If I Should Die: A Kimber S. Dawn MC Novel (29 page)

Before the word ‘No’ has left her lips, I’ve made it across the room and I’m ten inches—coincidence? Nah—from her face, backing her against the wall. And as my eyes narrow on hers, it takes a lot to hold back the chuckle when Ty shrieks in response to how fast I move.

“Have you ever heard of the word ‘respect’, Vagabond?” I speak, clearly annunciating every syllable of every word. “Or Protocol, perhaps? Either of those ever been stressed to you in your life?”

“I-I what?!” I just continue glaring into her eyes. And now that all the funny bullshit my entrance caused is over, I feel my earlier anger flaring back. I tip my head to the side, waiting for her response. But when there isn’t one, my already thinning patience begins to snap.

Without even looking in Ty’s direction, I pull my business card out of my back pocket and flick it towards him. Keeping my eyes trained on Eve’s dark brown ones, I direct my words at her friend. “Ty, there’s my information. I’m passing through, last ride and all for my unc—we’re headed to the Keys to release his ashes. I want you to know…” I look from Eve to Ty, “…man to man—I’ve been responsible for this little pipsqueak several times before. And as I’m sure you know, I’m not a stranger, no matter what she may be currently professing these days. And I realize this is a lot to ask, especially since this is the first time you and I’re officially meeting, but I’mma have to regretfully ask you to step out, bro. I really need you to leave, but I’ll settle with you stepping out. And before you get any ideas, my brothers have this whole damn place surrounded.” I nod towards the front porch. “So if you’re packing, I’d leave that shit in the house before stepping off that front porch. I’d hate for some friendly fire to happen here tonight. I’m already pissed at this one.” I nod at Eve before cutting my eyes to hers, and slowly face her. “You’re in so much trouble, Pipsqueak.” I shake my head at her before slowly chuckling. “So much trouble. You have been bad. And we can’t afford that, baby—not with all this shit that’s going on.”

I cut my eyes back to her friend, wondering, ‘
What the hell’s he still doing here?’
  “Ty!” I bark, and have to bite the inside of my cheek when he shoots two feet off the ground, spins
midair, and heads for the front door.

“Yep, know the story. Know the tears. I got your number. Don’t expect me to not pester the shit out of you now, either. Probably from this day forward. ‘Til death do us part, and all that jazz. We’re contacts now. Eve. Remember what we talked about. The only way birth control is effective is if you hold the pill between your kneeees! Oh, and find out what you can about your old man. Err...biological father. Eden too. I’ll be at the hospital with your mom; it’s my day to wash her hair. Text me when it’s cool for me to come back here.” He looks at me, then back to Eve. “I don’t want you being alone. Period.” After he kisses the air, he winks at me and leaves.

Once a good bit of time passes and neither one of us say anything, I clear my throat, but I don’t let another inch besides the ten come between us. “What have the authorities told you? About your mom. Was her attacker found? Was it random? Like was anything stolen or—” Eve holds her hand up between us, shaking her head.

“No,” she replies before turning around.

And for the first time, I glance at the mess scattered at our feet and curse. “Shit.” Then I’m forced to put even more inches between us. I squat down, and motion for her to continue as she turns back towards me.

“No. It wasn’t random.” She shrugs, kneeling beside where I’ve stooped down and begun picking up pieces of salad and glass from the floor. Then she starts pitching in, and we both toss the chunks of tomatoes and lettuce in a bigger section of a broken piece of bowl. When her voice lowers to barely a whisper, she continues, “It’s just no one knows who could have done it. I mean, yeah, Mother’s done her fair share to piss off a lot of people, but not like this. At least no one I know.”

As she quickly stands, she grabs the piece of bowl with most of the salad piled in it, and tosses it in the trash just inside the kitchen. When she returns in front of me, she doesn’t bend back down to help me finish cleaning up. Instead her voice is shrieking at me. “Because no one in my life, or her life. I mean my life!” She sighs before she seems to gather her words. “I don’t usually hang out with aggressive people. My life consists of cocktails, hair shears, ammonia, and peroxide. Not bullets and black leather, or fucking motorbikes!” When she stills, it’s like watching a double-sided mirror flip. And pride swells inside my chest.

Oh, she’s pissed. Yeah, she is eyes flying back and forth between mine, teeth gritting pissed one second, and then she’s as poised and calm as she can be the next. I watch in awe as her composure visibly gathers around her.

“As for my sister, I don’t really know. That’s why I keep asking you about Ben. There was a missing person’s report filed, but that’s here in Florida. And with her history...even with Mother’s incident, they’re not going to look into it anymore than that. No one will. If she is missing, she didn’t go missing from here. You heard the letter. I don’t even know where her dad is getting that she’s missing.” She sadly smiles. “It’s what she does. She disappears. I don’t like it any more than the next person. Hell, I wish I could learn how to.”

And I’m not sure why, but her words...I don’t like them. At all. “Learn how to what?” I ask from my spot squatting down on the floor. “Disappear?” I abruptly stand before dusting my hands off on the front of my worn out jeans. When I’m standing close enough to her, I cup my hands around her face and when it’s tilted up to mine, and I’m looking between her dark brown eyes, I whisper, “Oh, hell, Vagabond. You can run, but you can’t hide. There’s no disappearing on me. We’re through with the goodbye girl shit. Our paths have crossed one too many times. And you, little missy, are stuck with me. At least until we can find out what the hell is going on here. You and me are gonna be stuck like glue. Understood?” I chuckle when her face blanches.

And when she goes to protest, I lay my pointer finger across her lips. “Shh. We got shit to figure out. Yeah? You want answers?” I quirk my eyebrow and smirk when she nods. “And do you really think you’re gonna get them from the authorities? Or the legal way? With all the red tape and shit?” I ask, pulling my finger away from her lips.

Her eyes flutter closed, and her tongue sweeps out, licking her lips, then she opens them. However, instead of sultry brown eyes gazing into mine, I see nothing but steel resolve staring back at me. “Where is Ben?”

“I don’t know.”

She sighs before taking a breath, and starts again. “Where’s my sister?”

Shit.

“I don’t know.”

“And how the hell are you supposed to help me any more than the police if you don’t know shit? And what? You were pissed because I didn’t fly up there to your club? Is that why you slammed in here like the damn Hulk and made Ty leave?” She motions towards the rest of the salad on the floor. “Clean this shit up. I’m going to take a shower.” She gestures to her clothes. “As you can see I just got off. And it’s been a shitty few days. So excuse me if I prefer to get wasted
before
I stumble into the shower after that hellish shift at Charlie’s. But I’m fucking tired. And I wanna shower before I eat, Capiese?”

She stumbles once on her way towards the hall leading to her room, and when she makes it there, she turns around, and only sways slightly. “While I’m in there. ALONE. You be out here. Trying to think of a good reason I should keep you around. Otherwise, you’re gonna have to keep me drugged and bound in order for me to deal with you. I can’t promise, I’m emotionally—” She stops, teary eyes wide as saucers, and I’m about to tell her the bound thing can be worked out when she continues. “Never mind.” She points towards her bedroom and sticks her chin out a bit. “I’m going in there.” Her other hand points to the living room. “You stay in here. Understood?”

I nod, chuckling. And completely clueless how this damn girl keeps getting under my skin. How does she have this damn effect on me?
Wasn’t I just pissed?

Then for reasons I refuse to justify to you, I watch her ass as she stumbles the rest of the way down the hall. And once she’s turned the corner, I pull my phone from my pocket. Where it’s been blowing the fuck up since I left NYC about five hours before the other brothers pulled out.

It was a knee-jerk reaction. And one Dreads wasn’t given a heads up about. He doesn’t even know. However, when I see his name lighting up my phone, my mind does quickly correct itself. ‘
Okay, so he didn’t know.’

“Jacques Cain speaking. What’s up, bro?”

He doesn’t hold back when he’s pissed. That’s what I like about Dreads. He’s emotional. And while his emotions can sometimes get the better of him—they’re also his tell. Dreads can’t hide shit. If something has him flustered, nine times out of ten, it’s gonna be all over his face immediately. In this case, it just so happens to be all over his voice.

“Jesus. Fucking. Christ. I’ve been shittin’ myself, motherfucker!” I hear the tension leave him in the breath he sighs across the phone line. Then the phone shuffles. “Bitch, I thought you were dead. Don’t do that fucking shit to me, bro. Not with all the shit that’s been going on. Please!”

“Ay,” I attempt to stop him. To tell him to stop being such a pussy, but he cuts me off.

“No! Not with your pops cold in the ground. Not with your unc’s ashes strapped to the back of my bike this very second. And not when I can’t fucking find your cousin any-goddamn-where. No. These are my brothers just as much as they’re your blood, bro!”

Wait, what?

After a silent pause, I bark out, “What the fuck do you mean you can’t find my cousin? Check Chicago. Seattle. Detroit. Cleveland? Hell, fuck it, check every city between NYC and Seattle. You’ll find him, bro. He’s a fucking nomad. They don’t have homes!” I growl.

“Ben’s gone, Jacques. As in off grid. That bitch ain’t been seen in months. Clutch said Ryker just verified it with the Seattle brothers, too. It’s not looking good. At all.” Dreads’ voice is still even over the phone with him probably going close to eighty on I-95 on the back of his bike.

Shit.

“Call Roxy,” I bark, as how fucking easy she let the other night happen finally settles around me. I knew something was fucking off with her that night. “You said she was pissed I was late the night we pulled in from Daytona Bike Week, yeah?”

“Bro, I don’t think this has shit to do with—”

“No! The fuck did you tell me? You said she was hot, yeah? No—fit to be tied? How so? Because that’s not the same Roxy I walked into when I came out of the shower. Just before she left.”

“Left? Wait, Rox left? When’d she leave?” he asks just before cursing. “Hang on.”

After a few seconds of phone shuffling, Dreads comes back. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Yeah, no— she was fit to be tied the other night. And left? When the fuck’d she leave?”

I do the math in my head, and as the correct timing and day come to me, my eyes catch sight of a freshly washed Eve Of’May O’Malley, sauntering into the living room in nothing but a white cami and some dark gray boy shorts, with a towel wrapped around her head. “About twenty motherfucking minutes before the hailstorm of bullets reigned the fuck down on our MC, bro.”

When Eve’s eyes glance up and meet mine for the first time since she came into the room, I smirk before winking at her. But her Jack Daniels must’ve run out with her shower’s hot water, because all fun and games from before are gone. And once again, standing before me, is my goodbye girl.

And goddamn it, I don’t. I really don’t have time for this.
I hold my hand up in the air, motioning at her to hold on. “Just start checking the cities I named. Call the other chapters, let them know. I think with Unc coming up dead, they should hopefully be willing to talk,” I mutter, keeping my gaze locked with Eve’s.

And when she stops in front of me, she’s almost exactly ten feet away. And Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, she’s beautiful enough to take your breath away. I almost swallow my tongue trying to speak but her words cut me off.

“Clearwater,” she says.

“Wait, what? Who the fuck—Really? That’s where you went? Bro, she didn’t show up. Get over it.” After he sighs and I still haven’t said anything, I think he gets the clue. The one where I don’t want to fucking talk about this shit in front of her, because he speaks. Again, thankfully. “Don’t even answer. It’s none of my business, I’ve said my piece. Got nothing else to say. Now.” He clears his throat, and the modicum of shame I should feel isn’t felt. Not at all. “The fuck she say? Clearwater?”

I smirk at my brother’s words, clearly reading his retreat and surrender. Even though he still thinks she’s toxic. Then I cut my eyes and smirk at Eve. “Pipsqueak, Clearwater? As in Florida? Why there, babe?” I ask her, before reaching out and trying to link her fingers with mine. Then I nod her over in the direction of the deck, and hand her the glass of wine I poured for her while she showered and sobered up. I really need to keep her in as much of an un-sober state as I possibly can, and it’s not like I can ask Dreads if he bought any Versed with him. She is standing right here in front of me. Brown eyes still locked with my blue ones.