Smolder: Trojans MC (47 page)

CHAPTER FOURTY THREE

It had been a long time since Olivia had worn her dress blues. She kept them in a garment bag in the back of her closet. She had them dry cleaned after every wear, no matter how long she had actually worn them. She would bring them home and shine the buttons and remove any loose threads. She loved those clothes. Sometimes, at home, alone at night, she would take them out of the closet and spread them on the bed and just look at them. The clothes symbolized the institution of the police force; they symbolized the power of it. As Olivia ran her hands up and down the gold thread, she wondered if she would ever get to wear them again.

David was at her counter, drinking coffee and eating a bagel, and it felt so domesticated and normal, just a boyfriend and a girlfriend getting ready for that day’s work. However, it wasn’t a normal day. Olivia was expected in the captain's office at 9:30. Then, she would have answers to all of her questions: Were they going to give her job back? Did they find the evidence against Rick? What would her relationship with David look like?

David was ready to go straight, but in truth, even if he didn’t, Olivia still would have wanted to be with him. She loved him, biker gang or no gang; she wanted to be with him.

“How do I look?” she asked, spinning in front of David. Olivia had dressed in a pair of long black pants with a suit jacket to match. They were her most professional-looking clothes.

“Like a very serious professional,” David said, nodding at her.

“Good, that’s what I’m going for.”

“What do you think is going to happen today?”

“Well,” Olivia said, as she gathered her cellphone, keys, and wallet and stashed them in her bag. “I’ll either be vindicated and put back on the force, or they’ll decide that I broke the law and I’ll be arrested.”

“Should we run away instead?” David asked, as he put his coffee cup in the dishwasher and walked over to her.

“I think I’m gonna go in and see what happens. Thanks for the offer though.” He leaned down and kissed her, pulling her in for a hug and wrapping his arms tightly around her.

“Either way. I’ll be waiting for your call,” David said. They left together, walking hand in hand. They got into the elevator and rode down to the parking garage in silence. He walked her to her car and opened her door for her.

“Good luck,” he said, and with one last kiss, Olivia drove to work.

She was shown to the captain’s office where she waited for her to return. Olivia couldn’t help but look at the walls; they were covered in metals and honors the captain had received. Olivia had always hoped that she would be a captain herself one day, but she didn’t know if such a thing could ever happen now. It was possible that she had done the right thing, and in doing so, ruined her career.

“Waters,” the captain said, as she came into the room and sat down behind her desk. She handed a piece of paper to Olivia and continued to speak. “You’ve been fully reinstated without any permanent marks going on your record.” Olivia couldn’t help but let a smile break over her face as she looked at the official letter absolving her of any guilt and apologizing for her suspension. “Internal Affairs did some digging into Lance Townsend’s personal life, and they found a money order for ten thousand dollars with a note that he could expect four more payments in the coming months.”

“Forty-thousand dollars?” Olivia asked, her eyes wide.

“That is what Rick was offering, and all Lance had to do was turn you in for something and promise to look the other way. I wanted to tell you personally, Olivia, that I’m sorry I took Lance’s side over yours. However, you can’t ever borrow police materials again or investigate on your own. From now on when something like that happens, I want you to come to me.”

“Yes, Captain,” Olivia said with a nod. “Can I ask about Rick?”

“He’s been arrested and charged with felony drug trafficking, forced prostitution, illegal smuggling, and a host of other charges. He’s lawyered up, so he’s not talking, but we went the warehouse and the safe house you mentioned and we found enough documentation to put him away for a very long time.”

“Good,” Olivia said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’m glad. He was a bad guy.”

“He was a bad guy who was very interested in bringing you down,” the captain said, leaning forward in her chair. “Waters, you are leaving here with your gun and your badge. I also want you to know that I will be recommending you for detective if you decide to go for it. I want you to know that I did and do support you, and I hope that you and I can move forward without grudges on either side. I think that we both care about the law and good police work, and so, no matter what, we are always on the same side.”

“Thank you, Captain. And there are no grudges on my part; I know that some of what I did was wrong, including taking the materials from the police van. So, thank you for being willing to look past that.”

The captain nodded and then took a deep breath. “Now, I would like to speak to you—off the record as it were. I want to give you some advice, not as your captain, but as a person who has your best interests in mind.”

“All right...,” Olivia said, as she waited for the other shoe to drop.

“The last time we spoke, you mentioned that you were in a relationship with David Creely, that you had very strong and very serious feelings for him. Is that still the case?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Then, you have to understand what a hindrance this will be to you. You’re an officer of the law; you’re sworn to report any illegal activity you see. Can you do that and still be married to this person?”

“Yes, I can. I know how this is going to sound, but he’s not a bad guy. And I know that we can make this work. I don’t quite know how, but no one really knows how to make a life with someone else. You just jump in and figure it out as you go along. I don’t think I could forgive myself if I didn’t try.”

“Very well,” the captain said with a nod. “Personal talking over, back to business. I’m going to speak to your lieutenant, and we’ll see to it that you aren’t put on any cases that involve motorcycle gangs ever again.”

“You can do that?” Olivia asked.

“We make exceptions all the time. Life is complicated, and I understand that sometimes it’s better to bend than to risk the threat of breaking.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Olivia said, hugging her official reinstatement letter to her chest. Olivia realized that she could have gone to her captain sooner and the woman would have understood. It was a good thing to know, especially when she became a detective. Olivia couldn’t help but sigh, as she thought about it. It was like she could see her entire future spread out before her: a detective and a biker. It looked interesting—she had to give it that.

“Thank you, Captain Diaz,” Olivia said. She stood up and extended her hand across the desk, shaking the other woman’s hand.

“You report to duty first thing tomorrow. I’ve got a new partner for you—a kid; he’s fresh out of the academy and eager to work. I imagine the two of you will manage to stay busy.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Olivia said. She turned and headed for the door, and as she stepped out, she heard someone start clapping in the bullpen. Then, others picked it up, and before she knew it, the room was filled with men and women hooting and hollering and cheering for her. Olivia felt her face flush, and she gave them a slight wave and headed to her desk with everyone patting her on the back and telling her good job. She sat down and smiled. It felt good to be back.

CHAPTER FOURTY FOUR

David looked around the God’s Reapers’ now desolate warehouse. It was a cavernous space, which echoed with every step he and Olivia took, as they slowly made their way through it. The floor and walls were all cinderblocks, and the space was cool and quiet. However, it had an abandoned feel to it. There were stains and skid marks from when the police had raided the garage. Trash cans had been knocked over and never righted, and bits of yellow police tape still hung limply on the banisters and by the doors

“So this whole building is paid for?” Olivia asked, as she looked around.

“Yup, a member built it cheap back in the fifties; all we owe are there taxes—and those are nothing at all.”

There were toolboxes and hydraulic lifts and wrench sets on pegboards. It was all still here; it was just like he remembered. David turned all the lights on, and the huge garage was lit up. He could see the corner where they kept the TV and a pool table, and he could see the offices upstairs. One of them was his now. David felt like he had spent his entire life looking up at those offices. He could remember being a teen and staring up at the older members as they had some heated discussion. He could remember being amazed and mystified. He had desperately wanted to know what they had been talking about and what went on upstairs.

He knew now, and he looked back on the kid wistfully.
Sometimes
, he thought
, it would have been better to never know
. Now, David was ‘upstairs’—but what he knew now was that there was a weight on his shoulders that didn’t used to be there. He had other people to look out for now, not just Olivia, but his brothers, those in and out of jail.

“How does that saying go? The easy thing and the right thing are rarely the same thing?” he asked out loud.

“Something like that,” Olivia said with a smile. “What are you going to do if they say no?” she asked. However, David could only shrug; he had never been good at predicting the future.

The door to the outside creaked open, and David watched as the other free members of the Reapers walked into the garage. They were all still devastated by the loss; they looked around with their eyes down, shaking their heads as they reminisced about what it used to be. Olivia hung back, staying behind David, as the members and Mike formed a semi-circle around him.

“Thanks for coming,” David said to the group. “I don’t know how to start this, so I’m just gonna start.” He cleared his throat and tried to steady his nerves. It felt strange to him, to take up a leadership position like this. He was so used to be the one who listened that he wasn’t sure how to be the one who gave the speech. “Our numbers are low, very low,” he said, looking at the men who surrounded them. “However, that’s not really true. There are still as many of us as there has always been. Our brothers in jail need our help. They need money, and we need to get it to them.”

The men around David agreed, nodding their heads in unison. “But we can’t do it the way we always have,” David said. He looked from one member to the other, hoping to find a sympathetic face but seeing only anger and resentment. “We’re broke, and we’ve lost all our ties with the cartels. They don’t trust us anymore, so even if we had enough money, we still couldn’t actually buy anything. Honestly, I’ve been thinking that after everything that’s happened I don’t know if that’s the road we should travel down.”

“Spit it out, Creely,” a voice called out. “You think you can disband us? That just because you’re screwing some cop you have any power over us?”

David winced at the harsh tone but pushed forward. “No! I’m not saying we disband; I’m saying the exact opposite. We need each other more than ever now. I’m saying that we use this place as it was intended to be used.”

“A whorehouse?” an older member called out.

“No,” David scolded, glancing at Olivia out of the corner of his eyes and seeing the questioning look on her face. “I mean as a garage. We all know everything there is to know about cars and bikes. We could get a real business going as mechanics; we could make good money doing it.” The men began to grumble around him, their voices growing louder and louder.

“Things change,” David yelled into the crowd, silencing everyone. “When this gang started, they didn’t have anything to do with drugs. They offered protection to the people of this town when the cops and the law couldn't help them. Then, it turned into what we know the gang as, why can’t it go back? Why can’t it change? If we keep going the way we were, we’re all gonna wind up in prison. We don’t have enough members to continue the business…we just don’t. So I guess we could all go out and be guns for hire for whoever would have us, or we could work for ourselves and offer our brothers work when they get out. I don’t know the future; I’ve never been good at guessing what comes next. But cars are gonna break and people will need them fixed—and we can do that.”

“What do you think, Mike?” a member called out, and all the heads swiveled in Mike’s direction.

Mike stood there, as if he was in a deep meditation. His eyes were focused on the floor, and his arms were crossed. Finally, as the members called his name, he looked up and sighed before he began to speak. “David is right,” he said, “we don’t have enough members to keep up the old business. The cops cleaned us out, and we’ve got men in the joint who need money for legal fees. David has offered one way to keep the business going, does anyone else have any other ideas?”

“Yeah!” a younger member piped up. “I say we cross the border and go looking for some people to sell to us. It’s not like Mexico is running out of drugs.”

“And then what?” David asked. “How do you get it past the border? Rick’s guys used trucks and vans and hid their product in cat toys and candles; he had over seventeen different vehicles. You think you’re really going to get through the border with heroin taped to your abdomen? It’s unfeasible; there’s no way to make it work. And is that really what we want? Drugs mean drug cartels and cops and junkies—and we won’t have the means to protect ourselves. We’ll spend the rest of our lives on the run, constantly looking over our shoulders.” David shook his head. “I don’t know that I want to go back to that kind of life.”

“I’ve worked in a garage before,” another member said. “Gerry’s down on Tenth Street. It was good work, a little hard, but none harder than riding through the desert all night. Definitely not as bad as getting sent to the clink.”

“My daughter just got her carburetor replaced, and they charged her three hundred dollars for installation. I could install one of those in under an hour. That’s not a bad profit margin,” another said.

“And we don’t even need to buy much. We already have all the tools and machinery we need.”

“I know I could do it,” Mike said, “and it’s like David said, we don’t know what the future will bring. Maybe we’ll go back to the old ways, maybe we’ll move on to something new. But it wasn’t selling drugs that made us Reapers…it was our brotherhood and the oaths we swore to each other. Seems to me like this is the best way to keep those promises.”

“So, what do you say?” David asked. One-by-one, he worked his way down the line, and each member gave a gruff,
yes
. Some were happier about it than others, but in the end they were all in.

David rubbed his eyes at and looked at what was now his office. It was high above the floor, and he could see them men down there, working and cleaning up the mess from the raid. Olivia was sitting on the edge of his desk, her knee resting against David’s arm.

“That was quite the inspiring speech you just gave,” she said, nudging him gently.

“Thanks,” he answered, “but now I have to actually make it work.”

“You will,” Olivia said, leaning over and kissing him on the top of his head. He leaned over on to her, resting his head on her knee and running his hand up and down her thighs. “It’s going to be a totally different world from here on out.”

“Yeah, but it might be better,” Olivia said. “Remember, nothing ventured nothing gained.”