No matter how much I tried to persuade him, he said no more. Which had me sulking because I was even more curious.
The next morning, I had gotten up to see Ian leaving Amy’s room. He gave me a cheeky grin and a shrug when I looked at him questioningly. All I knew was that Amy had emerged looking grim and refusing to come to the airport. Ian instructed me to wait in the car while they said their goodbyes. He refused to tell me what was going on during the car ride to the airport. No one was telling me anything.
I turned into a blubbering mess saying goodbye to him.
“No more crying, Ace. Won’t be much longer and you’ll be wishing you could drop me off at the airport,” he joked and my tears stopped and a huge grin erupted on my face.
“You’re moving to the States?” I squealed.
“Nothing’s set in stone just yet, but some of the boys and I are planning on opening a security business in L.A,” he explained, grinning too.
I jumped up and down, slightly dramatic. “L.A. is only two hours away, this is awesome!”
“All right, Ace, calm the theatrics, people are staring. Oh, and you’ve done okay with Cade, he’s not a total asshole. I’ll be worrying about you a lot less knowing you’re with him,” he ground this out as if it was physically painful to admit and I smirked at him.
He gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Got a flight to catch, see you in no time, Gwen. Love you.” He turned to the boarding gate with his duffle thrown over his shoulder.
“Love you too! Be careful, don’t get shot,” I ordered him, a few people gave me sideways glances. Ian turned and gave me a salute before disappearing around the corner.
As soon as I had arrived home from the airport, red eyed from shedding a couple of tears on the way home, Cade had been waiting on his bike. The men were all with him. He explained the situation with the Spiders had gotten worse and he was going to have a man on me at all times. I argued this, finding it hard to swallow that I would have someone following me all the time, it was creepy.
“Don’t fucking argue about this, Gwen. You don’t have any say. You think I’m going to even let there be a slight chance of you being in danger? I’m not having anything ugly ever touch you again. When I’m not with you, you have one of the boys with you. No more discussion.”
I had caved, obviously. It worried me a lot that Cade was putting a guy on me. I wasn’t worried for myself, I knew the boys would take care of me, but that meant Cade was in a lot of danger, I didn’t like that at all. He needed to speed up this process of getting the club clean.
I hardly saw him the next few days, he’d crawl into bed with me late in the night. He would make love to me then fall asleep with his arms tight around me, not releasing me until the morning, when he made love to me again before leaving. It was not a fun situation. I missed him and worried about him.
The cling of the bell brought me back to the present. I smiled as a pretty young girl walked in.
“Hi, sweetie, how’s it going?” I called to her from the counter.
She didn’t reply, her face blank as she approached me, setting a gift bag in front of me.
“This is from Rico,” she said before turning to leave.
“Wait!” I called to her, rounding the counter, grabbing the bag.
“I think you have the wrong person, I have no idea who Rico is.” I held the bag out to her.
“You Gwen?” she asked and I nodded. “It’s for you.” She turned and walked out.
“That’s weird,” I said to myself.
But never one to not open a present, I took the wrapped box and set it on the counter. I ripped open the box and screamed.
Chapter Thirteen
Black tarantulas scampered out of the box and crawled up my arms, I continued screaming as I swatted them off and tried to get as far away from the box as possible at the same time. The door crashed open and Dwayne entered the store, gun drawn. He took one look at me and his eyes flared.
“Get them off!” I screamed, as they crawled through my hair.
He was at my side in seconds, hands in my hair and at my arms getting the last of those creatures off me before stomping on them.
“Outside. Now,” he barked.
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I darted out the door, pulling at my clothes with him following close behind.
He looked me over quickly. “You okay?”
“Um…” I stuttered, unable to process what just happened. I couldn’t stop running my hands up my arms, I could still feel them on me.
“Cade? Get down here, now. The Spiders paid a visit to Gwen’s store, sent a message.” Dwayne talked into his phone, eying me up and down like I might faint at any moment. Luckily I was a girl from the country and had a brother who liked to gross me out. I was staying conscious.
“Gwen, are you okay, sweetheart?” Evan from next door approached me looking worried. “We heard you scream, what happened?”
“Um…I had some unwelcome visitors,” I told him, restraining a hysterical laugh, only half paying attention. My mind was on other things, like the reality of another dangerous gang setting their sights on me. Again.
“Gwen!” Luke ran towards me, gun drawn. I noticed a couple of people had approached, obviously hearing the commotion. I didn’t realize my scream had been that loud
How was it that Luke was always around when something shitty happened to me? I was glad, but I couldn’t be the only person in this town who got in these situations. Okay, maybe I might be the only person in this town who got a box of eight-legged devils delivered to them, but surely he had speeding tickets to write or drug rings to bust.
I watched Luke take me in, then glare at Dwayne, who had just got off the phone.
“What happened?” His face was a mask of concern. His eyes darted around looking for threats, they settled on Dwayne again for a second before he put his gun away.
“Well, I got a delivery,” I began, feeling aware of the amount of people around. “Um, and it contained insects of the eight-legged variety. Not at all like the delivery of shoes I was expecting,” I answered, giggling at the ridiculousness of it all.
Luke hissed. “The Spiders.” He returned his glare to Dwayne, who ignored him. He started running his arms up my own, eyes searching.
I tried to pull them away, but he caught my wrist. “What are you doing?” I asked angrily, in any other situation I wouldn’t mind being felt up by a hot guy, if I wasn’t madly in love with another hot guy that was.
Luke stepped closer, looking like he was going to get between us.
Dwayne didn’t glance up. “Looking for bites,” he grunted.
My stomach dropped. I didn’t think of that. Were tarantulas poisonous? Did my first aid kit have anti venom? I didn’t think so.
“Bites,” Luke repeated quietly.
The roar of Harley’s, and what looked like the whole club, approaching drowned out any further conversation. Cade all but threw his bike on the sidewalk, sprinting over to our little huddle. His eyes darkened seeing Luke, but his concern for me obviously trumped a macho man showdown.
Cade pushed both Dwayne and Luke out of the way and grabbed me, inspecting me as if he was expecting stab wounds. He seemed satisfied with my lack of bleeding because he drew me into his shoulder.