Chapter 9 Frost
NINE
FROST
“You were gone a while,” Stone said the second I walked through the door.
“Yeah, well,” I said as I puffed out my cheeks with a sigh, “that happens whenever you’re trying to lure the cartel away from someone’s place.”
Stone’s face sank. “What?”
I shook my head. “I went to the hospital, but I decided it was best to keep my distance. I didn’t talk to her again, but I just sat and waited for her ambulance to pull up.
I had this feeling, you know. This feeling that because of the incident I stepped into the other night that they’d link her to me. Right?”
He nodded. “That’s the whole reason all of this kicked up, yeah.”
I went and sat at the kitchen table. “Yeah, so, I park, and I watch. Her ambulance pulls up and I figure, great, I should follow this back to see where she works.”
“And you found it, I take it?”
“Yep. Sat right there in the parking lot until she came out after her shift. So, she comes out, and I stay a few car lengths behind her to make sure she doesn’t see me so I can follow her home.
Figure out where her home base is just in case.
No issues tailing her, but something still doesn’t feel right. Right?”
Stone sat in front of me. “Let me guess. They were already at her place.”
I nodded. “Exactly. I saw the low-rider cruise by and knew exactly what was happening. Somehow, they already had her information. They already knew at least what apartment complex she’s in.”
Texas handed me a beer. “Complex? Not number?”
I took it from him. “Thanks. And no, I don’t think they know what number her building is. He was just riding up and down the main street in her complex.”
“Don’t they have gates for that shit?” Asher asked.
I scoffed. “You’d think so, but it was wide open when I eased on in behind her.”
Stone held his hand in the air. “Let’s get back on track. What happened after you spotted the car?”
I leaned back and took a long pull from my beer.
“I caught the guy turning around at the dead end of the road and essentially played chicken with him. I revved my engine. Kicked up some burnt rubber. I pissed him off just enough for him to chase me out of the complex and we wove around town for a while.”
“Then what happened?” Texas asked as he sat down.
The guys gathered around me as I launched further into the story.
“No shots were fired. At least, none that I can recall right now. Everything was such a blur that before I knew it, I had weaved him into an alleyway that kept narrowing. He got his car stuck, he cursed at me for a while, then I mounted his car and flew over it before getting back out onto the road and high-tailing it back here.”
Asher chuckled. “So, you think you’re a badass, huh?”
Texas grinned. “It’s a pretty badass move.”
I shook my head. “The takeaway here is that they already knew where to find Lexi. That’s proof enough for me that she’s not safe.”
Stone nodded. “He’s right. As awesome as the story is, we’ve got another civilian in the crosshairs of an issue that never should’ve been ours in the first place.
But, now that we are entrenched, we have a duty to the people of our town to keep them as safe as we possibly can while we clean up our messes. ”
I downed the rest of my beer. “So, what do you suggest?”
Stone rapped his knuckles against the countertop. “First, you need to get some rest. It’s late, and some of the guys napped. Texas?”
He stood. “Already on it. I’ll go get West and we’ll go perch. Just text us her address.”
I reached up and fist-bumped him. “Thanks, man. I really appreciate it.”
Asher leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. “Is there any reason why we aren’t asking her to just come stay with us at the warehouse? It’s not like we’re hurting for room or anything.”
I let out a bitter sort of chuckle. “Yeah, Lexi and I aren’t on the best of terms.”
Stone shrugged. “Well, get on better terms. It’ll be a hell of a lot easier to protect her if you two aren’t squabbling all the fucking time. Got it?”
I nodded. “Got it.”
“Because the truth of the matter,” he said as he stood, “is that she’ll be a fuckton easier to protect if she’s in lockdown with the rest of the club.
So, understand that if she really needs protecting, that’s my goal: to get her here with the rest of us so we don’t have to be tugged in so many different directions.
We have to save our patrols for when the cartel’s involved. ”
I raked my hand through my hair. “Got it.”
I mean, sure, I understood the mission. But it wasn’t as if I knew how to go about it.
Lexi and I had a sordid kind of history that fell squarely onto my shoulders.
What the hell was I supposed to tell her?
That I got roped into confidential missions as some low-level Army medic that took me off the map?
How the hell was she going to take that?
Plus, how the fuck was I going to convince her that she needed to come stay here without letting her on as to why?
Jesus fuck, what a goddamn mess.
“Want to know what I’d do?” Asher asked as he scooted his chair closer to my side.
I groaned as my head fell back. “I’m all ears.”
He placed his hand on my shoulder. “I’d start by telling the truth.”
I scoffed. “The truth will probably make things worse.”
He squeezed it. “You’ll never know until you tell her. You might find that she’s a hell of a lot stronger than you give her credit for.”
I sometimes forgot on my worst days that many of the men that surrounded me had their own squabbles and past issues with their loved ones.
So, if there was anything I could learn from their actions, it was to never trust a gut instinct when it came to a potential partner.
Our gut instincts told us to protect. To take the bullets.
To take whatever came our way in order to protect those we adored.
When really, those that wanted to adore us back simply wanted to be clued in to why we were taking the actions we took in the first place.
But, as I headed back to the hospital that evening, I still didn’t know how the fuck to approach her.
I took a wild guess at her shift time and arrived a few minutes before.
I perched in that same parking spot near the back of the parking lot and watched every car that entered and exited.
I wanted to make sure I didn’t recognize anyone.
I wanted to make sure the cartel wasn’t going to simply show up and show their asses.
Then, I saw Lexi pull into the parking lot.
I watched intently as she parked near the front.
She got out and closed the door a couple of times, almost as if it wouldn’t latch, and already I had formulated a plan to get that fixed for her.
I knew my way around bikes better than cars, but I knew how to fix simple shit like that on anything.
I watched her primp herself before putting on some lip gloss, then she pushed her purse up her shoulder and started in through the E.R. doors.
Her Jeep was in the same condition I remembered it being in.
After torturing myself on whether or not to corner her during her lunch hour or some bullshit, I decided to keep watch.
I could nick two birds with one stone and talk to her after her shift while also keeping an eye on the parking lot to make sure I didn’t have to intervene for any reason sooner than that.
But things came and went without so much as a peep.
Seven o’clock crept steadily closer and I saw the security guards change out.
So, I put down my kickstand, whipped my leg over the seat, and went to perch against Lexi’s driver-side door.
Before she came out of the doors herself.
I was infuriated with the way she seemed distracted. She kept digging through her purse while approaching her car as if she didn’t have shit to care about. And maybe that was for the best. It meant that she didn’t know she was in danger.
But, the second I pushed off the car, she whipped her eyes up and paused.
“Hey there, Lexi.”
I spoke for the first time that evening, but all I got were flashes of anger that dribbled across her face.
Her gaze locked with mine and anger vibrated through her body so harshly that her hands shook.
She even pulled out her keys and slipped one between each finger--a move I had shown her in case she ever needed to defend herself in a parking lot.
So, I held up my hands in mock surrender.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped.
“I just want to talk,” I said.
She took a step closer to me. “Well, I don’t want to talk. I want you to stop stalking me at work and never come back. If you need a hospital, I want you to cross town. That’s what I want.”
“Lexi, please. We really need--.”
She charged me with the keys outstretched in front of her and I took a few steps back.
She stood next to her door before jamming the key into it and unlocking it manually.
I saw an automatic lock hanging from her keychain, so I wasn’t sure why the hell she was opening it manually, but the second she ripped her door open she slid behind the wheel of her car.
Then, it hit me.
She didn’t unlock her car that way because she didn’t want me climbing in back.