Fanning the Biker's Flame - Piper Davenport Page 0,30

are you?” Carl demanded, still backing away.

I bit my lip and watched as the bigger man moved Carl further and further down the hall.

“I’m the bodyguard,” he retorted, and I let out a quiet snort.

Shutter was built like a freaking bodyguard. Taller even than Shadow and muscles upon muscles, he was built like a brick house.

“Where’s Posey?” Carl asked.

“She’s busy.”

“Are you… are you sleeping with her?”

Carl didn’t get a chance to ask anything else because Shutter clocked him square in the jaw, and Carl went down with a bang.

I yanked open the door and squeaked, “What did you do?”

“I pulled the fuckin’ punch, Posey. Now, get the fuck outta here and go meet Shadow. I’ll take care of this asshole.”

“Did you… did you kill him?”

“Jesus, woman. No, I didn’t kill him.”

As if to confirm that statement, Carl started to moan.

“Get the fuck out of here, Posey,” Shutter demanded, and I grabbed my purse and took off.

Just like that.

Ran away like a pussy.

With a gigantic smile of relief on my face.

I sped to my new home, my heart racing like crazy, where I parked in my new spot and rushed inside, slamming into Shadow as my feet crossed the threshold.

“Hey, baby, excited to be home?”

I wrapped my arms around him and burst into tears.

“Jesus, what the fuck?”

Through hiccupping sobs, I gave him a blow-by-blow of everything that had happened in the last twenty minutes, the adrenaline wearing off and fear setting in with each word.

“And I think Shutter killed him.”

“I thought you said he was groaning,” Shadow pointed out.

“They were probably death groans.”

He chuckled, holding me tighter. “Shutter said he pulled his punch, right?”

I nodded into Shadow’s chest.

“Then he definitely didn’t kill him.”

I sniffed. “Can you find out?”

“Shutter’ll call me when he’s dealt with it.”

I heard male voices yelling and pulled away to meet his eyes. “Is everyone here?”

“Out back,” Shadow said. “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded, wiping my tears in an attempt to put myself back together. “Oh my god, I’m a mess.”

“Baby, you’re good.”

“I have to unpack.”

“Everything’s done.”

“What?” I squeaked. “What do you mean? We have to put the bed together, unpack the kitchen stuff.”

“Done. Well, except for the kitchen stuff. It’s all currently on the counters so that you can decide where you want shit to go. But the bed’s together and Shiloh made it for you. The women took care of the bathroom and closet. Your suitcases with your personal stuff haven’t been touched, but anything that wasn’t in those bags was unpacked and put wherever it was at your old place.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yeah,” he countered.

“Are you serious?” I whispered.

“Are you mad or happy?”

“Oh my god, I’m so happy,” I breathed out. “I’m so, so tired. I couldn’t imagine having to do all of that before getting up at seven tomorrow to teach a class.”

“You’re off on Thursday, though, right?”

“Yes.”

“Come and see what’s been done and then you can tell me if you want anything moved.” He stroked my cheek. “If you do, I’ll take care of that tomorrow.”

“Let me clean up a bit.”

“Okay, honey, I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

I nodded and made my way into the bathroom from the hallway, then moved into the bedroom. It was perfect.

Okay, I’d have to move some of the throw pillows around, but it was as close to perfect as anyone could get and I almost burst into tears again.

I took a deep breath and stepped back into the bathroom, finding most of my things where I’d had them in my old bathroom, so I cleaned up a little, brushed my teeth, then walked out to the kitchen. Shadow wasn’t there, but I saw him out the back slider, laughing at something Doom was saying as they stood by the grill filled with all sorts of different meat choices.

With him distracted, I took a minute to check out the carnage in my kitchen and had set some plates in the cupboard above the microwave when I heard the slider open.

“Posey?” a feminine voice called.

“Kitchen,” I called.

I turned and came face-to-face with Quin… and Jasmine, Willow, Shiloh, and Lyric.

“Oh, hi,” I said. “Shadow said y’all helped put everything away.”

“Hopefully we didn’t fuck it up,” Jasmine said.

“Oh my god, are you kidding me? It’s amazing. Thank you.”

“Parker and Kennedy are on kid watching duty, otherwise they’d be here as well.”

“They watched all your kids so you could do this for me?”

“Yeah,” Willow said.

I waved my hands in front of my face to keep the tears at bay. “Oh my word, I