“That’s more than enough for pass-through money.” My heart began to pound. Time to dangle the carrot in front of this guy. “Unless you want to talk about a more permanent agreement. If we had more business in this direction, we might be able to cut you in for five percent.”
“Five percent?” Bill screeched, his dentures whistling. “You disrespect me and come through my town and you offer me a measly five percent?”
“With all due respect, we called you—a couple of times,” I informed him, crossing my arms. “You hung up on us. This is the last time we’re gonna reach out.”
I stood up, and Rip and Roach did as well. We meant business. I knew Bill wasn’t just gonna let us walk out the door, so this was about to get ugly.
“Fucking drop it,” said a guy with long brown hair from the back of the room. It was Snake, their VP. “Take the deal, Bill. Five percent ain’t bad for not doing nothing.”
“No.” Bill whipped around, advancing on his VP. “I founded this goddamn club and I’m the president, and it’s damn time that Tate Hasslebeck respected me.” He turned back to us. “I want everything, all the money that you got for that Lamborghini. What was it, thirty thousand? At five percent, you should give us fifteen hundred.”
The cost of the car was actually sixty thousand and most of it was already stashed in secured boxes at the hotel, but I wasn’t about to tell this crazy fucker. He was too focused on the dollars in his hand to see the potential.
“Look,” I said, trying not to sound pissed. “Here’s your thousand for the pass-through. We’re headed back tomorrow. You can call Tate and talk it out, or you can take my deal. I can guarantee you, that’s the most Tate was willing to give you.”
That was when it all went to shit. Buffalo Bill pulled an old-fashioned revolver out of a shoulder holster. It didn’t have the firepower of my 9 mil, but it would get the job done. We all put up our hands.
The rest of the Silver Souls in the room concentrated around Bill’s back. Snake was shaking his head and two other guys were rolling their eyes. Interesting—not everyone agreed with their leader. Maybe I could exploit this.
“We don’t want no trouble,” I said, calmly. I caught Snake’s eye and tried to appeal to him. “We’re just trying to make you guys a fair deal, man.”
“Don’t look at him, look at me. I’m the president!” Bill howled. His arm was shaking by now, from the stress or lack of strength to hold the gun up, I wasn’t sure. But either way, he was losing control. “You’re trying to screw us, just like you did twenty-five years ago. You disrespected me then and you’re goddamned doing it now, Tate. I won’t stand for it.”
I stepped back. Fuck. The old man was confusing the lines between past and present. I wasn’t about to try to reason with him. We could take on Bill in a fight, any one of us. But there were five of them and three of us. Not all of them agreed with Bill, but they might all defend him. This was turning into a fucking powder keg.
“I was gonna give you my daughter as an alliance,” Bill rambled, pissed. He took a trembling step toward us. “She was a nice piece of ass back then. Big tits, hot ass, she would have made a great alliance. But you thought you were too good for her. Didn’t want an alliance with me, did you? Fucking asshole. So, tell me why should I let you do business on my turf now? You’ve been disrespecting me for the last fifteen years.”
“Shut up, Bill,” Snake said. He put his hand on Bill’s shoulder. “This stupid rivalry has gone on long enough. The Horde ain’t done shit, and back when they were the Storm Kings, they didn’t bother us either. Take their money. It’s a solid deal. Let them move on.”
“Shut the fuck up, Snake.” Bill turned the gun on him. “I should have never made you VP. The whole damn time you’ve been trying to take my patch.”
The other guys in the room erupted in an argument. This was my chance, I pulled my 9 mil from my shoulder holster. In no time, I had it cocked and pressed up against the back of Buffalo Bill’s head.
“Shut up!” I yelled. The crowd stilled and looked in my direction. Grabbing the back of Bill’s vest, I hauled the old man back toward me. “Looks like we came at the wrong time. So, we’re gonna get the fuck out of here. No harm, no foul. Got it?”
Bill tried to wiggle out of my grasp, but Roach caught his ear and held the old man bent over and whining like a naughty kid.
“All right, all right,” Bill groused. “You can go.”
Someone knocked on the door. All eyes turned to the front of the club as a tall, beautiful woman stepped inside.
“Jo,” I whispered, trying to think of some way to get her to leave without tipping off the rest of the room that she was with us, but it was too late. I had said her name. They knew she was with us somehow.
“Get her!” Bill shrieked.
The room erupted into chaos again. I lunged for Jo, and Bill leaped away from me. Snake grabbed Jo’s arm and hauled her up against him. It was like a slow-motion symphony as we all scrambled to have the upper hand. Once I saw that Snake had a hold of Jo, I found Bill in the crowd and put my gun to his temple.
“Stop!” I yelled. “Everybody fucking stop!”
Jo was caught against Snake, his arm encircling her waist. Fuck. I had their prez and they had my girl. I had to think fast.
Chapter Thirty-One
Jo
Back before my mom disappeared, she worked as a waitress at honky-tonks and truck stops. She had had to learn to protect herself from wandering hands and drunken Romeos. When my sister and I got old enough, she taught us what she knew about self-defense. We’d park the car in a field somewhere for a few days, and when we got bored, Mama would show us how to knee a guy in the groin, or worse. She made it clear that life wasn’t always easy.
As I walked down that dark alley and found the door behind the stinking Dumpster, all those memories came bubbling to the surface. I didn’t remember my CPR classes or first aid, but Mama’s lessons about stabbing up into the ribs were fresh in my mind.
I knocked on the door that the guy in the diner had told me about. But all I could hear was yelling. Shit. If Clint and the guys were in there, I needed to jump in and help them. If they weren’t there, I was walking right straight into an argument. Neither was a good option, but one was worse.
Taking a deep breath, I tried the doorknob—unlocked. Slowly I opened the door and looked inside. It was a crappy bar full of smoke and bikers. My bikers.
Clint and the guys were grouped on one side and the Silver Souls were grouped on the other side. At least I had found the right place. Clint had his gun to an old man’s head and Roach was holding the guy’s ear.
“Jo,” Clint said in a hoarse whisper. Of course the room was completely still with tension and everyone heard it. They all turned in my direction and hell broke loose. One of the Silver Souls grabbed my arm and hauled me back against his chest. I felt the guy behind me, panting hard. I had walked into the middle of something big—damn.
“Shut up, don’t scream.” He squeezed my arm. “We’re just doing a little bargaining.”
I reached into my hip holster and grabbed hold of the hilt of my stiletto, just in case.
“Stop! Everybody fucking stop!” Clint screamed into the insanity. “Look, just give me my woman, I’ll give you guys back your prez, and we’ll all be on our way.”
His woman? I didn’t know what Clint and I were to each other quite yet, but I did know that we belonged to each other and it sounded like he agreed.
“I’m gonna let her walk over to you, okay?” the guy holding me said. “She’s gonna walk nice and slow, as a show of good faith, and then we’re all gonna talk rationally about that long-term deal you mentioned earlier. Got it?”
“Deal,” Clint said, motioning me to start walking. “Start walking, babe.”
The man released his hold on me and gave me a push. Slowly, I put one foot in fron
t of another and started to cross the space between the two groups.
“Stop!” someone screeched. The old man elbowed his way out of Clint’s grasp. Before anyone could react, he came flying and tackled me. I landed hard and hit my head. Sparks flew in front of my eyes. Someone was trying to haul me up, and I kicked against him. “Knock it off, bitch.”
Then I felt it. Hard steel against my temple. The old man had me in front of him as a shield with his gun pressed to my head. This guy was dangerous.
It was now or never. I had to be faster than his gun.
“This little piece of dark meat is your old lady, ain’t she?” the old guy shrieked to Clint.
“Yes I am!” I yelled. I was Clint’s old lady and I loved him. I wasn’t going to let this asshole kill me or him. I finally had someone who I loved and I wanted to be with him.
I pulled my stiletto and swung my arm back. I hit flesh. There was some resistance at first, but then my blade started to slide in.
“No,” someone said. It sounded far away, and I turned to look for the source of the noise. It was Clint.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. I put my arms out to him, but he passed me on to Rip. I watched from behind Rip’s back as Clint and Roach both tackled the old man.
“Stop screaming, Bill,” Clint commanded. “She barely fucking got you.” He had Bill in a police hold, face down on the ground with his arms behind his back. Roach had gotten Bill’s gun and was pointing it at him. “Someone get me some handcuffs or a zip tie. Your president is fucking dangerous.” He looked up and found me safely behind Rip. “You okay, babe?”
“I’m fine,” I called.
Someone from the Silver Souls threw a set of handcuffs, and Clint got Bill restrained. Bill moaned at every movement. I craned my neck to see, but there was no blood pooling on the ground by his feet, so my stab never really hit home. Clint hauled Bill to his feet and faced the crowd.
“Everybody, listen up. You’re all gonna put away your weapons. Snake, you and I are gonna negotiate a deal, like none of this shit ever happened. Got it? I’m gonna give you guys this asshole—” he shook Bill’s arm “—and he’s gonna goddamn retire. I don’t care how you fucking do it, but he isn’t gonna lead the Silver Souls anymore. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” someone said. “That’s a fair deal. We’ll take care of Bill on our own.”
“Fine.” Clint pushed the handcuffed man over to his club.
We all separated into groups. Bill sat in a booth with a couple of guys to keep watch over him. Clint and Rip sat in another booth with two of the Silver Souls and talked. I assumed they were negotiating some sort of deal.
Roach sat next to me at the bar and called Tate, told him to call off reinforcements. When Roach was done with his phone call, I turned to him.
“What are they talking about?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I probably shouldn’t say, but you’re in the middle of it. We’re gonna do more car business in this area, if they agree. Clint is trying to get them on board. It’ll be a new line of cash for everybody. We almost had the deal, and then you walked in and kinda threw everything into a tornado.”
“Oh.” My brain started to replay the events in my head. “Did I screw things up?”
“Naw, don’t worry about it.” He put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a friendly hug. “I thought you did great.”
Despite his assurances, I started to wonder. I did stab the president of the Silver Souls. From the amount of blood that wasn’t oozing out of his shirt, I didn’t do a very good job of it. But I still stabbed a member of a different club. I’d screwed up Clint’s entire operation. He had worked so hard for months and I’d just fucked up the negotiations with the Silver Souls.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Clint
Snake and I stared at each other from across the table. Buffalo fucking Bill was neutralized in the corner and Roach was standing guard over Jo. Everyone was safe and it was time to do business.
“I want to make you guys a deal, and I want both parties to like this deal because this business is going to grow and we all need to get along if we’re gonna share in the profits.” I told Snake. “But before we make any decisions, I’ve got some requests first.”
“I’m very interested,” Snake replied. “We’ve heard good things about the Horde and want a piece of your pie. Tell me what you need and we’ll make it happen.”
“I don’t like the way Bill treated my girl—and neither did she. He’s lucky she didn’t kill him herself.” I tapped my finger on the table between us. “He could have called her much worse, but I want to make it damn clear—the Horde has chapters all up and down the West Coast and members from all over. We don’t put up with that shit.”
“You think I don’t see what you’re doing here?” Snake dropped his voice to a whisper. He surveyed the room to see who was listening. “You’re grooming us. I get it, but last time I checked, my cut still said Silver Souls. I got a lot of shit to work out internally and can’t control what the guys think. All I can offer you right now is my word and a handshake.”
“Fine.” I liked Snake. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but at least he was being real with me. “What about Bill? I don’t want to deal with that asshole ever again.”
“Yeah...” Snake squirmed a bit in his seat. “I’m gonna step up to the table as prez. It’s gonna take a vote and all, but I think I’ve got the backing for it. Bill is gonna retire and won’t have any voting privileges.”
I turned to the guy sitting next to Snake; I thought they had introduced him as Traveler. “Your man Snake here, does he have the votes to be prez?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Traveler answered, looking me in the eyes. “This been coming a long-ass time. Ain’t no one surprised that it finally went down.”
“I’m gonna leave it to you guys to keep him the hell away from our business dealings.” I waited for both men to nod in agreement. “If I ever see him again, the deal is done. Got it?”
“Loud and clear,” Snake assured me. “He’s gone—we’ll deal with him internally.”
Since we all seemed to be on good terms, I ran through our vehicle import operation. I explained to him that we got the cars through customs and then modified them to pass smog in their destination state.
“The drop-off contact is George, here in South Reno. We’ll handle all the transport, but we’re ready to offer you some cash for the pass-through. Five percent just for allowing us to take our cars through your turf is a good deal,” I explained. “As a sign of good faith, I’m gonna tell you that Lambo deal was sixty grand.” I pulled another stack of cash out of my pocket and put it on the table between us. “I already gave Bill a thousand, so here’s the other two.”
“Oh, shit.” Snake rubbed his beard and blinked. He hadn’t been expecting it. Good. I was hoping that the element of surprise would work. “That’s a damn fine deal. We’ll take it. Y’all just give us a call whenever you want to come to town and we’ll arrange protection or anything else you might need.”
“It’s a deal.” I reached out to him for a handshake. This shit was done.
“I’ll be in town a little while longer,” I told Snake and Traveler as Rip and I got up from the bench. “I think my prez will wanna talk tomorrow. I’ll set up a call and let you know the time.”
We said our goodbyes and got the hell out of there. I held Jo’s hand as we went down the back stairs and headed to the hotel. Rip and Roach were a half a block ahead, giving Jo and me a little bit of privacy as we walked.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” She gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I didn’t hurt him much, right?”
“You didn’t hurt him at all.” I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her next to me as we walked. “He’s gonna be fine. There was hardly any blood even. He was more pissed th
at his club was turning on him.”
“What’s going to happen to him?” Jo’s voice was quiet and trembling just a little.
Stopping in front of the hotel, I turned to her. “Buffalo Bill was a fucking asshole. You were scared and he made a move. All you did was defend yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?” I looked into her eyes as I said it, but I wasn’t sure she believed me.
Finally, she nodded in agreement. “I didn’t do anything wrong. He’s not hurt.”
Jo was a little quiet as we got to the room. I backed off and let her shower—alone. She crawled into bed as I was on the phone with Tate explaining what had happened. Then I had to call Volk in California and recount the night’s happenings again. By the time I got off the phone, she was fast asleep.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Jo
I sat straight up in bed, my heart pounding from a dream I didn’t remember. Buffalo Bill, maybe?
It was morning and gray light streamed in through the crack in the blackout curtains. We’d gotten through the night. The deal was done and the only thing left to do was go home. I sank back down against the hotel pillows. What would happen once we got back to Tacoma? Back to real life?
“You okay, babe?” Clint asked, his voice thick from sleep, but alert. He snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me against his naked body. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Rolling over to face him, I propped myself up on my elbow and studied his face. A day’s worth of growth made his cheeks a little rough. There were circles under his eyes. This trip had taken a toll on both of us.
“When we get back home,” I whispered, “are you going to dump me again? With no warning?” I searched his eyes, looking for an answer. “I can’t go through that again.”
“Oh shit,” he hissed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Come here, babe. Let me hold you.” I scooted closer and laid my cheek his chest. “I really fucked up when I did that, didn’t I?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, trying to get the word out through the hitch in my throat. After everything last night, I knew I loved him, but I also wanted to make sure that I didn’t make another mistake. “Promise me you’ll never do that—cut me out.”
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