Jesus Christ. This had something to do with Andi.
“Where is he now?” I choked out. I suddenly couldn’t think of anything other than riding out to wherever he was and choking the life out of the fucker.
“We’re holding him in one of the outbuildings on the property of the safehouse outside of Lowell,” Tiny replied.
“How is he?” Grey asked.
Tiny smirked. “A little bloody, but he’ll live until we decide what to do with him.”
Tiny, Pig, and Moose had managed to beat the name and location of the other guy out of the one they’d caught, and Grey sent them out to round him up and bring him out to the same place outside Lowell. Then he banged the gavel again. “We’re done here for now,” he barked at the rest of the men, “but I want you all back here tonight. We got some other shit to discuss related to this. I’ll explain later.”
As the others stood up and moved out of the room, I grabbed my phone from my pocket and turned it back on. I hated to have it off just in case Andi was trying to get hold of me. Sure enough, there was a text and a call, both from her. She hadn’t left a voicemail.
Grey called me over to him.
“Jesus fuck, Grey.” I shook my head in disbelief. “It’s Andi’s stepdad. Andi’s fuckin’ stepdad is the kingpin.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Some pretty crazy odds. Makes me wonder what’s the real reason he’s trying to set up shop in Lupine: the drugs, or keeping an eye on her?”
I was guessing it was the latter. The only question was why.
“What do we do with these guys?” I asked. “We release them, they’ll go to their boss and tell them we nabbed them.”
“Yeah. But if we don’t, he’ll figure it someone’s on to him anyway when they don’t come back.” Grey thought for a moment. “We’ll keep them there for now. I’ll have Frankenstein and a couple of the others look in on ‘em, keep ‘em alive for a couple days. Then we’ll send ‘em back to their boss with a message that they need to stay the fuck out of Lupine or the next guy gets killed. They don’t need to know we’ve put two and two together about Andi.”
I nodded. “That might be the end of the drug problem,” I said. “But I don’t think it’s gonna stop them from watching her.”
“We can’t assume Andi’s stepdad won’t eventually act,” Grey agreed. “We need more security on Andi. And more eyes on him. Ryker and The Throttle are just setting up his men to start surveillance on the house in Denver. I’ll call him and let him know he should beef it up.”
I agreed. “Ideally I’d like to see security on Andi twenty-four seven,” I told him. “And ideally, I’d like it to be me.”
“You can’t watch her twenty-four seven,” Grey frowned. “What about sleep?”
“Like I said,” I murmured. “I’ve been staying at her place most nights.”
He stared hard at me for a moment. “Okay,” he said finally. “But you’ll need backup. We’ll talk to Moose, have him coordinate with you.”
“Understood.” I thought a moment. “We’ll need to have a plan for watching her when she goes up to Denver to play gigs, too. Maybe a detail of a few of us to ride up and keep an eye on shit while she’s there.” My voice turned hard. “I don’t want her alone for a minute.”
As I walked out of the chapel, my head was down, my eyes on my phone. I was already pressing the callback button on Andi’s voicemail to find out what was up. I placed the phone to my ear, but before it could ring on her end I looked up to see her standing in the bar next to Seton and Monica.
“Andi?”
She didn’t move at all, though her eyes were locked on mine intently. Hazily, I took the phone from my ear and pressed the button to end the call. Next to her, Seton was looking back and forth between us, a confused frown on her face.
“Andi.” I went to her. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” she admitted. “Not really. Can I talk to you alone for a few minutes?” Andi cast a quick, apologetic look at Seton, who widened her eyes in surprise.
“Sure. Come on.” Without thinking, I took her hand and led her to a grouping of low couches in a corner of the room. We sat down and I waited for her to begin talking, scrutinizing her face for any sign of what had happened.
“A couple of hours ago, I got a call from my Aunt Lori, asking me to come over,” she began. “She told me…” Her eyes met mine. “She told me my mom and sister were there, at the house.”
“Here in Lupine?” I asked.
Andi nodded her head. “Yeah. I just came from there. Apparently, my mom finally left Anthony. And my sister came with her. It was Aly who pushed her to do it, actually. Remember that Facebook status I talked to you about?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m guessing it had something to do with Aly finding out that her dad’s involved in illegal shit. Or that she caught her dad beating up my mom. Or both.”
“Shit.” I felt sorry for the kid.
“Yeah,” she agreed. Her shoulders slumped. “So now, they’re at my Aunt Lori’s hiding out, and they’re afraid that Anthony’s gonna find them, and that they may be in danger.” She looked at me. “So, I came here to find you. You weren’t answering your phone. I’m sorry if I did something wrong.”
My phone was off because I was in a meeting. I was just calling you back when I saw you just now. And no, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I reassured her. “I’m glad you came here.”
“Cal,” she said in a tiny voice. “Can you help us?”
“It’s all taken care of, babe.”
I explained to Andi that the Stone Kings had settled on a plan to provide her protection. I’d be with her twenty-four seven from here on out. And a contingent of the brothers would be accompanying her to all her Denver shows. “You may see them around, but if they’re doing their jobs right, they should be mostly invisible. But know they’re there.”
“Does that mean you’ll be with me when I’m working at Hammie’s, and when I go to practice, too?” she asked. “Won’t that be boring?”
“Yes. I’m not leaving your side,” I said firmly. “It’s what I want to do, Andi. It won’t be boring, especially when the alternative is I’m worried shitless because I’m not with you to make sure you’re safe.”
“Cal…” Her voice softened, and I ached to take her in my arms, but I knew I couldn’t. Not with my sister staring at us from across the room.
Andi seemed to sense my thoughts. “I didn’t know she’d be here,” she said quietly. “It was pretty damn awkward trying to pretend like it wasn’t weird as hell for me to show up looking for you.”
“We don’t have the luxury of worrying about that now,” I murmured. “It’ll be okay.”
“What about my mom and sister?” she asked. “And for that matter, my aunt and her girlfriend? I’m worried that Anthony’s men will come looking for them.”
“Well put full protection on them, guard the house twenty-four seven,” I said firmly. “We already had Grey’s cousin’s club getting ready to do that up in Denver. Now that we know your mom and sister got out, we’ll communicate with them and have them change their op to surveillance.”
She nodded. “You know, I think I might have figured out why Anthony’s been stalking me.”
“What is it?”
“So… My mom says things between them have been going south for a while now. And I think Anthony’s not doing so well. He’s been drinking more, getting more violent when he does. Mom says people have come to the house looking for him. It sounds like he’s gotten pretty paranoid. I get the feeling that he wanted me to know I was being watched, to make me to scared to do anything against him. Or maybe to scare me in case my mom and sister showed up.”
“Well, you don’t need to be scared anymore,” I said firmly. “Your mom and sister are out of the house. He can’t touch them now. Things are going to be okay, Andi. But we need to talk to Grey about this, let him know the full situation.
“Come on.” I stood and held out my hand. “I want him to
be able to hear it from you, ask any questions he has directly to you. By the end of tonight, your aunt’s house will be the safest fucking place in Colorado.”
20
Andi
ANDI
In just a few short hours, I’d gone from feeling terrified and overwhelmed to feeling safer than I had in months. Maybe years.
Having my mom and sister in Lupine, away from Anthony, was such a relief that it almost canceled out the fact that they were running for their lives. The three of us were together again. And even though I was struggling with whether I could ever forgive my mom after everything she’d done — or hadn’t done — I was still relieved that she had gotten away from the man who’d beaten her.
Cal had taken me to update Grey on the situation, and to explain where my mom and sister were and what had happened. Grey had peppered me with all sorts of questions, listening in silence to my responses. In the end, he simply nodded once and turned to Cal. “Okay. Let’s call the men together and set this up.”
And that was it. Just like Cal had said, by the end of the evening, my aunt’s house felt locked up practically tighter than Fort Knox.
I’d hoped Seton might have left the clubhouse by the time I was done talking to Grey, but no such luck. I knew I couldn’t avoid talking to her any longer, but I had absolutely no idea what I was going to say. How much should I reveal to her about the situation with my stepfather? In the past, I’d told her that he was a bad guy, and that I’d left home because I didn’t feel comfortable around him, but I’d made him sound more like a run-of-the-mill creepy perv than the criminal he was. She knew that he’d tried things with me, but I’d never revealed that he’d actually molested me. I had hoped that by not talking about it to anyone — not even my best friend — I’d eventually be able to put it behind me and move on.
And then there was the whole Cal thing. What was I supposed to say about that? Would she possibly believe that I had come to find Cal only because he’d helped me install some window and door locks? It seemed kind of implausible, even to my ears. But then, what else could I reveal to her? And even if I decided to throw all caution to the wind and tell her the truth — what was “the truth” anyway?
I suppose I could tell her that we’d slept together a couple of times. She might be mad, or she might not. I honestly had no idea. But was that all it was? It didn’t feel like it. Not any more. At some point in the past few weeks, things had shifted between us, at least for me. Every night, when he came to my bed, the sex was raw, passionate, honest — and sometimes, surprisingly tender. Cal, who I never would have suspected of being anything but a cover and mattress hog, would wrap me in his arms with my head against his chest. I would fall asleep like that, and sleep better than I had in years. In the mornings, I’d find him wrapped around me from behind, his breath caressing my ear. Sometimes I’d lie there, pretending to still be asleep, so I could wait for him to stir. He would kiss my shoulder softly, then ease his arm out from under me, being careful not to “wake” me.
Not ever in my whole life — even when I was a little girl and it was just my mom and me — could I ever remember feeling so taken care of.
So, I honestly didn’t know what I would tell Seton, even if I could tell her the whole truth. Because the whole truth was, I didn’t know what was happening between us, at all.
Now, with Seton staring at me suspiciously as I walked toward her, I steeled myself for her inevitable questions. I’d just wing it, I decided. I had no choice.
“Uh, hey, Andi,” she said, her voice oddly stilted. “What’s going on?”
Monica had apparently gone home, so it was just the two of us.
“Um, it’s kind of a long story,” I began. I sat down carefully on the stool Monica had occupied and told Seton the bare bones of the situation: that my mom had left my stepfather, that she and my sister were staying at my aunt’s house, and that I was a little afraid that my stepfather would do something violent to try to get them back. “So, not knowing what else to do,” I finished, “I decided to come to the club and ask them if they could help protect them until my stepfather calms down.”
Seton was frowning. “But… why didn’t you come to me about it? Or Grey? What’s going on with you and Cal?”
“Nothing’s going on,” I replied hastily, then blushed at the lie I hadn’t intended to tell. “I mean, well, you know how he helped me secure my place a few weeks ago. So, I guess I ended up telling him some stuff about my stepdad, and he seemed like the logical person to come talk to when this stuff with my mom and sister happened.”
“Huh.” I watched her process what I’d said, and braced myself for whatever was coming next. “Okay.” She nodded. Seton didn’t look at all convinced by my response, but it looked like she wasn’t going to push it. “So, how are you doing? This must be pretty stressful for you.”
I breathed an inner sigh of relief. “I’m okay. It’s weird, seeing my mom and sis after all this time. They seem pretty messed up. Especially my sister. She hasn’t really talked to me since they got to my aunt’s house. To anyone, really.”
Seton’s expression changed immediately to one of concern. “Oh, honey, that has to be really hard. You must be really worried about her.”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I am. But at this point, I figure the best thing to do is not to push it. She might be really angry with me for leaving home back then. And frankly, she has a right to be. I’m just hoping that eventually we’ll be able to move forward. For now, we just have to concentrate on making sure they’re safe.”
Seton put her hand on my arm. “You’ll let me know if there’s anything I can do, right? And if you need to talk to someone, I’m here.”
I almost started crying. Seton truly was a loyal friend. I hoped like hell I wasn’t going to lose her over all of this.
“See,” I choked out. “There is something I want to talk to you about, once things calm down a little. But I just can’t right now. Okay?”
Her eyes locked on mine, sympathy overriding her curiosity. She patted my forearm. “Of course. Anytime, Andi. You know that. I’ll be here. But please, call me if you need me, okay?”
I nodded. “I will. Thank you so much, See.”
“Shhh, stop,” she admonished. “That’s what friends are for. Right?”
“Yeah,” I said miserably. “That’s what friends are for.”
For the next few days, I was literally never out of Cal’s sight.
He came with me to practices. He spent my shifts at Hammie’s nursing a beer at the end of the bar. We went grocery shopping together, and argued about which kind of frozen pizza to buy. (He, predictably, was a pepperoni guy, while I liked sausage better.) He even insisted on taking showers with me, though I was pretty sure that didn’t have anything to do with making sure I was safe.
At night, I would fall asleep in his arms, almost forgetting that he was only there to protect me. I knew that when all this was over, we’d probably go back to exchanging dumb banter on the rare occasions we saw each other. It was hard to believe, though. How did you just go back to normal, after you’d gotten used to sharing a bed every night? How did you pretend you hadn’t started to develop feelings for a person, after you’d grown to know every little quirk, every funny little habit, every twitch he made in his sleep?
How did you just get over someone, after he’d learned how to touch every inch of your skin? After he’d learned exactly how to make you cry out his name as you came, until you thought you’d die from the explosion of heat and fire that only he knew how to ignite in you?
Because I wasn’t going to get over Cal. Yes, we’d go back to acting normal after this was over. And I’d do my best to play my part of the girl who was always ready with a smart retort to his flirting. But I’d be hiding the heartbreak that I was already starting to feel.
No. It wasn’t heartbreak. It was deeper than that. The pain I could already feel at losing Cal went deep into my bones, into the marrow. Lying in bed next to him one ni
ght, listening to his deep, even breathing in the dark, it felt as though my entire body was going to break when he walked away. As though nothing would be left of me but a dried-out husk when he was gone.
I knew I’d recover, somehow. I had to. Especially now that I had my sister back.
But I’d never, ever be the same.
21
Cal
CAL
Alyssa still hadn’t really talked to Andi at all since they’d shown up at Andi’s Aunt Lori’s house. Since I was pretty much glued to Andi’s side these days, I’d accompanied her to Lori’s a few times now, and had met her mom and her sister, as well as Lori and her girlfriend B.J. If they were at all bothered by the presence of a biker in their midst, they didn’t let it openly show. Then again, I supposed the fact that the Stone Kings were watching their house and protecting them from Andi’s stepfather and his thugs went a long way to making them feel charitable toward the club.
When Andi went to visit her mom and sister, most of the time I just stationed myself in a corner and made myself invisible. After all, I was there to protect Andi, not to sit around and chat over tea and cookies. I didn’t manage to avoid all conversation, though. One day, I was getting myself a glass of water when Andi’s aunt came into the kitchen, with a look that told me she’d come in there specifically to talk to me alone. I suppressed a groan and waited to see what was on her mind.
“So,” she began. “You’re in a motorcycle gang.”
“Club,” I corrected her. “But yeah.”
“I’ve seen you guys around town,” she said, frowning. “Looking like you’re up to no good.”
This certainly wouldn’t be the first time some middle-aged lady had looked at me like I was personally responsible for drowning her puppy or something. The leather cut I wore tended to arouse a lot of suspicions and preconceived ideas of who I was. Some of them weren’t that far off. But I’d always been pretty good at defusing women’s defenses — a talent that had served me well over the years, especially when I wanted to get one of them in the sack. I wasn’t sure if it would work with Andi’s aunt, but it was worth a try.
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