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“What’s going on in here?” Maggie asks from the middle of the room with a cloth thrown over her shoulder and her arms folded over her chest. Her gaze flicks between Molly and I, waiting for someone to give her a response, but my tongue is like lead in my mouth.
I blink once, twice, letting the angry haze clear in my mind as I finally manage to summon words to my lips. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” The tension is still evident in my voice, my hand still wrapped around her throat as my fingers flex along her skin. It takes a deep breath and another slow blink before I can retract my hand and take a small step back. Clearing my throat, I keep my gaze fixed on Molly as I speak. “Maggie, have you seen Emmett?”
Molly’s gaze sharpens on mine as she lifts her hand to her neck, lips pressed in a thin line.
“He's out in the garage with the others. They said not to be interrupted, unless it was you.”
I almost sprain my neck at how fast I whip my head around to look at her. There’s a knowing glint in her eyes and a flicker of a smirk at the corner of her lips. She’s either making that extra shit up about them only being interrupted by me, or she’s enjoying the reality of it far too much. Either way, I need to put some distance between Molly and I before I change my fucking mind.
Nodding at Maggie, I shoulder-pass Molly before I step out into the warm heat. The slight breeze tickles my t-shirt around my thighs, distracting me from my rage.
Regretting not even throwing on a pair of shoes, I pick up my pace toward the garage when I hear my name being called from behind me.
“Scarlett?” A prospect heads toward me with a box in his hands. “Are you heading toward the garage?”
I nod. My nose wrinkles in confusion as he comes to a stop and extends the box to me. “Could you take this delivery with you? It’s got Prez’s name on it, but I don’t want to interrupt since we were warned not to.”
“So, why are you giving it to me?”
I don’t even finish asking the question before he's thrusting the package at me while rolling his eyes, then turning and walking away. I almost call him back before Maggie’s words come to mind again. Apparently it wasn’t a lie, then.
No one can interrupt them but me? I don’t like the sound of that. If they wanted me, why didn’t they just come find me?
Leaning my forehead on the box, I take a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself and stop my mind from going crazy. If they wanted me for something, theywouldhave come to get me. That’s not what this is, or it’s not their usual course of action, but it still doesn’t allow the uneasy feeling to leave my chest.
Reluctantly, I cut the remaining distance toward the garage and find the four of them talking among themselves with a Harley Davidson between them.
Gray is on the floor with his back against a large red toolbox, grease coating his fingers as he grins at whatever Axel is saying. He is talking animatedly with a cigarette hanging from his lips and his t-shirt long forgotten. His brown hair falls in waves down his muscled back, and if I didn’t know the asshole that body belonged to, I would definitely store it away for my fantasies, but alas, he’s a dick.
Distracting myself from asshole-ish men, I steer my gaze from Axel to Ryker as he spins a wrench in his hands, his dark hair swept back off his face and his white tee filthy.
Finally, my attention moves to Emmett, who is in a chair in a pair of shorts with the same bandage from yesterday still wrapped around his thigh. He seems in good spirits despite the circumstances, but the smile quickly drops from his face as he locks eyes with me.
Great.
I’m too distracted by the emotion in his eyes that I can’t quite decipher, to notice when Gray appears in front of me and takes the box from my hands. “Oh, thanks,” I murmur, earning myself a wink. He walks over to Ryker.
“What’s this?” Gray asks, placing it on the tool box.
“I don’t know. A prospect gave it to me when I was heading over here and said it had just been delivered with Ryker’s name on.”
“Why the fuck would they hand it to you?” Axel grunts, taking a long drag of his cigarette as his eyes rake over me from head to toe.
I almost consider whether he’s actually related to Molly, since they both get under my skin in the worst way possible. I bite back the snark from my tongue and shrug, but it’s Ryker who responds.
“Because I said if anyone but Scarlett approaches, they will take a bullet to the fucking knee.” Ryker doesn’t look up as he speaks, too intrigued with the box in front of him.
“And whyareyou out here?” Axel pushes.
Ask me to defend myself, I can do that. Ask me to keep my head down and survive, I can do that too. But ask me to show any level of care, concern, or remorse for words spoken, then shit, I’m at a loss.
My eyes flash to Emmett. “I don’t know, I just wanted to make sure the wound was healing okay and wasn’t starting to get infected because it hadn’t been cleaned and changed,” I ramble, hating so many words falling from my mouth. “But if someone else has already seen to it, then I’m all good,” I add.
“Oh, he needs you to check it, sweet cheeks. But since you two had some heated words, he didn’t have the balls to come ask. Did you, Emmett?”
The telltale prickling along my cheeks annoys me more than anything as he offers a tight smile. His lips part, but whatever he was about to say is interrupted as Ryker curses under his breath, gaining everyone’s attention as he stares angrily into the box.
“What's up?” Axel prowls toward him, his anger toward me forgotten as he approaches Ryker, who slowly dips his hand into the box, retrieving a piece of paper and a gun.
