Page 45 of Rough Patch

He grinned. “I have video.” His breath ruffled her hair. “Kye knows what to do if you need me. And he knows when I’ll call so he’ll take you to the place, okay?”

Fiona nodded, for all the world feeling like she was losing him. “Just get this done quickly so we can come home.”

Finally she pulled away when Sage picked up the baby’s chair. Grier kissed Fiona one last time and walked her out to the car where he kissed her again. “Soon, I promise.”

She nodded as Sage pulled the car away from the curb. She’d seen a hundred movies where the heroine and hero were being taken away from each other for one reason or another and the heroine always put her hand on the window in one of those sappy moves designed to tug at the viewers’ heartstrings. After today, Fiona didn’t think it was sappy anymore.

* * *

Woah. When Sage booked a plane, he booked a plane—a five-seater, and by seat, she meant luxury leather captain’s chair seats with padding so plush it felt like feathers enveloping her body, a built-in footrest, and a headrest softer than her pillow at home. Max would’ve loved this thing. And Fiona was quite convinced this was the only way to fly. Wow.

When no stewardess greeted her, she buckled the baby’s car seat into the one next to her and braced herself for what was about to happen, the upward climb at take-off that made her stomach dance inside of her, and not in the good way, the ear-popping when the plane leveled, the feeling of everything dropping out as the plane tilted down for landing. And that would only get her as far as refueling. Then she’d have to go through it all again.

She’d made this flight once, not so luxuriously, but she knew they would arrive in something like six and a half hours, so she’d brought a book, and snacks, and she’d stuffed the diaper bag full of things she could use to quiet the baby. Even the white noise machine she kept plugged by the crib.

And she’d checked and rechecked the weather, probably a hundred times that morning, to make sure they wouldn’t be traveling into a storm or bad weather. This would be a smooth flight. She repeated the words to herself, once, twice, fifty times as she sat waiting for the pilot to start the plane.

Finally, the engine roared to life outside the window. She watched the turbine turn and breathed out.

* * *

Grier hadn’t been able to stay away. He’d tried, wanted to, but he stood at the airport watching the small plane taxi down the runway then lift off, taking his wife and daughter to safety.

When he couldn’t see the plane anymore, he turned away from the window and walked through the airport.

“I knew you’d be here.” Sage stood and put the newspaper he’d been reading down. “Plus, I saw you following us on your bike. You’re horrible at surveillance.”

Grier nodded. “I couldn’t decide between stopping you and just following.” He’d considered chasing down the car and telling Fiona to stay. But talked himself out of it. He shrugged.

“She’s safe now. And you can concentrate on finding Sedotal and putting that fucker down.”

For no other reason would he have let Fiona go. “Yeah.”

They took a couple of steps toward the door before Sage said, “And you can talk to Jez.”

Grier shook his head. “Leave that alone, okay? It’s not something I can think about right now.”

“I’m just saying—”

“Yeah, well, don’t.” He snapped the words. This was his business. It had nothing to do with anyone at the club except him and Jez and until he decided how to handle it, he intended to forget it.

Right now, he had to figure out why his brother—and if anything in the world felt odder to say, he couldn’t think of what it would be—and his brother’s gang wanted to hurt Fiona and London. If it was about hurting Grier, he could accomplish that easily enough. But why? This went deeper than club rivalry. This was personal since he wasn’t going after the club, but after Grier’s family.

“I think we need to know what Sedotal’s after.”

“You, obviously.”

“Yeah, but why? What does he hope to accomplish by taking me out? I don’t run the club. I mean I did while Fiona was out with the baby, but not when this all started with the missing shipments and the…” His heart ached as he remembered. “The explosion. It might have been about the club then but now… Fiona and the baby…”

Sage nodded. “I was thinking about that. Do you have some sort of connection between you two? A reason he would go after you?”

Telling everyone about his connection to Sedotal would open Grier to more suspicion. Make them question his return and the timing with which the shitstorm started, probably make them think he was in on it and that he’d sent Fiona away because she was either his accomplice—God he hoped no one would believe that about her—or to get her out of his way while he took the club down out of some ridiculous familial obligation.

And there it was. The reason Sedotal had chosen now to act. Son of a bitch. He’d figured it out. Of course, he had no one he could tell it to. He’d just put the only person who believed in him completely on a plane to Belize.

* * *

Grier walked into the clubhouse and sat at the bar. Nothing like having it all in his face, all the time. Autumn handed him a beer. “Where’s Jez?”