Natalie nods. “Yes. There are text messages between us as well. Pretty much, my whole life is in that phone. I even have a notes app where I documented a lot of things that bothered me. Things got a lot worse after my foster mother’s mother passed away last year. We called her Granny Ellie. She was a sweet woman who didn’t approve of how the foster kids were punished.”
“If I take the phone, everything on there will become evidence in this case.”
“I’m fine with that. I don’t have anything to hide. The unlock code is zero-seven-one-five.”
Finally, Rick stoops down in front of her like he did at the house and takes her hand in his. “You have to know I would do anything to help you. Why didn’t you tell me about all this?”
She hesitates for a moment and then answers honestly. “Because I just found you and I didn’t want to be a burden. Because every time I’ve ever told someone, it got worse for me but also for the kids. I thought that if I left well enough alone, they’d get tired and stop bothering me. I hoped that they wouldn’t do anything to the kids, that it was all just threats. But now I’m not so sure.”
Rick reaches for her without thinking, pulling her into a one-armed hug that she accepts gratefully. She presses her forehead into his shoulder, eyes closed, still trying hard not to cry.
I watch them and make a decision that has nothing to do with liking her as a woman. I don’t know why I feel so protective over her, but I do.
“She’s not going back there,” I state firmly.
Rick agrees without hesitation. “Never. I want Natalie out of that mess. We’ve reported the problem. Now CPS needs to do its job and protect those kids.”
Natalie pulls back, frowning. “I’m not trying to go back there. Even if it makes me a bad person for abandoning those kids.”
“You’re not the bad person here,” I say, horrified that she’d even think that.
“They’ll keep escalating,” Rick tells her. “They want what they want and clearly aren’t shy about harassing you to get you to do what they want. You’ve had years of their mind games.”
“Look, you’re not alone in this anymore,” I tell her. “You’ve got your brother, me, Mattie, and the Savage Legion MC brothers lookin’ out for you. That changes the equation dramatically in your favor.”
Something in her expression loosens. She reaches out to take my hand and draws me down beside Rick. Looking from one to the other of us, she says, “You’re both really good men. Promise me that if this gets to be too much you’ll speak up.”
I frown because this woman does not know me at all if she thinks for one second that I’d ever throw her to the wolves. Rick uses humor, like always, to deflect serious emotions. “When have I ever had a thought that didn’t come flying out of my mouth? Trust me, me and Bear for this kind of shit. Protecting the innocent and dealing out the kind of justice the system can’t is our specialty.”
Mattie snorts a laugh. “Not on my watch you don’t. If you wanted to grab some vigilante justice, you shouldn’t have looped me in on the case.”
Rigs practically growls, “So don’t you two be running off half-cocked ripping a hole through the case my old lady’s gonna be building against them. There’s more at stake there than just the handful of kids in the home. If you give her a minute, my Mattie will make sure those kids are pulled out of the home and their foster privileges are pulled permanently.”
Mattie reaches one hand over to smooth down the front of his cut. “You’re pretty articulate when you’re aggravated. You know that don’t you, babe?”
Rigs’ expression turns adoring in a heartbeat and that’s our cue to get the hell out of our club president’s office. I’ve seen the two of them get amorous before and I don’t think Natalie would want to be privy to what Rigs does with his straight-laced wife who likes to go wild every now and then.
Out in the main room, the clubhouse is life going on as usual. Mostly people don’t know what we’re going through. It makes me feel conflicted, like our problems don’t matter but also satisfied because I don’t like people knowing our business. I seem to have two fuckin’ minds about everything these days.
We make our way to one of the suites upstairs, where we can get Natalie settled and get back to work, because those meds are not going to deliver themselves. It’s not like she can work with us right now. It’s too risky.
Chapter 6
Natalie
I can’t manage to get to sleep no matter how hard I try. Instead, I lie in an unfamiliar bed and stare at strange walls. I can hear music from downstairs but it’s faint. Several times the throaty roar of a motorcycle comes through the open window. The mattress is pleasantly firm, but whoever made the bed tucked the bottom sheets in and my feet feel trapped, making it hard to relax.
I get up quietly and creep out into the living room. The suite has two bedrooms, Rick’s door is shut and I can hear the sound of his loud snores. I swear that man can fall asleep in an instant. I hear someone pacing in the hallway, pausing outside, and then walking off as if they’ve changed their mind. Curious, I gently open the door. The moment I step into the short hallway, Bear freezes, gaping at me. He looks like a man caught between duty and instinct.
“You’re supposed to be getting some sleep. Rick wouldn’t want you wandering around the clubhouse.”
“I care about my brother, but respectfully, he doesn’t own me. If I want to step out into the hallway, I will.”
He glances away and drops his head for a few seconds. “I didn’t mean you’re not your own person. I just think that in a crisis situation, you should stay put.”
I fold my arms over my stomach. “I can’t sleep. Would it kill you to have a conversation with me?”
His expression turns confused. “Wait. You came out of the room to talk to me?”
