Nodding his head seriously, he says, “Okay.”
Thankfully he reigns in those emotions enough to do what I showed him. His hands are so careful as he brushes Allie’s sweaty hair away from her eyes.
Walking away from them to get everything else in order, I hear Poster coming down the stairs with a couple of bags. “This is all they brought. The rest of it is just cleaning supplies.”
I nod my head. I’ve already figured out why there’s not much of their stuff in the house. “This place is a fucking wreck. How’s the upstairs?”
“It’s a fuckin’ pigsty,” Poster says. “The last people that lived here fucked this place up.”
“Pappy will get it back together and cleaned up,” I say, and then motion to the front door. “Let’s get the van fixed up. I need you to hang here with my bike till he shows up. I want this place brought back up to pristine condition. He needs to have it furnished and ready for me and my family to move in soon.”
Nodding his head, he doesn’t even question me on calling them my family. Poster Boy is like that. He doesn’t question things; he just does them. His private life never bleeds over into club business and he stays on target with whatever I ask of him. He’s a soldier. But fuck, he’s creepy as fuck sometimes with how stoic and unflappable he can be. Murder, torture, robbery, and I guess watchin’ kids.
Nothing bothers him, he just does it.
We walk out the front door in time to see Grem straightening away from the window of the sheriff’s car.
Thankfully that’s all we see of the law as soon as Grem shakes the man’s hand. The car slowly pulls out of the driveway and disappears up the street.
Walking toward the driveway, I ask, “Everything good?”
“Yeah, just told ‘em it was club business, but we ain’t killin’ any women here. He’s gonna write it up as a crank call from some shithead teen,” Grem says.
“Good,” I say and point to the minivan. “Y’all get some space open for Allie in the back. I’ll get the kid in his seat then drive us to my house. Poster, you go shoppin’ for kid shit when you’re done here. Get some clothes and toys. Fuck, is he old enough for a PlayStation or whatever?”
Poster Boy shrugs his shoulders. “I’ll get him some little kid games.”
Looking at Grem, I say, “You follow me. I need you to help with getting Allie settled.”
Raising his hand up in a wait a minute gesture, Grem says, “Coy, I was a paramedic, not a doctor. I won’t be able to do much besides tell you she needs a doctor if she don’t wake up.”
“What’s your best guess right now?” I ask.
And fuck, I need a simple answer.
“Honestly?” he asks me.
“Grem,” I growl at him.
“She’s got somethin’ up in the head going on. Exhaustion, the heat, and somethin’ happened her brain wasn’t ready for. Hysterical fainting, maybe?” he says. “Hell, she could be a diabetic? Low insulin or somethin’? Fuck, I don’t know.”
“You see any of that shit in her bag?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Nah.”
“She wasn’t one back in high school,” I say.
He motions to the house then to me. “Then she’s probably been overloaded with all of this.”
“Fuck,” I snap at him.
“Call the doc in a couple hours if this shit ain’t changed. I mean, fuck, she could be hypoglycemic for all I know.” He stomps past me to the back of the van. “I’m gonna get this cleaned up so we can get her to your house and not to the hospital.”
Heading back into the house, I can feel his words slamming against my brain. He’s probably right in that we could be doing the wrong thing here. But my gut is telling me that taking her to the hospital would be a bad idea.
I’ve been holding my fucking emotions in check since she passed out. I’ve been keeping myself from going crazy. Right now, I know I can’t afford to snap. I can’t afford to break apart into a thousand pieces of anger and hurt.
Allie’s back in my life, right here and now. For five fucking years I’ve been livin’ the life of a widower. She died for all I could tell, and I wasn’t gettin’ her back. But now she’s passed out on a fucking kitchen table. With a son I never knew I had wipin’ the sweat off her brow.
Fuck, this is some heavy ass shit.
My very soul missed Allie every single day she was gone. And I hated her as much as I loved her. Couldn’t have separated those two feelings even if I tried.
Even now, as much as I want to touch her skin like I did five years ago in my bed…
I also want to wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze the shit out of her for leaving me.
She’s been in my mind every day, like some hangover that wouldn’t go away.
Now that she’s here, I can’t figure out which I want to do more, fuck her or kill her.
“Levi,” I say as I move beside him. “I gotta pick up your momma and put her in the van. Can you go get yourself strapped in your seat? I want you to be ready to go.”
“Okay,” he says and gives Allie one last look.
Quietly moving away from her, he hops off the table and walks toward the front door.
Looking down at Allie’s face, it’s easy to see that she must be tired. The eye that isn’t swollen and black from being hit is ringed dark from exhaustion.
The van had Maryland plates, maybe that’s where she was livin’…
She’s so fucking beautiful though, so beautiful it hurts to look at her with this black eye and sweaty, dirty face.
Someone put her in this position, someone hurt her enough to put her on run. Now that I think about how she reacted, she seemed positive we were sent to get her, like we were working for someone else. That means it’s got to be an outside player not from around these parts. No one runs or does shit in this city without us knowing about it.
Lifting Allie up into my arms, it feels like she never left them as I walk out to the van. It’s been years but I can still smell her faint scent. One that’s uniquely hers. One that would drive me insane at times.
And I’m bettin’ once she’s awake it’s gonna cause me all kinds of trouble.
My house isn’t the best of houses to be doing this shit at. There are too many other houses close by. Low on crime neighborhood though, it’s got that goin’ for it. It’s also got an attached garage, which is good since I don’t want the neighbors to see me carrying a passed-out chick into my house.
Darlene, Pappy’s wife, has been around the club long enough to know not to ask any questions and to keep her mouth shut about anything she sees.
That being said, she’s got enough expressions on her face to fill a fuckin’ dictionary with words. I’m pretty sure I could deal without the eyerolls she gives me when I walk into the house with Allie in my arms.
“Shut it,” I snap at her, but she just smirks.
“Better than kicking a naked girl out of your office, I guess,” Darlene chuckles as I walk by her.
Ah, fuck. Shoulda guessed shit like that would spread around.
Goddammit.
Fuck letting her get the best of me though.