***
“I’ve got it,” Tina said as they dismounted. Her Softail was running on fumes so they had stopped in the sleepy little town of Vaughn to fill her bike and top off Jack’s.
She stepped into the convenience store and waited behind a couple of punks hassling the pretty clerk.
“May I help you ma’am?” the clerk asked, clearly relieved to have some excuse to brush off the greaseballs.
“Start pump number 6?”
“You have to prepay.”
“How about I just wait here?”
The girl, who couldn’t be much more than eighteen or nineteen, hesitated but then started the pump.
Tina stepped to the drink case and browsed the selection before she reached in and plucked a Squirt from within with a smile. She returned to the end of the row and waited for Jack to finish pumping the gas.
“No!” the clerk hissed quietly as her eyes met Tina’s.
“Come on, you know you want it,” one of the thugs said as he grabbed his crotch.
Tina rolled her eyes and looked away. These guys needed to learn some manners and how to treat a lady.
“There’s a customer here! Stop it!”
One of the punks looked her over with a leer. “How ya doin’?”
“Fine,” Tina said coolly.
“That you’re hog?” the second troublemaker asked with a jerk of his head toward the bikes.
“Yeah.”
“I love a woman that knows how to ride,” he said, and the both of the hoods guffawed. “You like to ride, don’t you, Consuelo?” He looked to the cashier with a sleazy wink.
Consuelo looked into Tina’s eyes with a mixture of pleading and embarrassment. I’m going to send Jack back in here to explain a few things to these guys, she decided as she waited. She saw Jack hang the nozzle up just as the first thug reached across the counter and took Consuelo by the arm.
“I asked if you liked to ride. Because I have something here for you to ride on,” he sneered.
“What do I owe you?” Tina asked as she stepped forward and placed her bottle on the counter. Her action broke up the mounting confrontation between the punk and the poor cashier.
“Uh… eighteen forty-six,” she said as she rang her up.
Tina pulled a twenty from her pocket and handed it across.
“What else you got tucked into those pants?” the second hood asked as he looked her over again.
“Keep the change,” Tina said, just wanting to get out of there.
“Hey, I’m talking to you!” the goon said as he took her by the arm.
Tina didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the pen lying on the counter, whirled, and drove it deep into the bully’s arm. He released her and fell back with a roar of pain. She turned to face the second thug. He had a look of surprise, but his face was already hardening as he reached for her.
She lashed out with her right foot as she aimed for his crotch. He saw it coming and twisted to block most of it. But the kick was only the distraction and she grabbed him behind his head and drove his face hard down into her rapidly rising knee. He folded like a limp rag.
She whirled back to the second punk. He had pulled the pen from his arm and was standing with his mouth agape. She wasted no time putting him down with a swift kick to the nuts, a blow he never saw coming. It was all over in less than five seconds.
Jack heard a man’s scream from inside the store and he bolted across the lot. He had left his weapon on the bike but he charged through the door ready to fight. He nearly fell over some guy rolling on the floor with his hands on his crotch and blood running down his arm. Another was lying face down in a spreading pool of blood, and in the middle of it all was a panting Tina.
“What the fuck happened?” he yelled as he took in the scene. Then he noticed the wide-eyed Consuelo behind the counter.
“You fuck!” Tina yelled as she kicked the hood on the floor holding himself.
Jack grabbed Tina by the shoulder and gave her a gentle shake. “Tina! What happened?” he shouted, trying to get her attention.
Her eyes focused on his a moment and then she wilted. She looked around her, then stepped into his chest and held him tight.
Jack looked to Consuelo for answers as he held Tina in his arms.
“She… she… she kicked their ass. One of them grabbed her and… holy shit! I never saw anything like that!” Consuelo stammered.
Jack looked at the carnage around him. The thug with the bloody face was stirring, trying to get to his feet as the other goon rolled over and vomited on the floor.
“Call the police,” he said as he released Tina. “Go see if you can find some rope or something to tie them up with,” he said as he gave Tina a gentle push.
As Tina moved off he hauled the bloody one to his feet. The punk had obviously had enough and held up his hands to ward off further blows. Jack shoved him back to the floor. “If you move, I’ll kill you,” he warned.
He then turned his attention to the other thug who was just staggering to his feet. “I’m going to kill that bitch,” he hissed as he bent over in pain.
Jack shut him up with a hard right hook to the face that drove him to the floor again. He then reached down and hauled him back up. “Anything else you want to say?” he snarled into the troublemaker’s face.
The goon shook his head.
“That’s what I thought,” Jack said as he shoved him down next to his friend.
“Here,” Tina said as she handed him a long length of rope.
“The police will be here in about ten minutes,” Consuelo said.
Jack bound the two men’s feet and hands as he cut the rope to length with his knife. He made sure the bonds were good and tight. He didn’t care if it hurt and ignored their complaints and apologies.
“You paid for the gas?” he asked Tina.
“Yeah.”
Jack looked at the bag the rope had been in then tossed the bag and a twenty onto the counter. “Let’s go.”
“Wait! Shouldn’t you wait for the police?” Consuelo asked.
“We need to go,” he said as he looked around. He nodded at the camera behind Consuelo’s head. “That will tell the cops everything they need to know.”
“But… but…” Consuelo stammered.
“Come on,” he said, taking Tina by the hand and leading her out.
“Wait!” Consuelo cried as she burst through the door behind them. She ran to Tina and gave her a hug. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“It’s okay. If they move, just kick them in the nuts again.”
“Tina! Come on!” Jack called from his bike.
She hurried to her ride, put on her helmet and sunglasses, and thumbed the bike to life before she followed Jack out of gas station. She could stop and strap down her helmet later down the road.
***
They had met a county Sheriff's car, blue lights flashing, as it hauled ass in the direction they came. Jack had tensed up until it became clear the car wasn’t going to turn around. After a quick stop to get themselves set for the remainder of the ride into Albuquerque, he had been unable to wipe the smile off his face as they thundered across the New Mexico desert. While Tina reminded him of Colette in so many ways, there was one clear difference between them. Colette had tried to pretend she was a badass chick, but Tina… she was a badass chick, able to take care of herself in almost any situation.
As they approached the outskirts of Albuquerque he realized that what had been bothering him, what was holding him back with Tina, was the fear that she would end up like Colette. But after her performance in Vaughn he finally realized that Tina wasn’t Colette, and she shouldn’t be forced to live in the shadow of a ghost from his past.
He twisted the throttle open on his hog and pulled up beside her, then slowed until she looked in his direction. He smiled, blew her a kiss, then opened the taps again as he pulled in front to lead her to Marshall’s house. Colette would always be special to him… but he was finally ready to leav
e his past behind him and embrace the future.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Jack Carter tipped the heavy planter over so Tina Harris could retrieve the key hidden beneath. “Got it,” Tina said as she picked up the key and straightened.
Jack took the key from her and unlocked the front door. “Left, through the kitchen, is the garage. Open the garage door so we can get the bikes inside,” he said as he pressed the thumb latch and opened the door.
While Jack disarmed the squealing alarm with the code Marshall had given him, Tina took care of opening the garage. The chance that one of the neighbors—or the police—would see them or their bikes and recognize them as the two people wanted for the theft of the six classic Ferraris was low. Most people were at work, and the police weren’t likely to cruise by, but why take chances?
The moment the alarm went silent, Jack walked out through the garage and pushed his bike inside, then did the same for Tina’s. There was plenty of room with both Marshall and Nicole’s cars gone, but he lined the hogs up beside Marshall’s at the front of the garage so they could get their cars in when they returned from work. The moment he was inside with the second bike, Tina started the big double door closing.
“Made it,” Jack said with a grin as he pushed Tina’s bike into position.
“I never had any doubt,” she replied with a smile of her own.
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay… just a tiny bit of doubt,” she amended as her grin grew even wider.
Tina and Jack had been on the run from the law for nearly a week. After the Desert Sons had successfully stolen six classic Ferraris, worth over one hundred million dollars, the buyer of the cars had backed out. That had left them in a bind. They sat on the cars for a week while they scrambled to find a new buyer, but eventually the cops had been tipped to the location of the cars.
Fortune had smiled on them and they had managed to get away before police kicked their door in. They had bolted on Jack’s restored 1939 Knucklehead Harley, the bike that had belonged to his great-grandfather and was his most prized possession. Tina had followed on his other bike, his daily rider, a one-year-old Harley Softail.
They had run with nothing but a few changes of clothes, some cash, and a prayer. They left behind the Desert Sons clubhouse, Jack’s Audi, and all the possessions in his apartment.
“You want a beer?” Jack asked as they stepped back into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and pulled out two beers in dark bottles.
“Please.”
He cracked the lid off of one and handed it to her before he did the same for himself.
She took the bottle and turned it to read the label. Michelob… She smiled and took a pull from the bottle. The Sons were spoiling her. Breaking into the clubhouse of the Desert Sons motorcycle club and getting caught had been the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Jack took a long pull off his own bottle. “It’s not a Squirt, but it’s pretty good,” he said as he motioned to her with his bottle.
She snickered around her mouthful of beer before she swallowed. “I agree. At least it’s cold and wet.”
Jack moved off the counter he had propped on and dug around in the refrigerator. He began to pull out lunch meat and cheese. “You want a turkey sandwich or a turkey sandwich for lunch?” he asked with his head still in the ‘fridge.
“Uh… I think I will have the turkey sandwich.”
“Good choice,” he said as he straightened.
“Will Marshall and Nic mind if we raid their fridge?”
“Nah,” he said as he opened the pantry for the bread and chips.
Tina started opening drawers until she found the utensils and pulled out a knife to spread the mayonnaise. In the meantime Jack loaded the bread with meat and cheese and sat the sandwiches on a plate before he carried them to the table.
She smiled at Jack as she sat down. From stealing his food to helping him prepare lunch in only three weeks.
Not that she minded that much. Over the past three weeks she had fallen, and fallen hard, for Jack. He had taken her in and accepted her just as she was. He had given her back something she thought she had lost forever: her self-respect. Then, just two nights ago, he had admitted he was falling for her as well. And now here they were, at Marshall and Nicole’s house, where Jack was going to try to pull the greatest robbery in New Mexico history as far as she was concerned. He was going to steal the same six Ferraris again… this time from the police.
“When are you going to break the news to the rest of the Sons?” Tina asked.
“I’m going to have Marshall round them up for tomorrow.”
“Do you think they will go for it?”
“I don’t know. I hope so. This is going to be an all-hands-on-deck effort. If we don’t have everyone, it is going to be a lot tougher. But I’m not going to try to force anyone to sign on for this.”
“Will they still get their cut even if they don’t go for it?”
“I think that’s only fair, don’t you?”
She made a face. In her opinion. he was being overly generous. “Why would they join up then? If they sit it out, they get all the reward and none of the risk.”
“Because if we fail, nobody gets anything.”
Tina had to accept that logic. “I’m not a ‘Son,’” she said as she made quotation marks in the air with her fingers around the club name, “but you know I’m in.”
He smiled at her. He thought he had lost her this morning, but before he could settle up with the motel she had returned and announced her intention to join him on this crazy idea of his.
“As far as I’m concerned you are a Son in all but name… and if there was going be a Desert Sons after this, I would see to it that little detail was attended to.”
She smiled. It felt so good to be wanted again.
***
Jack and Tina were sitting in the family room, half asleep with the television on, when they heard the garage door rumble up. Jack switched off the television and they met Nicole—Nic to her friends—in the kitchen.
“So good to see you, Jack,” Nic said as she took him into a long hug. Tina could feel the green monster peeking out, but she kneed him the crotch and stuffed him away. Nic was the wife of Jack’s longtime friend and Sergeant at Arms of the Desert Sons, Marshall, and Jack had known her for years. She would fight tooth and nail for Jack, but she knew she didn’t have anything to worry about with Nic.
Nic released Jack and then pulled Tina into a hug. “Thank you for being there for him.”
Tina was so flabbergasted by Nic’s actions she didn’t know what to do at first, but then smiled and relaxed into the hug. “Someone had to keep him in line,” Tina replied.
“That’s a full time job,” Nic teased as she released Tina. “How ever did you get away without getting caught?”
“Did Marshall tell you the clubhouse was searched?” Jack asked.
“Yeah,” Nic replied. “I wonder how they knew?”
“Don’t know. Anyway, I guess the cops weren’t sure of their information after they came up empty at the clubhouse. The managers of the storage units called and asked me to come open the doors so the police didn’t break them down. That first call reminded me that Tina and I had pressing business in Roswell.”
Nic giggled. “I guess so. I see you got your hog fixed.”
“Yeah. But it put a pinch on the finances.”
“You’re welcome to stay here—you both are,” she amended with a smile at Tina, “as long as you need to.”
“Thanks, Nic. I knew I could count on you and Marshall. But we won’t be here long.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m working on a plan to disappear.”
“Disappear?”
“Yeah. As in start a new life with a new identity.”
Nic was quiet a moment. “Will we ever see you again?”
“After a while… maybe. But I’ll stay in touch.”
“You better. Marshall would pout if
you just up and disappeared,” she said with a ghost of a smile.
“I wouldn’t do that to Marshall. Or you. He’s been my best friend forever, and you almost as long.”
“Yeah… nearly fifteen years.” She paused, then grinned at Tina. “And boy, do I have some stories to tell you! Remind me later and I will tell you the story of how Marshall caught him with not one, not two, but three women in his bed.”
Wild & Inked: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Desert Sons MC) (No Saints in Biker Hell Book 2) Page 21