by Nicole James
“Shit,” I hear her swear as drawers open and close. “He said it was here.”
I peek on the other side of the chair when she moves to the bookcase. There’s not a lot left since my mother smashed Dad’s collection of beer steins, just a few odds and ends. Sylvia reaches to the top shelf and feels around with her hand. She grabs something and pulls it down, and I realize it’s the old bible my mother had from when she was a young girl.
Sylvia thumbs through it, turning it upside down, and a key falls out and thumps on the carpet.
“Bingo,” she whispers, then laughs and squats to pick it up.
Rage floods through me, and I stand, aiming the gun at her. “Find what you’re looking for, Sylvia?”
Her eyes get big; she drops the bible and makes a dash for the door.
Fuck! I don’t want to have to shoot her. “Hayley! Stop her!”
Hayley runs out from the other room, cutting her off in the hallway, throwing herself against the door. “Not so fast, bitch.”
I hear a motorcycle pull up outside.
Sylvia backs up, glances at me, and then makes a dash for the kitchen door. I fire off a warning shot over her head to stop her; the bullet goes through the window of the back door, shattering it. I drop the gun and tackle her in the kitchen, taking her down to the linoleum. We skitter around on the floor, struggling. She goes to reach for the gun, and I grab her by the ankles pulling her back. Her arm is outstretched, her fingers just inches from the grip.
“Hayley, get the gun!” I scream, and she dives for it.
Sylvia scrambles to her feet, grabs a knife from the butcher block and whirls around, wielding it at me. “Get back!”
“Shoot her!” I yell.
“The gun is jammed,” Hayley shouts.
Sylvia smiles and advances on me. I’m between her and the door, and I’ll be damned if I let her leave with that key.
Suddenly Gypsy is behind Sylvia, bringing the butt of his gun down on her head. She drops like a ton of bricks, the knife clattering to the floor.
I feel all the air go out of me, and I deflate like one of my grandmother’s soufflés, sinking to the floor.
Gypsy has me in his arms a second later. “Tess, are you hurt?”
I shake my head, clinging to him, my fingers tight on his cut. The leather is cool under my skin, the patches scratchy. They feel damp, and I frown at the red splatter. I press my forehead to the side of his neck, and his big palm cradles my head, holding me close. “You’re back.”
“Yes, and I’ve got you, baby girl. It’s all over.”
“There’s blood on your cut.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not mine.”
“What happened?”
“Took care of business.”
“Is anyone hurt?”
“One guy, but Doc’s tending to him. He’ll be fine.” He glances at Hayley. “You okay? What the fuck happened here?”
She nods, her breathing coming quick. “Thank God you got here when you did. Sylvia broke in to steal the key. Found it, too. Tess wasn’t going to let her leave with it, though.”
“You walked in on her in the act?” he asks, staring down at me.
I shake my head and pull away. “You’re not the only one who can set a trap, mister.”
His brows lift. “You knowingly put yourself in this danger? And my baby along with you?”
I swallow. I should have expected his fury. “We had to. It was the only way.”
“You almost got yourselves killed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I should tan your hide for this. I would if you weren’t carrying our first child.”
I go still. “First?” I whisper.
Hayley grins ear to ear.
“We’ll discuss that later,” Gypsy says.
“Well, before you two plan your family size, what are we going to do with her?” Hayley asks, gesturing to Sylvia’s prone body.
I frown, searching the floor. “Where’s the key?”
Gypsy rolls Sylvia’s body over, and the key lies under her.
I grab it up.
“Where was it?” he asks.
“Hidden in my mother’s old bible up on a shelf.”
Hayley goes into the family room and returns a moment later, holding the bible open, her eyes big. “Check this out. Listen to the verse it fell open on… For the love of money is a root of all evils.”
“Wow,” I say as Gypsy pulls me to my feet.
“So, you’ve got the key. Now what?” he asks.
“I need to go to the bank and get in that safe deposit box.” I frown. “Wait a minute.” I brush past him and out the door. I dash to Sylvia’s car and find my mother’s purse on the front seat along with her wallet and the driver’s license I’ll need to get in. I gather it up and return to the house. Holding up the ID, I say, “Now I just need to go to the bank.”
“You sure you can pass for your mother?” Gypsy asks.
I hand him the ID. “You tell me.”
He studies it and me. “Close enough I guess.”
“Will you come with me?” I ask him.
He glances down at Sylvia. “First we have to take care of this bitch.”
“What are we gonna do with her?” Hayley asks.
“Where’s your car?” he asks her.
“Down the street.”
He lifts his chin to the door. “Go get it. I’ll find something to tie her up with, and we’ll take her to the clubhouse until Tess gets her hands on whatever’s in that safe deposit box.”
“We better hurry,” I say, glancing up at the kitchen clock. “The bank closes in an hour.”
Gypsy looks at me. “Got any duct tape around here?”
Ten minutes later, Gypsy has Sylvia wrapped in a sheet and carries her out to the car. He loads her into the trunk, slams it closed, and steps back. “Let’s go, ladies. Follow me.”
Hayley gets behind the wheel, and I slide in the passenger seat. Gypsy fires up his bike, and we pull out after him.
A pounding comes from the trunk, and I glance over at Hayley.
Her eyes get big. “Her hands are duct taped behind her back. How is she pounding?”
“With her feet?”
“They’re duct taped together.”
I shrug. “Guess she’s kicking both legs.”
We pull up behind Gypsy at a light. He glances in his side mirror.
“Fuck,” Hayley hisses, looking in the rearview. “A squad car just pulled behind me.”
“Stay calm,” I whisper. “He probably can’t hear her.”
“Come on, light. Change, damn you,” she hisses.
Finally, traffic starts moving, and we make it to the clubhouse. Gypsy parks and comes over, meeting us at the trunk. The pounding starts up again.
“She been doing that long?” he asks.
“The whole way,” Hayley replies and pops the trunk with the fob. The lid flies up, and we’re staring down at a pissed off Sylvia. Her gaze hits Gypsy, and her eyes get big. She starts thrashing really hard, then.
Hayley grins at him. “Guess she doesn’t like you.”
“Maybe she foresees her future,” he replies grimly.
I put a hand on his arm as he reaches for her, stopping him. “Wait. You’re not going to kill her, are you?”
“She pulled a knife on you, babe,” he reminds me.
I see the absolute unwavering determination in his eyes. “Gypsy.”
“She deserves the same fate as her old man, Rat.” His gaze returns to Sylvia. “Maybe she’ll end up right next to him.”
“And where’s that?” Hayley dares ask.
“Ain’t for you to know, honey. This is MC business now.”
“Gypsy, no.”
He stares into my pleading eyes. “How did you think this was going to end, Tess? You think she’s not going to scream this all to the heavens? Maybe even run to the police?” When I don’t budge, he sighs. “Look, for now, until this is all resolved, she stays here, locke
d up in a room. It’ll probably be up to Rusty to decide her fate, but for right now, you and I have forty minutes to get to the bank.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tess—
Hayley drives us to the bank. Gypsy’s riding shotgun, and I’m in the backseat, trying not to hyperventilate. I don’t know why walking into this bank and pretending to be my mother is scarier than the fight that happened at the house, but it is. If they catch me, I could go to jail, and after all my visits to Rutledge, I’m terrified of that happening to me.
I suck in a breath and slowly blow it out my mouth.
Gypsy twists in his seat. “You okay?”
I take another deep breath and nod.
Hayley pulls in the lot and parks.
Gypsy reaches back and grabs my hand. “It’ll be fine. All they’re thinking about now is how close to quitting time it is. Anything goes wrong, just run out the door. We’ll get your mother to do it.”
I nod, knowing that involves checking her out of rehab, and I don’t want anything to disrupt the progress she’s making. I pull the handle and shoulder the door open.
The inside of the bank is cool. There’s one customer at the counter arguing about overdraft fees. A young teller who is free smiles at me.
“May I help you, Miss?”
“Yes, ma’am. I need to get in my safe deposit box.” I hold up my key.
“I’ll just need to see your identification.”
I hand it to her. She barely glances at it before passing it back.
“Thank you ma’am. Right this way.”
I follow her into a vault. Boxes line the walls like post office mailboxes.
“The bank is installing a new biometric security system next week, so next time you come they’ll set you up for that, and all you’ll have to do is use your fingerprint to get access.”
One more week, and I would have been screwed.
She moves to the box numbered 322 and inserts her bank key into one of the two locks. Then she steps back for me to insert mine into the other.
I do, and she opens the door, pulls out the box, and sets it on the counter in the middle of the room.
“There you are. You’ll have the room to yourself until you’re through.” She points to a button on the wall. “Just ring this buzzer when you’re ready to leave.”
“Thank you.”
After she exits and closes me in, I stare at the box. It’s one of the bigger ones. “Please let there be money in this,” I whisper and flip up the lid.
There’s a large brown drawstring bag stuffed inside. I grab it and lift it out, setting it on the table. It’s about the size of a five-pound bag of sugar and about as heavy.
I peer in the box and notice several items were underneath it. A ring box, an old watch, a ledger, and a couple of jump drives. I frown, wondering if it’s club business.
Giving my attention back to the bag, I yank open the drawstring and peer inside to find stacks of banded bills. Yes! I scream silently in my mind and pull one out. It’s a stack of one hundred dollar bills, and the paper band reads ten thousand dollars. I pull the rest out and line them up on the counter. There are twenty of them. I count it up twice just to be sure, because I’m suddenly, feeling light-headed. That’s two hundred thousand dollars!
Holy crap! I don’t know what I expected to find, but not this much.
I stuff it in the bag and shove it in my shoulder tote. Then I peer in at the other things. I pop open the ring box, and my eyes widen. It’s a huge wedding ring. I frown, remembering my mother once told me that when Growler’s mother died, he stole her wedding ring off her finger on her deathbed. It had been a ring that was supposed to go to his sister, whom he always hated. That would be my aunt Kathy, who I only met once. If she hadn’t died several years ago, I would return this to her. I stare at the sparkling diamond ring. It’s gorgeous with a big center stone surrounded by a ring of smaller ones. If it’s real, it must be worth a bit of money. I’m shocked Growler never pawned it. Maybe he’s so evil it gave him pleasure just knowing he was keeping it from the sister he hated. What an awful man, and to think I’m related to him.
I shove it in the bag and pick up the watch, flipping it over. There’s an inscription on the back.
To my dear husband, Merle ~ Love Bertie
This is my grandfather’s watch! How the hell did it get in here? Did my mother put it in here, or did my father steal it, too? I’m fuming over the thought of the latter.
I shove it in my bag and move on to the ledger. I flip through it. There are dates and amounts, but I can’t make sense of it, though it seems to take place over at least eight years. I shove it and the flash drives in my bag, shut the lid, and return the empty box to its slot in the wall, relocking it. Then I hit the buzzer.
A few minutes later I’m speed-walking out to the car.
Hayley’s still got the motor running, but she doesn’t pull out. They both turn to me and ask at the same time.
“Well?”
“I’ve got it all. Drive.”
Hayley twists around to face front and pulls out. She looks in the rearview at me as she gets out on the highway. “I’m dying here, Tess. Was there any money in the thing or not?”
“Oh yeah.”
My eyes move to Gypsy. “Don’t you want to know how much?”
He twists in his seat. “It’s not my business, Tess.”
I take a breath and look out the passenger window. If this is club money my father stole, the MC might want it back. Shit. I hadn’t thought of that. I look again at Gypsy. But he has thought of that.
“Babe, I don’t need to know what was in that box, and I don’t want to know. Anything you found, you and your mother deserve to have it.”
He’s letting me off the hook.
My eyes glaze over, and I give him a trembling smile.
Damn hormones.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tess—
Over the next week, I open several bank accounts, dividing up the money among them and spreading out the deposits, so they won’t be suspicious.
Now I sit at my mother’s kitchen table, tapping my nails on the Formica. Gypsy is due here any minute. He’s picking me up for a ride.
The night we got back from the bank, he called a prospect to come and board up the shattered kitchen window. Turned out he was the one who’d been at the gate the night Gypsy had barred me from the clubhouse. He was sweet to me in almost an apologetic way, especially since, I heard later, he was also there the day Hayley showed up and let Gypsy have it, informing him I was pregnant.
Speaking of which, I have a doctor’s appointment next Monday morning with an obstetrician. I glance at the calendar on the wall. My mother is so old school she still has one. Except it’s on the wrong month. I stand and flip it to this month. It’s Thursday, and my mother will be released from the rehab center one week from today.
The sound of Gypsy’s Harley carries to me, and I lean to look out the window over the sink. He pulls in the driveway and parks. I meet him at the back door and let him in. He takes up the room with his aura the moment he’s through the door, and my face lights up with my smile, happiness surging through me just at being near him.
He takes me in his arms for a hug that lifts me clear off my black riding boots.
His kiss is dreamy, and I’m not sure I want to stop. Finally he pulls back. “You ready?”
I nod. “There’s just one thing I need to show you.”
I sit at the table, and he takes the chair next to me. He grabs my knees and twists me so we’re facing each other. I love the way he does that.
I lay my hand on a manila envelope. “I need to give you this. I’m not sure, but I think it’s proof that Growler was stealing from the club. I think his attorney was in on it, too.”
Gypsy looks from me to the envelope and back again. He takes a deep breath and opens it, dumping the contents out on the table. The ledger and flash drives slide out.
“I couldn’t ma
ke sense of all of it, but I think the things on that drive were used to blackmail the attorney. There’s a file with photos of him and some young girls I don’t think are his wife. Especially since some of the pictures are of threesomes.”
“Strange, because Rat was in cahoots with Growler’s trial lawyer. Wonder if it’s the same guy.”
I shrug. “About the money…”
He holds his hand up. “Stop. Don’t want to know. As far as I’m concerned, there was no money, understand.” He shakes the ledger. “Especially if this proves what you think it does.”
“Well, I just don’t want there to be any more secrets between us, that’s all.”
He squeezes my knees. “Glad you feel that way. Now, you ready to go for that ride?”
And just like that, I feel the weight lifted from me. I nod.
Gypsy stands, shoves the flash drives in the hip pocket of his jeans, and jams the ledger down the front of his snapped-up cut. “Let’s go, babe.”
He rides us up into the mountains outside of town, finally pulling over at a high overlook where we can see for miles. The sun is starting to set in the west, and the sky is lit with a rainbow of gold, pink, and purple.
“It’s beautiful.”
“It is. Wanted to find us a nice spot—one that we could come back to in the years to come.”
I frown, turning to him.
He shrugs. “Just didn’t want to do this in some damn restaurant that might not be around in ten years.”
“Do what?”
“Talk to you about our future.”
“Our future?”
“Yeah. Look, I know you might be still hung up on the fact that I’m a DK. I know you never planned to spend your life wrapped up in the MC. I know all that, Tess. But the club the way it is now is nothing like the club was when your pop was runnin’ it. If you can give us a chance, and if you feel about me the way I feel about you, I think we’ve got a shot. I know I haven’t got a lot to give you, but I’ll do my damnedest to make you and our kid happy. Spend every day of the rest of my life doing that, if you’ll have me.”