Page 23 of Laying it Bare Biker Style - Grayson

“Thugs make up his MC.” His expression swirled with growing fury as his daughter refused to back down from her defense of me.

“Guys who help get violent criminals off of the street make up his MC.”

“An MC member killed your mom, Brooke. Is that the type of people you want to associate with?”

She jolted at his declaration, but quickly pulled herself together. “It was a gang member. I saw the news reports and heard all the hushed chatterings. And so far I haven’t witnessed anything that gives me a negative view of him or his friends.”

“You’ve met his friends?” He practically roared in fury. “How long have you been seeing him behind my back?” The vein in his neck throbbed dangerously close to exploding.

“Enough to get a feel for what kind of person he is to determine if I wanted a relationship with him or not. Because I wasn’t going to do battle with you if he was someone who wasn’t worth it. But he is. So let’s just agree to disagree. Until you can give me something concrete other than your biased prejudice; I’m dating Grayson. We can still have our weekend brunch dates and I’ll meet up with you for dinner one night this week, but Grayson will be a part of my life as well. So we’ll still have our time, but Grayson gets my time as well.”

I was embarrassed to admit I was a little surprised to observe her shamelessly coming to my defense against her father. Her faith in me unwavering. I hoped I never made her come to regret her decision.

His partner circled around the front of the house and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “I didn’t find anything amiss. He’s long gone. He must have taken off as soon as he heard sirens or something.” He ran his hand through his brown hair and fixed his brown eyes on Brooke. “Did you catch a glimpse of him? Something we can go on to help in the search. His build? His eye or hair color? What he was wearing? Did you look outside at all during the incident?”

“No. I was on the phone while taking a break from cleaning when he started pounding on my door and yelling. I stayed away from the door and windows.”

“Smart girl. But makes it harder to get a description. I’ll check with the neighbors. I just wanted to give you an update. I can get someone to fix her door. He can probably be out here in the next few hours.”

“Thanks, Jimmy. That would be great. It looks like the hinges are bent so I’m not sure if it would lock correctly how it is right now.” Her dad stepped closer to the door to peer at the way it was hanging at an odd angle. Then he pivoted back to face Brooke. “Do you want to go grab something to eat while we wait for your door to be fixed? I can take a dinner break now before returning to work.”

“Thanks but I’ll be okay here. I’ll have Grayson hang out until Dani comes home so I’m not alone. I want to finish my laundry and cleaning.”

His expression twisted in renewed anger briefly before his lips pulled into a forced smile and I wondered if he was going to try other tactics to drive a wedge between us since he had struck out on the hurling insults front. “Okay. Do you at least have your gun on you?”

“Not at the moment.”

“You had someone trying to break into your house and you didn’t have your gun?” He closed his eyes briefly, pinched the bridge of his nose, and took in a deep breath.

“I was too busy sucking the hamster up into the vacuum.” Her lips pulled into a frown.

A chuckle almost slipped from mine.

“You what?” His eyes shot open and his baffled reaction was quite comical.

But if I hadn’t been privy to the details of the incident, I would have been perplexed as well. I couldn’t imagine this was a common occurrence.

“Never mind, Dad. That was resolved and I’m sure this will be as well. Do you need anything else on my end about this incident? I’d like to finish up in the house.”

“I’ll follow up with Jimmy and if you think of anything else, let me know. But you will need to stop down at the station to file a report and sign it; tomorrow at the latest.” He tugged her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “Call me if you need anything, okay?” Over his daughter’s shoulder, he shot me a look full of animosity.

I kept my expression emotionless. I refused to cower or egg him on. I had my work cut out for me on this one. It figured. The first time I found myself wanting a relationship with someone, her dad had to be the police chief and one who had a hatred of MC members that ran so deep I wasn’t sure could ever be remedied.

“I will. And text me about dinner this week.”

Leaning down, he kissed her forehead before stepping away to walk down to his vehicle.

After he pulled away from the curb, she padded over to me, wrapped her arms around my waist, and snuggled into my chest. “Wow. I’m not sure that could’ve gone any worse.”

My arms instinctively tightened around her. “I wanted to take you in my arms as soon as I got here, but I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. He could have had me arrested for trespassing. For as much as he hates bikers, I’m sure he could’ve slapped me with some sort of charge. I was surprised he only tossed out fury filled remarks. It wouldn’t have even shocked me if he would have thrown a punch or two.”

“And I would have punched him right in the face because I know you wouldn’t have.”

Curling my fingers under her chin, I tipped her head up to face me. “You know what; I don’t think I would’ve either. Only because he’s your dad. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

She stretched up on her toes and gave me a sweet kiss. When she pulled back, her lips pulled into a beautiful smile. But after a moment, her cheerfulness dimmed.

“What’s the matter, Princess?” I cupped her cheeks in my hands and soothingly rubbed my thumbs along her soft skin.

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