by Hope Stone
“I’m just thinking how much I might enjoy spending time with you, Claire,” Wreck said. “You really are a delight.”
He touched my bare knee with the back of his finger, and it took everything in me not to shudder. So that’s how he wanted to play this? He wanted to think I would at least consider the possibility of hopping in bed with him. It made sense that Wreck needed his ego to be stroked.
“And I’m sure it would drive Pin absolutely crazy,” he said. “To see you hanging all over me.”
He was wrong there. Pin would probably think I had found my match. He would think me and Wreck were bottom-feeders who were meant for each other.
“It might.” I glanced up at Wreck from beneath my lashes and gave him a coy smile.
God, I hated this. But if it was my way out, so be it. I just hoped all I had to do was flirt. If Wreck tried to take it any further… I blocked that thought process.
Just survive the next hour. Just survive.
“Alright, sweetheart, tell me,” Wreck said. “What deep dark secret do you have on the Outlaw Souls.”
“You know Moves, right?” I asked. “He wants in on the dealing.”
The words just spilled out. That was good though, it made them sound natural. And I could tell from Wreck’s reaction that I had his attention.
“He’s straight,” one of his buddies grunted from the corner. “As straight as they come.”
“I don’t know him that well, it’s true,” I said with a little shrug. “But I imagine all that time he’s spent chasing your dealers out of Souls territory has made him hungry for a little piece of the pie.”
I hoped Moves would forgive me for maligning him with this hogwash. I could tell I had hit a note with Las Balas. It was because that was how they would think. They were greedy assholes who wanted whatever they could get, and it didn’t matter how they got it.
“I overheard him on the phone at an Outlaw Souls barbecue,” I said. “He was around the corner, but I heard him telling someone it was almost time to move product. Move it into Las Balas turf.”
They were scared of Moves, I could tell. Pin had told me what a threat Moves could be, and he was the last person Las Balas wanted as competition.
“The way I see it, you need to either eradicate him,” I said. “Or get him to join you. He could be your greatest asset or your biggest threat.”
Until that moment, I truly did not know I had the ability to spiel off such nonsense under duress. If I hadn’t been so terrified, I would have been impressed with myself.
Wreck wasn’t convinced, but he was considering it. He gave me a hard look. This time he wasn’t assessing my body in a lecherous way or teasing me. He was trying to gauge my motives. I pressed my lips together and held eye contact. “It’s awfully convenient that you just happened to overhear this information about Moves.”
Wreck was smarter than he looked. That was what made him so dangerous.
“Feel free to ignore it,” I said. “Don’t blame me when Moves takes over your whole track.”
With a snarl, Wreck surged forward until his face was inches from mine. He gripped my chin in his hand, and terror coursed through me. “I don’t like your bitchy tone, sweetheart.”
Then there was shouting from outside. Footsteps pounded on the other side of the door. The bikers in the room were instantly on high alert. I saw one slide a knife from his belt.
Unexpected visitors. Wreck gripped me even tighter, but I had to make a move, it was now or never.
I still had an arm free, and I yanked my mace out of my pocket while kicking Wreck hard in the shins. Then I took aim and sprayed, a direct hit to his eyes.
As Wreck reeled back, three things happened all at once.
First, the door burst open, revealing Pin, Moves, and Kim looking like angels of death, coming to rescue me.
Second, the other Las Balas bikers took action, two facing off against the invaders and one lurching towards me.
And third, Pin saw me.
He saw me caught between a blind but livid Wreck and a hulking Las Balas biker.
He saw me, and in that instant, I knew I was safe. I was going to make it out, and I was going to be alright. Then everything happened very fast.
I turned my mace at the other biker’s face before he could even get a good grip on my arm. Wreck was lunging at me, but Pin bowled into him from behind.
They tumbled to the ground in a mess of limbs, but thanks to my solid aim with the mace, Pin ended up on top. I wrenched myself away from the biker and scrambled over to Kim. She grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the door.
Meanwhile, Moves was making short work of the other bikers. He was something to behold. In quick abrupt movements, he dropped the one biker with a well-placed punch to the face, then moved onto the next. Every movement was precise and efficient, as if he had done the same fight over and over, every day for years.
I realized Kim was trying to pull me out of the room, but I held put. I wasn’t leaving Pin.
“Claire, we need to get out now,” Kim said.
“Not without Pin,” I said.
“Pin, enough!” Kim shrieked.
I turned to see that Pin had turned Wreck’s face into a bloody mess, but he showed no sign of slowing down. Some sort of primal rage had come over him. For me, I realized. He was protecting me.
“Pin!” I yelled.
Only then did he turn. He saw me, and the anger receded from his face. He pushed himself off Wreck and crossed the room to grip my head in his hands.
“Are you hurt?” he murmured. “Tell me if you’re hurt.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “But please, let’s leave.”
Pin circled an arm around my waist, and I knew that I never wanted him to let go.
He guided me out of the bar and into the lot. He shoved a helmet on my head, and I got on his bike behind him. Then we were off, the whole violent scene at Fisherman’s Wharf feeling like a fever dream.
I clutched Pin’s chest with everything I had in me, the air chilling my bare legs. He had come for me. Even though I had done nothing to deserve it, he had barged into enemy territory. Because he was a good man, and he did the right thing.
I knew once we were in safety, his obligation would be done. He would go back to hating me. But I couldn’t let him. I knew now that I had to fight for him. I had to try to make him understand that I hadn’t been faking. I had to let him know that I loved him.
The bikers pulled over in another lot. Blue Dog Saloon. Back to where it all started. When I stepped off the bike, my legs were weak. As soon as I took my helmet off, I started apologizing.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “Pin, Moves, Kim, I didn’t mean for that to happen – I was just doing recon, but they recognized me somehow.”
Pin tossed my helmet aside and gripped my shoulders. I realized he wasn’t even listening to my apology, he was surveying me for damage. He stiffened as he saw the growing bruise on the side of my face. “Did he hit you?”
I shivered at his voice, low and lethal.
“I’m fine,” I whispered. “Truly, I’m fine.”
“I should have killed him,” Pin said.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to be responsible for a body. I’ve done enough.”
“Claire, don’t apologize,” Moves said. “We should have told you about Las Balas as soon as we could. We figured they were responsible. If we had told you, you wouldn’t have had to go solo.”
“And it’s all good now,” Kim said. “You can call in back-up to get those missing teens out if you can. I already filled in Veronica.”
“Veronica called you?” I asked.
“Your partner’s a smart woman,” Moves said.
The whole time, Pin didn’t take his eyes off of me.
“Why don’t you guys head inside to talk,” Kim said. “We’ll stay out here and make some calls.”
I threw Kim a grateful look. She must have sensed that I had a lot to say to Pin. He released my shoul
ders, but kept his hand on my back as he guided me into the back room of the Blue Dog Saloon. The whole time, he didn’t say a word.
My heart couldn’t slow down. I was already dreading the inevitable moment he was going to let go of me. One dramatic rescue couldn’t erase what I had done. But he had to know. I had to tell him how I felt. “Pin, I –”
Before I could finish my sentence, he turned and enclosed me in a massive hug. I nearly sobbed with relief as I pressed my face into his chest and wrapped my arms around him. For several minutes, I just let him hold me.
Like a budding flower, hope began to bloom in my chest. This couldn’t all mean nothing. Maybe there was something to salvage from the mess I had made.
I leaned back, looked up into his beautiful face, and took a deep breath.
Pin
The minute I saw Claire in Wreck’s filthy hands, my entire world stopped.
It froze, suspended in time, as I saw my woman being manhandled by the worst piece of scum I knew. Then, when it started moving again, all I saw was red. A fury rose from somewhere deep inside me. It was a primal wrath that came from the need to protect what was mine.
If Claire hadn’t called out my name, I wouldn’t have stopped beating up Wreck. It had almost been too easy to take him down, thanks to Claire’s pepper spray. It was pretty classic, I had to admit. Leave it to Claire to do half the work.
I knew that I was still mad at her. What she had done didn’t just disappear. But the urgent situation had forced that aside for the time being. Some things were too important. Claire’s safety was too important.
Even back in the Blue Dog Saloon, I couldn’t let her go. I had to reassure myself that she was whole and solid in my arms. I had envisioned so many awful scenarios on that ride over, I had to feel the physical proof to make sure she was ok.
She leaned back and looked up at me, but I didn’t take my hands off her shoulders. She kept her hands on my waist as well. I hated looking at her face, where a bruise was growing on the side. It looked like he had only struck her once, but that was one too many times. I would never forgive Wreck for this. I would make sure Las Balas never had a day of peace for the rest of their sorry existence.
“Pin, I have to tell you some things,” Claire said. “I know you have no reason to listen, but is it ok if I tell you some things?”
I nodded. This time, I wanted to listen. I had been going in circles all day after our fight, and the only thing I was sure of was that I needed to hear her side of things.
“I got the assignment after we had slept together the first time,” Claire said. “You can ask my boss or Veronica, ask anyone you need to, I want you to know the facts.”
“I don’t need witnesses,” I said.
“No, you do,” Claire said. “Or you deserve the truth, and I hate that I didn’t tell you the truth from the beginning, so now I want to make sure you have it.”
I nodded. I would check with her boss if she wanted me to, but I could see in Claire’s eyes that this was the truth.
“I just want you to know that the first time we slept together, it was because I wanted to,” Claire said. “I liked you, and yes, I thought of it as a casual hook-up, but it had nothing to do with my job or anything.”
Claire took a trembling breath, and a single tear fell from her eye. I reached up and wiped it from her cheek. Claire’s lips formed a soft smile at the tender touch.
“Then I got the assignment, and it was the kind of case I had been craving,” Claire said. “It was big and complicated and important, so I texted you to hang out. The parents suspected Outlaw Souls, and I was desperate to get information. “I need you to know that I didn’t intend to go very far with you. I’m not – I wouldn’t –”
She stammered for the right words, and my heart went out to her. She wasn’t defensive or angry like she had been this morning. She was laying herself bare.
“I would never sleep with someone I didn’t want to,” Claire said. “That’s not me.”
“I know,” I said. “I should never have called you what I did this morning, and I’m sorry.”
“Stop!” Her eyes were wide and she had put on an indignant face. “You have to let me finish my apology.”
I had to smile, her expression was so funny. I nodded to indicate that she should go on.
“You were so easy to talk to that night, and the next morning was so fun,” Claire said. “I felt so guilty, but I also was consumed by the case. Then you invited me to the barbecue, and I knew that night the Outlaw Souls were clean. I could tell by the way everyone operated and acted that it couldn’t be you guys.
She breathed out, tears welling up. “And I know you might not believe me, but that’s ok. I know I fucked up by not telling you about the investigation that night. If you walk away and never talk to me again, that’s fine. I just have to tell you that what we did and said that night meant something to me. It was real and it was the first time I’ve ever felt anything like that.”
Claire was crying in earnest now. Tears poured from her eyes, and her cheeks and nose turned red. I had never seen Claire lose control. She was always so quick and composed. Her cries made me want to bundle her up in my arms and hold her for days.
“I was going to tell you in the morning,” Claire said. “I made up my mind that night that in the morning, I would come clean. I would explain everything and beg you to forgive me for lying, and then I hoped you might even help me. But it was so stupid of me to think what I had done was forgivable.”
She took a great heaving breath. Then she pulled away to wipe her tears from her face. My arms instantly ached with the desire to hold her again.
Fear, sharp and intense, raced through me. She was going to walk away now. She had confessed, and now she recognized that too much had happened for her to stay. She was going to leave, and I was going to miss her, because I wanted her.
I couldn’t deny it anymore. She had done what she did because she was Claire. She was passionate about her work, she was ambitious, and she led that misguide. But she always recognized her errors. She was the woman for me, and I couldn’t condemn her for being herself.
“I love you,” she said.
For the second time in an hour, my entire world stopped.
“I know it can’t fix anything, but it’s the truth,” Claire said. “I fell in love with you, and that’s why I went after Las Balas. I had to at least try and make things right. I know you might need some time, but I want you to know that I love you, and I want to fight for you.”
She clasped her hands in front of her chest and took one last breath. When she looked up at me, there was only one answer I could give.
I grabbed her to me and kissed her as hard as I could. It was fierce and messy, and I could tell Claire was shocked by her sharp intake of breath, but I needed her to know how much I cared. I pulled her against my chest, and Claire tipped her head back as she wrapped her arms around my neck and clung to me like she would never let go.
At last, I pulled away and looked down at her. Her lips were parted in a little O of surprise.
“I love you,” I said. “Everything you did – it’s forgiven, as long as you can forgive me for what I said this morning. I shouldn’t have stormed out, I should have listened.”
“Pin,” she gasped. “Are you – ?”
“I’m sure,” I said. “You are the only one for me, I knew it as soon as I left you, but I couldn’t admit until I saw you pepper spraying Wreck.”
Claire burst out laughing. I couldn’t help but smile along.
“You really shouldn’t find it so funny,” I said.
“I know,” Claire gasped. “I was terrified.”
Her laughter trailed up as she looked up at me. “But then you came. And I wasn’t scared at all.”
My heart swelled as I leaned down to kiss her once more.
“I love you,” I said. “I’ll never stop.”
Epilogue: Clair
One Year Later
I typed up m
y final note on my latest case and then leaned back in my chair.
This one had been a good one. A child had been missing for almost two years. Police had given up even though there was no body. I took it on a few weeks ago and today we found her. She had been kidnapped and wasn’t in the best shape, but she was alive and back with her parents.
All my cases in the past year had been similar. After I tracked down Zoe and Hector and busted the Las Balas drug ring, the LA Times ran a huge piece that put me on the top of the list for any and all missing persons cases. It was what I had always wanted: the in-depth profile of top PI Claire Brennan.
It had been nice, I couldn’t deny it. But I didn’t care about the accolades. I just cared about making sure Zoe, who had gotten addicted to heroin, got the help she needed. And that Hector met some of the Outlaw Souls so he could learn how to love bikes and be a real man.
Pin had gone crazy over the article. He had even printed it out and framed it to hang on my wall above my desk. He could be dorky like that. I loved it.
I checked my phone and saw that he had texted me:
You still be home by 7?
I checked my watch and texted back in the affirmative. We still had our own places, but we spent every night together. He came to mine to stock up my fridge and cook, or I went to his place where he had cleared out half his closet for me.
I never thought that I would last a year in a serious relationship. I thought I would feel trapped or bored or anxious. But with Pin, it wasn’t even hard. Yes, we had our moments, but we were always honest with each other. We always found a way through the challenges.
When I got antsy, he just took me out to his bike, and we drove until I was smiling again.
He understood me, and I understood him. Both of us had mistrusted relationships before, and maybe we still did have that baggage. Maybe we did doubt the idea of relationships as a whole. But we did trust each other. I had never lied to Pin once after the first deception, and I knew he was honest with me. We told each other how we were feeling instead of keeping it bottled up inside.