Page 46 of Found Through Fire

Me

Yup, because clearly it’s way less intimidating to have dinner with some mercenaries and a contract killer than to hang out where you live. I feel like you need to reevaluate your priorities.

LL-Not-Cool-J

Ehh, what would I talk about if I found ‘normal’ people to hang around?

Me

Maybe you should get a hobby. Meet some nice new people. I hear there are some knitting circles in town that get a little crazy. I’m talking Bailey’s-in-coffee crazy! That’s the ultimate danger, drunk old ladies with giant ass needles that have horrible vision. Go live on the edge.

LL-Not-Cool-J

… Still don’t understand how your brothers keep up on conversations with you sometimes.

Me

This is your training. When you have proved that you can keep up with me, there is a possibility of being added to the group chat. Don’t get too excited, though. You aren’t there yet.

LL-Not-Cool-J

… Can’t wait. I have to get back to work, but Flame and I will be there at 7.

Me

See you then!

I smile down at my phone before hooking it up to Bluetooth in my car and starting my music. Even if Jackson is still on the fence about hanging out with my family, he fits in perfectly. I didn’t expect us to have a lot in common, but I guess nature versus nurture and all that shit. When he was texting me while I was gone, I got a little more insight about his life. It always came up in conversation naturally because I would never push him to talk about something that he couldn’t.

After years of being around Uncle Mark’s MC, I know that club business is only club business. I honestly don’t know how Aunt Jaz puts up with it. It would be like your husband is only sharing half of his life with you, probably less than half, since I know that when you are in an MC, your life revolves around it. But Aunt Jaz just says that she married the man and not the MC, and that Uncle Mark shows her that she and Sophia are the most important thing in his life, not the cut that he wears. I can’t wrap my head around the details of how it works, but it does work for them.

Anyone can see how much they love each other; it’s actually kind of gross sometimes. I know that a lot of the guys in the MC cheat on their ‘Ol Ladies with the club girls—that it is their world. But after seeing my parents’ relationship, I don’t think I would be able to accept anything less.

I put my baby into drive and head home. It’s been two weeks since I have been in my safe haven, and I miss being comfortable at home and living by myself. Grey was quiet and mostly stayed in his room, which you would think would be nice, but it just made it feel like I was walking on eggshells.

I never thought I would like living alone; I always loved the house that I grew up in because there were so many people and it always felt full of life, especially since I pretty much grew up on a base that always had people around. When I officially moved into my house, the silence killed me the first few days, but after the first week, the silence turned into comfort.

I was never able to hear myself think when I lived with my family, which, looking back, was a good thing. After the hospital stays, my mind was running a million miles per hour, but my body was too weak to do anything about it.

That’s why I put so much effort into making every nook and cranny of my home as comfortable as possible, even going as far as having different aromatherapies in different rooms. Myidiots made fun of me for having a “girl” house, but to be honest, they are the only guys that I invited over. I feel myself slowly transitioning to the crazy cat lady, but the crazy snake lady thing is still on the table.

After an hour of driving, I finally pull up to my front gate. I have a sensor on my car, so it opens automatically the second that I pull up. I drive down my circle driveway and park in front of my porch stairs instead of going to the garage, since I have to unload all of my bags from the car.

I see that I have a box waiting for me by the front door, filling me with a sense of dread as a chill shoots up my spine. I stare at it through my passenger door window, not getting out of the car. I grab my phone and bring up my app for the cameras that I have throughout my house and property. When I get packages, they automatically get shipped to Dad’s house, or are dropped in front of my gate in the lock box that I have there. Nothing should come onto the property, especially without me knowing about it.

When the app comes up, I look for the front gate, which should alert me every time that someone approaches, and it will log anytime that it opens. But nothing shows in the open and close log, and the motion sensor on the camera was never triggered. I look up the feed for my front door camera next and it looked like the camera went down, and when it was back up, the box was there.

Shit. I know I can clear my house by myself and neutralize threats, but if I did that, and my family found out about it after the fact, I would never hear the end of it. I let out an exasperated sigh. All I wanted to do was take a fucking shower and unpack! Haven’t I been tortured enough with having to deal with Grey’s shit? I dial the number of the one that I know will keep his cool in any situation.

“Why are you calling already? I know you just landed, we can’t be late for dinner yet.” Gig’s voice comes through my car speakers since my Bluetooth is still connected.

I sigh again, not ready for the swarm of activity that will happen at my house after I tell Gig what’s going on. “I have a situation at my house,” I say, waiting for it to start. I know that Gig will keep his cool, but he still gets overprotective and jumps into problem-solving mode as fast as the others. The only difference between calling him and the other idiots, or even my dad, is that he will actually let me give all the information before he starts to freak out.

“What happened? I’m in the war room with Dad and the others, and you are on speaker,” he says while I can hear the talk starting in the background.

“I pulled up to my house and there’s a package waiting by my front door. Nothing is showing on the gate log and my cameras were down when it showed up,” I say, giving the facts as fast as I can before it starts.

“Did you touch it?”