Page 26 of Grim

“It’s a tree!”

“That’s right, and I’m gonna need you to help me decorate it.”

He placed it in the corner of the room, and Luna hopped off the sofa and rushed over to check out what he’d bought. She was practically beaming as she looked at all the shiny ornaments. With Luna’s favorite movie playing in the background, they began putting the lights on the tree.

While Skid seemed like a good guy, I wasn’t sure I could trust him alone with Luna, so I kept a side-eye on them as I started working on the kitchen. It was quite the undertaking. On the surface, everything looked pretty good. Things were put away and seemed tidy, but the second I started wiping down the counters and cabinets, I realized the place hadn’t had a deep cleaning in months—maybe never.

It was going to take some time for me to get everything clean, but I was okay with that. I needed a distraction from the daunting feeling in the pit of my stomach, so I cleaned and cleaned some more. It was really starting to look good, especially with the little tree in the living room.

One day rolled into the next. We celebrated Christmas. Luna played with her gifts, and we watched movies. The down time was getting to me, so I asked Skid about all the boxes Grim had in the bedrooms. He assured me that it was okay to open them up and to put things where I thought they should go.

So, I did.

That was a mistake—a big, giant, terrible mistake.

Grim

It had been an absolute shit day.

We’d buried Beckett. It was brutal. I don’t even know how we got through it, but we did. Afterwards, the entire chapter went on a run in his honor, and then the girls and ol’ ladies made a big meal for the families. We spent the better part of the night celebrating his life.

At least, we tried to.

It was Christmas, and Prez buried a son and Memphis a brother. We all felt their pain—I felt theirs and my own. Beckett was a good kid with a lot of potential, and Prez had high hopes for him becoming a member of the club. That was all shot to shit when he decided to go over to Ruben’s place, and I was still riddled with guilt because of the part I played in his death.

That guilt led me to drink too much, so I stayed yet another night at the clubhouse. The following day, we had business to attend to, and by the time we were done, it was late. Once again, I decided to stay at the clubhouse. The next day, there was another reason and another. Before I knew it, I’d been there a week, and I’d only called to check in with Skid a handful of times.

I wasn’t exactly worried. I knew he could handle things, but I’d put my problem off on him and it was time to rectify that. I needed to get Jenna’s car to her, so I went to track down Ghost. The man was a brick house and was always eating, so I started in the kitchen. And just as I suspected, he was standing at the fridge, searching for something to eat.

“Need your help with something.”

“Sure thing.” With a chicken leg in hand, he turned to me and asked, “Whatcha need?”

“You to drive a car over to my place.”

“Okay. Sounds easy enough.”

He followed me out to the garage, and once I had the keys to Jenna’s car, I tossed them over to him and said, “It’s the blue Buick out back.”

“Do what?” He leaned to the side for a better look. “Damn. Whose clunker is that?”

“It’s not that bad. Just go easy on her and get her to my place in one piece.”

“Yeah, whatever you say, Boss.”

Begrudgingly, he did as I’d asked and followed me over to my place. Once I’d parked, I waited for Ghost to get out of Jenna’s car, and then we both headed for the front door.

Something felt off as I opened the door and stepped inside the house.

There was an unfamiliar scent of lavender and bleach in the air, and as I looked around, I was surprised to find that everything seemed oddly clean. There was even a Christmas tree in the corner of the living room.

I’d lived in that house for almost five years, and I’d never seen it look like this and I’d certainly never had a fucking tree. And for reasons I couldn’t explain, it infuriated me. “What the ever-loving hell?”

“Wow.” Ghost’s eyes were wide with surprise. “You finally fixed the place up.”

“I didn’t do shit.” A low growl slipped through my lips when I spotted Jenna standing in the corner. Her hands nervously wrung the edge of her shirt as she listened to me say, “What is all this?”

“I just cleaned up a little.”

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