Page 61 of Lulu

Laughter peeled from me. “Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” We both knew that he was going to follow me there anyway. “Just thought I’d let you know where I’m going in case you can’t keep up.”

He threw his head back and laughed, drawing my attention to the muscles working in his neck. “I’ll certainly try.”

I rolled my window back up and was about to take off when my phone rang. I opened my clutch to check it out. A quick glance at the screen revealed that it was Brody. I picked it up quickly. “Hello?”

“I don’t know any Bruce Willis, Hellcat. What the fuck did he look like?”

He was angry, and his sharp tone caused me to pull the phone away from my ear before it burst my eardrums. When it got quiet, I put it back to my ear. “Well, hello to you, too.” I was a little annoyed. “I sent that text yesterday. Nice you could finally get back to me,” I said with my own snark. “Which, for your information, I didn’t have to do.”

“I was out of town and had my phone off.” Translation--he was on a job and probably somewhere where he couldn’t talk. “Now tell me, what did he look like?”

I made atskingsound and decided to go ahead and pull out onto the road. “He was dressed like a tourist, cargo shorts, t-shirt, even had a baseball cap on. About five-nine, slender build.” He’d been nowhere near as big and muscular as Brody. “He had short brown hair and brown eyes. I did notice that he had a small scar at the corner of his mouth.”

“Was he American?”

“He looked American. I didn’t detect any accent.”

“Tell me exactly what he said.”

I told him what I could recall. “Do you think…” God, I didn’t even want to put it into words.

Brody apparently knew what my concern was. “Don’t fucking know, but the fact that he said we were friends when we aren’t, and that he was snooping around asking questions, doesn’t sound good.” He exhaled a frustrated breath. “I want you to go to LD’s clubhouse—”

“No.” I didn’t let him finish, because he was getting bossy with me and I didn’t do well with bossy. And then something occurred to me. “Are you the reason I have prospects following me around?”

He remained silent.

“Damn, you, Brody! I love my MC family, but I have a life outside the club now. I’ve spent a year working my ass off so I can have a little normalcy in my life, and that doesn’t include prospects tailing me or going on lockdown.” I was out of breath by the time I’d finished.

His growl came across the line loud and clear. “Does your normal life include hit men knocking on your door?”

Dammit!I knew that he could be right about this man. I’d had my own suspicions about who he was when I’d talked to him, but had later chalked it up to being paranoid and letting my imagination run wild. Sure, a few uncomfortable moments had passed between us, but…

“He said that he stopped by my house because it was close to yours.” That might have been true if he hadn’t lied about being Brody’s friend. “I’ll bet you’re not the only Brody Savage in the world.” Now I was just grasping at straws. Fuck, had I been that close to a killer?

“Goddammit, Lulu, listen to me! This is fucking serious!”

I was well aware. I probably shouldn’t have been driving in the moment, because the timbre of his overbearing tone was starting to piss me off.

“The fact this person went to your house tells me that he suspects a connection between us.”

I took calming breaths. “I understand that, Brody. That’s why I texted you. When I didn’t hear back from you, I figured it wasn’t important.”

He released a heavy exhale. “Fuck. I don’t like this, Hellcat. I don’t want you hurt.”

I could understand his worry.

“I don’t want to worry about you.”

“Then don’t. I’m just a piece of ass.” I hadn’t meant it to come out the way that it had, as if I didn’t like what we were doing, when I was the one who’d agreed to it. The silence that followed became uncomfortable.

I turned down the dry desert road that would take me to the clubhouse. It wasn’t long before a distant glow in the sky came into view, guiding me to the huge compound. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to come out that way,” I finally said. I came up to the gate and stopped next to the prospect who was manning it.

“Lookin’ hot, sweetheart.”

He waved me through, and I began to look for a parking spot. The place was packed. Crow was right behind me until he swerved off to where a sea of bikes was parked.

“Where the fuck are you,sweetheart?”