Page 124 of Coach
“In my house. I tried to scream, but I guess the basement was soundproofed pretty well.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t know you were there sooner.”
“You’re not psychic. And you did find me pretty quickly. How did you know?”
“Rook. Rook found the old restraining order. We pieced it together pretty quickly from there. Detroit said he saw a much fitter version of the guy at the gym in town. I figured that if you’d seen him, you would have been gone. So he had to be laying low. But he’d also want to keep an eye on you. Then I remembered the new neighbor…”
“You put it together a lot faster than I did.”
“You had no reason to suspect the neighbor.”
“His behavior was weird. But, no, you’re right. I’m not going to take on the blame. Your hands,” I said, glancing down at his busted knuckles.
“I had some… feelings about someone putting their hands on my woman.”
I knew I was supposed to be focusing on the whole beating someone up thing, but all I could hear wasmy woman.
“Your woman?” I asked.
“Yeah, my woman,” he said, shooting me a sexy smirk. “You have a problem with that?”
“Only that I’m just hearing about it now.”
“I was gonna get around to that,” he said, putting down the tray and tossing a treat on the new dog bed for Trix before coming over to the bed.
“Yeah, when?”
“When we talked through you getting kidnapped by the Russians and bribed not to tell me about it.”
“You heard about that, huh?” I asked, wincing. “I guess I have to give the money back.”
“You didn’t actually tell me. Though, I do have to replace their door.”
“Why?”
“Broke it down when I thought they’d taken you again. Might’ve held them at gunpoint for a few minutes.”
“You didn’t.”
“They handled it pretty well, considering.”
“I get the feeling that guns and violence are a pretty common part of their life.” I paused, reaching over to touch his hand. “Seems like maybe it’s a part of yours too.”
“I won’t deny that,” he admitted. “But it’s not an everyday thing. And it’s only to protect the club and our loved ones.”
“I’m not judging. I’m glad for that willingness to get your hands dirty. I’d probably still be in that basement right now.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You’d gotten your ankles free. You’d have gotten your wrists too. Then probably snuck up and knocked the fucker out.”
“That was the plan. Or find the access point to the exterior doors.”
“Exactly. You would have gotten out sooner or later. I’m just glad we managed it sooner.”
“Me too.”
There was a soft knock at the door.
“Yeah?” Saul called.
