Page 17 of Preacher's Property

Dusty slams the door in his face right as he’s talking to me.

“You should gather up your friends and head back to town, Chassie. They’re going to take you down with them.” He walks around and climbs into the driver’s seat then pulls out, blaring his damn siren.

“Let’s ride,” King shouts to the others as they mount their bikes.

“Please take me with you!” I rush to him. “Please. I caused this. Please let me fix it.” I just need to talk some sense into Dusty. I know my best friend is in there somewhere.

“Yeah, okay. You can ride in the cage with me, doll. Preach would beat my ass if I put you on the back of my bike.”

I’m assuming that’s because I’m in a dress and it would ride up, showing off my underwear.

I climb into the pick-up truck and we take off. The Knights are in a diamond formation behind Dusty’s cruiser. And we’re tailing behind them with the other two cruisers behind us. I feel like I’m on the edge of my seat freaking out, while all the others seem so calm.

“It’s going to be fine, doll. You just sit back and relax while I make a quick call.”

Sit back and relax. Preacher’s being arrested. And from the look in his eyes, I know he’s guilty of whatever crime Dust is accusing him of.

“Yo, Sheriff!” King says into the phone. “Got one of my men heading your way. One of the new kids showed up at our clubhouse and made an arrest.”

An expletive comes through the other end of the line.

“We’re headed to you. Figured it’d be a good time to school these new kids on how things operate around here.”

“Bet your ass it is. I’m liable to take their badges away. Don’t worry, King, I’ll deal with them when they get here. They’ll be making their apologies.”

“See you soon.” King hangs up and looks in my direction. “I gather he’s your ex.”

“Yes.”

The shame in that answer washes over me.

“Never seen Preach willing to eat shit for anyone. Means he cares about you.”

“Eat shit?”

“If he didn’t care about you, he would’ve beaten that cop to a pulp. My guess is he’s worried your opinion of him would change if he had hurt the kid.”

I want to hurt Dusty. But hearing that… makes me feel better.

“I care about Preacher.”

“I know.” He smirks. “Told the whole club how you felt.”

Ugh… how mortifying. But it’s true. I care about him. A lot.

“I’m sorry for causing this mess. Dusty didn’t always used to be like this. But that badge has really gone to his head.”

“No apologies needed, doll. When new kids join the force, they always think they run this town. They’ll learn their lesson, and hopefully, it will never happen again.”

We pull into the precinct parking lot, and it sounds like an army of engines coming to town.

“Stay with me until this shit is settled.”

I nod and follow him out of the truck, but when I see Dusty yanking on Preacher’s arm, my anger boils over. I march over to them and get in his face.

“If you don’t let him go, Dusty, I swear I’ll cut off your dick. He’s perfectly capable of walking on his own.”

A low rumble of chuckles breaks out in the background, but I am not amused by what is currently happening. My ex-boyfriend, now ex-friend, is acting like a complete jerk.