Page 49 of Griz's Edge

“How do you know it was Deets stalking your wife?” Nines asks, brows drawn together.

“Deets didn’t hide the fact he wanted Anna for himself. Didn’t hide his hatred of me. More than once, he tried to use his position against me. Being in the military helped keep him off my case, but it didn’t stop him from harassing Anna every chance he got. The fact he didn’t hide his stalking only caused the problems to escalate. I had to ship out to my new station, and I took Anna with me. We got married and rarely came back here. It’s best to keep Deets from seeing my wife and the possibility of him picking up where he started.”

“That’s why you didn’t want me to move here and wanted Grandma to leave this place,” Marley notes. “Why not move on, and if he causes problems, take him on? It’s not like you don’t have your own firepower behind you now.”

“Trust me, Lee-Lee, there’s been plenty of times I thought about coming here and doing just that.”

“I wouldn’t let him,” Anna, Marley’s mom, speaks up, curling herself all the closer to her husband’s side.

It’s strange to me that she not only knew my parents—especially my mom.

I remember my mom, not as much now as I have over the years, I have the memories, but there are certain things I can’t recall anymore. It’s those times I end up at my dad’s, he and I’d talk about her. Hell, every year since I was ten, Dad and I’ve always gone on her birthday to her grave, where we’d lay flowers, release a balloon for her, and watch it float to the sky. Some people would think it’s something that we shouldn’t do, but it’s our thing.

“You think because of the explosion it’s Deets that’s trying to get to me now?”

“I didn’t believe it. Detective Deets knew who I was because of all the times I’ve been at the station, but he’s not acted one way or the other toward me. More than that, he doesn’t give me the vibes I usually pick up from those who are creepy, icky, straight-up bad guys, or those who hide the fact they’re bad people. It just doesn’t add up to me. There’s no way Deets could be the one behind this now,” Marley rambles quietly, like she’s talking to herself. “I seriously need to get on a computer and start looking more into this.”

“We need to go look at the car. That will be what tells me if it’s Deets or not,” Michael remarks, having heard his daughter, though he seems to be ignoring what she’s said. That or he might not have actually fully heard her, considering she did speak quietly.

“We’ll go take a look at the car,” I tell him and look directly at Marley. “You want to find Keys, I’m sure he’ll let you help him.”

Marley’s head tilts back, eyes coming to mine. “That would be great.”

“Then go find him, sweets,” I murmur and lower my head to touch her lips. I keep it brief. I don’t have the time to kiss her the way I want.

“Marley shouldn’t be looking into any of this,” I hear Marla gripe.

“Marla, that’s enough,” Anna snaps. “Your sister does this for a living. I love you, but Griz is right, you need to stop with the attitude.”

“Mom, if she hadn’t brought all this up and moved here, none of this would be happening right now. She might not have gone and gotten her car blown up.”

“Marla,” Michael gets there before I do, his tone harsh and terse. “Knock it the fuck off.”

That’s not what I’d have said to her, but it seems to work. If she keeps this shit up, I’m going to lose my shit on her, and it won’t be pleasant.

“You know, Marla, I’m getting really sick of your judgmental attitude. Get over yourself. I do what I love doing while you do what you do. You don’t, then I guess it’s time you and me, go our separate ways.” Marley doesn’t wait for anyone else to say anything. Instead, she stomps away, heading in the direction she’d seen Keys go. I’m sure she’ll find my brother soon enough.

I shoot a glare at Marla, not even going there. Marley would be pissed at me if I said further about where the fuck Marla can go with her bitchy attitude.

“Let’s go,” Blow calls out. “Adams is going to meet us at the garage. Says the forensic team is ready to get to work on it.”

Nodding, I give him a chin lift and head for the door. I don’t bother saying a word to any of Marley’s family. Seems the only one I like so far is her mom. Maybe her dad, but only because as soon as he got the call, he hauled his ass here. Granted, he could have left his asshole son and bitch of a daughter behind.

All that matters right now is finding out if it was indeed Deets who set the bomb on Marley’s car. Once we know one way or the other, I’ll know what my next step is going to be.

“It’s not the same setup for the bomb, but damn sure close. The one that was planted in Anna’s car back then had been hooked to the transmission,” Michael says, straightening from under the hood of Marley’s car.

The moment we got here, Michael went to work examining the car. Now, it was my turn. I wanted to know what I was dealing with, and I wasn’t taking anyone’s word on anything. That is unless you’re one of my brothers, which Marley’s dad isn’t.

While I do my own assessment of the car from beneath it, I ignore the others and focus. The device was easy enough to find the remains of. There was also something else connected to the wires I knew had to be connected to the GPS system.

“Dad, I just got off the phone with Grail and Bash, they’re pissed no one called to tell them about Marley,” Marshall states gravely, sounding more than a little bit pissed.

“They’ll get over it,” I shout. “Torch, I need you down here. Shiner, can you grab my gear wrenches. The eighth and quarter inch ones.” He’d know exactly which ones I’m talking about. They’re the only two I have that are gear wrenches but also adjustable to be able to fit in tight spaces.

“What did you find?” Michael calls out.

“What’s up?” Torch asks, joining me under the car.

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