Her Journey (Her Series Book 2) (22 page)

“You drive
me
insane, dumb ass,” I growled back, both my hands on his broad shoulders. Seeing him, having his body pressed against mine, dried up my hormonal tears. It flared my temper that he thought he could just plow me over and take over me. I slapped at his chest. “Damn controlling man.”

“Damn stubborn woman.” Wrench grabbed my ponytail, pulling my head back as his lips crashed to mine. His tongue glided along the seam of my lips, his hands fisting in the back of my shirt. Groaning, he pulled back, resting his forehead against mine. “Don’t go.”

“I have to. I need space,” I murmured, closing my eyes to escape the heat in his. “I can’t do this right now.”

Wrench stepped back, sighing deeply as he did. His fingers slid along my cheekbone as he released my hair before dropping to his side.

Ducking into my car, I shut the door and started the car. One last glance at him and I pulled away, leaving him on the sidewalk behind me. As I drove down the street, all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I looked quickly out both the driver and passenger windows. It felt like someone was watching me, but I didn’t see anyone. Shaking my shoulders, I tried to loosen the tension building between them.

The entire way back to my apartment, I felt unsettled. I even drove around the block a few times, hoping to lose the feeling before pulling into the apartment complex. Eventually I gave up, parked my car and quickly walked to my apartment. Once inside, I made sure to lock the door before setting my purse and keys on the counter.

Deciding it had to be my imagination since I’d left Wrench on the sidewalk, I went to my bedroom and grabbed a change of clothes. As I was setting them on the counter in my bathroom, I heard a loud crash in the living room. Slowly, I crept down the hallway, listening for any other sounds. When I made it to the living room, my front door was wide open, but there didn’t appear to be anyone around and there were no sounds, except the kids that lived above me yelling at each other.

I didn’t want to stick around to find out who had kicked in my door and where they were, I reached for where I kept my keys and purse to find that my them both gone. Goosebumps jumped up all over my body. Clenching my teeth to keep them from chattering as fear surged inside me, I took a step towards the front door. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but instinct told me to get out of the apartment. Walking slowly, listening for any out of place sound, I made it to the door.

To my relief, my phone sat on the ground, just inside the apartment. Snatching it up, I ran out of my apartment towards the pool. There were always people there and it was just around the corner from my place. Once I was standing next to the pool where teenagers were happily splashing and joking around, I dialed Ryan’s phone. Ellis answered on the second ring.

“Melia?” Ellis sounded distracted.

“Ellis, can you come get me? Someone broke into my apartment and I don’t want to stay there tonight.” I wrapped an arm under my breasts as I broke out in shivers.

“What?” Ellis growled. I heard him moving around and other voices. “Where are you? I’m on my way.”

“By the pool, it’s around the corner from my apartment. There are kids playing here.” I looked at the kids for a moment, envying their carefree moods, before putting my back against the pool wall, looking towards my apartment.

“Stay there. I’ll be there in five,” Ellis said before hanging up on me. I held my phone tightly as I folded my arms under my breasts. It was still warm out, but I was shivering.

After what felt like forever, I saw Ellis run around the corner. Immediately, he wrapped his arms around me.

“You okay? Are you hurt? Who was it? What happened exactly? Are the babies okay?” The questions shot out of Ellis’s mouth faster than I could answer them. He pulled back, his hands resting on my arms as he looked into my eyes, ducking his head. “Are you and the babies okay?” he asked after taking a deep breath.

“Yes — I never saw anyone, but someone kicked in my door and stole my purse and keys. I only have my phone ‘cause it was lying on the ground. I bet it fell out of my purse at some point.” I shrugged. I felt so much better knowing that someone would have to be stupid to do anything since Ellis was with me.

“You okay?” He rubbed my arms lightly. I nodded. “Then let’s get you out of here.”

“But…” I glanced around as he led me back towards my apartment with a hand on my elbow. “What about my apartment? I can’t just leave it unlocked and open all night.”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll take care of it.” Ellis lifted his chin toward my apartment as we got closer. I looked up to see Wrench walking out of my apartment with my suitcase in his hand.

“Uh, what are you doing?” I asked Wrench, who shrugged and walked toward the parking lot. Turning toward Ellis, I looked up to meet his eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Melia, we want you to come stay at the house for a while. At least until we find out who’s behind this.”

Groaning, I rubbed my forehead, knowing that I had no other option. I didn’t want to be alone in my apartment, but I didn’t want to be living under the same roof as Wrench since I was already so conflicted about what was happening between us.

“Fine. Just let me grab my computer and my camera.” I took a step toward the door before turning. “It’s okay to go inside, right?”

“Yes, Wrench checked it out already.” Ellis gave me a lopsided smile and followed me. “Plus, I’ll be right here.”

It only took me a minute to gather my laptop, charging cord and camera bag with all my camera equipment in it already. Ellis walked me out to the parking lot. Wrench was waiting for us, leaning against the car with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet kicked out, crossed at the ankles. When he saw us approaching, he walked around the car to open the passenger side door. Ellis put my bags in the trunk and climbed in the backseat, then Wrench held his hand out to me. With his assistance, I slid into the passenger seat, then he carefully closed the door and got in the drivers seat.

The entire ride to the house was quiet; neither man spoke a single word. I could feel the tension in the car and didn’t know if it was because someone had broken into my house or something else. Not sure I wanted to know, I kept silent as well. Once at the house, Wrench opened the door for me and helped me out before heading to the trunk to get my bags.

“Melia, why don’t you head on up to your room? I’ll bring all this up in a few.” Wrench flicked his eyes up to meet mine. There was some unknown emotion in them, but whatever it was had me nodding and exiting the garage. I went to my room and climbed onto the bed to wait. The party was over; everyone had left. I didn’t think I’d been gone that long, but the entire atmosphere was different than when I had fled.

After a few minutes, I lay down on the bed to wait since my back hurt sitting up. Still shaking, I didn’t know if it was from fear or adrenaline. Either way, I wanted to go back to earlier in the night when I hadn’t been afraid someone was out to get me for no apparent reason. I was a nobody. Who would want to come after me? Why would someone break into my apartment and steal only my purse and my keys? I didn’t carry a lot of cash on me, I only had one credit card and my car wasn’t that great. It just made no sense. Although I had to admit, it was nice to have someone to call and show up to help calm me down and take me someplace safe. I felt like the little sister of the bunch.

A soft knock on the door alerted me that someone was looking for me. I should’ve gotten up and answered the door, but I was too worn out so I yelled out for whoever it was to come in. There was no fear of someone hurting me in Wrench’s house, of that I was sure.

To my surprise, Wrench was the one that brought my bag into my room, shutting the door softly behind him. “I brought up your bag. I think I packed everything you need. If not, let me know and I’ll make sure you get it.” Wrench walked over and put the suitcase on the floor, then sat on the foot of the bed. “Are you okay? I know that had to be kind of scary.”

“Yeah, you think? Nothing like someone kicking in your door as you’re about to take a shower to keep you on your toes.” I didn’t mean for it to come out harshly as it did. Sighing, I ran my hand over my head and yanked out my hair tie. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I’m just tired. It’s been a long night and this is the last thing I want to have to deal with. I still can’t even figure out why someone would come after me. Or rather, break in and take my purse and keys but nothing else.”

“We’re looking into it, okay? You don’t need to worry about it.” Wrench patted my calf comfortingly. “Try to get some rest and leave the rest up to us.”

“Will you at least keep me in the loop with what you find out?” I yawned, covering my mouth with my hand.

“Of course, little one. We will let you know.” Wrench stood. Surprising me yet again, he pulled off my shoes, setting them on the floor. “I’ll come check on you in a little bit, okay?”

“Aren’t you going to sleep? It’s getting late.” I had no idea what time it actually was, but it seemed late.

“In a bit.” With a half-smile and a long gaze, he left the room.

~Patrick~

Somebody had some serious explaining to do. Heads were going to roll if I didn’t get answers soon.

After leaving Melia’s room, I went downstairs to our meeting room. There were a handful of my men in there looking into what had happened.

“What do we know?” I asked Dirty as soon as I entered.

“Not much. We’ve hacked into her credit card and bank account. There hasn’t been activity on them for days so it wasn’t money-driven.” Dirty grimaced and shrugged. “Which makes this not look so good.”

I knew what he was talking about, I just didn’t want to admit it. Not yet. I wanted to believe it could be anything other than that. Plus, I didn’t know how Scrapes would even know of Melia. If he did and this was his doing, then what was he up to? No way was it only about grabbing her purse and keys — it just didn’t make sense. I would get to the bottom of it.

We spent hours searching for leads and reaching out to people that might have heard what was going on. Since Melia wasn’t directly tied to or active with the Motorcycle Club, it was much harder to find what people knew. She would appear to most as just a civilian and not necessarily worth paying attention to. Which is what I had hoped for — I didn’t want her to get dragged into anything to do with the club as Ryan had a while back. Then again, she was seen around the house and she went out fairly regularly with Ryan and Dirty so it wasn’t that hard to believe that someone had linked her to us.

Kicking over a trash can, I cursed myself for not having thought about it earlier. I should have known that until Scrapes was taken care of Melia would be in danger because she was connected to Ryan. Fucking lust had clouded my mind and I didn’t think.

The sun was starting to peek over the horizon before I finally called it a night. Dirty had turned in a short while before. Monk, Brew and Piro were woken up and pulled in an hour or so before. They would keep up the search while I grabbed a few hours of rest. I didn’t care how long we kept at it, we would figure out who had broken in and why. Melia would stay under my roof until them and I would use that time to hopefully convince her to stay there even after we figured it out.

Walking to my room, I paused in front of Melia’s. I wanted to go check on her, but I didn’t want to wake her up. I didn’t know if I would even be welcomed. From the way she’d left the house during the party, I would say no. Then again, she’d been different when I drove her back to the house. Wrestling with my indecision, I went to my own room, stripping down to my boxer briefs before climbing into bed.

After tossing and turning for over an hour, I got up and paced my room. My brain wouldn’t shut off over what had happened. When Dirty had told me someone had broken in to Melia’s place, I’d demanded to come with. I had to know she was okay even if she didn’t want me around. I still had the scared look that’d been on her face implanted in my head. Things could’ve gone so much differently than they had, and that was what was driving me nuts.

What if they hadn’t come only for her purse? Did something scare them off and that’s why they’d only grabbed that? What if she hadn’t found her phone? What would she have done? Without us around, she was all alone and that bothered me in ways I couldn’t explain.

Dragging my hands over my head in frustration, I finally pulled on my jeans and went across the hall. Fuck it. I had to check on her, I had to hold her close to know that she was okay. I wasn’t sleeping anyway, so even if she kicked me out, it was worth a shot. Knocking softly on her door, I waited a minute before pushing it open.