Merrick: Harlequins MC (22 page)

“You ready to go back?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For putting it into prospective.”

“All part of the service.”

She grinned, snorted, then gave him a quick kiss. “Come on. I’d like to get through this scene before the day is over.”

***

“Cut! Do it again,” Will said then looked at Merrick. Blake was still struggling but Poppy now seemed to be taking it in stride. “What did you say to her?”

“Nothing much.”

“Whatever it was, it worked.”

Merrick shrugged. “I pointed out she had no control over Blake and all she could do was take control of herself. The fact Blake kept messing up was your problem. Or Taylor’s. I’m still not clear who does what.”

Will nodded, grinned, and turned back to his monitor. They may have to add
Life Coach
under
Good Luck Charm
on his pass. “Ready? And…action!”

***

“That’s a wrap!” Will said. It had been a hard day, but they had finally gotten most of their shots. Blake was all over the place with his performance today and Will suspected he knew why. Blake was a character actor, a performer who became indistinguishable from the characters they played, and they played the same basic character in every movie. Blake was used to being the loveable, easy going, hero who always saved the day and got the girl, which was why he was having such a hard job today, he was trying to act outside his comfort zone.

Will shook his head. He much preferred to work with classical performers, people like Poppy, who could simply turn the character on and off at will, unlike character actors like Blake or, even worse, method actors, those who became the character they were playing. Both character and method actors were sometimes difficult to work with because they often thought they knew better than the director how to play their characters.

He watched as Merrick led Poppy away, smiling and talking, as Blake glared at them. He shook his head again. Not only had Merrick stepped into loveable hero role on this shoot, he’d also gotten the girl, and it was biting Blake, hard.

***

“Take me to dinner?” Poppy asked as she showered.

“Can’t tonight. Business.” Merrick replied.

“What kind of business?”

“Club business.”

“That’s going to take all night?”

“No, probably not.”

The water turned off. “Are you coming back here afterwards, then?”

He smiled, wishing he could. “Can’t. I have to run to San Antonio to pick up a compressor for a job. It’ll be late by the time I get back.”

She stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around her hair but wearing nothing else. She let her eyes flood with tears. “I wanted to spend time with you tonight,” she softly.

He smiled. “And I wanted to, as well, but this came up and I have to deal with it.”

“You can’t stay?” she asked, a slight quiver in her voice as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“No…and I haven’t forgotten what you do for a living.”

She was disappointed, but she reminded herself she actually liked the fact he wasn’t impressed by her and didn’t jump at her every whim. She turned off the tears. “Asshole. Pick me up in the morning, then?” she asked, her voice returning to normal.

“Count on it. What time?”

“Seven.”

“I’ll be here.”

“So it’s agreed? We’re not going to bring the rest of the brothers in on our off book activities until the Corpse Killers begin hitting us?” Merrick asked. He looked around the clubhouse at his brothers, every head nodding.

“Anyone have anything to add?” Jason asked.

“Any idea when Abana may take another swipe at them?” Tim asked.

“None. But he sent me a text today with an address where the guns are supposed to be. It’s going to require a little breaking and entering, but I want to do it tonight, before the Killers move them, if they haven’t already. Jason and I are going, and I need two more volunteers.”

Sixteen of the remaining eighteen members threw their hats into the ring, the other two begging off on this one.

“Kyle, you and Randy. Kyle, can we use your old lady’s Cherokee?” Merrick asked.

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Okay, let’s break this up. We’ve got four hours on the road ahead of us,” Jason said.

“I’ll meet you back here in forty-five minutes,” Kyle said as he prepared to leave with the rest of the brothers.

“We’ll be here.” He then turned his attention to Randy and Jason. “Let’s go put together a toolkit with what we’ll think we we’ll need.”

***

“Where’s Merrick?” Blake asked as Poppy opened the door.

“He has business. Why?”

“Do you have dinner plans?”

“No. I was going to eat in my room.”

“Join me for dinner downstairs? I’d like to apologize for today.”

She stared at him a moment, then stepped back, silently inviting him in. She didn’t want to have dinner with him, but if he were really here to apologize, she didn’t want to be a complete bitch. She was trying very hard to throw off that stigma. “I should be the one apologizing to you. I shouldn’t have called you out like that.”

He shrugged. “I can understand how frustrating it can be.” He grinned. “We can’t all be Poppy Landrieu.”

“What does that mean?” she asked as she ran a brush through her hair and applied a light dusting of makeup. She wasn’t one of those celebrities who had to be perfectly put together one hundred percent of the time, but she didn’t want to look like a ragamuffin either.

“It means, I think people are going to look back and say you were the greatest actor of our generation, and one of the greatest ever. You make it look effortless because, I guess for you, it is. Not all of us are so lucky.

She looked at him in the mirror. “Are you shitting me?”

He chuckled. “No! I meant every word of it. I’m not the only one saying it either. Don’t you read the trades?”

She snorted and went back to putting on her makeup. “Not much. I stopped a long time ago. Half the stuff they print is wrong, and the other half is innuendo.”

He laughed. “It’s not that bad.”

She grinned. “Okay, you’re right. Half the stuff is accurate; the other half is wrong or innuendo.”

“There, see?”

“If I got my lines right only half the time, most people wouldn’t think I was very good at my job. I don’t have time for that.”

He grinned. “Who’s sleeping with who, who’s divorcing who, who hates who, who’s up for what role. It’s all part of the game.”

“It’s not a game I’m interested in playing.”

He chuckled. “You’re in the wrong business, then.”

She snapped her makeup kit closed and gave herself a quick once over. “Yeah. So I’ve learned.”

***

“They have a camera on the gate,” Jason said as they sat in Kyle’s Jeep. They had driven to the address Abana had given them and was sitting outside just inside the drive of Lanzo Self Storage in Corpus Christie, working out their plan.

“I’m not worried about that,” Randy said. “I’m more worried about someone driving in and catching us with our dicks hanging out.”

“It’s almost nine. You really think someone is going to come in here this late?” Kyle asked.

“What about them driving by on the road as we force the gate?” Randy countered.

“Let’s just do it,” Merrick said.

Randy opened the door. “Somebody come with me and I’ll handle the camera.” He walked around to the back of the Jeep, opened the hatch, and pulled out the mechanic’s gloves and the bolt cutters. He left the hacksaw and pry bar. After slamming the hatch, he and Jason made a wide loop around the self-storage lot and came up on the camera from behind.

“Give me boost.” Jason made a stirrup and Randy put his foot in it, then clambered to the top of the six foot fence. He stood on the top rail as he held to the pole the camera was mounted on, taking the cutters from Jason. Leaning into the pole, he reached up and began smacking the armored mount until the camera was pointed up. He dropped the cutters and jumped from the fence.

Jason chuckled. “Primitive but effective.”

Randy grinned. “If brute force doesn’t work, you’re not using enough of it.”

He and Jason walked to the gate as Kyle approached in the Jeep. They tried to muscle the gate up but failed. After a few minutes of study, they realized if they cut the pin on the fulcrum arm, the gate would pivot freely. The hacksaw made quick work of the pin and they were able to lift the gate with ease. As Merrick held the gate in its upright position, Kyle drove through, then they eased the gate closed again.

***

“What do you see in that Merrick guy?” Blake asked as they had dinner.

Poppy shrugged. “I guess I just like cowboys.”

“He’s not a cowboy. He’s a thug.”

Poppy bristled. “He might not be a cowboy, but he’s not a thug, either. I’ll remind you he saved my life.”

“Then let the guy that did it go.”

“He didn’t think the guy did it. His reasons made sense.”

“Then who does he think did it?”

She shrugged. “He’s doesn’t know,” she lied.

“I don’t think whoever took the potshot at you actually tried to kill you. If he did, he’s a lousy hit man because he wasn’t even close.”

“Close enough!”

“You want to know who I think did it?” Blake asked, leaning in close.

“Who?”

“One of the Harlequins. Think about it. They’re the only ones who had anything to gain. And he just happened to be right there? It was almost as if he was expecting it.”

She rejected the idea out of hand but held her tongue. “What would he have to gain by doing that? How’d he get the gun?”

Blake rolled his eyes. “Are you really that naïve? After that happened, you have been falling all over the guy. You’re rich and famous; he’s a nobody. He’s using you, Poppy. Can’t you see that?”

She could feel her temper rising. “He hasn’t asked me for a thing. What about you, Blake? Do you want something from me?”

He felt a cold lump form in his chest. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t even try. I know what you’ve been trying to do. A shomance? Really?”

“I’m doing no such thing!”

“So you deny it?”

“Of course! Who told you that?”

“You deny telling Merrick that you were trying to create buzz by implying we were sleeping together?”

“Yes! That’s a bald faced lie, Poppy. This is what I’m talking about. He’s using you, trying to separate you from your family.”

She stared at him a moment. She wanted to believe he wasn’t using her, but Merrick’s account felt more real and, somehow, she didn’t see Merrick knowing the word shomance unless he’d heard it somewhere else first. “Maybe,” she allowed.

He reached across and took her hands. “I’m trying to look out for you, Poppy. He’s not what you need. You need to find someone who understands what it’s like to be in the business. He can’t fathom the responsibilities you have to deal with. Dragging you away like he did was irresponsible at best, dangerous at worst. What if something had happened to you?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. This is Texas, for Christ’s sake. You could have said something wrong and some redneck could have pulled a gun on you or something.”

Poppy rolled her eyes. Hanging around Merrick had shown her Texans weren’t nearly as backward or inbred as she once believed. He’d opened her eyes that there was a world outside of Los Angeles, and she’d liked what she’d seen.

“I think you’re overreacting.”

“Really? Maybe, but I wasn’t the one who was shot at.”

***

“You hear that?” Jason whispered. Kyle paused in his efforts and listened a moment. Without Kyle sawing away, they could all hear the rumble of a big V8 as it crept along between the storage units.

“Keep working!” Merrick ordered.

They had spent an hour, already, trying to get the door on the storage unit open, and they were still at it. The bolt cutters had proven useless because the door had an internal lock so there was nothing to cut. They had tried to pry the door, but had simply bent the door. They had finally resorted to punching a hole in the thin metal of the door and trying to cut through the locking bar with the hacksaw. Cutting through the door, the guide, and the bar at the same time was slow hard work, and they were taking turns on the hacksaw. They had been sawing way at the door for forty-five minutes, the only break in the work occurring when they’d had a laughing fit when Jason bemoaned their lack of power tools.

A pair of headlamps turned down the aisle they were on, then the vehicle roared as it charged toward them before slamming to a stop, spraying gravel. The Jeep was sitting in front of the door, so the four men crouched behind it, hoping they hadn’t been seen in the shadows. Two men baled from the truck.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing!” one of the men roared.

“Trying to get into my storage room! What concern is it of yours?” Merrick said, rising from behind the Jeep and holding his hand out so his men would stay down.

“That’s our fucking storage unit!”

“No its not, it’s mine. Number 723.”

“723 is the next one over, you stupid fuck!” the man said as he and his companion stepped in front of the headlamps.

“What?” Merrick said as he looked up at the numbers in mock confusion. “Oh, shit, man, I’m sorry. No wonder my key wasn’t working.”

“Move your fucking Jeep. We need to get in there. And pay attention to shit the next time.”

“Yeah. Sorry, man. It won’t happen again.”

“Just move your—fuck! It’s the Harlequins!” the second man said as Merrick stepped around the Jeep and his colors came into view.

***

“Thank you for dinner,” Poppy said as she unlocked and opened the door to her room.

“You’re welcome,” Blake replied opening the door for her and stepping in. Poppy followed. He was beginning to win her over to his way of thinking and he wanted to press home his advantage while Merrick wasn’t around.

He stepped in close and smiled down at her. He was eight years older than her own twenty-six years, but he was certainly handsome enough with his dark hair and eyes, terrific body, and movie star features, but she didn’t feel the pull for Blake she did for Merrick. She took a step back.