by A. M. Myers
“I’m sorry, Pip.”
I shake my head as I pull back to look up at him, wiping my face. “Don’t apologize. Just tell me what is going on.”
“Okay,” he answers with a sigh as he runs his fingers through his hair and nods. His mind is spinning, I can see it plain as day on his face and I know something serious is going on but I can’t even come up with a single reason to explain his behavior. Wyatt isn’t the one who gets scared, I am. So what is it that has him so freaked? He sighs again like he’s working up the courage to tell me and nods.
“The guys and I were working at the charity carnival this afternoon and when we went back to the clubhouse, someone had broken in. They plastered pictures of these girls who were killed all over the walls…”
“Wait… what the hell are you saying?” I ask as I struggle to process the words coming out of his mouth. A break-in at the clubhouse and dead girls? Why does the club have anything to do with dead girls? He grabs my shoulders and meets my gaze, keeping me steady.
“You know what the club does, right?”
I nod. He explained it to me the other night but I still don’t see the connection.
“Three girls that we have helped are dead now and up until this afternoon, I was the only one who thought they were connected. Someone is coming after the club and they have been for a while now.”
My knees feel weak as my heartbeat thunders in my ears. “You’re scaring me, Wyatt.”
“I know,” he whispers, a tortured look on his face. “And I hate every second of it but I need you to be scared, baby. Fuck, I’m scared.”
“Who is doing this? Are we really in that much danger?”
He shakes his head and releases me. “I don’t know…”
I open my mouth to try and ask him another question but he turns and heads for the front door, unlocking it and ripping it open before marching outside.
“Wyatt?!”
Frozen in the middle of my living room, I stare at the open door, my heart racing out of control as I try to take deep breaths to calm myself but it’s not working anymore.
What the hell is going on?
He runs back into the room with three folders full of papers in his hand and slams the door behind him, locking it again before he walks over to the dining room table and slaps them down.
“These are the girls. The club helped each one of them and shortly afterward, they were murdered. At first, we thought it was their boyfriends or husband or whoever we helped them get away from until this last girl…” He flips open a folder. “…Sammy was found dead. The guy we helped her get away from is dead so he couldn’t have been the one to kill her. That’s when I started looking into the cases but no one else believed that it was anything more than bad luck. With the work we do, it’s not impossible that a girl would go back to her man, you know? Abusive relationships and the emotions that go along with them are complicated.”
I nod, my mind starting to piece it all together. “And what happened today?”
“We came back from the carnival and their autopsy pictures were blown up and pasted on every wall in the clubhouse like some kind of demented wallpaper with a note that said, ‘I am winning’.”
“Winning?” I breathe, the implications crashing down on me. “Winning what?”
“The game? Fuck, I don’t know, Pip… Apparently we really pissed someone off and he’s been planning his revenge for a while.”
“Who is he?”
He throw his hands up. “I don’t know, that’s the problem. I have no fucking clue. For months I’ve been looking into these cases and I can’t find any evidence for who this guy is.”
“He’s a ghost,” I murmur, my mind reeling back to the night my parents died and the memory of the man who killed them that has been haunting me for years. Reality crashes down around my feet and I shake my head as tears well up in my eyes again. “Oh, God.”
Meeting Wyatt’s eyes across the room, I shake my head.
“What are we going to do?”
He abandons the files and walks over to me, pulling me close like he needs the security just as much as I do. “We are working on it, okay? The whole club is on board now and all of the guys are going to be pouring over these cases but in the meantime, we all need to me more careful. You feel me?”
I nod, trying to come to terms with everything but my mind is stuck on the fact that once again, a monster is coming for the ones I love. Only this time, I know it and I have to live everyday with that knowledge. The brothers and their wives pop into my mind as my chest starts to ache. They already feel like family to me and I can’t imagine losing any of them. And if something happens to Wyatt…
“I’ll drive you to work and I will pick you up at the end of the day,” he says, interrupting my thoughts as my heart climbs into my throat. “I don’t want you at the studio alone and I want the door locked at all times. You can let clients in and out but other than that, it needs to be locked.”
“Okay,” I breathe, not even bothering to argue with him. There is a part of me that wants to fall apart but there is another part that feels a little bit stronger with a plan to focus on. I’ll follow his rules and I’ll do what it takes to keep us safe. I meet his gaze. “Have you talked to the cops?”
He nods. “We work with one of the detectives on a regular basis and the second woman killed was his girlfriend so he’s already looped in. Blaze called him after we discovered the photos.”
“Good.” My voice is weak and unsure as I nod my head and drop my gaze to the floor.
Oh, God, this is so crazy. How am I supposed to deal with this on top of all my other shit?
I’m not strong enough.
I’m going to fall apart and then Wyatt will see how truly weak I am.
“Hey,” Wyatt says, pulling my gaze back up to his. “Lean on me, baby. I’ve got you and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I nod, feeling a little more secure in the knowledge that I’m not going through this alone. “You’ve already got so much on your plate. You don’t need to be constantly worried about my mental state, Wyatt.”
“I am your husband and I love you. None of this means anything without you so whether you let me help you or not, I’m going to worry.”
I shake my head, wishing I could be a strength for him in this crazy time, too.
But could I handle it?
Sucking in a breath, I look up. “You shouldn’t have to shoulder this alone. You can lean on me, too.”
“No, I won’t do that to you. It’s my job to protect you and take care of you and I’ll be damned if I let anything happen to you. No one is going to hurt you, not even yourself. Do you hear me, baby?”
“Wyatt,” I whisper, shaking my head but before I can say anything else he slams his lips on mine, his kiss desperate and full of the fear coursing through his body. I wrap my arms around him, pulling him closer. I don’t care what it takes or what I have to do. I’m determined to be the same unwavering support system to him that he is for me without letting my demons consume me. Wyatt and I have a life to live and I won’t let this stop us.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Wyatt
Jumping in the Bronco, I slam the door behind me before leaning my head back and blowing out a breath as I scrub my hand over my face. My heart pounds hard in my chest and I focus on my breathing, trying to calm myself down but it’s not working. Church just let out and despite the fact that every single one of my brothers and I have been looking into these cases for the last three days, we have absolutely nothing and I feel like I’m going to lose my goddamn mind. Right after we discovered the photos, Blaze ordered us to look into every single person we’ve had contact with since Dina was killed two years ago, every single guy we’ve rescued someone from, every single P.I. client we’ve had and anyone else we could think of that might have a connection to the club but we still have nothing. We’re still in exactly the same spot I was and it’s killing me.
“Fuzz,” so
meone says from outside my window and I jerk up as my eyes fly open. Kodiak holds his hands up in surrender and I release a breath as I relax back into the seat. “Sorry, man. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
I shake my head. “What’s up?”
“Fuck,” he breathes, crossing his arms over his chest and dropping his eyes to the ground for a second before he meets my gaze. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry… about not believing you. I didn’t want it to be true and…”
“Forget it, man. I understand. You have no fucking idea how much I wish I had been wrong right about now.”
He nods as he runs a hand through his hair. “With Tate pregnant, all I can think about is the worst case scenarios…”
“Kodiak, if anyone can protect themselves, it’s Tate,” I tell him with a smile I don’t quite feel and he nods, giving me a faux chuckle.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Silence descends over us, awkward and tense, as we both struggle with something else to say but there is nothing. This situation… it’s uncharted territory for us and with almost all of us in serious relationships with the women we love, we all have a hell of a lot to lose. A memory of Piper telling me to lean on her, too, pops into my mind and I sigh. She’s right. This mess we’ve found ourselves in sucks and there is nothing we can do about that but we can lean on each other, be the family that we’re supposed to be.
“Hey, why don’t we plan like a big family dinner or something?”
He arches a brow. “You really think it’s the best time for that?”
“It’s like Blaze said,” I answer with a nods. “We need to be solid and we need to lean on each other to get through this.”
Studying me for a second, he nods and reaches in the window to slap me on the shoulder. “Okay. I’ll go talk to Blaze about it.”
“Sounds good. I’ve got to go get Piper from work.”
Taking a step back from the truck, he nods and I start the truck before pulling out of my parking space. As I pull out of the lot, I see him walking back to the clubhouse and I nod to myself. It will be good to get everyone together and maybe even laugh a little bit. Right now, we are all broken off into our little couples and families, silently losing our shit over what is coming. The feeling is so strong now that I can feel it in every fiber of my being, like the deadly calm just before a massive tornado strikes. Whoever this guy is, he is coming to get whatever twisted sense of revenge he thinks he is owed and we need to be ready for it.
The night of the break-in, Piper and I laid in bed talking until three in the morning. I told her all about each of the cases and explained the timeline to her, trying to make her understand how dangerous this guy is but that is not what happened. Instead, when confronted with all the evidence, she pointed out that this guy has been playing a long game since the beginning, slowly torturing us for maximum effect and she doesn’t think he’ll change tactics now. When I started to argue with her, she said it would make even more sense for him to go dark now that we know about him because we will all be going crazy.
As much as I didn’t want to admit that she was right, it makes fucking sense. With no new crimes, we have no new evidence to look into, and we’ve clearly gotten no where with what we have now and all of us are feeling the tension. If it goes on much longer, we’ll all start losing it. She also pointed out that he’s never gone after an old lady and it would be a big escalation but I can’t afford to let my guard down where she is concerned. Just because he’s never gone after anyone close to us doesn’t mean he won’t and she needs to keep her guard up until we find this son of a bitch.
I glance behind the passenger seat where the new pistol I bought Piper is sitting. It was a spur of the moment, reacting to the crazy kind of decision and I have no idea how she will feel about it but I’m going to teach her everything I can about the weapon and teach her to shoot it so that I feel a little bit better. If Tate wasn’t pregnant right now, I might even ask her to teach Piper some self-defense moves but there is no way in hell Kodiak would be okay with that. Although, I’m certain if I asked Tate first, she would tell him to suck it up. That girl doesn’t like anyone telling her what to do but I can’t do that to Kodiak, especially now that we’re on good terms.
As I get closer to Piper’s studio, I sigh. My stomach twists and my throat feels tight as I think about her and Eden there all alone. It’s so dangerous and anything could happen despite what Piper thinks. On top of everything else, I am really worried about how she is handling all of this and I hate myself for bringing this down on her shoulders when she is already dealing with so much internally. I’ve thought of every single possibility - hiding her away somewhere, telling her to leave me, following her everywhere she goes - but none of them are ideal. This guy has obviously been watching us for a while so he already knows about Piper which means either one of the first two options will put her in even more danger and she might kill me if I try to be her personal bodyguard. I need to do something, though.
Pulling up in front of the studio, I see Piper in the doorway, waving to a cute little family of three as they get into their car and for the first time since I dropped her off this morning, I feel like I can breathe again. Her gaze flicks in my direction as I get out of the Bronco and she smiles, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the door frame. I flash her a smile but it feels forced.
“Hey, baby.”
She smiles as I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close, needing to feel her in my arms. Pressing her forehead to mine, she releases a breath and I feel a little bit of the tension slip out of my body.
“Hi,” she whispers, stealing a quick kiss. “I missed you.”
I shake my head. “I missed you way more, baby. You done for the night?”
“Yeah. Eden’s still here, though.”
As soon as the words leave her mouth, Eden walks into the front of the studio and when she sees me, she narrows her eyes and props her hands on her hips.
“Hey, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”
“What?” I growl, not in the mood to deal with Eden and her attitude. After her little scheme to get us back together, she rubs me the wrong way and I get the sense that she’s jealous of the time Piper spends with me. I mean, it makes sense. Before I came back into her life, Piper spent a large amount of her time with Eden and Lillian so it will take some adjusting on her part but I really hope, for Piper’s sake, she and I can work through our differences.
“All the extra security,” she says, motioning to the door. “Is it really necessary?”
When I dropped Piper off at work this morning, we filled Eden in on the gist of what was happening, that someone was coming after the club and they needed to be more careful, but we didn’t tell her many details about how serious the threat was. Even though it makes it hard for her to take this seriously, it’s for the best. This is club business and the less people know about it, the better. I nod.
“Yeah, it is.”
She rolls her eyes.
“It could be worse, you know. I could have one of the guys come babysit y’all.”
A smile stretches across her face as she arches a brow. “Would it be a single guy?”
“No,” I answer with a laugh and her face falls.
“Fine. Ruin all my fun.”
“Honestly, Edie,” Piper says, shaking her head. “As two women who stay here late at night sometimes, we should have been doing this way before now.”
She sighs, reluctantly, nodding her head. “Yeah, okay.”
“Are you finished for the night?” I ask her. “We’ll walk out with you.”
“No, sir,” she replies, shaking her head with a stubborn look on her face as she pulls a pistol out of her bag and my brow shoots toward my hairline. Well, shit. “I have one more shoot tonight and I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
I study her for a second and consider arguing with her but there is something about the look in her eyes that tells me she has been through some shi
t and she is more than capable of taking care of herself. Although, judging by the shocked look on Piper’s face, it seems to be something she doesn’t talk about much. Finally, I nod.
“Yeah, okay. But call me if you run into any trouble.” I release Piper and pull one of the club’s business cards out of my wallet and scoop a pen up off of the counter before scribbling my number down on it. I hand it to her and I see a flash of vulnerability in her eyes before she covers it up and nods.
“Thanks.”
“When in the hell did you get that, Eden?” Piper asks as she finally recovers enough to speak and Eden shrugs like she didn’t just pull a firearm out of her purse.
“A girl’s got to protect herself, Pip-Squeak.”
The darkness flicks across her gaze again as Piper turns to stare at me with wide eyes. Maybe she’s expecting me to say something or insist that we stay here with Eden but I’m not going to. The look in her eyes is the same one Tate gets sometimes and I have no doubt if the worst case scenario happened, Eden would handle herself just fine.
Nodding, I wrap my arm around Piper’s waist. “All right, I guess we’ll just get out of your hair then.”
“What?”
Eden smiles her thanks as Piper bores a hole into the side of my head. “Have a good night, y’all.”
“Oh, we will be talking about this later,” Piper says, pointing a finger at her best friend as I pull her into my side and my body relaxes at the contact.
“Mmhmm,” she calls as she stands up and grabs one of her cameras off of her desk. “Looking forward to it.”
As she walks away from us, I release Piper’s hips to grab her hand and lace our fingers together as I grab her purse off of the counter and hand it to her. She eyes me but before she can say anything, I flash her a smile.