Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Judge
That fucker owns the company that sent the chemicals to my town. Justin is a dead man, not only for what he did to Evie but also for fucking with my club and businesses. Touching her already signed his death warrant, but now I plan to make his life miserable.
Feeling her body tremble and then her knees wobble, I realize she’s heading for unconsciousness.
I lift her into my arms before she goes out, and Lach directs me to put her back on the exam table, but I don’t.
I walk out the door and straight for the grand staircase.
Lach shouts my name, but it doesn’t register; all I can think about is that my woman is out cold, and the part of me that has maintained control since being a teenager now itches to throw punches and settle this the old-fashioned way.
When I reach the second floor, I turn towards my wing of the house. With a raised foot, I kick the door open, and Bear starts barking. He’s standing over Cassini’s kennel, and I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
Striding to the bedroom, which happens to be the front room, and the Alaskan King bed, I lay my girl on it and step back to allow Lach to check her over.
“I told you to take it easy with her. Between the head injury and everything else she went through. Hammer also mentioned she has been on edge for a while. Do you know when she ate last?”
“No.” I drop my head, embarrassed that I didn’t even think about food. I start to move away, and her hand moves to take mine.
“Don’t leave me,” she says so softly that it hurts my heart. I sit on the bed, her head drifts near my hip, and I hold her hand. Lach moves in closer. “I am hungry. He wouldn’t let me eat.”
“Spider, get her some food.”
“I’ll text Gus. What do you want me to get her?”
I look down at Evie. She shakes her head, unsure what she wants.
“Are you allergic to anything?” Lach asks.
“No.”
“How about the bisque and a chicken tenders basket?”
“What kind of bisque?” Evie starts to sit up, but both Lach and I push her back down.
“Rest, Evie,” he tells her.
“Don’t move, baby,” I order.
“The bisque is a butternut and cider.”
“That sounds good. Can I have ranch with my tenders and fries?”
“I don’t see why not. Gus makes fresh ranch.”
“Yummy.” She curls into me, and now, I have to question her. I don’t want to upset her again, but something about Perez set her off.
I start with something simple. “Baby, how do you know Dean Perez?”
“He went to college with Justin. He’s creepy, and I don’t like being around him, but he and Justin have been talking more lately.”
“Fuck,” Hammer says, and we all nod.
“Is there a problem?” Evie asks, looking up at me.
“Not with you, babe, but Dean Perez might have hurt a woman here, and then he tried to get one of our businesses shut down. Thank god it was only OSHA doing the tests and not someone else.”
“Dean is working with Justin at the new chemical company. He was supposed to be at the party tonight, and Justin tried calling him repeatedly.”
The guys who know chuckle, and I cock my head to the side. She doesn’t need to know too much. “Okay, baby, you need to rest. I’ll sit right here. Spider will bring you some food.”
“Also, Ruby is asking to speak to Evie.” Spike gets my attention with that. “Torch called and told me they are safe, but that Ruby was refusing to do anything else until she spoke to Evie.”
“Got it.” I dial Torch’s number, knowing that my sister’s cell was more than likely destroyed to keep Justin from finding her.
“Yeah,” Torch barks.
“I got Evie here.” I hand her the phone, and the girls talk away, but I stay seated next to her, trying not to eavesdrop.
Mal hands me the folder again, and this time, when I open it, I’m prepared for what Evie had already confirmed.
After seeing her in September at the Roadhouse, Justin contacted Perez, who then applied for the job at Blissful Passages.
He was planted there to cause issues and keep an eye on me.
But something isn’t sitting right with me.
More is going on, and I can’t see it through all the other shit in front of me.
“I want everything checked over. I want a full sweep for listening devices and anything else. Have Grave run records and make sure we don’t have any spies of any kind,” I order Mal, who agrees and walks out.
Hammer sits in a large wingback chair near the bed. “He’s going to cause issues. I’ve already heard rumblings from a friend of mine in Providence that he’s trying to get the state police involved.”
“I don’t care. I’m not letting him near her again.”
“Maybe I should go back. I don’t want you guys to get in trouble,” Evie says, and I’m about to snap at her when I hear my sister raising her voice over the line.
“Don’t even fucking think about it. He’ll kill you. Besides, think of the fact that Paris already threatened you, too.” Evie nods into the phone as tears roll down her cheeks.
“Baby, please don’t cry.” I wipe a tear away. “Everyone is safe. We are okay. They need probable cause to search any of our businesses, and if they come here, you can see them. You’re just not leaving with them. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, say goodbye. Your food is here.” I point to where Spider stands.
“Bye, girl, I’ll talk to you soon,” Evie says, and whatever my sister replies causes Evie to blush.
Taking my phone back, I slip it into my back pocket before looking at Lach.
He orders me, “Get her to eat, let her rest, and take it easy on her,” before walking out the door. The other guys make their way out of the room, also.
Spider stays behind, working on something at the dresser, and when he turns around, he has a lap tray set up so Evie can eat from the bed.
“Found this in the pantry downstairs. Leftovers from when I was…” he pauses, trying to figure out what to say next.
“When I was hurt last time.” He doesn’t tell her that he was shot or how, and Evie smiles and nods at him.
I stand up from the bed, and he hands me the tray before stepping out of the room, but he stops when he gets to the door and says, “Gus said if you need anything special, just let him know. He or his staff will get it made for you. He also sent you a dessert, too.”
“Tell him thank you.” She blushes again as she looks up at me.
I set the tray over her lap, pull the chair Hammer was sitting in closer to the bed, and watch her eat. After a few bites, I notice her wiggling around again.
“Babe, eat. I did earlier. I’ll do some work. How does that sound?”
“I just feel like you are watching me.”
“I am. Watching you is my favorite pastime.” The words slip out before I realize it.
“You haven’t had very much time doing it, how do you know it’s your favorite pastime?” She smiles, but the longer I stay quiet, the more she realizes how wrong she is. “Wait, have you been watching me?”
I set my phone down on the chair arm and slowly stand up. Taking the single step, I sit on the edge of the bed and slide my hand against the side of her bruised face, deciding to give her the complete truth.
“After that first weekend I saw you, I couldn’t get you off my mind. I talked to a friend of mine, and he gave me some suggestions of how he kept his girl and still gave her space. I did some of it.” I wait for fear to cloud her eyes, but it doesn’t come.
“Like what?” Her gaze lowers, and I gently squeeze her chin to bring her focus back on me.
“Keep your eyes up here. I need to know how much this might freak you out.”
I watch her pearly teeth pull her sexy lip into her mouth, and a warm, dusky blush moves across her skin. Fuck me, she’s turned on.
I lean close to her, careful of the tray of food she’s been picking at.
“I had Mal hack the school security system so I could watch you. I had a tracking chip put on your car and initiated the tracker on your phone.” I pause, then reveal the final part.
My lips are so close to her ear that I feel her tremble as my lips brush her skin.
“I came and watched you, too. I wanted to sneak into your apartment and put up cameras, but I hadn’t gotten to that point yet.
” She sighs, and I kiss her neck below her ear.
“Eat up and then I’ll be eating too.” I don’t tell her I’m eating her, but it takes everything in me to step back and sit in the chair again.
After a few minutes of working through emails on my phone, I notice she’s still pushing her food around her plate, and a thought hits me. “Babe, are you hurting too much to eat?”
“No, I’m just full already,” she says, but her stomach grumbles.
That fucker is going to eat his balls when I’m done with him. He was a bully by calling her fat and making her self-conscious of her weight.
“You are not. Eat, please. I don’t care what you eat as long as you do.
I don’t have a problem with your curves.
Never have. Your plump ass is what I saw first, then your incredible breasts.
I can’t wait until I can drink from you, too.
” Her cheeks go bright red this time as she looks down, dips a chicken strip in ranch, and takes a bite.
I’m glad she’s finally enjoying her meal.
My phone rings. It’s the gate guards saying that a car has gone by a couple of times. I look at the picture and can tell it’s not Justin, but I send it to Mal for him to research. When I finally look up, Evie’s plate is closer to being empty, and she’s glimpsing around my room.
Evelise
His room is decorated in dark woods and black bedding.
My pink comforter is spread across the bottom of the bed, and it almost looks out of place against all the deeply saturated colors.
A massive unlit rock fireplace anchors the wall across from the bed, with a large-screen television mounted above, and bookshelves filled with books line the surrounding walls.
“Do you read a lot?”