Page 12 of Brax

“She’s great. What’s happening? Why the pow-wow here?”

“We were at the shop,” said Pax. “We were taking a look at the car that Steph was driving.”

“Why?” Skull looked at the other men, and Benji nodded at the big man.

“Brax, someone shot out her tires. That wasn’t an accident,” said Skull. Flip nodded.

“I noticed it when I took the door off. They’d missed and hit the lower corner of the door on the first shot. Lucky it didn’t hit her. Then they got the front tire. Someone was a damn good shot, brother or the luckiest fucking shot in the world. That’s not an easy one to hit.”

“Who?” whispered Brax. “Who would want to hurt that woman?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” said Cam. “I take it you’ve convinced her to stay?”

“Yes. She’s not leaving, and she’s damn sure not leaving my cottage again,” frowned Brax. “This doesn’t make any sense. We ended everyone that had anything to do with the school. Who would want to kill her?”

“Maybe they didn’t want to kill her,” said Flip. “Maybe they wanted her out of it, unconscious, but alive. We got there awfully fast. Did you notice that the ambulances weren’t there, sheriffs, cops, nothing? We were the first, other than a few bystanders.”

“Damn. You’re right,” muttered Brax.

“Get your girl some food,” said Benji. “We’re going to look at ballistics and figure out what we’re dealing with. You take care of her.”

“Did you tell her?” asked Pax. Brax nodded.

“Yeah. Turns out she can’t have children either. Part of the cloning process that was faulty, I guess. Let me know if you find out anything else.” He left them standing between the hospital entrance and the diner.

“Does anyone, for one damn minute, honestly believe that her being unable to have children was a faulty part of the cloning process? That they would go to all the trouble of cloning her and not allow her to reproduce so that they could clone her again and again?” asked Cam. The response came in unison.

“Nope.”

CHAPTER SIX

Brax walked back into the hospital room and set the food on the tray table. He started to open the lid on the tray, and then Stephanie stacked the books one by one on the table.

“Romance novels are your thing now?” she smirked.

“Ha, ha, very funny. No. It was all we had other thanGuns and Ammo. Although, I will say Charlie’s books definitely kept me entertained. And, um, engaged,” he blushed. Steph actually chuckled.

“I love her books. They’ve helped me a lot over the years. We weren’t taught about things like relationships, communication, or sex at the school. It’s probably one of the many reasons they kept the boys and girls separated. I’m fairly certain they didn’t want us to think about anything except weapons and chemistry.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that any longer,” he said, frowning.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, staring at him. “Something is wrong.”

Brax didn’t want to tell her, but he also wasn’t about to keep any more secrets from her.

“The SUV that you were in didn’t just flip, Steph. Someone shot out the front tire. It was intentional.” She stared at him, swallowing, and nodded.

“I see,” she whispered. “So, what does that mean? Do I need to leave?”

“What? Abso-fucking-lutely not! You will never leave here again without me. This is your home. We are your family. I am your family, Steph.” She stared at him, and he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I suck at this. Please. Don’t leave me. I love you so much, and I want you to be my wife when you’re ready.”

“Well, that was a bit better,” she grinned. “Maybe I’m not the one that needs help with communication. I’m not leaving, Brax. I’m scared. I don’t know anyone, not really. Why would someone want to kill me?”

He opened the tray and started to divide the food up for her. He poured her a glass of water and apple juice and then handed her the fork.

“What are you working on at G.R.I.P.? I mean, Marilisa was working on something that someone wanted. What are you working on?”

“It’s nothing for anyone outside the property. I’m working on improving our weapons tracking systems and a new intercept system for the Ospreys. But it’s only for us. No contracts. No one outside of us knows about it. In fact, we’re actually manufacturing all the components for it right here on property.”

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