Halligan To My Axe (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 2) (15 page)

“The landlord called and told me I could take the apartment directly across from yours if I was interested in a four-bedroom.” Adeline told me as we cooked dinner side by side that night.

I was stirring the vegetables for their stir-fry and broached the subject I’d been meaning to bring up for the past three days.

“If you don’t have a problem living with me, I want you here. I know it’s really soon, but it makes me happy having you around. Plus, my house will be ready soon, and if you really want, you can keep this apartment when I move back into my house.” I said hesitantly.

“You have a house?” She asked sharply.

I nodded. “I do. It’s on the lake, catty cornered to Sebastian’s. Our property lines butt up against each other, but where his is new and all, mine is old. I had to have the floors and plumbing replaced before I could move in, and that’s scheduled to take another two months.”

Adeline finished cutting the chicken into pieces and turned to regard me. “I’m told I’m not the easiest person to live with.”

I laughed. “Who told you that? Your dad or your sister?”

“Both,” she laughed.

“It can’t be too bad.”

“You’re gonna eat those words.” She laughed.

A firefighter lives here with the hottest flame of his life.

-To Kettle from Adeline

Kettle

I didn’t have to eat my words. I did have some adjusting to make, both good and bad. Overall, though, I quite enjoyed having Adeline around all the time. Much more than I’d expected to, anyway.

I hadn’t realized how much of a neat freak I was until I went into my bathroom one morning, a month later, to find Adeline’s bras, in every shape, color, and texture imaginable, hanging off every available surface in the bathroom.

I had to move three out of the shower itself, before I could get in to rinse myself. With cold water, seeing as Adeline had finished her shower about five minutes before, and could spend no less than an hour in the shower and still want more time.

Although, everything paled in comparison to when I woke up last night to Adeline’s snake slithering up the inside of my mother fucking leg.

At first, my sleep-fogged brain had thought it was Adeline’s hand, but then the temperature of whatever was crawling up my crotch and then further to my stomach, finally registered. I promptly freaked the fuck out.

I really wasn’t a fan of her snake.

The next day I’d immediately gone out and purchased a cage with a lock, because there was no way that was ever going to happen again.

Then there were the benefits of having Adeline here.

Like waking up in the middle of the night to Adeline curled around my body with her head tucked into the crease of my arm, or the space where my back met the mattress.

Then there was how my clothes were
always
washed and folded before I needed them. She made sure that my uniforms were hanging up and ironed as well, which was beyond worth the cost of bras hanging from my shower rod right there.

“Hey,” Adeline said as I stepped out onto the bathmat after my shower.

I looked up as I bent over to dry my legs with the towel, and had to smile at the glazed look that overcame her face.

She didn’t say another word until I stood from drying my back and wrapped the towel around my hips, covering my junk.

“I’m ready to go.” She said finally.

A grin tilted up one corner of my mouth as I started walking towards her.

She stayed where she was, leaning on the doorway, and raised up on her toes to get a kiss before I passed her to get dressed in my uniform.

“Are you ready to let me drive myself?” She asked in exasperation.

She’d gotten her car back from Reed the week after the fire, but it’d been sitting ever since. I’d told her about the threat from the two boys that were involved in the fire, but she didn’t see the big deal. She’d said that she got threats like that from the kids at the high school all day long, and if she took the threats seriously, she wouldn’t be able to live her life.

The high school boys at her school were small potatoes compared to the drug makers who’d gotten out on technicalities less than a week after they’d been jailed.

Although they hadn’t heard from the two boys, or the one that had lived there, since the day of the fire that had burned down both apartments, I had a niggling thought in the back of my head that was warning me not to relax.

“I know, Adeline. I just have this,” I said shrugging into my shirt. “Feeling that I shouldn’t let you drive to work by yourself. Then again, if you really want to, I’ll follow you, but that’s the only way you’re getting out of riding with me.”

The boys left Adeline alone while she was at school, but they always had someone there to follow her home, or to the grocery store if needed. If she wanted to go somewhere, they always had a prospect ready and willing to follow her.

And as much as she hated to have a tail, it made me worry about her less, which, in turn, made Adeline happy.

“How long is this going to go on?”

My fingers moved deftly on the buttons of my shirt, and then I started shoving the shirt down into the pants before buttoning and doing up the belt.

“I don’t know.”

I really didn’t. I was just worried about her, especially after what I’d learned last night from Silas.

I stewed on the call from Silas all the way to Adeline’s school, agonized over what bad shit Silas was going to throw at me next.

Silas had called late last night after she’d gone to bed and told me he’d found out some things that he needed to discuss this morning before I went to work.

So, after I drop Adeline off at work, I was running to the clubhouse before my shift started to speak with Silas and Sebastian.

I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

Then Adeline did something so cute, that it knocked me off my game for a few short moments, allowing me to smile despite the impending doom.

“Oh! Hey, hold on one second.” She said as soon as she got off the bike.

“Adeline, we’re both really late.” I groaned but stayed where I was.

Out of all things I’d expected her to do, dropping down on her haunches, ass to the back of her legs, and putting on eyeliner wasn’t one of them. Using the chrome plated overlay of the bike’s air filter, she deftly used the long stick and rimmed the edges of her eyes with black. Followed shortly by mascara on her lashes.

Then, she stood up, leaned in to give me a kiss, and walked quickly to the school building, smiling widely over her shoulder at me from the doorway before she disappeared inside with a tide of high school kids.

I should’ve known, though, that life was never nice to me, and never had been.

Good things had a way of going bad when it came to me, and I was about to be shown how.

“So let me get this straight,” I said while leaning forward. “Those two-bit criminals were bailed out by Adeline’s brother?”

Trance and Silas nodded in confirmation.

“Then what?” I asked.

“From what I can tell, they all left the station together and Mr. Sheffield drove them in a shiny new Hummer to a park where they had some sort of meeting. After that was over, the boys left with about twenty grand lining their pockets and took up a new residence in the old Umber House on the outskirts of Benton.” Silas said.

“Okay,” I said hesitantly. “What the hell is going on with the brother? Just a few months ago, he’d broken into Adeline’s apartment and then went to steal from Viddy. How’d he go from zero to hero so fast? What’d he do?”

Trance shrugged. “The brother, as far as we can guess, is the middle man. He finds the suppliers, gets them what they need, makes sure they get their shipment done in time, and then carries the cargo to the buyer.”

“Fuck,” I sighed and rubbed my face. “I don’t fucking understand.”

Trance stood and passed over a file, which I took warily out of his hand.

“A one Jefferson Samuel Sheffield, 27, was penniless up until about three and a half months ago. The day after you had me report the break in of Adeline’s apartment, a cool fifty grand was deposited into his account.” Trance explained.

“What about Adeline...where does she fit into this?” I finally worked up the nerve to ask.

Silas was shaking his head before I’d even finished the question. “We don’t know. Best case scenario is that this is all just a coincidence. Worst case, the brother used her as leverage to get what he wanted. We won’t know until we knock some heads together and shake it out of someone. If I had to guess, though, she’s in danger up to her pretty little eyeballs and doesn’t even know it.”

Before, Adeline just had three young kids pissed off that she’d called cops. Now I had no idea who was after her, and that was part of the problem.

And I had no clue what the hell to do.

Sebastian’s eyes were hard, totally in congruence with my own state.

My hands found their way into my hair, and I grimaced. “Jesus Christ, I’m lucky nothing’s happened to her yet.”

Silas nodded. “She’s going to need a lot more protection than what she has right now. You and I need to go visit the brother. Then the buyer so we can throw our weight around a bit. Let them know what they’re getting into if they go after her. It’d also be better if they know she’s an old lady of one of our men. The Dixie Wardens are four states strong. Right now, her being free of your patch just shows that she must not mean that much to you if you’re not willing to make her yours. With our colors protecting her, they’ll know we won’t take shit without retaliation.”

I’d already gotten that ball rolling over a month ago with Minnie.

Minnie was the wife of our secretary, Porter. Minnie had done nearly every cut and sewn every patch that covered member’s backs; mine included.

When I’d gone to Minnie and explained what I wanted, I knew it was going to be different, but she was extremely excited to get started. I’d never thought it would take as long as it had, but I knew she would make it perfectly, and I wouldn’t be disappointed.

“Minnie’s been on top of that for a month now. She’s been doing it in her spare time, and it’s...different. So it’s taking her longer than she’d originally intended.”

“Different?” Sebastian asked from his position at the other end of the table.

“She’s a teacher. She can’t really be seen wearing our colors like all the other old ladies wear them. I was worried they’d fire her, so I had Minnie do something a tad unorthodox. She sure as hell thought it was awesome though, so I don’t doubt that it was a good decision. She can wear it easily while she’s at school without drawing too much attention.”

“So does that mean you’re asking her to be your old lady soon?” Silas asked after a long pause.

I nodded in confirmation.

“Good,” Silas nodded. “Now, let’s plan for tomorrow at eight. Meet here, and we’ll drive over to Gustavo Amadeus’s house together after we visit the brother.”

So I had a name.

Gustavo Amadeus.

I was sure it wouldn’t be a pleasure to make his acquaintance.

“Ma’am,” I said through clenched teeth. “We need you to back off. This is not helping, and your daughter might die if you don’t give us some room!”

I hadn’t meant to yell, but the woman’s daughter wasn’t breathing, and I couldn’t do my job if the woman didn’t back the fuck off and let me work.

Sebastian was giving an infant mouth to mouth, while I worked on another child around the age of three.

Both of whom had been thrown from the car because this stupid woman ran a stop light and plowed into the car carrying them.

There had been two vehicles involved.

A sedan carrying two passengers; a woman and her teenage daughter, had run a red light and plowed into another car. The other car had been driven by a young mother who’d neglected to strap her children into proper car seat restraints.

They’d arrived on scene to find two cars in the middle of the intersection with a crowd gathered around the victims.

Then this woman, the woman who smelled of alcohol at eleven in the morning, wanted them to work on her daughter first, when the daughter only had a laceration above her right eye due to some flying debris in the car.

Probably a fucking liquor bottle.

The officers on scene were busy trying to control the traffic, since it was a major intersection, and didn’t notice the woman currently harassing me to ‘fix her baby.’

“But that baby is dead. No ‘mount of work gonna be done for her!” The woman yelled.

The young mother sitting on the curb by the ambulance heard, and of course had to come join the party.

“Motherfucker,” I breathed. “Ma’am, you need to go take a seat on the curb over by your daughter. We have more medics en-route. Please go.”

My temper was starting to fray.

“I’m not going anywhere.” She said as she stomped her foot.

Although inadvertent, when she stomped her foot, she kicked a cloud of dust and debris at my face and I snapped.

Moving quickly, I took the woman by the arm and shoved her bodily away before returning to my patient. I saw her fall out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t scrounge up the urge to care.

The young girl wasn’t dead, but she was severely close, and if we didn’t get the bleeding stopped, she’d bleed out before I could get her to the hospital.

“Morrison!” I bellowed. “Get this woman out of here.”

Morrison, a prospect with my club, obeyed immediately, running from the crime scene tape he was in the process of hanging to the woman who was still blinking stupidly at me for pushing her.

He ignored her and got to work.

“Clear!” Sebastian called from behind me. “Shocking in 3, 2, 1.”

I distinctly heard the automated voice from the AED speaking, but I was focused on my own patient.

Starting an IV and some fluids, I loaded the little girl onto the backboard and carried her to the back of the ambulance.

I loaded the patient onto the gurney and was relieved when I saw Sebastian loading his own patient into the medic right behind me.