Page 51 of Griz's Edge

“Thanks.” I take the paper from them, and without a word, the two of them walk away. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t try anything, considering the stories I’d heard in the past about how they act.

I opened the note and recognized the handwriting immediately.

You didn’t get the hint the first time. You didn’t listen the second. You lived through the third. No more chances. Since you don’t want to leave, I’ll take what I want, andyou won’t be able to stop me. He’s mine, and you can’t have him.

Is this person for real?

Reading it again, I know instantly by what it says who the person behind all that’s been happening is.

It’s a Deets, alright, but not the one they’re all thinking it is.

I glance around the room and make a split-second decision. I wasn’t waiting around. This is my fight. I wasn’t going to let this woman scare me further. Nor am I going to let her intimidate me any longer. Blowing my car up was the last thing she’ll ever do to me.

Quickly, I find a piece of paper, write a message of my own, and leave it on the bar top. Someone will see it. I’m sure Griz is gonna be plenty pissed with me when he finds out what I’m doing, but he’ll get over it. If what we have is going to work, he’ll have to.

No way is this bitch going to threaten what we have together.

Seeing the way Griz reacted to my brother and sister, and the way he wanted to protect me from the whole situation, it’s all eye-opening. It’s a reason for me to fall more and more for him.

Outside the clubhouse, I quickly move to one of the spare cars in the parking lot. I open the door to the first one I get to. I climb in the driver’s seat, no keys in the ignition, but it’s an older model without all the latest things and easy to hotwire. The wires aren’t hard to get to, and in minutes, I have the car running. I’m sure someone will have something to say about me doing this later, but I don’t have the time to worry about it now.

My focus is on finding Hattie Deets and ending this bullshit scare tactic once and for all. How cliché can the bitch be with the whole ‘he’s mine’ tactic. I’m not an idiot, and I know going intothis, I’m going to have to handle this situation calmly and not make things harder than they already will be.

I’m sure it wasn’t smart of me to leave without telling anyone, but Griz will see the note. I didn’t hide anything in it. I just told him exactly who I was going after. He’ll be able to figure the rest out.

It didn’t take me long to pull into the driveway of the Deets home. There were two cars in the driveway. It didn’t matter to me if anyone else was here. It might work out best that way.

I put the car in park, throw the door open, and climb out. With confident strides, I make my way to the front door of the house just as the front door opens to show Detective Deets standing in the doorway.

“What can I do for you, Miss Keys?” he asks, watching me closely.

“Is Hattie home?” I don’t bother with pleasantries.

“Sorry to say, she just took off. Was heading out to the warehouse district. She rents one of the smaller buildings for her work.”

I already knew this, considering she was someone who worked with her hands in creating art. I didn’t know what that art was exactly, I hadn’t gotten that far into my search.

“Okay, sorry to have bothered you,” I tell him and step away.

“It was my daughter who blew your car up, wasn’t it?”

I stop on the last step and twist to look back at Detective Deets. Did he really just ask that? “I’m sorry?”

Sighing, the older man shakes his head and steps out fully on the porch. “Made a lot of mistakes in my life. Thought a lot of things I shouldn’t have. Did them too.” He nods and shoves hishands in his pockets. “I know who your momma is. Knew the minute you moved to town the past was coming to bite me on the ass.”

“Why are you sharing this with me?” I ask, completely caught off guard by his admission.

“Because I was an asshole who wanted something that wasn’t mine to have. Then, I found a woman who meant the world to me. She was taken from me far too soon, leaving me with a daughter who was more like her dad than anyone ever expected. Unfortunately, where I got the help I needed with my own problems, she didn’t.”

Wow.

I didn’t expect that.

Not in the least.

“My daughter needs help, mental help. She’s not a bad person, but she’s taking a sheet out of my book and doing things she shouldn’t be. You find my daughter; you do what you have to. I’m not gonna fight it.”

“Okay.” I nod.

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