“Lizard!” she calls.
The man appears. “Mace.” He throws me a lift of his chin. “Anything new?”
Cad had told me he’d already given Liz all that he’d found out, so I simply shake my head.
The shop bell dings behind me.
I glance at the woman who’s walked in, then at Liz. Liz raises an eyebrow, and I give a small nod back.
That one glance had shown me three things. One, that the woman had an ethereal beauty, two, she was terrified and I wasn’t sure why, and three, that if Liz had designs on her, he was going to have to take a step back. I want her. Well, not for good. But for one night and I won’t want to share. My cock is definitely interested.
She’s got a property patch on her back, I remind myself. That’s why she’s here. She belongs to another. Or, at least will, until that shit is covered up. Any ideas I have will just have to wait.
Vi seems bemused that neither Liz nor I have said anything. She stands and smiles warmly. “It’s Shayla, isn’t it? I’m Violet. You’ve got an appointment with me so we can see about covering your tattoo. Do you want to come this way?”
She nods shyly at Violet, then her eyes come briefly to mine before looking down. As Vi walks off, she makes no move to follow. It takes me a second, then I realise the way Liz and I are standing, she’d have to brush past us to follow the prez’s old lady, so I take a step back. Shayla takes advantage and making herself as small as possible, almost runs off in the direction Vi had taken.
I tilt my head questioningly to the side.
“I spoke to Vi, explained I’d like to know more about her old man before she proceeds. Vi might be able to get more out of her than we could.”
“She relaxed when she saw she was going to be dealing with a woman.” I stare at the closed door Shayla’s now seated behind. “You could be right, Liz. She might talk to Vi. She’s a looker though, isn’t she?”
“Not bad. Could do with a little more meat on her bones. But her eyes, man. You see those?”
I nod. I had. “Seen more alive ones on a corpse,” I agree, knowing exactly what he’s getting at. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so easy getting her into my bed after all.
We shoot the shit for a while, then the bell dings again, and Liz, seeing Jonah and his brother both occupied, gives his attention to the man who’s arrived. As Liz takes him on back, I settle down, flicking through a tattoo magazine, getting some ideas for a new tat I’m planning for on my chest.
I look up at one point and get a smile from Vi as she goes to the copier, puts paper in, gets paper out, and disappears back to her station. A short while later, Shayla reappears. I go to stand, but stop as Vi catches my eye and shakes her head.
“We can start Monday,” she tells Shayla. “Any particular time?”
They sort out times, then Shayla asks, “And you can work with my friend, too? Can she come along then? She’s, er, nervous.”
“Sure, no problem. We’ll see how we go. I’ll put aside enough time to do the outline for both. But discuss it with her, she might want something different to you.”
“Thank you so much.” Shayla seems to sigh with relief. “You don’t know how much better I’ll feel to have this gone.”
“Happy to help.” Vi smiles at her. “I’ll see you soon. Have a good weekend.”
The door opens, dings, then closes again, and then, she’s gone. I notice Vi standing, staring at the now empty doorway.
“You get anything out of her?” I’d wanted to question Shayla myself, but know my normal methods of interrogation probably wouldn’t have gotten results. At least I know when she’ll be here again, if I’m going to have to bring my enforcer skills into play. Hopefully, I won’t have to. I raise a quizzical brow at Vi.
She nods. “Yeah. I need to talk to you.”
At that moment, Liz walks out, giving instructions to his client about aftercare. When the man’s gone, he looks at Vi, unknowingly repeating my question. “You get anything out of that woman?”
Vi jerks her head toward the small staff room at the rear, and Liz and I both follow her.
She busies herself putting the coffee machine on and gets down three cups after querying me with a look.
“There’s something odd there. I’d say that tat wasn’t wanted.”
Lizard snorts. I roll my eyes. Fair bet if she wants that shit covered. Vi shakes her head. “I don’t mean that,” she starts. “I mean, that it wasn’t her choice to have it in the first place.”
“She say that?” I ask, the hairs on the back of my neck rising.
“Not in so many words. But she’s very eager to see it gone.” Vi presses her lips together. “I’m going to do this, Liz. I know you’ve got concerns, but if I’m right and that tattoo was put on without her permission. If she was forced, well, that’s abuse, plain and simple.”
“I don’t disagree, Vi,” Liz tells her. “If she needs it covered ‘cause she didn’t want it there, then we’ll do something she does want instead. Did you talk about removal?”
Vi nods. “Yes, but I think she’s looked into laser treatment. She’s worried that that might show something had been there. People will always know she had a tramp stamp removed. She wants it to look like something she always intended.”
“Did you find out anything about this Major?” I ask.
She shakes her head while pouring coffee into the cups. “I did start to ask whether he was a biker, but she clammed up. I didn’t want to press her too much today. I thought she might give me more when she comes back.”
“She liked your ideas?”
Vi smiles. “Of course she did. It’s not going to be easy hiding that script, but I’m sure I can do it.”
“What are you planning?”
As Liz asks, Vi goes to get her artwork, and the two bend heads over it. Feeling like a third wheel, I drain my coffee and take my leave. To be honest, I’m not sure they noticed me go.
I take the long way around back to the compound. Actually, I detour from the route quite a way, enjoying my day off that Pyro, the manager of the auto-shop had given me. Why waste it when I can get the wind in my hair and some pavement under my wheels? I ride with no particular destination, eventually arriving home with a clear head, red windblown cheeks and a smile on my face.
When I ride up to the gates, I notice the commotion. Leaving my bike at the side of the road, as Dirt, one of the new prospects we’ve only just appointed, seems intent on not opening the gate. Wondering whether he’s being overly cautious or proving his worth to the club, I slip down my bandana, tuck my Ray-Bans into my pocket and am pulling off my gloves as I approach the car and its driver standing beside it. My smile gone, I now wear my best enforcer face.
“What’s going on?”
Dirt sends me a look full of gratitude. “This woman wants to see Lizard.”
Unashamedly, I blatantly check her out. She’s in her early or mid-thirties by my estimation, but not past her prime. Red hair, either naturally sleek or artificially straightened, reaches down her back. As she turns, I notice stunning green eyes and full lips which draw my attention. Her figure is hidden by her jacket, but her legs are encased in a pair of tight denim jeans. Nice ass. If she was younger, I’d be jealous she was asking for my brother and not here for me.
“What do you want with Lizard?”
She’s also examining me, and her lips press together tightly. A wave of something like pain shutters her features as she thinks on whether to enlighten me as to the reason why she’s here. I don’t leap to the obvious that Liz has gotten a town woman pregnant. I’ve never known him to go with a woman other than the whores we keep for that purpose.
Instead of explaining her presence, she asks a question of her own. “How is he?” She looks like she’s holding her breath for the answer.
The enquiry takes me unawares, and automatically I reply, “Same as he’s ever been. Now answer me, what do you want with him?”
“That’s between him and me,” she replies qui
ckly. “Look, is he here? Or if not, where can I find him?”
“Who are you?” We don’t give information about brothers lightly.
“Evangeline James,” she replies with no hesitation. A slight lift of her eyebrow suggests she’s querying whether I’ve heard her name. “Vanna?” She then offers what appears to be a shortened version.
“Are you a sister?” She shares his surname. It’s odd, Liz has no family of which I’m aware, and my senses become heightened.
She huffs, looks at the ground, then stares blankly into the distance.
“Cousin?” I try again. That might make more sense, Lizard mightn’t have mentioned extended family.
Now she turns back with something akin to a look of scorn on her face. “I’m his wife.”
I bark a loud laugh and add a snort for good measure. “Don’t know what your game is, but it’s not going to work. Lizard is single, has always been single. Ain’t no bitch in his life and never has been.” I’m firm on that. Lizard would have mentioned if he’d ever entered into matrimony. He shares my views that life is best lived as a single man, and never hinted there was a time he’d thought otherwise.
I expect her to look disappointed being caught out in her lies, but she slumps as though completely defeated. Had she really thought that ploy would work? Well, whatever business she thinks she has with my brother, with that untruth, she’s not getting close to him now.
“I still need to see him. To try…” Her eyes flick away then back. She looks like a woman at the end of her tether when she adds now sounding desperate, “Is he here? Or if not, what time will he be back? I’ll wait…”
No she fucking won’t. “I think you need to leave,” I state firmly, noticing Dirt listening intently, his body language taking its cue from me.
“I can’t leave until I’ve seen him,” she says firmly. “Not until I’ve at least tried.”
“Tried what? What do you think you’re playing at? What are you trying to get over on Lizard?”
Neither my enforcer’s snarl nor my threatening step forward, work. Instead of cowering, her back straightens. “Whether or not he acknowledges it, I’m his wife. And he needs to know about his son.”
Lizard has always been firm about not wanting children. He’s never knowingly sired a child. My voice comes out in a growl. “Are you trying to say you had his kid and kept that fact from him?” Dirt I noticed has stiffened as well. If, in the unlikely event, Liz had fucked a town woman, or someone he met on his travels, he should have been told about the outcome. “How old is this fuckin’ baby you’re trying to blame on him?”
“Fourteen.”
Four-fucking-teen? The reply shocks me. This is ancient history, before Lizard joined the MC. It must have been while he was still serving as a Marine. Maybe there is something in his past he hasn’t shared with me. I start to think there could be something to her story. But fuck it, she’s admitted Lizard didn’t know he had a kid. That shit doesn’t sit right with me. You do not hide a kid from a man, even one who doesn’t want one. What bitch does that? Then has the fucking nerve to turn up out of the blue as she wants something. Money probably, that must be it.
While I’m filling with disgust, she’s staring at me. Her head coming up as she seems to read what I’m thinking.
“I’m his wife,” she insists. “He’s never divorced me, and I haven’t divorced him. I can prove who I am, and what I am to him.”
“Prove it, then,” I challenge.
Chapter Five
Vanna
I suppose I should have expected I’d not be able to walk straight into the MC’s clubhouse and demand to see my errant husband, but my hastily devised plan hadn’t involved much more than trying to find Cas’s father. At my wit’s end, I didn’t know what else to do.
Lindy had offered to have Cas with her this evening. By now she’ll have collected him from school and probably fed him all the types of junk food he likes eating, but as a good Mom, I restrict access too. Then she’ll get him playing on her Xbox and he’ll be having fun. He likes Lindy, sometimes I think a lot more than he likes me, which left me free to drive down from Denver.
Now that I’m here, I’m not giving up without at least getting the chance to talk to the man I’m still legally tied to, and who the law says is bound to me.
Prove it, he’d said. The man who’s confronting me hasn’t introduced himself, and neither has the one refusing to open the gate. But I can read, and the name on his cut says Mace, and under that there’s a patch saying he’s the enforcer. I’ve no idea what that means, but deduce he probably enforces the rules. Right now, he’s protecting Lizard from me. I actually feel a warmth that Lizard has such support, but the main emotion is anger that he’s preventing me from seeing my husband, and that, in turn, is doing nothing to help Cas.
Delving into my bag, I pull out a crumpled piece of paper and unfold it. Then, I show him the marriage certificate, unwilling to completely let it leave my hand.
“You know him as Lizard,” I explain, “but his legal name is Norton James. And that’s proof he married me.”
“I know what my fuckin’ brother’s citizen name is,” Mace snarls. “This could be a fake.”
My eyes widen. “Well the original in the courthouse in San Diego will prove it’s not.”
“We’ll be checking,” he warns me. “But for now I don’t fuckin’ believe you.”
Enraged I turn, pull up my jacket and ease my pants down a fraction. I don’t show him all of the tattoo—well, Lizard was the last and only man, except for my doctor, who’s seen all of my ass. But it’s enough for him to read, “Lizard.”
“That’s not a property patch,” he sneers. But I can see by the way his eyes have widened that the tattoo’s registered with him. He tries to dismiss it. “Our tats read ‘Property of’.”
“Lizard was Lizard well before he joined your club,” I tell him, wondering why I’ve the need to justify myself. “As you’d know if you really did know him. He got his name not long after he joined the Marines and preferred it to Norton. Lizard has been Lizard to me since we met.”
He almost flinches as I give him the explanation he must recognise. But still he hesitates, gesturing again at the paperwork and checking the date on the certificate. “You’re telling me you married just after he enlisted?”
I nod. “I met him when he returned from his first tour.” I feel my eyes glaze as I remember those happy days. “When he came back from his second, we got married.”
“How did he get his name?” Mace snaps.
“He could remain still like a lizard basking, then go from being a statue to moving fast and pouncing.” It was lame, but most of them had picked up nicknames for barely any reason.
It’s at that moment I hear the sound of a motorcycle coming up the road. Mace’s face tightens, then he says, “Well, I guess you’re going to get the chance to see your old man, if he really is that to you.”
My gut clenches, realising the enforcer’s somehow recognised the sound of Lizard’s bike. My hands sweat and my body starts shaking. Don’t expect much, I tell myself. Or better, don’t expect anything. Nothing may have changed.
But it’s been years since I’ve seen him, and I’m here out of desperation and hope that something has.
The bike draws closer, then slows, then pulls over and the engine stops. I get my first look at the man who the years have treated kindly. To my eyes, he’s more handsome than ever before. His hair has grown longer, and I like that change.
As I’m drinking him in, studying him intently, he gives me no more than a quick glance before turning to Mace.
“What’s going on? Why is this car blocking the entrance?” At last his eyes land on me, leering as he regards me from head to toe, then with a knowing smirk he turns back to his friend. “Who’s the bitch?”
My heart breaks all over again as I hastily take back possession of the document that proves he’s my husband and push it into my bag. When Mace’s eyes catch mine
, I give a violent shake of my head and send him a pleading look with my eyes. Luckily, Lizard’s attention is on the other man and not me. Don’t confront him, I try to signal. It doesn’t work. I’ve tried before with disastrous results.
Mace’s eyes narrow, and a thoughtful expression comes over his face. “Nothing to bother you, Lizard.” I let out the breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. “She’s someone I want to talk to.” He turns to the man who’s on gate duty. “Open up, Dirt. Liz, you get on in. And you,” his intense stare comes back to me, “you drive inside and park. We’re going to have a conversation.”
It doesn’t sound like a conversation I’m going to like. Could I make a run for it? For a moment I think about jumping into my car and getting the hell out of Dodge. But if I leave now, I’ve again given up. Cas needs guidance, and who better than his father? A father who doesn’t recognise his son’s mother, and has, for so long, refused to acknowledge his son.
I can’t leave.
It’s clear Mace thinks I’m lying and wants to know why I’m here, and what I expect to get from hounding a man who has so clearly shown he doesn’t recognise me at all. In fact, after one curious glance as though wondering what Mace wants with me, as soon as the gate is opened, Lizard gets back on his bike, starts it, and drives through and onto their compound.
“You.” Mace is regarding me sternly, without an ounce of sympathy on his face. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”
“I’m happy to tell you everything.” My eyes go back to my man, who’s now backing his bike expertly into a parking space. “But I’ll have to get back to Denver to collect my son later. My friend’s only got him until ten. It’s his bedtime…” I stop, realising I’m rambling.
“If you tell me what game you’re playing, I’ll make sure you leave in time to get your son.” It’s a threat and a promise. If I don’t answer to his satisfaction, they’ll, what? Keep me here against my will? Surely not. But whatever risk there is, it’s negated by me seizing this one chance to get back my man. Maybe not as a husband, but at least, as my son’s father.
Devil's Spawn: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #6 Page 4