She doesn’t talk about her brother.
Thank fucking God, because I’d probably drop dead if she did.
But I find out all about the infamous Wolf of Mounts Bay, about her family and the three, yes three, boys she’s dating.
“Oh my God, you look so fucking scandalized right now and I’m freaking dying over it. Look, at least you didn’t spend a week on a tour bus with them! I heard way too much, I swear I could fucking puke thinking about it.”
None of that registers except, “You went on tour with Vanth Falling? Are you fucking kidding me?”
She laughs and shrugs, putting the last bag down on the fucking disgusting carpet in the bedroom.
It needs to come up as soon as I can manage it.
“Only for like a week. We were in New Orleans, I got drunk with Blaise and then I got a tattoo. Don’t fucking tell anyone that, Thorn would shit himself if he knew. He’d start in on me about joining a gang and then I’d have to remind him that technically I was born into one.”
A gang tattoo.
Posey motherfucking Graves with a gang tattoo.
I can’t even think about it.
When she finally heads back to school to get picked up, I take stock of exactly what I need to buy to get this place looking like a home instead of a shit heap.
The list is long.
Something to sleep on is priority number one if I’m sleeping here tonight so I lock everything up and head out to find a furniture store. I pick out everything that I think I can fit into the Chevy and the guys there are nice enough to load it all up for me.
I duck into the hardware store and grab a whole heap of supplies to keep me busy for the next few days, little shit that I can figure out while I’m healing, and then I hit up the grocery store.
I feel a little jumpy over leaving the shit on the truck but I need food so I can stay locked up in my house for a few days.
I grab a cart so I’m not lugging things around and I start filling it up with things that don’t require a fridge or any sort of cooking. I mentally add a microwave to my list and, fuck, maybe some plates… pots, pans, cutlery, oh my God I forgot about how much shit a house really needs.
I’m so distracted that I don’t see Tomi until he speaks and scares my soul straight out of my body.
“What are you doing in here?”
I startle and look up to find Tomi glaring down at me like I’m the scum of the Earth. He hasn’t looked at me like I’m dirty in months and something breaks in my chest at the sight of it.
I knew it was too good to be true.
He didn’t want me, he wanted my body, and on the slim chance he really did want more, my lies broke whatever we did have. Fuck, it doesn’t matter that I had no choice.
“I’m just getting some groceries, I didn’t think this place was on your radar. It definitely isn’t somewhere I’ve seen you before.”
He frowns and stalks forward like he’s going to murder me right here in the grocery store and instinct kicks in. I flinch back into the shelves and knock some shit over as I duck my head.
Old habits never fucking die.
“Jesus fucking Christ, I’m not going to fucking hurt you. There’s a reason you haven’t seen me here, this isn’t a great area. What are you doing here, Angel?”
I take a deep breath and crouch down to fix the boxes of cereal up and get my eyes away from him. I mean, turning my back on a man who wants me dead probably isn’t the best idea but my heart is still bleeding over him and looking at him hurts so much more than death.
“Diamond told me. When she called to fire me, she told me about what I’d done to the MC. I’m doing my best to stay away from… you.”
I see his lip curl from the corner of my eye and I can’t look at it at all.
“So you’re avoiding me on purpose? Running away?”
I swallow and grab the basket again, straightening up but keeping my eyes on the ground. “I’m trying not to get in your way. I’m trying to just keep my shit away from you. If you and the MC feel the need to… kill me for what I did then I guess that’s the end of the line for me. It’s fine.”
His knuckles pop at the pressure of his clenched fists. “Diamond told you I wanted you dead? That’s what’s happening here?”
I glance up at the security cameras. “Yeah. This probably isn’t the best place for it though.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket and, God, I forgot that I even had it still. It’s his phone, on his plan, and I ran away with it. I pull it out with a shaking hand and hold it out to him.
His eyes drop down to it and the glare gets even worse. “Put it away, Angel. You’re keeping it.”
He just stands there and stares at me until finally my arm drops and I slide the phone back into my pocket. “It’s late. I have classes in the morning. Poe knows where to find me if you need to kill me.”
I walk over to the cashier quickly, ringing my order up and paying for my food. I put the cart away but before I can grab the bags Tomi stalks over and grabs them off of me. I try not to shake so goddamn hard that my knees give out.
“Angel, listen to me. I’m getting you out to your car, then I’m following you home. I’ll get your shit unloaded and then I’m going to go sort this fucking problem out. No one is killing you. No one is fucking touching you, just get out to your truck so I can get you home safe.”
Chapter Thirty
Tomi
I have every trace of Angel wiped from the The Boulevard records in under an hour.
Thorn disappears the second he’s finished giving his little debrief and I try not to focus on the weight of everyone’s eyes on me. The chapel is loud the entire time I work, Rue talking through the entire fucking mess of the Demons rolling into Coldstone. Eventually they open the doors and let the rest of the brothers in to tell their side of this fucking mess.
I don’t fucking react to any of it until Axe takes his turn.
“They were there for Poe. Angel took her place, pretended so they’d take her instead. She heard Poe’s name and just fucking threw herself into the fucking fire.”
My eyes snap up away from my laptop.
I didn’t know that’s how it went down. Fuck, more shit is leading to Poe and if there’s a war starting she’s gonna be in the fucking middle of it.
I glance at Rue but his face is locked down hard. No one but me and Speck would even guess he’s probably raging inside his head right now.
Diesel grunts. “Doesn’t fucking matter. She lied to the club, lied about her age and coulda been the reason for another brother to be locked up.”
Speck groans and Hellion shoots him a look. He’s not even supposed to be in here, but extenuating circumstances and all that shit.
None of that shit matters to me.
“Diesel, lemme tell you this before you talk your way into a fucking bullet. I don’t give a fuck about her lying about her age. Question her again and you’ll lose more than your fucking patch.”
Hawk shifts to stare at me like he’s never seen me before but King nods at me like he approves so I guess I have the president's seal of approval. Not that I need it, I’d fucking gut Diesel whether they like it or not.
I’m more of an ask for forgiveness kind of guy.