Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
STORM
It’s hard to make sure my pants don’t jingle from the pills in my pocket as I walk out of the restaurant, but I manage.
I riffled through her bag and found both her birth control and heat suppressants.
Glancing at Wilder, I have him distract her so I can hide both medications in the hidden compartments of my bike.
Feeling a little calmer, we take Marie to the shelter so she can sleep before driving up to the brownstone we found yesterday. The realtor was nice enough to show it to us as soon as Lore and Wilder got into town, and they both approved of it.
There’s a huge park nearby for us to run to stay in shape and blow off steam, and the association takes care of the lawn so we don’t have to worry about it. It’s also not far from Marie’s work.
The realtor was happy to push the sale through since we paid by wire transfer, and this place is now ours. The three of us are silent as we walk inside, where I show Lore the medication I lifted from Marie’s bag.
“She’s going to notice,” he says.
“No she won’t,” I grunt. “I replaced it with bottles that just happen to look similar. Bentley helped me.”
“I swear that guy is worth a truck load of college kids,” Lore says. “All I could think about was how pretty she’ll look with a belly round with a baby and her tits full of milk when I was knot deep inside of her.”
“Fuck, I want that,” I groan. “She has a lot of worries.”
“She’s right to wonder how this will work,” Wilder says. “We can make sure there’s always one of us here with her once she’s moved in. It doesn’t usually take all of us to work our jobs.”
“It doesn’t,” I agree. “I’m the money guy, so it makes the most sense for me to stay—”
Wilder and Lore both pull off a heavy boot and throw it at me, barely giving me a chance to dodge them.
“Okay, okay. I can share, I guess,” I chuckle. “We need to have a lot of work done to bring this place up to snuff.”
“Like we haven’t been living in campgrounds and hotels all this time?
” Lore asks with a snort. He watches as I put the medications down on the island in the large kitchen before rejoining them.
“There’s five bedrooms and a loft. I think the loft will make a good place for a nest. God, I just thought about the fact that she probably doesn’t have a space for that at the shelter. ”
That’s not to mention the finished basement, hidden nooks, balconies, and rooftop with a fully functioning fireplace. This place is gorgeous, and also has three bathrooms. It’s more than large enough for us, our omega, and babies.
“Nah, she doesn’t. The rooms are pretty small, I’d bet,” I say. “We need to get her out of the shelter.”
“Let’s fix up the house and then figure that out,” Lore says. “Go grab your laptop and let’s start ordering shit.”
“Aye, aye, President,” I say, almost tripping over his boot when I turn.
“You’re an idiot,” he says, walking over to the living room wall to sit.
Furniture, we definitely need that. I begin to catalog the different things we’ll need as I pop my head out of the door.
I’m armed and careful wherever I go, and this is no exception.
Locking the door despite the fact that I’ll be right back, I jog down the steps to my bike and pull out my laptop, noting the way the street is waking up.
It’s a street full of families and young professionals, and I watch for a moment as people leave to start their day. It might seem like an odd choice for us, but we aren’t planning on bringing our work home.
I need to call Cian tonight to make an appointment to see him. I’m turning back to the door when I see a black sedan park smoothly. It’s expensive and seems out of place. I can spot bulletproof glass anywhere. I have no idea who it is, but I’d much rather be behind the heavy door just in case.
Call me paranoid, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Sprinting up the stairs, I unlock the door with a flick of my wrist and dart inside.
“I think we have company,” I say, locking up behind me.
Wilder and Lore are on their feet in seconds with their guns in their hands, and I put my laptop down in a safe place. I suppose online shopping will have to wait.
A knock on the door has me return to it, and I arch my head toward the glass panels on either side of it to see who it is.
While it’s clear on my side, it’s frosted on the public facing one.
An older man in a full suit and dark auburn hair stands on my front stoop, with a beta that is clearly his muscle.
Fantastic.
“It’s Cian,” I breathe. “Damn he worked fast.”
Opening the door warily, I gaze at one of the heads of the Irish mafia families.
“Are you stalking property deeds in Minneapolis?” I ask in greeting.
“Something like that,” Cian smirks. “Care to explain why you bought property in my city without coming to see me first?”
“Marie Madden is our scent match and we’re courting her. Would you like to come in, or are we having this entire conversation in the entryway?” Lore asks, cutting to the chase as he moves in next to me.
“That’s…not what I expected you to say,” Cian says slowly.
“The ink has barely dried, and we were just about to order furniture. Is this going to be a whole thing?” I ask.
“God, you bikers are moody assholes,” Cian grumbles, pushing the door open wider.
Stepping back, I allow him to come in.
“Evan, I should be able to take it from here,” he murmurs. “I’ll call you when I’m done? I know that my parents wanted to go out today.”
Evan gazes at him for a moment before nodding. I have a feeling that Cian can easily take care of himself. No one wants to be taken unawares, which is why Lore doesn’t go anywhere alone.
We don’t have a bone to pick with Cian, we simply want to be able to live in his city.
“Please keep in touch,” Evan says before I close the door and lock it.
“See, no chairs,” I say, my hand showing off the empty space.
“Yes, I can see. I suppose the floor will do,” he says wryly.
The four of us sit on the wooden floor in the living room before Cian rocks forward.
“Marie? I’ve met her once, and she just doesn’t seem like the type to settle down with a nomadic motorcycle club,” he says, blowing out a breath. “How serious is this?”
“It’s complicated,” I grumble. “We’re working our way into her good graces. Hence, the house.”
“A house may impress someone else, but Marie isn’t one of those people,” Cian says. “Are you just all going to retire or something? Lore, you’re the president. That can’t possibly happen.”
“You’re right, I’m not stepping down,” our president says. “We’ll do our best not to shit where we sleep, and keep our business outside of Minneapolis. Marie wants to be independent, while it’s killing me to watch her work back to back twelve hour shifts.”
“That’s the thing. Why the fuck isn’t she being paid unemployment if she was fired?” I ask. “Something isn’t right there. I need to get into the Chicago records to figure out what’s going on.”
“Why don’t you pretend to be the unemployment office and send her money,” Cian suggests. Our jaws drop while he shrugs. “It’s no fun being a criminal if you can’t take certain liberties for the people you care about.”
“You’re not wrong,” I murmur. “I bet unemployment pay is low, huh?”
“It’s about two hundred dollars,” Cian says. “How long has she been unemployed?”
“God, it’s been almost three weeks,” Wilder confirms. “They should have started paying it, right?”
“Let me look,” I say, getting up to grab my computer.
I connect it to my hot spot once I turn it on and begin to hack into Marie’s bank records.
She still has a Chicago bank account, and it’s sitting at five dollars without any deposits in weeks.
“Those fuckers. Her last deposit from her work doesn’t make sense based on when they fired her.
She should have had at least a week’s pay deposited from the hospital. ”
“Check the unemployment records?” Cian suggests.
Making a noise under my breath, I begin to follow the money, something I’m very good at.
“Shit,” I say. “They marked her file as closed and stated that it’s because she quit.”
“If she walked out in a blaze of glory, she would have said so,” Wilder says. “Marie was pissed off about being fired when we talked about it with her at breakfast.”
We touched on what had happened in Chicago, and she told us the story. She was pretty tight lipped about the fall out though. Now I can see why. Marie has absolutely no money and is freaking the fuck out.
That’s why she’s working so many hours.
“Let’s see if this will help,” I murmur, setting up a bank transfer to her account.
I make sure that it looks like the unemployment office, and then I hack into the hospital and steal exactly what they’d need to pay her for a week of wages. It takes a little bit of research, but I grin as I deposit that into her account as well, masking it as the hospital paying her.
“Done,” I say. “She’s got about two grand in there now. It’ll at least go toward getting her car out of the mechanic.”
“The three of you are such idiots,” Cian says. “Are you seriously considering allowing her to scrape by? If you know where her car is, just pay the bill.”
“She tased me for suggesting it,” I tell him. “Marie doesn’t play about her independence.”
“No, you offered to buy her a new car,” Lore corrects me. “There’s a big difference between the two.”
“I’m sure there’s some kind of hazard in her car,” I groan. “I’d rather drive her everywhere on the back of my bike than have her behind the wheel of that rust bucket.”
“Pick your battles wisely,” Cian chuckles. “If you keep your noses clean in my city, I have no reason to keep you out. Try not to brawl too much with her brother. He’s a fucking hot head.”
“Yeah, I know,” I say, rubbing my ribs. Lore’s gaze moves to the spot, and I know he’ll be asking to see my bruises. I gave as good as I got, it’s fine. “I was planning to call you tomorrow. I’m sure you hear that often, but…”
“I believe you,” Cian says, glancing at the time. “Since I’m stuck here for a while, why don’t I get a tour?”
“Seriously?” Lore asks.
Cian climbs to his feet with a nod. “My parents are attached to Evan, and this wasn’t a scheduled visit. God forbid my mother can’t go out to breakfast when it was in the date book,” he says, smirking.
I can respect a man who takes his parents' interests to heart. Too bad mine are dead.
Getting up, the three of us show Cian around, paying attention to his suggestions. Turns out the head of the mafia also had decent interior decorating tips. The world gets more surreal every day.