His Property (Iron Bandits MC)

“Okay, babe, so he found you. Here. What did he do?”

“He was outside, yelling, calling me all kinds of names. You know. He knows about you, or…I mean, he knows I’m living here with you. He knows about Peter. I think he’s been watching us, watching the house. He knew you were gone today, he knew I was here alone with the baby. And he was livid. He said he was gonna take care of you, and then he’d take care of my baby, and then it’d be just me and him, the way it was meant to be.”

She was turning green, and looked about ready to puke. I shot a look at Grath, and he saw it, too. He called out to his partner, Stephan, “Water,” and took Ellie’s hand, pulling her toward the bathroom in the hallway. It took her a moment to see where he was leading her, and she shook her head and pulled out of his light grasp.

“No, it’s—I’m okay. I’ll be okay. I’m not going to lose it. I swear.”

“Okay, honey. But maybe you should sit down, yeah?”

“Yeah. Okay.” Grath and women, man. He never failed to connect easily.

She sat on the couch, took the proffered glass, and sipped gingerly. I took a seat right next to her, put my freer arm around her, and she leaned into me and Peter, burying her face between Peter’s chest and my own.

I could feel all the guys’ eyes on us, could sense some surprise in the room, but I had no time for that shit.

I put my nose in Ellie’s hair, and could feel calm finally come into my own body, smelling the coconut shampoo she favored and the sweet vanilla scent that drifted lightly around her. We formed a unit, the three of us, and having them both in my arms was a comfort I had never known before.

Eventually, I pulled back. “You’re okay, Ellie. He’s gone, right? You did right, made the right calls. You did great. He fucked up, tipped his hand, and now we know he’s out there. We’ll find him. And we’ll take care of it. I will make sure he does not get to you and Peter. I swear it.”

“You can’t say that. You can’t make that promise. You can’t be with me, with us, all the time. That’s not fair to you, and it’s not right. So don’t make that promise. I don’t accept it.”

I was about to argue with her, but she shook her head firmly and simply said, “Stop it. I mean it, Jack. Stop it.”

This woman. So fucking stubborn.

Still, the story lacked completion. I dug. “I still don’t have the whole picture, babe. What made him leave, if he was so ramped up to get to you today?”

“I screamed at him that I was calling the cops, that they’d be here any minute. He’s allergic to the concept—I think I told you that before, right? Cops freak him out. So, he’s yelling and muttering out there like the complete deranged psychopath that he is, and about a minute or two later he threw a rock through your bedroom window and took off. He must have figured I’d gone to the back of the house—I’m really sorry about your bedroom—God, I was so scared he’d made up some kind of a bomb, or that it was a grenade, or something. I heard the window crash, and just huddled in the bathtub for forever, waiting for some huge blast. Thank God it never came. They said it was just a rock. A big rock.”

Grath caught my eye again, and tipped his head toward my room, then walked in that direction. I kissed the top of Ellie’s head, did the same to Peter, and handed him off to her to cuddle on her own. When I got to my room, I found the window glass shattered all over the carpeting, and some shards had reached as far as the bed itself. What a huge pain in the ass that was gonna be to clean up, but at least neither Ellie nor Peter had been touched by it. That woman was smart. Awesomely smart. Thank Christ.

Grath reached behind me, to the top of my dresser cabinet, where a grapefruit-sized rock had been placed, probably by one of my club brothers. “I thought you should see this before she does. Not sure if you want to show it to her or not. It came with this wrapped around it.” And he handed me a dirty, wrinkled receipt. I turned it over, and read the note.

You made me do it once. I’ll do it again and again. For you. For us. Forever.

What in the hell did that mean?

Chapter 8

Ellie

When Jack and Grath returned to the living room, their faces were hard. I knew his bedroom was a mess. I felt guilty, even though I knew it wasn’t me who had thrown that damn rock. But there was glass all over, and it would take a massive effort to get it cleaned up. Beyond that, a new window wasn’t going to come cheaply, either.