Forbidden (Motorcycle Club Romance): Trista and Blaze 1 (Fallen Idols Motorcycle Club) (2 page)

THREE

Dad sat at the head of the table, the gavel in his hands. It was his weapon of choice, power. Rogue hardly needed a gun anymore when he had other members to do his dirty work for him. We may have been one percenters, but he led with an iron fist that kept us under control. No one went out of his or her way to hurt anybody as long as Rogue was in charge.

“Sit down. I want to talk to you about something.”

I sat at his command. “Does this have anything to do with the new prospect?”

He nodded. “And some other shit.”

I extended my hands in front of me. “Go for it. Can't wait to hear your explanation as to why you’re allowing Blaze to become a prospect after his family split from the MC.”

He narrowed his dark eyes at me. I got my hot headedness from him. “Trista, listen to me. His old man was a founding member, so if he wants to be a part of it, he has every right to be. Just as much as you do. Now, you fought a battle to get where you are, let him fight his. The decision will go to church later. It's not your concern.”

Church: our version of a conference. Except it usually involved beer, and a few people with guns… not exactly your typical board meeting.

I rolled my eyes, and crossed my arms. “Fine. What's the other little piece of news?”

He leaned back, and the chair creaked under his weight. He had been the only person to ever sit in it, a president from the beginning. There were four original founding members: my father, Pops, Buck, and Stephen Taylor. Stephen was Blaze’s father. He was shot and killed in a Las Almas altercation before I was born. Supposedly, he died for the patch, but there were a lot of questions surrounding his death. We didn't talk about it, or him. Buck was the old VP until he got thrown in San Quentin for some bullshit charges that the local DA had against him. Now, Ace had that patch, and I was treasurer. I hated doing all the money; made me feel like a goddamn secretary, but it kept me involved in the business, and gave them reason to keep me around. Ace wasn't the biggest fan of having a girl in the club, and he wasn’t shy about telling me. I wasn't a fan of having to clean his ass up after a long night of gambling either, but I kept that to myself.

Dad placed his fingers together under his chin. “I need you to do something as acting treasurer.”

I was shocked. Any task that I was given as an official MC member was done at church. There was no reason to pull me aside privately. “And what is that?”

“It’s come to my attention that there are a few parts missing from the warehouse. Ryder is up there now, working, and said there’s something wrong with the inventory. I need you to go up there, figure out what's missing, and who we have to nail to find it.”

“Who the hell would steal from us? Nobody even knows about the warehouse except for the Red Dragons. And you know that they'll never come on our turf. Besides, it would be against their financial interest to come and snake our stuff.”

He shook his head, the wrinkles near his eyes coming together. “I got no idea, kid. And you're right. The Red Dragons are the only ones who know about that place. Chen is too smart to do anything against us. He knows the retaliation would be too swift. They don’t have that kind of manpower.”

“You think there’s somebody new on the block?” I'd been considering this for a while. Some of our old business had practically dried up, but no one would listen to me. As long as the big money was still coming in from shipping whole cars across the open waters with the Red Dragons, nobody cared that our smaller business in the chop shop wasn't going as well. I didn't see it that way. The big money was easier to track. Our chop shop was under so many shell corporations that no one was ever going to figure out that's how we paid our members. Sure, the big payouts were nice, but we could never tell when there were eyes on those. The warehouse had been safe for years. Why now would it suddenly get hit?

“I sure as hell hope not. We don’t have time to deal with some new young shit trying to make some extra cash that they don't know anything about. I think that it might be time to look at a few other investments.”

I knew what that meant: guns. My dad just never seemed to get it; guns meant feds, and I wasn't getting into bed with any of that. He knew the money was big, but so was the risk, which had stopped us from voting for it as long as I'd been a member. He had only brought it up twice before now, but I wouldn't be surprised if I heard it again in church real soon. I knew what was coming. Axel would be the next Sergeant of Arms after Pops, and Ace would step up to president when my dad got out of the MC. Rogue might've survived bullet wounds, but old age was starting to kick his ass. And he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Guns were a fast way to make money. It was his endgame. He and Mom would finally be out, and maybe the rivalry with Las Almas would die down. I knew part of it was to protect me, but I could handle myself. I wasn’t some baby just because I was his little girl.

I bit back what I really wanted to say on the matter, letting out a breath. “I don't like your idea of other investments. But you're the boss. Want me to go to the warehouse and check it out?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Check on those two knuckleheads. I don't know. Maybe they just counted wrong, and I'm being paranoid.”

It wouldn't be the first time dumb and dumber had screwed up. They were straight shooters, but leaving them together in the warehouse was just asking for shit to get blown up. Those boys liked to have a good time. I had gotten in plenty of trouble with the two of them over the years.

“You got it. I’ll be back in a couple hours.”

FOUR

I walked out of the back room, and saw some of the guys sitting around the bar, talking to Larry. That potential new prospect, Blaze, wasn't anywhere to be seen. I hated to admit that it disappointed me. I would have to come out as not Kelly soon enough. But I didn’t know how to handle him. Part of me wanted to let him fuck my brains out again, while another part knew he was trouble for the club. I made my way past Ace, who was sitting on a barstool with a shot of whiskey in his hand. That man was never without a drink. As I passed by, he swung around.

“What should I call you, little lady?” he asked me in his thick British accent, words slurring.

I rolled my eyes, but I didn't turn around at first. “The same goddamned name you've been calling me for twenty-five years.”

I turned around, grabbed a soda that one of the club whores had been drinking, and splashed it in his face. “You better sober up. We've got church later.” I loved messing with him; it was a natural high.

He shook his head. “You little bitch! You got my fuckin’ hair wet.”

Of course he was more worried about his hair than he was about the sticky soda all over his cut. He loved that ponytail more than any woman I’d ever seen him with. He tried to pat down his blond ponytail, but he knew the damage was done. I laughed to myself as I sashayed away. Ace and I had a love-hate relationship. He was the VP, so I should show him respect, but I didn't. And I was the president's daughter, so he should keep his hands off, but he didn't. Even though most of the time we spent together was spent arguing, I knew he would still take a bullet for me. That's just how family worked.

I headed back out into the afternoon sunshine, zipping up my jacket. I put on my dome, knowing that it was about a thirty-minute ride to the docks. As long as traffic wasn't terrible, I could make in twenty. To avoid suspicions, we always rode straight on our way. The last thing we needed was a couple local cops coming to check out what CWR Inc. was actually about. As I rode through the streets, I felt like someone might be watching me, but years of being in the club had made me paranoid like my father. I took a few extra streets just to make sure I wasn't being followed, and by the time I got to the docks, I was certain I was completely alone.

Axel was outside shining up his FatBoy, and I had to assume that Ryder was inside working. “Are you taking a break?”

He popped his head up, and smiled at me, a toothy grin that was only reserved for me. He wiped his greasy hands on a cloth, but his arms were still mostly black from the years of tattoos he had added to build full sleeves. “Yeah, didn't you hear? We’re union here now.”

Always messing with me, it was just Axel. As he swept his dark brown hair out of his face, I thought about the time in the clubhouse where things almost went too far. His lips on my neck, and his hands on my ass; it sent shivers down my body. But nothing had happened, regardless of either of us wanting it to or not. Rogue had called me right in the middle of it, almost like he knew what was going on. We lost a prospect that day, and Axel and I had been just friends ever since.

“I like the new paint on the sign. Did you do that?”

I shielded my eyes from the sunlight as I stared up at the big letters; it made us look real legit.

“No, wasn't me. You know Ryder’s the one with the artistic ability. I think even a couple of Chen’s guys came down and helped him out.”

Chen, another guy I had almost slept with on multiple occasions. VP of the Red Dragons, and our main business associate.

“Are his guys working down here now?”

Axel shrugged. “I don't think so. But you know Ryder. If he asked for help from anybody, they’d say yes.”

That was true. Ryder just had this puppy dog look about him, and when he started to whine, you just had to help. Didn't matter if it was something you wanted to do or not. “Where is that shithead anyway? I hope he's at least getting some work done around here.”

Axel tossed the greasy rag onto the ground next to his bike. “Yeah, he's in there. Still trying to figure out what the hell went wrong with the order. I don't know how we’re missing those two engines, Trista. We've got to find out what the hell is going on around here.”

Wasn't that the truth.

We walked through a side door into the darkened warehouse. Even though windows lined the whole top of the building, it was still too big for all of the sunlight to get in, and make much of a difference. There was a separate emblem as soon as you arrived, just to further throw off any local police that showed up. I strolled past the office, but Ryder wasn't in there, even though there was music blasting from the laptop. We kept walking past crates of stolen car parts, mostly from Japan. We finally got past the wall of wooden crates, and emerged into the main work area where Ryder was holding a clipboard, and scribbling furiously next to a Mercedes-Benz that we had just picked up.

“Your old man send you down here to check up on us?” His eyes lifted from the board.

“Something like that. So what's going on, fellas? We've got to figure out where these engines are. We've got church this afternoon, and you don't want to tell the old guys that they got lost on your watch.”

Axel shook his head. “We weren't on duty last night.”

“Then who was?”

Ryder shrugged. “I don't know, Tris, but it was a mess when we came in.”

Now, I was starting to get annoyed. “Are you trying to tell me that you don't even know if this place was under guard last night? I thought you were running things here.”

Ryder looked at me like he always had since we were children. Getting annoyed with me was one of his favorite cousinly activities. “Don't talk to me about who's in charge of this place. If you want to point fingers, point them at Rogue. Your dad is the one who makes the schedule around here. I can't just live here.”

“Why the hell not? It's not like you got anybody at home.”

Axel covered his mouth, and laughed. “Burn! She got you, boy.”

Ryder gave him a nasty look. “Way to have my back, jackass.” He was pissed. Sometimes, I pushed him too far. Ryder had been a different man since his fiancée left him. My smartass remarks weren’t always appreciated if he wasn’t in the mood.

Axel put his hands up. “Okay, okay. Let's just figure out what happened to those two engines, and move on before anybody else needs to know about it.”

I sighed. “I mean everybody at the club already knows. Who else do you mean?”

Axel rubbed his face, and looked away from me. “Shit. Everybody knows?”

“Are you selling to someone new? You know that has to go to church.”

Ryder set the clipboard down on the car. “I'm not selling to anybody. That's not my part of the job. I get the cars, I break them down, and I leave the parts here. I'm no salesman.”

Axel still didn't say anything, but if he was selling on the side, he wasn't telling Ryder, which meant he wasn't going to be honest about it now. I’d give him a chance to tell me on his own, before I brought it up in church.

“Who does this baby go to?”

Ryder picked up the board again, and walked around the beautiful car. It was bright red with black leather interior; it would make us a fortune. “This one's getting shipped out in about two hours. I guess we'll see you at church after that.”

“Fine. Try to figure out what happened to those engines, though. You know my dad is gonna have my ass when I come back with no new information.”

Ryder just shook his head. “Like I said, Tris. We weren’t here.”

“What about the security cameras?”

He shrugged. “They’re in the office, and you can check them, but I don't think you’re gonna see anything. Because anybody that steals from us has to be a damn good thief. Not dumb enough to get caught on any camera.”

He was right, but, as I said goodbye, I stopped by the office to check the security cameras, just in case. I only watched them once, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't even see a truck pull away with the parts. Whoever this was, they were stealthy.