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“We’re flying out there right now. Bill, Bill, we’re going to get Bree.”
“Mom, Mom, Mom…” Bree struggled to get her attention and finally crossed the line to get her to stop packing. “Ruthann.”
“What just came from your mouth like you’re grown?” her mother bit.
“I am grown, Mama,” Bree protested. “And there isn’t a place in the country you can move me to where people don’t get killed.”
“But across the street, Bree? That neighborhood you live in has a nice façade, but the Devil’s greatest trick…” she began, and Bree wasn’t in the mood.
This was why she didn’t call her mother or take her calls the day before. She knew her as well as the woman did her children. Her mother’s protective nature would kick in as if Bree were the one in danger when all she was doing was watching the twins. Of course, her mother was right a lot of the time, and that fact alone caused the hair to rise on the back of her neck. Scanning the play area again, she suddenly felt a presence that had her motioning to the kids as two men clad in leather rushed into the room as if they were Secret Service.
“Time to go,” a thick man with the patchCaliberandSecretaryon his chest commanded.
“Bree—Bree—what’s going on?” Her mother’s worried voice told her it wasn’t her imagination.
Shadow, slightly trimmer than the first, whistled, and both twins came to the window in the landing area. Their noses pressed to the clear, plastic-covered opening before they scurried like well-behaved kids once his finger pointed down.
On the phone, she could hear her mother’s worry as she called out once again for her father, and Bree tried to figure out what had the men on edge. More importantly, had they been watching her this whole time?
“Mom, I’m fine. I just need to talk to this detective about Misty, that’s all. I’m safe,” she said, and Caliber was nice enough to take the hint.
“Miss, we need you to come fill out the paperwork for the kids.” While Caliber reached for words, her mother didn’t seem to notice his halted method of speaking.
“Mama, I gotta go,” she said, promising her she was okay and safe and would call her in a bit, before turning to Caliber. “Thank you for that.”
“We all have mothers. At least I think we do. Grimm might have fallen straight out of his daddy’s nut sack, but the rest of us do,” Caliber assured. “Nice to know you have one that cares.”
“Did you follow me?” she asked, gathering her items, still searching to see the danger among the tourists. Would they be leather clad like them? No one seemed out of place. Then again, she’d only learned the basics of stranger danger.
“No,” Shadow said, helping Jane into the back of the truck. “We followed them. You just happened to be with them.”
“Smart-ass,” she said with a tilt to her head. “Not needed.”
“You seemed a little jumpy when we came and got you,” he replied with a shrug as they watched the two kids buckle in before closing the doors to the truck. “Look, Ice asked we keep a look out. That’s all we did.”
“And rushing me to the truck?” she questioned.
“Don’t you worry that pretty little head of yours,” Caliber said, stretching his neck from side to side. “That’s the thing about being under the protection of the Sinners. You have to be willing to trust the process and do as we say. I promise we’ll keep the mess to a minimum.”
“Basically, I don’t want to know how the sausage is made.”
“No one wants to know that. In fact, we tend to forget once it has made its way through the grinder.”
Every word crystalized in her veins, like ice even the midday sun couldn’t melt. Another shiver tore through her, and even her best effort to hide the muscles twitching failed as the man stiffened.
“What I hear, you followed Ice for the kids,” he said, leaning closer, but not in a way that made her tingle with fear, desire, or general unease. “That to us tells us who you are.”
“And who exactly am I?”
“A woman of worth.”
Caliber headed back to his bike as Shadow cut though the general city noise with a rev of his engine. She followed the two riding tandem in front of her as the twins chatted quietly away in the backseat, her mind doing its best to not drift even as flashes of Misty once again came at her, unable to process the scene in front of her. How did cops do that? Stare? Take pictures? Look for clues? Then Caliber’s voice filtered in, calling her a woman of worth. Did the men think of Misty that way?
Bree didn’t want to be judgmental, Misty was her friend, but she wondered what the scale was. These men saw people differently than the way she was raised. A pastor wasn’t telling them right from wrong, they determined that on their own, and she wondered if the values were close enough to her own she could feel comfortable around them.
Shaking her head, she righted herself. She was actually considering being around the Sin City MC and not because of the crazy maniacs in the back. It was the man who in twenty-four hours had spun her around, more than felt her up, and had parts of her aching for more. This was adrenaline, trauma, and lack of sleep causing her to rush when she didn’t do that. She planned, measured twice, and then reviewed before making a cut. But it wasn’t her brain taking control this time. It was another part of her, one that wouldn’t be sated with a single night or a silicon copy from the lined bag of tricks she kept tucked in the top drawer.
