Page 35 of Hero: Claimed

“See? You don’t want to hear it because you don’t want it to be true. Well, I don’t, either. Not for him or for you. But what do you think he was doing with that spoon and lighter? Heating soup one scoop at a time?”

“Don’t get smart, baby. No reason for that.”

“Smart? Seems one of us could stand to get smart—and clue in. I’m not talking about me,” she says snidely.

“He got shot a while back. The wound’s been paining him for a while because of nerve damage, but he wouldn’t be stupid enough to mess with the shit you’re talking about. The club’s got rules, Brin. He’d be out on his ass.”

“Which is why I never said anything in front of Duke or Caitlin. I thought maybe you could talk to him, to see if maybe he’s open to rehab. He’s a good guy at heart and I really like him.” Brin crosses her arms over her chest protectively, a posture that says she’s pissed at me and she has every right to be. I know about her dad. The guy has been a user her whole life. Instead of giving her a definite answer, I give her the pussy one. “Let me check it out first, yeah? Then, if need be, I’ll go to Duke.”

She’s not happy about it but answers, “Yeah."

Heavy clouds hang over the mountain. At the very least, we’re looking at some freezing rain because it’s cold as fuck today. I pick up Brinley’s hand from my lap to press it to my lips. She glances over at me, her irritation fading from her beautiful face.

“We’ll go to the store after work, bird. Don’t let me forget to pick up more pellets for the stove. Forecast says we’re looking at a major cold front moving into the area. Glad I got you on my bike before this shit rolled in.”

“I don’t like arguing with you,” she says and I wrinkle my brows at her. “I’ll like snuggling with you on the new sofa with the stove heating the house better, so I won’t let you forget.”

“They’re setting up the satellite today. Internet’ll be up today, too. Boys are gonna see it done while we’re at work. Keep a running list of what we’ll need to run the house. I’ve been living at the clubhouse for so long, I’ll forget until I find myself without it.”

Now that Brin and I are back to good, I use the rest of the drive to think about the stuff she said about Blaze. Blue and I are gonna have to keep an eye on him. I work first shift but Blue’s usually a float—scheduled to whatever shift they need him to fill. Between the two of us, we should pretty well have Blaze covered.

I park and run around to help Brin out of the truck. She sighs out her annoyance at having to wait for me to help her down when she can do it herself, but there’s a good drop and I don’t want her slipping or twisting an ankle on impact. Sue me. Plus, it gives me a chance to take her hand while walking her into the front office. Shedoesn’tget annoyed with that. Once we’re both clocked in, I drop a quick kiss to her smiling lips then take off for receiving.

The whole damn department is behind today thanks to yesterday’s mishap. I’m assuming one of the temps sent the Louisville order to Nashville and the Nashville order to Louisville. Talk about a mess. We didn’t know about the mix-up until the first load reached Nashville.

I lift the clipboard from the hook and start in, double-checking that the item numbers match with outgoing trucks heading to various locations around Kentucky and Tennessee.

Blaze shows up thirty minutes late.

“Where the fuck you been, brother?” I ask, reprimanding him.

“Got sick this mornin’. Food didn’t sit well. I’m good, though. Ready to work.” Hearing his words, I can’t help think about all Brinley said to me on the drive down.

“Were you sick yesterday?”

He shrugs. “Eh, you know… my leg pains me. Sometimes it gets me nauseous. We all got problems, though, right?”

“Take anything for it?”

“Got some stuff from Caity.”

Right. That had to have been what Brin saw. Blaze taking his meds from Caity. He smokes, so that was probably why he had the lighter. A misunderstanding. That’s all it was. She let her past with her asshole dad get in the way of what she really saw.

Blaze starts the lift to load boxes into the trailer and I leave him to it, watching him without letting him know I’m watching him just to make sure everything’s cool. The phone rings loudly in my office and I jog over to answer it, putting Blaze and his issues out of mind for the moment. It’s Sly.Sly? The brother works over at Duke’s towing company, why would he be calling me here, at work? Brinley’s here and I can’t think of anyone else that he’d call me about.

“Whatcha need, brother?” I ask when I answer.

“Was out on a tow this morning and saw what looked like aDevil’s Advocatecut driving an SUV down the dirt road up from where I was.”

“Devil’s Advocate? What the hell he doing in these parts? Long way from home.”

“Aren’t they in bed with the Pythons?”

Goddammit. I think they are. “See any others?”

“Sorry, I mean, he could be visiting kin for all we know, but keep an eye on your woman to be safe.”

“Brin doesn’t know, okay?”

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