20. Logan
20
LOGAN
Dean leans against the seat of his motorcycle, watching me leave BPD with a grimace on his face.
Shit.
“What happened?”
“Ortega.”
Just that one word has the power to take the good out of my mood completely. Although, my day hadn’t really started all that great anyway. With Poppy sick and throwing up everything she ate, I spent the entire morning worried about her since I couldn’t take her to the doctor like I wanted to.
“Sam took Poppy to the OB this morning.” I cross my arms over my chest and stare at the man who looks more like Poppy’s older brother than her father. “Was Ortega there or something? ”
I try to hide the fact that my heart is racing at the thought of that piece of shit anywhere near her and wait for Dean to tell me what happened.
“No.” He shakes his head. “One of the prospects was out with his girl in Bangor and saw Ortega out with a redhead. A redhead who could have been Poppy’s twin. It wasn’t her, obviously. But the prospect was on Sam’s spare bike. And he said he felt like he’d been followed from Birch up there.”
It takes a second for my brain to connect the dots.
“You think he did it thinking he’d be fucking with Sam?”
Blood starts to pound in my ears, so I miss it when Dean agrees, but I see the nod of his head.
“I’ve been good,” I tell him. “Come with me. You’re not carrying, are you?”
Dean looks at me like I’m crazy but doesn’t answer my question. I don’t push it, either. Instead, I lead the way to the back entrance of the building and use the code to let myself in. I hold the door for him and wait until it closes securely behind me before leading the way through the hall toward Chief Townsend’s office.
Along the way, we pick up stragglers in the form of the men from my unit. Or most of them. Remy, Linc, and Dom are right there behind me when I knock on the chief’s door and walk in without waiting for a response.
“Well, I’m glad I didn’t have my dick in my hand or anything,” he says by way of greeting and then stands up when he sees we aren’t alone.
“Dean.” He holds out his hand, and Dean shakes it. “It’s good to see you again. How’s Andrea doing with that grandson on the way?”
“Shit, Alex. You’d think I was made of money the way she keeps spending it on crap they could buy for themselves. Between her and Maria, I think Lucas and I are single-handedly funding half the boutiques on Main Street at this point.”
The chief shakes his head. “When Remy and Parker had Cassie, I think my wife spent ten grand in less than a month. I got calls every other day from the bank making sure there weren’t any fraudulent charges. I had half a mind to tell them that she’d stolen the damn thing.”
“As nice as this is,” I interrupt their conversation, “I brought Dean in because of Ortega.”
Dean and the chief both sigh, and it is almost comical, if it wasn’t my life they are sighing over.
“He followed one of my men to Bangor, with a redhead in his car who could have been my daughter,” Dean cuts right to the chase. “The bike being ridden belongs to Sam.”
“Oh, the black V-Rod he bought a few years ago?” the chief asks. “Or another one?”
“No, you remember the bike he got straight out of high school? The one that could have passed for a pocket rocket?” When the chief nods, Dean goes on. “That’s the one. One of the prospects laid his bike out and needed one to use for a week. Sent him up to Bangor for one of Poppy’s baby things, and while he was there, he saw Ortega with the girl. Said he was followed, and I believe the kid.”
Dean pulls out his phone and holds it out for us to see the picture on it. A picture that makes me sick to my stomach. It isn’t just the redhead looking like Poppy. It is the black eye and busted lip that we can clearly see. And the way he is holding her against his body makes it clear the girl doesn’t want to be anywhere near Ortega.
“He wanted to be seen,” Remy mutters. “You know what that means.”
“No,” I say smartly. “Why don’t you enlighten me, Remy? Could it possibly be that he’s fuckin’ pissed that I’m the reason he spent a decade and a half in prison? Or maybe it’s the fact that between Dean and me, we made sure he had a miserable time there. Between getting his ass beat and being made to be a man named Bubba’s bitch, Ortega didn’t have a good imprisonment.”
Dean snorts. “Bubba’s actually a friend of this guy I served with in the eighties. When he found out Ortega was in for hurting someone close to me, he didn’t even ask for anything on his commissary for it. He just wanted to make sure the asshole felt some pain.” His eyes flash when he meets my glare. “I made sure he was compensated. Don’t worry.”
“What can we do?” Linc interjects. “You all know I hate men who abuse their women, and the fact that he’s picking someone because they look like Poppy makes my blood run cold. But this isn’t an overt threat. It’s not even him making contact.”
“Yep,” Dom adds irately. “And the first argument he, or a lawyer representing him, will make is that it’s just a coincidence that he happened to be anywhere near any of your men.”
“Poppy needs to file a Protection from Harassment Order against him,” Chief Townsend says suddenly. “I know it seems extreme, but Ortega’s responsible for her fiancé’s sister’s death.” He stared at me pointedly, and I nod. Even if Poppy won’t marry me until after the baby comes, she will be marrying me. The chief goes on, like our silent communication hasn’t happened, but I know Dean didn’t miss it. “He served time for it. Any judge in Birch County will approve it based on the history and the potential threat.”
Dean nods his head. “I’ll talk to my girl. She’ll do it.”
“No.” I hold up a hand to silence him before he tries to take over. “I’ll do it. She already knows I kept shit from her when it comes to Ortega. There’s only so much I can take of her being inadvertently pissed at me before I have to do something about it.”
Dean chuckles darkly. “Make sure it’s done as soon as possible.”
I already have my phone out, texting Sam to bring her to the courthouse, so I choose not to answer him.
When Sam replies with a thumbs-up emoji, I put my phone away.
“What else can we do?” Dean asks his friend. “I don’t want to kill him. It’s gonna point right back to Logan and his family, which means it’ll point back to my family. And I’m not gonna let anyone else take the fall for me pullin’ the trigger if it comes to that.”
“You can’t just tell a room full of cops that you’re gonna murder someone.” Linc shakes his head. “Come on, Dean.”
Dean, who’s been dealing with cops since long before any of us were born, raises an eyebrow at Linc and stares at him until the younger man looks away.
“Listen closer, boy. I said that I wasn’t going to kill him because of the hassle. That doesn’t mean I don’t wanna do it. Or that I wouldn’t do it if I absolutely had to. And no offense, but you wouldn’t be the one to catch me if I did.” He snorts. “I know more hiding spots in this state than you’ll ever encounter in your life.”
“Well, now that you’ve taken it creepy and my father’s not saying anything to tell you to knock it off, maybe we can come up with a plan?” Remy stares at Dean, then at his father, before looking back at me.
“Hey, I didn’t ask you to follow me. You’re all just nosy. I needed the chief to hear about Ortega because if that asshole tries to hurt Poppy, I’m gonna put a bullet in his head. I don’t care what kind of favors I have to call in. If something happens to her, there is no me anymore.” The words leave my mouth, and even though they just sort of slipped out, I don’t try and walk them back. Instead, I look directly at her father and make sure that he knows I mean every single one of them.
“Consider me warned.” Chief motions to the door. “Now get out there and do your job.” He nods at Dean. “Good to see you. Tell Andrea I send my love, and we’ll have to get together when these kids get their lives under control.”
Dean walks out without saying another word, and I watch him go.
“How many guns do you think he had on him?” Remy leans against the wall. “I counted three.”
“Two and a knife,” I counter.
“Three,” Linc sides with Remy.
“Three,” Dom agrees with the others.
Chief Townsend sighs. “You need to get up earlier in the morning to get one over on him. Dean’s carried four since the day he got out of the military, plus the knife you saw. One on his ankle, two under his vest in a double shoulder holster, and one on his dominant hip.” He opens his desk drawer and pulls out a bag of M&Ms. “Still got a lot to learn.”
“Remind me never to piss him off,” Remy says in awe.
“Nah.” I slap him on the back before walking out of the chief’s office. “You’d never fall in love with his daughter and then break her heart when she was a teenager. I used to have nightmares about him slitting my throat while I was overseas and then slipping out of the country before anyone could find him.”
Dom smirks before following me out into the bullpen, leaving Remy and Linc as the last to leave. “That’s… creepy.” He laughs. “But one time during my deployment, I swore that I saw Emma in the chow hall. I followed this woman around, waiting for her to turn in my direction, only for her to kick me in the balls when I got too close. That was embarrassing to explain, but hilarious at the same time because after that, I dreamed about Emma showing up and beating the shit out of me for following another woman. So, I feel ya.”
“Yup.” I nod, grabbing my gear before heading toward my office. “But I gotta tell you, it makes me feel good knowing Dean taught Poppy everything he knows. She may not be as good of a shot as Emma, but she’s got a right hook that’ll knock a man’s teeth out of his head. And that’s if she’s not using the brass knuckles her brother gave her.”
Yeah, I’m smiling like an idiot when I sit down at my desk, and the men I call brothers are staring at me like I’ve grown a second head. But what can I say? I’m absolutely crazy about her. I have been since the day she turned sixteen and said yes when I asked her out. Hell, she owned my heart before I knew I could give it to her.
All she has to do is ask me nicely, or grimace at me, and I’ll give in to anything she wants. That was before she was pregnant, too. Her, heavy with my child growing inside her?
She doesn’t even have to ask, and I’ll give her anything she wants.
A night with her extremely pregnant friend? Done.
Pizza topped with jalape?os and pineapple? Double done.
Helping coach the two of them through squats and practicing Lamaze breathing techniques? That was actually my idea.
Which is probably how I end up staring at a vagina that I never wanted to see.