by Fox, Nicole
But if I left …if there really was someone following and watching …
Would I be better off here or out there? I knew the answer without even having to ask it. I hated that.
“In here or out there ...” I sighed. “I guess it’s always going to be marginally safer with you, isn’t it?”
“I’m going to try to make it always safer with me.”
“Yeah, well, today kind of disproved that theory, Griz.”
“You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
“That’s not the point.”
Before he could answer, there was a shout from the downstairs.
“Hey, boss! We’re gonna order pizza. You want some?”
Grizzly sighed at the shout from Kid, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Yeah ... you know what I like,” he called down. “Just give me the total after and I’ll cover it.”
“Sweet!”
“Stupid kid ...” He shook his head. “Anyway .... fine. This will be our arrangement, yeah? You stay here. It’ll be like a long-term guest—”
“I want a job,” I said, interrupting. He raised a brow.
“Why?”
“Why? Because I like working. Though ...” I groaned. “All my shit was in the bag.”
“What bag?” I rolled my eyes.
“The bag that you told me to leave. At the motel. That we were shot at.”
“Right ...” He shrugged. “I can send one of the boys back to retrieve it. What’s in it? Anything you need immediately?”
“Well, there was my wallet, the clothes that I had, I.D., birth certificate, social security, nothing really major at all—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” he said, though he had something of an amused expression on his face rather than an annoyed one.
“You think that’s funny?” I asked. “That my life doesn’t really exist right now because some psychos decided to shoot up the place we were staying?”
He shook his head.
“Nah,” he said. “It’s not that. You just remind me of Duchess, that’s all.”
I flushed.
“Yeah. Well. It’s not Duchess anymore. It’s Ana. And I’m tired.”
With a gruff grunt and a nod, Grizzly led me down the hall. This felt like it was becoming a routine with how many times in the last few days I’d followed behind him and all—a routine I would not be getting comfortable with, I reminded myself. He brought me to the door just before the last one.
“The one over there is my room. You can take this one; it’s free because, if someone decides they want to stay here, I don’t feel like listening to the boys boning chicks while I’m trying to sleep,” he said.
I laughed a little.
“Good to know. I guess I’ll be the one that gets to hear that then.”
“You can always come visit me if they end up getting too loud. Crash with me instead.”
“Heh ... I’ll think about it.”
There was a tension that sparked and flared. I let it slip away in the moment, in case it tried to make me do something I knew better than to do.
“Anyway. Let me see what I’m working with here,” I said.
“Right.”
Still, we lingered there. He looked down at me for a moment before smiling. He leaned forward and I thought he was going to kiss me—and he did. He pressed his lips to the crown of my head and pulled away.
“I’ll let you get to that, then.”
“See ya, Griz.”
“You too, Ana.”
As Grizzly turned to walk away, I was reminded of something that probably would have been talked about before, but in the chaos of the gunfire, I had completely forgotten about it.
“Grizzly, wait—”
He stopped immediately and looked back at me. There was a hopeful air about him.
“Yeah?”
I bit my lip, suddenly hesitant at that hopefulness. I couldn’t tell him my concerns about not having worn a condom. He would—he would take it as some sort of sign, or something, I knew it! And if he started seriously talking about our possibilities and options, I knew he would try to talk me into staying longer or ... or ... or something.
I shook my head.
“Uhm. Nothing. I just wanted to say thank you, despite the fact it probably seems like I’m very ungrateful. I’m not. I promise. I just—this isn’t what I expected or intended to get into when I said that I was going to come back, you know?”
He tilted his head and his expression softened.
“It’s ... it’s okay. You know. You got shit you still need to sort or whatever. So. I’m here. I would do it in the past, and I’m doing it now, and I’m always just gonna … do it. You know? Don’t worry about it, Ana. I got you.”
His reassurance put a smile on my face, even though I knew that this wasn’t going to last very long, regardless.
Still ... a girl could appreciate an old flame taking care of her, couldn’t she? That’s what I told myself as he turned away again, making his way down the stairs.
Chapter Nine Grizzly
I left her, though I didn’t really want to. What I wanted to do was kiss her again and taste her on my tongue. There was something about having had her once that made a man addicted, and there had always been something about her that made me want to keep her by my side. But she was a stubborn girl and obviously had some baggage that she still hadn’t unpacked ... And now this bullshit on top of that. It complicated things.
My footsteps were heavy as I made my way down the stairs, and I came to the first floor. The boys were all about, talking themselves away. That was good. They’d been a little shaken but their spirits weren’t crushed just yet, and if the bastards who attacked us thought that that’s what they were going to get, they were damn well dead wrong. Butchers were strong; we had already gone through so much bullshit that it would take an act nothing short of God himself to rattle us.
I went to the kitchen first, grabbing myself a beer. I came back out to a living room full of attentive men who were waiting for my directives. It did me well knowing that I had these men by my side. We were small in number, strong in heart.
“We got a lot of shit to discuss,” I said, taking a swig of beer. “We’re going to need to squash whatever this little beef or turf war or whatever it is before things get out of hand. I don’t want another incident like five years ago.
“Aye!”
“Yeah!”
“We’ll get those fuckers!”
I smirked.
“Yeah, we will ... Now that we’re all here, anyone see anything important? All we have is some fuck in all black. No affiliation, though. Nothing solid.”
“Guy looked like he was tweaking the fuck out,” Sharpner spoke up. “You know, like those druggie fucks.”
“We don’t deal with druggies,” I said. “Wonder what their beef would be if that’s the case.
“Could just be coincidence?”
“I doubt it.”
There was a buzz of talk among everyone. I thought about it for a moment before I cleared my throat.
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” I said, and everyone hushed up and listened quickly, keeping their attention and their eyes on me and what I needed to say. “We’re going to stay here and lay low for about a day or so, all right? We don’t do anything—no work, no partying—we’ll just recoup. Beginning of the week, whoever saw the fucker needs to give me a description. I’ll start looking into everything, then, and see if anyone knows someone by the description, the bike, or whatever. I’ll call in a few favors and see if there’s been any waves crashing against the shore that we should have been aware of.”
“What else you need us to do, boss?” Kid spoke up. I shot him a look; he was way too damn enthusiastic, asking me that question; I knew that he wanted to get his grubby little hands into some trouble.
“I want all of you to lay low and keep your noses clean,” I said. “This wasn’t a huge gang thing; if it was another MC, we’d know ab
out it. I’ll handle whatever little rats are scuttling about and then we’ll go back to business as usual, all right?”
Kid looked disappointed—and to be honest, he could damn well be disappointed. I didn’t need him getting into shit needlessly just because he liked being a pot stirrer. There was a resounding ‘yes, boss’ around the men.
“Good ... Now. About Ana—”
“The girl up in your room?”
I shot a look at whomever spoke. I got sheepish grins and chuckles of laughter in return.
“She’s not in my room. She’s in the room beside it. She’s also not a club girl, so don’t get any funny ass ideas. You leave her alone, I’ll leave you alone, you got me?”
“Boss got a girlfriend.”
“True love’s in the air!”
There were wolf whistles and catcalls, and despite myself, I fucking smiled because, at the very least, the boys were enthusiastic about Ana being here, even if Ana looked like she was ready to tuck tail and bolt on me again just from being in my presence. I rolled my eyes, waving my hands down.
“Yeah, yeah, shut the fuck up, assholes. Try to keep it easy around here, all right? I’m going to wind down and get another drink”
I hadn’t even finished the one in my hand yet, but that didn’t stop me from going back into the kitchen, ready to pull out another drink anyway. I needed it. I wouldn’t say that I was worried about this little bit of fuckery that had happened at the motel, but something didn’t add up. I didn’t like thinking about things happening out of coincidence. Things didn’t happen to MCs just out of the blue—you did something to bring retaliation or actions were brought against you to prove a point.
What was the point to be proven here? Or had I made a wrong choice somewhere down the line that ended up getting us screwed over, royally?
I shook my head, and when I heard the fall of footsteps behind me, I groaned.
“What do you want, Kid?”
I could always tell his footsteps—he had this weird gait, you see. Uneven. I think one of his legs was just longer than the other. Not enough to cause him real troubles, but enough to make a difference that, if you paid attention, you knew about it.
He laughed behind me and came around, pulling himself up to sit on the counter. He was the youngest of us, and it showed. Even though he was an older teenager, he was still obviously young. Still dumb and stupid and naive and all those other words old people used to describe the newer generations. It was crazy to take him on but ... what the hell. Hard not to, too.
Still.
“You look like you’re itching to make trouble,” I said, eyeing the way he swung his legs back and forth on the counter. “Remember what the fuck I told you, Kid—”
“I know, I know boss,” he said, waving me off. “Don’t do anything, leave it all to you, hail the fearless hero—something like that, right?”
I stared at him flatly. “I’m going to skin you alive one day.”
He laughed.
“No you won’t. You like me too much. But! That’s not what I’m over here for, boss. I want to do something!”
“No.”
“I don’t mean that, I mean—”
“No—”
“Just hear me out!”
He looked at me earnestly, like there was something that he really, really wanted from me. I groaned, took another swig, and leaned on the counter.
“Fine,” I said, taking his bait and giving him a chance. “What do you want?”
“Let me help look after Ana.”
That took me off guard.
“What?”
“Well, obviously you like her. More than just … you know …” He made motions with his hands, one finger going into an O shape he made with thumb and pointer finger. I almost smacked him.
“Get to the fucking point, Kid.”
He stopped immediately, blushing. “Anyway! You obviously like her. You want her to be safe. I guess there’s whatever between the two of you, so let me help! You’re going to be busy hunting down assholes and stuff, and it’s not like you’re going to let me do anything better—”
“You’re damn right I’m not going to let you do anything better—”
“So, you should definitely let me do the thing least likely to get me into trouble. Ana seems nice enough.”
I thought about it—I actually did. Kid wasn’t a bad kid. Maybe a little over enthusiastic at times. Maybe more than a little frustrating. But he was good. That’s what mattered when I took him on and that tended to be what I stuck with. I sighed.
“You just keep an eye on her, all right? Don’t go digging, don’t go snooping—don’t bug her. She’s here as a guest until she gets herself on her feet—”
“You mean, you don’t want her to stay.”
“It’s not really about what I want from her, Kid. It’s about what she wants.”
“But you do want her to stay.”
I rolled my eyes. This little nosy shit.
“Yes. I want her to stay. I’m going to try to get her to stay. But I won’t be able to do that if she has some annoying little cretin always on her case,” I said pointedly.
Kid blushed. “Right, right, yeah. I’ll behave!”
“You better. Now scram.”
He laughed as he jumped down from the counter, going off to bother someone else, I could only assume. I rolled my eyes. He was a damn handful and a half, and I don’t even think he realized it. Actually, no. I knew that he realized it. That’s why he was always such a little nuisance to work with.
Shaking my head again, I took the last swig of my beer. I decided that I didn’t want that second one and decided to make some rounds looking over everyone instead. We were very lucky that no one needed any serious help. The hospital didn’t and wouldn’t ask questions if we brought them in—that wasn’t the concern. I had taken over this club vowing that we wouldn’t end in the kind of bloodshed that the Skinners had. I intended to damn well keep it that way.
Chapter Ten Grizzly
I rode out the next day, going back to the motel so that I could get Ana’s things. In hindsight, I probably could have let her pick her things up before we left. With everything going on, I hadn’t wanted to linger in that room, and I sure as shit didn’t want her getting shot up in the process, either. It would give me a chance to see if there was any information that I could gather from the motel owners, too. They knew me and they knew my boys. We always did well by the motel and the people who owned it, and I had confidence that if they didn’t know who the fuck decided to shoot at me and mine, then they would at least be able to point me in the right direction.
I pulled up to the motel, parking in the front. The glass had been cleaned up from the parking lot by then, but the windows that had been shot through were covered up in plastic. I made a note to see about looking into helping the repairs and walked on in.
“ ...rooms 305, 306, and 313 still need their windows covered. See about getting someone in there to start vacuuming the glass out of the carpets as well. I need to call the contractor later today to get estimates on repairing the walls and then I need to talk about painting or wall papering or something or—Oh. Grizzly!”
The motel owner, Mel, was an older woman. She took shit from no one and most people that knew her knew better than to try and give her shit anyway. She was just made like that. She wasn’t new to the harder lives. Owning a motel made you see a lot of things come through and go out. I heard that she used to have an old man in an MC once. I also heard that she had beat the shit out of him when he had decided that he was going to get a little too fresh with her.
I fucking loved Mel.
I smiled at her, walking over. The worker she had been talking to left, giving us our privacy, which was appreciated. We embraced; she was a little more than a foot shorter than me, which I found hilarious—though I knew that if she really wanted to and really tried hard enough, she could easily kick my ass.
“Grizzly. Good of you to come back.” She
gestured around. “You got any news on this shit?” I shook my head.
“I’m sorry, I don’t, Mel. I didn’t think that something like this would happen. I never—”
“Oh, hush, hush. You know I don’t need you explaining things away to me. I know that you haven’t done anything to warrant all this. But that’s the thing that’s concerning. People going around, willy nilly, shooting up things.”
