Chapter 7
ONE MONTH LATER
Keys had updated their security system so well a squirrel couldn’t fart in the woods without him knowing about it. Even Scar, whose head wound was healing nicely, wasn’t able to pass through without being detected.
The system alerted the club three times to an intruder in the woods.
The number of motion detectors, heat sensors, and cameras Keys had installed proved effective, and he was even able to capture a clear image of present-day Griffin Shaw.
Then Ghost had Keys expand the grid into Mount Grove proper.
They upped the security on all the businesses, but also added discreet cameras to the street lamp posts to see if Shaw was hanging around town.
He was. More than one camera showed him stationed outside Little Shoes, either on the street or on the rooftop across the way.
There was no doubt Shaw blamed Steel for his initial incarceration, which then led to his life as the CIA’s weapon and then a dozen years being subjected to who knew what with Primis.
Keys was still going through those records, and eventually petitioned Ghost to get him more help.
If Jigsaw wasn’t at work at the high school, he was in Keys’ apartment helping the Tech sort through mountains of data files and information.
Finding out what Primis had done to him wouldn’t solve the threat of his presence in Mount Grove, but it might give them a clue on his current psyche.
Steel didn’t give a shit about his psyche.
The club had been at odds over Brendon’s, the former night janitor, fate.
While his actions seemed small and inconsequential, their impact was massive.
If he could be paid once to help someone infiltrate the club, he could be paid again.
But the man was still a civilian, a father and a husband.
He could have come to the club, told them he was approached and handed over the drive.
The club would have done anything to protect him and his family if they’d known.
What he’d done was cause for termination from his job, but not jail in the eyes of the justice system.
There was no punishment if they turned him over to Carlos.
The club wasn’t worried about him telling about the cellar or them imprisoning him.
They’d learned their lesson after kidnapping Billy Merrick, Yelizaveta’s husband, before they had determined his fate.
Brendon was kept blindfolded, so while he might have suspicions about where he was and who they were, he had no proof.
But in the end, it didn’t matter. The club chose to execute him.
No one, even those who voted for his death, felt good about it.
But life wasn’t fair, and they all knew it better than most. Ghost gave him the most humane death they could by having Bear slip a strong sedative into Brendon’s last meal before Ghost pulled the trigger himself.
He wouldn’t have felt a thing or known it was coming.
January faded into February. Sightings of Shaw were becoming fewer and fewer.
The man had lost his treasure map through the club’s security grid, and without it, was learning it would not be so easy to stalk his prey.
The first time he tripped Keys’ sensors after the pond incident, the club nearly had him.
They chased him through the woods like a pack of hunting dogs, but Shaw was able to reach the vehicle he had stashed outside Keys’ security grid.
They’d been right on his heels, and if it hadn’t been for the thick snow on the ground, they would have had him.
When they discovered his hiding places outside Little Shoes, the club had stationed Viktor and Darrin in those exact places.
Steel could sense his adversary’s growing frustration.
Good. Shaw was more likely to make a mistake when his patience was tested.
Then, suddenly, all sightings had stopped.
No one believed Shaw was giving up his crusade, but the fact that he couldn’t be found in Mount Grove was cause for concern.
Keys expanded his radius outside of town, hacking into traffic cameras, ATM machines, security cameras, and even police cameras to use his FRS to locate Shaw, but was coming up blank.
Unfortunately, in the first week of February, Ghost delivered bad news to Steel: Trip Orrin and James Hagerty were dead.
While they had no proof it was Shaw, the coincidence was too great to ignore.
Hagerty was stabbed by an unknown assailant in what poor camera resolution portrayed as a bar fight in a back alley.
Orrin, who despite his battle injuries was an avid skier, had an accident on the slopes, which resulted in him breaking his neck when his body collided with a tree trunk.
The club was stunned by this news. Hagerty’s visit had been weeks ago, and it was unlikely that Shaw would have recognized him if he’d seen him visiting. Shaw did not go after either of their families, which was a small relief in the otherwise shitshow of reality.
Ghost wasn’t happy about it, but couldn’t stop Steel from attending the funerals.
He sent Bulldog and Ranger with him. Steel did not allow Jenna to accompany him, even though she argued and stated she was going anyway.
He wasn’t proud of it, but Steel literally walked out of the house without assisting her attempts to follow and drove away without her.
He might be willing to use himself as bait, but he’d be damned if Jenna was by his side when he did so. There was a very good chance Shaw was going to attend the funerals, thinking them a safe place from Steel’s wrath.
Steel hoped Shaw showed so he could prove him wrong, but in the end, the man was a no-show to both events. The answers on how Shaw had even known about Orrin and Hagerty would remain a mystery.
For Valentine’s Day, Steel took Jenna out.
Secretly, Steel had been having Grumpy fix up his old truck.
He wanted all original parts so it would be worth more if his kids decided to sell it.
That truck might have some nostalgic memories for them growing up, but they didn’t have the history with it that Jenna and Steel had.
Besides, if they were in a position to sell it, Steel would be in no position to argue its sale.
Whatever the kids chose to do was on them, but he’d help them out while he still could.
Jenna came down the stairs in a beautiful yellow dress on her chair lift.
It wasn’t like the summer dress she’d had on the day they’d met, but Steel loved the color on her, nonetheless.
She had on little black boots over her white flannel stockings.
The dress fell past her knees where it flared out a little.
The scoop neck showed off one of Mrs. Zarin’s old necklaces.
In his will, Mr. Zarin had gifted Jenna and Lilly each one of her jewelry sets.
The only one they couldn’t take was the single diamond that she wore every day, as that was to be buried with him.
Everything else, the accumulation of Mr. and Mrs. Zarin’s lives, was to be sold, and that money placed into trusts to help pay for the college education of any children of either Lilly or Jack Duncan.
Jenna was fucking sunshine. Her red locks were up in a twisty bun that showed off her long neck.
She still hadn’t fully forgiven him for, as she put it, “abandoning me so you could play with a murderer” but Steel was no longer in the metaphorical doghouse.
They had a rule in their marriage that they would never sleep in separate beds.
Going to bed angry might be unavoidable, though they tried to work things out quickly, but they would never sleep apart while in the same house.
Sex wasn’t the only way he made it up to her. The daily flowers, baths, and massages were in addition to him cleaning the house, cooking her favorite meal, and buying her a brace for the couch so she wasn’t reliant on him to sit and stand.
He reached a hand out to help her stand from the chair lift. “You look incredible.”
Her cheeks flushed. “What? This old thing? It was just something I had lying around.”
Steel shook his head, leaning forward to press his lips into her forehead.
He knew for a fact she’d bought this dress two days ago because he’d been banished to outside the boutique while she picked it out.
Darrin and Viktor had been weighted down with bags upon exiting with her, but Steel hadn’t seen a thing she’d purchased.
“How are you feeling? Do you want to take the wheelchair?”
Jenna scrunched her nose. He felt it against his cheek. “I wish I could burn that thing. I have no idea if I’m going to need it, but it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Does it fit in my car?”
Jenna hadn’t driven herself in over a year.
She’d stubbornly continued driving immediately after receiving her diagnosis, but only weeks later, Steel had, rather forcibly, taken the keys away from her.
There was no reason for her to drive when she had him, Ollie, prospects, and a club full of people willing to drive her.
In the end, they’d compromised by offering Ollie Jenna’s sedan, much as Mr. Zarin had once offered Steel his old truck.
Ollie would be responsible for gas and insurance, which he was planning on paying for by working part-time as a server at the diner after school.
Steel would take him to the DMV next month after he got his license to get the title switched over to his name.
But old habits die hard, and the family still referred to the cage as Jenna’s—despite the number of pride flag stickers, the plush pink seat covers and steering wheel cover, and the rainbow Mickey Mouse antenna topper that made it very much Ollie’s.
Steel had told Jenna a little white lie and said that his truck needed to go in for service. Jenna thought they were taking her cage to go out to dinner.