by Jamie Begley
Hammer’s game changer had been the friendship that Trudy formed with Fat Louise when they lived next door to each other. It had been the catalyst that had drawn the girls together and cemented when Sex Piston had been attacked and nearly killed on the school bus in middle school. The incident forged the friendship into the group of five, who would kick anyone’s ass that messed with them. Even then, Hammer underestimated that the women would discuss the secrets they’d been told repeatedly not to.
While Hammer maintained his distance from Trudy, he hadn’t Killyama. Both Jonas and Hammer had taken active roles in her life.
It was when the girls were arrested for fighting at a Dairy Queen with bitches from another high school that Trudy recognized Hammer from the day they’d been rescued. From then on, Hammer’s well-laid plan had gone downhill. Both girls had figured out Hammer’s goal was to protect them—Killyama from her father, Tim Cooper, and Trudy from Allerton. That was when they brought Sex Piston, Fat Louise, and Crazy Bitch into their secrets, making a pact to defend each other to their deaths.
Fat Louise had come up with the idea that if Hammer put them close enough to watch them both, then it made sense he had done the same for Evangeline. When confronted, Hammer denied it, but none of them had believed him. When that failed, they had gone out to local gatherings giving Trudy the chance to find her sister.
It wasn’t until after starting a fight at a local soccer match that Hammer caved and told Trudy the truth.
“You have to stop, T.A.”
“We were never meant to be separated this long!”
“It’s not safe enough.”
“When is it going to be?”
“Only Evangeline can answer that question.”
“What if she never remembers?”
“I don’t know what you want me to tell you.”
“I want the truth!”
Trudy told her that it was only when all the girls had broken into tears that Hammer relented.
“I don’t believe Allerton thinks Evangeline is dead.”
“He has to… Nothing has happened to me. If he thought that, then why hasn’t he come after me?”
“He could be waiting for you to lead him to her. I don’t want to take the chance, do you?”
“He’s not watching,” Trudy argued. “You’re being anal, like you are over everything!”
“You think you girls are ready to take on the big shots? Killyama, did you think your father could take care of himself?”
“Of course. He was the leader that gave you your position. I might have hated him, but he could kick ass.”
“Not enough to prevent himself or his wife from being killed.”
Trudy had said that it was one of the scariest moments of her life when Hammer had told them.
Killyama retorted, “It was a murder/suicide.”
“It was made to look that way. Whoever it was, was that good. It wasn’t fucking suicide. His wife didn’t kill him. She knew he had Peyton on the side, and she didn’t care.”
“If that’s true, why hasn’t any of the other team members been targeted who were there that day?”
“Because, Killyama, Tim didn’t break. Even though he knew they were going to die. If he didn’t give them the information, he didn’t break. He had a safeguard that was supposed to go off if something happened to him unexpectedly. It didn’t go off. I think Tim knew someone was trying to find Evangeline.”
“Fine, Hammer, but I need to know my sister is happy, that she doesn’t need me.”
Sex Piston had told her what had finally swayed Hammer. “Your sister cried like a fucking baby, until he gave in.”
“She’s happy; I’m sure of it, Trudy. Evangeline misses you. She asks all the time how you’re doing, but she doesn’t need you.”
“How do you know?” Trudy asked, not taking his word for it.
“She calls me all the fucking time. Evangeline calls to tell me how much she misses you and asks how you’re doing. And every time she calls, I ask if she needs anything and she always tells me no.”
“Is she close to us? Like Killyama and I are?”
“No.”
Trudy had told her later that she always believed he’d lied when he told her no.
“Can I see a picture of her? I want to see what she looks like now.”
“No, it isn’t possible. What if you do see her and want to talk to her?”
“So, she is close?”
Caught in a trap of his own making, Hammer remained silent.
“Just show me one picture, and we’ll get off your back, and I won’t ask again until you say it’s okay? Please?”
When the girls had joined in the request, Hammer caved. “I’ll see what I can do, but if I do, you won’t be able to keep it.”
“Anything, I just want to see what she looks like. Does she look like me?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t seen her. I’ve only talked to her on the phone.”
Trudy told her it had taken him a week to show the picture of Ginny standing at a table, blowing out her birthday candles. Ginny knew the picture had come from her dad before he died. She hadn’t had a birthday cake since his death.
“What did you do to finally get him to agree to let us see each other again?” Ginny had asked, enthralled by her sister’s story.
“Nothing. He had called Killyama and told her to drive me to the gas station near Treepoint, and he sent a picture of the man who drove me to the church.”
“Did Hammer say what had changed his mind?”
“He wouldn’t be able to say that you were happy if I asked him again.”
“I always told him no, because I knew if I asked what I needed most, he wouldn’t give it to me.”
“What was that?”
“You. I needed you.”
Trudy had looked like she was going to give Hammer a beating when Ginny had told her that fact.
Putting thoughts of Trudy aside, Ginny took a brief shower and started to get dressed, not wanting to be late with the amount of food she needed to cook for breakfast. The Last Riders’ club was packed with Shade’s sister Penni visiting. While she was staying with Shade and Lily at their house, Penni spent most of the time going back and forth between there and the club. She’d come with a man named Jackal, who was unlike the men who normally stayed or visited The Last Riders. He wore a Predators jacket. The cold look in his eyes reminded her of Shade, and the scar that ran down the length of his cheek gave him a daunting appearance. Ginny definitely wouldn’t pick a bar fight with him at a bar, she thought, laughing to herself.
She hadn’t even realized that Penni had brought a third person to visit until Viper requested for her to prepare a tray for their guest, who had been staying upstairs for the first few weeks that Penni and Jackal had been there.
The mysterious guest wasn’t exactly cordial. Ginny hadn’t taken Hennessy’s behavior personally; he was like a big tiger with a sore paw. From what little information she had overheard, Hennessy was a president of his own club, and he was staying upstairs until his injuries healed.
Not only had some of The Last Riders been on the receiving end of his sharp comments, but she had, as well. She had flinched when she’d gotten to close to him one day while cleaning the kitchen. A sarcastic comment from the man had her escaping to the basement to avoid returning a snappish comeback. Penni had mistakenly assumed Ginny was upset but had taken her side when Hennessey thought she had flinched due to his color. Penni had defended her, saying it was due to his large size and that she had seen her do the same thing when Knox stood too close to her.
Her reaction had nothing to do with his size or color, and everything to do with the simple fact that he was a man. She wasn’t intimidated by men; whatever the ethnicity or size. She had been running from true evil since she was three years old. How could you fear normal men, even the size of the Loch Ness monster while you were still trying to outswim the Kraken? She would be able to take the Loch Ness monster on and defeat
it with the right weapon. The Kraken, on the other hand, no ordinary person or weapon could destroy that monster.
No, she wasn’t afraid of either Knox or Hennessey. Ginny considered both men guppies in her lake. The real reason she had flinched away from Hennessey was not something she was at liberty to explain to anyone. Other than the men who had saved her life and those in her family, she maintained a strict distance from any other.
From the moment in the church when she had seen the dark figure, it hadn’t felt right to stand too close to any man. It was why she maintained a physical distance from all men, other than those she had grown close to and considered family.
Ginny had started noticing that she couldn’t stand being close to a member of the opposite sex soon after she had seen the dark figure at the front of the church. She couldn’t explain it, but if a boy came within arm’s reach, she immediately moved away. She had rationalized her fear of men to Allerton finding her. There were too many lives at stake if he ever did. Could it be that she harbored a secret fear of becoming close to someone, afraid that Allerton would find her and kill them both?
When she noticed Penni watching her, Ginny could practically see the wheels turning in her head, trying to figure her out. One morning Penni came in and caught her singing in the basement while she was doing laundry. None of The Last Riders were ever up that early on a Sunday morning, so she thought she was alone and had unconsciously started singing along with the music while folding the clothes.
Penni startled her and, with her guard up, she cagily answered the questions Penni asked about her past. She’d given her enough brief answers hoping to satisfy Penni’s curiosity. But Shade was sharp, and Ginny knew not much got past him. The longer she was around his sister, she realized both brother and sister had inherited the same shrewd intelligence.
Realizing she had taken too long blow-drying her hair, she pulled it into a ponytail, then hurried downstairs and made sure the sleeping kitten had enough food and water. Ginny couldn’t help but pick up the little fur baby that lifted her head to be stroked under her chin.
“Gotta go to work, Smokey. Be good while I’m gone,” she crooned, giving her a brief snuggle before placing her back on the couch cushion.
Locking her front door behind her, she went to her car and gave her home a proud once-over before driving off. The papers had been signed, and the house was now hers. She had scrimped and saved for the last eight months and had to clean out her checking account to make the ten thousand dollars down payment, but it had been worth every dime and every hour of work to achieve.
She was the master of her own destiny, and it felt flipping great!
Her burst of euphoria lasted until she the red light came on the dashboard. She had forgotten to buy gas on her way home the day before. Making a detour to the gas station, she had just put the nozzle in her tank when Lisa parked on the other side of the same pump. Getting out of her car, Lisa just stood there and watched her pump the gas.
“You could move your car forward; the next pump is empty,” Ginny stated the obvious at Lisa’s condescending posture.
“I’m in no hurry. It shouldn’t take long for you to pump five dollars’ worth.”
The cutting remark flew by her. Living the short time with Bliss, then working with Willa had given her the boost of confidence she needed to face off with the woman she hated.
Instead of acting like a puppy with his head hanging down whenever Lisa was near, Ginny kept on pumping just to make her angry.
“I’m filling my tank.”
“Good for you. I wasn’t aware Willa paid you enough to splurge. Or, are The Last Riders better tippers than the customers at the diner?”
Lisa’s rein over her was going to end today.
“Go to hell.”
Lisa lifted her hand with the diamond ring the size of the rock of Gibraltar to tuck her expensive purse under her arm. “Trash.” Lisa scornfully raked her gaze over her. “The only thing that hasn’t surprised me about you is that you don’t have a couple of brats trailing after you.”
“Really?” Ginny cocked her head to the side, studying the stuck-up bitch. “The only thing that surprised me about you is that you let Carter Dawkins touch you. The principal didn’t shock me. You smelled like his cologne when you picked me from choir practice. You should let the other men take the picture; the ones that Dalt took doesn’t do you justice.”
“You bitch!” Lisa dropped her purse as she moved toward her.
“Be careful; there are security cameras everywhere. I’d hate to see your name dragged through the mud for assault and battery.”
“You were the one who gave Tate the picture.”
“Was I?” Ginny asked in mock innocence.
“How did you break into my house?”
“I didn’t break into your house,” Ginny denied with a smile at seeing Lisa was ready to explode.
“I know you broke into my house,” Lisa hissed when another car pulled up to her car.
Ginny clicked the gas nozzle off, hanging it back on the pump, then screwing the cap over the gas tank, and flipping the cover closed. “Prove it.”
“Ginny, if you have a second, I’d like a word with you.”
Straightening the chairs back under the tables in the dining room, Ginny glanced over at Viper, her heart sinking at the expression on his face. Had she done something wrong? Was God going to pay her back for being a witch to Lisa? Was it worth lowering her standards to see Lisa get back in her car and squeal out of the gas station? Pretty much. She hadn’t even minded spending the extra ten dollars on gas that she hadn’t planned into her budget for the week.
Her mind went around and around over what Viper wanted to talk about. The whole eight months she had worked at the club, he had said maybe twenty words to her.
The stark reality of losing her job when she just purchased her home and hadn’t had the time to replenish her savings had her trembling as she walked over to the table. Viper was sitting with Jackal, Train, Rider, and Hennessy as they ate their lunches.
“With so many guests here, we need someone full-time until they leave.”
He was firing her to hire someone full-time.
Rapidly, she thought over for her options. She could go back to the diner. She might be able to talk to the manager of the theater to take her back. She had given notice—
“I talked to Willa. She’s willing to give you leave until you can go back to your normal work schedule.”
“You’re not firing me?” Relieved, she breathed again.
“Fire you? No, I’m giving you a raise for the hours you’ll have to put in here. You can take the bedroom in the basement—it has its own bathroom. We want you to be comfortable during your stay.”
“I don’t need to stay here. I can work whatever hours you want and go home to sleep.”
“We need someone on call.”
“I just got a kitten. I can’t leave her alone at night.”
“You can bring her with you.”
Viper was shutting her down, countering her each time she made an excuse not to move in. Deciding to be blunt, she made her point clear. “I don’t want to move in here. I have my own house.”
“It’s only for a couple of weeks.”
Train’s reassurance didn’t change her mind.
“No.”
Viper wasn’t willing to accept no for an answer. “I wasn’t giving you a choice. I’ll pay you for the inconvenience,” he reminded her.
Ginny stiffened, shaking her head. “It’s not about the money. If you need me to work longer hours, I’m okay with that, but I want to go home at night.”
She really didn’t want to lose her job with The Last Riders, and she really didn’t want to make Willa upset enough to fire her—but she didn’t want to give in to Viper’s demands. Willa was her friend, but Ginny never let herself forget that she was ultimately her boss and kept a respectful distance between them as employee and employer.
“Ginny, let’s g
o talk in the front room.”
Ginny turned around to find Pastor Dean behind her. Seeing his understanding expression, she calmed down and went to the front of the club. Grateful that the room was empty, she shoved her hands into her jean pockets.
“I’m not going to leave my house. I can work whatever hours Viper wants me to.”
“Ginny, when Willa and I discussed you taking the job here, we warned you that there would occasionally be things we couldn’t discuss with you. This is one of those times.”
Ginny swallowed hard. She wasn’t blind. She noticed the extra men at the doors when she’d come and gone from the club. She hadn’t missed the additional men wearing the Predators jackets and all the changes that had come about since Penni and her friends’ arrival. The fact Hennessey had been hurt so badly, being bedridden for a couple of weeks, didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there were problems happening for the club and they thought she could be in danger.
She trusted Pastor Dean and could sympathize with him having to walk a fine line between being her pastor and the other side of him—the one who belonged to the club. More than anyone knew, she understood the dilemma he was in, since she walked a similar a fine line, which was why she told Trudy to stop calling her Evangeline. She and her sister had given up too much for their past to leak out now.
“I’m staying at my house. If Viper wants to fire me, I’ll understand.” She resolutely ended the conversation, going back into the kitchen to load the dishwasher.
Whatever trouble the club was in, she wasn’t involved and she refused to get dragged into it. If Hammer thought she was in a dangerous situation with The Last Riders, he would never let Trudy have the overnight visits they had promised each other, and she didn’t want Trudy in danger. She was just a housekeeper; if she started staying full-time, their enemies might assume she was closer to them than just a worker. Viper wasn’t asking the factory workers to move in, so he shouldn’t expect her to leave her home either.