Page 36 of Warrant (The Berserker’s Rage MC: Wyoming Chapter #1)

Ainsley

S ighing, I dropped the rag into a bucket of water and put down the twentieth bottle of hydrogen peroxide. My eyes scanned the hallway carpet for any last traces of blood.

Cypher had called me and offered for his MC to clean the place for me, but something about doing it for myself was cathartic. I needed to do this for myself. To close this situation out in my mind.

Though I had taken Cypher up on the offer to help me put new furniture in my rental because the couch and recliner had been shot to hell. I’d told him not to send Warrant though. He and Scythe had shown up personally to take care of it for me.

It’d taken me days to get this house put back together after what had happened.

Sure, I was using the excuse of cleaning it as a way to hide from Warrant.

To hide from the world. He’d told me he loved me and I didn’t know what to do with that information.

A part of me was ecstatic. The other part was logically looking at what a relationship between us would look like.

I focused back on my work and pushed all thoughts of the sexy biker to the back of my mind. This battle inside myself had been going on since the first night I’d met him and I wasn’t sure how to fix it, so it was best to ignore it.

I was eternally grateful one of my academy classmates had told me that hydrogen peroxide was the best way to get blood out of fabric. At the time he’d creeped me the hell out because he’d told me that while staring at me without blinking.

When I’d curled my lip at him, trying to decide whether to hit him or walk away, he’d continued to explain.

“You see, it breaks down the proteins in blood. It’ll foam up and just lift right out of pretty much any material. You never know when you might need the information one day!” The last he’d called out as I finally walked away from him.

Who knew that one day it really would come in handy? Though I never had asked why exactly he knew that or why he’d told me the way he had. The guy had washed out not too long after that. He hadn’t had what it took to be in law enforcement and had figured it out pretty quickly.

The cleaning had given me time to think.

It wasn’t fair to Warrant that I’d slept with him again, then told him I needed space.

I should’ve put my foot down and not let him touch me.

But when a man like that sets his mind to something he was hard to resist. Not to mention he’d saved my life less than a week ago.

That, plus the fact that I really couldn’t let myself see him again yet.

If I did, I’d end up right back in bed with him and those were the only reasons I wasn’t on his door step yelling at him for not wearing a condom the last time.

I hadn’t even realized it until later. Thank God I wasn’t in the part of my cycle where I was ovulating.

Bringing a baby into this situation wasn’t going to help at all.

Bending, I picked up the bucket filled with dirty water and went to my sink to pour it out. It was hard enough to stay away from him when those capable hands weren’t all over me.

“This is insane,” I muttered to myself. Cadet whined as she came and flopped down next to me in the kitchen. I looked down at her. “It’s impossible to fall in love with someone you basically just met, right?”

She cocked her head, but remained silent.

The doorbell chiming made me nearly jump out of my skin.

I’d been a little on edge after being attacked in my own damn home.

My pistol was a comforting weight on my hip.

I’d taken some time off to get the house back in order, but I had my holster clipped to my belt.

I wasn’t going anywhere without it for a while.

I peeked out the window as I passed and gasped when I saw who was standing there. Throwing open the door, I flung myself into my startled father’s arms.

Mom laughed as I used one arm to pull her into the hug as well until we were all crunched together. “What are you two doing here?” I asked after a couple of minutes. Not that I pulled away. My parents were basically my best friends and I’d been missing them fiercely since I’d moved.

“We haven’t heard from you in almost a week…” Mom said, hesitating a little with a small smile. “I know you’re an adult and busy, but I was worried.”

“Made me drive halfway across the state,” Dad grumbled, but he was smiling too.

“Come in,” I said, stepping aside, thankful I had already patched the bullet holes and gotten the last of the blood cleaned up.

I was really grateful I wasn’t going to have to explain to my parents what’d happened.

And that Harlow had not only let me borrow some make-up, but had shown me how to apply it so my black eye basically disappeared.

“Oh! Is this my Granddogger?” Mom asked, crouching down inside the door and scooping Cadet into her arms while the puppy wiggled and tried to lick every inch of her face.

“It is,” I said with a laugh.

It didn’t take long before we had their things settled in the guest bedroom and we’d migrated outside. Mom and I were sitting on the porch, watching while Dad played with Cadet in the backyard.

“How is everything?”

I looked over and found her watching me with a shrewd look. “What are you, psychic?”

“When it comes to you? Yes.” She smiled.

Sighing, I looked back out over the yard. “I met a guy.” A quick sidelong glance made me wince when I saw that she was trying to contain her excitement. “Mom…”

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just been what? Four years since you dated anyone?”

“Yeah. But I’m only thirty, Mom. I have plenty of time-”

“But you met someone,” she prompted.

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. “He’s so wrong for me.”

She frowned at that. “What do you mean?”

I couldn’t tell her everything. Hell, Owen was the only one I’d confided in because he sort of knew the crap the Berserker’s Rage got into.

The deputy who’d been injured that night didn’t remember a damn thing thanks to the head wound one of the Iron Circle Crew gave him.

He’d been hit from behind while standing outside smoking a cigarette.

They’d dragged him back into the car so no one would see him lying there and call the cops.

Since there’d been no witnesses we were still ‘looking into’ what’d happened.

“He’s a biker.”

She was silent for a moment and I didn’t need to look to know her eyes were wide.

“Was an MP in the military,” I continued. “He’s just…a bit wild.”

“And you’re the sheriff,” she concluded.

“Exactly.”

“You’ve always had this concrete sense of justice,” she told me. “Ever since you were a little kid. You’d never be one of the robbers when you and your cousins played cops and robbers. You always had to be a cop.”

I laughed, remembering. “Yeah.”

“Is that all that’s holding you back?”

“I’ve only known him for a short time,” I admitted.

“Oh, honey.”

Meeting her gaze, I shook my head. “Don’t say-”

“You love him,” she said, bulldozing through my denial like only a mother could.

“I don’t. I can’t,” I said, the words sounding weak even to me.

“Why can’t you?”

“I can’t do my job and be with him.” Swallowing hard, I tried not to cry. I wasn’t a crier. But saying it out loud to her only reaffirmed that it was the truth. I’d been trying to hide from it. I somehow had fallen in love with Warrant and I was going to have to choose. Him, or my career.

This wasn’t him putting that choice on me. It was my own moral code. I wished I could be like Denison and just look the other way, but I couldn’t do that and live with myself.

“It’s not possible to love someone that quickly… Is it?” I asked her.

She snorted and motioned to where my dad had flopped back in the grass and Cadet was climbing all over him. “He proposed to me on our second date.”

“You never told me that,” I said with a laugh.

“We didn’t want you getting any ideas,” she said with an arch of her brows. “Just because it worked for us, doesn’t mean that would be right for everyone. Besides, your father hated that last boyfriend of yours.”

“He’s hated all of my boyfriends, Mom. It’s like…a requirement for fathers.”

“Something tells me he won’t hate this one,” she murmured, hearts in her eyes. “If you love him, and he treats you well, we’ll love him.”

“I still don’t know…”

She waited patiently while my mind ran in circles, trying to come to some kind of decision. Now that I knew what it was going to take I could finally move forward. It’d taken nearly a week just to figure out what the problem was.

“We’d love to meet him.”

I laughed. “Maybe.” The thought of my parents meeting Warrant made a cold sweat break out over my skin. Though, I wasn’t sure why I was worried. The jerk was super charming. They’d probably end up loving him more than they loved me, their only child.

“When you’re ready,” Mom said, patient now that she knew she was going to get her way. It wouldn’t matter if I didn’t want to introduce them, they’d find a way.

“Maybe don’t tell Dad just yet,” I cautioned.

She laughed. “He was the one who bet me that we were going to get here and find out you were having guy troubles. A bet’s a bet and I owe him twenty bucks.”

My mouth dropped open. “You’re betting on stuff happening in your kid’s life?”

“We’re retired empty nesters, of course we are,” she replied with a smug grin. “Maybe when you give us grandbabies we’ll be less likely to meddle.”

“Yeah right,” I shot back. “Besides, I just gave you a grandkid.” I pointed out at the dog.

“She’ll do for now,” Mom said.

She was kidding. Mostly. They didn’t actually interfere in my life much.

I knew it terrified her when I’d followed through on my childhood dream of becoming law enforcement.

But she’d always been supportive. She’d never dissuaded me.

I knew they both wanted me to find someone to fall in love with, get married, and have kids, but they rarely ever pushed or even asked how that was going.

They were pretty mellow as far as parents went, and I was incredibly grateful for that since I had no siblings to spread the crazy between.

Mom got up and went out into the yard to play with her husband and my dog. Watching them together made my heart ache. I’ve always loved watching them interact together. They’d shown me what true love looked like and exactly the kind of relationship I wanted.

Now that I’d found Warrant—or he’d found me—I wanted what they had even more. It still seemed insane to me that I was considering giving up everything I’d worked for, but the idea of losing him made me equally upset.

I kept dreaming of seeing Warrant standing there while some asshole pointed a gun at him.

Only in my dreams I was too late and the bullet hit him in the heart.

The first night I’d woken up with the image of his lifeless eyes staring up at me I’d sobbed uncontrollably.

That was when I knew I loved him. I’d been sticking my head in the sand ever since.

As much as I wanted him, wanted a future with him, it terrified me.

I knew exactly who I was in my career and when I was single.

It’d been a long time since I’d been in a relationship.

And that hadn’t ended very well. The asshole had cheated.

Not that I held anyone else responsible for what Patrick had done.

I hadn’t gone on from that relationship expecting that other men I dated would cheat.

I’d just been so busy and hadn’t opened myself up to anyone new.

Not until I’d moved to Sentinel anyway. It really had been my fresh start, in more ways than one.

Smiling, I stood up and went out to the yard to join my family.

Eventually, I was going to have to make my final decision.

And I was going to have to see Warrant again to let him know.

But today, I was letting go of all of that and just enjoying the afternoon with my parents.