Page 44 of Sheltered
“That’s good. On the bright side, at least they were all safe inside when this happened, and nobody was hurt,” I reasoned.
“Yeah. Well, as well as they all seem to be doing, I’m the one that’s a mess,” he revealed. “I went through this shit once where I was worried about something bad happening to her. I know this stuff happens, but what are the chances she has this bad stuff happening to her twice?”
Perhaps it was time to share what was going through my head. “You know, Royce, I might be out of line here, but I don’t like this at all.”
He narrowed his eyes, clearly trying to work out where I was headed with this. “What are you talking about?”
Never would I have thought a conversation I’d had with Harlow would ever pop into my head at a moment like this and offer some clarity on the situation, but here I was. I swallowed hard, thinking for just a minute longer about the words Harlow had said to me. An overwhelming sense of unease rippled through me.
“I’ve started seeing someone,” I finally shared, taking Royce by surprise.
“Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I met her a couple of weeks ago, and it’s getting pretty serious for the both of us. I took her out to the drive-in theater the week after the fire at Hanna’s place, and we wound up talking about what happened there and at The Steel Pub. At the time, I didn’t think anything about it, but something Harlow said to me that night is hitting me full force now.”
Royce’s surprise had turned to curiosity and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Alarm, maybe? “As much as I know I need to hear whatever it is you’re going to share with me, I get this feeling I’m not going to like what you have to say.”
I shook my head and offered an apologetic look. “After sharing the details of both situations with her, Harlow had mentioned how she was just glad to hear that the people I knew in both situations, referring to Sawyer and Hanna, were okay. There’s been a third incident by people we believe might be the same suspects in every situation, and we’ve got Tarryn in the mix now.”
Realization dawned on Royce’s features. “It’s us. There’s nothing else that seems to connect these things.”
Nodding again, I reasoned, “We might want to get the whole team in on this so everyone is aware of what’s going on. I think it’s important in all scenarios, but critical in the cases where there’s a business to be attacked. We’ve got Mallory at Grant’s Deli, and she’s pregnant.”
“Fuck, Nixon is going to lose his mind,” Royce clipped.
I didn’t doubt that for one second and noted, “Brix might, too, because Liv’s also pregnant. On the bright side, at least she and Avalon are with us in the office. I’m not suggesting Jax shouldn’t keep an eye on Sophie, Jagger shouldn’t be diligent about keeping Lily safe, or that any other man who’s got a woman shouldn’t be doing whatever is necessary to keep them safe. For now, it seems like they’re sticking to the businesses. My hope is that it stays that way while we try to figure this out.”
Frustration washed over Royce’s face. “Now we’ve got to figure out who the hell has a problem with us.”
“Yeah. Got any ideas on where I can start when I get back to the office?”
“Telling you to start at the beginning feels foolish and unreasonable, considering how many years we’ve been around. We could have pissed off a lot of people in that time,” he said.
“Maybe we start with more recent cases,” I suggested. “I don’t think it’s likely that someone we had an issue with five years ago is going to be attempting to settle a grudge now. It’s possible, but I think something recent is more likely.”
He dipped his chin in agreement. “That sounds like a plan. Why don’t you head back to the office while I bring the officers up to speed? After I do that and talk to Tarryn, I’ll meet you there.”
“Are you going to grab those doughnuts she wants to send?” I asked.
His lips twitched. “You better do that, or she’ll be pissed I told you to go back without letting you take them.”
I laughed and didn’t waste any time. After stopping in the shop to grab the doughnuts Tarryn wanted to send with me to office, I hopped back in my truck and made my way back to work.
And on the way there, I found my thoughts drifting back to Harlow.
Only this time, I wasn’t so lucky to be thinking about all the wonderful moments I’d shared with her over the last several weeks. Instead, I was stuck wondering how she’d handle it if she knew that it was likely the businesses of the women connected to the men who worked at Harper Security Ops were being targeted.
If I was honest with myself, the thoughts I had were more about the way I felt, thinking that she might not want to be with me if she thought her business was in danger. It was overwhelming to think I could lose her because of this.
But I couldn’t keep it from her, either.
I wanted to believe she wouldn’t have anything to worry about since not even my own co-workers knew she was in my life, but I cared too much for her to take any chances.
So, after I put in a long day at work and attempted to come up with a list of names of people who could have it out for us, I needed to go to her and share the truth.
I could only hope it wouldn’t be the last time I saw her.
THIRTEEN