Page 17 of Warrant
That was a good point. I hadn’t thought of that. Didn’t surprise me Jury had. Man was a deep thinker. Smart as fuck. Dangerous as hell. And had a heart the size of the Pacific Ocean. Not that he let people know the last part very often.
The rest of our brothers trudged in, carrying vase after vase of flowers. The funeral home wasn’t going to have a spare inch of space. I looked up as my president paused in the doorway.
“Heard an interesting rumor.”
I shifted, but kept my boot in front of the door so it didn’t swing closed on him. I had a feeling I knew what the rumor was. It’d been stupid to kiss Ainsley the other day with people around. But dammit, she’d just looked so…nervous. And worried. She fucking cared about the people here already and she’d been here for only a week. It made me care about her.
“Oh yeah?” I tried to play nonchalant.
“You have a thing for the new sheriff?” He arched a brow at me.
“If I said I did?”
He shrugged his massive shoulders. “Wouldn’t really surprise me, honestly. That seems exactly like the kind of woman you’d go for.” When I gave him a questioning look he just shook his head. “You’re a walking contradiction, Warrant.”
He went inside and left me to wonder if that meant he approved, or didn’t? Mostly I didn’t care, except I considered Cypher not only my president, and my boss, but a friend.
“You fucking her?”
I glanced over to where Scythe was standing at the bottom of the stairs smoking a cigarette.
“As far as you’re concerned? Yeah.”
“Fuck does that mean?”
“Means hands off, asshole,” I said, with a slow grin.
He chuckled. “Wouldn’t fuck a cop.” He tilted his head. “Owen know you’re interested?”
“Yeah.” And he wasn’t happy about it, but he’d get over that. Surprisingly, my brothers’ reactions were better than I expected. Of course, Cypher, Scythe, and Glitch were the only three who really knew and they were the three most level-headed of the group. Well, Scythe wasn’t, but he wasn’t exactly excitable. Demo was going to give me shit. A lot of it. Rotor too. And I didn’t even want to think about what Torque and Cynic were going to say when they found out. Those little shits were the youngest in our club and acted like it. Not that I exactly acted my age.
Leaving Scythe to finish his cigarette, I walked into the funeral home. Rae, the local coroner and the owner of this place, had it set up to perfection. There were large poster boards with Brandon’s pictures up front, flowers everywhere, ours were getting added to the mix, and it just had all these small touches that let everyone know that she’d talked extensively with the family about what they would want from today’s services.
Rae was good people. She’d moved here three years ago from who the fuck knew where. She was a bit of an…oddball, but she was our oddball now. The whole town sort of adopted her like a stray puppy.
She was standing off to the side, speaking with people as they approached. Her black frilly dress somehow fit her—once you understood her personality—and it didn’t seem out of place anymore.
“Thanks for this,” I said as I approached her.
Soft brown eyes met mine and her lips twitched in a sad smile. “It’s my pleasure to take care of everything for them. I wish I never had to do this, but-”
“Someone has to,” I told her, squeezing her shoulder. “We’re all grateful it’s you, Rae.”
Her smile was a little bigger now.
Movement caught my eye and my lips kicked up as I watched the town’s new sheriff move amongst the crowd. She was in her dress uniform, but she was here, paying her respects. Yeah. It wasn’t going to take long before this entire town loved her and considered her theirs.
“Excuse me,” Rae said, and slipped away.
I used her absence to watch Ainsley as she spoke with people. Her deputies were here as well, some in uniform, some in plain clothes because it was their day off.
“Hell of a thing.”
I glanced over at Owen and nodded. “You guys are handling it.”
“We are,” he said in agreement. “Fucking wish it hadn’t happened though.”
“You and me both, Brother,” I sighed. “Be right back.”
