by Jayne Blue
The article about my Dad woke me up again to the present. To the other reason that I was happy to take a job in Port Az.
It was time to leave the past for a while and make inroads with The Saints.
I looked down at Woody’s Lounge. Someone from The Dark Saints was back! There was a Harley parked out front. I’d been waiting for that.
I suddenly felt thirsty.
4
Benz
I said my piece at Church.
“You think that’s not the end of it?” Bear asked from the head of the table.
“I think it’s the beginning of it.”
Most of the club was there for Church. Church was an important part of The Dark Saint’s Code. We met at least once a week. The Prez, Bear, he ran the meeting. If he wasn’t available E.Z., the Veep did the honors.
Meeting, planning, and executing were how we got shit done.
If you had a beef, you brought it up here.
Bear was a good Prez; he was the only Prez I really ever knew. He was getting older, farther away from what it was like on the streets of Port Az. The Club were his eyes and ears out there, and we let him know what we saw.
Bear had the big picture. He knew where the MC was going. He knew how to get us there. But Kade, Zig, Axle, Chase, and the rest of us, we were there.
We were all seeing some of the same shit.
Something was happening in Port Az that we weren’t in control of and Bear didn’t like losing control. None of us did.
“Do you think they’re trying to move in with the harder stuff?” Bear asked me.
“That’s what I think. We all know there’s a market for it. If those two, Skillex and Taro, were Hawks, which is possible, that’s one thing. If they’re from some other club, we got double the problems.”
The drug trade in Port Az was under our control.
And we kept it soft. On purpose. You could make a lot of money on pot and we did. Sure, sometimes potheads turned into junkies, but not here. Not in Port Az. It was too hard to get heroin here, thanks to us. And that was making us attractive to both to newcomers who wanted to live here and to heroin dealers who saw a market.
But the minute it got worse, the minute heroin was easy to get, shit was going to get ugly. Our end of a lot of bargains was making sure that didn’t happen.
“What do you want us to do, Bear?” Kade asked.
“Keep your eyes out. We may have to lay a little trap, if what Benz is saying plays out.”
“I sure as shit hope not,” Axle said, but I knew he was seeing what I was seeing. More than the occasional junkie was showing up on the fringes of Port Az.
If they were here, it was for a reason.
“Let’s figure out who’s making the run to Austin.” Bear moved on to the next bit of club business.
Business was good for The Dark Saints just like The Dark Saints were good for Port Az. The Dock’s were too vanilla for my tastes, but it was booming thanks to us and the CRIME FAMILY. A fair amount of new shipping was coming through the port.
After Church, my brothers and I knew what our jobs were. Keep watching.
I had to be damn sure if we needed to set a trap for The Hawks. We could be headed to a war and that wasn’t good for anyone’s business.
If there was heroin in Port Az, we needed to know how it was getting in.
After Church, I checked in at Woody’s Lounge.
If you were on a downward spiral in Port Az, likely you hit there a rung or two before the bottom.
Woodrow was happy to have The Saints drink in his place. And he was good for information. He was at his usual place behind the bar. He set me up with a shot, but I waived it off.
“You seeing anything you don’t like?” I asked him.
“Just you, Benz.”
“Funny. You know what I mean.”
“I do. You’ll be the first to know.”
“Good.” I turned and left him to his work and looked across the street to the library.
I hadn’t seen the pretty little librarian since nearly running her over at Woody’s Lounge the other day.
I glanced at the library, and there she was, coming out the front door loaded down with boxes or some shit. Sometimes it was better to be lucky than smart and right now I was feeling very fucking lucky.
I watched for a beat. She was in a dress again. Shit, she was beautiful. And innocent-looking. That was what struck me.
She was working to navigate the steps of the library, in her pretty dress and high heels. The steps were winning. I watched as one of the boxes she was carrying went flying, and she went next.
I hustled across the street. She thought I was a gentleman. Maybe I’d let her think that just a little while longer.
“Well, if it isn’t the librarian.” I put out a hand and she looked up at me. Her eyes were so goddamn beautiful I tried not to stare. Her dress was also making it easy to see the swell of her breasts at the top. Every protective instinct I had fired up when I looked at her.
Other things fired up too. I hadn’t been interested in a woman like this, ever.
Jenny took my hand.
“You must think I’m the clumsiest person on Earth.”
“You aren’t?”
“I guess I am.” She looked around at the mess her spill had caused. “Great,” she said and started to try to gather the papers and get them back into the banker’s box.
“What the hell is all this?” I picked up a few pieces of paper and handed them to her.
“My work. I’m trying to make sense of the mess of the records up there for Port Az. I thought I could take some work home with me, but ugh.”
“You work a lot?”
“I’ve only got a few weeks here for this assignment so yes, I do.”
I helped her collect all her shit. Once it looked like we had got everything put back together, she tried to pick up her box again and struggled. I grabbed it easily and she looked relieved.
“Here, I got it. Where to?” I asked her.
“My car, around here in the lot.” She started walking and I admired the rear view. Her ass was perfect in that dress.
“So, you’ve been here in Port Az, what? A week? And you’ve spent the entire time in the library up there?”
“I have, yes. I did. Except the time I got tea from Woodrow. When I ordered, he acted like I was speaking another language. Oh, here’s my car.” It was an ancient powder blue Volkswagen Bug.
“This is smaller than my bike.”
“Yeah, I know. Librarians don’t make big money though, so. Yeah, my old Bug it is.”
She opened the door and I put her box of papers in the back seat.
“I think it’s time you saw more of Port Az than the library, Jen.”
“Really? How?”
“The back of my bike is a good place to start.” I wanted her in a lot more places than the back of my bike. The universe had dropped this creature in my path twice now. I was not about to argue with that.
“I thought you said I shouldn’t be hanging out in this part of town?”
“I’m not going to show you this part of town.”
She smiled at me and I swear it was like she’d blown in my ear or something. It had a physical effect on me.
A librarian. I was hot as shit for a librarian. This was new. I waited as she considered the wisdom of getting on the back of my bike.
“Can I trust you?” She was right to ask.
“Not at all.”
5
Jen
Benz looked me up and down. I was still playing the part of innocent librarian. In my estimation, librarians wore dresses. I’d dressed like a librarian in the fifties, I suppose.
In that moment, I wished I had on a work uniform though. Somehow, I felt exposed and I was sure that Benz could see right through me.
I had a brief panicked thought. Could he see actually see through my dress? That’s what Benz’s eyes made me think, like he was seeing more than I meant him too.
The idea of being on the back of his bike made me blush. I wasn’t someone who blushed.
“Does the Chamber of Commerce pay you to be a tour guide of some sort?”
“Let’s go Jenny,” he said. It was almost an order.
Any other time I’d have probably told him to shove off.
But I wanted to get on that bike with him. He could be my inroad to knowing more about The Dark Saints. I’d hooked him with my innocent librarian routine.
“Call me Jen. Got a helmet for me, Benz?”
He reached behind him and produced it. I took it. I realized there was no way my hunk of a ponytail was going to fit, so I slid the tie off and shook my hair out.
“Shit,” Benz said and took a step forward to help me on the bike.
“What?”
“Nothing, let me help you on.”
I did the best I could to straddle the bike and realized a skirt meant there was nothing but my cotton panties between me and the back of Benz’s ass.
Well, I wanted to get his attention. This could damn well do it. I had started down this road and I was going to have to let it play out. At least for a while. I could handle a bike ride.
I was in control. That was what I told myself.
He was so good looking in that rugged way; I was going to have to be careful. But I could be. He stared at me for a second longer than I was comfortable with.
“You’re the prettiest librarian I’ve ever fucking seen. I didn’t realize it until that hair came down.” He said it like he was talking dirty to me. Even though all he did was call me pretty. Everything about him screamed sex and my body wanted to answer.
I kept reminding myself the reason behind getting on his bike and I returned his bold attitude with my own.
“You know a lot of librarians, do you?”
“Just the one,” Benz said and I laughed.
“Ah, so the competition isn’t too fierce.”
“Nope. You’re way out in front. Let me show you around my town.”
“Better than the brochures. I’m all ears.”
I felt the engine rev up and it vibrated between my legs.
“Hold on, Librarian. I’ll go slow, but it’s still a lot of machine.”
Why did everything he said make me think of something else? I held on tight and we started rolling.
“Just look around. Pretty spectacular.”
He was right. The water and the sun mingled and made this little place look like a postcard.
I’d been in the rundown section of Port Az. I’d had my head in dusty documents.
I was thinking of ten years ago here, or even ancient history here, but the reality of today’s Port Az was kind of great.
A beautiful part of town had grown up along the water.
I looked up the shoreline to a beach area. I wondered if they were busy during the holidays.
It was a perfect little getaway. As we rolled through the streets of town, I slid as close as I could to Benz. I told myself it was me, doing what I could, to get closer to The Dark Saints. But my body wanted to get closer to this man, whoever he was.
I felt the hardness of him. I knew without a doubt that I wanted him.
I needed to guard against what I was feeling. I was supposed to be working on getting him to open up to me, not fall in lust with him.
That was the plan. I could do it.
The sun had set by the time the slow tour of Port Azrael was over. I found myself not wanting it to end.
But we were back at my car. He eased his bike right next to it.
He got off his bike and offered a hand to help me, like he had before.
How could a man be bossy and gentlemanly at the same time? Benz seemed to have that combination.
“Thanks for the tour.”
It barely came out of my mouth before Benz pulled me forward to him.
I was in his arms and I can’t say it wasn’t exactly what I’d wanted.
“I felt your legs behind me. It fucking drove me crazy, Librarian.” I swallowed hard. This wasn’t a boy or someone I could play with lightly. I did not have the upper hand in any way.
All my planning and calculations slipped away. My body knew one thing and it overrode what my brain was trying to tell me.
He leaned down and kissed me. It was a light kiss at first. A test kiss, almost. What happened next was all me. I saw a line and jumped over it with both feet.
Benz’s lips on mine awakened something primal in me.
I opened my lips to his and felt his tongue swirl in with mine. I swayed into him and for a second forgot where I was. Who I was.
I also forgot where we were. Nothing mattered but where he was touching me.
I pressed close to his leather. A vision of us naked together flashed in my head as he pulled me into his body.
This feeling wasn’t normal or rational. I had responded to him from a place I didn’t knew existed.
I was supposed to be doing this for information.
But instead I wanted him to keep kissing me.
He pulled his lips from mine and I swear I felt dizzy.
Benz put his finger on my lips. What the hell had happened?
He pulled his phone out.
“Sorry, baby. I have to go.”
“Go? What?” I took a step back. A second ago I had been crawling all over this man and he had to go? “What was that?”
Benz grabbed me by the waist and pulled me in tight again, even as I was trying pull myself together and get some distance from him.
“That was just a taste. I’m going to have the whole meal. But it’s going to have to wait.”
“Right.” This was getting dangerous fast.
“I have club business to deal with.”
“Club?”
“The Dark Saints. That’s my club. When they call, I go.”
“Got it.”
Benz handed me his phone.
“Put your phone number in. We’re not done.” I didn’t hesitate. I typed my number in. This was what I wanted. A way in. Benz was giving me a way in.
“I don’t know how long this is going to be. I’ll call you when I can. Maybe we have a drink?” he said. The words were more or less a jumble.
That kiss had rocked my world and that wasn’t a part of my plan. Falling into his arms was a huge gamble I’d taken.
“A drink?” I asked, like he was speaking a foreign language.
“Librarians aren’t like nuns or something right? You can have a drink?”
“No, we’re not nuns.”
“Good then, I’ll call you later.”
Benz let me go and I stood there for a moment. I made a conscious effort to shut my jaw. I was surprised by how easily I’d let that escalate.
I watched as he got on his bike and drove off. Club business. The Dark Saints.
I struggled to get a grip on what I’d just done and how it had made me feel. I struggled to remember my motive, my mission; all of it seemed secondary to what had just happened.
I may be wildly attracted to Benz, but I had to use it. I had to stay in control.
I could string him along. But how far could I go with this?
I started my car. My lips were still tingling from Benz’s touch. It was chemical. That was it. A chemical reaction to something in him. Nothing more.
I steeled myself. I would get drinks, and instead of kissing, we’d talk. I pushed away the feelings that were bubbling up. I took a deep breath.
This was going to be fine. I was fine. I told myself that during my entire ride back to the hotel room I had rented for the month in Port Az.
I was fine.
But I wasn’t even in the neighborhood of fine.
Benz had thrown me completely off kilter. And worse. I was disappointed that the kiss ended where it did.
No. I wasn’t fine at all.
6
Benz
For the first time since I could remember, I didn’t want to go on club business. I wanted to stay righ
t there and kiss Jen Guffy. I wanted to put her over the hood of that car of hers and see what was under that fucking dress.
But duty called.
Kade had said on the phone, “I need your eyes on this.”
Bodies in Port Az had a way of disappearing. The Saints knew how to be sure of that. I know how to be sure.
Kade had given me the address and Kade had called the cops.
The red and blue lights were lighting up the darkening evening sky and police tape blocked off part of the ally way.
“You found it?” I asked Kade. We both hung back on our bikes as we watched the police do their work. They took photos. They took measurements and eventually two yellow bags were filled.
“What’s your take?” I asked Kade.
“Low-level drug deal gone high level bad.” Kade said.
“What did you find?”
“Two dudes in that car, both shot in the head.”
“Did you get a good look before you called?”
“Sure did. They’re both addicts it looks like to me. They were here to buy, but they probably didn’t have the cash. So they got shot for it.”
“Bear is not going to like this.”
“No, no he’s not.”
We spent the next hour making sure the club knew what was going down.
“Cops know you’re not involved, I’m assuming,” Bear said. It really wasn’t a question.
“Yep.”
“Okay, I’ll work on this on my end,” Bear told us.
We were right. There was heroin in Port Az and it was going to get uglier quicker than we predicted.
“Bear’s going to have to do something,” Kade said and we both knew that was true.
“Yeah, but for now, we wait.”
“Right.”
“There’s going to be more shit like this.”
A double murder near the tourist area of Port Az wasn’t good for anyone’s business. Not the town’s, not the cops, and not The Saints.
“Fuck,” Kade said under his breath.
“My thoughts exactly.”
But there was nothing more we could do that night. Bear would let us know what came next and what part we would need to play in it.