She sighed as she felt herself giving in, yet again. Closing her eyes, she stilled and told him, “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, Alex. But the minute I catch you lying to me, I’m severing all ties for good.” But she didn’t even sound convincing to her own ears.
“Deal,” he said, sounding relieved. “I know it’s hard. But I’m keeping my promise. Just keep a low profile for a couple of days. Be patient and ignore me. But don’t make it seem purposeful. This will blow over, and we can find another way to meet. I’ll call you.”
At least he sounded as torn up about it as she felt. As Krishna took in his instructions, she said, “Not to sound desperate, but I’ll miss being with you.” It was a tough admission.
“Me, too,” he said gruffly. “I’ll be convincing, and I’ll make it quick. I need the warmth of your skin.”
Before she could reply, she heard the click signaling Alex had hung up. She expected radio silence for a few days and didn’t quite know what to do with herself. But she was certain she wouldn’t sleep well. Rather than feel sorry for herself, she decided to do some research.
She traipsed over to the small desk in the corner of the room and booted up her ancient laptop. It was slow but did its job. While she waited, she thought about what little she knew about the Ashes. Most motorcycle clubs had some sketchy things going on behind the scenes. With Alex’s insistence that both of them could be in danger, Krishna realized she should have done her homework sooner, preferably before joining up. Now, she wondered what really happened to their last mechanic. More importantly, what was their source of income?
First, she searched motorcycle clubs in general, discovering that almost without exception, they all had some sort of illegal trade, from selling and transporting drugs to dog fighting or selling illegal weapons. They were typically violent, had resources to tap with authorities to stay out of trouble, and had strict rules. Breaking them led to anything from a broken bone to a burial plot.
More concerned now, Krishna moved on to run a search on the Ashes. She dug through pages of results before she started to pull out any details. What she found as she sifted through the muck horrified her. Images of men she had come to know – some she cared for – had mug shots plastered to stories of drug possession and distribution, lives they’d destroyed, and other felony offenses. Her stomach churned at the brutality of the club, the men she drank with, watched sports with.
Worse, Pops was depicted as a Nazi, showing no mercy for insubordinance or failure. Several sources believed he’d murdered numerous members, but there was no evidence to lock him up. It gave her chills, and she understood what kind of danger she faced.
But the worst part was that she was falling for Alex, a man who obviously participated in some of all of these activities. She tried to tell herself that large chunks of this information were unfounded rumors, but she had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach and couldn’t ignore the warnings. She was in a precarious situation, attached to something that could harm her and involved with a sexy man with a dark side she’d never dreamed of.
All for a little extra cash.
The only ray of hope rested in the absence of Alex’s picture in connection to these things. Of course, that could just mean he was better at it and didn’t get caught. Almost everyone she’d met had charges of human trafficking, drug violations, assault and battery, possession of illegal firearms, vehicular theft, and worse. How could anyone live like that?
She stared at her phone, wanting to call Alex and have him come over to deny all of it. But it wouldn’t make her ignore these warnings. Besides, what if he couldn’t ease her mind? And she couldn’t contact him now anyway. She had to wait. She told herself it would give her time to sort through this – her feelings and the information – with a level head.
The reality finally crashed down on her as she shut the computer and shuffled off to her bed. The initial rush of getting the bad-ass job, the excitement of the taboo, had blinded her to potential and real risks she was taking, just by associating with the Ashes. She was a good girl, and she didn’t belong with hardened criminals. But now, it might be too late. For now, she was stuck.
Krishna switched off her lamp, plunging the apartment into darkness. She closed her eyes, but sleep never came.
***
The clock on the wall of the seedy motel room ticked loudly as Krishna waited. She’d received a text yesterday with this address, just outside of town, and a room number. It came from an unknown number, but it was signed with ‘XO’. She was almost certain it was Alex. He’d found a way under the radar to meet. Finally.
Her head had ached for days with the stress and concern weighing on her. She felt guilty for their crimes, even though she had no part in them. But Alex seemed to be Pops’ favorite. Certainly he took part. She wondered if the man she knew was a farce, and Alex was a completely different person. How could the person she loved sit idly by and not try to change things?
A key card swiped with a click of the lock, and she hopped off the bed, ready to confront whoever walked in. But it was definitely Alex, sexy and disheveled. He smiled, walking toward her as the door slammed behind him. She knew that look, and if she didn’t stop him fast, there would be no talking. She raised a hand and stepped back toward the wall behind her.
“We have to talk.” She was stern, but locking gazes with those gorgeous amber orbs of his pulled her in against her will. She focused and tried to shake him out of her head. “Is it true the Ashes are made up of ex-cons that pay back bail money by running illegal drugs over the Mexican border? And that it’s dangerous? Did you have to do that to get your membership card?”
The words spilled out like verbal diarrhea, and Krishna saw Alex’s happiness fade with each question. “Whoa,” he said softly, looking like it pained him to keep the short distance between them. “First of all, it’s peyote. The club has to make money. And it’s a way for newbies to earn their spot. We’ve rarely lost anyone. Experienced members just make deliveries to customers and bring back cash.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how you found this, but you have to stop digging, or you’ll end up in more…”
“Danger,” Krishna provided, cutting him off. She was almost in hysterics. “I’ll be in danger. But I already am, right? I signed up, oblivious to the details, and now I find out the man I’ve been giving myself to every night traffics illegal substances. Doesn’t it make you sick to recruit people to do that? And from what I’ve seen, the Ashes don’t give anyone a choice, so these newbies can’t bow out.” She crossed her arms and glared harshly at Alex, daring him to contradict her.
“What do you want me to say?” he sighed. “It comes with the territory. I had to pay my dues. I was the convict earning his keep. But the Ashes saved my life. I’d be dead or serving a life sentence if it wasn’t for them. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” He threw his hands up in exasperation.
Krishna stopped and really looked at him. She knew what he really meant was that he couldn’t bit back. She understood all too well now. But her heart tugged at her until she was nothing more than its puppet. All she wanted was to fall into bed with Alex and forget all of this. The job gave her a rush, and so did Alex. She wasn’t ready to let go yet, despite the risks.
Determined, she stepped up to Alex, shutting her brain off and relying on instinct alone. She unzipped his pants and pressed her lips to his with bruising force. He wielded those puppet strings without even knowing it, and her heart filled with nothing but him. A very real part of her was ready to embark on the most dangerous of journeys if it meant feeling as she did with Alex.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“It’s too bad you can’t find a white chick with an ass like that.”
Alex followed Damien’s gaze and clenched his jaw against lashing out. Krishna stood a few yards away, bent at the waist as she leaned on Eddie’s bike, telling him what she’d repaired. It left her ass in the air for anyone to appreciate, and Alex certainly did. Unfortunately, the m
en he called his brothers found it appropriate to make racial slurs about it as they continued to gawk and fight their half-staff admiration.
Rusty chuckled softly and elbowed Damien. “You never know. Her kind spend a lot of time in the sun, but I doubt her ass has ever seen much of it. Maybe it’s as white as you or me.”
Damien made a face and grunted. “I sure as hell ain’t gonna be the one to find out.” He kicked one leg of the chair where Alex sat, nearly screwing over the entire drawing he’d been designing for Pops. “You’ve seen it, hoss. Clear up the mystery for us.”
With fire in his gaze, he glared at Damien. “The only mystery is why you thought it was okay to nearly destroy Pops’ new back piece. And the only thing I see that’s any of your business is two lazy fucks crowding my office space.” He kicked Damien in the shin. “Get out.”
The boys left, grumbling, and Alex heard Damien cursing him as he hobbled away. But Alex’s focus had already been divided by two very attractive images – the tribal work he was detailing on his drawing desk and the view of Krishna across the way. As if reading his mind, she shook Eddie’s hand and started toward him, hips swaying seductively. She didn’t even do it on purpose; it just came naturally, and Alex grunted, finding it unfortunate that he couldn’t just bend her over the desk and shove inside her right here and now.
She gave him a knowing grin, probably reading the stress on his face as he controlled his physical reaction, and she straddled the chair Damien had just vacated. “How’s it going?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Fine. You?”
She nodded. “Work’s good. I almost think I’ve bit off more than I can chew. The guys are starting to ask for special mods now instead of just repairs, so I’m picking up tons of requests. It means more money, but it also means a lot more work.”
“Money is good,” he said, trying to focus on something other than the swell of her breasts in that tank top.
She sat quietly, and Alex felt awkward, which pissed him off. He was a confident guy, and no one made him uncomfortable. How was it that the woman he’d finally started to fall for had him second guessing himself and tripping over his tongue?
“Finally,” she said, “It’s getting harder and harder to shut down some of these guys.” Blushing, she turned her head so he couldn’t meet her gaze. “They’re insistent, making remarks about earning my place here, paying my dues. I try to be polite, but they’re getting pushy, and I’m starting to get irritated.”
“Keep your head down, Krishna,” he warned. He wanted to throw some punches and crush some balls himself, but they had to tread lightly here.
Krishna rolled her eyes. “Come on, Alex. I’m not a troublemaker. But I’m sick of being treated like trash, dammit. I’m not some prostitute here to make money off my body, and I know more about bikes than most of your gang. I’m doing my part, and I’m sick of hearing that it’s my place as a woman to suck a few dicks.”
Alex pressed his lips into a tight line. The lewd comments were going to stop, or heads were going to roll. It didn’t matter that he’d talked the same way about some of the other women who came through. They were different. Those women expected to be treated like whores because they were. Krishna was different. She hadn’t popped up in the clubhouse looking to score. She’d been offered a job and taken it, and her mechanical skills were admittedly superior to most he’d seen in the past. She earned her right to be here taking care of the bikes, and no one should expect anything more.
Especially since Krishna was already spoken for.
The problem was, Alex couldn’t clearly stake his claim, not with the reputation he had and the way the guys looked down on her. He needed family, and the Ashes were the only family he had anymore. If he pissed them off, he’d be out on his ass, just like he had been when they’d taken him on.
But he wasn’t going to sit around and let them harass Krishna until she cracked. No one deserved that, especially her, and he felt responsible for her protection, whether or not he openly admitted to having a relationship with her. Scrubbing a hand over his face, Alex tried to figure out what to do about the problem, but apparently, he waited too long to respond.
With an aggravated expression, Krishna shoved to her feet. “Never mind. Forget I said anything. I can take care of myself.”
She stormed away, and Alex cursed viciously under his breath. He couldn’t go after her, and she knew that. He had to wait until they both left the clubhouse for the day, and he’d have to make some sort of special gesture. Maybe he could show up at her door with chocolates or something. He didn’t know anything about apologizing to women.
He tried to think of a time he’d cared enough to want to chase after an angry woman. It had never happened. If he slept with someone and called her the wrong name, it amused him. When he made some chauvinistic comment and they ran, he shrugged it off. Women were disposable, for lack of a better word, until he met Krishna.
He turned back to his drawing, wishing he could just crumple it up and throw it away. He didn’t care about it anymore. In fact, a lot of things seemed trivial now that he had something special of his own, something to cling to. And if he couldn’t find a balance soon, he was going to lose her before he’d even secured their attachment.
***
Krishna marched away from Alex’s ‘office,’ which was nothing more than a couple of old office cubicle walls that were on their last legs propped up under a carport used to shield a bunch of tools and equipment from the weather. He claimed the fresh air aided his creativity and the indoor office was too stuffy on warm days like this. But Krishna had a sneaking suspicion he just wanted to watch her work.
He acted like he cared, but when she came to him with a problem that she considered something a boyfriend should take care of, he just gave her a blank stare. And to make matters worse, those eyes of his mesmerized her instantaneously, so she had to catch her breath before she could even get mad at him!
Now, though, she was furious. She got his need to keep things on the ‘DL.’ It was safer for both of them right now. But how long were they going to sneak around like a couple of high school kids hiding out from their parents? Krishna was a grown woman, and while she liked the idea of leaning on her boyfriend for help in certain areas, she didn’t need anyone. And she sure as hell didn’t need the approval of a bunch of ex-convicts who still broke the law running drugs across the border. She, at least, was above the law.
For now.
She stopped dead in her tracks, realizing she didn’t always know where the bike parts she used for repairs and replacements came from. Were they bought with drug money? Or stolen? Did that make her an accessory? Or if she didn’t ask questions – as Alex kept telling her – would the police believe she was naïve in the instance of some sort of raid?
“Hey, Bolt, what’s worse than a foreigner?” she heard behind her. She turned slowly to find one of the few men who hadn’t yet approached her for help talking to one of the older members, a bald guy who looked like he hadn’t eaten in a decade. She waited for the punchline as Bolt shrugged with a salacious smile and looked her up and down. The guy barely got it out, already laughing too hard. “A foreign woman who dresses like a woman and thinks she has balls as big as a man!”
It wasn’t even a good joke. Krishna could do better any day. Deciding to put an end to this now, she strode over to the two men, her hands on her hips. She almost lost her nerve as several other sets of eyes turned her way, obviously curious, but this was her chance to make a statement and, perhaps, even gain a little respect. She stopped inches in front of the man who thought he was so funny and copped an attitude, her hands on her hips.
“If you’re going to degrade an entire culture just to upset me, you should try a little harder,” she told him in her sweetest voice, adding just a tinge of a foreign accent. She may have grown up with Irish parents, but she could imitate an East Indian with the best of them. Today, she chose a silky, seductive tone, paired with the slight change to her accent
, and she could tell it caught her audience off guard. With a smile exuding false contentment, she said, “For example, why do Indian women cover so much of their bodies with clothing?”
The two men shrugged, and it was Bolt who spoke. “No idea, woman. You got me. Why?”
“Because by the time they have shaved their faces, the razor is too dull to get the rest of their bodies.”
A roar of laughter ensued from several onlookers, and the original jokester grinned broadly with a soft chuckle. “That’s a good one.”
But she could tell he and Bolt were a bit disturbed by her brazen show of character, telling racist jokes about her own culture. Of course, Krishna had long ago learned the theory: if you can beat them, join them.
“I’m glad you approve.” She stepped back and spoke louder, wanting everyone to hear. “I have another, if you like, and all of you White Anglo-Saxon Protestants will enjoy this one.” She brandished her hands in the air, making a show of it. “Why was Jesus not born in India?”
“Because it’s too fucking dirty!” came one response from somewhere behind her.
This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set Page 82