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“What the fuck did you expect? You had to seem like a damn stalker, man,” Ghost growled.
“Shit, I know, okay. I know, but I just couldn’t help it. You guys know what it’s like when you find the one. You have to be near her. You have to protect her. Anyway, she started to scream and fight me and talked about not going back to someone and to tell him she’d left town. I had to lock her in the pantry and call Jake to show her that I wasn’t going to hurt her. She’s still not sure of me and says she wants nothing to do with me. I need to know who she’s running from and why. And I need her to trust me and let me be her man.”
“Locking her in the pantry sure isn’t going to earn you trust points. Have you thought what if she doesn’t like you? I mean, it could be that she’s not attracted to you, you know,” Tiger reasoned.
“After the kiss we had yesterday, I’m sure that she’s as attracted to me as I am to her. She’s fighting it and scared. I think she’s going to try and disappear on me. I asked Smoke to see what he could find out about her. I didn’t want to go this route, but she’s left me no choice.”
I looked over at Smoke. He’d been awfully quiet since I asked him to investigate her. My texts asking if he had anything had been answered with two words,not yet. He nodded and spoke.
“I did what you asked and I know you’ve been going nuts waiting for me to tell you something. Well, I’ve been trying to find out who she is. Other than her driver’s license and her work here, there is no Cassia Parrish. Her whole life is a lie. I thought she might be a missing person, but no. Her social security number is fake. I’m telling you, before three years ago, she didn’t exist. She’s definitely hiding and I don’t know from what. Blade, we have to know she’s not a threat to us.”
“A threat? How the hell would she be a threat?”
“A woman with no past. She gets your attention then pretends not to be interested when you are. She’s got you following her. What if she’s a plant to try and get in good with us and then report what she finds to someone else?”
“Like who?”
“I don’t know. Look at what happened with Reaper and his club with those fucking Soldiers of Corruption. They used a ruse to get into clubs then take over. What if this is something like that? We have a pretty good life here and it attracts attention and envy from others. There have been outlaw clubs in the past trying to take over our territory so they can expand their illegal activities. We might be overall clean, but we’re still a target,” Smoke argued.
I knew what he was saying about being a target and attractive to others was right, but I didn’t believe that Cassia could be involved in spying on us. “I’ll give you that, but she’s not working for someone. You haven’t seen how she is with people. She’s scared and keeps to herself. She’s been hurt badly. If she’s hiding from someone, we need to help her.”
“We can only help her if she wants help. And if it’s not because of something like Smoke said. You need to bring her here and get her to talk. I can’t authorize the brothers to spend time watching her until we know the truth. I’m sorry, Blade, but until we know more, she’s on her own,” Terror declared.
Anger rushed through me. How many times had we helped other women? Several of them ended up being old ladies to my brothers. Some had come here hiding their past or running from it. I couldn’t understand why Terror was treating her differently. Just because Smoke couldn’t find out her past? Yeah, this was the first time he’d failed, but it wasn’t fair. I pushed back my chair. Before I could stand up or say anything, Menace and Ranger were behind me.
“Stay calm. We know you’re pissed, but you have to understand our hesitation after what the Iron Punishers ran into. We have to consider that as a possibility. As soon as we know she’s not here to do anything like that, we’ll be more than happy to help,” Terror said softly.
I could see regret on his face, but it wasn’t enough. I had to get out of here before I said or did something I couldn’t take back. I swallowed my rage and said tersely, “Are we done? I have things to do.”
After a minute of a staring contest, Terror nodded. “We’re done. Go. Get her to tell you what she’s running from, Blade. The sooner the better. We’ll help her, I swear, if she’s on the up-and-up. I give you my word.”
I didn’t say anything. I shoved my chair back. Ranger and Menace were still behind me. I walked out of church without saying a word to any of them, although they were all staring at me in concern. Fuck them. I’d show them she wasn’t a threat. Jake was wiping down the bar. As soon as he saw my face, he tensed.
“What the hell happened? You look like you’re ready to kill someone.”
“Nothing. You won’t need to watch Cassia anymore. She’s my problem, not the club’s. Thanks for what you did. Later.”
I left with him calling out to me to come back. I went directly to my bike and raced back to town to check on her. She should be at her place. It was Saturday and she didn’t work on the weekends. It had killed me to leave her alone long enough to go to church. Hopefully, she hadn’t left. If she had, I’d find her at the grocery store. It was the only other place she went to besides the bakery.
I was out of luck. She wasn’t at her place. I saw her car was gone. Riding over to the grocery store, I began to panic when I saw her car wasn’t anywhere in the parking lot there either. Fuck, had she run? If she had, I couldn’t ask Smoke to track her. What the hell could I do? Just take a chance on going the right way and finding her along the road or highway? There were several ways she could’ve taken to leave. God knows how much of a lead she had on me.
I don’t know what it was that led me to the bakery. I knew she was off, but I ended up there anyway. I sagged in relief when I spotted her car in its usual place in the back. She was here. I parked my bike and went inside. I knew she probably didn’t want to see me or talk to me, but she was going to have to. I was tired of this game we were playing.
It wasn’t crowded in there. It was between the rush. I saw that Erin, another one of the girls who worked here, was at the counter. I didn’t see Cassia, but that only meant she was in the back baking. I went up to Erin. She gave me a tentative smile. She was young, I’d guess barely out of high school. I knew my tats and cut intimidated her. I tried to smile to put her at ease.
“Hey, Erin, right? I’m Blade. I need to speak to Cassia. I know you’re busy, so I’ll just pop back there and get her, okay.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. I wasn’t asking her permission and she knew it.
I started to round the end of the counter when her words stopped me. “She’s not here.”
“I saw her car in the back. I know she’s here.”
“She was, but she said she got a call and had to leave. That it was an emergency. Maybe someone picked her up if her car is still here.”
“Did she say what the emergency was?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“How long ago did she leave?” My heart was pounding hard. She’d done it. She ran. I wanted to scream. Erin looked at her phone then me.
