everything he could not to think about her, other than his intent to head to her home in the morning to bring Toni her things.
Ghost flipped on the light and came storming over to Ranger’s bed. His first thought was that Ranger had done something wrong and Ghost was pissed at him, but then he saw the phone at Ghost’s ear.
“Hold on, I’m changing you to speaker.” Pulling the phone away from his face, he held it out between himself and Ranger. “Okay, Steel, say that again.”
“I just got a call from Toni Anderson.” Ranger’s shock over the fact that Steel was on the phone with Ghost was quickly replaced with worry. Did he say Toni? “She had a break-in tonight at her home, shot the intruder. I need you guys to go check on her and take care of the body.”
Ranger was already scrambling from the bed, not caring in the slightest that he was nude in front of Ghost. As he dressed, he heard Ghost ask, “Why didn’t she call the cops? Sounds like clear self-defense.”
“That’s where it’s not so clean-cut. The intruder was her father.”
Ranger froze, his boot halfway on his foot. “What?” Gravity nearly pulled him down from standing there one legged, but thankfully he righted himself in time.
“She wasn’t speaking clearly, obviously in shock.
That’s why I need you guys to get over there and figure out what is going on.
She asked us to take care of the body, so you take care of the body.
Verify she’s safe, and do what she asks.
She helped Jenna out a lot when I was arrested. I owe her this.”
It wouldn’t have mattered if she called a favor in with Steel, Ranger would have gone anyway, would have taken care of her. She should have called him—but then his eyes landed on her phone and realized that she couldn’t. And yet she’d gotten a call out to Steel?
Ranger was aware that his anger and jealousy in that moment were irrational.
It wasn’t like they’d exchanged numbers—even if she had taken her purse and phone with her.
But there was still a part of him that felt like he’d failed her, that she didn’t trust him, because she hadn’t called him directly.
But his time in therapy the past one hundred and twenty-four days—twenty-five now, since it was after midnight—wasn’t for nothing.
He acknowledged his irrational emotions, and instead of suppressing them, he quickly searched for the cause of them.
And frankly, it didn’t take him long. He wanted to be the person Toni called, wanted to be the person she could rely on in a crisis.
He wasn’t angry at Steel for being the person Toni called, but angry at himself for not knowing if he could be that reliable person right now.
“We’ll get it taken care of and keep you posted,” Ghost promised as Ranger hurried to finish dressing. Ghost hesitated before asking, “How are you?”
Ranger kept tying his boot. It had been over a year since Melanie had been murdered, and Steel, Jenna, and Ollie had left Mount Grove. Ollie had returned for the funerals in May. But only Ollie. In fact, most communication was now done through Ollie, who was set to attend Juilliard in a few weeks.
“Just take care of Toni,” Steel said in lieu of an answer.
Ranger and Ghost exchanged a silent look, neither of them liking Steel’s non-answer, but before either of them could say anything else, their former president hung up.
* * *
Her instinct upon hearing the rumble of motorcycles on her drive was to pick up her shotgun.
The baggie of meth felt heavy in her robe pocket.
She’d considered going upstairs to change, but she couldn’t leave her father.
Guilt over what she’d done kept her at his side, not wanting him to be alone.
She didn’t go to check on her mom or put sturdier shoes on.
The only conscious decision she made was to hide her father’s drugs.
It was bad enough the club was going to have this to hold over her. She didn’t want them to discover her parents’ drug usage, too.
As soon as she saw the five motorcycles and one SUV pull into her drive, she immediately regretted her decision not to get changed. Her robe was short, thin, and left absolutely nothing to the imagination. But it was still cover.
The biker in the front removed his helmet to expose ginger hair.
That was Ghost, the former enforcer. He took Steel’s place when Steel stepped down as president.
Next to him was Lucky, whom she knew from his arrest four years ago.
Beside him was one of the largest men Toni thought she’d ever seen.
His Dumbledore-like beard and bald head gave him away as Bulldog, Carlos’ brother.
There was a fifth biker behind them with black hair and a long scar down the side of his face, but it was the fourth biker in the lineup that had Toni’s heart pounding for an entirely different reason than five bikers who had just pulled into her drive to dispose of her father’s body.
Ranger burst past Ghost, Lucky, and Bulldog, running up her four steps and to her front door. He must have assumed it was unlocked, because he slammed into it when it failed to open for him. His ice-blue eyes met hers through the window pane.
He put a hand on her door. “Toni, baby. Let me in.”
Her grip tightened on her shotgun. She’d already made the call. The club was already here. But letting them in would seal her fate. What had Steel told them? Just to get to her house? Or did he repeat everything she’d word vomited to him in her panic?
“Steel, I just killed my dad…”
Christ. She’d admitted her crime out loud.
Burner phones could still be tracked or traced.
But they would have had to have had a judge’s order to tap into the phone, and why would they, unless they knew a crime was about to be committed.
And if the authorities knew a crime was about to be committed and did nothing then that had even bigger implications than the fact that she just shot her father.
“Toni!” Ranger slapped his open palm against the window. “Toni! Baby, I need you to take some deep breaths. Breathe for me. She’s going into shock,” he said to someone else beside him.
Toni tried to breathe. What was she thinking? She called a motorcycle club to cover up her crime instead of the police? It was insane. She was going insane. She needed to send them away, needed to?—
Toni screamed as a figure appeared beside her.
She raised her gun, but her hand was shaking too hard to get her finger around the trigger.
Like she was holding a kid’s toy instead of the murder weapon she’d just used on her own father, the scarred man ignored her and reached for the front door. Which he unlocked.
Ranger came bursting into the living room.
Crushing glass and debris under his heavy boots, he snatched the gun out of her hands, handed it off to the scarred man, and then she was in his arms. The smell of leather and musk consumed her, and Toni’s knees buckled.
Tears broke through the wall she’d somehow erected to remove herself from the reality of what she’d done.
She’d killed her father. She’d killed Wayne Anderson. Was he perfect? No. But he tried. He kept on trying. He stumbled, he fell, he didn’t make the smartest of choices, but he kept on trying.
She clung to Ranger’s shirt, only vaguely aware that he was completely holding her upright. His strength, his steadiness… There were no words to describe how much she needed them in that moment. He was essentially a stranger, and yet there was no one she’d rather have hold her right then.
Not even her mother.
Fuck, her mom! How was Toni supposed to tell her that she had killed her husband?
They’d been through so much together, all stemming from a teenage pregnancy.
And now it was over? A single shotgun blast later, and it was all for nothing?
What had been the point? The struggles? The highs, the lows?
What had it all been for if it was just going to end like this?
Warm air hit her cool flesh, and it took Toni a minute to register that she was outside. Was she rocking? Why was she rocking?