Page 64 of Found Through Fire

Flame’s eyes stop glaring at me when he turns around and locks his arms around Willow, holding her close to his body as he scans the house from where he stands, like he is trying to find someone that the two of us were not able to see. The strange feeling of wanting to pull her out of his arms overcomes me, and I clench my hands in response.

I clear my throat and say in a dark voice, “We need to see the email.” Her body visibly tenses in his arms, and I can tell Flame felt it. She must be freaking out about what the fucker said in the email; I have only seen her tense up when she thinks the people around her are going to blow up about something and she braces herself.

“Do you really need to see it? I mean, I saw it, and I sent it to my dad. I feel like I can summarize it for you very nicely,” she says in a light voice, trying to downplay the situation.

Flame slightly pulls away from her and looks into her worried eyes. After a moment, he smirks at her and says, “Nope. I think we should all be on the same page and know the score.”

She glares up at him, like they had an entire conversation while I was standing in the same room and I missed it all. Something similar to jealousy starts to form in my chest—not because he’s holding her, but because they have known each other for less than a month, from what I understand, and they can already have a conversation without speaking a word.

I didn’t even get to have that with Addison. We were so young before I left for the military and barely had any time together after. We grew into adults and had to try to learn the new versions of each other from opposite parts of the world.

“Fine, it’s pulled up in my office,” Willow says in a frustrated tone as she pulls away from Flame and starts to storm down the hall. I shake off the strange feeling that I have never encountered until coming to this fuckin’ house, and make eye contact with Flame, who still has his smirk firmly in place. He shrugs his shoulders and follows Willow to the office.

I’m positive that I’m going to beat the shit out of that guy before these two weeks are up. Not sure how Willow will feel about it with whatever the fuck is going on between them, but she grew up around military guys. I get the feeling that she won’t hide and scream due to a fist fight. She may have something to say about getting blood in her ridiculously clean house, but it won’t be a problem if I do it in the gym or outside.

I make my way to her office; it was one of the rooms that I cleared when the creep got on the property the first time. It has the same style as the rest of the house: a combination of old and new. The walls are the same clean, crisp grey, and in the middleof the room is an old, dark mahogany desk that looks like it’s an antique, but with light, modern touches all around the room.

She sits at her desk and slides her chair back after clicking the mouse a few times. “There. Take a look, since you need to know, apparently,” she says in an annoyed voice.

Flame walks to her, shoves one arm under her legs and one around her back, and picks her up, sits down, and places her on his lap. She rolls her eyes like she’s done with both of us, but decides not to comment, probably realizing that we are both hanging on by a thread.

I walk over to stand beside the chair they’re both sitting in and lean down to see the email better. Being this close to her, the scent of her flowery shampoo starts to invade my nose.

I slowly look at each picture. When we get to the bottom of the email, the war of emotions that I decided to keep buried starts to grow.

I’m about to follow through with the plan to kick Flame’s ass. Having to witness him touch her every fuckin’ minute of the day is one thing, but having to see the picture of her desperate for him as he keeps her wrapped around him is another. I haven’t kissed a woman since Addison, or even thought about it. But the image of him pressing her up against her car is now seared into my brain.

I clench my jaw to keep myself from saying something. Willow and I are speaking now without insulting each other, and I don’t want to let feelings that are fuckin’ alien to me mess up all of the progress we have made.

I failed the woman I loved before. I couldn’t keep her safe; I’m not making that mistake again. Even if we are nothing but acquaintances, she is mine to protect until her dad gets back. I’m the only one with training. It’s my responsibility, even if Flame thinks that she is his to protect.

When I finish reading the note that came with the pictures, I grunt and leave the room, not trusting myself to hold in my rage.

CHAPTER 26

WILLOW

The rest of the day goes by without incident. After I got Knox to let me go when they were done reading the email, he and Grey decided to walk the property and go around the house. I’m not exactly sure what they were doing, but I tried to go back to my day before everything turned to shit. Some would call it being in denial; I call it keeping my peace from their Alpha bullshit.

Every now and then, I heard some raised voices coming through my open windows, but they could work out their fight for dominance. Either one, or both of them will walk back in the house. I put it in the “not my issue” category and stayed out of it.

I start making dinner and log into the video call with Uncle Mark and the rest of the officers from his chapter. My dad called Uncle Mark and told him about the stalker issue. Apparently, there were not enough trigger-happy men involved in the situation already.

On the screen, I can see that they set up the camera in Church. Uncle Mark sits at the head of the long table with his VP, Ruger, to his right, and his Enforcer, Murphy, to his left. He even has the Road Captain, Onyx, and the Treasurer, Brink, sitting in. I love them all, and they are family, but having to reassure fivemore men that I’m okay is giving me a headache. I’m seriously considering going into the group chat that I have with their ‘Ol Ladies and asking them to help them calm the hell down.

“Why didn’t you tell us, Will? I could have sent a prospect or two to keep an eye out,” Uncle Mark asks in that exasperated tone he uses on Sophia.

“Uncle Mark. I love you. But I have plenty of back up at the moment, and I didn’t want to stress you out. After what happened with Sophia, I wanted you guys to focus on her and not a grown woman that can look after herself,” I reply, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. I know they are worried about me, but I can’t handle any more men following me around. I feel like the guys that are my “back up” are stalking me to stop the actual stalker from stalking me. It’s a cycle of bullshit, if you ask me.

“I know your dad put Grey on guard. Who else is there?” Ruger asks with his deep voice that doesn’t match his appearance. He has blonde hair so light that it’s almost white, and he has a long and lean build. He’s always smiling and laid back; I used to wonder how he got in the MC since he was so different from all the men there.

That was until I saw him get angry when a hang-around decided to try and force himself on his wife. After that day, I understood how he earned his VP patch.

“Kn—I mean, Flame, from my brother’s chapter. He’s the President’s son,” I reply. I’ve realized I’m the only one that calls him by his actual name, but that was how he was introduced to me. I always hear him use his road name with everyone else.

“I’m not sure how I feel about him being there. We are still trying to make sure their chapter is legit. They didn’t seem to take the club seriously, from what I’ve seen, and had too many loose ends for my taste,” Uncle Mark says.

I see movement in the kitchen to my right as I’m cutting up the vegetables for the stir fry. I look over and see Knox and Grey standing in the entrance to the kitchen. I take it as a good sign that they didn’t kill each other while searching the property.