He turned down her street yet stopped when he saw Grace in the yard of the old woman from the night when Bear had run off.
Stopping the motorcycle, Ice hastily got off his bike and went to the front porch. He took Grace’s arm and yanked her away from the man getting ready to pound her to smithereens.
“What in the fuck is going on?” Ice yelled over the others’ raised voices.
Snake had positioned his much smaller body in front of the massive man whose huge bulk took up much of the porch.
“That fucking bitch needs to get off my property before I call the cops.”
“What’s your name?” Ice demanded.
“Doyle.”
“Doyle, if you call my old lady a bitch again, I’ll break your fucking hands, and you’ll have to call the police using your fucking toes.”
“Let him call the police. I’ll call them myself!” Grace spoke up from behind his back.
“Why?” Ice didn’t take he’s eyes off Doyle. He now understood what Grace thought was strange about him. He was a meth user, and there was something making him nervous.
“Get off the porch and go back to your house,” Ice ordered Grace. “I’ll deal with this.”
“I’m not leaving until I see Merry. Her mail hasn’t been touched all week, and she gets her mail every day. The mailman asked me if she was out of town, so I came to check on her. He says she’s sick, but he won’t let me see her,” Grace explained.
“Go to your house!”
“No!”
“Then go stand on the sidewalk.”
Once he heard her walking toward the sidewalk, and she was a safe distance away, he took out his phone and called 911.
“What are you doing?” Doyle asked suspiciously.
“Calling the cops for you.”
“I wasn’t going to call the cops!”
“Too fucking bad!”
When a voice came over the line, Ice gave the address then hung up without an explanation.
Doyle barreled over him, trying to make a run for it; however, Ice punched him, knocking him backwards against the house.
“If that old lady is dead, you’re going to be joining her in the morgue,” Ice hissed as he used his forearm to pin him against the wall. He was tempted to pull his gun out and shoot the fucker, but then he heard the sirens coming closer.
Ice released Doyle as soon as the cops got out of their cars. Doyle took off running, and Ice didn’t try to stop him—the cops deserved to earn their money. He had already done them a solid for the day by calling them.
It took two officers to catch Doyle, finally stunning him with the Taser so they could handcuff him while Ice explained to another one why he had called. The officer immediately called for a fire and hazmat truck, an ambulance, and the DEA. Then Ice and Snake were told to move back.
Ice went to Grace, moving her across the street to watch with his arm over her shoulder.
“Why aren’t they going inside?” Grace asked.
“They have to wait for the hazmat unit, baby.”
They stood there until they arrived and watched two men suit up and go inside. They were gone for several minutes before they came out.
Grace cried out when she saw one of them packing Merry. She started to go to her, but Ice held her back.
“They need to get her to the hospital.”
Both of them stood as they loaded her into the ambulance.
“Let’s go back to your house before they tell us to leave. We’ll be lucky if they don’t evacuate the neighborhood.”
Grace was walking angrily toward her house. “I should have checked on her before. When that jerk wouldn’t let me in, I should have—”
“Done exactly what I did and called the police,” Ice snapped. “Snake, you can go back to the clubhouse. You’re done here. You don’t have to watch her anymore.”
“What does that mean?” Grace stopped, pivoting around to face him with her hands on her hips.
“It fucking means I’m tired of this bullshit. I’m tired of my ass being sore riding back and forth for three hours. I owe God knows how much in speeding tickets, and none of my brothers want to get stuck in this town, covering your ass, because they don’t know what you’re going to get into next.”
“You’re breaking up with me?” Grace’s lip trembled.
“No, I’m not fucking breaking up with you.” Ice sighed, pulling her into his arms. “You’re moving to Queen City. I have a place picked out for us that we can move into at the first of the month. It’s big, and it’s on a small farm right outside town. It’s a five-minute drive from the clubhouse. Your semester ends next week, so you can spend the rest of the month packing.”
“I can’t quit my job.”
“The house is paid for, so I really don’t give a shit if you work or not, but Queen City has schools and several colleges; I’m sure you can find a job.”