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“How bad you want him hurt?”
What a loaded question. I would love it if he were just as dead as the woman he killed but Blaze’s voice sounds in my head, reminding me that we aren’t the bad guys and we can’t act like thugs.
“Bad enough to drive the point home. He calls off his brother and stays the hell away from me and my girl.”
He finishes scribbling something and tucks the notebook back into his pocket before slapping me on my shoulder. “I’ll call you when it’s done.”
* * * *
“Church in five,” Blaze calls just as I walk in the door, and everyone nods at him before turning back to what they were doing before. I slide onto a barstool next to Chance and nod at Teresa when she sets a beer down in front of me.
“Well, don’t you look fucking chipper,” Chance says, and I laugh, almost choking on my beer.
“That a bad thing?”
He shakes his head and takes a sip of his own beer. “Suppose not. Just different.”
He’s right; it is different. For the past six years, I’ve had a dark cloud hanging over me, and it was visible to everyone, but not anymore.
“You just got over it like that, huh?”
“Naw, man. I didn’t just get over it but Ali, she makes it all easier, you know. Gave me a reason to smile again.”
He snorts and nods. “Yeah, okay. Don’t go getting all sappy on me.”
“Shut the fuck up, dude.”
“Hey, Storm,” Smith calls from the back corner of the clubhouse where he and Moose are playing pool.
“What?”
“You and that neighbor of yours serious?”
Red-hot rage blinds my vision as I think about him putting his hands on her. Brother or not, that shit is not happening. Possessiveness wells up inside me, and I stand, slamming my beer bottle down on the bar.
“She’s fucking off limits.”
Everyone grows quiet, all eyes trained on me. “You claimin’ her, then? Officially?”
“You’re damn right I am.”
Kodiak laughs and jumps up from the couch, slapping me on the shoulder. “Well, it’s about damn time.”
“Church,” Blaze calls from the doorway, a knowing smile on his face as I pass him and take my seat at the table. Everyone else files in and fills the rest of the table as Blaze goes to the head of the table and bangs the gavel.
“All right, let’s get down to business. Kodiak and Smith, what do you have from Ali’s house?”
“Honestly, boss, not a whole lot,” Kodiak says, and Smith nods in agreement, only increasing my suspicions about what really happened.
“The back door looks like it’s been jimmied quite a few times so it’s impossible to say how many times this guy has been in there. That alone rules out the possibility of this being an attempted robbery,” Smith adds, and I shift in my seat. I don’t like the fucking sound of this at all.
“And nothing was taken?” Blaze asks, and Kodiak and Smith share a look.
“Possibly some panties but there’s no way to know for sure.”
“Ali said her bed was made when she left that morning, and it was messed up when we were there like someone had been lying in it,” I say, and they all turn to me. This feels so familiar, and it turns my stomach just thinking about it.
“Sounds like she’s got a stalker,” Fuzz says, and my heart drops.
