by Lana Grayson
“What’s on the truck?”
“Drugs. Up from Mexico.”
“Son of a bitch wants to jack the drugs?” I’d crush the phone. “Temple will slice our goddamn heads off to find that shipment. He so much as touches those drugs and we’re fucked.”
“What do we do?”
“I’ll stop them.”
“They’ll be pissed.”
I was used to that. “I don’t care. I’m not igniting this war just yet.”
I ended the call. I’d intercept them, but Christ only knew if I’d let them survive.
I already committed treason. Dissolved a club. Ruined lives. No one would be surprised if I did it again, especially to rid the world of the fucking slime that molded on the dark underbelly of my 1% club.
The worst of the worst settled within my Coup, and I wrangled more crime and sin, danger and treachery than the devil waiting for us after that final slice through our veins.
Priest rallied the most dangerous of his men, the ones I doubted Thorne was sorry to see split from Anathema. Lyn wouldn’t even let her girls dance for them. Evil existed, and it rode restored Harleys, stained cuts with another’s blood, and rutted whatever woman it wanted—whether or not they agreed to serve.
Killing them wouldn’t be treason. It’d be a service. But Thorne wouldn’t accept their heads on any platter unless mine was there as garnish.
I roared out of the town, skipping through the early evening traffic by blowing through two red lights and ducking a cop cruiser just as his lights flashed. He didn’t bother to chase once my bike hit the highway. The engine redlined as I bolted north.
I passed enough cars and trucks heading to the city, but only those with purpose drove this deep into the desert. I blitzed past Sorceress’s charming pinks and purples.
I should have forced Lyn out of town any way I could. Hog-tied, if necessary. She wouldn’t tolerate any bindings, but she’d look damn good wrapped up to tease. If I wasn’t so sure the night would end in a bloodbath, I’d have tested my luck and apologized for the other night.
I needed more than a dance from her.
Like the truth.
Like her honesty.
Like her lips working on more than whatever lies she fed me.
That kiss and touch wouldn’t be our last. Lyn didn’t owe me a fucking thing, but I’d take whatever she wanted to give. She wouldn’t regret it, despite whatever pride buckled her pants tighter than a belt.
I found my men after twenty minutes of riding.
Priest wasn’t subtle, and Temple’s truck wasn’t marked. I cut the throttle and pulled onto the gravel beside the disabled truck. Bounty and Lash just finished kicking their newfound corpse.
My helmet yanked off. Bounty grunted as I approached, as distasteful to him as the blood staining his boot. Lash wasn’t done with the body yet. He wouldn’t be, not until it was properly mutilated.
Priest waited for me, that goddamned sneer his second mistake of the day.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I pointed for Lash and Bounty to stash the body behind the truck. Blood spread everywhere. It was a forensic nightmare. “You didn’t tell me you were jacking a truck.”
Priest didn’t apologize. Didn’t give me any respect either, but I knew I’d only get a blade to the gut from him.
“I had a lead,” he said.
“You didn’t have a lead. You found a war. Temple is going to fuck us.”
“They’ll get over it.”
Goddamned asshole. “You killed their driver and now what? You want to steal the drugs?”
“Too much for me to snort unless you want to get your nose dirty, Lancelot.”
“I should take you to Temple myself. Buy some more time with your fucking ass.”
Priest grunted as I stalked away, slamming a hand against the truck.
“We’ll say it was Anathema,” he said. “They’ve been grabbing our electronic shipments anyway. Maybe they’ll be good sports and take the blame for this one.”
“Temple sees a cut, they’ll strike. Doesn’t matter what side of the river he’s riding.”
“Good thing we’ll have money then.” Priest spat over the corpse. “Take the drugs, get some green for it. Buy ourselves some fucking protection and Temple won’t touch us.”
Money sounded good.
Real good.
Enough to fortify our damn garage and buy some new weaponry and ammunition. Pixie had barbed wire around its parking lot. Cement bunkers. Surveillance systems. No one could siege a goddamned castle built of Harleys and executioners.
The Coup owned a dog before she had puppies and Vega’s girl adopted them all out. Now a junkie prospect on enough meth to pull double shifts kept watch. It did nothing to keep us safe.
But this crime was already committed, the driver dead. I couldn’t leave a profit in the desert for the buzzards or police.
I checked his pockets. Lash and Bounty fought over his wallet. They stuffed the twenties into their pockets. The condom stayed on the ground. Didn’t surprise me.
I only wanted his cell phone. Fortunately, his recent call history had nothing dialed since the morning. He hadn’t called anyone before or during the hijacking. That was good. We had a little time before the alarm sounded.
“We sell it.” I eyed Bounty, already shaking from his withdrawal. Christ. At least Keep Darnell was a classy addict. “All of it. Take it out of state and get rid of it as quick as you can. Earn the money and keep your head down.”
Priest’s grin was as slimy as the blood leeching from the corpse’s ears. “Knew Lancelot would see it our way.”
“Get rid of the body.”
“Good as gone, prez. Commune him into the earth. Ashes to ashes, fuckers to fucked.”
I ignored him, focusing on the deadbolt lock on the back of the truck. I slammed the butt of my gun and broke the chain. The door went up.
I expected meth. I hoped for coke.
Lash hopped into the bed and busted through the lock over the wooden cases. The truck pretended to transport shitty plastic odds and ends—light switches and electrical outlet plates. A false platform ripped out, scattering the junk over the truck.
Lash swore.
“Knight…”
I hopped into the truck as he flashed his cellphone over the haul.
It wasn’t drugs.
The shipment page we printed was wrong. Amended for a specific purpose.
Guns lined the crate.
Handguns. Semi-automatics. Fucking grenades. Ammunition loaded into another box.
My jaw clenched hard, aching, nearly cracking over the truth I knew was coming but hadn’t the balls to admit.
Priest hooted. “Oh, prez. Now this is a score. Looks like a great fucking opportunity.”
The crates overturned, the guns still, silent.
Temple shipped guns to their men outside the Valley. They wouldn’t stay unused for long.
No. It didn’t look like an opportunity.
It looked like a goddamned premonition.
Guns. Bullets. Blood.
Shallow graves.
The war had started.
Agent Greene wasn’t welcomed at my booth.
She took a seat anyway.
Sorceress was a large establishment, multi-staged with a twenty-seater bar and brunch on the weekends, but even it wasn’t a big enough hive for two queen bees. If she meant to get her ass stung, all the better.
She cradled a martini. I raised an eyebrow.
“Drinking on the job?” I asked.
“You don’t?”
“Mine is encouraged.”
“Mine’s a perk.”
“Hell of a gig.”
Her smile might have been charming if she picked a lighter shade for her lips. “It pays the bills. Gives me that good sense of accomplishment. Something to take pride in.”
I recognized the tone—that holier-than-thou bullshit women pulled when they thought themselves better than me but couldn’t even
look at themselves naked in a mirror. They got off thinking they were naughty for shaving their pussies then heading to church, but I knew who their husband’s thought about while grinding against them with the lights off.
I didn’t judge until someone condescended. Then the gloves and bra came off—and my rack looked great swinging a right hook.
“Sorceress is my pride and joy.” It wasn’t conversation. It was a warning. “It does more than pay the bills.”
“Sure. It attracts every outlaw scumbag in the tri-county area.”
“Bad boys need to blow off steam too.”
“And how long until you get burned, Lyn? Think these tough and rugged men will care when you’re sporting a black eye and dancing for a dollar?”
That smile again. The insult rotted through her words.
“I’m worth much more than a dollar.”
“Are you?” Agent Greene sipped her drink. “I’ve never put a price on myself.”
“Everyone has a price. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or giving it up for free.”
“That’s the difference between you and me, Lyn,” she said.
“There’s many.”
“This one is most important. I know my value. It doesn’t change night to night, depending on whether the evening is slow…”
She gestured around my club. Thursdays weren’t great for parties, but the girl rocking it on stage strummed her guitar and sang like a angel. She could insult me all she wanted, but Rose?
No one messed with Rose while she was under my protection.
I didn’t dignify her with an edge to my voice. “Are you seriously comparing yourself to me?”
“I know what I do is worth more than a couple bills tossed on stage and a smack on the ass at the end of the night.”
“If you made the money I did, you’d toss that badge down with your panties.”
“Doubtful.”
“Don’t give me that attitude.” I lowered my voice, letting her lean close to hear me because she was gonna want to get every fucking word. “There’s a reason you’re working this gig. Motorcycle gang investigations aren’t given to agents who can’t handle things rough. You’re one step above some vice decoy and you love every goddamned minute of it.”
“Excuse me?”
“You aren’t doing this job to put away the bad guys. You’re in it because you love the danger. You get off on being so close to these outlaws. You want the guns and the chase and the risk of getting caught.” I arched my eyebrow. “Don’t you dare bitch at me for liking the attention I get when I’m on stage. One of us is the real whore, and it sure as hell isn’t the one twisting around the pole.”
Agent Greene didn’t seem accustomed to backtalk, not when the badge protected her own smart mouth. She dropped the smile.
“I’ve been patient, Lyn. Your time is up.”
“That so?”
“I need your decision. You agree to wire Sorceress, or you’re going to wish you had been a lot nicer to me when you had the chance.”
Easiest decision I ever made, and it was cast for me. I couldn’t afford to let ATF fuck over Sorceress. I’d rather it cost me my savings than my life. I wasn’t turning on Anathema.
“Or…” Her eyebrow rose. “Maybe we can cut another deal.”
“And what’s that?”
“I could use a little information. I’ve been tailing a member of Anathema…haven’t seen him for a couple weeks. Do you have any idea where Blade Darnell ended up?”
Hell no. Luke was bad enough. I couldn’t say what I wanted to say, and I didn’t dare let her realize what I was hiding.
I stood instead.
“Sorry, no idea,” I said. “Go back to your job, get your kicks, and feel proud of that teeny-tiny paycheck. I’ll go shake my ass on that stage and pad my ego with a couple hundred dollars.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Part of the game, honey. Life’s too dull to make smart choices.”
Agent Greene finished her drink. “We’ll be back.”
“You know where to find me.”
Actually, she wouldn’t. Wasn’t too hard blowing off the Feds when I wasn’t sure if they’d track me to my stage or to some mass grave ten miles into the desert.
And Luke said I wasn’t an optimist.
Rose’s set was only for an hour and a half, enough time to babysit her for Thorne while the club did a run into Nevada. She deserved a better audience, but she never complained. Rose worked a bad situation into her favor. She recorded herself singing, used Sorceress’s lighting and sound system, and took the footage to create one hell of a music video. Last I checked she earned some decent spending money from the ads on her YouTube channel.
I met her in my office, tripping over her guitar case, book bag, and laptop. I nearly broke a leg entirely too expensive for her to compensate.
“You have thirty seconds to move your shit,” I said.
I didn’t have to warn her. She ignored me anyway. Rose packed her belongings and pulled the laptop from her bag.
“How’d I do?” she asked.
“Perfect, as always.”
“Good.”
“What’s the next plan?”
She flipped the laptop for me to see. “I have to edit it. The quality isn’t the best tonight though, but I can blend some shots and make it work.”
“You could buy a better camera if you lose your shirt. Want better tips, gotta show the nips.”
“No thanks.” Rose blushed. She checked her phone. “I should grab my cameras and get moving. I have a short story to read for my American Lit class, and I have to finish my Calc take-home test.”
Made me glad I skipped the student loans and learned to manage my business on the fly. “It’s midnight, Bud.”
She checked her cell and groaned. “I had class until this afternoon, then Gold asked me to watch Silver until Annie finished with her clients. I ran all over town trying to register Anathema for this great fundraiser benefiting the high school arts program. But, of course, no one wanted to accept our booth. Then I had to come here because Thorne thinks I can’t take care of myself if he’s on a run.”
“All hail Anathema’s queen.”
She blew a curl from her face. “Yeah, right. I never thought I’d be the one doing all this.”
“Patched by the boss. You get all the perks that come with it.”
She looked exhausted but wouldn’t admit it. “I’ll get the cameras.”
“Get a drink while you’re at it.”
“I can’t do calculus while drinking.”
Hell, I couldn’t do it while sober. “Then get me one.”
“Whiskey?” She rolled her eyes and opened the door. “You’re getting predictable, Lyn—”
The shadow blocked her exit, and his hands pushed her inside. The hairs on my neck prickled as the door shut, but Luke was just uninvited, not totally unwelcomed.
“Sit.” He pointed Rose to her chair.
“What the hell are you doing?” I didn’t bother standing to greet him. My ankles crossed over the desk, and he savored every inch of my legs. I hadn’t forgiven the bastard for the orgasm. Hadn’t forgiven myself for liking it either. “If Anathema kicks your ass for coming here—”
He wasn’t playing nice tonight. “Anathema’s not here. They’re halfway to Nevada. Headed out at eight o’clock, taking Route 15 across the desert to meet their contact outside Vegas.”
Rose’s eyes widened. She looked at me like I spilled their plans and routes.
It wasn’t me.
Luke’s voice lowered. “I thought tonight was a good time to talk…if someone was fixing to sit me down.”
He wasn’t psychic. Someone from Anathema must have sent him another message. I put two and two together and got an answer I didn’t like.
He wanted to talk to Rose.
I wondered if the notes he got were written in blood or just meant to cause more violence. A traitor contacting a traitor was bad
without thinking he’d get information out of the president’s old lady.
Or if he thought she was the one sending the messages.
He’d get us all killed.
Rose wasn’t having it. “I have nothing to say to you.”
“I think you got a lot to say, and not much of it is kind.”
“You’re damn right.” Rose forced a smile. “But I was taught if I couldn’t say anything nice—”
“Not to say anything?”
“No. I was supposed to aim for the balls.”
I laughed. The kid was a Darnell all right. I settled into my chair and waved a hand. “You heard her.”
He frowned. His damn storybook blues promised one hell of a story, and none of it was the fairytale I wanted to hear. My stomach tightened.
“I’m not starting a fight,” he said.
Rose crossed her arms. “For once.”
“Look, Rose. I didn’t hurt you before, and I don’t plan to now.”
“You didn’t hurt me?” She stood. It was a bad decision for someone five foot nothing and half of Luke’s weight, but Thorne’s patch and her family name gave her some courage. She had a right to jam a finger into Luke’s chest. And, because it was Luke, he didn’t immediately break it. “It’s because of you I nearly died.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Are you serious? The Coup forced me to run drugs for them. Exorcist would have…” She didn’t like to think about it. None of us did. “He would have hurt me. That’s your fault, Luke.”
“I would have stopped him. I would have rescued you.”
Wrong answer. Rose gritted her teeth. “So many men promised they would have helped me if they only knew. I’m not waiting for any rescues anymore, and I’m not putting myself in the middle of Anathema and The Coup’s tug of war.”
Luke’s smile charmed every bit of aggression from Rose and rendered her into a hissing kitten. “Christ, she sounds like you, Lyn.”
“Can’t blame her for not wanting to get involved in your pissing contests.” I pointed to the door. “Same goes for me, but you already knew that.”
“Forgive me for trying to keep us alive.” Luke pushed Rose into her seat when she tried to escape. “I’ll make it brief.”
I didn’t like his tone. I hated the dark circles under his eyes.