with his cheeks reddened from the chilly wind outside. He approached me with a broad grin and sat down next to me, touching my shoulder in greeting, and some of the anxiety I felt was relieved. Honestly, I was surprised, too. I’d expected things to be awkward, at least a little, since he’d purposefully avoided me that morning. If Priest had acted like he was uncomfortable, or continued to avoid me, that would’ve hurt worse than his rejection last night did. Maybe he’d just needed some space, take a few breaths, figure out what was happening. That much I could understand.
The room settled down, with members of the inner circle and the enforcement team gathered around the table.
“Let’s cut straight to the chase,” Blade said. “I know none of us are happy that Xavier slipped through the cracks like that. So let’s figure out how to seal them—and what to do about this stalker.”
“Right,” Raven said. He wrinkled his nose at his laptop, obviously frustrated that his background check hadn’t caught Xavier earlier. “I’ll dig deeper into his background to start—see if he has a history of this kind of stuff.”
“I’ve been talking to some guys at the station,” Rebel added with a nod. “You’ve definitely got a cause for a restraining order here.”
“A restraining order?” I asked, raising both my eyebrows in surprise. “You really think that’s necessary?”
A restraining order was something for people who were in real danger—threats and stalking and all that.
Which.
I supposed Xavier had been doing those things. But it felt excessive for someone like me, who could easily whoop Xavier’s ass if I needed to, even without the entire club behind me. A restraining order felt like something meant for people who couldn’t protect themselves.
“Yeah,” Rebel said. “I really do. If you put it in place now, if he pulls something again, legally we’ll have a stronger case. Easier to get him put away.”
I opened my mouth to push back again and was rewarded with Priest’s elbow knocking into mine. He narrowed his eyes at me, mouth quirked into a little smile, and he didn’t need words to say exactly what he meant. I was being bullheaded again—letting my pride get in the way of the safety of the club. Because Rebel was right. It was better to stay ahead of Xavier, rather than wait for him to do something even crazier.
“All right,” I relented. “As long as the process isn’t too big of a pain in the ass.”
“Oh, it definitely is,” Rebel said with a laugh. “But I’ll walk you through it at the station.”
“And until we figure out where he is and what his plans are, we want you to have a regular watch,” Blade said. “Gunnar, Tru, and the enforcement team have already put together a schedule to ensure you’ve got someone on your six twenty-four seven.”
“What? Full watch? Guys.” I glanced around the table, and all the enforcers, from both chapters, were nodding. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Gunnar said. “He knows where you live, Mal.”
“You’d do the same thing for us,” Siren said, leaning back in her chair. “If any of us were dealing with this kind of stalking, you’d be calling for these same measures—maybe even more.”
I pressed my lips together.
Siren raised both eyebrows, peering down her nose at me as she waited for me to argue otherwise. But how could I? She was right. If any of the members had someone sending them messages for months, sending things to their home, and then showing up at the bar as a prospect—hell, I’d’ve called the cavalry ages ago.
“You’ve been looking after the club for years,” Tru said. “Let us do the same for you, for once.”
I sighed. “Okay, okay. But only until we get the restraining order set up.”
“I think the sergeants get to decide when the watch ends,” Blade said with a grin. “Nice try, though.”
Raven pulled up the enforcement schedule, and the rest of the meeting was spent hashing out the enforcement rotation, as well as plans of action for if Xavier did show up or sent more mail. Raven did something complicated to my phone, too, pulling records of all the numbers that Xavier had used, and he grimaced at the sheer amount of them.
I really hadn’t thought it was this serious. But the club’s reaction was making it obvious that I’d been in denial about how serious this was. I hadn’t heard from Xavier since he was kicked out of Ballast, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before