Prez unfolded his arms and ran his hand over his face, mumbling to himself before giving me back his attention. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Am I?” I felt the pain in my side, but I wasn’t aware of the damage yet.
“You are,” Addy agreed, handing me a purplish-looking pill and a glass of water. She placed her hand behind my head to raise it a little, just enough for me to get the water in my mouth and swallow the medication. “A bullet hit you on your left side, but it went straight through. In and out. I don’t believe there’s much damage.”
“Other than having a hole in my body.”
“True.” She smiled. “You’re all stitched up and you’ve had two rounds of antibiotics already.” Addy pointed toward the now empty glass of water. “And that’s your third pain pill.”
“How long have I been here?” I asked, suddenly aware I had no idea how much time had lapsed since the attack.
“Two days,” Marek answered.
“Two days?” My voice rose in urgency. I attempted to get up again, but that time Linc joined his mother in helping to keep me flat on my back. “I have to check on Chelsea.” The plea in my voice made the bastard smirk, but there wasn’t a goddamn thing funny about what I’d said.
“She’s fine.” Brick was next to the bed in two long strides. “Rez is watching out for her.” He saw the scowl on my face and hurried to say, “He knows she’s yours. He won’t overstep.” The truth was Chelsea wasn’t mine even though I wanted her to be. “I don’t even think she knows she’s bein’ watched. She doesn’t know what happened yet.”
I found a sliver of relief in her not knowing. I didn’t want to alarm her or make her worry about me. Would she worry? I couldn’t help the thought from entering my brain, but I shoved it away quickly because I had other things to concern myself with.
“Why did you text me when we were at Indulge? You told us to get back here ASAP.” I moved to get more comfortable on the bed, but the first wave of pain slicing through me was enough to make me stop and remain as I was. Addy had just left the room, whispering something to her son before she disappeared.
Brick’s tongue ran over his teeth and he made an odd sound with this throat. Whatever he was gonna tell me wasn’t good.
“Someone tried to run Braylen off the road as she was coming home from the grocery story.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. “She’s fine and so is the baby. Zoe and Roman were with her, and they’re fine as well.” A darkness glazed over Brick’s eyes, his fingers clenching into fists. “She hit a guardrail, and the front end of her vehicle is messed up, but other than them being shaken up, they’re okay.”
“We thinkin’ Reapers for this, too?”
“Yep,” Marek, Brick, and Linc responded simultaneously.
I closed my eyes to gather my wits. This was a lot of information for me to digest in the span of only a few minutes.
Those bastards were ballsy, downright reckless and stupid. And after hearing how our club dealt with them in the past, I had no doubt we’d prevail again, but at what cost? That was the proverbial million-dollar fuckin’ question.
“What now?” I asked, returning my attention to Prez.
“The security cameras picked up everything that happened with the shooting. We’re in the process of tracking down the car now. Stupid shits probably didn’t even change the plates.” Marek paused but only for a second, barely enough time to take a breath. “We shut down Indulge and Flings for the time being. Only until we get this all under control.”
“When’s that gonna happen?” Brick asked.
“We’re workin’ on it” was our leader’s only response.
After Marek left, Brick and Linc stood near me, looking down at me like I was some kind of invalid.
“What?” I couldn’t hide the irritation in my voice.
“Nothin’.” Linc’s half smile fell flat. “Just glad you’re okay.” He looked at Brick. “Looks like you gotta somehow get inducted into this shit, brother.”
The mammoth of a man lowered his brows. “What does that mean?”
Linc pointed to the scrape on the side of his face, then pointed at my waist. “We both got hit.”
Brick pulled his head back and stood taller. “So what? You want me to get shot in order to join this twisted little club you guys got?”
“Exactly,” I confirmed. “Actually, come to think of it, quite a few of the guys in the club have been shot, some of ’em multiple times. Let’s see.” I held up a finger for each person I named. “There’s Prez, Stone, Tripp—”
“Fuck off,” he grumbled, but Linc and I saw the smirk on his face before he headed toward the door.
“What do you care anyway? It’s not like a tiny bullet is gonna do any damage to your giant ass.” I laughed but then groaned, a jolt of pain hittin’ me.
“God don’t like ugly,” Brick shouted before he slammed the bedroom door behind him.
I swore if I didn’t find some sort of amusement in this situation, I’d lose my goddamn mind.
18
I hadn’t heard from Ace in over forty-eight hours, and while he’d told me we were over for good when he left my place, I still expected to hear from him. We’d argued multiple times in the past about the status of our relationship, or lack thereof, and while he’d never given me this type of ultimatum, he’d always come around one way or the other.
Glancing in my rearview, I noticed the same black truck I saw yesterday. In fact, I saw it a couple times yesterday. It could be a coincidence, or someone could be following me.
Deciding to see if this asshole was in fact tailing me, I took a right, then a left, then another right. Sure enough, two vehicles back, there he was. With everything going on with Ace, or not going, depending on how I looked at it, this was the last thing I needed to worry about.
I pulled into a local shopping center, conscious of the time. My client would be at the salon in twenty minutes and Braylen hated when I showed up right before my appointments. But in order to find out who had the balls to watch my every move, I had to take care of this before going to work. Besides, if on the off chance this person didn’t already know where I worked, I didn’t want to give them that little tidbit of information.
Sure enough, the truck parked one row back from me. My patience for this, and everything as of late, had run out. I reached behind my seat and grabbed a baseball bat I had tucked away in case of emergencies and marched toward the black truck. As I approached, the driver’s window came down.
“Hi, sweetheart.” The guy behind the wheel wore a leather vest, much like Ace and his buddies, but I’d never seen him before. He had long black hair, which was currently pulled back off his face, olive-colored skin, and was in dire need of a shave. Other than possibly being a complete psychopath, he was kinda cute.
I wasn’t stupid. I stood several feet from his door just in case he decided to make a move. Holding the bat high, I widened my stance and glared at him.
“Why the hell are you following me?”