by Blair Grey
“Someone put a serious hole in her driver’s side window,” Candice told him. She gave me a look. “And we’re pretty sure we know who that someone was.”
“We are not,” I protested. “Again, we have no evidence.”
“What are you thinking?” Ray asked, hopping up on one of the barstools. Even though we weren’t open yet, Candice poured him a drink and handed it over.
“Mia’s got this ex-boyfriend,” Candice informed Ray. “He’s the absolute worst. Definite trouble. Comes in here from time to time just to check on her. Always threatens to fight the guys that she’s talking to, even if they’re just customers at the bar. My bet is that he got pissed off with the fact that Mia told him to leave last weekend and he decided to take it out on her car while he knew that she’d be in here.”
I was thankful that she at least didn’t tell Ray that it was probably because Darren had found out that I was sleeping with Braxton. I didn’t know if Ray knew about that yet, and if Braxton hadn’t told him, I didn’t want Candice blabbing it to him.
Ray frowned. “Who is this guy? What’s his name?”
Candice gave him all the details he could ever want about Darren, and all the while, Ray just nodded along. He wasn’t taking any notes, but I knew that he would remember everything. He always seemed to.
“Well, it might have been this guy. It certainly sounds like he might have a motive, unfortunately,” Ray said when Candice was finally finished.
“I keep telling her that she should get a restraining order against him,” Candice said, giving me a look.
Ray shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” he said. “That might just piss him off and make him more aggressive.”
“That’s exactly what I said!” I exclaimed.
“That said,” Ray continued, “it sounds like he’s a piece of work, and I don’t like the idea that he can just come around the bar whenever he wants to. You should at least think about getting the bouncer to keep him out of here.”
“But?” I asked, hoping he was about to say that he had a better theory. I just wanted to stop thinking about Darren. I didn’t want to think he was involved in all of this. And Ray wasn’t saying that he was.
There were plenty of reasons I didn’t want to hear that Darren was involved. Not least of which because if it was him, it was kind of an “I told you so” moment against myself. I had brought this upon myself, everything that I had to deal with from Darren. I was the one who had agreed to go out with him. Candice had never liked him.
What’s more, I liked the way things were heading with Braxton, and I couldn’t help worrying that something with my ex now would totally derail this friends-with-benefits relationship that Braxton and I were so carefully building. I wasn’t ready to give up on this just yet. I still wanted more.
So it was a relief to hear Ray say that he didn’t necessarily think it was Darren, either, despite all the evidence that Candice had laid out for what a creepy guy Darren was and how much of a basket case he might be.
“But this could have just been some kids,” Ray said, shrugging one shoulder. “Apparently, you’re not the only one with a broken window at the moment. One of our other businesses called me this morning and told me that they’ve got a broken front window. Which leads me to the other reason that I’m here.”
“You want us to keep an eye out for anything unusual and report to you if something happens,” Candice surmised.
“Exactly,” Ray said. He paused. “But not only that, I want you two to be careful. It’s probably just kids, but on the off chance that it’s not, well. Better safe than sorry.” He took a considering sip of his drink. “In light of what you’ve told me about Darren, I think it’s best that I station a few guys here. I know you have your bouncers as well, but I also know that things can get busy in here sometimes. Better to have a few pairs of eyes on things.”
I rolled my eyes. “This is just silly, though,” I told him. “What Candice isn’t telling you is that Darren was in here just last week, and when I told him to leave, he did.”
“Yeah, but I think that means he’s just plotting something else. Like I told you before,” Candice said, rolling her eyes. “Come on; we just want to make sure that you’re safe.”
“Fine,” I said, throwing my hands in the air. “If you want to have some Red Eyes guys in here, be my guest. But they’d better at least buy a couple drinks, and they’d better tip. Otherwise, they’re going to look stupidly suspicious, and it’s going to scare off the paying customers.”
Having random biker dudes in there as enforcers sounded like a terrible business practice to me, but I could tell that Candice was fully on board with it. I didn’t really understand why, because it wasn’t like anyone had threatened Sunshine yet. They hadn’t even really threatened me. They had come at my car at a time when they knew I wasn’t in there.
I didn’t think whoever it was meant us real, bodily harm. They probably just wanted to scare me. We didn’t need Red Eyes enforcers keeping whoever this was away from Sunshine over that. I could do with a little bit of scare tactics. If it was Darren, he wasn’t going to be able to scare me, no matter what he did. I didn’t care enough about him that he could scare me anymore.
Ray laughed. “Deal,” he said.
“Don’t you think it would be even safer, Mia, if you took a week off until things settled down?” Candice asked. She frowned, exchanging a glance with Ray. “I mean, you know I hate the idea of losing you even for a week, but I’d hate it even more if that fucker knew you were working here and tried to pull something. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“I’m not running away from him,” I said stubbornly, narrowing my eyes at Candice. “I can’t believe you’re even suggesting that.”
“Don’t think of it as running away from him,” Candice said. “Think of it as going on vacation for a little while. When was the last time you did that?”
I had to admit; it had been a while. But there was a reason I didn’t go on vacations. I had responsibilities here. There was no one else to take over for me while I was gone. I did all the special duties around the place in addition to working the cash registers. I was responsible for inventory, trips to the bank, and all the other things that Candice had piled on over the years as I had proved that I was responsible.
What was more, though: “Where would I even go?” I asked. I hated the idea of going on a vacation of any sort on my own. Of eating in restaurants by myself and coming back to a drab hotel room every night on my own. It would feel more like an exile than the relaxing vacation that it was probably meant to be.
I wanted no part of it.
But it seemed like Ray was on board with the idea. “Why don’t I handle all the details?” he suggested. “Like I said, it could be nothing to do with your ex-boyfriend. But for the sake of being safe, I think it really might be better to get you out of here until things settle down. I’m sure we’ll find our window-breaker, or window-breakers. Whoever they may be. Until then, I think I know the perfect place for you.”
“You’re making me wish it was my crazy ex breaking windows now,” Candice said. “I sure could use a vacation too.”
“Then why don’t you be the one to take it?” I asked, but I knew there was no arguing with the two of them. I shook my head. They were both overreacting, but if they wanted me to go away for a little while, I supposed I would have to listen to them.
I mainly hated the idea of having to spend time away from Braxton if I was really being honest with myself. Who knew how long I would have to be gone for? A week? Two? Would Braxton still be interested in me by the time I got back? I just didn’t know.
But I supposed I was going to find out. I sighed and shook my head, getting to work while Candice and Ray did some quick scheming.
17
Braxton
I didn’t really know where to start with figuring out who was breaking the windows, but someone around town must have seen something. And at least
here, in Las Cruces, I was on familiar territory. I had my network here, people who I could ask questions. People who wouldn’t think there was anything strange about the questions I needed to ask. That had been part of the tricky nature of the job in Sarasota: we hadn’t known who we were dealing with, and we hadn’t had anyone we could ask about the Mambas either.
This job should be a lot easier. The main problem was that Landon had always been the brains of our operation, the one to come up with the plan and put it into motion. Oftentimes, I had just been there as silent muscle to back him up. It didn’t mean that I couldn’t come up with plans of my own, but I just didn’t feel as confident about plans that I had dreamed up versus ones that Landon had.
And having Grant by my side threw a whole different problem into the equation: I just didn’t know what to realistically expect from him. And I didn’t want to risk a screwup that would send the window-breakers into hiding, possibly for good. We were going to have to be tactful. I wasn’t sure if Grant could handle that.
He stayed mostly silent as I did my asking around. The trouble was, no one really had good sources. They all wanted me to bribe them just so they could tell me about stupid shit unrelated to window breaking. Most of the stuff, I already knew about, and the rest of it, I didn’t care about.
It was tedious, trying to sort through all the misinformation. I wished I had Landon’s mind there to handle that part of it while I played the part of silent goon behind him. That wasn’t going to happen, though. I couldn’t drag him away from Sarasota just for this. I was going to have to get used to working on my own or working with Grant.
We got our first useful information from one of the dealers in town. “Hey, long time no see,” Pat said, looking happy to see me. He probably thought I was here to pick something up. I had bought from him in the past; it was how I had forged this relationship. But I had no intention of buying drugs while goody-goody Grant was hanging around with me. I felt weird enough just bringing him here, like I was babysitting some kid and had brought him into a drug lair, the likes of which he’d never seen before. I could tell by the way he looked around with wide eyes that he had never been to a place like Pat’s before. I just hoped Pat wouldn’t withhold information because he thought I was traveling around with a snitch or something.
But it seemed like I didn’t have to worry about that. If anything, Pat was amused by Grant’s antics.
“Yeah, I was on a trip to Florida,” I said, shrugging. “Sorry I haven’t been around. And unfortunately, I'm just here with a couple questions today."
“Aww, come on, man,” Pat groaned. “You’ve got to at least try this new stuff I’ve got in. These pills are like nothing you’ve even been on before.”
“Wish I could,” I said, even though that wasn’t really the truth. I had never done drugs without Landon there to supervise, either, and I wasn’t about to start now. Especially not if it was some of the weird, experimental stuff that Pat got in. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I thought the other man would ever purposefully try to kill me, but you never knew what you were going to get with his pills sometimes.
I glanced over at Grant to see how he was taking this. His expression was almost enough to make me laugh. It looked like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than here right now. I wondered if he’d even done so much as to smoke pot before. Probably not. What a kid.
“What we really wanted to ask you about is, there’ve been a couple broken windows lately,” I told Pat. “Now obviously, someone must know something.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Pat said. “There’s someone trying to cause some problems around town. Don’t know what the story is and don’t care, but I know he’s looking for people to join him.”
I raised an eyebrow at him and slipped some cash across the table to him. “And you wouldn’t happen to know anything about this guy, would you?” I asked. “What his name is, or where I might find him?”
Pat smirked at me. “As a matter of fact, I have an address for you.” He scrawled out the address in his looping handwriting, handing it to me. I read the address and then shoved it in my pocket, grinning as I slipped Pat another bill.
“You’ve been very helpful,” I said.
Pat rolled his eyes. “Well, next time you need a fix, I can be even more helpful,” he reminded me. “That’s what I do best; don’t forget.”
“Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” I promised him. No sense explaining to him that Landon was in Florida and that I wasn’t interested in doing drugs on my own.
I led Grant out of there, hoping he wouldn’t ask me too many stupid questions. But Grant seemed thoughtful and quiet. “Time to get to work,” I said, handing him the address as we got in the car.
“What are we going to do?” Grant asked, and I could tell that he was nervous. He was trying harder to hide it than he had in the past, but he was still definitely unsure about this whole thing. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
“Just follow my lead,” I told him, hoping that I could trust him to have my back. But Pat had made it sound like this was where one of the guys lived, not multiple dudes, so maybe we’d get lucky, and there would be hardly any fighting to do. Or maybe Grant would prove more skilled than I was expecting.
We got to the run-down apartment building and headed up the stairs. I kicked the door in without even bothering to knock. When we entered the living room, there was a guy lounging on the couch and two other men sitting in chairs in the room. From the way they were sitting, I wondered if they were meant to be his bodyguards or something.
Whatever the case, they would no match for Grant and me. If I could ensure that Grant would actually follow my lead and fight.
“What the hell is going on?” the man on the couch asked, surging to his feet.
“I hear that you’re responsible for a window that was broken at a business that’s … protected,” I said silkily.
The man snorted. “Protected? By who?”
“Red Eyes MC,” I said. I grinned. “You must have heard of us.” The good news was, whoever he was, he didn’t look like a biker. This wasn’t another territory battle. He was just some asshole trying to stir up trouble, nothing major. We should be able to scare him off pretty easily. Especially since it was just the three of them.
The guy spit on the floor. “Oh, I’ve heard of you,” he said. “But so what? You guys have no right to come here and kick down my door.”
“Don’t we?” I asked through gritted teeth. Who the hell was this guy and what was he on? Didn’t he realize that I was going to beat him to a pulp if I heard one more arrogant word out of him?
Or at least, I was going to do so if Grant didn’t beat me to it. He was in action already, charging the guy. And he was a pretty handy fighter, too, I was surprised to see. Of course, he took on the one guy while I handled both of the buddies, but he did a good job. Barely even a scratch on him by the time I knocked out the two guards. He had the third guy, their leader, pinned to the floor, but the other man was still conscious.
I appreciated that as well.
“I recommend that you leave town. Sooner, rather than later,” I suggested in a frosty, not-so-friendly tone to the ringleader.
“Or you’ll what, you asshole?” the other man asked.
I squatted down and looked him dead in the eye. “Put it this way,” I said slowly. “If you don’t leave town, you will be buried here.” I nodded at Grant, and he gave the guy one final punch, knocking him into oblivion. At least for now. They wouldn’t be out for long, though.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said to Grant, jerking my head toward the doorway.
“We’re just going to leave them here?” Grant asked, sounding puzzled.
“What did you think we were going to do?” I asked.
“I thought you might want to kill them all,” Grant admitted. “You know, to make sure they didn’t get up to do any more mischief.” He paused, looking bashful. “That’s why I hesitated for so long.”
&n
bsp; I laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Nah, we give them a warning first. It’s the way that Ray likes things to be done.” I flexed my fingers. “Although Ray doesn’t like to let even that much violence come in at the first warning stage,” I admitted. “Neither does Landon.” I was silent for a moment, thinking about that. Then, I shook my head, letting it go.
“Anyway, they’ve had their warning. If they continue to mess with our businesses, that’s when we really crack down on them. The plus side is, we know who they are now.”
“I guess so,” Grant said.
“Hey, you did good, kid,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. He might not have followed my lead, but he had handled things pretty well. He had been a lot fiercer than I expected. He had shown that he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty if the situation called for it.
And I knew I had been right to praise him when I saw the way Grant’s face lit up, like I had just given him some sort of special treat. I fought to hide my answering grin when I saw that. Oh brother. What a kid.
“Now what happens?” Grant asked.
“Now, we go talk to Ray and tell him about our man here,” I said, already pointing the car toward the clubhouse. “Ray likes to get updates on this sort of thing.”
We got to the clubhouse and found Ray in his office. I quickly gave him the rundown on what we had found out and our response to it, making sure to praise Grant again. Maybe if he got enough praise, he would start to do things right around here. Stop being so afraid to get involved or to get physical.
He was beet red by the time I was done. I couldn’t help but feel amused.
“So yeah,” I finished. “We left them in a pretty sorry state, thanks to Grant mostly, and they know they’ve had their warning. They know what’ll happen if they continue to hang out around Las Cruces. And especially if they go after any more protected businesses.”