by Ryder Dane
He knew that she recognized him. The party had been a good one at the river, and she had brought party favors that weren’t allowed in the club. She had offered to share more than her blow, but he had been busy with club business at the time. Later in the night, he saw her with a man in each hole and one hand wrapped around another cock jerking him off. She was one of the sluts that stalked bikers when they let her and her kind join their get togethers.
Now she looked pleased with herself, and he knew that she would do anything he told her to do if she thought it would be a path to being a regular pass around at the club so she could finagle her way into being someone’s old lady. He wasn’t going to break her heart tonight, he wanted to get Kylie and leave. The girl’s eyes were not easy to forget, and he wanted to look at them again, the sooner the better. He’d also promised Dutch that he would bring her to the house so they could watch out for her until Demon showed up.
She skirted a man that was laughing and holding his arms out to his sides as he kept singing some nursery rhyme. She walked right up to Stalker and brushed her fingertips along his vest. “I know you, and I am glad that you came to my party.” She leaned over and tried to kiss him, but he was not about to kiss that mouth with the smeared lipstick and cum scented breath.
He held her arms so she had to stand a foot from his body. “I am looking for someone and I figured that our beautiful party toy would help me out.”
The narrowed eyes brightened up at the word beautiful, and she smiled.
“I’m looking for Kylie and I was told that you have her here. She is needed for business and me and Bull came to give her a ride.”
The unfriendly look was back and he smiled at her and caressed her arm with his fingertips. “I sure hope you plan to be at the next party, we can find some time to get to know each other better.”
She crooked her finger and led him down the hallway to a bedroom door that was hanging open. She knocked on the wood and it opened further so they could see the two people lying on the single sized bed. He stomped over to the bed and refused to think about the rage that he’d felt when he thought that Kylie was one of the bed’s occupants. This woman was blonde, but the shade was off and the hair was short.
He looked around and into the bathroom, but could find no trace of his prey. He gave the woman a dirty look and shook his head as she tried to tell him that the girl lived here. “Sure she does, and I can see her clothes in the empty drawers.” He was disgusted at the way the bitch started calling Kylie as if she was playing hide and go fucking seek. He headed for the door. “If she comes back, call the club.”
Bull was standing next to the truck by the time Stalker got to it and the men exchanged head shakes. They knew that they needed to find the girl before someone else was offered the job to make her disappear.
Chapter 9
The only good thing about looking poor and homeless was that not many people bothered you. She was almost to the Cheap Rate Hotel & Inn, when someone grabbed the strap of the book bag that she had over her shoulders. She ended ass first on the sidewalk, with a scrawny man with a toothless grin standing over her demanding that she give him her money. He held a pocket knife in his hand and she nodded and began pulling the straps from her shoulders. He made the mistake of stepping right up to her and the heavy bag slammed him upside the head once she got it off. He didn’t fall down, just dropped back a step and cursed her.
She held up a hand and then unbuckled the clips before reaching inside to pull the sock filled with shiny metal out. She slowly stood up and told him. “If you want it, come and get it. I don’t have all night, and I don’t plan to have to look over my shoulder later on.”
She began twirling the end of the sock, and grinned at the thief. “There’s enough silver in this sock to keep you in wine for a month, whiskey for maybe two weeks. Why don’t you step right up here and I’ll give it to you.”
The words “Fuckin’ Bitch,” were his last since he rushed at her and was hit in the temple with the heavy end of the twirling object. He went down, and stayed there. The bloody blade on his cheap assed knife was snapped off when he hit the ground, and Kylie didn’t think about the nighttime predators that scented the fresh blood and would come running for a warm meal. She calmly walked away from the scene. One thing that she knew about was to let the killing of a deserving fuck go. Job had taught her that killing to save your own ass was no sin. She felt nothing as she pulled the straps back in place over her shoulders.
The hotel room was clean, and the bed appeared to have clean sheets when she pulled the cover back to look for bed bugs or other nasty shit. She always thought about the show she saw a year ago on TV where the reporter pulled the covers back and the tiny bugs scattered. Just thinking about that show made her shiver in revulsion. She stuffed the lone chair under the door handle so she felt more secure while taking a long shower.
She woke up in the early morning hours and looked around the room. There was nothing here, no ghosts, no threatening beings, and she felt the strangest urge to cry in relief. She was safe. For the first time that she could remember, she felt safe. Even the normal heavy feeling of loneliness was almost gone, as long as she didn’t focus on a certain biker or two.
The only thought that gave her any concern was knowing that she was about to take her fate into her own hands. The idea excited and scared her, but knowing that she had to trust her own decisions gave her another reason to smile. The need to find a home and decide on a job was at the top of her to do list. She was pretty sure that a talent for making moonshine and meth would be a hard sell when listing her job experience.
This room would work for a few more days as she sorted her future out. The day would become a long one if she stressed over things that she had allowed herself to miss out on. She was hungry for the first time in two days, and she hurried to get dressed and went to the hotel desk to secure the room for the rest of the week. The little diner next door had the basic breakfast menu, and she took advantage of the free flowing coffee. The waitress gave her the name of an electronics store, and Kylie left her a two dollar tip.
The flipbook computer that she bought fascinated her, and she smuggled in a bag of cookies and two plastic bottles of soda. The fridge in the room held pop and fruit juice, but there was no way to justify three dollars for a bottle of water, even if it was cold. As it was, she would be paying the hotel for using their internet connection, but it was worth it as far as she could see.
She found and made an appointment with a law firm that had a medium sized add online. She didn’t want one that showed off too much and might make a circus of the deal of the Judge’s will. So the large ads were nixed. The small ads were the same as her grandfather’s lawyer’s ad. So those attorneys’ were guilty by association as far as she was concerned. She knew in the back of her mind that her method of picking a decent representative was dumb, but it was what she did, and would have to do.
The job listings for the area were not encouraging, but she called for an appointment on two of them for interviews, only to be told to fill out the forms online and submit them. If they were interested, they would e-mail her for further contact. She filled out the applications, and continued her search for a job that she figured she could handle. Most of the ads required experience and/or special schooling.
Three days later, she walked into the law firm of Billings, Stubble, and Gordon. The three men that met with her were obviously interested in the Judge more than her. Attorney Billings almost snatched the will from her fingers and Stubble, or maybe it was Gordon, snapped up the paperwork that she’d gotten from Clarence Houston. The two men with the thick file of paperwork that she was told to submit with a D N A sample spoke quietly between themselves and all Kylie heard was mumbled words and grunts. Attorney Billings was frowning and kept looking up towards her face, and back to the paper in his hand.
She was getting nervous, and wanted to ask questions, but Billings finally decided to pull his part
ners into the meeting and called them back to talk.
By the time Kylie left the building, she was happy that the Attorneys were on her side. According to Mr. Stubble, they would happily take her case, and that she could have a blood test done at the doctor’s office that she now had an appointment with. She learned that her father had been a very respected court official, and until the death of his son, had been considered as a possible candidate for the Mayor’s office.
It was now a confirmed fact that Billy was not her brother or any relation to her. The Attorneys expressed interest in the fact that Job and Naomi had been paid to keep her out of circulation. They had actually listened patiently until she finished with her story before asking questions. No one could tell her much about her mother. The woman had died after her birth, and all that the attorneys would say was that it had been a tragedy that the Judge never spoke about. Kylie asked Mr. Gordon if he could try to find out if her mother had any family that might live in the area. It would be nice to know that she was not the last of two families.
Her instructions were to visit the doctor’s office for the test, and to buy a cell phone so they could get in touch with her. She was not supposed to talk to her father’s lawyer, or anyone from the church either. She already knew without them telling her that she needed updated identification before she could start her new life.
Mr. Billings had been trying to reassure her and warn her by saying “Kylie, please be careful when you are out there alone, try to stay in places where there are a lot of people. I am not trying to scare you, but if someone paid to have you hidden away for all of this time, what stops them from coming after you now, and maybe in a more permanent way?” He patted her on the shoulder and offered to advance her enough money to rent an apartment. “I don’t know how you are fixed for money, but I will be happy to help the daughter of an old friend. It’s the least I can do.”
He looked relieved when she declined his offer, and thanked him for his thoughtfulness.
She stopped at the most expensive second hand thrift store that she had ever seen. The place called itself a consignment shop, but Kylie wasn’t born yesterday. Some of the clothing was older than she was. She found a warmer coat and a soft baby blue sweater that still had the original price tag on the sleeve. The woman that rang up her purchases was wearing glue on fingernails and one popped off while she was putting the sweater into the bag.
Kylie up ended the bag to let the nail fall onto the counter and smirked at the woman that had been acting superior. Kylie really wanted to tell her to buy one of the dusty razors that were in the glass case under the register so she could shave the whiskers from her chin. The plastic nail just added to the atmosphere of the place.
The woman stared at the finger where the nail had popped off and shook her head back and forth. She raised her head and looked towards the ceiling. She surprised Kylie by saying, “Can this day get any more fucked up?” She blew out a deep breath and began popping the rest of the nails off of her fingertips. The stubs of her fingernails were the obvious reasons for the fakes, but with each piece of plastic tossed into the trash bag came a cuss word. “Fucker told me that I could make a good living here. Bastard swore that he would guarantee that I could make good money in this place. Fucking scam artist. I hope he fuckin’ choked on my damned money.”
She looked at the twenty that Kylie held out for her to take and she waved it away. “Don’t bother, just take the stuff and enjoy it.” She pulled a pack of smokes from under the counter and lit one. She grabbed a key and waited for Kylie to start walking to the door. “Let’s go, I’m locking this shit hole up, and going upstairs to get fucking shit faced. I can’t take any more, I quit. No one should have to live like this. Can you believe that my own fucking brother scammed me? He got my damn money and ran like the chicken shit that he always was.”
Kylie couldn’t resist asking her, “I don’t suppose that his name is Billy is it? Rides a big motorcycle and has a habit of making people disappear? He isn’t actually my brother, and he didn’t make me disappear permanently, so maybe he isn’t like your brother after all.” She held out her hand. "I’m Kylie.”
The surprised delight on the woman’s face sealed the deal as she shook the hand that Kylie offered. “Teresa.” She walked to the door and locked it. “Glad to meet my new best friend Kylie, I’ve been in this shit hole for almost a month and you are the third actual customer to actually offer to buy any of these fucking treasures.” She pulled Kylie’s arm and linked it with her own. “Come on my new bestie, as long as you look lonely, and I feel like crying, we should go celebrate our friendship and have a drink.”
Kylie wasn’t sure that she wanted to go anywhere with Teresa. The woman didn’t seem stable, but the sheen of defeated tears making the big brown eyes swim made her decision to at least listen to her while she vented. After all, she had been manipulated by people herself. She knew how betrayal felt.
“Okay, let’s get a drink and maybe order a pizza or something. I’m hungry.”
*****
It was a strange way to meet someone, but the two of them got a long like they’d known each other for years instead of hours. By the time Kylie left for her hotel room, she had promised to be back the next morning to see if she could offer any ideas about how Teresa could make the best of a bad deal courtesy of her half-brother.
The man had invited his sister to invest in a proven consignment store and he needed to close the deal as soon as possible since he had just gotten married to his pregnant girlfriend. They were moving to California to be close to her family. Teresa was a recent widow with no children, she was easy pickings for her con artist half- brother. She was now the proud owner of the “Shit Hole” as she called the place. “I guess I was lucky that the bastard didn’t have a second mortgage on the building. I stopped counting my blessings about that when I saw the shape of the ceilings and roof. That took the last ten grand that I had to get fixed.”
Over the following week, Kylie slowly gave up part of her life story while the two women sorted vintage clothing from plain out trash. For some reason she kept her brief association with Lucifer’s Breed and the men to herself. Teresa was becoming too close too fast, and Kylie would not allow the trust to settle in that quickly. After Teresa told her about her dead husband, Kylie was happy that she hadn’t mentioned the bikers that sent her on the faster track to discovering her stolen life.
“Murray was a real asshole. He used to cheat on me, hell, the bastard used to tell me that as long as he stayed married to me that I should be happy that he put me above the skanks that he was screwing on the side.” Teresa blew out an exasperated breath, and wiped the sweat that was dripping down her forehead. “He was a Veteran or I would be in the poor house completely now that my dear brother cheated me out of thirty grand. We were married for twenty five years and I get his benefits.” She shook out a table cloth at arm’s length. The dust flew around her and landed in the rivulets’ of sweat running down her forehead and chest coating her with brown and grey. “Fucking brother. If Murray was still alive and Hank had cheated me, Murray would have gotten his biker friends to hunt him down and get my money back. I could probably call the president of the club, but I don’t know what the cost of their help might be. Don’t get me wrong, they have treated me good. I just haven’t kept up with the club’s happenings. Murray died on one of their runs, I don’t even know where they were going other than they were on the interstate.” She wiped the dirty sweat off of her head again and shrugged.
“Murray died when some rival bunch ambushed his club on their way home. I shouldn’t be bitter, I wasn’t the only one that lost a man that day. Lucifer’s Breed lost three men that day. One of the dead guys was a handsome drop to your knees kind of man. He was sexy and from what I’ve heard, he wasn’t afraid of anything. Murray was scared of rodents.” She started shoving the pile of stained cloth into a large green trash bag while Kylie stood on the old wooden ladder listening to her new f
riend rambling on.
When they broke for lunch, Teresa screamed once she saw her dirty face and chest in the small mirror over the sink. Kylie knew that she was as filthy, but didn’t let it stress her out. She had been covered in human blood before, honest dirt was nothing compared to that.
Once they got back to work, Kylie couldn’t help herself, she had to ask. “So you never see the motorcycle gang anymore?”
Teresa laughed and shook her head. “Honey, don’t let them hear you call them a gang. They call themselves a club. Big difference, according to Murray. As to seeing them? They show up once in a while. I really appreciated the first few times that they showed up, but after the first couple of months, the other old ladies were busy with life and kids. I stopped being invited to the gatherings and stuff, so I stopped thinking about them most of the time. I saw a couple of the men a few weeks back at the hardware store out by the highway, but, I wasn’t asked for my address or phone number, and I didn’t volunteer them either.” She did a little wiggle dance and laughed out loud. “We need some music. Everything goes easier with music.”
*****
The Decision.
Kylie looked around the hotel room for the last time. She had been staying in the same room for almost two weeks, and actually would miss the clean beige walls and clean sheets every other day.
She decided to take Teresa up on her offer of a room above the thrift store. It was just common sense for her to live there with Teresa. Teresa hired her to help turn the place into a store that people would want to patronize. It was a dirty job and at times it felt overwhelming to see the mess that still awaited them each day. Thankfully they eventually got the trash out, and were keeping the old washing machine going ten hours a day. They had been steadily working their way through the racks and stacks of at least three decades worth of second hand items, and they were ready to start painting the dingy walls.