by Hazel Parker
He took a deep breath to steady himself. Nina was right, in a way. She was allowing him to live in the motel, so she had the right to know whether she should kick him out for criminal activity, and there was no way that he could expect her to believe him that it wasn’t happening without some kind of proof.
“Alright,” he finally buckled. “I’ll tell you what I can. But you’ve got to promise me that not a word of this gets back to that boyfriend of yours. I’m not selling drugs or anything, but that doesn’t mean that I need the cops breathing down my neck all the time, you got it? If he finds out and word reaches my buddies, I’m in big trouble with a group of people you don’t want trouble with.” Nina nodded, seeming to accept these terms blindly. He wondered why she was so eager to believe him. She wasn’t stupid, that was for sure, but she sure wasn’t being as skeptical as he thought maybe she should. Perhaps she was just baiting him, trying to figure out whether he’d give away some kind of secret that she could give to the cops so that she wouldn’t have to apologize to Adam for the kiss, or maybe that had been part of the setup. At that thought, he grimaced.
“You’re not wearing a wire, are you?” he verified, and her face showed nothing but confusion.
“No,” she replied slowly, “should I be?”
He waved off the question with an impatient hand and crossed the bar to lock the door before sitting next to her on the bar stool, both of them sitting backwards to face the windows so he could see if any customers were trying to get in.
“Okay, Nina. I’m going to tell you as little as I can. That’s not because I don’t trust you. I don’t, but that’s not the reason.”
She pouted. “Then why?”
“I’m not giving you the whole story because there are people featured in it that wouldn’t want you to be hearing even the things that I’m going to say, and they could hurt you if I told you more.”
She listened silently as he explained the basics about the club, about the pot plant in the desert (though he gave her no indication of where that might be) and how they sold it to smaller dealers in the area to distribute. He watched her face intently for signs of judgement or fear, either of which might mean that she was going to run to Adam and tell him everything, but surprisingly, she was stone-faced through the entire story.
“So, if you’re not involved in growing or selling, then what do you do?”
“I take the money that we get and I make it look like it’s bar income,” he replied. “Twice a month, I’m going down to the desert to pick up the cash so I can pad the receipts and make it seem like we just sell more drinks here than we do.”
“Money laundering,” she extrapolated, and he nodded. She almost looked relieved. “Well, I guess that at least means that you’re not going to have drug users in and out of the motel all the time.”
“I told you,” he maintained. “I don’t make as much as the other guys do, but I’m not here for the money. I’m in it because these are my brothers. I’ve known most of them since I was a teenager, and they’re my family. They were my family even when my real family didn’t care. Flip saved my life. They might be rough around the edges, but they’re doing what they’ve gotta do to get by. Really, they’re good guys.”
“But you’re criminals,” she accused, and he couldn’t disagree. “So how is this different from a gang?”
“We are one percenters,” he explained. “Ninety-nine percent of bikers aren’t into illegal shit. We’re in that last percentage. But we’re not violent just to be violent like a gang. Mostly, we mind our own business. The only people we ever get into it with are other clubs.”
“And that’s what Amelia was here about?”
He nodded. “Yeah,” he admitted. “She used to be a Rebel King, but she ditched us. That’s the other thing that makes us different from a gang—you wanna go, good riddance. We’re not gonna kill you or anything. She left to join the Devil’s Disciples after we broke up, and apparently there’s been some… disagreements about who’s allowed to sell to who and where they can do it. We all have different areas, and the Rebel Kings have one of the biggest. Others are always trying to close in on our turf, and we can normally scare them away pretty fast. The Disciples haven’t been so easy to deal with, though.”
He glanced down at his watch and saw that they’d been talking for so long that it was beyond time to open the doors. Nina still looked nervous about the whole conversation, but she hadn’t freaked out, and that was a good sign. It meant that there was a chance that she wasn’t going to go straight to Adam without warning, at least, and if she did choose that she had to tell him, that she’d probably at least give him the benefit of some forewarning. That would be better than nothing, at least.
“Listen, I’ve got to open the bar doors now,” he told her. “Are we good?” Nina laughed breathily.
“Nothing about this is good,” she replied. That, he could agree with.
“Yeah,” he said, “I know.” She sighed.
“But I’m not going to the cops, if that’s what you’re asking,” she finally said, and he felt a little relief at that. Her stare turned icy as she turned it on him mercilessly, a harsh warning. “I’m not stupid, though. If I see one shady person hanging around the motel, you’re out of there and I’m telling Adam everything. He’ll find everyone, not just you, and he’ll shut it down for good.” Though he had some doubts about her confidence in the police’s ability to crack down on the club’s activity, he still didn’t want to take any chances.
“Thank you,” he said. “You have nothing to worry about, seriously. I promise.” Nina scoffed.
“How could I possibly know that I can trust you?” she asked, standing from the bar and turning to leave. Vance shrugged.
“You can’t know,” he replied. If he expected her to say anything else, he was wrong, because she left without another word, unlocking the door as she left so that he didn’t have to do it himself and leaving him standing in the bar alone.
Chapter 7: Nina
She’d gone to the bar for answers, but she’d left with only more questions. What had been supposed to be demanding to know what had happened last night, why she remembered them kissing and why she’d woken up in his leather jacket, had turned into a whole web of criminal activity and ties from his past. Nina regretted even getting involved at all, regretted coming to the bar last night and allowing Vance to bring her home last night and going to talk to him this morning.
The worst part was that now she felt like she was lying to Adam, even if she wasn’t, not really. He had no idea that she knew anything, and honestly, she barely knew anything. The amount of information she’d been given would likely not be enough to arrest anyone but Vance, who’d really done nothing wrong aside from protecting his friends. However, that didn’t make her feel less guilty about it. She didn’t even turn on the radio the whole way back to the motel. She’d stayed longer than she’d intended to, and was now going to be late for opening. Not that it really mattered—no one ever checked in this early, anyway, and the guests who were already staying weren’t expected to leave until the next day at the earliest.
For that reason, Nina was surprised when there was someone on a motorcycle waiting for her outside of the motel office, still wearing their helmet with the visor and leather jacket. Cursing under her breath, Nina unbuckled her seatbelt and fixed her hair in the rear view mirror before she hustled out of the car and toward the potential guest.
“Sorry for the wait,” she apologized as she hurried past the biker to unlock the office door. “You can come on in!”
The biker put up a gloved hand in a motion that told her to wait a moment, so she got into the office and got her books ready for checking someone in. A moment later, as she was sitting at the desk and shifting her focus away from the events of the day and back to her work, the door opened. Nina’s polite, friendly greeting died on her lips as she got a good look at the person who stood in her doorway.
“Amelia,” she said, sounding shock
ed. Amelia gave a stoic little wave with two fingers.
“Sup,” Amelia greeted with a nod. “You’re Vance’s new girl, right?” Nina resisted the urge to groan in reply.
“I have a boyfriend,” she said instead. Amelia didn’t look impressed.
“Yeah, so did I. Then I met Vance. Unless you’re, like, rock solid in that relationship, I’d kick him out of here right now, because there’s something about Vance that’s just…” She sighed, trailing off. “He’s a good guy, and that’s the problem.”
“My relationship is solid,” she replied, but Amelia was already shaking her head to organize her thoughts.
“That’s not what I wanted to talk about, anyway,” she admitted. “You’re involved. Whether you want to be or not, Vance has already pulled you in.”
“I’m not involved in anything,” Nina sputtered. “Vance is a guest, a patron. I’m renting him a room. And we’re… well, we’re kind of friends, I guess. There’s nothing else going on.”
“No one is going to believe that,” she said. “It’s Nina, right?” Nina nodded. “Nina, honey, I know you don’t want to be in the middle of anything. You seem like a really good girl.”
For some reason, Nina got the impression that those words were meant as an insult, like she was supposed to be offended that she wasn’t hard enough to be part of whatever they did. However, it’s not like she could argue with the statement, so she simply crossed her arms and gave her a warning look.
“What are you trying to say?” she asked.
“I’m saying that the Devil’s Disciples have their eyes on you,” she explained, “and your motel is on our map. If anything happens and Vance gets scared off, the Disciples are gonna want to know where he went, and they’re gonna assume that you’re the one person who will know where to find him. They know how to get you to talk, too.”
Nina’s expression sobered. “Is that a threat?”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Amelia shrugged. “As long as everybody stays in their own lanes, nothing bad is gonna happen, got it?”
Nina frowned. “And if they don’t?”
She turned to leave, her long hair swishing down her back as she did so. Amelia really was pretty, Nina thought, and for some reason, that made her feel a little bit insecure. Vance had flirted with her so shamelessly that she hadn’t even noticed that it had been a little flattering to be gawked at by someone around her age, for once. Of course, she had older men who came in and called her “sweetie” and told her that she’d be prettier if she smiled more, but Vance had been so genuine, if forward. He struck her as a man who knew what he wanted, and he’d wanted her. Even without having to think about accepting his propositioning—she would never, of course, since she was in a relationship—it had still made her feel good about herself. Adam was never really up-front about complimenting her. Everyone had always told her that it was normal for a guy to not notice when his girlfriend got her hair cut, or when she’d dressed up just for him, or when she’d lost or gained weight and was feeling particularly good about her body. She told herself that she thought it was cute that he was so shy, so respectful, so concerned about offending her, but it would be nice to get a compliment here and there, or to have him make the first move once in a while simply because he couldn’t resist how tempting she looked.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Amelia replied flippantly on her way out. Nina could have stopped her, but honestly, she didn’t want to continue the conversation. All she wanted to do was to talk to Vance about the threat, to ask him what kind of trouble her motel was in and how he was planning on protecting her. The worst thing, now, was that it didn’t seem as though kicking Vance out of the motel would even make a difference. Whoever was targeting his group, the Rebel Kings or whatever he’d called them, had apparently decided that she was with him, and there would be no convincing them, from what she could tell. For now, she could do little else other than just focus on her work and make sure that she didn’t focus too much on the thought of getting hurt or having something happen to the motel.
Around noon, Nina’s phone rang. It startled her, after sitting in relative silence all day and especially after the events of that morning, but when she picked it up, she found that it was only Adam calling.
“Hello?” she answered, trying not to sound excited to hear from him. After all, she still had a right to be angry about last night, and she wasn’t quite sure that she believed Vance when he told her that she’d been the one to kiss him. It was just not something that she’d do, sober or otherwise, and she wanted to think that she would have had a little more self-control than to jump on him the moment her guard was down—even if she did remember enjoying it a little.
“Hey, Nina,” Adam said casually. “I was wondering if you wanted to grab lunch? It’s slow today, so I’m going to take an hour and a half instead of just an hour, because I wanted to come see you.” When she didn’t reply right away, he backtracked. “Unless you’re too busy.”
Well, if she expected him to meet her halfway, she should probably do the same.
“I’m not too busy,” she lied. “Where do you want to go?” Suddenly, the door swung open to reveal Adam standing there holding a brown bag from his favorite deli. It wasn’t a place she really liked, but the effort made her happy, anyway.
“Actually,” he said, still into the phone despite that she could see and hear him, “I was hoping it’d be okay if I came to you.” She broke into a wide grin and hung up the phone, standing to greet him with a kiss on the cheek.
“This is nice of you,” she said, clearing her desk so that he’d have a place to put the food. He began to unpack it, setting her go-to order of chicken and dumpling soup in front of her and unwrapping a sandwich for himself.
“I figured you’ve been working so hard lately, and I haven’t exactly been the most sympathetic to that. This way, we get to be together, but if you still have to do some bookkeeping, that you won’t have to stop it completely.” This, she knew, was Adam’s way of apologizing. He never admitted that he’d been wrong, never wanted to talk about it more than they already had, and if she brought it up to try to demand an actual “I’m sorry,” he’d only get defensive. Adam apologized by sweeping the mess under the rug instead of taking the time to acknowledge it so they could begin to clean it up together.
Oh, well, she thought. At least she had a boyfriend who brought her soup in the middle of the day. That was more than a lot of girls had, right?
“It smells delicious,” she marveled as she took the lid off. “It’s been a while since we’ve had this.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve had lunch together at all,” he pointed out. “I thought we were overdue.” Nina nodded in agreement. With the fight that morning, she’d completely forgotten about getting breakfast, so she was starving. They ate quietly. Adam told her about the events of last night, about how they’d barely even needed him at all but that at least it put him into overtime, which was nice.
“What did you do for the rest of the evening after I left?” he asked around a mouthful of sandwich. “Did you get a cab home?”
Nina tried not to let the anxiety show in her face as she felt the slightest amount of panic bubble up in her at the thought of lying.
“Vance called me a cab,” she finally said.
“That was nice of him,” Adam noted, a hint of hostility in his voice. Nina stiffened.
“What?”
“What do you mean, ‘what?’”
Nina sighed. “You had a tone. What don’t you like about Vance?”
“Nothing; I think he’s a great guy,” Adam deflected, not buckling under Nina’s suspicious gaze. “I do! I just… I think he might have a crush on you or something. I don’t know, I just get a feeling about the way he looks at you.”
‘You and me both,’ Nina thought, but she kept her mouth shut.
“It’s dumb, and it’s fine that he’s living here. I’m not going to get all neurotic and make you ki
ck him out or anything.”
Part of her wanted to point out that he couldn’t do that, anyway, but she didn’t want to fight again.
“Even if he did have a crush on me,” Nina pointed out, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice, “and I’m not saying he does: that doesn’t mean anything. You’re still my boyfriend. Vance is just some bartender that lives in my workplace. I don’t particularly want anything to do with him.” Adam looked a little surprised.
“Really?” he asked. “You seemed to like him just fine yesterday. I thought you two were becoming friends.” Now, Nina couldn’t really fight the accusation without admitting to one of the many secrets that she was holding, so she changed her tone.
“He’s fine, I guess,” she pretended to cave, leaning in to press a chaste kiss to Adam’s lips. “Just not my type.” Adam smiled, then looked down and checked his watch with a groan.
“I’ve got to get back to the station,” he complained. “I’ll see you when I get off work, okay? I’ll come over tonight and spend the night.” Nina nodded and helped him to throw away the trash from their lunch and clean up her desk so that she could get back to working. She waved goodbye to him at the door as he got into his car and drove out of the parking lot.
The lunch had been pretty much what she’d been expecting—boring. They’d had such a big fight the night before, at least by their standards, and Adam had barely said a word about it. She wanted to finish the argument that they’d started instead of just putting it to rest, or, at the very least, to have hot, angry make-up sex on her desk to make them both forget that they didn’t always see eye to eye. Instead, there’d been soup and some casual conversation about work. Sometimes it felt more like they were best friends than lovers, because Nina never felt the passion that she yearned for. She told herself that lots of people waited their whole lives for something like this, the comfort and ease and emotional intimacy that she and Adam shared. Relationships couldn’t be fiery and passionate forever, after all, so why should it matter that hers and Adams never had been, not even from the start?