Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Delaney
My hands shake as I shut off my car in the police station parking lot.
I’m doing this. I have to do this.
As soon as I got out of my meeting with Principal Marshall, I scurried back to my classroom, where I called Erica. Without hesitation, she said she would meet me at the police station as soon as school got out to make sure I followed through with making a report.
I had to convince her to wait until the following day. I needed to wrap my head around the fact that this is happening.
A knock on my window makes me jump. Turning, I place my hand over my heart when I see Erica frowning down at me.
She backs up, and I get out of the car.
“You scared me,” I say as I lock the doors.
“Sorry, you looked like you were lost in your own little world, and I was afraid you would back out.”
I shake my head. “No, after yesterday, he’s left me with no choice.”
“Then let’s do this.”
She links her arm through mine and pulls me toward the police station. Erica gives the person behind the counter some brief details, and they tell her it will only be a few minutes before someone grabs us. True to their word, an Officer Evans comes and grabs us.
We follow the officer to a private room, where they shut the door behind us.
“Is it okay, Miss Harris, if I record this conversation?” Officer Evans asks.
“Yes,” I say as I sit down.
Erica sits next to me and grabs my hand, anchoring me.
“Okay, this is Officer Evans.” She rattles off the date and a few more little details before turning toward me. “What brought you in today, Miss Harris?”
“My ex.” My voice cracks so I clear my throat. “My ex is harassing me.”
Officer Evans frowns. “Please go into detail. Go back as far as you can.”
I tell her everything. How we started dating when we were young.
How I thought I would marry him. That we ended two months ago because he cheated, but he isn’t taking the breakup well.
I admit to him staging run-ins. Showing up at places he never went before because I’m there.
How I’ve had to change my phone number several times and then what happened yesterday.
When I finish laying it all out, exhaustion sweeps through me.
“You never told me about the phone number,” Erica says, not bothering to hide the hurt in her voice.
“I didn’t want to worry you,” I confess.
“Are you worried he might hurt you? Has he ever been violent in the past?” Officer Evans asks.
I shake my head. “No, I had never honestly heard him raise his voice outside of a sporting event or a video game until we ended. Even when we run into each other, he doesn’t outright yell, but his voice does rise.
I think when I broke up with him, his pride was ruined.
I think he thought I would stick around and try to work through it, and now he’s upset and struggling with the fact that we are over.
” I take a breath. “No one ever talks about how hard it is walking away from a relationship as long as ours. I thought I was going to marry him. I thought he was going to be the father of my kids, then he cheated, and I woke up…” I trail off.
“Sorry, you don’t want to hear all of that. ”
Officer Evans offers me a sweet smile. “No, I get it. It was painful walking away from my first love, but our lives were going in opposite directions. I get it, trust me.”
“Do you think we can get an order of protection? Has he done enough to warrant it?” Erica asks, reminding us all why we are here.
Officer Evans sighs as she looks down at her notepad before looking back at us.
“Truthfully, I wish I could say yes. Is his behavior concerning? Without a doubt. You shouldn’t have to change your number often or worry about someone knocking on your door or calling your place of work.
At the end of the day, though, we can’t arrest him for showing up near you.
We can’t prove that he’s the one that made the report to the school either, even though I think we all know that signs point to him as the culprit. ”
“So there’s nothing we can do?” I ask, feeling hopeless.
“No, there has to be something,” Erica says.
“What I can do is make a record of all of your concerns so we have it on file. A paper trail is important in these kinds of situations. I need you to keep a record of every run-in. Try to record the interactions to gain evidence. Never approach him and always get him coming up to you. If he contacts you, screenshot it with dates and keep it in a file on your phone. Every little bit of information you can gather will help. While you do that, I will have someone reach out to him, do our own investigation. Remind him to leave you alone.”
“I guess I shouldn’t change my number again, huh?” I joke half-heartedly.
Officer Evans laughs lightly. “No, don’t change your number, and don’t switch up your routine to try and avoid him. We need him to show his hand.”
“And if he escalates?” Erica presses.
“Then we will have everything on file to make our move. I know this sucks, I get it, but it’s the way the system works. At least right now, maybe it will get easier in the future for people to report these kinds of situations and the concerns will be taken more seriously,” Officer Evans says.
“Stalking cases weren’t taken seriously until the early nineties,” I mumble.
Both women look at me with surprise.
I shrug. “I looked it up earlier. I had to know what to expect.”
Erica chuckles. “You little nerd.” She looks back at Officer Evans. “What about self-protection? Should she arm herself?”
I shake my head. “I don’t like guns. You know that.”
“It’s not that you don’t like them, you just don’t know much about them and have never spent time around them. We could go to the range, and you could try shooting for yourself. It’s not as scary as everyone makes it out to be,” Erica says.
Officer Evans jumps in. “I recommend getting something to protect yourself. Pepper spray at the very least. Tasers and stun guns are legal to own and carry in the state of Florida, so both of those would be a solid option if you don’t want to take the firearms route.”
This is insane. Am I really contemplating getting something to protect myself from Blaine?
As my thoughts spiral, Officer Evans flips to the front of her notebook and pulls out a business card. She slides it across the table.
“Here, take this. Call me if anything changes or you need help.”
“Thank you,” I say as I stand.
It wasn’t the ideal outcome, but I knew that this was how it would end up. I just hope that Blaine doesn’t force my hand again where I have to put this card into use.
Tank
This shit is for the birds.
Typically, I love going on runs. I fucking love riding my bike for hours on end.
Nothing but me and the open road. Then the ride home always has a layer of danger.
We have to watch our backs ten times closer and make sure we obey every traffic law.
Never breaking formation. The last thing we need is to be pulled over.
Today, though, everything is different.
I don’t know how one run could go so wrong. It’s been a series of unfortunate events. When we left the clubhouse earlier, everything was fine.
Then Taz’s bike started cutting out. Thankfully, we had enough people, so we left him behind and continued on, only to be stopped later when Mac got a flat tire. We had to pull over and call the Lotus MC out of San Antonio and tell them that we were running behind because of issues.
As it turns out, according to Fang, they were also having one hell of a time. Only they got stuck behind a five-car pileup and were sitting in the middle of traffic waiting for the road to clear. All things considered, they were having a worse time than us.
I can’t imagine sitting in stand-still traffic with a car loaded down with drugs.
“This is a fucking nightmare,” Gunner mutters as he takes a seat next to me.
To kill time, we decided to head to a burger joint not far from our meetup location. I’ll give the place credit, they were fast as fuck bringing our food out. Right when Bear was finishing up his plate, his phone rang, and he stepped outside.
“Tell me about it,” I sigh.
“I heard from Mac. He finally got rescued,” Bear says as he sits back down.
“I bet Smoke wasn’t happy having to leave the clubhouse to do pickup duty. Not when he had the kid today and Kelly was meeting a potential client,” I add.
Gunner grunts in agreement.
“Actually, that was Smoke. Sloane took the trailer and Gunner’s truck. Picked up both Mac and Taz herself,” Bear says.
Gunner groans. “I should have known that Trouble would have found a way to involve herself.”
“Your girl loves us,” I tease.
He raises his hand and gives me the middle finger, making me laugh.
“Seriously, though, are we going to make it home tonight? Should we get a room for a few hours and crash while we wait?” Bear asks.
I tip my head back and groan. The last thing I want to do is stay in a hotel, even for a couple of hours. I hate staying in beds that aren’t mine. That’s a lie, I hate staying in beds where I know nothing about the type of people who have stayed there before.
Hotels in general give me the fucking creeps. Ever since that time I stayed at a place that looked clean but I woke up in the middle of the night to bedbugs in bed with me.
Never a-fucking-gain.
While Bear and Gunner discuss the merits of getting a few hours of shut eye, I pull my phone out of my pocket. I pull up her number and fire off a quick text.
Me
How was your day, beautiful?
She responds immediately.
Laney
Kind of shitty actually. You?
Me
Fucking same.
Laney
I wonder if there is a full moon…
Me
That was last week actually.
Laney
… I kind of want to ask how you know that, but I won’t.
Me
I heard some of my buddies’ wives talking about it.
Laney
That makes sense.
Me
Do you want to talk about your bad day?
Laney
Honestly, I’d rather not. What about you? Want to talk about it?
Me
Rather not. But I have good news.
Laney
Lay it on me. I could use some about now.
Me
Tomorrow is Friday…
Laney
Have you been counting down the hours?
Me
Ever since I left.
Even though I can’t see her, I know her cheeks are turning pink from my confession.
Laney
Me too. I’m excited. I have plans for us.
Me: I’m looking forward to it.
“Dude, why are you smiling at your phone? It’s fucking creepy,” Gunner murmurs.
Me
Well, my buddies need me. I’ll message you later.
Laney
Be safe.
I pocket my phone and turn back toward them and find both men staring at me.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask.
“Because you were just willingly on your phone for more than a minute,” Gunner says.
Bear nods. “You were texting. You hate texting.”
“I don’t hate texting,” I lie.
Both men shoot me a look that says I’m full of shit.
“I was just texting a friend, is all.”
“A friend? Who? Your only friends are our brothers and the old ladies,” Bear asks.
Gunner groans. “Did Sloane text you to break it to me that she did something she shouldn’t have?”
“I wasn’t texting your girl,” I reassure him.
“Then what friend?” Bear presses.
“The female variety that you guys don’t know,” I say. I fight the urge to walk away from them and their stares, but I keep my ass planted in my seat.
“You know, out of all the brothers I thought would fall next, I didn’t think it would be you,” Gunner grumbles.
“I’m not falling for anyone,” I protest.
“Bullshit,” they say in unison.
Before anything else can be said, Bear’s phone rings.
“Yeah?” he says as he answers it. “Got it.”
When he hangs up, he looks over at us. “Looks like our interrogation about Tank’s love life will have to wait. That was Fang, and they are about an hour out.”
“Thank fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
“Don’t think you are getting off the hook that easily,” Bear warns.
Gunner heads over to the counter to pay the bill while we head outside. The heat smacks us in the face immediately, making me wish that we moved somewhere a little cooler.
We mount our bikes, and when Gunner joins us, we roll out.
All jokes about my love life are shelved for another day. All thoughts about Delaney are pushed to the side. We’ve got a job to do, and it’s time to roll out.