by Nikki Wild
I kept an alert ear to their conversation as I focused my attention back on Hale. He finished reading whatever the paper said and stuffed it in his pocket. Then, he thanked the bar tender and waved for me to follow him toward the door. Although disappointed that we didn’t find Jared, I was happy to be leaving the dump.
“That’s right! Get out of here you fuckin’ pussy. And leave us the girl so we can show her what a real man looks like.”
I cringed as the three of them laughed. Hale stopped dead in his tracks. I walked right into the back of him. He looked down at me with a sigh.
“Give me a minute…”
As he made his way toward the men at the end of the bar, I saw what I could only explain as true fear cross their faces. Somehow, despite there being three of them and only one of him, they seemed vastly overmatched.
“C’mon Murph… This is our house,” one of the men said, his voice sounding less and less confident with every word. “You don’t come rolling in here without permission.”
Hale didn’t break stride. The one who tried to shut the drunk up by poking him in the ribs scrambled behind his buddies.
“Apologize to the lady,” Roughneck said, his voice low and threatening.
“Go fuck yourself.”
The drunk decided to go for broke. He took a wild swing. Hale dodged it like he saw it coming from a mile away. His powerful knee shot out in front of him, catching the drunk square in the gut. Everybody in the place heard the air forced out of his lungs as he doubled over. Then, Hale brought a big fist down on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.
I thought it was over… But Roughneck wasn’t done.
One of the other men pulled a long knife from somewhere under his leather jacket. He swung it wildly between the two.
“I said, apologize to the lady.”
“Just get the fuck out of here. Don’t make me slice you up,” the biker responded, lunging forward.
Hale’s blood pressure didn’t raise a millimeter.
He stepped confidently forward and when the man swung for his face he deftly stepped in and caught his hand high above their heads. It took him about half a second more to take the knife away.
From there, it was quick work. Hale picked the guy up and ran him face first into the corner of the bar. The last of the three seemed to realize he wouldn’t be able to run so he tried to make a last ditch effort at a cheap shot. He ran full steam at Hale with a stool. Hale sidestepped the attack and nearly put him through the back wall of the building.
Not caring to give the carnage so much as a second glance, he spun on his heel and joined me back at the door.
“Sorry,” he said. “Just don’t like people talking shit to my girl…”
6
Adeline
His girl? What in the hell did he mean by that? I wasn’t his girl, and I was never going to be his girl!
At least… That’s what I told myself as we walked up to my apartment. He insisted on checking the place out just in case Jared had come back, but that wasn’t much better than asking to come up for coffee. We both knew what was going to happen, no matter how much I wanted to deny it.
I fumbled with my keys as he stood behind me. He seemed to enjoy the effect his presence had on people.
The key found its home and the locked popped free. Hale pushed past me into the apartment.
“Hey!”
“Wait outside. I want to clear the place first.”
“Clear the place? There’s no way Jared is going to be here,” I protested.
“I’m not worried about Jared… I’m worried about the people who might be trying to find him.”
“This is crazy. Nobody is going to look for him here. You’re the only one who even knows he lives here.”
“Your brother runs his mouth like few people I’ve ever met. You have no idea who he’s told about you, or what he’s said for that matter.”
He stepped quietly inside. For a man of his size and build, he moved with fluidity.
I heard each door, and then each closet open and close again. Same with the bathroom. He even pulled the shower curtain back, as if there would be someone hiding in there like it was some kind of horror movie.
“We’re good,” he called from the kitchen.
“See. There are no monsters in the closets.”
“Yeah, well, just be glad I care enough to check.”
“So what happens next?” I asked. “We’re running out of places to look.”
“Nothing is gonna happen tonight. Wherever he is, is where he’s staying until the sun comes up. There’s no harm in picking up the search tomorrow. If he’s as smart as you say he is, he’ll continue to keep his head down.”
“I just don’t know where he would go. We don’t have any family or anything. He has an ex-girlfriend, but I don’t even think he’s crazy enough to go to her. He’d rather be in jail.”
“Let me ask around tomorrow. I bet I know a few guys who might be able to tell me something. Until then, stay put. I’ll come get you when I’m ready.”
The way he took control of the situation brought heat to my cheeks. I couldn’t write him off as just an asshole anymore. I mean, he was still an asshole, but he was showing that he did care about what happened to me and my brother. I didn’t buy for a second that he needed to talk to him first. He was helping us.
He found a pen on my kitchen counter and scribbled something on the back of my electric bill.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“If you hear from him before I do, call this phone number. There’s gonna be a lot of people who wanna bend his ear and things are gonna go a whole lot better if I see him first.”
“Okay.”
“Believe me, Adeline, there are some guys out there who would pay a pretty penny to get to him.”
Pretty penny… pretty penny… money. Shit! The money!
It hit me like a ton of bricks.
“Hale. The money… what do I do with it?”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Keep it.”
“What? I can’t keep that. I may not be like you, but I’ve watched enough movies to know that whoever keeps the drug money gets killed in the end.”
“Keep it. I’m serious. It’s not like that. As far as anybody else is concerned, that money is gone.”
I needed a better explanation and he knew it.
“This was a small-time deal. It’s not enough money to worry about. Shit went wrong and the money disappeared. Cost of doing business. End of story.”
“And nobody is going to come looking for it?”
I was still skeptical.
“Not unless that dipshit brother of yours opens his mouth about it. The way I see it, if he had the heart to leave it here, he’ll have the forethought not to ever mention it again. And, if you’re hung up on the moral component to the situation, just know that money was never going to go to any good. It was just gonna line the pockets of a few snakes who were shitty enough to hide it from their friends.”
I thought about what ten thousand dollars could do for me. It would be like that first breath of fresh air when you were sure you were drowning.
“Besides,” he said, tapping the past due electric bill tucked between my fingers, “it looks like you could use it.”
I looked away, embarrassed that I was even considering keeping the money.
“Now give me a few minutes, I need to make a phone call…”
Hale stepped into the other room, but the paper-thin walls did nothing to muffle his words. I tried not to listen as he gave orders, sending men out across the city looking for my brother, but my ears perked up as the conversation shifted.
“So he’s awake? That’s one lucky son of a bitch,” Hale said, a sound of relief in his voice. There was a brief pause, then he continued… “I don’t care what it costs. I talked to the Prez and we’re paying the hospital bills. The man has kids. Pull the money out of my damn share if you need to.”
A
wake? The realization of what Hale was talking about rolled over me. The man Jared might have shot… The one in the hospital. He was alive.
But there was another realization that hit me almost as hard… Hale’s words were soft and caring. He was concerned about this man… About his family… He was trying to help. From the sounds of it, he was even willing to give up his own money to do it.
“What about the witnesses? We got any word on who pulled the trigger?”
By this point, I’d given up on trying not to listen in. I moved across the room, getting closer. There was a long pause as someone on the other end of the line spoke, but I couldn’t hear them. I wanted to burst into the room and grab the phone. I needed to know what was going on. Hale let out a sigh and I pressed my ear against the wall, desperate for any tiny slice of information… But I never had a chance.
The floorboard beneath my foot let out a loud creak.
I froze in place, my whole body wanting to run as I heard Hale’s hard footsteps moving toward the door. He threw it open as I pulled away from the wall, a look of guilt plastered across my face.
“I’ll call you back…” Hale said slowly, lowering the phone from his ear and dropping it into his pocket.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to know…” I stuttered, stepping back from the muscular man who was turning my whole life upside down.
“Didn’t your daddy ever teach you it’s not polite to eavesdrop?”
He took another step forward, a little smile cracking on his face. “Why don’t you just ask me what you want to know?”
“The man who was shot?”
“He’s going to be okay,” Hale said, “Doctors say he’ll be in bed for another week or two.”
Every word brought him closer. I felt my shoulders bump into the wall behind me, cutting off any further escape.
“And Jared?” I asked, my voice barely over a whisper. “Did he….”
“There were half a dozen witnesses in the diner and all of them describe the same shooter… Unless Ace decided to grow three inches and dye his hair, your baby brother wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. We’ll find him and set everything right.”
He was close enough now to feel the heat radiating off his body. I couldn’t tell if I were more intimidated or aroused by his huge frame. I wanted to attack him… to bite his neck. I wanted to have him throw me over the back of the couch and then let him try his hardest to break me.
I walked into the apartment thinking he was going to try to take advantage of me. But I was the one looking for a chance to pounce.
“So what do we do now?” I asked.
I placed a hand on his thick forearm. It covered the edge of the tattoo that wove a wicked path toward his bicep. He rolled his head from side to side and I snuck a peek down to his beltline when he turned his attention away. The outline of a steel erection showed through the denim.
I let out an almost imperceptible gasp, but Hale heard it loud and clear. It seemed like he was fighting himself. The muscles in his arms tensed and released. The energy coming off of him was primal and urgent.
“Now we do something I’ve been wanting to do all day…”
There was no hesitation. He leaned in and kissed me fiercely, giving my lip a faint bite as he pulled away. I was in temporary shock. I didn’t know how to respond and my body seemed to be refusing to talk with my brain. I wanted to smack him for making me feel so conflicted.
“I have some business back with the club,” he said, pulling away after what seemed like a small eternity. “I expect you to be here when I get back.”
“Why are you helping me?” I managed, the taste of his lips still fresh in my mind.
“Family is all that matters in this world,” he said finally. “Whether it’s by blood, or by colors, don’t ever forget that.”
I wanted desperately for him to stay, but I couldn’t force words from my mouth. Without another sound between us, Hale disappeared through the front door.
7
Roughneck
The prez slammed his fist on the table.
“What in seven hells were you sons of bitches doing out there anyway?”
Sly and his psychopathic son sat across from each other at the middle of Clancy’s table. I watched silently from the corner. He didn’t usually need me for this kind of shit, but since I warned him about what they were doing, he wanted me involved.
“Shit, somebody speak! Because I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
The fact that the two of them sat at the table without feeling the need to defend themselves put an ominous feeling in the air.
“There’s a fucking civilian in the hospital because… because why exactly?”
Silence.
“Paul,” barked the president at his long-time treasurer. “Give me something better than that. Tell me something different than your fuck-up-of-a-kid shot some bystander because a drug deal went bad.”
Sly adjusted himself in his chair.
“And for what… a few grand?” continued the prez. “Damn, if you were gonna disobey my orders, the least you could have done was cut bait and get out of there when it started to go bad.”
“Gotta make ‘em pay,” said Dirty under his breath.
“What?!”
The baritone in the president’s voice rattled the heavy mirror on the wall.
“Make ‘em pay? Is that what you said, you stupid motherfucker?”
How Dirty could keep that disinterested look on his face was beyond me.
“I’ll tell you who’s gonna pay… we are! Because nothin’ gets the pigs’ attention like a goddamn citizen with a bullet in him. Nothing! They might not have tied anything to us yet, but from the way I hear things, there were no fewer than twenty people looking out the window of that diner.”
Dirty opened his mouth to speak, but the prez cut him down with a look.
“Whose brilliant idea was it to pick that spot, anyway? You guys might as well have tried to do it right outside the fucking police station. There wouldn’t be too many more eyes there.”
He kicked his chair away from the table and started to pace. I readied my lighter for when he’d inevitably pull that tobacco pouch out to roll one up.
“All it will take is for one of those witnesses to mention The Fallen, or say anything about a motorcycle for that matter, and they’ll be all over our asses.”
“Relax Clancy.”
Sly finally spoke up. The disrespect in his tone made the president grind his teeth.
“Nobody knows what that was about.”
“People talk, Paul. That’s been the case forever and it ain’t changing anytime soon.”
Sly dismissed it with a wave.
“And what about that kid? The prospect… he’s still in the wind, isn’t he?”
That was my cue.
“I’ll take care of the kid, Prez. He’s probably just scared.”
Sly and his son shared a look.
“Take care of him better mean you’re gonna put a fuckin’ bullet in his head,” said Dirty. “The son of a bitch is probably spilling his guts to the cops right now.”
I saw red.
He couldn’t even think about getting out of his chair before I had him by the collar. I took a fistful and tightened it around his neck. When he tried to stand, I forced him back down.
“How ‘bout I put a bullet in your head,” I growled. “Remember, you’re the one who fucked this up, not him.”
“Nobody is doin’ a damn thing until I say so,” said the president. “If that kid does talk, he’s not doin’ it against the club, he’s doin it on a kill-crazy asshole.”
He pushed his index finger into the center of Dirty’s chest.
“Now that’s where I have to disagree with you, Clancy.”
Sly drew his eyes up from the floor to meet the president’s.
“Because my boy here and I have been talking.”
The president set his jaw and cocked a fist by his side. He’d had just about en
ough of the disrespect.
“As a matter of fact, a lot of the boys have been talking… and it’s been decided that we’re not gonna let you bankrupt this club. We can barely keep the fucking doors open with revenue, and now you’re telling me you’re okay with some little snitch motherfucker runnin’ his mouth to the cops? Sorry Clancy, but we just can’t have it.”
Before the president could uncork that right hand, a shot rang out.
I saw the pistol. I saw it before he knew I did. There was just too much table between the two of us for me to do anything about it.
Sly maneuvered it around the leg of the table and leveled it at the president’s belly. There was no hesitation. As soon as that last word left his lips, Sly let the led fly. The “bang” was the exclamation point on his sentence.
Clancy’s face fell slack with a look of shock. For a brief moment, the room went quiet. He dropped to his knees with a groan and a thud.
Fuck this.
I wheeled around, a rage building inside of me.
Dirty’s brass knuckles smashed into the back of my head before I could draw a bead on either one of the turncoats. Blinding pain ripped through my skull. Everything started to spin.
My legs wouldn’t do what I told them to. I’m not sure if they gave out on their own, or if one of the bastards pushed me. When I hit the floor, the only thing I felt was the cool surface beneath my cheek.
“You want me to get a few of the boys together to help me move them?”
There was a long pause.
“We can probably bury both of ‘em out where they’re building that new development.”
“No…” answered Sly. “Keep ‘neck here. We can use him.”
Then, everything went black.
8
Jared
“Tell me again where you met these guys, Jared.”
This was the first time in my whole life I’d ever gone anywhere near a police station on my own. Most of the time they dragged me in kicking and screaming.
I thought there would be more of a fuss when I came in and said I had information about the shooting on the highway. Instead, they just took my ID and had me start filling out this piece of paper until the pigs were ready to see me.