“You want to work, fine, but you won’t be catching any bus. I will take you and pick you up after work.” She frowns, but I continue. “I need to make sure that you are safe, Dakota, and not just from your ex but from the Hades MC too. If they know you are mine, they might try something.”
“What if you are busy? I can’t expect you to be my chauffeur,” she mutters.
“This will be temporary until we sort out this issue with your ex, and then we will get you a car.” Her arms uncross, and her hand comes to rest on my chest as a worried look crosses her face.
“Are you going to go looking for him?” she asks.
“It’s better than sitting here waiting for him to show up, don’t you think?”
“Maybe he won’t find me here. Why not just leave it? He’s dangerous. He will endeavour to hurt someone to get to me.” I can see the real fear in her eyes, and I hate the fact that this motherfucker has this kind of hold on her, but I will break it, and if he doesn’t cooperate, I will break him too.
“Don’t you want to talk to your family?” I know I will convince her with this, as I can sense the need she has in her to know how her family is doing.
“Of course I do, but he threatened them before. If he knows that I contacted them, he will hurt them.” There is a world of pain in her words, which has a vice tightening around my heart when I can sense my woman’s pain. Well, I think it’s time to resolve this.
“Come on,” I say as I take hold of her hand and turn, making my way towards the door.
“Where are we going? Hunter, I haven’t even brushed my hair yet,” she states as she rushes to keep up with me as I guide the way downstairs to the office. I hear her gasp when she walks into our storage facility and sees the operation we have going. On one side, we have a limited number of parcels that come in just to keep our cover going, but on the other, we have laptops, a flat screen up against one of the walls that we sometimes have on when staking something out, and a board with photos of some of the characters we have our eye on. “What is all this?” she murmurs as she looks around as we make our way to King’s office at the back.
“Hey, darling, sleep well?” Dash greets as he walks past on his way out.
“Umm, yes, thanks,” Dakota replies, still preoccupied with what she is seeing. As we approach King’s door, his eyes rise from his laptop and take us both in in one glance.
“Come to show Dakota our operation?” King asks as he rises from his chair.
“Not really,” I state, which has King’s shoulders tensing. “I want Dakota to phone her family, but she needs to use a secure line before I know how I’m going to deal with her ex.” King frowns, as I haven’t given him a complete update yet and was going to do it at the meeting, but I want Dakota to be able to speak to her family as soon as possible. I think she has been deprived of them for long enough.
King nods and inclines his head towards a phone on his desk before he starts to make his way out of the office. At the door, he stops and looks back at me. “Meeting later,” he says, which tells me that he is waiting for an update, then. I nod in reply before he turns and leaves.
“Okay, babe, make your call,” I say. Instead of rushing to the phone like I thought she would, Dakota stands here, looking at me. By her frown, I can see that she is dying to ask me all the questions I know are coming. “I will explain everything once you have spoken to your family.” She inclines her head in thought but finally nods and then walks to the desk and the phone.
“Are you sure this is a good idea? What if he’s got the phones bugged?”
“Trust me, he won’t be able to trace this call.” I can see when she finally gives in. Her shoulders relax as she leans forward and picks up the phone before dialling. From where I’m standing, I can hear the phone start to ring, and then on the third ring, a woman’s voice answers. Immediately, Dakota’s eyes fill with tears.
“Mom,” she whispers. A silence greets her before I hear her mother answer. With that, I turn and leave her to her call, finding King and Gunner by one of the laptops.
“I’m going to take Dakota for a ride today. Tomorrow, she’s going to work.”
King looks away from the laptop and at me. “She’s going to work?” he asks with a frown.
“Yeah, she wants to continue working.”
King’s hand rises to his stubbled chin as he strokes his jaw in thought. “Okay, I will get Gunner and Frost to go set up camera surveillance outside the shop.”
“Thanks, King. I will update everyone at the meeting.”
“I want Gunner to go with the two of you on this ride,” King states, which is a surprise to Gunner, too, as he looks up from the laptop in surprise and then over at me with a frown.
“Shit, Hunter, I always knew you needed a babysitter,” he quips.
“Nope, King is just arranging it so that Dakota can compare how much better I am,” I tease, which has Gunner grinning. King shakes his head in amusement just as the phone in his pocket starts to beep. Pulling it out, he looks at the screen, then smiles, which has me curious at the identity of the caller.
“Hey,” he answers as he steps away from the two of us.
“I wonder who that is?” I say as I follow King’s movements with my eyes.
“Blue,” Gunner states as he once again looks at his laptop.