While I tried to watch the chaos outside through the frosted glass beside my front door, I couldn’t see much. I knew I needed to call the police, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I knew way too much about club business anyway. And I knew that if they wanted to evade the police, they would. Calling them would only put a target on my back, and the last thing I needed was to be a woman living alone with a target drawn across her forehead.
But one by one, I heard groans of pain.
I didn’t hear too many gunshots, though there were some after that man dashed out of my townhouse. There was another sound I couldn’t place, though. It almost sounded like a whooshing sound. Like something rushing by or whatever. It didn’t make sense, though.
What kind of gun made that sound?
I listened as a motorcycle off in the distance grew closer. Were there more Black Flags coming? Were they going to come take me away? I’d heard horror stories over the years of people running into those idiots at the wrong time. I’d heard of their disgusting dealings with women and drugs from Gage all those years ago. It was one of the many reasons why he wanted me to be able to protect myself.
Because while he wanted to be with me twenty-four-seven to protect me, he knew he couldn’t always be there.
And whenever he was gone, I was essentially a sitting duck.
Still, everything happened so quickly that I almost didn’t register it. There were gunshots, then that whooshing sound a few times, then that motorcycle sound. I didn’t know who came and went, but when I heard three distinct bikes rev their engines, I knew those men were about to get the hell out of dodge. I backtracked into my place and retrieved a pistol. I placed the other one back into the hutch before going back to my front door. And as I stood there with my hand on the doorknob, I braced myself to shoot whoever decided to come barreling through my front door next.
I drew in deep breaths through my nose to steady my breathing. It was a technique that Brooks taught me, actually. He said whenever he felt nervous or unsteady, three deep breaths in through his nose always helped to settle his nerves. I watched my trembling hand as it gripped the pistol and I drew in one massive breath.
And after I let it out, I drew in another one.
And another one.
And yet another one, just for good measure.
I watched as my hand slowly stopped trembling. I watched as the tremor ceased to exist as my heart wound down its frantic beating. I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, bracing myself for what came next. Because surely, my neighbors had already called the police.
Except, that wasn’t the next sound. The next sound that hit my ears wasn’t police sirens or squealing tires or an ambulance honking its horn in traffic.
Oh, no. The next sound that hit my ears was a familiar sound. A sound I had heard when those Black Flag jackoffs came to my door.
Only, the cadence of the knocks struck me as familiar.
Boom, boom! Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
The “knock knocks” continued as my eyes widened. No, it couldn’t be. That wasn’t possible, right? I mean he had only just gotten out of prison today, according to his letter. Why the hell would his first stop be my place?
Open the damn door, you idiot.
“Raven?” he said. “It’s me; Brooks. Are you all right?”
I held my breath as I moved toward the frosted glass. I tried to peer outside to see if it really was him, though I knew simply by the sound of his voice that it was. No one could mimic a voice that well. Except for Gage.
Gage had been a fantastic mimicker.
That familiar knock came again, and I knew it was him. My gut was finally convinced. Those two big booms before the fluttering of knocks sounded exactly like the first time around, and I reached for the door handle. My heart stalled in my chest and blood rushed heavily through my ears. My hand quivered as I gripped the chrome handle. I swallowed hard and drew in a deep breath to try and settle my confused mind.
Then, I turned the doorknob.
But I couldn’t bring myself to open it.
Brooks sighed. “Raven, I swear it’s me. Can you please just open up so I know you’re all right?”
I pulled the door away from its latch, but I stayed behind it. I had no idea what in the world made me so frightened of this man, but I couldn’t bring myself to come around the door just yet. I still didn’t hear police sirens in the distance and that struck me as odd, but the smell of Brooks’ musk wafted beneath my nostrils.
Reminding me of every time I stole a glance at him before Gage and I started dating.
“Did he hurt you?” Brooks asked.
I finally found the courage to speak. “No.”
“Are you hurt? Or bleeding?”
I cleared my throat. “No.”
“Did he—I mean did he try to…”
I opened the door a bit more as the meaning of his words dawned on me. “He didn’t have me pinned down for long before I flipped him over. Knocked the wind right out of him.”
I heard his grin through his words. “‘Atta, girl.”
I sniffled as tears rushed my eyes. “What are you doing here, Michael?”
I knew he didn’t like people calling him by his first name, but never once had he corrected me on it. I wasn’t sure why, seeing as when anyone else called him that he practically threatened them with death, Gage included. But I liked his first name.
I always wondered why he didn’t.
Brooks’ shadow loomed in the crack of my doorway. “I’m checking up on you, and I’m glad I did. Any idea why those idiots were here?”
I couldn’t contain the tears that slipped down my cheeks and I sniffled again. But when I sniffled that time, I felt a soft pressure against the door. My weakening hand fell away from the doorknob and I pressed my back against the wall, watching as the door softly swung toward me.
And when Brooks stepped into my place for the first time in all these years, tears streaked my cheeks.
“Hey there, beautiful,” he murmured.
My heart shattered at the words and I couldn’t contain myself any longer. The pistol dropped from my hand and I launched myself at him, wrapping my trembling arms around his neck. He cloaked my back with his arms, scooping me close before kicking my front door closed. And as he walked me back into my living room, he settled me onto the couch.
Before sitting on the floor next to my head.
“Why in the world would you come back here?” I whispered.
He brushed away a tear sliding down my neck. “We can talk about that later. Right now, I want to know what they did to make you so upset.”
My lower lip quivered. “I’m not hurt, I promise.”
“Maybe not physically, but that’s only a fourth of the body’s actual needs.”
I snickered. “You’re really something, you know that?”
I turned my head to face him and found him grinning at me. “Trust me, I know.”
I rolled my eyes. “I see you’re still as pompous as ever.”
He stood from the floor and sat down at the end of the couch just beyond my feet. “I won’t ask you again. What did that man say to you? What has you so upset?”
His worry over me caused butterflies to explode in my gut. It had been a very long time since a handsome man had worried over me like this, and I missed it greatly.
But guilt quickly replaced the butterflies and I swallowed the knot in my throat.
“They were just here trying to get a rise out of me, I think. Said they came to pay their respects to Gage, then they—”
Then, I heard it. Police sirens wailed in the distance. I quickly sat up off the couch and threw my legs over the edge, standing straight onto my feet. I turned toward the front door, and I felt more vulnerable and more exposed than ever before.
“Come on,” Brooks said as he gripped my arm, “we have to go.”
The butterflies in my gut dissipated completely. “I don’t need to leave my own home, but you do. You have to get out of here before they get here.”
He turned me around and gazed into my eyes. “Then explain to me why you had Black Flag members on my doorstep.”
“I’m telling you, it’s—”
He pulled me closer to his body. “You can tell me or the cops. But if you’re going to tell me, we have to go. Now.”
I ground my teeth. “I can handle it, Brooks. I don’t need your help.”
He released my arm. “Gage always kept you out of things, and he’d kill me himself if I allowed you to get dragged back into this shit now. Now tell me, what the fuck did that man do—or say—to you to make you so fucking upset?”
The police sirens were steadily approaching, and I knew our window was about to be lost. “Fine, okay. I’m coming with you. But only temporarily. Got it?”
He took my hand as he nodded. “That’s good with me.”
He tugged me out the front door and I managed to grab my pistol and my purse in the process. I closed my front door, just barely as he pulled me along, then we both jogged for his bike. I threw my leg over the back of it and for a split second, I felt Brooks staring at me.
So, I looked up into his eyes and smacked his arm. “You coming or what?”
He blinked rapidly. “Sorry, yes.”
He hopped onto his bike and cranked up the engine, and the rumbling beneath my ass made me feel at home again. I slid my arms around his waist and clung to his jacket, just like I used to do with Gage.
“Is there a back way out of this place?” Brooks asked.
I pointed toward the corner of the parking lot. “It’s a walking trail, but it dumps out onto the other side of the road. Take that.”
As police tires squealed into the complex, we blazed a trail for the dirt pathway. He hopped the curb and I clung to him, trying desperately not to fall off. The bumps of the rocks and the twigs we rushed over almost threw me off the bike a few times. But after traveling for a little over a mile, we soared through traffic and got ourselves going in the right direction.
Right toward the clubhouse I hadn’t been to in five fucking years.
