Page 6

CHAPTER 6

Toxic

P atting Hank’s neck, I held the phone between my ear and shoulder. “Some vegetables, fruits, butter, flour,” I said, listing off the things I’d need to make meals over the next few days. “Bread, mayo, lunch meat.”

“What kind?” Priest asked.

“Chicken, turkey, roast beef. Lettuce and tomatoes, too. The garden here doesn’t look like it’s been kept up.”

“Meat?”

“No, they have a lot of that.” I’d texted Priest after breakfast to see if he could hit the grocery store for me, to save some time. Besides, taking the Hellions grocery shopping was guaranteed to get us a good laugh later.

Butcher was finishing up the dishes and Billie was out cold. I’d checked on her only a few minutes after I’d walked her to her room. She was still fully dressed. I’d just draped a blanket over her and let her sleep.

The woman was so far beyond exhausted it was a miracle that she’d managed the drive home. I wasn’t about to let her drive herself back to the hospital without some kind of nap. I wouldn’t let her sleep too long, because that would upset her. I understood it. When my mother had been in the hospital, it had taken a lot to get me and my brother to even leave her side. Same with Dad.

That was why I was taking care of Billie this way. She didn’t have anyone to push her to eat, shower, or sleep. And she seemed like the type to run herself ragged. Hell, she was already there. She’d had little blue circles under her gorgeous eyes this morning.

“Anything else?”

“No, that’ll do for now. Thanks, Priest.”

“No problem. I needed to get some shit to feed my horde anyway.”

I chuckled. “They’re going to lose it when they hear that we’re out here working on a ranch.”

“I know. I’m trying to keep them busy for now. Maybe you can ask your girl there if I could bring them out one of these days. They’d get a kick out of all the animals. Especially the horses.” He said the last sentence in a lower voice, which told me his girls were somewhere nearby within hearing distance.

I frowned. “What do you mean, my girl?”

It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since I’d been working out here at Cholla Summit Ranch. Priest wasn’t even around when we got back last night. There was no way he’d already figured out I was into Billie.

He barked out a laugh. “You’re grocery shopping for the woman, Toxic. Which means you’re likely planning on cooking. I didn’t even know you could cook.”

“I can’t,” I lied. I wasn’t a chef or anything, but I could throw some meals together.

“Right. Okay, well, do you need me to bring these out to you? Or I could get one of the other guys to do it.”

“That would be great. There’s a lot to do here,” I said, eyeing the barn door that was off its track. “Send out one of the guys. I know you have shit to do, too.”

“Ricochet looked bored this morning. Ever since Idaho’s construction crew took over work on the school, he hasn’t had a lot to do,” Priest said with a grin in his voice. “I’ll have him come out as soon as I get back.”

“Thanks again, Brother.”

Idaho had offered, and Lock had accepted, to hire a crew to finish building the school for the kids who’d been stuck inside the cult. With everything that kept happening with us, all the kids would out of school before we managed to finish it. Riptide, Lock, and I had all thrown a bit of cash toward the project as well. Even though Idaho didn’t mind, and clearly had the money, we felt he shouldn’t have to foot that whole bill, so we’d helped out.

“Anytime.”

We hung up and I went over into the tack room to see if there were any tools in there. Everything was neat and tidy, and I had no problem finding what I needed. There were only a limited amount of tools in here though, so I was guessing the rest were in the car port over near the house.

My cut was inside the truck, no way was I wearing it out here where it was likely to get animal shit, sweat, and dust all over it. I got started working on the stubborn ass door. I was swearing at it as I muscled the heavy ass wood back onto the track when Butcher spoke from behind me.

“Need some help?”

“Need this bitch to stop being so fucking ornery,” I grunted. “Been stuck like this for too fucking long.” I huffed out a satisfied breath when it finally clunked into place. I looked over my shoulder. “What’s up?”

“Bored. I can help with some of this shit.”

“Yeah?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

He shrugged. “Tired of sitting on my ass with that dog looking like she wants to take a chunk out of me.”

We both glanced over at Eris, who wagged her tail. There was a hopeful look on her face, as though she was waiting to see if she could actually bite one of us. All in good fun, of course. Fucking heelers. They were insane. And for some reason seemed to be the first choice of crazy horse women.

“See if you can find some paint,” I told him.

“Alright.”

“Check inside the house,” I called out.

“I know how to look for paint. Jesus fucking Christ.”

I grinned and stripped off my t-shirt. It was already hot as fuck out here. Pulling out my phone, I saw that it was seven-thirty. I’d let Billie sleep for another hour, then wake her up. I wanted to let her sleep for four or five more hours, but then she wouldn’t trust me the next time. And there was going to be a next time.

As it was, she wasn’t super trusting. And it was difficult for her to accept help. I wanted to break down those walls. Her laugh this morning had been a thing of beauty. I wanted to hear it again and again.

Butcher had stayed uncharacteristically quiet during breakfast and I knew it was because he was giving her and I the chance to talk. Sneaky bastard. Thought I didn’t know what he was up to.

I slid the door back and forth, noting the places it was catching and doing what I could to make sure it would roll easily. I shoved it back open once it was behaving the way I wanted it to and looked around. There was so much in disrepair, I wasn’t sure where to start first.

Looking over at the house, I saw Butcher dragging out a power washer. He hadn’t been raised on a ranch, but he wasn’t a dumbass. He knew he needed to spray down the house first before getting started on painting. The fact that I hadn’t even needed to tell him what I wanted painted just spoke to how in sync we were.

As much as I loved all of my brothers, I’d been shocked at the bond he and I had formed over the years. After I lost my brother I wasn’t sure I would be able to let anyone get as close again. Butcher had stormed into my life and changed all that. One crazy, twisted action at a time he’d become my new brother. The fucker was insane, but goddamn I loved him.

I glanced over my shoulder as I heard a vehicle approaching. I recognized one of our caged rides and saw Ricochet scowling as he drove up. The dirt roads out here weren’t the best for taking our bikes, so we’d be using cage rides for the foreseeable future. Butcher was already stalking up to the truck when I got over there. “Thanks for bringing these out,” I said, opening the back door and pulling bags out.

“No problem.” Ricochet looked around. “Place is far out as fuck.”

“That’s what happens when you have thousands of acres,” I told him with a grin.

“Nice place though. Owner here?” Ricochet asked.

The way he said it had me rolling my eyes. “Yeah, she’s sleeping. She had a rough night.”

He rubbed his chin. “Oh yeah?”

“Spit it out,” I snapped, glaring at him.

“Just curious what she’s like,” he said, trying to look innocent.

“Hush ratted you out,” Butcher said, coming back for a second load of groceries.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked as we all carried the rest inside the house.

“He may have mentioned seeing you at the clubhouse last night and that you looked like you’d been hit between the eyes with a pole,” Ricochet answered.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I repeated.

“No one’s seen you do a favor for a woman,” Ricochet said, leaning against the counter while I started putting groceries away.

I had to pause at the random ‘gifts’ from the Hellions. Chocolate chip brownies, sugar frosted cereals—only the kind with unicorns on the box. Candy, candy, and more candy. But the essentials I asked for were here too. I grinned, knowing that Priest had done his damnedest to keep the extra surprises to a minimum. I unwrapped a chocolate chip brownie and tried it. Pretty damn good. Ricochet was already grabbing handfuls of cereal and munching on it.

“Lock asked me to help. I’m helping,” I muttered around a mouthful of chocolate.

“You made her breakfast,” Butcher pointed out.

“I was fucking hungry,” I snapped.

“You bought her groceries. By the way, Priest said you owe him two hundred bucks.”

“Two hundred-” I snatched the receipt out of his hand and scowled at it. “Jesus, shit has gotten expensive.”

“That’s because you usually only eat out,” Ricochet teased.

I gave him a grim look. “Just because you have Jordan and Gwen cooking for you doesn’t mean the rest of us have women to do the same.”

“Gwenny hardly ever cooks for me,” Ricochet argued.

“Uh huh,” I said, unconvinced. “If Jordan works late your sister invites you over so you don’t starve.”

“We’re not talking about me right now,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. “We’re talking about- Hey.”

I looked up at him and followed his gaze to where Billie was standing, looking confused. “You’re up.” I glanced at my watch. She had thirty more minutes, but I doubted I’d get her to take them.

“Sorry if we were being too loud,” Ricochet said. He shot me a shit-eating grin as he crossed the room to Billie. “I’m Ricochet.”

“It’s…nice…to meet you.” She shook his hand, looking perplexed that there was another man in her small kitchen.

It took all my self-control not to rip my brother away from her. He was just trying to piss me off by holding her hand for too long. The fucker was head over boots for Jordan. There was zero way he’d move in on another woman. Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to yank my chain as much as he could.

“I should get back to the clubhouse,” Ricochet said. “Nice meeting you.” He gave me another malicious grin as he walked out the door.

Fucker.

“Ricochet was just dropping off some groceries.”

“This is too much,” she gasped, coming over to look at everything in the bags. “I couldn’t eat all this even if I had months.”

“Don’t worry,” I told her, “we’ll help. You want to head over to the hospital?”

“Yeah,” she said, looking dazed. Her eyes dropped down to my naked chest and widened.

I liked the way she was staring at me. I may have made my pecs dance a bit, just to wake her up. The way her eyes darted away and her cheeks took on a rosy hue told me it’d worked. “Good. Why don’t you go put your boots on, and I’ll make you some sandwiches to take.”

“Okay.” She turned and walked off without another word.

She was on auto-pilot and I knew she’d be forgetting things like feeding herself if I wasn’t pushing it on her.

“I’ll put the rest of the food away,” Butcher said.

“Thanks,” I said as I started making six huge sandwiches. Two would be for her, the rest for us, though I doubt she would eat both. She’d barely eaten anything at breakfast. I was determined to fix that.

When she came back out with her boots on, I grabbed the keys off the counter. “Come on, I’ll drive you.”

“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “I can drive myself.”

“Nope,” I told her, holding the door open.

She gave me a confused look as she walked out of the house. I glanced over at Butcher. “There’s sandwiches there for you. Toss me two of those.”

He grabbed the bags and tossed them my way. “See you in a bit.”

“You good here alone?” I asked. “I can have Ricochet wait ‘til I get back.”

He gave me a grim smile. “Those fuckers come sneaking around here while you’re gone and you’ll never even know it.”

“We’ll be hiding bodies,” I pointed out.

“She already told me that pigs eat people,” he reminded me. “No one will find them.”

I laughed and shook my head. “You’re a crazy fucker.”

He just shrugged and put a head of lettuce into the fridge.

I let the screen door slam closed as I walked outside. Billie was waiting by the truck for me. I grabbed the shirt that I’d left hanging on the porch railing while bringing groceries inside and shrugged it on.

“I need to drive or I won’t be able to get home,” she told me.

“No worries. I’ll come pick you up around four. Then bring you back again before visiting hours close.” She needed to be back before then or they wouldn’t let her stay overnight. I knew that would drive her crazy with worry if she wasn’t with her grandfather through the night. But I was bound and determined to make sure she was safe and taking care of herself at the same time.

I didn’t know her well yet, but she was easy enough to read. Plus, this gave me more time with her. Something I definitely wanted.