Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

Gage opened the sliding glass door that led outside to the patio before he accepted the call.

"Hey, Bree. What do you have for me?"

"Information. Although I'm not sure you deserve it."

He puffed out his cheeks and let the air out slowly. Bree wasn't the kind of person who forgave easily. She would hold this over his head until he died. Was it worth the trouble?

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was shot at. That was rude of me."

The other end of the line was silent and after a few seconds he pulled the phone away from his ear to make sure the call hadn’t disconnected.

Nope, the time was still running.

"I accept your apology." Bree cleared her throat. "I looked into Dani's past and her relationship with the Hell Raisers. On a side note, before I give you the information, I think I would like her. Maybe I should come out. You know, to be on site for any information you might need."

Yeah, that wouldn't be happening. Bree would love Dani and that was the problem. He didn't need Dani infiltrating his life any more than she already was. Bree would latch on to her and then the two of them would scheme against him.

He couldn't let that happen.

"You work best from the office. Besides, Chance doesn't like you in danger and we don't know what I'm up against. So how about you tell me what you know?"

Bree gave him a dramatic sigh. "Fine. I think I figured out why the Hell Raisers would be after Dani. Two days after the bar fight, the Hell Raisers’ clubhouse was raided."

Gage cursed. "So they think she snitched on them."

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner. That's my guess anyway. The cops are looking for her and then they show up at the club with a warrant to search the premises? Seems awfully suspicious if you ask me. Granted, it wasn't her. She has a rock-solid alibi, but the Hell Raisers probably don't know that, nor are they going to look into it too hard."

No, an MC wouldn't care about the details. All they would see was a patch bunny who went missing the same time they got busted. In their minds, one plus one equaled guilty.

"What was her alibi?"

Bree tsked him. "That's not my story to tell. Girl code and all. If Dani wants you to know about the time in her life that she was away from you, then she can tell you. Otherwise, my lips are sealed."

What the actual fuck?

Bree was supposed to be his teammate. She hadn't even met Dani yet and already she was taking her side over his.

"So much for family," he grumbled.

"You are my family and if I thought telling you would help with what was going on, then I would spill the beans. But it doesn't. Dani has a past. A really rough one from what I can tell but she's entitled to tell you about it on her own terms. And personally, if I were you, I would want to hear it directly from her."

If that wasn't evasive as fuck, then he didn't know what was. Gage wanted to storm back into the house and demand Dani tell him all her secrets. But he stopped himself from doing that. Mostly because he didn't need to get any closer to her than he already was. A couple of hours together in the same house and already he could feel some of his walls starting to crack. He needed to reinforce those, stat. Nothing good would come of him letting her back in.

"Did you find out anything else?"

"I've got some feelers out but I'm going to need more than an hour to learn anything. There's more to the raid. I just know it," Bree insisted. "I just need to tug on a few strings to get the ball rolling. I have a feeling once I do, a lot of secrets are going to come out."

They always did, and knowing his hometown, corruption would be mixed in there somehow. Since he worked closely with local, state, and federal law enforcement, he knew there were always a few bad apples that slipped into the mix. It gave the rest of the good guys a bad reputation.

"Keep me posted. I'm going to let Black know I'll be using this place for the foreseeable future."

"Are you sure I can't come visit? I think my expertise could be valuable."

Yeah, that was a big hell no. He added sending a message to Chance and Daniel on his list of things to do immediately. He needed to cut the head off the problem before it became one, and Bree visiting Pennsylvania would be a huge problem.

"I'm sure. I promise to tell you everything that happens from here on out."

He could practically hear the wheels turning through the phone. Texting Chance would be the first order of business for him. If he didn't get to his teammate first, Bree would find a way to convince Chance that a trip was necessary.

"See you soon, Gage."

Bree hung up before he could say anything else. He pulled up his text thread with his teammate and typed out a quick message. Hitting send, he hoped it was enough to keep Bree away. Next he texted Black and Daniel to give them a heads-up he would be stuck in Pennsylvania longer than he expected.

Daniel's reply was simply a “K.” His team leader was many things but a conversationalist wasn't one of them. It was one of the traits he liked about Daniel. He never had to worry about his team leader getting into anyone else's business. As long as he did his job, Daniel was happy.

Black, on the other hand, didn't make things as easy.

BLACK: Feel free to use the house as long as you like.

GAGE: Thank you.

BLACK: Care to tell me what's going on though? You mentioned when Daniel brought you on that the East Coast was a hard no for you. I've respected that, so what changed?

He should've known it wouldn't be as simple from the owner of Blackguard Security. Black was a great man to work for. He paid well and gave a shit about his employees. It was that last part that he could've done without at the moment.

GAGE: It's personal. The East Coast is still off-limits, and as soon as I leave Pennsylvania, I hope to never come back again.

The words didn't hold as much conviction as they did when he was first hired and that aggravated him. Dani wasn't supposed to be changing him.

BLACK: Okay. Let me know if you need anything in the meantime. I'll be in Boston for a bit yet. I have my own problems to take care of.

He didn't ask his boss what problems those could be. If he didn't want Black in his business, then he wouldn't get involved in his boss's. Besides, the Boston team could handle anything Black had going on. That team was all former special ops and they specialized in handling the problems others couldn't. Gage was confident they would have things under control and he could focus on Dani and whatever secrets she had that Bree refused to spill.

He went back into the house, in search of her, hoping that she would be willing to tell him what she had been up to since they split.

Dani wasn't in the kitchen, nor was she in the living room. Gage checked every room on the first floor but she was nowhere to be found. He climbed the steps to the second floor and expected to find her in the bedroom she had chosen as hers, but that too was empty.

Panic started to take hold. Pulling a disappearing act wasn't something he could put past her doing, simply to punish him for how he’d acted since bailing her out.

Gage was busy dashing between the bedrooms upstairs when the sound of the front door stopped him in his tracks. He spun on his heels and looked over the railing just in time to see Dani walking into the house.

"Where the fuck have you been?" he barked out with no finesse, and gripping the railing so hard he was afraid it would snap.

Dani stopped in her tracks. With her head cranked back to look up at him and her hands fisted firmly on her hips, she tossed him just as much attitude.

"Sitting on the porch swing. I didn't realize I needed to tell you every move I planned to make."

He should've stopped arguing with her at that explanation. She didn't need to tell him where she was. She was safe at the house. No one knew where they were. The house wasn't linked to either of them, and if anyone came down the long driveway, he would know immediately.

Yet he continued to yell at her.

"You need to tell me before you go and disappear again!"

"Again? I wasn't aware I disappeared on you before."

No, she hadn't. When she left him at sixteen, he knew exactly where she was. It was torture those last weeks of his senior year as he waited for graduation to come. He had to see her every day and know she wanted nothing to do with him. She was one year younger than him and he always thought that year apart before she graduated would be tough on him. Little did he know having to see her and not touch her was worse.

"You know what I mean."

"No, Gage, I don't, so how about you explain it to me? I stepped outside because I wanted some fresh air. At no point did you say I had to stay inside the house, so I don't see what the problem is here."

Fuck it. They weren't going to get anywhere if they kept beating around the bush with each other. He hightailed his ass down the stairs until he was crowding her space.

"You're my problem! Coming back into my life after all this time is the problem. We planned a life together and one day you decided you no longer wanted that. You dumped me and ignored me like I no longer existed and for what? To escape what happened? Because things got hard? Because we lost the baby? So much for always together until the end! "

Those words, coupled with the mention of the baby they lost, was enough to break him. For years he’d avoided thinking about either, and here he was, opening the floodgates.

"Yeah, Gage, I did that, but you want to know why ? Because I was fucked up. I was sixteen, pregnant, and just realized I miscarried our child! But you want to know the worst part? I was happy it happened. Not just relieved, but fucking happy ." She glared at him and took a breath. "What the fuck kind of person is happy that they lost their baby ? A shitty one, that's what kind. So yes, I broke up with you because I knew I had a hell of a lot of growing up to do and I couldn't do it with you. Not back then. You had your future planned out and I was still struggling with mine. I was a junior with a boyfriend who was about to leave. We knew that first year would be hard but I didn’t realize how hard until reality slapped me in the face. If we hadn't lost the baby, you would've married me, stayed here and, in a few years, resented me for it all."

"Damn right I would've married you. I wanted a life with you and I would've given up everything to have it!" Gage yelled back.

"Exactly." Dani sounded defeated. "You never would've left this shithole town and followed your dreams. You were already making plans to put off joining the Army until the baby was older. We swore we would never make the same mistakes our parents did."

Her reminder of the promise they made to each other was a swift kick to the gut. They were both byproducts of teenage parents who resented the fact that they had to give up everything they wanted to raise a child. At least his parents made the best of it. They never lied to him, and he had a decent life growing up. Dani didn't. Her parents turned to drugs shortly after she was born and partied like they didn't have a care in the world.

"So what? That was my choice to make, and after you lost the baby, we could've gone back to the original plans. You didn't need to end everything."

"Yes, I did." He hated the sadness in her voice. "It was the wake-up call I needed. Those plans were that of a naive teenage girl. I had growing up to do. I needed to experience life and to make mistakes. I needed to see who I was without you to know if what we had was real or if it was just similar circumstances pushing us together."

Gage didn't want to ask, but he needed to know.

"And what did you learn?"

He waited on pins and needles for her answer, unsure if he wanted to hear it or not.