Counter To My Intelligence (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 7) (23 page)

I looked at my desk and the mountains of paper collecting dust on every available surface.

“I do my best, but I seriously need a secretary,” I told her, dropping down in my chair and punching the power button on my computer. “Why don’t you make yourself useful?”

She laughed, which was what I’d intended for her to do.

She hadn’t been the same since last night, which was why I’d kept her with me today.

Today was Sunday, so Zack’s office was closed, and she was off.

Which meant she would’ve been home all day stewing on things she couldn’t change, which was why she was here with me instead and not at home alone.

“I guess I could try to help you out,” she said as she came up behind me, threading her arms around my neck.

I patted her hand. “Gotta get this payroll done, then we can christen another office,” I teased.

She snorted and pressed her lips against my neck.

“Let me know when we can get to that,” she whispered.

I turned my face up towards hers as I guided her lips to mine by way of my hand in her ponytail.

“Be good, and I’ll see what I can do,” I told her.

She giggled against my lips, and I found that I quite liked that sound.

“I can do that,” she whispered. “I can be very,
very
good.”

Yes, she absolutely could.

Within the hour and a half I’d been working, she filed not just one of my paperwork piles, but all of them. She even started cleaning up my office when she was done.

And yes, we christened the office.

Twice.

What’s better than a man in uniform? A biker in leather.

- Fact of Life

Sawyer

The next morning dawned rainy, yet again.

I could really go for some sunshine right about now.

The clouds and rain paired with the blinds on Silas’ windows reminded me too much of being caged in…and Silas’ bad attitude wasn’t helping my mood.

“Hey,” Silas said, interrupting my thoughts. “Do you think you can do something for me?”

I blinked. “Sure, what?”

He handed me a letter.

“I have a brother in the Navy. He’s deployed right now. Do you think you can go get him these things, and a few extras, so we can send
a care package over to him?” Silas asked.

I nodded. “Sure. I was heading over to Target anyway.”

I’d of course heard him talking about the man in the Navy.

Sterling
, I think he’d said his name way.

He was a SEAL from what I’d heard through passing conversation.

“What else should I get him?” I asked. “And do you want me to go ahead and send it out today?”

He looked up distractedly from something he was reading.

It looked like a case file or something, but I’d learned not to butt into his business.

The last time I’d looked at one of his manila folders, I’d seen the gruesome carnage of a teenager that’d been hacked up with…something.

I didn’t want to know what was in those files, and I’d resigned myself to not even thinking about them.

I still wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was that he
did
for a living.

I knew he was a CIA operative at one point, but he didn’t really go anywhere aside from the firehouse, the Dixie Warden’s clubhouse, Halligans and Handcuffs and the Life Flight office.

“Get him some candy that won’t melt,” he offered.

“Silas?” I asked.

He looked up. “Yeah?”

His beautiful blue eyes were intoxicating.

“What is it that you do for a living?” I finally asked.

He grinned. “I’m a crime analyst. I freelance, which means I do it on my own, and I’m paid as a subcontractor for my expert opinions and analysis. I usually get my cases from the CIA and the FBI. I look for trends in criminal activity across the country, and I track them using the software program I developed. It’s a central source of criminal information for all branches of law enforcement. I track the details of crimes, so that when another similar crime occurs, we can determine if the similarities are just coincidences or the crime is actually related to other crimes. This is helpful to law enforcement in deciding if a crime is the work of a serial criminal, a copycat or an unrelated coincidence.

My mouth dropped open, and I could do nothing but stare at him.

“You’re shitting me.”

He shook his head. “No. What do you think I did?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t realize you did something so specific. But you always have these,” I said, indicating to the file folder with a long finger. “I guess I just thought you were still kind of in the CIA, but just didn’t get any calls.”

He grinned. “All you had to do was ask.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll remember that next time.”

Walking over to him after picking up my purse, I pressed my lips against his.

“I have to go see my parents after work today. I saw my mom leaving this morning when I went to get the paper. She’s pissed, I better head it off before it gets too complicated.”

He winked and pressed his lips against mine again.

“You know your mom and me…we never had anything. It was just two lonely people spending time with each other,” he told me, holding his big hand at the back of my head so I couldn’t back away.

I blinked. “Actually, no, I didn’t know that. I’ve wondered, though.”

He shook his head, and a smile ticked up the corner of his mouth. “There you go again. Darlin’, all you gotta do is
ask me
whatever it is that you wanna know.”

I shrugged. “Oops.”

Placing another kiss on my mouth, he gave me a slap on the ass and said, “Go on, before you’re late.”

I looked down at my watch.

Shit.

I was going to be late if I didn’t go now.

“Okay, I’ll call you around lunchtime to see if you want anything,” I said.

With one last kiss on the lips, I walked out the front door of Silas’ place.

I was taking Silas’ truck because he hated my car, so I bypassed mine and went straight to his pretty black Dodge Ram.

Not that I was complaining. I loved his truck.

And I loved that he wanted me safe, which was why I hadn’t driven my car in well over a week.

Hell, all of my stuff was even in his truck.

You know, those little things that everyone leaves in their vehicles?

Phone charger. Chap Stick.

Tampons.

I looked in my rearview mirror to see the familiar silhouette of a motorcycle behind me.

That wasn’t new.

I’d had them following me around for a while now, courtesy of Silas.

He thought that Shovel would try to come after me, and who was I to argue? I didn’t know the man, so I had to trust that Silas knew what he was talking about.

And deal with the fact that a man followed me everywhere I went twenty-four seven.

Turning my eyes back to the road, I swung the huge beast into Target’s parking lot and parked at the back of the lot.

I wasn’t used to parking this big boy yet.

My phone rang as I slid out of the truck, landing on my feet lightly.

“Hello?” I answered, pressing the lock button on the key fob as I started to walk towards the front of the building.

“Hey, I’m going to be late for lunch. I have a job interview,” Ruthie said excitedly.

I squealed. “How exciting! Where?”

“Halligans and Handcuffs,” she answered. “I’m pretty sure it’s a pity job given to me by your man, but I’ll take just about anything at this point.”

I laughed. “Trust me.
If Silas didn’t think you were qualified, you wouldn’t be getting the interview. He may like you, but he likes his businesses better.”

“Businesses?” Ruthie asked.

I nodded, coming to a stop at the side of the building so I didn’t have everyone and their brother listening to my conversation.

“Yeah, apparently he owns Halligans and Handcuffs, as well as Life Flight,” I told her. “Although I just figured it out a couple of days ago when he took me with him to the office and forced me to file paperwork while he did something on the computer.”

Ruthie laughed. “Forced you to file paperwork? I’m sure he did that.”

I laughed. “Okay, well I did it willingly. Regardless, I just found out about the place, though.”

“Well, you’ve only known him for like two months. What did you want to do, know his whole life story in that short of a time period?” She asked laughingly.

I sighed. “I gotta make a run for it into the Target. But I’ll call you back later today and let you know how the meeting with the parents went!”

Something I so wasn’t looking forward to.

At all.

“Later, chicka. Good luck,” she said.

I laughed as I pressed the ‘end call’ button and dumped the phone into my bag.

Making a mental list in my head of things I needed to get, I quickly started for the front door, stopping when I reached the very corner of the awning in the front.

Which was why I saw my dad, who hadn’t seen me.

He was with a woman…a woman that was not my mother.

And I couldn’t tell you why I stopped and listened to their conversation instead of saying hello like I usually would have.

Instead, I moved until I could just barely see my father’s back, but I could hear everything he was saying to the pretty blonde-haired woman in front of him.

“I’m sorry, Judy. I didn’t mean to string you along. I never would’ve done that intentionally. It’s just that my ex-wife and I decided to give it a second go, and I’ve wanted that since we’d divorced six years ago. I’m so sorry I hurt you,” my father said, touching the woman in front of him on the arm.

My heart sank.

“If you loved her, why’d you leave her?” This Judy chick hissed at my father.

I stopped behind the huge red pillar at the front of the Target and waited to hear his reply.

“After my daughter went to prison, my wife and I took a break. My wife decided that the break needed to be permanent when she and I had a difference of opinion where our daughter was concerned,” he admitted.

It all finally made sense.

Were my parents ever going to tell me this?

Or was I supposed to go on blissfully unaware?

Getting back to the truck wasn’t very hard.

I just pulled my hood high over my head, tucked my bag back into the crook of my arm and walked slowly back to Silas’ truck.

The moment I was inside, I pulled my phone out and called Silas.

He was the first one I thought to talk to, and that no longer made me nervous.

Because I loved Silas.

Even if he hid stuff from me.

“Did you know?” I asked, tears coursing down my cheeks.

“Know what, baby?” Silas asked worriedly.

“About my parents,” I answered.

“What about them?”

“That they were divorced,” I cried.

I could tell he paused in what he was doing. “Yeah, I knew.”

My eyes closed. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did I have to find out because I listened in on a conversation between my father and his ex-girlfriend in front of Target?”

He cleared his throat and said, “Because it’s not my job. They’re your parents, baby. It wasn’t my place.”

“God,” I breathed. “They divorced because of me.”

“They divorced because they were both hardheaded and wanted to divorce. Talk to them. I have no answers as to what they were thinking when they did that,” Silas said. “But if you talk to them, then you’ll get the answers you need. I’m sorry you found out that way, baby.”

Oh, I’d be getting answers all right.

A lot of them.

My gut was churning as I made my way up my parents’ front walk six hours later.

I looked longingly over my shoulder at Silas’ place, then waved at the man on the motorcycle that was parked under the tree across the yard.

He waved back, and I walked into my parent’s house without knocking.

I found my mother at the kitchen sink, and my father sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper.

They both turned in surprise when they saw me.

“Hey baby,” my mother said. “Are you hungry?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not.”

I hadn’t meant for my voice to sound so forlorn, but I couldn’t help it.

I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the fact that my parents had divorced.

“What’s wrong, baby?” My dad asked as he stood up.

I looked at my dad as he walked across the room towards me.

He was a big, burly man with a pot-belly that confirmed his love his of beer and cake.

But he was still so handsome with his brown hair and his honey brown eyes.

He had a killer smile that was still the same as the day he married my mom.

“I…I overheard you today at Target,” I said, eyes on him and his reaction.

He froze and looked over his shoulder at my mother.

Had he told her what he’d done?

That question was answered moments later when my mother said, “You saw him with Judy.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

She sighed and turned the water off, grabbing the towel beside the sink and drying her hands as she went to the table.

“Come sit,” she said, patting the seat. “Seems we have quite a bit to talk about.”

I could tell she wanted to talk about the whole Silas situation, too.

She’d been calling me since the night I’d found out about my prison sentence being for naught.

My brother had a big mouth and had probably told my mom the instant we’d left.

“How about we just get it all out on the table,” my father said without preamble. “Your mother and I divorced because we couldn’t get over the fact of how much we’d failed you. She wanted to keep fighting, but I forced her to stop the only way I knew how. By divorcing her.”

I blinked. “What?”

He nodded. “Without both of our incomes, she couldn’t keep it up, and she was forced to stop beating the dead horse.”

My mother’s eyes filled with tears.

My father’s head dropped. “We couldn’t afford anything else.”

I blinked. “I don’t understand.”

“Your mother and I always believed that you were innocent of the crime they’d accused you of, but we had no way to stop what was happening. We’d used our entire life savings, and all of the money in
our 401Ks. Every
penny we had, we used, and we just couldn’t do it anymore. It
was already a struggle before, but after that, with the lawyer’s fees, we couldn’t do it and stay afloat.” My father’s voice cracked
, “You’ll never know how truly horrible it was to do that to you…to your mother. But we just couldn’t do it anymore.”