Page 2 of Grizzly's Pride
Grizzly fired, but a scream from the bathroom made him miss. He tried again, and this time, his aim was true. Mervin fell face-first on the dirty gray carpet. Grizzly thought he heard another muffled cry from somewhere, but he focused his attention on the traitor first.
A bright circle of blood appeared between Mervin’s shoulder blades. Gunner bent down and turned Mervin over. The traitor tried to talk, but it seemed Grizzly had managed to hit one of his lungs.
Mervin choked on his own blood, and Grizzly thought he was trying to say a name. Grizzly might have done all sorts of foul deeds for the MC, but he wasn’t cruel.
He didn’t enjoy watching the suffering of others, so he put another bullet in Mervin. This time, Mervin twitched. Once he stopped moving, Gunner pressed two fingers against the pulse point on Mervin’s neck.
“He’s dead,” Gunner confirmed.
Grizzly nodded in satisfaction. The MC had one less traitor to worry about,although Grizzly couldn’t relax one bit. Who knew what other secrets had Mervin spilled to their enemies?Another problem for another day, Grizzly thought.
“Call King and tell him the job’s done. Then tell him we’ll need the cleanup crew in here,” he told Gunner. “Doesn’t matter if Whizz paid the motel proprietor. You know how these things go. The guy might get greedy and end up calling the cops on us.”
“Done. What will you be doing?” Gunner asked him.
“I’m going to find out what or who Mervin has stashed in the bathroom,” Grizzly replied.
“You’ll take care of the second problem?” Gunner asked.
“Yup,” was all he said. Gunner knew he was a man of a few words.
He hadn’t been concerned about his other prey leaving. Earlier, Mervin shouted at his companion to use the window, but either the window was too small to slip through or his accomplice had simply frozen in terror.
Either way, Grizzly’s job wasn’t complete until he also got rid of Mervin’s friend. He or she was a witness, one who could babble to the police.
The MC couldn’t have that. That was why King sent him on this mission, and not some trigger-happy prospect or a newly appointed patched member. Grizzly tried the door, unsurprised it was locked.
“Hey, either you open the door or I kick it open. Your choice,” Grizzly said with a growl. “Don’t worry. We got what we came for. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Not exactly a lie, but it was up to him to gauge whether the witness could be paid to keep his or her mouth shut or if it was better burying a second body. The cleanup crew was coming either way.
After a few seconds, there was a click. Grizzly turned the doorknob. The beautiful and frightened woman cowering on the floor was the last thing he expected to find.
She didn’t look like a call girl because she was dressed in a ratty hoodie and matching sweatpants. Her long brown locks were curled in a ponytail.
Heck, she reminded him of a mouse, looking for possible escape routes. The young woman was possibly in her early or mid-twenties.
Her brown-eyed gaze darted to the door Grizzly blocked with his huge body, then to the small window just above the shower. He quickly assessed her for signs she was an addict. Maybe she was one of the junkies Mervin supplied with the shit he sold on the side? That would make things easier. No copper would believe the unreliable words of a drug addict. They would simply think she was making things up even if she went to them and reported a murder.
No bloodshot eyes or needle marks as far as he could tell, but who knew what she hid under her baggy clothes? Still, her skin color looked healthy. She wasn’t emaciated like most addicts he knew either.
What was her relationship with Mervin? More importantly, why did Grizzly hesitate putting a bullet through her gorgeous head?
Chapter Two
The doorknob rattled, and not for the first time, Piper Ayers wished she never came to this ratty little motel with her useless excuse of a father. At that moment, she cursed Mervin and even her long-dead mother. Her mother, Cherry, had died of cancer when Piper was young.
Cherry had only one dying wish—that Piper looked after her old man. A tall order for a twelve-year-old. Piper grew up fast after that. She had tried to love the man she called her father, but it wasn’t easy.
All Mervin cared about was himself. Piper worked two jobs just to pay the rent of the crappy apartment they lived in. The monthly allowance she gave him, Mervin easily squandered within a couple of days. However, in the last few months, Mervin seemed to never run out of cash. He kept talking about some big score, about having information he intended to sell to enemies of his current employers, whoever they were.
Piper made it clear to Mervin she wanted to be kept out of whatever shady business he was knee-deep in. Now she wished she had pressed him further.
When Mervin came home the day before, looking pale and shaken, he took her hands in his. Her father loved to brag about getting away with one scheme or the other. Yesterday, Mervin was different. Desperate. Piper had never seen him look so frightened, and that scared her, too. Now she understood why he’d told her to pack all her belongings. Why he’d been insistent on leaving town and finding a place to lay low.
The scary monster behind the door finally demanded she open it or he would break it down. Piper didn’t think her legs still worked, but she somehow managed to get the door open. Seeing the towering biker covered in tattoos made her scramble backward. Her ass hit the tiled floor.
She whimpered. The biker looked to be in his forties. He was all jacked up, covered in black ink. In another place and time, a man like this would star in her erotic fantasies. Piper always had a weakness for older men, and this one looked like he was made of iron. Too bad Piper never had time to date because all she constantly thought about was paying the rent or having enough cash to spring her father out of jail.
