Chapter 5
Hyde
From the moment I came to, I’ve been studying Leslee. There are occasionally glimpses of the child she was, but the woman before me is fascinating.
She’s probably a little taller than the last time I saw her. Her blonde hair has more reddish highlights than I remember, her amber eyes are just as bright and full of life as they always were. But now, it’s the way that she holds herself that screams she’s no longer a child.
Waking up, I didn’t want to startle her, what with her gluing my flesh together at that moment. Seeing her completely focused on the task, it was hard not to smile as she silently talked herself through what seemed like an itemized list of dealing with a gun wound.
I could only guess how I ended up on the floor, but I have no doubt that I’m in the best possible hands.
At least until we’re in the same state as Riley.
Because that woman’s gonna take one look at my face and enlist every one of her friends to dismember me and hide my body.
Granted, I can probably get Mom on my side to possibly turn the tide—and save my hide, one more time. While it was a no brainer to walk away from a child all those years ago, the woman before me is going to be hard to resist. Maybe I’m delusional from blood loss, thinking she’s even still interested in my ancient ass. Then I remember the kiss she laid on me.
When Gunner called, he kept our conversation short, never mentioning names or places. I almost cringed when Leslee said my road name, but am relieved she called her brother by that ridiculous nickname she did when she was six and wanted a puppy more than a baby brother; once she realized he wasn’t a dress up doll.
Vector’s been notified that we’re here and need some help, so I can only hope that whoever he sends will distract her attention over the coming days.
Leslee tosses the phone to me when she’s done talking and turns back to whatever she had started whipping up in the kitchen. I let her be, just content to watch her.
“Hungry?” she asks me a good ten minutes later, without looking at me.
“That depends,” I answer her, not shifting my eyes from the sway of her hips. “Was it Gunner or Riley who taught you how to cook?”
“Daddy taught me how to hunt, Momma taught me how to cook,” she says with a laugh, giving me a wink over her shoulder.
Despite the teasing tone of her voice, those words send a chill through my body. “Can we eat over here?”
“Of course,” she replies, dishing up two bowls and carrying them over before doubling back with two water bottles. “Tell me what you think.”
I take a couple of bites before vigorously nodding my head. “Fuck. What am I even eating?”
“I used ramen noodles as the base, then I had to get creative,” she snorts with a shrug as she shovels food into her own mouth.
That’s when I realize that she hadn’t eaten since before getting on the plane from Idaho. I finish off my plate, then gulp the water, and turn down a second helping to ensure she’ll have enough to eat tonight.
“Want to tell me what happened back home?” I ask her next, not having gotten more than the barest facts.
“What did Flint and Dad tell you?”
“They said that a cartel has a marker on you. Seems your nose for trouble hasn’t changed and you stumbled upon some stolen shit,” I say to egg her on, ensuring I’ll get her versions of events.
“This story gets more interesting every time I hear it,” she practically snarls at me, getting up and tossing her bowl into the sink before turning to face me again. Not that I’m any expert in body language, but she looks a little angry, what with her hands fisted on her hips and her eyes narrowed into slits. “You want to know what happened? Your skanky ex made off with a bag of nasty ass shit and when she tossed it out a window to keep Dad from seeing it, I hid it, not knowing what was in it. Now everyone thinks she went blabbing to some cartel that I stole it in the first place.”
“My ex?” I swallow, praying that she doesn’t say…
“Fucking Trinity!” Leslee growls, throwing her arms up as she invokes the one name that I wish I could scrub from my past.
“Would you mind starting at the beginning?” I debated asking Leslee, not wanted to rile her up any further, but I’d be a fool not to find out what we’re dealing with.
She lets out a humph sound, stalking toward me and yanking the bowl out of my hand. The next thing I know she’s produced a bottle of whiskey and a couple of glasses of ice.
“You’re eighteen,” I half-heartedly remind her.
“And part of your head was shaved when you got passed-out drunk at the clubhouse at sixteen. I can survive a couple of shots,” she sasses back, and I hold my hands up in surrender even though she had started pouring it already.
I smile at the first part of her re-telling, knowing that Gunner always stops for soft-serve at the same spot and from her words, it’s obvious that their bond has only grown over the years I’ve been away.
To say that her rage at seeing Trinity was visceral is an understatement, and it’s not my ego talking when I know that Leslee’s dislike of Trinity has more to do with me dating that bitch—and the explosive end to that relationship—than the fact that she’s now on the run because of Trinity.
Apparently, there was some debate about sending Leslee away, and how far was wise. Once Mungo was found and lived long enough to tell Jasper that Trinity had pointed the Navaja cartel in Leslee’s direction, there were no further arguments.
Distance, speed, and silence became the guiding factors.
“Dad said that the Flagstaff Chapter has contacts that might negotiate on our behalf, but he didn’t want to take any chances in the meantime. Besides Flagstaff, he’s closest with the Virginia Chapter, so that’s why I was sent east,” she says, concluding the story. “And now, they have to figure out who told the Navaja where I’d be.”
“Being young and dumb is no excuse for how blind I was about Trinity,” I say more to myself than as an explanation to the girl sitting across from me.
Pleased that she settles for glaring at me rather than pointing out the fact that I was well into my twenties, and old enough to know better. I finally reach out for the glass and toss back the whiskey that she had poured for me at the beginning of her tale.
I wisely hold onto it, shaking my head when Leslee offers to refill it, knowing I need to keep my wits about me while she’s in my care.
My phone pings and I hate that I have to force myself to look at it, somehow knowing that I’m not going to like the message.
“What’s wrong?” Leslee asks after I’ve read it twice.
“No backup for the time being,” I tell her. “The Virginia Northern Grizzlies that were coming to watch our backs, picked up a tail immediately. Your fan club doesn’t seem to know where you are, so no one’s in a hurry to point them in the right direction.”
“How do you know they don’t know about this place?”
“Because they haven’t come knocking already,” I drawl out the words and she looks down, seemingly embarrassed. “Time to break into the reserves. Come with me.”
I brace myself when I stand up but other than a slight pulling sensation, the wound doesn’t hurt as bad as I feared. Leslee follows me back to the master bedroom and her eyes widen when I close the door behind us.
“This was designed to be the safe room when Alex rebuilt the place,” I instruct her.
Reaching out, I make sure she’s watching when I slightly open the bottom drawer of the dresser next to the door. That releases the catch which holds it in place, and it swings around to hold the bedroom door shut. The back side of the dresser also reveals a cache of guns and ammo.
“Any shit that goes down, this is where you have to get to,” I state the obvious before pointing to the other door in the room. “In the back of the linen closet in the bathroom, you’ll find an entrance to a tunnel that’ll get you about a hundred yards away. There are go-bags stored at the far end of that. If you’re in the other bedroom, push on this panel to crawl through into this room. Once you’re in this room you secure it with these support bars. Doesn’t matter where I am, you fucking lock yourself in.”
“This is quickly becoming my dream home,” Leslee whispers, reaching down to latch, then release the levers that secures the panel I indicated.
“Leslee,” I snap her name out, drawing her attention back to me. “Promise me you’ll lock it and get out.”
She looks between the doors and back at me. “No. I won’t ever leave you behind.”
I open my mouth, wanting to argue with her and make her give me her word. But I know her well enough to know she won’t. Leslee’s never lied to me, and she won’t start with a promise that could cost me my life.
Studying her face, I finally see what I’ve been missing and want to kick myself. Behind her cocksure attitude, she’s terrified and way out of her depth. For all that she’s always acted so mature, Leslee is eighteen with a price on her head—that’s enough to break most people.
Opening my arms, she doesn’t hesitate. Even though she’s careful not to hit my wound, she wraps her arms around my torso in such a way that I’m not sure she ever plans to let go.
I wind one hand into her hair, dipping my head down to deeply inhale her scent as I hold her against my chest.
I’m not going to kid myself.
I’m keeping her pinned in place because I’m not sure that I can bear the full weight of those amber eyes if she looks up at me again.
“Joe?” Leslee’s voice is hesitant when she speaks. “I’m exhausted, but since we’re on our own do you need me to take watch with you? Or at least in shifts?”
“I turned on the motion detectors when we came in,” I tell her. “If anyone makes it past the first perimeter, we’ll know it. Just past the second perimeter, there are other devices I can activate—if needed.”
“Alex doesn’t mess around does she?”
It’s hard not to smile at the tone of Leslee’s voice, especially since it sounds like she’s mentally adding all the features I told her about to a demented Pinterest board.
“I’d rather you take this room, so go grab your bag,” I say by way of response, without releasing the grip I have on her.
“Stay with me,” she murmurs, seemingly content to stay in the circle of my arms a little longer.
“No,” I whisper the single word close to her ear and force myself to let go of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever held.
Leslee
I squint my eyes at his back when he walks away from me, but I take a breath and smile to myself. I’ll have time to get him to see things my way.
Really, it just feels so good to see him again, it almost takes away all the fear and frustration that I’ve been bottling up since that witch blew into Idaho with her hellish shitstorm in tow.
Considering I just snuggled into him for comfort, I have to get him to see me as an adult and not a child who’s easily overwhelmed.
Northern Grizzlies do not take weak women to be their Ol’ Ladies, I think to myself. I was raised around some of the toughest, smartest women and each of them have a loving and dedicated man, or two, by their side.
I may not have a clue of what exactly I want to do with my life, since I’ve always figured I’d stumble into it—after things with Joe were settled.
The only thing I am certain of is that he is mine.
*
Lurching out of bed sometime later, all I can think of is what Joe said about defensive devices on the property and of all the wildlife that must be around here.
Worried about animals I’ve never seen, I grab my hoodie as I slip out of my room. I’m barely awake when I peek in the door to the second bedroom and the bedside lamp shows that the room is empty. Turning, the light at my back helps me see that Joe fell asleep sitting upright in the recliner. The idiot didn’t even put the footrest up and his head is tilted at an angle that hurts me to look at him.
“Hey!” I whisper as I approach him.
Joe jolts out of the chair like I tazed him. “What’s wrong?” he barks out at me.
“The devices that you said you can activate if someone tries to sneak up on us. I was wondering about the deer and bunnies out here—will they be alright?”
“Fuck,” he growls, shaking his head as he tries to work the crick out of his neck. “They won’t go off accidentally and I’m pretty sure if anyone comes calling, that’ll scare the animals away. I don’t know. Christ, I need some ibuprofen.”
Nodding my head, I turn back to my room and dig a bottle out of my bag. Tossing it to him from across the room, his eyes widen at the size of it.
“You don’t mess around do ya?” he asks, shaking the bottle with a grin. I just shrug, not wanting to discuss how bad my cramps get every month.
“Why don’t you go lie down, I can keep watch for a while,” I tell him and he grimaces, knowing he was sleeping on ‘watch’ anyway.
“Your dad would beat the shit out of me if he had caught me sleeping,” he mumbles.
“Then here’s my offer: you go and get some actual sleep and I won’t tell him that you fucked up on guard duty.”
“First of all, you’re still a brat. Secondly, until today, I’ve never heard you swear before and you kinda suck at it,” he tells me, his eyes somewhat hooded as he seems to be assessing my threat.
“Bed. Now,” I demand, stepping back and pointing in the direction of the rooms.