“But you’ll ask me to destroy evidence?” he questioned back.
“Ghost,” Ranger growled, a clear reprimand in his voice.
Ghost’s eyes never left Toni’s, but he did nod his head slightly. “Toni, even if you weren’t sitting on my best friend’s lap with his cut covering your body, I would help you all the same. Clearly you’re terrified. From the mess that is in your house and the trail of bathwater we found upstairs, we can make certain assumptions of events. I don’t give a damn that that man was your father or the fact that you shot him twice in the back. I would still help you and protect you.”
“Why?” she demanded, not trusting it.
“Have you missed the fact that you’re on Ranger’s lap?” Ghost reminded her. At her blush, Ghost waved off her embarrassment. “Steel asked this of me, and regardless of the ask, I would do what he wanted without question or fail. If you require payment, to make this transactional, then all I ask is for you to trust me. Trust that I will make this go away and help you move on with your life in any way that I can.”
Fuck. She wanted to believe it was so simple, to trust that that was the only payment Ghost would require of her, but there was also the fear of blackmail.
Ranger took hold of her chin, turning her face towards him again. “I don’t know what this is, but you mean something to me, and after recent events in my life, I don’t say that lightly. If you can’t trust him, trustme.”
Toni bit the inside of her lip. She wanted to trust him, to trust whatever this spontaneous connection was between them, and while the argument could also be made that the damage was done and they’d seen her crime, Toni chose instead to not fight this battle alone.
“I don’t know where my mom is,” she confessed.
“Do they live around here?” Ranger asked, brow knit in concern.
Toni pointed behind her. “We modified the outdoor garage into an apartment for them.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lucky pull his phone from the inside pocket of his cut and text someone. A moment later, he got a reply and she shifted more fully to face him. “Scar says he already checked the apartment. No one is there and there are no other vehicles on property.”
Lucky tipped the phone towards Ghost as if to show him the message.
“Scar’s the one who…?” Toni trailed off, feeling guilty about pointing her gun at him. But then again, he’d scared the shit out of her, so maybe he should be the one feeling guilty.
“Opened the door,” Ghost answered, looking up from Lucky’s phone. “Toni, it looked like your father was collecting things in the house. Our tech says that ladle is valuable. We also found a bag of electronics and things easily pawned. Do you have any idea why?”
Toni tried to keep her face blank, feeling like that damn baggie was sending out a pulsing beacon in her pocket. They might forgive her for murder, but not for drugs. The club’s anti-drug reputation was fierce. “No. No, I don’t have any idea. I was in the tub and I heard something downstairs. I didn’t even know it was him until after I pulled the trigger!”
Ghost watched her with too-knowing eyes as he gently said, “You pulled both triggers.”
“What?”
“You pulled both triggers, Toni.”
Toni frowned. She’d put two shells in the gun upstairs. She remembered seeing the two distinct holes in her father’s back. She’d really pulled both triggers? Maybe her hand had slipped in her fear, making her finger go back further than intended.
“I don’t…” Shit. These were military men. Even Ranger. While she didn’t know for sure, his road name hinted at what branch and unit he’d served in. Did Army Rangers have units? Squads? Teams? No, that was SEALs. Fuck! She was losing it. Scratching her head, she confessed, “I’m not good with a gun. I don’t like guns. I have one for protection in my car and the shotgun in my bedroom. I’ve only ever fired the shotgun once before and that was to scare off a bear! I’m not… I’m not good with guns, not like you guys are. If I pulled the second trigger, I didn’t mean to.”
“You shouldn’t have been put in the situation where you had to pull the trigger at all,” Ranger said softly, tightening his hold on her. “Put the blame on your father’s shoulders where it belongs.”
Toni winced. Regardless of her father’s actions, she was the one who had still pulled that trigger. Or triggers, it would seem. Which also meant that when she held the gun up to Scar, it hadn’t even been loaded.
She rested her head back on Ranger’s chest. “I’m getting a headache.”
He shifted her so her head was more on his shoulder than chest. “How about we stop for the night? I’ll take you upstairs so you can pack what you need?—”
“Pack what I need?” she asked, bolting upright. “Why would I need to pack anything? You’re not burning my house down, right?”
“No, of course not,” Ranger told her, a slight smile on his lips. Why did he have to be so fucking handsome and calm? “But we need to clean up, and it’s better for you not to be here when we do.”
Fuck. She hadn’t thought of that. Of course it would be more complicated than just removing her father’s body from thehouse. There was blood, and glass, and she had gunpowder on her, which meant she now had gotten some on Ranger.
“Okay, yeah. I can check into a hotel or?—”
“That would give you an alibi you don’t need,” Ranger argued. “Unless you’re prepared to have someone come with you, there’s no logical reason for you to check into a hotel in the middle of the night.”
