Page 46 of Protector

“Good. I’m pulling up behind you.”

Seconds later, she was rapping at the passenger window before climbing in. She took in the items strewn across the floorboard. “Wow, I love what you’ve done with the place.”

Deciding that there was no sense in delaying the inevitable, I thrust the manila envelope into her hands. She studied it, looking about as confused as I imagined I had before flipping it over.

“Oh, dear god.” She turned to me with wide eyes. “Celia, we need to call the club—”

“No.” I shook my head. “Think about it, Molly. It’s been four years. Why now?” It was the one thing I kept coming back to. If they were going as far as threatening my daughters, they were doing it for a reason.

“You think they want a war?”

“They want Grey—it’s what they’ve always wanted. If I go to the club, then I’m playing right into their hands. We’ve got to be smarter.”

Raindrops that had gotten caught in her hair now ran down her face, and she distractedly reached up to brush them away as she asked, “Don’t you think that if Grey knew about this that he’d handle it? Bear, Torch... they’ll all back him. You can’t just let them get away with this.”

“I’m not letting them get away with anything.” I gnawed absently on a fingernail. “We’re going to kill them.”

Molly’s head jerked back, and she let out a rough bark of laughter. “Sorry, I could’ve sworn you just said we were going to kill someone.”

A plan had begun to take root in my mind, leaving me wondering why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. Not so long ago, she’d asked me what I needed.

Catharsis.

I needed to purge the anger I’d held onto for four years.

“What?” I asked coldly. “They came after my daughter to get to my husband. I’m not letting it happen. End of story.”

“Celia… after all this time, why are you still hellbent on protecting him? He knows these men—”

“Not like I do. If they’re willing to provoke him like this, then they must think they have an advantage. What happens when the club goes up against them and loses? Are you willing to kiss Bear goodbye, knowing it might be the last time you see him alive?”

Molly mashed her lips together with a quick shake of her head. “No, but I don’t see how you think two Ol’ Ladies are going to take down an army. If the club can’t kill those assholes, then how will we?”

I was tired of being weak.

A strange sense of calm settled over me. The night it happened, I’d put it all on Jamie to fight alone. Maybe that had been a mistake. I was just as much responsible for what happened as he was.

“They're counting on me alerting the club. They’ll be so focused on the men that they’ll never see us coming. I refuse to live the rest of my life in fear. What about you?”

She let her eyes move over the picture again before looking up at me. “I’m in.”

Taking them out would either fix what they’d broken in me or turn me into a monster.

I found that I was okay with either.

Chapter Nine

Celia: 2004

“You’re sure he’ll come back?” Molly asked through the speaker of my cell phone.

I placed it in the cupholder and inched the car forward in the pick-up line, studying the face of every parent and teacher that walked by. “He’ll show. He’s taunting me now.”

Two weeks.

It had become a twisted game ofWhere’s Waldo?as I searched for his face in the crowd. That was the problem with men like him. They got cocky and made careless decisions, never imagining that a woman could fight back.

Initially, my plan had been to take his son before Molly gently reminded me that I was no better than they were if I did.

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