“I was told to, sweetheart.”
“Stop calling me that. I don’t know you.” I flexed my fingers around the handle of my makeshift weapon. “And who told you to follow me?”
“That’s for me to know.” His smirk did nothing but irritate me more than I already was.
“Is that right?” I asked the question, but instead of allowing him time to answer, I swung the bat toward his headlight. His eyes widened right before the glass shattered.
“Whoa! What the fuck?” He jumped out and rushed toward the front to inspect the damage. “Are you crazy?” He glanced between me and the destruction.
“Who told you to follow me?” I repeated.
His silence was his answer, so I gave him my reply, crashing the bat down on his hood, putting a nice-size dent in the middle.
“Lady! Stop hittin’ my goddamn truck!” he shouted, looking like he wanted to tackle me to the ground.
“Then tell me what I wanna know.” My voice was calm, but I was anything but—fear and anger mixing together to form a whole other emotion. “I can do this all day.” I raised the bat once again, but instead of directing my fury on his vehicle again, I swung it at him when he rushed toward me.
He jumped back before I made contact. “Are you insane?”
“Who?”
“You,” he answered. “Are you crazy?” I believed he wanted an honest answer, or perhaps his question was rhetorical. Either way, I dismissed him with a roll of my eyes.
“No, you ass. Who told you to be my shadow?” When he kept his mouth clamped shut, I raised the wood in the air once more.
He held his hand up, being sure to keep his distance. “Brick told me to follow you.”
“Brick? Why?”
“He did it for Ace.” He ran his hand over his scruff, cursing when he looked back at the damage. “Who’s gonna pay for this?” When he bent over to look at the light, I saw the handle of a gun in his waistband, but he straightened up before fear could completely envelop me. While he looked like he wanted to hurt me in some way, he kept his distance, never once making a move to grab his weapon.
“Take it up with Brick,” I shouted over my shoulder as I hurried back to my car, locking the doors and peeling out of the parking lot, leaving him standing there in the wake of my mini meltdown.
19
“Who knew they’d be smart enough to put on fake tags?” Kaden asked, sitting on the edge of the bed, half his attention on me and Brick and the other half on his phone. I swore he didn’t go anywhere without the damn thing. Then again, these devices were our lifeline now, not only to each other but to the ones we actively worked to protect.
“So we don’t know if they were Reapers?” My question was met with headshakes.
“They were Reapers. One of ’em had a skull tattoo on his hand with the letters of his name spelled out. Wanna take a guess who?” Brick cocked his head.
More headshakes, from me this time.
“Rock.”
“Figures,” Kaden grumbled.
“And when the camera zoomed in, we could see his face. We didn’t recognize the other two, though.”
“What does it look like?” I asked, moving to sit up straighter on the bed, two pillows tucked behind me.
“What does what look like?” Kaden’s inquiry gave me pause, enough time to spell it out for them.
“Me. Gettin’ shot.”
They shared a quick look before Brick opened his mouth, his features contorting before giving me an answer.
“Fucked up. We can only see the back of you. One minute you’re walkin’ with your head down, then the next you’re on the ground, flat on your back. It happened so fast it almost didn’t look real.”
“Try livin’ it.” My words didn’t do anything to describe what I’d been through, nor did I think they would, but before I could give life to thoughts of what to say next, if anything, Rez came barging into the room.
He pointed right at Brick. “You.” Then he pointed at me. “And you.” Our frowns prompted him to fill us in as to why he looked so pissed off, his shoulders vibrating with anger. “That crazy bitch smashed up my truck.”
Kaden held up his hand. “What crazy bitch?”
“His woman,” he responded, pointing again at me.
“What?” I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“I followed her, like you told me to do,” he said, his eyes back on Brick, “and when she pulled over in some shopping center, she got out of her car with a baseball bat. When I wouldn’t tell her who told me to watch her, she busted my fuckin’ headlight, then put a big dent in my hood. She even swung that damn thing at me.” Rez shook his head, his sneer wiping away the slight smile forming on my face.
Then a thought hit me. “Wait. She just walked right up to your truck?”
“Yeah.”
“Did she eventually find out it was us who wanted you to follow her?” Brick inquired, shoving his hands in his pockets, leaning against the dresser, a slight look of amusement tipping the corner of his mouth.
“Yeah,” Rez repeated. “Otherwise, she probably would’ve taken out my windshield. I’ve never put my hands on a woman, but man…” He clenched his fists and the sight alone made me wanna knock him out.
I carefully moved to the side of the bed and slowly swung my legs over. Wincing, I pushed myself to my feet.
Kaden hopped up and hurried next to me. “Where do you think you’re goin’?”
I reached for my jeans. “I gotta go see her.”
“You’re not goin’ anywhere. You’re in no shape to get out of bed yet.”
“I’m fine,” I growled. I was far from fine but there was no way I wasn’t givin’ Chelsea an earful for her stupidity. And this was a conversation I needed to have face-to-face so she could see how serious I was.
“You’re not,” Kaden argued. “But if you insist, Brick and I will go with you. You definitely shouldn’t be driving.” I didn’t say anything at first, too busy tryin’ not to fall over when attempting to put on my jeans. I couldn’t do anything standing up, so I carefully lowered myself to the bed again. One leg, then the other. When the material rested on my thighs, I stood back up and pulled them the rest of the way. Brick tossed a white T-shirt at me without me asking. Once I was dressed, which took more effort and strength than I imagined it would, I decided not to wear my cut because of the added weight against my side. I then threw back another pain pill even though I wasn’t due yet.
“What about my truck?” Rez blocked the doorway, glancing to each of us.
“Park it next to the garage. Tag will take care of it for you,” Kaden said.
“He’ll probably fuck it up more,” he grated, following behind the rest of us as we walked out to the common area. I didn’t have time to explain that Tag was trustworthy, my sole focus on one person only.
“Where you all off to?” Jagger briskly walked up to us, his eyes roaming over me from head to toe, then back again. “Shouldn’t you be restin’?”
“I’m good.”