Page 50 of Grave Games

“I can’t believe what a jerk Dubya is.” Shiloh looked disgusted while Zee did a quick fade toward the wrecker to give us some privacy. “My truck was trashed overnight, but he didn’t call me when he discovered it when he opened this morning. Can you believe it? That would have been the first thing I would’ve done if our roles had been reversed, but not Dubya. Oh, no. He tried to explain that he’s not in the habit of keeping phone numbers of people he’s fired, but that’s a bunch of bull. Even if he had deleted my number, he still could have called Heather to get my number. He just chose not to.”

Asshole. “Did he call the cops?”

She shook her head. “According to him, he didn’t want to get the diner involved ingang warfare. He was just going to call in a wrecker to clean up the mess, then stick me with the bill. Apparently he would have had no trouble getting in touch with me for that.”

I glared at the diner. Dubya needed to pray we never crossed paths again. “What a guy. Makes me wonder how he’s gotten this far in life without a spine.”

“Ask a jellyfish, I’m sure they’re related. And sticking me with a bill is one thing I’m worried about.” She nodded at the wrecker now hauling the suspended chassis of her truck onto the wrecker’s payload. “Either the repair bill on my truck is going to be through the roof, or my insurance company is going to call it a total loss, and that means I’ll need a new car. Again, a through-the-roof expense. I’m really watching my pennies as of now, so how much is it costing me to have my truck hauled away?”

“Nothing.”

“Romeo—”

“Baby, this was obviously a response to me beating the shit out of Marvel. That means it’s my bill to pay.” I had no problem coughing up the cash for this. Totally worth it.

“Obvious?” Her expression was pinched with tension, and for a moment she looked like the weight of the world was crushing her. “You sound like this was a well-thought-out message, and not some mindless violence against my truck because they couldn’t get their hands on me or my brother.”

“There’s no reason why it can’t be both.”

“Can they get their hands on my brother?” Clearly barely hearing me, she looked to me with such a stressed-out expression I wanted to tear the world apart. “I don’t even know where Josh is. After he left my apartment with you and Tyr, I don’t know where he went. Is he safe? Does he have any idea how dangerous things are for him right now? How do we know he’s not in trouble? How do we know he doesn’t need help, or that an ax has been taken to him?”

“Shy, take a breath, please.” Rage that she’d been made to feel fear surged through me so fiercely it was a wonder the whole parking lot didn’t shudder with it. I caught her up in my arms and held her close, trying to wrap myself around her so the world couldn’t get at her. “I’ve got your brother tucked away in one of our safe houses—a safe house so hidden that even Tyr doesn’t know where it is. He’s fine, trust me on this.”

“He needs to know about this.” Her voice was small but determined as she settled her cheek against my chest. The move was so vulnerable and so unlike Shiloh it made me hug her that much closer. “He needs to know how dangerous the world is for him and me. I mean, not that he’d care about how much danger I’m in, but he needs to know how serious things are so he can keep himself safe and alive.”

The rage grew to engulf her brother, and everyone else who’d let her down, including myself. “He knows, baby. Don’t worry about Josh. Just focus on yourself, yeah?”

“That fuck-everyone-else kind of attitude might work great in the biker badass world, but it’s not who I am. It never will be. Josh is my family, Romeo, so that means I care about what happens to him, even if that feeling isn’t mutual. His enemies took an ax to my truck because that’s what they wanted to do to him. For all we know, that’s already happened, and he’s lying in bloody pieces somewhere.”

“I’d bet my last dollar he’s doing better than you right now.” When she just shook her head in a hopeless kind of way, I cupped her chin to bring her gaze up to meet mine. “You know, I’m not sure how to take that comment about my fuck-everyone-else attitude, since I’ve never been that way, especially with you.”

“I didn’t mean you, specifically.Youare amazing. You take my breath away every time I turn around with how wonderful and protective you are. I guess I’m talking about the brotherhood only looking out for the brotherhood.”

“Generally speaking, that’s exactly what families do, so maybe try looking at my brothers like that—like family. And since I know how important family is, I can arrange a meet-up between you and your brother. Would that make you feel better?”

Relief poured into her eyes, giving me all the answer I needed. “Can you make that happen?”

“I can.”

“Oh my God, that would be amazing.” She offered a shaky smile before it almost immediately slid off her face. “But… wait.”

“What?”

“Let’s think this through. Would meeting up with Josh be a smart thing to do? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see him right now just to make sure he’s still breathing. But… I don’t want to put him in any more danger than he already is. Odds are good that Hades has eyes on me, especially now that they’ve ax-murdered my truck. They’ll want to see what kind of reaction I’ll have. They might even be waiting for me to go off to wherever Josh is. So if you take me anywhere near my brother, isn’t that just playing into their hands?”

Now she was thinking like a Gravedigger. “We’ll bring him to you, and we’ll do it under the cover of a church meeting that’s already planned for tomorrow. It won’t set off any alarm bells.” Or alert Hades’s mole, whoever the hell that was.

“A church meeting?”

“All the Gravediggers have to attend church—a meeting,” I explained, lifting a shoulder. “That’s where club business gets talked about and any problems get settled. After church, we usually blow off some steam by having ourselves a party, complete with the three Bs—bonfire, barbecue and beer. I’ll see if I can get you a face-to-face with your brother after church. Sound good?”

“Sounds great.” Watching the tension drain from her face was worth everything, before she snuggled back against me. “Thank you, Romeo.”

“Don’t thank me yet, because I’ve got some bad news for you.”

I felt more than heard the pause in her breathing. “What?”

“You can’t go home.” I cursed under my breath when she stiffened all over again. It was always one step forward, two steps backward with Shiloh, and I was getting fucking tired of it. “Hades made a point of setting your car insurance card—with your address on it—on top of your truck’s tires stacked up in the alley behind the diner. They’re sending a message.”

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