by Hope Stone
Kat finally looked directly at me, and her expression softened. “I really am sorry to hear about your brother.”
The front door opened, and Kat turned away from me. I felt somehow colder without her attention.
“Hey, Kat, the place looks great,” Jason said as he walked in and looked around. “You’ve really—”
He stopped speaking as he turned and saw me standing shirtless in the kitchen. His mouth opened and closed for a moment, and he looked like a fish out of water.
“This is Blade,” Kat said unenthusiastically. “We work together.”
“Work, huh? Is that what they call it these days?” Jason’s wide grin was teasing, and I could see the affection between the two of them. I didn’t want to intrude on it if Kat didn’t want me here, and she clearly didn’t.
“I’ll head out,” I said, grabbing my jacket off the kitchen chair and pulling it on. “Let you guys have some time alone.”
I’d only made it three steps when Jason’s voice lashed out, no longer good-humored. “What the fuck is that?”
I stopped and glanced over my shoulder to see his eyes glued to the back of my jacket, to my Outlaw Souls patch.
“Do we have a problem here?” I asked, trying not to sound too confrontational. I knew that this was exactly what Kat was worried about happening.
“Hell yeah. We do.” He stepped closer, coming up into my face. “What the fuck is an Outlaw Soul doing at my sister’s house? Do you think you’re going to get to us through her?”
“Absolutely not,” I said firmly, looking at Kat to make sure that she didn’t think that. I was frustrated when I couldn’t read her face.
Jason followed my gaze, looking at Kat in shock. “You’re fucking this guy?”
“Watch it,” I snapped, not liking the tone he was using with her.
“Just go, Blade,” Kat said, folding her arms across her chest as she leveled a glare at her brother. I could have sworn that he faltered at the sight of it.
I smirked. I should have known that she could handle herself against him.
“See you at work tomorrow,” I replied.
It was time to get the hell out of there.
Twenty-Three
Kat
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jason asked incredulously the second that Blade was out of the door.
“It’s none of your business, Jason,” I told him.
“What are you doing, Kat? He’s an Outlaw Soul. You know that they have a vendetta against Las Balas. Last year, they gave Rage’s girl a hell of a hard time.”
“Why?”
“I’m not supposed to talk about it,” he said, and I saw something shifty in his eyes. There was more to the story that he wasn’t going to share.
“Then, it’s not a good example. Don’t worry about Blade. He knows I’m loyal to Las Balas.”
“Are you sure about that? What happens as you two keep dating? Are you going to fall for this guy and betray us?”
“Fuck you, Jason,” I spat bitterly.
Guilt flashed across his face. He knew he’d gone too far.
“You know that I’d never do that, not that I even could. I don’t know jack shit about what you guys get up to.”
Jason seemed to deflate on a sigh. He walked over to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair before sinking into it.
“I know. I’m just worried.”
“I can take care of myself. I think you know that.”
“Yeah, I do,” he agreed. “But why? Why would you date an Outlaw Soul in the first place?”
“I’m not dating him,” I insisted. I wasn’t sure what the hell we were doing anymore, but this situation was exactly why we couldn’t work as a couple. A line had been drawn in the sand long before we met, and the two of us were on opposite sides.
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of casual sex?”
“Ew,” he scrunched his nose.
“Oh, grow up,” I said, sitting down next to him. “The point is that I know the two of us can’t work together. So, we fuck with no emotional attachment.”
Jason seemed to relax. “Does he know that? Because he seemed a little…protective.”
“Yes, he knows. Don’t worry about it.”
My tone made it clear that the topic was closed for discussion. Jason put his hands up defensively. “Okay, fine.”
“What are you doing here, anyway?” I asked.
Jason’s entire demeanor changed. A wide smile stretched across his face, and he sat up straighter, with a spark in his eyes.
“I came to share the good news. Lexie’s pregnant.”
I let out a happy squeal and threw my arms around his neck. “Oh my god. That’s amazing.”
“Can you believe it? I’m going to be a dad.”
At those words, I felt a sliver of dread. Even though I had just been proclaiming loyalty to Las Balas, I didn’t want Jason to continue with his pursuit of membership now that he had a child on the way. History had a way of repeating itself, and I didn’t want Jason to choose Las Balas over his family the way that our dad did. But I couldn’t tell him that. I knew him, and he’d just assure me that I was overreacting. So, I just kept smiling and hugged him tighter.
“I’m going to be an Auntie,” I told Piper happily as soon as she walked into the tattoo shop the next day.
“What?” she blinked, startled. Okay, maybe I went a little supersonic.
“Jason’s having a baby. Lexie’s pregnant.”
“Wow. That’s awesome,” Piper said as she walked into her workstation and set down the big tote bag that she liked to use as a purse.
“Right? She’s only eight weeks along, so there’s still a ton of time, but he’s already talking about teaching his son to ride a bike.”
“Let me guess, you don’t mean a bicycle?”
“Nope,” I shook my head. “Motorcycle all the way.”
Piper snickered. “He’s so crazy.”
“What if it’s a girl?” Blade asked from his work station. I gave him a withering look for butting in but decided to answer. I was in too good of a mood to be mean to Blade right now.
“I’ll teach her that girls can ride too, of course.”
“Will he be happy if it’s a girl, though?” Piper asked.
“I’m sure he will. He pictures a little boy because he thinks a boy will be easier to relate to, but if it’s a girl that looks just like Lexie? Come on, she’ll have him wrapped around her little finger.”
Piper sighed with a dreamy look on her face.
“I can’t wait to have kids,” she said wistfully.
“Why don’t you do it now?” Blade asked. “What are you waiting for?”
“A man that also wants kids would be nice.”
“Yeah, make sure he wants them,” Blade said. “Some guys just aren’t cut out for it.”
“Like you?” I asked curiously, despite myself.
“For sure. I’m not the dad type. Cool uncle? Sure. But no, I don’t want to be a dad.”
I didn’t say anything in response, but Piper looked back and forth between the two of us for a moment before speaking for me.
“Kat doesn’t want kids either.”
“You don’t?” Blade asked.
“No.”
My reply was short. I was trying not to engage with Blade too much. After my conversation with Jason yesterday reminded me why I wasn’t dating him, I told myself to do a better job at keeping him at arm’s length. I should probably stop having sex with him, too, but that was going to be hard. I found that our physical activities scratched an itch that I couldn’t stand to leave unattended again.
“She also doesn’t believe in marriage,” Piper said.
“Thank you, Piper,” I snapped impatiently. “And I believe in it. I know it exists. I just don’t think it’s for everyone.”
“It’s not for you, you mean.” Blade sounded way too interested in this topic. I didn’t like it. My future was none
of his concern.
“You know what? I have a client coming in here in ten minutes, and I have to free draw a unicorn for her. So, I’m going to work on that,” I said, turning my back to both of them as I started working on the drawing, making it clear that I didn’t want to talk about this any longer.
“You know, Blade. Marriage is just a piece of paper. I think that Kat values a more significant commitment than that. You know, a man that sticks around.”
“I can hear you,” I said. Come on, I was still sitting right here.
“Of course, you can,” Piper agreed, and Blade chuckled.
I rolled my eyes and focused on work. I knew that my best friend was just trying to help me be happy, but she had to get this idea of helping Blade and me get together out of her head. They both did.
Twenty-Four
Blade
Over the past week, every member of the Outlaw Souls motorcycle club had spent hours scouring Raymond Groves’s property just outside La Playa with a metal detector. It wasn’t a bad gig, walking around in nature, but now it was time to dig.
This part sucked.
There was no way of knowing how deep the weapons were buried, so using some kind of equipment wasn’t an option. We might damage what was there, or set it off if there was anything like hand grenades in the stash.
So, it was all hands on deck as we all took a shovel. There were only three spots left on the entire property that had been marked with a red X after Hawk determined that there was an old steel water line that ran right through the property. We had all run across it at least once, while looking for the weapons.
I was with Hawk, Swole, and Trainer as we dug into the earth. There wasn’t much talking going on between us. For my part, it was because I was putting all my effort into the work. We’d already gone down about three feet when Ryder came over from the hole his group had dug.
“Well, we don’t have shit over there,” he said.
“You found the source of the steel?” Hawk asked. Standing straight, he leaned against the handle of his shovel with the tip buried in the ground.
“Yeah. It’s a hunk of metal, looks like it might have been part of some kind of appliance at some point, like a stove or washing machine. God knows how it got into the ground here, but it’s useless.”
“Fuck,” Swole cursed under her breath. “This whole thing is turning into one big pain in the ass.”
“Here,” Chalupa said, dragging a cooler over to us. “Have a beer and lighten up.”
“Eat me,” Swole snapped, but she still took a bottle from him.
The rest of us accepted one as well, tossing the twist-off caps to the side. It was a relief to feel the cold liquid slide down my parched throat. Fuck going to the gym. This was exercise.
“Holy shit!” We heard Pin’s shout from the other side of the property, near where we had parked our bikes.
Happy to have a reason to take a break from digging, I tossed down my shovel along with everyone else and headed in the direction of Pin’s group. All four of them were standing around the edge of the pit they had dug, looking down into it.
Did they find the weapons?
“What’s up?” I asked.
Pin and Yoda parted to let me see what they were staring at. My eyes widened.
“Is that…”
“Yep,” Ryder said, coming up beside me. “That’s a dead body.”
It wasn’t completely uncovered, which I was thankful for, but there was no mistaking the human leg and foot bones that had been uncovered.
“This is where the steel was?” I asked.
Pin picked up a metal detector and held it over the bones. It beeped, and he stared at the readout on the screen.
“Yep.”
“It must be a steel medical pin in one of the bones,” Hawk said.
“That means the weapons have to be back there,” I said, nodding my head in the direction of the hole I’d started with Trainer and the others.
“Agreed,” Ryder said. “Cover this up, it doesn’t involve us.”
Pin and Yoda got to work filling in the hole while the rest of us went back to finally find these damn weapons. I, for one, would be happy to find and get rid of them.
The work went much faster now that there were more of us concentrating in one area. It didn’t take long before Trainer’s shovel hit a solid object with a dull thunk. We scooped the dirt off the top of what turned out to be a wooden crate.
We uncovered the whole thing, making room on the sides so that four men could get into the hole and lift the heavy crate out. The hole that remained was almost six feet deep.
Ryder ran to his truck and grabbed a crowbar out of the back. We were just losing sunlight when he managed to pry the crate open. There was a white cloth on top, but when Hawk pulled it back, there they were. The crate was packed full of guns. My eyes took in automatic weapons, handguns, and even something big that looked like a sniper rifle.
That was just the stuff I could see. It was high-grade weaponry, just as I’d been told.
Suddenly, a prickling awareness made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I wasn’t sure if it was just a paranoid reaction because I was looking at something so valuable or if someone was really watching us.
“Let’s get this thing in the back of my truck,” Ryder said. “We’ll take it straight to the warehouse.”
The warehouse was the place where we stored things like our own weapons or other valuable property. I went to one side of the crate, helping Trainer, Pin, and Swole carry it. The damn thing weighed a ton, but we were almost there. Then, disaster struck.
A tall man with a shaved head and braided mustache stepped out from the far side of Ryder’s truck, his black leather jacket blending in with the shadows now that night had fallen. The four us with the crate froze in place while Ryder moved forward, standing between us and the man. Chalupa moved to his side, and the stranger smiled coldly.
“What are you doing here, Mad Dog?”
Fuck.
It was the current leader of Las Balas. I didn’t know him because the club had a bad track record with its presidents. They didn’t last long. But I’d heard the Mad Dog was a particularly ruthless leader.
“I’m just curious about what you’re up to, Ryder. You and your little club here have been snooping around here for a while now. Looks to me like you found something interesting.”
“You’ve been spying on us?” Ryder scoffed. “How pathetic. Don’t you have your own business to worry about?”
“You know, I think that’s been the problem with my predecessors. They’ve ignored the Outlaw Souls for too long. You all are a pain in my ass, and it’s time we did something about it.”
“We?”
As one, over a dozen men stepped out of the trees lining the property. The bright moonlight glinted off the weapons in their hands, including bats, knives, and even a couple of guns. I scanned the faces for Kat’s brother but didn’t see him. That made sense, he was just a prospect after all. But I was willing to bet that her dad was among the vicious-looking men.
“Shit,” Swole muttered. We were outnumbered and taken by surprise.
“We’ll be taking that box,” Mad Dog said.
“Like hell, you will,” Ryder growled.
Without warning, Mad Dog whipped out a revolver and fired off one shot.
The crate fell to the ground with a crash as the four of us let it go and rushed forward. Ryder crumpled to the ground before any of us reached him. My heart felt like it stopped in my chest, then fired back up at break-neck speed.
Everything happened so fast after that, with the Las Balas men coming at us. Mad Dog stepped back and laughed like a maniac. I didn’t usually carry a gun, and I’d never regretted it more. Trainer pulled a gun from under his jacket, while Pin and Yoda hurried to Ryder’s side. They grabbed him under the arms, pulling him back behind his truck and as far out of the way as possible with no time to spare. As he went past, I saw that there was blood spre
ading across his shirt over his lower abdomen.
Fuck. I scanned my surroundings, trying to find something I could use as a weapon.
“Blade,” I turned to Kim, who was carrying our shovels, and she threw one to me. I caught it with one hand and used it to block the blow of a man swinging a tire iron at my head.
Swole reappeared with Ryder’s crowbar and hit the man on the back of the head hard enough to drop him. I heard two gunshots nearby and felt my heart plummet. This situation had escalated way too quickly, and we weren’t prepared. Not only that, but our president was bleeding out somewhere.
Yoda’s voice rang out over the struggle going on all around us, “Retreat. I have Ryder.”
I looked over to see Yoda was getting into the driver’s seat of Ryder’s truck. I didn’t need to be told twice. Punching the Las Balas man closest to me in the face, I sent him reeling backward and took off toward where we’d parked our bikes. Pin and Kim were at my side, and I could hear others behind us. I just hoped that they were my fellow Outlaw Souls. We needed to get the hell out of here.
I vaguely noticed that the crate was being whisked away by six Las Balas members, but there was nothing we could do about that now.
Ryder’s truck fired up and went rocketing forward. Yoda clearly didn’t care if he hit any of the fuckers that attacked us. I reached my bike and mounted it, looking up just in time to see that Swole was running toward us, being chased by a big bastard with a baseball bat. I didn’t even think as I put my bike into gear and headed straight for them. Passing Swole, I leaned to the right just enough to intercept the man behind her. I wasn’t going that fast, so I was able to kick my leg out at the man, catching him in the chest and knocking him flat on his ass. He’d feel that tomorrow.
But the action threw me off-balance, and my bike went in the other direction, too much to keep it upright. It landed on its side, and I felt my ribs—which were already sore from the fight club a couple of days ago—crack. I had no choice but to push through the pain that exploded in my body. I wasn’t safe here, not by a long shot.