Maybe watching from the safety of the other side of the glass wasn’t all that bad.
Chapter Thirty
“Greer, are you hungry? I can make you something to eat once I put the groceries away,” Ginny shouted over her shoulder, unlocking her door after going to the grocery store with her bodyguard.
Ginny tried not to laugh at the fact of Greer Porter being her bodyguard.
Willa had cornered her when she had gotten off work the day she refused to move into the club. She had managed to talk her into letting the Porters keep an eye on her when she wasn’t at work. Ginny had been hesitant, but Willa convinced her, saying that it would make everyone happier, including her, if they knew she was safe.
“Do they know it’s me that they’ll be watching?”
“Yes.” Willa gave her a strange look. “Why?”
“Because the Porters and the Colemans are feuding.”
“I thought it was the Porters and the Hayes that were feuding?”
“They are. They’re feuding with the Colemans, too.”
“Are the Colemans feuding with the Hayes?”
“No, just the Porters. The Hayes and the Colemans don’t like each other, but they aren’t feuding.” Ginny started thinking about it. It had been a while since she had talked to any of her brothers. They could be feuding with the Hayes since she had moved to town. “Or, at least not that I know of. I’ll have to ask Jessie when I see her around town.”
“I’m sure the feud between the Colemans and the Porters is all in the past, or they wouldn’t have taken the job.”
“Do you mind asking the Porters?” Ginny asked. “I really don’t want to make my brothers mad at me.”
Willa laid a gentle hand on her arm. “You don’t want to ask your brothers yourself?”
Ginny lowered her lashes so Willa couldn’t see the hurt in her eyes. “They won’t talk to me.”
“I’ll have Lucky talk to both the Colemans and the Porters and negotiate a cease fire until this situation is resolved.”
Ginny had been grateful for Willa’s intervention, and it had been Lucky who had told her that both families had promised to put their differences aside until Viper felt there was no longer a need for her to be protected.
It hadn’t been bad. The Porters kept their distance, unless she had to go out, then one of the three brothers went with her. Greer was the one who’d gone with her to the grocery store, saying he had a few things he could pick up. In fact, she struggled getting him out of the store.
“You handy at making biscuits?” he asked as they went into the store.
“Yes.”
“If I make the fixin’s, you think you can make them for me?”
“Certainly, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
“You any good at making sausage and gravy? Got to have something to go with them biscuits.”
“I’ll get sausage when we go down the meat aisle.”
It hadn’t been his last request. Every aisle they passed through, he added to the menu. Before they finally finished, she had a full cart, and nearly forgot the ingredients she had volunteered to pick up for Willa.
Carrying one bag of groceries inside, she called out for her kitty as Greer came in with an armload of groceries.
“Ginny!”
Startled, Ginny turned at Greer’s shout, freezing when he dropped the groceries and started running toward her. Flinging the groceries away from her, he grabbed her arm and started running, trying to drag her out the door.
Frantically tugging herself away, she barely had time to snatch her kitten off the couch before Greer clutched her arm again, this time forcing her out the door at a dead run.
“What …?” she gasped out as they ran across her lawn.
“Gas leak!”
Shocked, Ginny turned to stare at Greer in disbelief when an explosion rocked her house, sending both her and Greer to the ground.
“Smokey!”
Her terrified kitten had wiggled out from under and ran up the closest tree.
Screaming her kitten’s name again, she tried to get back up.
“Stay down!” Greer hissed, covering her with his body as another explosion had sparks landing on the grass next to them.
Greer was lifting her up when the fire department and police cars came down the street with their lights flashing and sirens sounding.
Leaving Greer to tell Knox what happened, Ginny went to the tree, trying to coax Smokey down. “Come to, Mama,” she crooned hiccupping cries from her lips. “Here, kitty, kitty.”
The firefighters turning the water hoses on sent the kitten higher up into the tree. She was still helplessly trying to talk her kitten down when another pop sounded from inside her house.
“Greer, get her a blanket and get her the fuck out of here!” Knox bellowed, picking her up to move her farther away from the house.
“I can’t leave my kitten!” Ginny yelled, trying to throw herself out of his restraining hold.
“I’ll get one of the firefighters to get it down when we get the fire under control.” Knox handed her off to Greer, who frog-marched her to a truck parked behind the fire truck.