Bash, Volume II (3 page)

He put her hand back on her leg, stood, looked down at her a few seconds, and then took another seat. “I’m sorry you were treated the way you were by your former Alpha. If I bring you into my Pack, it’ll sever the final strands of the tie to him. I don’t expect you to trust me right away, but you’re welcome to run with us on the next full moon so you can get to know us.”

Her fear had abated, but not enough for her to respond, and she stared at the hand he’d touched, silent. He sighed, touched her knee, saw her flinch, and he pulled it away.

“If you agree to join the Pack, we can take care of you, keep you safe, and help you get on your feet.”

She didn’t move, didn’t acknowledge his words, and he sighed again as he leaned forward, his hands on his knees. “I know what job the RTMC has offered you. I can get you into a shelter, arrange for you to do housecleaning work, if you’d like another alternative. No strings to the pack.”

She looked at Randall, then to Duke. “Yes, we’re brothers,” Randall told her. “He’s president of the RTMC, I’m the Pack Alpha. Lone and Pack wolves don’t usually get along, but we’ve worked towards peace, here.”

She looked at me. “I know where I stand with you. I’d like to keep to our deal.”

Randall stood and walked towards the door, turning to tell her, “My third in command is a woman named Cora. I’ll send her by to check on you in a few days. If you need me before then, let Bash or Duke know.”

He looked at me, then his brother, and nodded for us to come outside. I punched the app on my phone so I could see the local camera feeds, turned the one in my office on, and followed them out. I’d keep an eye on her as I talked to them, make sure she didn’t snoop. I didn’t think she was a Trojan horse, but it wouldn’t hurt to make sure.

“I don’t want her going to Bran,” Randall told us as soon as we hit the parking area.

Duke looked to me, letting me know it was my division, my call.

“We aren’t running a charity here, Randall. You want to take her on, be responsible for her, we’ll hand her over right now. Otherwise, we’ll do whatever makes sense, and Bran’s finder’s fees can be substantial for this kind of girl.” And while Bran might enjoy hurting her, he’d also take care of her, and require she better herself while she belonged to him — usually either by going to college or a trade school, which he’d pay for.

Randall sighed. “She’ll do fine hooking. She’s been passed around her old Pack since she was a preteen. I saw glimpses in her head and it wasn’t pretty. I’d like to get her out of the life, but my hands are tied with her still having a thread to her old Alpha and not wanting to give me her oath.”

“Any chance he’ll follow the thread here?”

“If he flies around the country looking for her? Yeah. If he stays a thousand miles away? No.”

“If he shows up, can we count on your backing?”

He nodded. “I won’t send her back to him. The Pack here will take your side.”

We said our goodbyes, and Duke stopped in the lobby to talk to Slick while I went back into my office. Teresa had stayed seated while we were out, and I sat in a chair close to her. “You need a hooker name. Teresa won’t get it. You kind of look like a Bambi. That work for you?”

She nodded, and I asked, “Where did Teresa come from?”

“It’s my middle name?”

“Then you need another daytime name, too. Something no one from your former home will associate with you in any way. How about Gail?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

I nodded. “Bambi at work, Gail everywhere else. Stick with Robinson for a last name. It’s common, but it isn’t Smith or Jones.” She didn’t argue, so I kept going. “Slick’s gonna give you an orientation. Pay attention — you’ll start working the glory hole this evening. I have some things to handle, but I’ll be back later and I’ll check in on you.”

I left her with Slick, and Duke and I rode out together. Time to deal with the prospect.

Brain had lined an underground bay at the bike shop with plastic, and we’d told Sullivan to hang around at the compound in case we needed him.

Duke and I went to the bike shop, stripped down to nothing in another room, donned a Tyvek clean suit, and went into the plastic-lined room before texting Brain to bring Sullivan over. The clean suit wasn’t technically necessary — we could
change
to wolf and back to human and lose any DNA on us, but it’s damned hard to get blood evidence out of a leather vest. If we couldn’t wear our cuts, the Tyvek suit was the next best way to scare the hell out of our victim.

When the prospect came in the room I grabbed him, put him on his knees in the center of the floor, and zip-tied his arms behind him and then his ankles together.

I smelled terror coming off him, and didn’t say a word as I stepped to the edge of the room and leaned against a plastic lined wall. Brain, Dozer, Gonzo, and Tiny were going to suit up and come in, too.

“What’s going on, guys?” Sullivan asked, trying hard not to look as terrified as he was.

“Keep your mouth shut until we ask questions,” I told him, my emotions on lockdown.

Sullivan was sufficiently terrified when the rest of the guys walked in wearing clean suits as well, and when I pulled a gun and settled it at his temple, he pissed himself.

“Tell us about your dad,” I ordered, my voice cold. This was my show, for now at least. I held the gun, I asked the questions.

Bud had used me as his assassin when he needed to make someone disappear, and his bad guy when someone just needed torturing — and it looked like Duke was going to follow in his footsteps. I didn’t mind killing people who needed to die, though, so it was fine with me. I knew the MC wouldn’t hang me out to dry, and we were always careful to make sure I wouldn’t end up with another murder charge.

“He used to come to the house, take stuff. He’d go through Mom’s purse and take her cash, look through closets and drawers and find her stash of money.” His eyes darted around the room, trying to find someone who looked sympathetic, but I knew everyone’s eyes were ice cold.

Sullivan’s terror permeated the room, and his voice went even higher pitched and faster when he continued. “If she’d managed to buy another TV since he’d last come, he’d take it, too. She always let him, said he’d hurt us if she protested. She’d stash our money in a bunch of places, and he never found it all, but when he made a trip through the house we struggled to buy food for a while.”

I didn’t respond, and he took a breath and continued a little slower. “Eventually, she found work in Chattanooga, off the books so he couldn’t find us. She moved us up here and things got better.”

“Do you and your dad get along?”

He shook his head. “I’m assuming ya’ll have figured out who he is. I’m here because I idolized you guys after you beat the hell out of him. I’m not here to hurt the MC.”

“Why weren’t you honest with us upfront?”

“I was afraid you’d turn me away if you knew.”

“Now that you’ve been around us, spent time with us, you still want in?” Brain asked this one, his chopped voice revealing exactly how pissed he was.

I smelled Sullivan’s conflict, knew the answer would be a lie, but then was surprised when he spoke truth. “Just kill me and get it over with. You aren’t the men I thought you were.”

I looked to Duke in question. I thought it was time to put the gun away, but he got the final call. He nodded, and I slid it into my holster.

“You thought we were a gang of vigilantes, selflessly fighting crime?” I asked.

“Not selflessly, but yeah, I thought you were vigilantes. You saved that woman’s life, rescued her from my dad and his cronies, but then ya’ll treat women just as bad.”

My hand itched to lash out and punch him, but I kept it at my side as I told him, “The women in our clubhouse are here because they wanna be. No one is raped. Gangbanged, sure, but if they tell us to stop, we will.”

He looked up at me, his eyes reproachful, accusing. “You hurt Kat bad with your belt, while Gonzo held her arms down.”

“She agreed to accept it. She could’ve walked out at any time before it started, or even partway through — when we let go of her to take a break, she
chose
to stay for the rest.”

He shook his head, suddenly braver, now that the gun wasn’t pointed at his head. Idiot didn’t know I could kill him with one punch to the face. “She’s too naïve to know better. She wants to be accepted so bad she’ll do whatever ya’ll say.”

“Still her choice. You can’t live with that, you don’t need to be in the club.”

He slumped forward, his arms still behind him but his head bowed as he stared at the floor.

“If I’d come in to harm the club, would you’ve really killed me?”

“Dangerous question, Sullivan. You sure you want to know the answer?”

He shook his head. “No. What do I need to say? I withdraw my intention to join the MC? Will that work?”

“Not exactly,” I told him. I looked to Brain and he tossed pictures of Sullivan’s mom and sister on the floor — surveillance photos of them doing things the general public would never see.

I gave him a few seconds to look at the photos and understand the threat before telling him, “You’ve learned things about us while you’ve been here. You talk about any of it and your mom and sister will pay for it.”

Duke cut Sullivan’s hands free and took his vest off him before instructing, “You don’t come into our territory, much less onto RTMC property. You don’t talk to LEO or
any
of our enemies, whether the conversation is about us or not. You know we have eyes everywhere, and don’t think we won’t make you disappear if we think for an
instant
you’re a threat.”

Angelica

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” I told Thomas, hedging his question. “I know we need to talk, but I have some things I need to take care of today, now that I can finally come home. Tell you what, let me see how much I get done — if I can free up my evening I’ll let you know, and we can have something delivered to eat, or maybe I can fix burgers.”

I stepped out of my door, closing it behind me as I put my arm around his waist, low so my hand touched his hip at the side and wasn’t close to his ribs. He looked as if the walk over had worn him out. “I’ll walk you back. Come on.”

He let me walk him halfway, and then stopped and turned to me. “I can make it the rest of the way. I’ll look forward to your call.”

He walked slowly, but seemed okay, so I went home.

Something had been off.
Really
off. His scent seemed duplicitous, and when he dismissed me in the parking lot I got the feeling he realized the pathetic act wasn’t going to get him in my apartment, so he gave it up. His ribs and chest were hurting, but still, the other scents had overridden the pain.

Sighing, I called Brain and asked him if there was a way we could safely talk over the phone, or whether I needed to meet him somewhere. My dad had taught me to never talk about anything important over the phone, but I’d seen Bash doing so, and I assumed Brain had figured something out.

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll email you a file. Open it on your laptop and you’ll see me in the contacts. It’s an encrypted program I wrote just for us, with a choice of voice only, or voice and video. Give me a call when you get it up and running. The next time you’re in the clubhouse, give me your phone and I’ll put an app on it to do the same thing.”

The program installed in a few minutes, and Brain’s contact was second in the list, just below Duke’s and above Bash’s.

“Talk to me,” he said with a smile when his face popped onto my screen.

“Something is
off
with Thomas. He knocked on my door, pretty much demanding to come in and talk. I let him know he’d have to wait, but…
shit
, Brain. Something’s rotten. I need to talk to him, and I know you understand why, but I think he’s up to something and I don’t want to talk to him alone.”

“You’re afraid of him?”

“Not physically, but I’m afraid he’ll… I don’t know, twist my words, maybe?”

“Okay. I have something to take care of and then I’ll come to your apartment in a cage, so I don’t alert him there’s a Harley in the parking lot. I’ll fix things up for you so we have our own record of what’s said, and I’ll be listening in, and talking in your ear.”

I was taking a nap when he called later — Bash hadn’t let me get much sleep the night before, though I wasn’t complaining.
At all.

“I’m going to park a few blocks away, just to be safe. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Unlock your door so I can just come straight in.” It took me a few seconds to wake up enough to understand what he was saying.

I’d washed my face and drunk some ice water by the time he arrived, and managed to wake up. He’d brought a picture frame with a photo of my dad and me in it, and a phone charger. He set the picture down, looked at his phone, and adjusted the frame so the hidden camera in it gave him a view of the living room and part of the dining area and kitchen. He plugged the phone charger into another outlet so he had the kitchen and dining areas from another angle. He showed me the charger had two cameras — one in the part that plugged into the wall, and another in the tip, so he could get two views from it.

“I’ll leave you the charger, in case we need to do this another time. It only works when it’s plugged in, so you can put it away and not worry about me snooping on you, but if you’re ever here and need someone recorded, you can plug it in and it’ll automatically phone home and send audio and video to the control room, where it’ll be saved. Today, it’ll just be me seeing it, but in the future, whoever’s in the control room will see.”

He fiddled around with a few more things on his phone, and said, “Legally, only one person being recorded has to know they’re being recorded, and you know, so we’re good. If he asks if you’re recording the conversation, don’t lie. Tell him he made you feel uncomfortable when he came over earlier, and you asked me for help.” He tilted his phone towards me, showed me the views he had, and I nodded.

“Bring up some of the kinky stuff ya’ll did, see how he reacts. If he keeps moving you away from the subject, odds are he’s recording, as well. Salt your conversation with lots of stuff he won’t want other people to know. The rules are different for him when it comes to recording your conversation. He can for personal reasons, but he won’t be able to use it in court unless he has a warrant, and I can’t imagine he does. Still, it would be
really
good if you don’t incriminate us.”

He handed me a small earpiece. “I’ll be in my car a block away. This is a radio receiver, so I can talk to you. You aren’t used to having someone in your ear, so I’ll be quiet unless it’s important. The flesh tone helps keep people from noticing it, but you should still wear your hair down over it.”

We played around with the setup a little, he left, and I fixed my hair and makeup, changed into different jeans and another t-shirt, and called Thomas to invite him over for a burger and fried potatoes.

And I texted Bash, because he’d asked me to.

I invited Thomas over for burgers. I’ll let you know when he leaves. If you’re tempted to come over before I let you know, please call Brain, first.

I wasn’t sure I should text him I was recording the conversation, so this seemed the safest way to assure him — and his wolf — we’d just be talking.

The first thing Thomas said when he walked in was, “Brain was here?”

“Shit,” Brain said in my head. “He may have someone watching you, or watching him, who’s also watching you. Tell him you couldn’t get online with your laptop and I came by to fix it for you.”

Thomas seemed to accept my explanation easily enough, and we managed small talk for a few minutes before he put his arms around me from behind as I cooked.

I hadn’t expected him to get frisky, with his injuries, but he still apparently thought casual touching was okay.

“I think it’s best if we backed up, some,” I told him. “As much as I hate the way the cliché sounds, I’m hoping we can just be friends.”

He put his mouth to my ear, close enough his breath tickled as he lowered his voice to say, “I think you liked what I could do to you in bed a little too much to just be friends, Angelica.”

I shook my head, leaned into him a second, and then pulled away. “Yeah, I did, but…” I met his gaze and said, “
Fuck
.”

He visibly flinched, and then said my name in a reproaching tone, as if he were reprimanding me.

“
That’s
part of the problem,” I told him. “My mom taught me there’s a time and place for just about everything. She didn’t want me cussing around her, any teachers, or any of my friends’ parents. She knew I cussed around Dad when she wasn’t around, and she was fine with it. The point wasn’t to teach me it’s wrong, but to make me think about my audience. The lesson served me well in school, and up north, and now when I’m at work. However, I want to be able to be myself at home and around my true friends, and that means letting loose with my mouth.” I shook my head. “You want to change who I am, Thomas. It isn’t going to work.”

“Did you know one of the detectives in Atlanta is convinced the MC down there is a club full of werewolves?”

I laughed. “Detective Appian. Yeah, he’s a little crazy. To be honest, the club has fun with it — the guys enjoy fucking with him about it, and inventing new ways to convince him he’s right. Hell, it
kills
him the club owns so much private property in another county, where he has no jurisdiction.” The local sheriff had actually arrested him for trespassing once, and Appian had gotten into a ton of trouble for it with his superiors in the Atlanta PD.

“Why
does
the club own the property? It’s quite valuable.”

“The land was purchased in the fifties or sixties by the men who started the club,” I told him, making sure I only told him stuff I knew was public knowledge, and peppering in as many cusswords as I could, without making it look like I was trying. “I know it’s worth a shitload now, but I’m not privy to their meetings so I don’t know the logic behind keeping versus selling. We do make damned good use of it, though. I rode my dirt bike there when I was a kid, and we went there a lot in the summer to swim. We camp, and rock climb. There are running trails and walking trails. It’s our land. Our home.”

Brain wasn’t saying anything in my ear, so I assumed I was doing okay.

“If you knew your dad was doing bad things, would you turn him in?”

“Don’t answer the question,” Brain said in my ear. “Ask him if his father always obeys the speed limit.”

Relieved at the confirmation Brain was still with me, I followed his advice, and Thomas shook his head and rolled his eyes at the question. “Going five miles over the speed limit isn’t the same as dealing in guns without serial numbers, or prostitution, or beating the snot out of people simply because you can.”

“So, if you found out your dad visited a prostitute, you’d have him arrested?”

“Visited? No. But if he was pimping young girls out as
whores
, then yeah, I’d run a sting on him in a heartbeat.” He’d had to force himself to say
whore
instead of
prostitute
, and it came out sounding wrong. I took this to mean my cussing campaign was bothering him, which should be a good thing.

“Isn’t that a little hypocritical? It’s okay to buy but not sell? So, if your best friend bought weed, it’d be okay, but if he were growing it, you’d arrange for a fucking arrest warrant?”

“You didn’t act surprised when I told you Bash is a pimp,” he said, changing the subject.

“Answer my question, Thomas. You view the buyers as innocent and the sellers as the bad guys?”

“None are innocent, but if the sellers didn’t exist, the buyers wouldn’t be tempted.”

“And if the buyers didn’t exist, there’d be no reason for the sellers to set up their networks.”

“So, you’re admitting the RTMC has networks?”

“I keep fucking telling you, I don’t know shit about club business. As far as I know, their income is from the bike shop and bar.” I nodded towards the refrigerator. “Get the mayo and mustard out, put it on the table, please?”

I put the burgers and fried potatoes on plates and carried them to the table. I’d already put a bun on each plate, along with lettuce, onion slices, and forks. We both already had our drinks, so we should be good to go.

We were silent as we built our burgers and then took the first couple of bites.

“These are really good,” he said, sounding surprised. I nodded, but didn’t explain the RTMC had bought into one of the slaughterhouses outside of town, so we got a good deal on fresh, grass-fed beef.

“You and Brain are close?” he asked.

“Yeah. He helped me with my homework when I was in high school. He’s seeing someone now, and I’m happy for him.”

“So, which of the MC did you have a crush on when you were in high school?”

I laughed. “My dad made sure everyone knew I was off limits. I didn’t lose my virginity until I went away to college. The entire MC was intent on keeping me all innocent and shit. None of the guys in high school had the nerve to kiss me, much less do more. My dad scared the shit out of all of them. I was everyone’s damned
friend
.”

“And yet, Sloane Bishop had the balls to talk you into sneaking out to see him. Big college football player? No wonder he turned up missing.”

I looked at the table a few seconds, deciding how best to handle him. Brain didn’t speak up, and going on the offense seemed my best plan of action.

“That day was the worst day of my life, and I’ve been asked to relive and recount it a hundred times. Multiple police officers and detectives, lawyers in fancy suits, my dad, Sloane’s dad… ‘
Where were you at three o’clock? Lead me through your day after that
.’ And it always ends the same way — with the officers telling me my mom was killed, and Brain and Bash there for me, taking care of me as best they could. The ol’ladies coming over to check on me, bring food, talk to me. So, if you don’t mind, District Attorney Pickering, I’d just as soon not get the third degree over it yet another god-damned
fucking
time.”

“Do you really think they’re going to let you date anyone, now that you’re back? I can stand up to them because my position makes me untouchable. How many men do you think will be willing to face off against them for the privilege of dating you, Angelica?”

I sighed and set my burger down instead of taking my next bite. I kept my voice soft as I told him, “The things you showed me were beautiful, Thomas. I’d wanted someone to spank me, and more, but I’d never had the nerve to bring it up. I’d also never imagined it could be so intimate, and how close I’d feel to you, afterwards. Between that, and you standing up to three of the most bad-assed bikers around without showing fear, it’s really a shame we aren’t going to work out.”