Page 60 of Acceptance
“I suppose I should be flattered. Too dangerous for his wife, but just right for Goldilocks who grew up in the club right along with said wife. Yeah, okay.”
“I want to go, too,” Undertaker says.
“Yeah, I’m not going if he does. This isn’t a fun dynamic right now,” Lex says.
The men seem to agree that it would not end well because Brock says, “We have Church. We should be done by the time they’re back from talking to this woman, and we’ll see where to go from there. Let’s give you a distraction.”
Lex kisses Colt and follows Grayson out to his SUV, and they ride to the hotel in silence. She can’t take her mind off of Jamie. The young woman is in an unconventional situation with her man, and the way Undertaker seems to have forgotten who his girlfriend is worries Lex.
“Does Nina look familiar to you?” she asks as they park in the front lot.
Grayson turns to her. “No. Should she?”
“It’s weird, but she kind of looks like me. When I straighten my hair. Which is kind of creepy, but I hope Jamie hasn’t seen her picture. I know she already has insecurities.”
Climbing out of the SUV, Grayson leads her to the side of the building. “I suppose Nina kind of looks like you. Petite, blonde, and blue-eyed. But that’s not really unique or uncommon.”
“Just out here giving me all the complexes tonight, aren’t we?” she jokes as a scream fills the air.
“That might be Debbie,” Grayson says as they run around the side of the building.
Between two dumpsters in a small fenced-in area, a man holds a brunette by the throat as he hits her. “No, that’s Marnie! Come on!” she hisses and leads him back to his car.
“What are we doing?”
“Gimme your keys. He has a gun in his waistband.”
Tossing her the keys, he asks, “How’d you see that?”
He moves to get in the passenger seat, but she stops him. “First of all, if you think I can’t spot a gun in dimly lit places, I’m not sure how much I trust your PI skills. Second, get in the backseat. You’re gonna have to pull her in, and she’s already bleeding.”
She peels out of the parking lot and pulls around the back, flipping on the brights to distract and blind him.
“What are you going to do?”
“Make him a hood ornament if he doesn’t move,” Lex says and presses the pedal to the floor.
The man leaps to the side as Lex whips the wheel to the left and slides to a stop right in front of the dumpsters. Marnie lies on the ground next to them, and Grayson opens the door, pulls her inside, and shuts it.
“Got her,” he says. “And holy shit, that was like movie driving.”
Tossing her phone back to him, she glances in the rearview mirror as she says, “Call the emergency contact number. Put it on speaker.”
Marnie groans, and Grayson looks conflicted. “Uh, okay.”
“You’re going to want to get down and cover her,” she says.
The call rings only twice before Colt answers. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“Get everyone outside, guns blazing,” she shouts. “We’re about three minutes out—Grayson, get down!”
Gunshots shatter both windshields as Lex ducks down, doing what she can to get out of the line of fire without crashing into anything.
“Lex! Lex!”
“Fucking glass in my hair,” she mutters.
The line goes dead, and she glances back to see Grayson covering Marnie as two cars swerve in behind them. They keep up with every turn and weave she makes.
