by Jade Kuzma
The pretty blond man rolled his eyes at me and excused himself to the poker table with the rest of the club. The president stayed behind and put an arm on my shoulder.
“I just talked to Ghost,” Garnet said. “He tells me you’re interested in being a prospect.”
“I’m not interested in being a prospect,” I said with a laugh. “Going through all of that shit… Trying to prove myself again… No thanks. But if that’s what it takes to get patched into this chapter, I’ll think about it.”
“We could always use another patch. We already know you’re a Reaper. Strength in numbers, brother.”
“What’s this I hear about you having a deal with the Chinese?”
Garnet straightened up and looked around the bar. The clubhouse was crowded with men and broads just trying to enjoy their night out. It was a busy night but not rowdy enough to be concerned about it.
“Is that what this is about?” he asked. “You looking to make some money?”
“I got money. I did all right in the service. And my old chapter had their ways… But money never hurts.”
Garnet smirked at me.
“The Triads pay well,” he said. “They’ve got so much product to move, they’re dealing with more MCs in Ivory than they can count. But I’m sure Ghost has told you shit’s dried up because of the feds. Whatever Lieberman is up to, it’s enough that even the Chinese are spooked. It’s gonna be an honest living until she’s out of town.”
“What’s that bitch out here for? The feds wouldn’t come out to Ivory if they didn’t have a good reason.”
“Nobody knows. Lieberman runs a tight ship. There haven’t been any leaks. She could be here for Chinese. She could be here for the MCs. Hell, she might even be here for someone else. There’s no way to tell for sure. Maybe you should have asked when she was interrogating you.”
I scoffed at the thought and took a big gulp of beer.
“It wasn’t much of an interrogation,” I said. “She asked me her questions but nothing I couldn’t handle. She didn’t have anything on me.”
“Still… You need to watch your back. We got no idea what she’s up to.”
Garnet leaned in close to me and whispered so nobody else heard even though everybody else in the bar was distracted.
“You wanna stick around in Ivory, you’re gonna have to lay low,” he said. “I don’t know how you’ve lived your life. I don’t know why you left and went nomad. But Ivory’s a quiet place. The only time there are fireworks is during the holidays.”
“I can dig that. I did enough tours. I’ve seen more fireworks than I’d care to remember.”
“Ha!”
Garnet hit me on the arm and sipped on his beer. He leaned up against the bar counter and looked out into the crowd.
“What’s her name?” he said.
“Jesus Christ… You, too?”
“Ha! Only some wet pussy would be good enough to get a guy to stick around. Don’t feel bad about it. You’re a man and you got warm blood. At least you know you’re alive.”
“If you’re expecting me to talk about my feelings and emotions, you can keep the patch.”
“Is that why you went nomad? Because you didn’t want to share your feelings in the chapel with the rest of the club?”
Garnet and I shared another laugh. From what I could tell, he was a good man. He ran the club well and everybody seemed to respect him. I wouldn’t have any problem dealing with him if it came down to it.
Before Garnet continued fucking with me, he looked over my shoulder.
“Well, well… What do we have here?” he said.
I looked in the direction he was staring and saw Lenora walking toward us.
She looked just as fucking gorgeous as she always did. Less makeup than I was used to but her skin was clear. Her dark hair was put up over her head. And the black dress she wore… That shit was so tight every straight man was staring at her ass and tits.
“Hey,” I said. “You all right?”
There was a slightly bewildered look in her eyes. She looked around the bar like she was checking to see if someone was watching her then smiled nervously at me.
“I’m fine,” she said with a shrug. “I… I heard about what happened.”
“There’s nothing you need to worry about. Lieberman doesn’t have shit on me. Plus, my man Garnet here got a lawyer for me if shit goes down.”
“Best lawyer in town,” Garnet said to her.
The club president bowed his head as he greeted her.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” he said.
“Lenora,” she said as she shook his hand.
“Lenora… Pretty name… I’m Garnet—”
“Garnet. Black Reapers. President. Everybody knows who you are.”
“My reputation precedes itself.”
He kissed Lenora’s hand and smiled at me.
“She’s a keeper, Char,” he said. “You make sure you take real good care of her. A good old lady is hard to find.”
Lenora’s cheeks started to blush. I stared at her and smiled.
“Yeah, they sure are…” I said.
“I’ll let you two lovebirds have some time to yourself,” Garnet said. “It’s not often you can celebrate a man not having to deal with the feds any longer.”
Garnet patted me on the back and left me alone with Lenora.
“You want a drink?” I asked.
“Yeah… Sure…”
She wasn’t looking at me. She kept staring across the bar. When she got her beer, Lenora took a huge gulp.
“You trying to get drunk tonight?” I asked.
“Maybe. Why not?”
“Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
“I’m sure,” she said with a nod.
She worked a smile onto her face and I was given another reason why I fell for her. She had these dimples on her cheeks that were almost distracting enough to make me look away from her green eyes.
“It’s just…”
She looked down like she was struggling to find the words.
“…You came here for Walsh. And now Walsh is gone.”
“That’s right.”
“Now what? Do you know what’s gonna happen?”
I’d forgotten that Walsh was the reason I was in Ivory in the first place. Even before he’d died, I’d forgotten about him.
“All I wanted was for Walsh to pay for what he did to me,” I said. “Now that he’s gone though… I can focus on more important things.”
“More important things like what?”
“Like you, for example.”
I took my hands in hers. I leaned my head down and shoved my tongue into her mouth. She didn’t resist, letting me play with her tongue as our lips pressed together. I didn’t give a shit if the rest of the clubhouse was looking at our sloppy kiss. If anything, I wanted them to see what she did to me.
Lenora was royalty. She was my queen.
She pulled her lips away from me, her red cheeks apparent on her pale skin.
“You kiss me like you haven’t seen me in ages,” she said.
“It has been ages. I want you, Lenora. I want nothing more than to be inside of you… be with you… You make me feel good. You know I’d do anything…”
The smile slowly left her lips. Her hands dropped down from mine. When I looked into her eyes, I realized what she was. She might have been my queen but to everybody else, she was something else. A poor woman who had to live a life she didn’t want to because there was no other way to make ends meet.
“Is it the money?” I said.
“What?” she exclaimed.
“The money. I promised you the 50-grand once I got my hands on Walsh but I never actually got my hands on him. Not in the way I wanted, anyway…”
“No, it’s not that…”
She scoffed at me and started giggling.
“…I don’t care about the money. I just care about you. You know that.”
“Then what’s wrong.”
“It’s… It’s Blade.”
“Blade… Right…”
I hadn’t met the motherfucker but I knew he was gonna be a problem.
“Why can’t you just tell him you’re done working for him?” I asked. “Tell him to find someone else.”
“It’s not that simple. It’s…”
She looked down and started twiddling her fingers nervously. I knew there was something fucking bothering her but I wasn’t going to squeeze it out of her.
“…It’s complicated,” she said.
“Complicated? What’s complicated about it?”
I put my hand on her chin and made her look up at me. I stared into her eyes. I could see something. It almost seemed like she was about to start crying. She clenched her jaw and her throat shifted with a swallow.
“Lenora… If you want me to deal with Blade—”
“I don’t want to talk about Blade. Not anymore. I just wanna be with you.”
“You know I’ll do anything you want me to do. Most guys have to pay to spend a night with you. And I’ll pay whatever it takes to spend tonight with you.”
“You don’t have to spend anything tonight. It’s just… I’d rather be somewhere else right now. Take me home?”
“Yeah… Of course.”
Lenora smiled softly at me. I kissed her on the lips and took her hand in mine.
I was fully intent on getting to the bottom of whatever was distracting her.
Chapter 14
LENORA
One month earlier…
There was an eeriness to the interrogation room in the police station.
Completely silent. A single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Shadows at every corner. A mirror on the side of the wall with people on the other side staring at you.
It wasn’t the first time I’d ever have to come to the station. I’d been there so many times that it was one of the few addresses in Ivory that I memorized.
The cops were always nice when they busted me. I never tried bribing them because they were all too honest to take it. A night in jail and a warning was what they usually gave me before I was back on the street. It definitely helped that Blade had good enough lawyers to defend me if it ever came down to it.
Tonight was different though. They never brought me to the interrogation room before. That alone was reason enough for me to be concerned.
I stared forward into the darkness as I sat by myself. My heart leaped into my throat when the door suddenly opened. I turned toward the woman striding her way toward me.
She was a bit tall, so I could barely see her face underneath the lighting. But her posture alone was enough to tell me she meant business.
A cold stare. A tense jaw. She tucked a hand into the pocket of her pantsuit to flash her badge. Her other hand held a manila folder in it.
“Lenora Gibson, I’m Jane Lieberman. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I would say the same if the circumstances were any different,” I said. “I don’t think a meeting in an interrogation room is much of a pleasure.”
She gave me a half-smile then looked down at the folder in her hands.
“Lenora Gibson. Age 23. Multiple counts of solicitation and prostitution. Illegal drug possession. This isn’t the first time you’ve ever been arrested.”
“I’m aware,” I sighed.
Lieberman didn’t stop there.
“Father, Thomas Gibson. Died in a car accident at 40. Mother, Lisa. Died from a drug overdose a few years later. Heroin. Brother, Liam. Died in his cell the same way. Heroin…”
She closed the manila folder and stared at me. I looked away from her, my jaw clenched as I tried not to think about everything she just said.
“You’ve been through quite a lot,” she said.
I didn’t respond.
“It’s no wonder that you turned to the way of life you did. It’s remarkable that you’re still here with us. Then again, this is how many arrests this year? Four?
“Three,” I said.
“Three. That’s down from the number of arrests last year.”
“Listen, all right… I don’t know what you’re doing, but you don’t have to tell me my life story. I remember all of the details. It’s my life.”
She was still smiling confidently at me. I kept staring at the table in front of me, trying my best not to look back at her.
Lieberman dropped the manila folder and crossed her arms. I was waiting for her to get on with whatever she was planning. But she didn’t. She just stood there with her arms crossed, observing me like I was some animal at the zoo.
I finally sighed in frustration.
“Listen,” I said. “I work for Jacob Holmes, okay? Blade. Do you know who he is? He’s got good lawyers. I don’t think they would appreciate—”
“Tell me about him,” she cut me off.
“W-what?”
She pulled up a chair and took a seat in front of me.
“Would you like something to drink, Miss Gibson? Do you need some water?”
Her demeanor changed suddenly. I looked into her eyes, trying to figure out what she was doing but there was nothing. I was just gonna have to play whatever game she was trying to make me play.
“What do you want—”
“Tell me about Holmes,” she said.
I shook my head and smiled when I finally realized what she was getting at.
“Nice try,” I said.
“Are you afraid of him? It’s okay. There are a lot of women in your situation who are afraid of their pimps. I can assure you that what you say to me stays between us.”
I shifted my eyes up toward the camera at the corner of the ceiling.
“It’s not recording,” she said. “That’s for official Ivory police business. I’m not an Ivory cop.”
I looked back at her.
I was more than willing to tell her everything I knew about Blade. But he was dangerous for a reason. If he knew I’d said anything, I would pay the price before I even realized it.
“I’ll protect you—”
“You can’t protect me from, Blade,” I said. “Nobody can. I can’t tell you—”
“You’ve already started. If Holmes were just a pimp, you wouldn’t be so afraid of talking.”
I swallowed nervously. Lieberman kept staring at me like she was trying to burn a hole through me.
“Come on, Miss Gibson… I know you want to tell me his secrets.”
“Even if I did, I don’t know them.”
“But you do work for him. He’s responsible for your safety, isn’t he?”
“Blade has more girls working for him than anybody could count. He’s responsible for a lot of women. That’s why so many of them work for him.”
“But not you. You’ve been working for Holmes for a longer time. Most women would have been kicked to the curb. In your line of business, even at your young age, you’re all used up—”
“If you keep talking, his lawyers are gonna eat you for breakfast. I don’t really give a shit either way. I just thought it’d be fair to warn you.”
My threat only made the grin on her face grow even wider. She straightened up in her seat and cleared her throat.
“I know Holmes is planning something,” she said. “The Chinese and the MCs have some sort of deal worked out to move drugs through this city. I don’t know how it works exactly because the shipments have stopped. That’s fine by me. But men like Holmes are coming into Ivory and taking the place of the Triads. Holmes is setting up a drug trade right here in this town.”
“It sounds like you’ve got everything figured out for yourself,” I sighed. “Why are you telling me all of this?”
“I’m telling you because we’ve been tracking Holmes. You spend as much time around him as anybody else. You’re his girlfriend and—”
“I’m not his girlfriend.”
“Whatever. I don’t care what you are to him. But I know you’re close to him.”
“Get to the
point.”
“I need your help.”
“You need my help?”
I finally worked a smile onto my face. I couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd it sounded.
“What can I do for you?”
“Holmes is a careful man. He’s always watching his back to the point of paranoia. It makes sense, given the position he put himself in. We haven’t been able to get any agents close to him.”
I shook my head softly when I realized what she was suggesting.
“No,” I said. “You can’t expect me to—”
“Your mother died because of drugs. Your brother died because of drugs. Now you’re working for a man who’s going to be responsible for even more deaths in Ivory.”
“It was my mother’s decision to do what she did. It was my brother’s decision to do what he did. I’m not gonna blame the dealer when they were two grown adults capable of making their own choices.”
Lieberman narrowed her eyes at me.
“You blame your own family for what happened?”
“That’s right,” I said. “There are still drugs in Ivory but I’m still here. Do you know why? Because I choose not to. I stopped when I could have followed them down the same path.”
I kept shaking my head defiantly.
“You can’t protect me from Blade,” I said. “If you want me to get some information from him, it’ll be worse than what any drug could ever do to me.”
Lieberman sighed in resignation. She leaned back in her seat and stuck her hands into her pockets, her eyes locked on me.
“I tried to give you a chance,” she said. “It looks like we’re gonna have to do this the hard way.”
She dug into her jacket. I watched as she pulled out a small bag and tossed it onto the table in front of me. I didn’t have to look at it for very long to know what it was.
“Why are you showing me that?” I said with a shrug.
“You know what it is.”
“I know what it is. What are you doing with it?”
“I’m not doing anything with it. I found it. On you.”
“W-what?” I exclaimed. “I didn’t have anything on me!”
“That’s a lot of drugs. Just looking at it, that’s enough weight to make it a federal crime. Maximum sentence is at least 25 years.”