Chapter 19

How interesting would life be if our thoughts appeared in bubbles over our heads?

-Annie’s secret thoughts

Mig

“I don’t want to register for it. I just want to buy the shit that you think we need and leave,” I muttered.

Annie shot me an annoyed look.

“People are going to want to buy you things, and if you don’t have a registry, they won’t know what you need,” she explained slowly, picking up a huge package of diapers.

I blinked. “Do we really need all of that right now?” I asked.

She didn’t bother to answer; instead, moving to put a huge box of wipes into the cart, followed by smaller tubs and packages of the same.

The more she continued to add to the cart, the more I could see the dollars adding up.

“Here, which one?” She asked, pointing to the two car seats directly in front of her.

“What’s wrong with that one?” I asked, pointing to the cheaper one.

“That one is made for bigger kids. This one is for a newborn,” she indicated.

I pointed to the cheaper one.

“That one is fine,” I said.

She chose the teal-colored one that I had not pointed at.

“Will you go get another cart? We’re going to need at least two, if not three,” she said.

Reluctantly, I walked away in a hurry, worried that if I took too long, she’d buy the whole fuckin’ section.

I got looks as I exited the baby section, and I couldn’t wait to see people’s faces when I had an actual baby in my arms.

Big ass biker and a tiny baby.

That was going to be fun.

After grabbing the cart, I hurried back to the baby section, taking a short-cut through the big kid section.

I picked up a monkey with long arms, surveying it on the way back to Annie.

I’d just rounded the corner of the aisle where she’d been when I left, only to find it empty.

The next one was empty as well.

By the time I hit up the third aisle, my heart started to pound.

And when I’d made an entire circuit of the baby department, I called for her.

“Annie!”

Customers looked at me, but I didn’t care that I’d just yelled bringing everyone’s attention my way.

I was more worried that I’d been stupid and left her alone when I knew she shouldn’t be left alone.

“Annie!” I called again.

An elderly woman snapped at me.

“Is she the pretty girl in the red shirt?” She asked.

I nodded. “Yes, did you see where she went?”

She pointed in the direction of the restrooms that were at the very back of the store.

“She went that way, left her cart right there,” she indicated where the cart was parked.

I thanked her and moved towards the bathroom.

I didn’t stop at the door, either.

I barged right in, and what I saw had me seeing red.

“What happened?” I demanded.

She had a wad of toilet paper covering her mouth that was quickly saturating with blood.

She pulled the rag away from her mouth.

“Some guy shoved me from behind, and I fell, hitting my lip on the rack before I went down,” she explained. “I don’t think he meant to.”

I doubted that.

Bumping into her, I could see. Full out pushing her to her hands and knees, I couldn’t.

The cut was on the inside of her mouth, making me realize that it could’ve been worse than it was.

“What’d he look like?” I asked her.

She shook her head.

“I don’t know. I only saw his gray shoes as he walked away. I guess I’m just lucky he didn’t take the opportunity to steal my purse that was sitting right there in the cart,” she explained, wincing slightly when she pulled her lip tight over her teeth. “It was all messed up like he started to look through it for my wallet.”

Thirty minutes later, we left Target with twenty percent off our entire purchase since I’d kicked up one hell of a fuss over the fact that their entire fucking security system had conveniently gone down.

I didn’t take the discount.

Annie did.

Which, in turn, meant I was still mad, just keeping a tight lid on it until I could get home and talk to the club to see what we were going to do about this.

“I’m going to try to…” I started to say, but the sight of lights up ahead near my house shut me down before I finished that thought.

“What the fuck?” I asked as I swung into Annie’s driveway.

The first person I saw was Wolf, who was standing in the middle of Annie’s yard with a grim look on his face.

I got out, slamming the truck’s door, and walked over to him.

“What happened?” I asked, looking at my house.

“Alison called the cops because she kept hearing someone knocking on the backdoor,” Wolf explained. “When they got here, they saw what looked to be blood on the back porch, but was actually ketchup…a lot of it…smeared all over the back porch, almost like someone had rolled around in it.”

My teeth started to grind together.

“Did you check the feed?” I asked.

Wolf nodded. “It’s out. Your line was cut from the pole, but your generator kicked on, not even letting Alison see anything more than a flicker, so she didn’t know to call.”

I had a generator that had a four second delay.

When power was lost, it kicked on, but only certain things worked.

Like the fridge, the lights and the AC.

Small things, such as the security system, weren’t hooked up to it.

Something that only a professional would know.

My generator was hard to miss.

It stuck out like a sore thumb right to the side of the front of my house.

I got asked all the time by people that didn’t know me what it was, and I always told them that’s where I put my trashcans.

Although half right, it wasn’t solely for that purpose.

“We were at Target tonight and someone pushed Annie, made her fall and hit the rack of clothes in front of her,” I told him. “When I went to see the camera feed to see what exactly happened, they couldn’t tell me because their security system had been turned off for a total of eight minutes, during which time, Annie took her fall.”

Wolf slowly turned to look at me.

“Convenient.”

I nodded.

It was.

Too convenient.

“I think it’s time to call my old man. See what his boys can find,” I said. “I’ve tried to do it myself, but this guy has the connections required to hide himself, and I think he’s finally decided to stop playing with me and do some real harm.”

And it was time for me to hire someone to watch over Annie and, I guess, Jennifer.

I didn’t think Jennifer would be a target, mostly because she was the reason this had all started.

But I was proved wrong tonight, and had she been alone, I was sure I would be staring at an empty house right now instead of one that contained a pissed off Jennifer.

“That may be the best idea right now,” Wolf said.

“What’s your father going to do that you can’t?” Annie questioned softly from behind me.

I turned to her, seeing that she was holding a hand full of bags.

“My father has bodyguards that are very loyal to him and the Konn name,” I said. “And if he tells them to, which I know he will once he realizes that there’s a baby coming, they’ll watch over y’all until she has the baby so I can put my full attention into finding this son of a bitch.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re going to stick me with Jennifer?”

She sounded so appalled at the idea that I laughed.

“It’ll be for just a few days, a week tops,” I tried.

She narrowed her eyes.

“I’d rather be stuck in prison with half my leg chewed off by rats or even share the jail cell with a large woman named Bertha who has a crush on me,” she said stubbornly.

“There is another option,” I said.

She lit up at the possibility.

“Anything. Absolutely anything.”

I grinned.

“I’ll remember you said that.”