Ch. 4 They Need Clothes

Nick’s POV

Bennett finally pulled away from the end of the access road a little after four in the morning.

Teo had been sitting in the security room watching the cameras. He came into my office once to tell me the sheriff was still parked there, then again when the headlights finally disappeared toward town.

I hadn’t bothered going to bed.

Claire’s flash drive was locked in the safe behind my desk. I left it there. Whatever Bennett had hidden on it could wait until Evan came in. He handled the club’s cameras, computers, security systems, and anything else most of us had no patience for.

Claire and Lilly had come through my gate with no shoes, phones, money, clothes, or anything else people usually grabbed when they planned on leaving home.

Claire hadn’t planned any of this.

She’d grabbed her kid and run.

I was halfway through my second cup of coffee when the hallway door opened and Lilly wandered into the clubhouse with Mr. Pickles tucked under her arm. One of Teo’s black socks had slid halfway off her heel, but she kept walking on it instead of pulling it up.

Claire followed in the clothes Teo found for her the night before.

Without the makeup, the bruising was easier to see. One mark along her cheek was older than the rest. There were newer marks at her neck and another bruise starting underneath the first.

Lilly reached for Claire’s hand, and her sleeve pulled up enough for me to see the marks around her upper arm.

Claire caught me looking and pulled the sleeve back down.

Neither of us said anything about it.

Lilly climbed onto one of the stools. “I’m hungry.”

Claire fixed the sock hanging off her foot. “Good morning to you too.”

“Good morning. Do you have pancakes?”

“Probably not,” I said.

“You don’t know?”

“I don’t usually check.”

She frowned. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t eat pancakes much.”

Claire opened one of the cabinets. “You want cereal or eggs?”

“Pancakes.”

“Those weren’t choices.”

“Then why’d you ask what I wanted?”

Claire turned her head toward me.

I took another drink of coffee. “She has a point.”

“She does not need backup.”

Lilly finally agreed to cereal after Claire showed her what we had. She sat at the counter picking through the bowl while Claire wrapped both hands around the coffee I poured her.

“You eating?”

“Not hungry.”

“You said that last night too.”

“I was busy.”

Before I could say anything else, Lilly looked into her bowl and asked, “Are we going to Grandma’s today?”

Claire’s fingers tightened slightly around the mug.

“I need to call her.”

“Can we take Mr. Pickles?”

“Obviously.”

“Can Nick come?”

Claire looked at me.

“I don’t think your grandma wants me showing up with you.”

“She doesn’t know you.”

“She used to,” Claire said.

Lilly turned around on the stool. “Did Grandma like you?”

“Of course she did.”

Claire laughed into her coffee.

“She threatened to call the police on you.”

“My bike stalled.”

“You revved it outside her house three times.”

“It had problems.”

“You were the problem.”

Lilly started laughing.

For a second, Claire did too.

Then she looked at me. “Can I use your phone?”

I pulled it from my pocket and handed it over.

“You know the number?”

“She’s my mother.”

“Fair.”

Claire glanced toward Lilly. “Can I use your office?”

“Yeah.”

She walked away with the phone.

Lilly watched her until the office door closed most of the way, then went back to picking the marshmallows out of her cereal.

“Mommy says we’re not going home.”

I looked toward the office.

“She told you that?”

“Last night.”

She shoved another marshmallow into her mouth. “She said it for real.”

“How can you tell?”

“She didn’t say maybe.”

Apparently that was enough for her.

I heard Claire’s voice from the office a few minutes later.

“Mom, I need to ask you something.”

Then, after a pause, “Lilly’s with me.”

Another pause.

“I left Grant.”

I stayed where I was, but the office wasn’t far enough away to miss everything.

“He hit me.”

Lilly stopped moving her spoon.

I slid the cereal box toward her. “You missed one.”

She looked down.

“Where?”

“Bottom of the bowl.”

She started digging around again.

From the office, Claire said, “What does me arguing with him have to do with him putting his hands on me?”

I set my coffee down.

A while later she said, “Lilly came downstairs because she heard us.”

Then, quieter, “He grabbed her.”

Whatever her mother said after that kept Claire silent for several seconds.

“No. He wasn’t trying to help her. She was laying over me trying to make him stop.”

Lilly looked toward the office again.

I pulled the cereal box closer. “You ate all the good stuff.”

“There’s one left.”

“Then you missed one.”

“It’s mine.”

“Greedy.”

She smiled and ate it.

Claire’s voice came through again.

“I’m not going back there and apologizing to him.”

Then, “I hit him after he grabbed Lilly.”

A pause.

“With the fireplace poker.”

Lilly looked at me. “I told you Mommy hit Daddy with it.”

“You did.”

“He was bleeding.”

“I saw.”

“Do you think he needs stitches?”

“No idea.”

She went back to the cereal.

Claire came out a few minutes later still holding my phone. She picked up her coffee, took a drink, and made a face when she realized it had gone cold.

Lilly asked, “Are we going to Grandma’s?”

“No, baby.”

“Why?”

“She can’t have us stay right now.”

“Why?”

“Because she can’t.”

Lilly frowned but didn’t keep pushing.

“Can we call Aunt Rachel?”

Claire looked down at the phone. “Yeah.”

She headed back into the office.

This time she left the door farther open.

“Rachel, can Lilly and I stay with you for a few days?”

She didn’t ease into it.

A few seconds later, “Because I left Grant.”

Then, “No, I’m serious.”

I carried Lilly’s bowl to the sink.

Claire’s voice came through again.

“He hit me.”

I turned on the water.

“I know we’ve argued before. That’s not what this was.”

The water ran over the bowl while Claire listened to whatever her sister had to say.

Then she said, “You want to know what I did?”

I shut the faucet off.

“He had me on the floor. Lilly came down and tried to get between us. He grabbed her.”

Another pause.

“No, Rachel. I didn’t take it too far. He was hitting me.”

She laughed once, short and sharp.

“You think I should go back because he’s a good man?”

I leaned against the sink.

“You weren’t there.”

The office went quiet.

Then Claire said, “So that’s a no.”

Another pause.

“No. It’s fine. I heard you.”

She ended the call.

She stayed in the office another minute before coming out and setting my phone on the counter.

Lilly had stretched out on the couch with Mr. Pickles tucked under her chin.

Claire looked over at her. “My sister can’t take us either.”

I waited.

“My mom said Grant takes care of us. She said marriage gets ugly sometimes and I’m making this bigger than it needs to be.”

She picked at the cuff of the borrowed shirt.

“She asked what I said to him before he hit me. Then she told me he probably grabbed Lilly because he was trying to get her out of the way.”

Her eyes stayed on her daughter.

“My sister asked what I did to him.”

She rubbed her thumb along the edge of my phone.

“I told her about the fireplace poker, and that was what she cared about. She kept saying I could’ve killed him.”

“He grabbed Lilly.”

“I said that.”

Claire set the phone down. “They both told me to apologize and go home.”

Lilly was talking quietly to Mr. Pickles on the couch.

I asked, “You going?”

Claire looked at me. “No.”

“Then stay here.”

She crossed her arms. “I can’t live in your clubhouse.”

“I didn’t say live here. Stay until you know what you’re doing.”

“For how long?”

“As long as you need to figure it out.”

“I don’t have any money with me.”

“I’m not charging you.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“I know.”

She looked down at the clothes she was wearing. “I need to get our things.”

“Not today.”

Her head came up.

“I’m not ordering you around. Bennett sat outside my property until four this morning, and he knows you have the drive. Going back there today isn’t smart.”

“I need clothes. Lilly needs clothes. My purse is there. My phone. Everything.”

“So we get enough for now.”

“With what?”

“I’ll cover it. Pay me back when you can.”

“Nick.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to owe you.”

“Then don’t. Pay me back later.”

She shook her head.

From the couch, Lilly sat up. “Can I get pink socks?”

Claire looked at her, then at me.

I didn’t say anything.

She sighed. “Apparently we’re going shopping.”

Lilly was off the couch before Claire finished the sentence.

Twenty minutes later, they were in my truck. Claire hadn’t argued when I suggested leaving her SUV behind. Bennett knew what she drove, and there was no reason to make it easier for him to know where she went.

Lilly sat in the back with Mr. Pickles and talked most of the way to the store. She started with the pink socks, moved on to cereal, then spent ten minutes telling us why Teo needed a dog.

Claire kept turning around to answer her.

“You’re gonna make yourself carsick.”

“I don’t get carsick.”

“You used to.”

“When I was fourteen.”

“You puked in my truck.”

“One time.”

“Still counts.”

“I told you to pull over.”

“You gave me about three seconds.”

Lilly leaned forward as far as the seat belt allowed. “Mommy threw up in your truck?”

Claire pointed at me. “Don’t.”

“Yes.”

“Nick.”

“Was it gross?”

“Very.”

Lilly started laughing while Claire stared out the window.

At the store, Claire grabbed a cart and started with toiletries.

Lilly chose a pink toothbrush because it had glitter in the handle. Claire picked the cheapest one on the shelf for herself, then added two travel-size bottles of shampoo.

I looked at the bottles.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re looking at them.”

“They’re tiny.”

“We don’t need huge bottles.”

“Lilly has enough hair for three people.”

“She does not.”

From the cart, Lilly held up a bottle with a unicorn on it. “This one smells like strawberries.”

Claire looked at the price. “Put it back.”

Lilly did, but slowly.

Claire chose a regular bottle and put it in the cart.

Clothes went about the same way. One shirt for Claire, one pair of jeans, a few things for Lilly, underwear, socks, pajamas.

She kept checking prices.

When she picked up one pair of cheap flip-flops, I asked, “Those what you usually wear?”

“No.”

“Then get something you’ll actually use.”

“They’re twelve dollars.”

“And?”

“And I don’t know how long we’re staying with you.”

There it was.

Not tonight.

Not one night.

Staying.

Claire stared at the flip-flops for another second before putting them back and picking up a pair of sneakers.

Lilly was easier. She wanted almost everything she saw.

Pink socks.

Purple socks.

Unicorn underwear.

Star pajamas.

A rainbow hairbrush.

Then she found a stuffed dog almost as big as Mr. Pickles.

“No,” Claire said immediately.

“But he needs a friend.”

“He has you.”

“That’s not the same.”

“You have stuffed animals at home.”

“We’re not at home.”

Claire stopped pushing the cart.

Lilly was too busy holding the stuffed dog by its front legs to notice.

Claire looked at the price tag and rubbed her thumb over it.

“Put him in.”

Lilly looked up. “Really?”

“Really.”

The dog went into the cart beside Mr. Pickles.

At checkout, Claire watched the total climb and started moving things away from the belt.

“We don’t need all this.”

“You picked it out.”

“I know what I picked. I can also see the total.”

I put Lilly’s socks back.

“I can pay you back when I get my purse.”

“Then do that.”

“It might not be right away.”

“That’s fine.”

She looked at me for a few seconds before letting go of the shirt she’d been about to remove.

Lilly held up her pack of pink socks. “These stay.”

Claire looked at her. “Yes, those stay.”

By the time we got back to the clubhouse, Lilly was carrying the bag with the stuffed dog sticking out the top. Teo was near the bar when she walked in.

She immediately kicked off his black socks and held up the pink ones.

“I got better ones.”

Teo looked down at his socks on the floor. “You could’ve handed those to me.”

“They’re dirty.”

“They were clean when I gave them to you.”

“Not anymore.”

Claire laughed as she picked them up. “I’ll wash them.”

Teo looked at Lilly. “See? Your mother has manners.”

“She likes pink too.”

“I’m surrounded.”

Claire carried a couple of bags toward the hallway. I grabbed the heavier ones.

“I can take those.”

“I know.”

She looked like she was going to argue, then kept walking.

Lilly disappeared into the room with Mr. Pickles and the new dog, already asking Claire what she should name him.

There wasn’t much in those bags. A few days of clothes, shoes, toiletries, stuff for Lilly.

Still, when Claire started putting things into the dresser, the room stopped looking empty.

I left them alone and went back to my office.

Evan was waiting at the desk with his laptop open and the flash drive beside it. He was in his forties, had been around the Saints longer than Teo, and spent most of his time outside the club installing commercial security systems.

“You open it?”

“No. Made a copy first.”

“Anything?”

“Not yet. I checked when it was last used.”

I shut the office door. “And?”

“Within the past few days.”

I looked down at the drive.

“So it wasn’t sitting under that dresser for months.”

“No.”

Down the hallway, Lilly yelled that Mr. Pickles didn’t like any of Claire’s name suggestions for the dog.

Claire yelled back that Mr. Pickles didn’t pay for him.

Evan glanced toward the hallway before looking back at me.

Bennett had used the drive recently, hidden it under his dresser, then gone after Claire the second he realized she had it.

Whatever was on there was current.