Page 15 of Toxic

I walked over to the bed on auto-pilot, kicked off my boots and laid down fully dressed. I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

CHAPTER 6

Toxic

Patting Hank’s neck, I held the phone between my ear and shoulder. “Some vegetables, fruits, butter, flour,” I said, listing off the things I’d need to make meals over the next few days. “Bread, mayo, lunch meat.”

“What kind?” Priest asked.

“Chicken, turkey, roast beef. Lettuce and tomatoes, too. The garden here doesn’t look like it’s been kept up.”

“Meat?”

“No, they have a lot of that.” I’d texted Priest after breakfast to see if he could hit the grocery store for me, to save some time. Besides, taking the Hellions grocery shopping was guaranteed to get us a good laugh later.

Butcher was finishing up the dishes and Billie was out cold. I’d checked on her only a few minutes after I’d walked her to her room. She was still fully dressed. I’d just draped a blanket over her and let her sleep.

The woman was so far beyond exhausted it was a miracle that she’d managed the drive home. I wasn’t about to let her drive herself back to the hospital without some kind of nap. I wouldn’t let her sleep too long, because that would upset her. I understood it. When my mother had been in the hospital, it had taken a lot to get me and my brother to even leave her side. Same with Dad.

That was why I was taking care of Billie this way. She didn’t have anyone to push her to eat, shower, or sleep. And she seemed like the type to run herself ragged. Hell, she was already there. She’d had little blue circles under her gorgeous eyes this morning.

“Anything else?”

“No, that’ll do for now. Thanks, Priest.”

“No problem. I needed to get some shit to feed my horde anyway.”

I chuckled. “They’re going to lose it when they hear that we’re out here working on a ranch.”

“I know. I’m trying to keep them busy for now. Maybe you can ask your girl there if I could bring them out one of these days. They’d get a kick out of all the animals. Especially the horses.” He said the last sentence in a lower voice, which told me his girls were somewhere nearby within hearing distance.

I frowned. “What do you mean, my girl?”

It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since I’d been working out here at Cholla Summit Ranch. Priest wasn’t even around when we got back last night. There was no way he’d already figured out I was into Billie.

He barked out a laugh. “You’re grocery shopping for the woman, Toxic. Which means you’re likely planning on cooking. I didn’t even know youcouldcook.”

“I can’t,” I lied. I wasn’t a chef or anything, but I could throw some meals together.

“Right. Okay, well, do you need me to bring these out to you? Or I could get one of the other guys to do it.”

“That would be great. There’s a lot to do here,” I said, eyeing the barn door that was off its track. “Send out one of the guys. I know you have shit to do, too.”

“Ricochet looked bored this morning. Ever since Idaho’s construction crew took over work on the school, he hasn’t had a lot to do,” Priest said with a grin in his voice. “I’ll have him come out as soon as I get back.”

“Thanks again, Brother.”

Idaho had offered, and Lock had accepted, to hire a crew to finish building the school for the kids who’d been stuck inside the cult. With everything that kept happening with us, all the kids would out of school before we managed to finish it. Riptide, Lock, and I had all thrown a bit of cash toward the project as well. Even though Idaho didn’t mind, and clearly had the money, we felt he shouldn’t have to foot that whole bill, so we’d helped out.

“Anytime.”

We hung up and I went over into the tack room to see if there were any tools in there. Everything was neat and tidy, and I had no problem finding what I needed. There were only a limited amount of tools in here though, so I was guessing the rest were in the car port over near the house.

My cut was inside the truck, no way was I wearing it out here where it was likely to get animal shit, sweat, and dust all over it. I got started working on the stubborn ass door. I was swearing at it as I muscled the heavy ass wood back onto the track when Butcher spoke from behind me.

“Need some help?”

“Need this bitch to stop being so fucking ornery,” I grunted. “Been stuck like this for too fucking long.” I huffed out a satisfiedbreath when it finally clunked into place. I looked over my shoulder. “What’s up?”

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