ROUGHNECK: A DARK MOTORCYCLE CLUB ROMANCE (6 page)

T
he prez slammed
his fist on the table.

“What in seven hells were you sons of bitches doing out there anyway?”

Sly and his psychopathic son sat across from each other at the middle of Clancy’s table. I watched silently from the corner. He didn’t usually need me for this kind of shit, but since I warned him about what they were doing, he wanted me involved.

“Shit, somebody speak! Because I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

The fact that the two of them sat at the table without feeling the need to defend themselves put an ominous feeling in the air.

“There’s a fucking civilian in the hospital because… because
why
exactly?”

Silence.

“Paul,” barked the president at his long-time treasurer. “Give me something better than that. Tell me something different than your fuck-up-of-a-kid shot some bystander because a drug deal went bad.”

Sly adjusted himself in his chair.

“And for what… a few grand?” continued the prez. “Damn, if you were gonna disobey my orders, the least you could have done was cut bait and get out of there when it started to go bad.”

“Gotta make ‘em pay,” said Dirty under his breath.

“What?!”

The baritone in the president’s voice rattled the heavy mirror on the wall.

“Make ‘em pay? Is that what you said, you stupid motherfucker?”

How Dirty could keep that disinterested look on his face was beyond me.

“I’ll tell you who’s gonna pay… we are! Because nothin’ gets the pigs’ attention like a goddamn citizen with a bullet in him. Nothing! They might not have tied anything to us yet, but from the way I hear things, there were no fewer than twenty people looking out the window of that diner.”

Dirty opened his mouth to speak, but the prez cut him down with a look.

“Whose brilliant idea was it to pick that spot, anyway? You guys might as well have tried to do it right outside the fucking police station. There wouldn’t be too many more eyes there.”

He kicked his chair away from the table and started to pace. I readied my lighter for when he’d inevitably pull that tobacco pouch out to roll one up.

“All it will take is for one of those witnesses to mention The Fallen, or say anything about a motorcycle for that matter, and they’ll be all over our asses.”

“Relax Clancy.”

Sly finally spoke up. The disrespect in his tone made the president grind his teeth.

“Nobody knows what that was about.”

“People talk, Paul. That’s been the case forever and it ain’t changing anytime soon.”

Sly dismissed it with a wave.

“And what about that kid? The prospect… he’s still in the wind, isn’t he?”

That was my cue.

“I’ll take care of the kid, Prez. He’s probably just scared.”

Sly and his son shared a look.

“Take care of him better mean you’re gonna put a fuckin’ bullet in his head,” said Dirty. “The son of a bitch is probably spilling his guts to the cops right now.”

I saw red.

He couldn’t even think about getting out of his chair before I had him by the collar. I took a fistful and tightened it around his neck. When he tried to stand, I forced him back down.

“How ‘bout I put a bullet in your head,” I growled. “Remember, you’re the one who fucked this up, not him.”

“Nobody is doin’ a damn thing until I say so,” said the president. “If that kid does talk, he’s not doin’ it against the club, he’s doin it on a kill-crazy asshole.”

He pushed his index finger into the center of Dirty’s chest.

“Now that’s where I have to disagree with you, Clancy.”

Sly drew his eyes up from the floor to meet the president’s.

“Because my boy here and I have been talking.”

The president set his jaw and cocked a fist by his side. He’d had just about enough of the disrespect.

“As a matter of fact, a lot of the boys have been talking… and it’s been decided that we’re not gonna let you bankrupt this club. We can barely keep the fucking doors open with revenue, and now you’re telling me you’re okay with some little snitch motherfucker runnin’ his mouth to the cops? Sorry Clancy, but we just can’t have it.”

Before the president could uncork that right hand, a shot rang out.

I saw the pistol. I saw it before he knew I did. There was just too much table between the two of us for me to do anything about it.

Sly maneuvered it around the leg of the table and leveled it at the president’s belly. There was no hesitation. As soon as that last word left his lips, Sly let the led fly. The “bang” was the exclamation point on his sentence.

Clancy’s face fell slack with a look of shock. For a brief moment, the room went quiet. He dropped to his knees with a groan and a thud.

Fuck this.

I wheeled around, a rage building inside of me.

Dirty’s brass knuckles smashed into the back of my head before I could draw a bead on either one of the turncoats. Blinding pain ripped through my skull. Everything started to spin.

My legs wouldn’t do what I told them to. I’m not sure if they gave out on their own, or if one of the bastards pushed me. When I hit the floor, the only thing I felt was the cool surface beneath my cheek.

“You want me to get a few of the boys together to help me move them?”

There was a long pause.

“We can probably bury both of ‘em out where they’re building that new development.”

“No…” answered Sly. “Keep ‘neck here. We can use him.”

Then, everything went black.

“
T
ell
me again where you met these guys, Jared.”

This was the first time in my whole life I’d ever gone anywhere near a police station on my own. Most of the time they dragged me in kicking and screaming.

I thought there would be more of a fuss when I came in and said I had information about the shooting on the highway. Instead, they just took my ID and had me start filling out this piece of paper until the pigs were ready to see me.

The two clowns they put me into a room with were unimpressive as hell. Detective Harold was fatter than his partner. He wore his glasses pushed high up on his nose. He looked like the kind of guy who had a running calendar of the days left until he could retire hanging in his office. I bet he didn’t give a fuck.

“I told you… that part doesn’t matter,” I said. “Where I met them… all that shit… it doesn’t matter. I’m here to tell you about how that man got shot. I thought you might be interested in
that
.”

“Oh, but it doesn’t matter. There’s an innocent man clinging to life in some cold hospital room on the other side of town. Doesn’t that bother you?” he asked. “We need to know everything about anything when it comes to attempted murder and that includes the associations of the involved parties.”

“I told you, I wasn’t involved,” I yelled, slamming my fist down on the table.

I rode for hours after I left the scene. I never had a destination in mind. A small part of me just wanted to keep going. The devil on my shoulder begged me to.

Put as much road between you and this mess as you can.

I could have been half way to Texas by now and these two asshole wouldn’t know where to start. It was never an option, though. There were too many people who would be hurt by it. The money had to go in Addy’s pocket, anyway. If I kept it, I’d blow it all on booze and women. It wouldn’t have lasted me through the end of the month.

Most importantly, I had to clear my name. I wasn’t a killer.

“That’s why I’m here,” I said, finally. “What happened to that man…”

“What happened to him is somebody tried to kill him,” shouted Detective Harold. “You shot him!”

“No! It wasn’t me!”

“But you were there. We have damn near twenty people in that diner who would say so if we showed them your mugshot. So, if you didn’t pull the trigger, then who did?”

There were no good options. I could either go back to the MC, where that crazy fucker Dirty would be waiting with a smile on his face, or… or I could talk. At least with the cops, I’d have a chance. And if nothing else, I’d be able to sleep at night knowing that I didn’t let that murder turn into a cold case.

“C’mon, kid,” said the other detective. I think he said his name was Cejudo. So far, he’d made Detective Harold look like the smart one, only spouting a word or two at a time.

“I’ll tell you what I know about the murder, but tell your partner to quit hassling me about that other shit. I told you… I’m gonna say what I’m gonna say, and that’s it.

“If you know who it did it, tell me now. We might be able to get the DA to work something out for us. You could walk away from this whole thing with little more than a slap on the wrist. How does that sound?”

The room was freezing. I pulled my arms inside my shirt and put my head on the table. Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea. Here I was trying to serve up their man on a silver platter and they wanted to get after my ass about the MC. Greedy bastards wouldn’t just take what I was giving them.

“Don’t go silent on us. You don’t look like a killer to me. If you’re worried about retaliation, we have ways of keeping you safe. But we’ll never get to that point if you don’t start talking.”

“I need a lawyer,” I grumbled from the table.

“Fuck the lawyers,” barked Harold. “You can do something about it right now. Help us get the scumbag who did this.”

Yeah, fuck the lawyer. Right, like you’re ever supposed to take a cop’s advice on legal counsel.

They sat in silence while I thought about things. I had to get to the point, if I didn’t they wouldn’t have any hang ups about keeping me in here all day to argue about the details.

“Alright. This has nothing to do with the club, though. If either of you, or anybody else for that matter, starts talking about the club I’ll come down with a sudden case of amnesia. I won’t testify about anything.”

Cejudo made brief eye contact with Harold and nodded.

“Get the DA,” I said. “I’ll give you the name. But I don’t care about witness protection or any of that stuff. I just want out.”

W
here the hell is he
?

As the clock ticked passed noon, I told myself not to worry. Hale had said he’d be by in the morning, but he hadn’t given an exact time.

I was probably overreacting.

What if he found Jared already? What if he had something he didn’t want to tell me?

I kicked myself for being so negative. Hale was a biker, after all. It was more than likely he didn’t put too much importance on keeping schedules. For all I knew, he could be sleeping off a hangover right now.

But it was weird. I was certain he’d be back… And a part of me was desperately awaiting his arrival… The fact that I now had two men to worry about was a bitter pill to swallow.

The phone number he’d left was sitting on the end table. I wondered if I’d come off as too needy if I called. What else could I do? The situation was starting to make me go stir crazy.

Hale didn’t want me to go anywhere without him, but he wasn’t here, so…

This was getting to be ridiculous. We were adults. I would just call him.

I punched the number into my phone. It had a weird area code which I didn’t recognize as being from anywhere around her.

I nervously held the phone to my ear.

Ring.

What if he didn’t answer? Maybe it was a number they used for their club business.

Ring.

My shoulders ached from the constant worry.

Ring.

As the sprinklers went on outside the window, it struck me how long it had been since I had been home in the middle of the day. Normally, I was doing this or that to come up with a few extra bucks.

If you would have told me a week ago that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy a quiet day at home, I would have said you were crazy. Some time to relax and think is all I had wanted.

Ring. Click.

The caller you are trying to reach is not available…

I hit the ‘end’ button. Great. One thing was certain, there was no way I was going to sit around all day watching Netflix.

Maybe it was too dangerous to go looking for Jared on my own, and realistically, where would I look anyway? But I was getting out of the house.

I needed groceries in a bad way. That money wasn’t going to do any good in that security lock box.

So, it was decided. I’d go by the bank, pick up some of the cash, pay off my rent, and stock up on food.

It was going to be
so
nice to have food in the house again.

A little voice in the back of my head said that it might be risky, but it was drowned out by my want of basic living supplies.

Besides, it was the middle of the day. Nobody would bother me now.

I headed outside. The air was hot and humid. Still, I enjoyed the feel of the sun on my skin. Everything appeared to be just as it was on any other day.

The car purred to life and I was on my way.

The radio played a new pop song. I was beginning to feel almost normal. If I hadn’t been so adamant about telling myself not to worry, I might have seen the black SUV pull out of the parking lot behind me.

T
he property manager
all but had to pick his jaw up off the floor when I handed him the cashier’s check. I could tell that he didn’t believe for a second they would be getting any money out of me.

“Ms. Kason… thank you. I hope…”

“We’re all good, right?” I interrupted.

“Certainly.”

“There’s enough on there for next month’s rent, too. Make sure you send me a receipt.”

“Of course.”

It was official. I was debt free again. When I noticed the two men looking at me from the parked SUV across the street, they barely registered. I was too excited about the weight being lifted from my shoulders. Things were looking up. Problem one was solved. Now, it was on to finding my brother.

I loaded the shopping cart with things I would never normally buy. Chips, cookies, and all sorts of high-carb, low quality items… I even grabbed a case of good beer, on the chance that Hale would be spending any more time at the apartment. I was going on a bender after only being able to purchase the basics for so long.

When he crashed into me, my stomach hit the cart hard enough to make me gasp for air.

“Sorry about that, miss. Didn’t see you there.”

All of the enthusiasm went out of me when I realized who it was. One of the guys from that SUV. The one I’d summarily dismissed out of plain carelessness. It was no coincidence that he’d been there, at the property managements office, and then here, a fifteen-minute drive across town.

He seemed oddly out of his comfort zone in jeans and a collared shirt.

Had I seen him before?

His hair was cropped close to the sides of his head. He was of average height with unremarkable features.

“Nice day, isn’t it?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, as I tried to pass by him on the left.

“Kind of makes you want to go out and spend it with family.”

I tried to smile and keep going. There was a sinister tone behind his words.

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Adeline.”

My blood ran cold.

“How do you know my name?”

It was his turn to smile.

“Do me a favor, would you, babe? Tell your fuck stain of a brother to come by and see his old friends down at the clubhouse. We miss him.”

He kept his voice low but clear.

“Tell him his boss would like to have a word with him.”

“What do you know about my brother? What’s this all about?”

“Don’t play dumb, bitch. Just send the kid our way when you see him. Because if you don’t…”

I stood there silently. Other shoppers buzzed all around us, oblivious to the situation.

“I don’t know where he is,” I said, finally. “I haven’t seen him in several days.”

“Oh, we know,” he said. “Trust me. If you had seen him, we would have known about it. By the way, you shouldn’t keep your spare house key in that plant. It’s way too obvious.”

What?

This was way bigger than I thought. My mind raced at a million miles per hour.

They knew where I lived.

They’d been watching.

They’d… been in my house.

I wanted to scream out at the top of my lungs. I had to do something.

I didn’t let myself breath until I watched him leave the store and drive away with his buddy. The groceries I’d been so excited about didn’t matter anymore.

I couldn’t go home.

I had to find Hale.