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Chapter Twenty-Three

Wyatt

Jumping in the Bronco, I slam the door behind me before leaning my head back and blowing out a breath as I scrub my hand over my face. My heart pounds hard in my chest and I focus on my breathing, trying to calm myself down but it’s not working. Church just let out and despite the fact that every single one of my brothers and I have been looking into these cases for the last three days, we have absolutely nothing and I feel like I’m going to lose my goddamn mind. Right after we discovered the photos, Blaze ordered us to look into every single person we’ve had contact with since Dina was killed two years ago, every single guy we’ve rescued someone from, every single P.I. client we’ve had and anyone else we could think of that might have a connection to the club but we still have nothing. We’re still in exactly the same spot I was and it’s killing me.

“Fuzz,” someone says from outside my window and I jerk up as my eyes fly open. Kodiak holds his hands up in surrender and I release a breath as I relax back into the seat. “Sorry, man. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

I shake my head. “What’s up?”

“Fuck,” he breathes, crossing his arms over his chest and dropping his eyes to the ground for a second before he meets my gaze. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry… about not believing you. I didn’t want it to be true and…”

“Forget it, man. I understand. You have no fucking idea how much I wish I had been wrong right about now.”

He nods as he runs a hand through his hair. “With Tate pregnant, all I can think about is the worst case scenarios…”

“Kodiak, if anyone can protect themselves, it’s Tate,” I tell him with a smile I don’t quite feel and he nods, giving me a faux chuckle.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Silence descends over us, awkward and tense, as we both struggle with something else to say but there is nothing. This situation… it’s uncharted territory for us and with almost all of us in serious relationships with the women we love, we all have a hell of a lot to lose. A memory of Piper telling me to lean on her, too, pops into my mind and I sigh. She’s right. This mess we’ve found ourselves in sucks and there is nothing we can do about that but we can lean on each other, be the family that we’re supposed to be.

“Hey, why don’t we plan like a big family dinner or something?”

He arches a brow. “You really think it’s the best time for that?”

“It’s like Blaze said,” I answer with a nods. “We need to be solid and we need to lean on each other to get through this.”

Studying me for a second, he nods and reaches in the window to slap me on the shoulder. “Okay. I’ll go talk to Blaze about it.”

“Sounds good. I’ve got to go get Piper from work.”

Taking a step back from the truck, he nods and I start the truck before pulling out of my parking space. As I pull out of the lot, I see him walking back to the clubhouse and I nod to myself. It will be good to get everyone together and maybe even laugh a little bit. Right now, we are all broken off into our little couples and families, silently losing our shit over what is coming. The feeling is so strong now that I can feel it in every fiber of my being, like the deadly calm just before a massive tornado strikes. Whoever this guy is, he is coming to get whatever twisted sense of revenge he thinks he is owed and we need to be ready for it.

The night of the break-in, Piper and I laid in bed talking until three in the morning. I told her all about each of the cases and explained the timeline to her, trying to make her understand how dangerous this guy is but that is not what happened. Instead, when confronted with all the evidence, she pointed out that this guy has been playing a long game since the beginning, slowly torturing us for maximum effect and she doesn’t think he’ll change tactics now. When I started to argue with her, she said it would make even more sense for him to go dark now that we know about him because we will all be going crazy.

As much as I didn’t want to admit that she was right, it makes fucking sense. With no new crimes, we have no new evidence to look into, and we’ve clearly gotten no where with what we have now and all of us are feeling the tension. If it goes on much longer, we’ll all start losing it. She also pointed out that he’s never gone after an old lady and it would be a big escalation but I can’t afford to let my guard down where she is concerned. Just because he’s never gone after anyone close to us doesn’t mean he won’t and she needs to keep her guard up until we find this son of a bitch.

I glance behind the passenger seat where the new pistol I bought Piper is sitting. It was a spur of the moment, reacting to the crazy kind of decision and I have no idea how she will feel about it but I’m going to teach her everything I can about the weapon and teach her to shoot it so that I feel a little bit better. If Tate wasn’t pregnant right now, I might even ask her to teach Piper some self-defense moves but there is no way in hell Kodiak would be okay with that. Although, I’m certain if I asked Tate first, she would tell him to suck it up. That girl doesn’t like anyone telling her what to do but I can’t do that to Kodiak, especially now that we’re on good terms.

As I get closer to Piper’s studio, I sigh. My stomach twists and my throat feels tight as I think about her and Eden there all alone. It’s so dangerous and anything could happen despite what Piper thinks. On top of everything else, I am really worried about how she is handling all of this and I hate myself for bringing this down on her shoulders when she is already dealing with so much internally. I’ve thought of every single possibility - hiding her away somewhere, telling her to leave me, following her everywhere she goes - but none of them are ideal. This guy has obviously been watching us for a while so he already knows about Piper which means either one of the first two options will put her in even more danger and she might kill me if I try to be her personal bodyguard. I need to do something, though.

Pulling up in front of the studio, I see Piper in the doorway, waving to a cute little family of three as they get into their car and for the first time since I dropped her off this morning, I feel like I can breathe again. Her gaze flicks in my direction as I get out of the Bronco and she smiles, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the door frame. I flash her a smile but it feels forced.

“Hey, baby.”

She smiles as I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close, needing to feel her in my arms. Pressing her forehead to mine, she releases a breath and I feel a little bit of the tension slip out of my body.

“Hi,” she whispers, stealing a quick kiss. “I missed you.”

I shake my head. “I missed you way more, baby. You done for the night?”

“Yeah. Eden’s still here, though.”

As soon as the words leave her mouth, Eden walks into the front of the studio and when she sees me, she narrows her eyes and props her hands on her hips.

“Hey, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”

“What?” I growl, not in the mood to deal with Eden and her attitude. After her little scheme to get us back together, she rubs me the wrong way and I get the sense that she’s jealous of the time Piper spends with me. I mean, it makes sense. Before I came back into her life, Piper spent a large amount of her time with Eden and Lillian so it will take some adjusting on her part but I really hope, for Piper’s sake, she and I can work through our differences.