Page 35 of Unveiled Wounds

The tears fell faster, and he nodded at her. She continued, “Whatever is going on isn’t you. We know something bad happened, but your stubborn ass isn’t alone. You just have to let us in.”

My emotions shattered, and opening up now would only worsen the situation.

“I’m sorry. This was rude of me. I’m Stella, Meredith’s best friend.” Her voice broke as she tried to laugh, but I wondered if she was crying, too. I wanted to grab my phone, reach through it and hug her.

“Gabe,” Dead introduced himself.

I knew a few of the brother’s first names, but mostly, they kept their past lives private. Their identities were in their road names, so to hear Dead introduce himself as Gabe threw me for a loop. The tears were still streaming down my face, and my nose crinkled, forcing the snot out.

“It was very nice to meet you, Gabe. Please tell Meredith that if she doesn’t start responding in the group chat, we’re coming to knock some sense into her.”

Dead laughed. I didn’t even know he could. “Give her a couple of days, and if she doesn’t answer you, call me.” He gave her his phone number. “There’s some stuff going down, and I better not catch you at the gates, Curly Q, until you have permission.”

Hell would freeze over before “Gabe” claimed my best friend.

“Alright, but she can’t avoid me forever. Love you, Mer.”

I waited until he dropped my phone back onto the couch between us.

“No,” I emphatically said.

“What?” He shrugged, pretending to be innocent.

“You know what.” I wasn’t playing these games, especially with him. He’d been flirting with my best friend, and I didn’t like any of it. I didn’t stop to analyze what my problems were with it, but I maintained my resting bitch face.

“What is she? A teacher? She was sitting at a desk, and there was an alphabet border on the wall.”

“She might have been sitting in her office. Stella’s a director at a daycare, and sometimes she calls on her last break before school lets out. She loves babies.”

“You can stop mean-mugging me.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the couch. “She’s too good for the likes of me. You have nothing to worry about.”

I crossed my arms and legs, before mirroring Dead’s position. The TV droned on about chimpanzees, but neither one of us was watching. I felt emotionally drained, and it wasn’t even four in the afternoon.

Chapter 15

Touching Grass

Grizz

We needed to recruit, but that wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have with Sabre. We’d always seen the big picture the same way, even if we hadn’t agreed on the path forward, but it was too dangerous right now to let the outside in. Recruiting came with its own challenges, and Pulse had proven that we couldn’t trust anyone, but the club bonds were being stretched too thin.

I was the one everyone called to fix something, but if the club businesses kept growing, I was going to need help. Normally, it wasn’t a problem, but I couldn’t be in two places at once. I’d changed out the lightbulbs in the stage at the tit show, rehung a bathroom door in the diner, and now, I was in the new garage Count had just bought, trying to figure out how best to hang cabinets, and it wasn’t even noon.

“I thought you said it was move-in ready, Count.” Grease made a circle in the middle of the garage, staring at the blank walls. “This is literally a garage, not an auto body shop.”

“No, I said, I got a good deal on it. We wouldn’t need to buy anything else for at least two years, and I already have a plan for that. The owner wasn’t excited about selling to an MC, so I told him if he sold us this one, in a few years, we’d buy the rest. He’d be able to sleep better at night knowing that we weren’t doing nefarious things.” Count’s spike’s shook.

“Is this a handshake deal?” I asked.

“Fuck no. I’m insulted.” Count pouted. “How could you think so little of me, Grizz? Damn. I can’t spend money without a club vote, and I made sure it’s in the paperwork Emily drew up. In two years, we get a crack at the rest of the land. Unless things get crazy, we’ll be okay until we can remove the soccer mom shop from the restorations.”

“What if things get crazy?” I pushed the issue. I shouldn’t have doubted Count, but standing in the empty garage made me rethink his sanity. The club’s vote was to buy Grease a bigger garage, but we had failed to implement checks for efficient spending. Count had never been wrong before, but this place was going to take a lot of work and funds.

“Show me the money.” Count’s blue spikes shook again at the thought as he rubbed his palms together.

“You’re sick, man.” Grease covered his face with his hand, laughing behind the mask.

“There are only two things that make me hard,” Count said, holding up a finger. “One, money. I could wrap it around my dick and die a happy man.” He raised a second finger. “Two, my woman.”

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