Outside the Lines (Sons of Templar MC #2.5)(27)

Jagger was staring at me off to the side, staring at me like he had no idea who I was.

Charley came up beside Levi. “Holy f*ck, I was gonna put my money on any bitch shooting someone in here, it’d be Kim and she’d be shooting off Hammer’s dick for not making her his Old Lady,” he commented, his eyes wide, observing me.

Levi smacked him upside the head, his face still serious.

Hansen kept his eyes on me, hands firm at my neck.

“Macy,” he repeated.

“Now, Hansen,” Grim ordered.

Hansen didn’t look his way but nodded. He clutched my arm and half dragged me toward the back exit. I focused on the pictures on the walls, the ones that I’d thought of as my family portraits. Ones I didn’t even recognize anymore. I tried not to think of that, tried not to glance over at the body that was sprawled meters away. The body missing a chunk of head. The body I’d created.





They’d taken me to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. A cabin I didn’t recognize, and one that had seen better days. The paint was peeling and the air smelled slightly musty. A television was in front of the lumpy sofa I was sitting on, and it was covered in dust.

“What the f*ck were you thinking, Macy?” Hansen roared while he paced in front of me.

I flinched at his tone. The gentleness of before was long gone.

There hadn’t been talking on the ride here, considering I’d been on the back of Hansen’s bike, pressed up against him. When we’d arrived, I’d been unceremoniously dragged in here and deposited on the sofa. Hansen had started pacing. Levi leant on the stained counter. He stepped forward slightly, eyes flickering to me.

“Calm, brother,” he muttered, a hand on Hansen’s shoulder.

Hansen’s shrugged the hand off and moved his furious glare from me to Levi.

“Calm?” he repeated. “Fuck calm! She just f*cking shot a man in the middle of the f*cking club. Broad daylight! With witnesses!” he yelled. “Lucky it was only patched members in attendance, that’s not to say someone wouldn’t have heard the shots, maybe called the cops,” he started pacing again.

Levi stood in front of him. “No need to worry about that shit, unless there’s cause. Lock it down,” he ordered.

Hansen nodded stiffly, moved his eyes to me then stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

I flinched again at the noise but stayed silent.

I heard Levi’s sigh and his boots made their way over to me. He knelt down so his face was level with mine. His eyes were hard but his expression was gentle.

“You think I’m gonna go to jail?” I asked with a weird sort of detachment. Nothing had sunk in yet. I had the numbness I had chased last night. And a weird feeling of peace.

Levi squeezed my leg. “Not if we got anythin’ to do with it, darlin’,” he said softly.

“I don’t mind, you know?” I said in that same cold voice. “If I do. I’d rather not if I had a choice, I don’t like the outfits and I’m not too keen on being someone’s bitch. But I know what I did… broke the law, killed someone…” I shrugged. I knew I should have been feeling something right now. Scared. Disgusted in myself. Guilty. I felt nothing. Only relief.

Levi regarded me. “You’re a smart girl, Macy. Shooting someone in the middle of the club… not smart,” he said carefully.

“Guess not,” I agreed.

There was a pause.

“He killed my parents,” I said by way of explanation. “He deserved it.”

Levi nodded. This was of no surprise to him. He knew. That meant the club knew, and they welcomed him in. Laughed with him. With a murderer. My parents’ murderer.

“Club going to make me disappear now?” I asked, chewing over what my actions meant. I may not go to jail, but I’d just broken a pretty big f*cking rule. Not only were women never meant to get involved in club business, but I was also pretty sure they weren’t meant to murder business associates in the middle of the clubhouse.

Levi’s frame jolted. “Make you disappear?” he repeated with disbelief.

I nodded. “You know,” I made my finger gun like Arianne had two nights previous. I put it to my own head.

Levi clutched the hand with the finger gun and squeezed it tightly. “Jesus girl,” he muttered. “Can’t say I know what’s gonna happen. Can imagine Grim’s not gonna be happy right now, but no one’s gonna hurt you. You’re family,” he said firmly.

I laughed bitterly and snatched my hand out of his grasp. Family—yeah, right. I didn’t have any of that. Family didn’t welcome murderers into the family home. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” I said flatly.

Levi’s face hardened and he looked like he was going to say something, but his head jerked to the doorway.

“No one’s gonna kill you, Mace. Can’t say I’m feeling warm fuzzies toward you at the moment, though. In fact, I’m very tempted to show you the back of my hand,” a hard voice declared.

Grim stepped into the room, his face tight. I met his eyes without fear. Most of my emotions seemed to have left the building.

“You wanna tell me what was going through your mind when you decided to walk into my club and shoot a man?” he asked quietly.

I shrugged. “I didn’t exactly go in there with that in mind,” I said honestly. “But when you walk into a place you consider home and see the man who shot your parents in the face and subsequently ruined your childhood. You feel like returning the favor,” I told him blandly.