He doesn’t even pull the phone away from his mouth and I roll my eyes as he refocuses his attention on toying with the man to kill time while we wait for Julian to make a decision.
“Ev’s too. It’s like we were made for each other,” he rambles and I leave the two of them be, heading back to the main room.
“Other two got away, I take it?”
Jake grimaces. “Yep.”
Telltale lights flash in the crack of the door and we all loose a steady stream of curses. Caleb is already dialing Julian as I rush back to Grave, ignoring his protests as I haul Thomas from the freezer and start dragging him towards the main room.
The police are just barging into the room, the others with their guns already stowed and finishing duct taping the men back-to-back, as if we were restraining them until the police could arrive. It might help the lawyer explain shit away with them after they broke into our business and killed a girl, but the bloody mess Grave left in the freezer isn’t going to be as easy to shove under the rug.
Weapons aimed at us as they storm inside, we raise our hands peacefully, taking a step back from Jax’s men. We have systems in place in case this happens, and have learned by now what to do to try and rush things along so we don’t have to spend too long in holding. But the dead body lying a stone’s throw away has me internally groaning, fully aware we’re going to be in for a hell of a long night.
The ringing of my phone is obnoxiously loud, and I jerk awake, fumbling for it on my bedside table. “Hello?”
Julian’s voice is tight and mildly annoyed, not that I can blame him. It’s been almost two days of working with his lawyer to try and get all of the guys out of holding, but since it was the weekend, it slowed everything down and they still aren’t home.
“You need to go open up the range, you still have the keys,” he commands and I start rolling out of bed.
“Crap, sorry!”
Switching the phone to speaker, I toss it on the bed and hastily get dressed, throwing my hair in a ponytail. I almost ask if he has any update on the guys before thinking better of it. He wouldn’t be this short tempered if things were going the way he wanted.
“What do you want me doing after?” Slipping on my shoes, I grab my jacket and rush out the door.
“Shadow Maverick. It’s well past time you started working off your debt.” The line cuts off as I uneasily tuck it into my pocket, power walking down the hallway towards Mav’s room.
He’s even harder to get a read on than Grave. I thought with the way the last week had been going, I might have been making some headway with Julian, things heading into less toxic territory. But it just serves as a reminder how quickly people can revert back to their true colors when stressors are thrown their way.
Knocking on Mav’s door, I take a step back when I hear his muffled litany of groaned curses. A minute later he’s wrenching the door open. “What?” He finishes tugging his shirt on, running a hand through his dark hair that’s sticking up on end, drawing my eye to the heavy bags beneath his eyes.
“Umm, can you give me a ride to the gun range?” I withdraw the keys with a sheepish grimace. ”Blake stormed off and I didn’t have anyone to return them to, and now they’re trying to open the store and can’t.”
With an exasperated sigh, he heads back into his room to grab his jacket and put his shoes on while I remain standing awkwardly in the doorway. After snatching his keys off of his desk and stuffing his wallet in the back pocket of his jeans, he grabs his gun from the table, releasing the magazine to double check it before clicking everything back into place.
“Go on,” he ushers, and I hurriedly step out of the way. But rather than leading the way, he hesitates, giving me a strange look. “You know by now that I’m not going to start screaming at you, right?” I nod as he presses on, “And I’m not about to hit you just because I’m overtired and you need something.” He doesn’t phrase it like a question, but I answer it as if he had.
“I know. Otherwise when I gave you a black eye, you’d have given me one back.”
He actually smirks in amusement. “Still twinges, too.”
Cringing, I apologize again, but he waves me off and starts striding towards the entrance of the building. “I just mean,” he trails off with a huff before pivoting to face me and I nearly crash into him. “Stop being so twitchy. You can ask for shit without being scared, alright?”
At my nervous nod he rolls his eyes and goes back to leading the way out of the building. The door slams shut behind us and we head down the steps to the street, his truck parked right out front.
We arrive outside of the range a little while later, Blake tapping his foot as he leans beside the door, immersed in conversation with a few customers that are waiting to be let in. His smile fades as soon as he spots me and I shrink into myself a bit. Maverick takes pity on me, reaching into my pocket to snag the keys and climbing out of the truck.
Tossing them at Blake, he simply calls out, “Try to keep better track of ‘em from now on.” Blake instantly goes red faced and starts to protest, but Mav simply slams his car door shut and ignores him, pulling away without looking back or giving a shit if the guy is pissed at him.
A small smile tugs at the corner of my lips as I glance in the rearview mirror and watch Blake ranting and raving. “So what’s on the agenda for today?” When he pauses, I fill him in on Julian’s decision for me to shadow him and he gets a hard look in his eyes.
“How are you at drawing?” he randomly asks and I scrunch up my face in confusion.
“Alright, I suppose?”
He nods to himself and flips on his turn signal. “Let’s hope so.”
* * *
