by Jayne Blue
I nodded. I wanted to trust him. He seemed sincere but a part of me worried I was falling for his line simply because he looked just like Colt. “And I’m going to keep a tighter eye on your place if that’s okay with you.”
“Thank you,” I said.
The radio on his shoulder squawked again, and he let out a sigh, his expression turning grim. “I’ve got to respond to this. Is there someplace I can take you? I think it might be a good idea if you spent the night somewhere else tonight. Just to be safe.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I have a friend a few houses over.” I swallowed hard, not relishing the thought of explaining to Lindy why I needed to be careful. But I wouldn’t be stupid where my safety was concerned. The last time I underestimated Roy nearly cost me my life.
Jason took a card out of his wallet and handed it to me. It had the name and number of a security company. “Call them first thing in the morning. I’d feel a lot better if you had a security system installed. They can set you up with one that will trip and send a signal to them if anyone comes on the property. From there they call us direct. It will be pricey, but tell them I referred you and you’ll get a professional discount. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.”
“Thanks. This is a really good idea.”
“I’ll wait. If your friend is just a few houses down, I’d like to drive you over there, for my own peace of mind.”
I smiled and nodded. Yes. I really wished I could have met Mrs. Reddick.
Chapter Twenty
Colt
My body reacted before my brain did. The whole house seemed to shake from the force of the blow on the front door. On auto-pilot, I rolled out of bed and hit the floor, grabbing for the .9 I had holstered between the bed and mattress frame.
The pounding started up again even louder.
“Open the goddamn door, Colt!” My shoulders sagged with relief at the same time my temper flared hot. Fucking Jase.
Kellan came to the bedroom door, his eyes wild and his hair sticking out in peaks. He was in boxer shorts and braced himself against the door frame, shaking his cane at me. “What the fuck is he doing here? It’s like four o’clock in the morning.”
I stood up, threw on the pair of jeans I’d tossed in the corner and slipped my gun into the waistband at my back. “Yeah, he’s on eight to fours. Must have just got off work. I’ll go figure out what he wants. It’s cool.”
Kellan gave me a raised brow as I walked past him. I turned back. “Unless you hear me signal, assume it’s cool anyway.”
“Signal?”
“Yeah, like if you hear ‘holy fuck, my brother just shot me’ maybe come running.”
Kellan shook his head and walked back down the hall toward his room. Jase had started a third volley of thumps against the front door before I got there. I swung the door open and he damn near fell through it. I gave him a wide-eyed stare and a shoulder shrug.
“You wanna do this here on the front lawn or do you want to let me in?” he asked as I stood in the door frame.
“That depends on you. You think you could calm the fuck down and use your words? What’s got your nuts in a twist?”
Jase gave me a quick nod, and I moved to the side to let him in. I gestured to the kitchen, and as we passed the hallway, Kellan poked his head out of his room. I waved him off and took a seat. I kicked out a chair for Jase, but he seemed to prefer pacing.
“You told me you were just passing through town. You told me you weren’t here to start anything I’d have to clean up.”
“Right.” I nodded. “What’s going on?”
Jase had a small gold envelope tucked under his arm, and he tossed it on the table in front of me. It slid across, and I stopped it with a flat hand just before it spun off the edge. I had no intention of opening it until Jase told me what the fuck.
“You going to sit there and act like you don’t know what your brothers are doing to this town?” He said the world “brothers” as if it formed a ball of acid in his mouth.
I had a lot I wanted to say. It was a conversation we’d already had hundreds of time. The Great Wolves aren’t here to stir shit up. They are good men with a bad reputation. The trouble was, since I’d come back in town, I knew that wasn’t true anymore. Not with Catman as their leader. Still, I was a Great Wolf. Even to Jase, I wasn’t going to voice my concerns. Better to let him spill first. Plus, Kellan was listening.
“You’ve been to see Amy Wyler,” he said. My heart twisted up in my chest. Suddenly, the envelope beneath my fingers felt like it had caught fire.
“That’s none of your business,” I said, making my voice even. Jase’s eyes widened. He recognized my icy tone.
He patted the badge on his chest. “This makes her my business. She’s got a lot to say about how the Great Wolves operate. I fucking swear to God, Colt. I don’t care if you’re my brother. If you do anything to help that asshole hurt her again, I’m going to rip your fucking throat out. He’s lying to you. Whatever he’s told you that made you go over there and harass her.”
He leaned across the table and tapped the envelope. “Open it. Take a look for yourself and see what he’s done to her.”
Every muscle in my body tensed at once. My heart exploded through my chest and fire shot through my veins. Amy. Jase was standing in front of me, his chest heaving as his temper flared. But it’s like I wasn’t there anymore. See what he’s done to her. Had Catman hurt her again? He was a dead man. It would be my suicide, but it wouldn’t matter.
“Was the mousetrap your touch? Very effective. She tried to act brave, but it scared the shit out of her.”
Mousetrap. Amy was brave. Jase’s words started to permeate the thick fog of rage clouding my brain.
“She’s okay?” Someone else was asking. That didn’t sound like my voice even though my mouth formed the words. I was somewhere else, hovering over the kitchen looking down. Afraid to breathe. Afraid to be in a place where Amy might not be.
“For now,” Jase said. “Her neighbors look out for her, thank God. I got a tip that someone saw a bike parked in her driveway. She told me it was yours.”
“You talked to her?”
“Colt! What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you on something?” He reached down and grabbed my chin, jerking my head up so he could look in my eyes. I closed my fingers around his wrist and pulled his arm back. If he took another step, I’d break his damn arm.
“What happened?” I said. “Start from the beginning.”
Jase’s eyes narrowed as he looked in mine. He saw something that gave him the answer to some question he had. He knew me. After all the years and things that had happened between us, he knew me. Amy mattered to me, and he could see it in my face. He sat down in the chair I’d kicked out for him and ran his hand across his face, sighing heavily.
“Should we go somewhere else?” Jase asked. Kellan was quiet, but Jase knew he was close by too. Listening.
I thought about it. Did I trust Kellan with this? I decided at that moment it was time to try. “No,” I answered. “Let’s talk here. Kel? Maybe you need to hear this too.”
Jase looked back at me then over my shoulder as a door softly closed down the hallway. Kellan came into the kitchen and leaned against the door frame. He’d put his leg on and a pair of jeans. Jase nodded hello to him, and Kellan returned the gesture.
“You know what happened between Wade and Amy Wyler?” Jase directed his question to Kellan.
Kellan’s expression stayed neutral. “They were a thing for a while,” he said, his eyes darting from me to Jase. I knew this whole situation was making him increasingly uncomfortable. Jase couldn’t be trusted. Except he was my brother. I slid my chair back farther so I could see Kellan’s face.
“No, Kel,” I said. “Do you really know what happened between Catman and Amy? I need to know.”
He wouldn’t answer. He knew something, but he wouldn’t answer. The conflict in him hardened the lines in his face. Jase was here. He wasn’t exactly the en
emy, but he was connected to it. Catman was Catman. The club was the club. I understood it, but a part of me wanted to go for his throat because of it. This was Amy we were talking about.
“He almost killed her,” Jase answered for everyone. I pulled the envelope out from under my hand and spilled its contents onto the table, flipping photographs right side up.
My heart broke open then hardened to stone. Amy. She looked so small as she sat on a hospital bed, her hands clasped together and resting between her legs, making her shoulders hunch up. Her face was swollen, cut, and bruised almost beyond recognition. Only one piercing blue eye that I would know anywhere showed through. Dark blood matted her hair to the side of her head where a part of her ear tore away and hung loose. Her left eye was sealed shut; her blood-caked lashes swallowed inside swollen, pink flesh.
“Jesus,” Kellan said quietly.
“She’s the one,” I whispered. “The girl I’ve been seeing, Kel. When it started, I had no idea she was Duke’s. I had no idea about her history with Catman. And certainly none of this. She didn’t know I was in the club. We figured all of that out . . . well . . . after.”
“Jesus,” Kellan said again. He pushed himself away from the wall and took the chair next to me. He slid the pictures across the table, picking up each one. I couldn’t look anymore. Not if I had any hope of staying in my seat rather than riding out to the clubhouse ready for murder.
“She got a protection order against him, but the prosecuting attorney wouldn’t bring formal assault charges. I was there that night. I responded to the scene, but it wasn’t my case. It got written up as a case of mutual combatants,” Jase said. “You get that, Kellan? This is your boss. Your president. He made it so this girl couldn’t get justice for what he did to her. He’s into this town so deep even my fucking hands are tied.”
“He’s not done, Kellan,” I said. “He’s been terrorizing her in the two years since this happened. Did you know about that?”
Kellan shook his head. “No. I didn’t know. He told us a story about how she’d gone psycho on him. She stopped coming around the club, and I thought that was the end of it.”
“I’ll just bet she did,” Jase said. “I checked on her this evening. I was worried the Harley parked in her driveway was Wade’s. Obviously, it wasn’t. But either he or someone acting on his behalf broke into her place today. They left her a nice little present in her garage. Dead mouse in a trap.”
“Motherfucker,” I said, through gritted teeth. I started to rise from my chair. Both Kellan and Jase put their hands on my shoulders and tried to force me to sit. I froze at that moment; my need to lash out and kill something was strong.
I was shredded. Torn between the brotherhood I’d chosen and the one I was born into. The club protected its own. But not at the expense of innocent people. And Amy was one of our own. She was part of the club family. That shit was supposed to survive death.
“We owe Duke,” I managed to say. Jase and Kel sensed the easing of my shoulders and took their hands off me.
“What do you want to do?” Kellan asked. I looked at him. Really looked at him. His face had lost all color, and the life seemed to go out of his eyes. I realized then; he’d been carrying the burden of what this club had become largely alone.
I wanted to say we should take out Catman. Fucking Tommy too if I had to go through him to get to Cat. But Kellan could see the look in my eyes, and he understood.
“No,” Jase said. He saw my face too. “No way. If I have to fucking handcuff you to me for the next year. I’m not losing you on a murder charge.”
I sat back down at the table. I rested my chin on my clasped hands and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, Jase’s eyes were filled with pain. There was nothing he could do. He’d said it himself. Even his hands were tied because Catman’s reach was long enough to go over his head. This had to be handled within the club, and he knew it.
“Goddammit,” he whispered. “Goddammit, Colton.”
I wanted to ask him to trust me. I wanted to assure him that everything was going to work out. I could do none of those things. The only thing I knew for sure was that whatever came next, Amy was going to be okay.
“What do you need from me?” Jase said. The tone of his voice and the expression on his face had gone flat. I knew exactly what it could cost him to tell me that. The Great Wolves was my brotherhood. The police department was his.
“I don’t know yet,” I answered, looking to Kellan. He was with me. I knew it without needing to hear him say it. “Where’s Amy now?”
“I took her over to a friend’s house. A Linda Shumway. She lives over on Rochester, about four streets over from Amy’s house.”
“She’s not safe there,” Kellan said. “Catman might look for her there. Look, I swear to God I didn’t know about this mousetrap bullshit or any of the other things he’s been doing to taunt her. But before all this happened,” he stabbed a finger on top of one of the worst photos of Amy, “I’d ride with him sometimes when he wanted to check in on her. He said he thought she was fucking around on him so he’d drive by her house to see if anyone was there. A couple of times, we rode by that Shumway chick’s house on Rochester. He knows she stays there sometimes.”
My heart lurched, and I pulled my phone out of my back pocket. It was after five in the morning. I held my breath waiting for Amy to answer. When she did, her voice was groggy but had a lilt to it, so I knew she was smiling. God, I wanted her with me. I wanted to wake up next to her, pull her close and know she was safe. “Hey, baby,” she said.
“Hey, yourself.” I turned away from the prying of eyes of Kel and my brother. “Everything okay over there?”
“Mmm hmm. Or it was until you woke me up. I was in the middle of a dream too. A good one.” My balls clenched at the sultry tone her voice took on. But now wasn’t the time to lose focus. I didn’t want to freak her out, but I needed to figure out a way to keep her safe until Catman wasn’t a threat anymore.
“Hey, my brother filled me in on your excitement tonight.”
She didn’t say anything at first, but I heard the rustling of sheets and figured she’d sat up, fully awake now.
“I want to come pick you up,” I said. “I think it’s a good idea if you stay somewhere Catman can’t find you.”
“Do you know something, Colt?” Her voice raised an octave in alarm.
“No,” I said. “I haven’t even seen him. Just Jase.”
“I won’t be scared off from my own house, Colt. I agreed to crash at Lindy’s just for tonight.”
“Baby, please trust me and do what I say. I’m going to come pick you up.” I gestured to Kellan. He slid his car keys over to me. Jase snapped his fingers to get my attention.
“My place,” he mouthed, and I nodded.
“I want you to stay with me at Jase’s. Just for a couple of days. Will you please do that for me?”
She grew quiet again. “What are you planning to do Colt?”
I forced a smile to make my tone come out light. “Nothing like that, Amy. Don’t let your imagination go crazy. Everything’s going to work out. I’ll come by in an hour. Will you be ready by then?”
“Yeah,” she yawned. “Yeah. Okay.”
My heart eased a little as I hung up the phone.
“Thank you,” I told my brother. I was going to say more, but he held up his hands, not wanting to hear it. He was right. It was probably better that way.
I would kill and die to make sure of it. Jase closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He gave me a quick nod when he opened them again, and that was all either of us needed to understand.
Chapter Twenty-One
Amy
I didn’t ask questions when Colt showed up driving Kellan’s jeep. I didn’t ask questions when he drove me over to his brother’s house on Tucker Drive. Jase was already there, changed out of his police uniform and into faded jeans and a t-shirt. Dressed more like Colt, the physical resemblance was almost disturbing. From the back or fro
m a distance, I wasn’t entirely sure I’d be able to tell them apart.
It was later after Jase left the house claiming he needed to run errands that I chose to confront Colt on just exactly what the hell was going on. Jase Reddick had a finished basement with wood paneled walls, deer heads, and a variety of neon beer signs. It was a man cave to beat all man caves with a large flat screen taking up one entire wall, leather recliners complete with small coolers in the armrests, and a full bathroom off to the corner. It was like a small apartment, and I got the feeling Colt expected it would be mine for the duration of whatever was about to go down.
“Talk to me,” I said. Colt had been pacing a lot, then busying himself arranging my things in the old dresser Jase had against the wall. At Colt’s insistence, we’d stopped by my place and picked up a few things to last me a couple of days. Colt didn’t stop. He folded a pair of my jeans neatly and placed them in the drawer next to some t-shirts he’d treated the same way.
I couldn’t help it. Even though I was infuriated by his clandestine bullshit and silent treatment, he was sexy as hell. Colt had lived on his own for most of his adult life, but his mother had taught him well. I had the urge to reach out and kiss away the scowl on his face as he zipped up my bag and put it on top of the dresser before he turned to me.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t been in town during all of this shit with Catman. You tell me. Are things escalating again? The roses? The fucking mousetrap? Is that normal for you and him?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t in denial. I knew better than anyone what Roy was capable of. But I’d hoped for so long that the worst was behind me.
“No,” I admitted. “This is an escalation. As far as I know, he’s never stepped foot in my house since the night of the assault.”
“Jase had pictures,” Colt blurted. He finally looked at me again, and his eyes were filled with pain. “Of that night. The cops took pictures of you in the hospital. You told me. But until I saw them . . .”
