Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
I followed, meeting Crush behind the Bronco Piston and Venus had brought. Crush’s bike was a classic Harley Softail. The younger man had bought it off Red at Salvation’s Bane, and I was pretty sure he wanted to make love to that bike.
Crush stepped forward and shook my hand. “I’ve got Byte working on this from the command center.” That’s how we referred to his and Byte’s office. We were joking. Crush wasn’t. “I’ll take her phone off-site and take it apart. Inside and out. Any data on that phone I’ll extract.”
“Good. And Crush? Let me know the second you find something.”
Crush gave me a steady look. “You know I gotta tell Rocket or Lemon first, but you’ll be right behind them.” This is what I liked about Crush. He and Byte were both like this. He absolutely would not lie. No matter what. At least, if he ever had, I’d never caught him. Both men always let you know where you stood with them and where they stood with you. There was no sugar coating, no false promises.
“Just do what you can.” There was no use pushing Crush. He’d do what he felt was right. For him to call me ahead of Rocket would be against his personal code.
“I will. I’ll also have Knox send someone for your bike.”
“Thanks, man. Tell him not to send Falcon. Bastard’s had his eyes on my bike since Lemon painted his.”
“Probably wondering if he could get away with painting yours pink so he could paint his black again.” One corner of his lips curled upward.
I snorted. “Yeah. Likely.”
Crush pocketed the phone, then started his bike and took off.
Venus held open the door to the back seat of the Bronco while Piston stood with his arms on the open door and top of the vehicle, his foot propped on the running board on the driver’s side. He kept watch, scanning the surroundings intently, looking for a threat.
I climbed in the back seat on the driver’s side so that Olivia was sandwiched between me and Venus. She glanced at me nervously before swallowing and fumbling with the middle seat belt. I could feel her trembling where my shoulder and thigh pressed against her.
“One last time, Liv,” I growled next to her ear. “What’s goin’ on?”
She didn’t respond, just clenched her teeth and pursed her lips. One tear escaped and trickled down her cheek, but she didn’t acknowledge it.
I sighed and straightened in my seat. “You will, Liv. Eventually, you will.” I didn’t raise my voice or even look at her, but I could feel her stiffen. I wanted her scared, but it nearly gutted me to do it deliberately. I could very well be pushing her away from me when I wanted to do anything but. It was as much for her safety as the club’s.
If I was honest, it might be more for her than Grim. And I didn’t mean that she’d be in danger from Grim. It was Leon Black. The bastard would stop at nothing to find me. I was the one blemish on an otherwise perfectly stellar career for him. He’d managed to deflect the blame to someone else, but the stain still followed him behind closed doors since it’d happened.
So, yeah. I was very concerned for Olivia’s safety. Well, that was about to be fixed. I was taking her to Grim Road to stay with me. I’d prove she could trust me and I’d work on trusting her.
Piston pulled a blindfold and a hood from the console and handed them to me. I carefully placed the blindfold over Liv’s eyes and the hood over her head to prevent her from seeing where we were going. The back windows were darkly tinted, so no one could catch a good glimpse of us in the back seat. Piston took back streets and made several direction changes as he took us to the club house.
Piston’s phone rang. Venus picked it up and answered.
“Da.” There was a silence before Venus disconnected the phone. “Byte says all clear. We go back to clubhouse.”
We were always careful about returning home, but Piston and Byte were assuming we were actively being followed. He even left the road at one point and went through the wetlands and back trails before Byte gave him the all clear. When we got to the clubhouse, it was by way of the back of the property.
* * *
Olivia
The second I was able to ditch the hood and blindfold and climb out of the vehicle, I spotted Apple. She ran full force, shoving her way through the big men scattered around us, and threw herself at me.
“Liv! I was so worried! Thank God you ran into Bear and Ringo!” Apple hugged me fiercely, not letting me go even when someone tried to pull her off me.