Which led us to now, standing outside in front of the Blue Goose, staring at all the motorcycles and bikes in the parking lot.
After parking next to who I knew was Bayou, Piper’s brother-in-law, I got off and held my hand out for Piper.
She took it and squeezed.
“I won’t break.” She rolled her eyes. “You could’ve at least gone the speed limit.”
“You’re not riding on that bike again after tonight until you’ve delivered,” I said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You’ll also not give me any shit about that.”
She rolled her eyes and then yanked me forward.
“Holy shit,” I said as I took the parking lot in. “Surely this isn’t all our family.”
Piper snorted and made her way inside, never letting go of my hand.
She hadn’t since I’d peeled myself up out of the chair that my ass had hit when we’d gotten the news.
The first thing I saw when we entered was a giant Blue Goose hanging from the ceiling.
The next thing I saw was Pru and Phoebe who were running toward us.
They skidded to a stop in front of both of us and moved their eyes from Piper to me and back. “So…what did you learn? Are you pregnant?”
I laughed then.
I couldn’t help myself.
Not because of what they said, but because of what I’d just learned about twenty minutes before.
“We’re going to announce it at the table but suffice it to say…yes.” She glanced at me nervously.
I wasn’t nervous anymore.
At least, I didn’t think that I was.
Not about the pregnancy, anyway.
What I was nervous about was the fact that we were still in the early stages, and I found myself irrationally excited about what was to come for us in the next nine months.
“Well…is being pregnant a good thing or a bad thing?” Pru asked, looking worried now. “You’re acting weird.”
I snorted.
Piper squeezed my hand.
“It’s a good thing. We’re both happy…just nervous,” she said. “Let’s go order. I’m absolutely starving.”
So, that was what everyone did. We sat down, ordered our food, said our hellos, drank a few drinks, and then Sam finally couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Out with it already, goddammit. You’re giving me angina.”
Piper squeezed her eyes shut.
She also squeezed my hand.
Did that mean that she wanted me to tell them?
I opened my mouth and let it all fly.
“Piper had an ultrasound today after her accident. She is indeed pregnant.”
Cheyenne started clapping her hands.
Sam’s eyes narrowed.
There was silence from my half of the family.
I looked over at them and found Downy staring at me with a frown.
“What aren’t you sharing?” he asked, catching on that there was something more going on here.
I cracked my neck.
“There’s not just one baby,” I admitted. “There’s three.”
Cheyenne gasped.
Aspen’s mouth fell open.
Downy started laughing.
Sam groaned.
And the rest of the family at the table started to cheer.
I was honestly unsure what I should do or say at this point.
I was still in shock.
Never in my life had I ever contemplated more than one child at a time.
Hell, it wasn’t until lately that I’d even contemplated children at all. Yet, here I was, sitting at a table with our family, telling them that I had three children on the way.
And I was actually excited about it.
Excited. About the fact that I was about to have three children.
Holy shit.
The reality of the situation hit me, and I couldn’t stop from looking at Piper and saying, “I suddenly just got really nervous.”
Piper’s eyes widened. “I’ve been nervous.”
I pulled her in by tugging on her hand until she was leaning into my chest, then placed a kiss to the side of her head before saying, “It’ll be okay.”
She shook her head. “I know it will.”
“That’s the best news ever!” I heard Lock say. “The one man on the entire force that nobody ever expected to settle down, marry, or have children. And now you’re having three.”
“Why didn’t they expect that?” Phoebe asked, leaning forward so she could see down the line of the table.
“Because he’s a dick to everyone,” Downy supplied. “Nobody thinks he can be nice to a girl long enough to talk her into his bed. Yet he’s managed to find a good one, one that actually loves him and doesn’t think he’s a dick, and now he’s having babies with her. Way to prove them wrong, Jonah.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“He’s not a dick,” Cheyenne said. “He’s been perfectly nice to me each and every time that I’ve met him.”
“He also just told the waiter that he should probably study the bar’s menu items so he’d know what was on tap and wouldn’t look stupid in front of his tables,” Bayou supplied helpfully. “Not that I didn’t agree with him. I just managed to keep it from coming out of my mouth. I like my food sans spit.”
Piper gagged. “They wouldn’t do that.”
“They would,” Hoax disagreed. “At least for someone that wasn’t as jacked as Jonah is. I highly doubt that they’d mess with him seeing as he’d beat the shit out of them and lose no sleep about it.”
That was true.
I wouldn’t lose an ounce of sleep over beating someone up that spit in my food. I’d probably lose my job, though.
A job that I was finding that I liked the longer that I did it.
It was difficult, exhausting, and often times a lot less rewarding than it could be, but I had fairly good hours. I liked the men that I worked with on a daily basis, and I liked my supervisor even more.
I also liked the increase in salary that I’d gotten seeing as it was considered more ‘hazardous.’
Once we’d discussed a little more about the babies, talk changed to Bayou’s work at the prison, and then Hoax’s work with Sam.
That was when I felt Sam’s eyes on me.
“You want to help me?” Sam said.
I frowned. “Help you do what?”
I mean, I already knew what he did.
He ran a business that helped women, children, and even some men get out of dangerous situations. If they needed new identities, he got them new identities. If they needed a place to stay for a few days, he gave them a place to stay. And on the extreme cases, he not only gave them new identities and gave them places to stay, but he also set them up with new jobs, new names, and watched over them while also helping take care of the problem that sent them there in the first place.
Hoax started to laugh.
“He wants help doing the job so he can completely retire,” Hoax said once he’d finished laughing. “He’s handed about as much to me as he could, but I also have young kids at home, and he doesn’t want to overload me like he was overloaded. Though, saying that, he had five other men to help him. Still does, really, but they’re not getting any younger, either.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “I just think it’d be nice to keep it in the family. And that one said no already.”
I looked over at ‘that one’ which happened to be Bayou.
“I have too much shit to do,” Bayou said. “I’ll help where I can, but I’m not quitting my job. I’m needed there.”
“I’ll help where I can, but I’m not quitting my job. I’m needed there,” I told Sam.
Sam sighed and rolled his eyes.
“I’ll help,” Lock said as he took a bite of his appetizer. “What do you need?”
Sam looked at him thoughtfully. “What don’t I need?”
Chapter 18
Sometimes when I unroll too much
toilet paper, I think about how much money I’m wasting by just wiping my vagina.
-Text from Piper to Jonah
Jonah
“Shit,” I muttered darkly. “Shit, shit, shit.”
I glared at the gate as it refused to open all the way, and knew that I’d be walking my happy ass up the driveway for the tools that I would need to get the battery off.
In the meantime, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and placed a call to Piper.
“Hey, baby,” I said softly. “The gate isn’t working. When you get home, take the second entrance. It’ll lead you up behind the barn. The key code to get in is 202020.”
Piper sounded as if she was in the car, and I hoped that meant that she wasn’t far behind me.
I was ready to drop. And when I went to bed, I wanted to be wrapped around my woman.
“We’re about ten minutes behind you. Do you need help?”
I shot a disgusted look toward the gate.
“No,” I answered. “The battery is dead. I just have to pull the battery and replace it with the spare for tonight. No big deal.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll see you in a bit then.”
“Love you, baby.”
There was a long pause as I could practically feel Piper smiling through the phone. “I love you, too.”
After hanging up, I glared in the direction of the gate and contemplated doing this all tomorrow.
I was dead on my feet as I dragged my ass up the driveway, and by the time I arrived at the front door, I’d almost decided to just go ahead and leave it for tomorrow when I heard something.
“Why are you so fuckin’ hard to get rid of?” a woman screeched. “All of you. Swear to Christ. I’ve tried four times now, and you’ve all managed to get out of it!”
I froze with my key in the lock, and my hand on the doorknob.
Behind me, what felt like only a few feet, was a woman with a gun pointing straight at my head.
I’d never in my life been more thankful that Piper had caught a ride with her father home.
They’d stayed a few minutes longer than me to talk in the parking lot after dinner, and I’d had to bow out because I was dead on my feet from a long ass day, and an even longer night.
I just prayed that, when Sam and Piper finally did arrive home, that they paid attention to the signs.
“Who are you?” I found myself asking.
“I’m your worst nightmare,” she hissed, shaking the gun at me.
She was inexperienced with the gun. I could tell that she was based on how she was holding it.
It was also shaking in her hand, as if it was too heavy for her to hold up.
“I’m sorry,” I admitted, trying to not to let the derision that I felt toward this unknown woman leech into my voice. “I don’t know who that would be. But it’s definitely not you.”
She bared her teeth at me, and I turned fully to face her.
Obviously, I’d failed at hiding my emotions.
Fancy that.
“You just don’t know who I am then,” she sneered.
“Please,” I said, tensing slightly when a vehicle made its way down the street heading toward my second driveway. “Enlighten me.”
“I used to own this land with my husband,” she said.
“Okay.” I waited for more.
There was none.
I crossed my arms over my chest and contemplated how long it would take me to get to the gun that was at the small of my back.
Too long, I thought.
I’d have to reach for it. I’d also have to pull my t-shirt up, and in that time, with how close we were standing, there was no doubt in my mind that the crazy woman standing in front of me would get a shot off—and actually hit me.
I strained my ears to listen for Piper and Sam as they drove up the back side of the house, but heard nothing. I was also hoping that the headlights wouldn’t shine through the trees and tip her off.
Then again, maybe the distraction of them pulling up would give me enough of a chance to reach for my weapon.
On the other hand, maybe she’d just shoot me, then she’d go for my wife.
My pregnant wife.
“Ma’am,” I said. “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”
And I really, really didn’t like having that gun pointed at my chest.
“I used to own this land,” she repeated.
I highly doubted that seeing as the man that I’d bought the land from was a man in his mid-sixties, early seventies, and this woman wasn’t a day over forty.
“I purchased this land from an old man,” I said, sounding just as confused as I felt.
“Yes, my husband,” she hissed. “Without my permission, might I add.”
I vaguely remembered hearing that the man was going through a divorce, but this woman looked too young—even by my standards—to be dating, let alone be married, to that man. I mean, Piper and I had a decade in between us, yet this woman and that man? There wasn’t a decade. There had to be at least twenty-five years, if not more.
Also, I was fairly certain, about a month after closing, the old man had died of a heart attack.
“I’m sorry,” I admitted. “But I’m not sure why that should matter to me.”
She shook the gun in my direction, then switched it to her other hand when it got too heavy for her.
Fuck.
It would be just my luck that she shot me because she was too tired to hold the weapon correctly.
“Obviously it was just dumb luck that saved you from dying that day.” She shook her head. “You and that old man, refusing to stay down when it’s in everyone’s best interest.”
I really was confused about what she was talking about. It was as if she was having half of the conversation in her head, and the other half aloud with me.
“I’m sorry.” I shook my head. “I really don’t…”
“You really don’t know what I’m talking about,” she mocked. “Let me put it into simple terms for you to understand. I tried to take you out a couple of weeks ago. But that put me in some hot water, and I had to do way more work than I wanted to, so the next time I did it, I made sure to remain anonymous.”
I would’ve said something more, but then she continued as if she was telling me a funny story, not the recounting of my almost-murder.
“I tried to get some information on what you were talking about with the guy that owns a motorcycle shop, and at first I wasn’t sure that you’d spoken with him, but the day that I sent a letter offering you twice what this place was worth, you drove straight to that man’s house. And I know that he gets information for people.”
I blinked.
But she continued to talk, and the more I learned, the more I was sure of a few things.
“Then you go to freakin’ Germany, where his daughter is, and I know that you’ve found something.” She tapped her lip with her fingernail. “So I tried to take the old biker out, and that failed spectacularly.” She shook her head. “To make matters worse, you come home with his daughter of all people. Then you married her!”
How long had she been watching me?
Seriously.
“Are you saying that you purposefully targeted me and my father-in-law because of your ex-husband selling your land?” I asked.
God, I was confused. She was all over the place, and I really couldn’t catch up.
“Well, my sister and I. Yes. My car was in the shop.” She shrugged. “She hit you. I took out the old biker. Obviously, you can see that I did better than she did.”
I blinked.
Her car was in the shop, so she had to have her sister do it. She had to have her sister pull out in front of me in my cruiser to get what she wanted—which was me dead.
It hadn’t worked out well, and the woman had fought it tooth and nail ever since.
Hell, she was still fighting it. Last I heard, she was trying to sue t
he city for negligence.
“Why my father-in-law?” I asked. “I never even knew him that well before I met his daughter.”
She switched the gun to the other hand again. Now she was holding it near her hip, still aimed at me.
“I saw you talking to him before you left. After the accident. I know what he does,” she sneered. “He was getting information for you. You found out what was here, and you wanted to see how much it’d get you.”
She knew what he did?
I highly doubted that.
And what was this ‘it’ that she was talking about?
“I was talking to him about working on my bike,” I told her honestly. “And it wasn’t even him. It was another man that works there. His name is Jack. He sold a bike similar to mine last month, and I wanted to see if he’d be willing to work on mine.”
She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, how stupid do you think I am?”
Honestly? Very.
Yet I didn’t say that.
“You think I’m dumb, don’t you?” she asked. “You think that I’m just some crazy bitch that has no idea what she’s talking about, don’t you?”
Well, yes. Yes, I did.
I was having a hard time following what she was talking about.
All that I got so far was that she nearly killed Sam. Her sister was the one responsible for me almost losing my job at the police department. And the woman had also targeted Piper and me a second time.
Oh, and apparently, she had something on this land that would net me a lot of money if I ever found it…‘if’ being the operative word.
“Ma’am,” I tried.
But before I could say anymore, the wood beside my face exploded, causing me to curse and drop.
She’d tried to shift the gun from one hand to another, and like the dumbass that she was, she’d kept her finger on the trigger while doing it. And she’d accidentally shot at me just like I knew she would.
***
Piper
“This is a mess,” my father said as he drove his truck into the high grass that encompassed Jonah’s ‘back’ entrance.
“I’m sure he doesn’t use it very often,” I said. “I didn’t even know it was here, to be honest.”
My dad made a noncommittal sound as he pulled even further into the overgrown path.
“Do you think that it just circles around to his house?” he asked. “Or should I just forge my own path?”
It Wasn't Me Page 18