Page 21 of Bombshell

Glancing down at my phone, I saw the call I had missed was from Pepper. Dammit. I glanced at the time, and it was still an hour before Dolly got off work. This couldn’t be about her. If it was, then Ringer, the prospect I had watching the library today, would have called me.

I hit Pepper’s number and held the phone to my ear while making my way out back to where I had parked my bike.

“Canyon waltzed his ass into my bar twenty minutes ago,” Pepper said angrily into the phone.

“What did he say? Did he touch you? Why the fuck was the door unlocked?!” I threw my leg over my cruiser.

“He wanted to talk to me about Dolly! And, no, he didn’t touch me. I had my Glock pointed at his head the entire time. Do I look stupid to you? And it was unlocked because I was waiting on a delivery.”

Fuck!

“Were you alone?”

“No. Anson was here, working on the flooring for the stage,” she said in a huff.

“Did he pull a gun on the fucker?” I asked, knowing that no matter how much I liked the prospect, if he hadn’t handled shit for my sister, he was out. There would be no Judgment patch for him.

“YES! He threatened him and everyone he knows. That is not the point. He said…things. He sounded sincere, too, and that is what worries me. I believe him, but it doesn’t make it okay. It actually makes this worse.”

“What did he fucking say, Pep?”

She sighed heavily into the phone. “That he is working on getting you the money for the guns he took. He…he apologized to me. And, well, he…I think he has feelings for Dolly. I don’t think he wanted to, but he was around her, and Dolly has that effect on people. She’s hard not to love. I think she got to him, Micah. And he seemed real upset about how things went down with her at the bar yesterday. He had dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept. I just—”

“Bullshit. Don’t be naive. He’s trying to save his ass. The family being in our corner has him running scared. Lock your damn door. Keep Anson there with you until you leave. I’m heading to pick up Dolly.”

There was a pause.

“Okay,” she finally replied.

I ended the call and shoved the phone into my back pocket. I wasn’t sure what I was more pissed about. The fact that the motherfucker had had the audacity to walk into my sister’s bar or that he had claimed he had feelings and shit for Dolly. He was a criminal. A fucking liar. I had no doubt that Dolly could draw his attention. She had that thing about her that grabbed a man’s attention and made him want to own her. But that wasn’t what Canyon was after.

I headed to the library to let Ringer know I needed him to take Dolly home and to stay outside her door until I could get there. I needed to handle something first.

11

Dolly

I normally spent Saturdays at home—cleaning, doing laundry, homework—or sometimes I’d visit my momma. Filling in for Zander at work today had thrown me off my schedule. However, seeing as I no longer had a boyfriend, my night was free, except for helping Jeremy with his art project.

I put the homemade pizza in the oven while Jeremy set up all his supplies on the kitchen table.

“How many of those guys like that do you know?” Jeremy asked me.

Ringer was camped outside my door and refused to come inside. It seemed Micah had ordered him not to come in my apartment. I thought that sounded unfair to him, but Ringer seemed fine with the situation. Micah’s orders sounded silly to me. I intended to make sure to take Ringer some pizza when it was finished, as well as take some to Harold. He loved my pizza, but then again, he loved any food given to him.

“Not many,” I replied. “Micah thinks I need some protection right now. It’s a long story and not important.”

Jeremy’s brows furrowed in a frown. “Seems important.”

Smiling brightly, I walked over to the table. “Well, it ain’t. Now, let’s get started,” I said, hoping he would drop the subject.

“Is it about that other guy who was coming by here a lot?” he asked.

I paused and glanced at him. I’d never introduced him to Canyon, but it didn’t surprise me that Jeremy had noticed him coming by.

“It’s really not important. We need to get started on this project. If we start gluing now, it can dry while we eat,” I said with a smile.

He didn’t seem happy about my response, but he nodded, and we began putting the pieces he had already cut out together. While I held them in place, he glued them. I asked about his classes and the girl he had mentioned who was new this year. After a little prodding, he began chatting away, seeming to forget about the biker standing guard outside my apartment.

---