“Don’t ask me to make promises that I can’t keep,” Reese said.
He reached out and touched Josie’s cheek. Again. It was the only thing he could do for the moment because she was getting more and more tempting by the day. Seeing her fighting to survive, standing strong and beautiful, taking care of Steph, running the club for Jefferson. It just proved something that Reese knew all along. That Josie was a bad ass woman. But even still, she had a caring heart that she sometimes gave away too easily. She needed a guy like Reese to keep things balanced.
But now wasn’t the time for love hour.
It was time to get down to business.
Reese walked along the stage and spotted Caramel as she strutted along the stage topless. She looked at him and puckered her lips for a kiss. Reese winked and smiled. The new girl - Angel - was on the other side of the stage, dancing against a pole, slithering down and back up.
Once in the back of the club, the thudding of the bass was now a faint echo.
He went to the vanities where the girls would get themselves ready and put their makeup on.
“Smoke break,” he said to three of the dancers. “Now.”
That was all Reese needed to say to get his point across. They hurried to find some clothes and scattered away.
Reese put a chair to the middle of the floor and sat down, dropping the bag to the floor. He lit up a smoke and waited for Starla to join him.
The moment Starla appeared from the front, standing there topless, her face dropped. She went pale white and looked terrified.
“Put on a robe, sweetheart,” Reese said calmly. “We need to talk.”
“Reese. Hey.”
“Put on a robe,” he said again.
She opened a door to her locker, storage, cubby, whatever they wanted to call it, and she took out a black silk robe and put it on. She tied it tightly and lingered back.
Reese stood up and pointed to the chair. “Take a seat.”
“Reese… whatever you…”
“I said to take a seat,” he said. “Look. I’m here to talk.”
He opened his leather cut and reached for his gun. He saw Starla cringe. He unloaded the weapon and put it on a table, along with the clip.
“Now sit.”
Starla put her nose up a little and walked to the chair. She slowly sat and adjusted the robe as she crossed her legs, her left leg bouncing like crazy.
She was nervous.
She should be nervous.
Reese stepped in front of her. “Do you know why I’m here?”
“I can guess,” she said. “I guess that little bitch ratted me out.”
“Little bitch, huh? The woman that runs this place. Keeps you in a job. Helps you when you get too fucking drunk. Yeah, she’s a bitch.”
“Sorry I said that then,” Starla said. “I bought some stuff for fun. She found it. I didn’t mean for anyone to find it. I wasn’t going to spread it around here.”
“Okay. Good. That’s what I was worried about. You know, the MC is tied to this place. We can get in trouble if anything goes wrong here.”
“Like the police showing up?”
“Exactly,” Reese said. “But that bitch covered your ass. She tossed me her bag to take so the cops wouldn’t find it.”
“I said I was sorry for calling Josie a bitch.”
“Now that the police are gone, we can get back to normal,” he said. He nodded to the bag. “There you go.”
“What?”
“Your stuff.”
Starla swallowed hard. “My stuff.”
“Open it, Starla.”
She reached for the bag and put it on her lap. She slowly opened the zipper. Her eyes went wide.
“What’s this…?”
“Show me,” Reese said.
“It’s one bag,” Starla said. “Where’s the rest?”
“That’s our fee for holding it for you.”
Starla’s face went white again. “Reese…”
“What? Something wrong?”
“I paid…”
She caught herself.
Reese stood like stone.
Before she spoke again, the back door opened and in came the rest of the MC.
The moment Starla looked back, she started to cry.
She knew she was in deep shit.
Reese stepped forward and took the bag. “We have the rest, Starla. And since you like to party hard so much, you’re going to earn your junk back.”
“I don’t want it,” Starla said. “I regret this.”
She stood up but had nowhere to go.
The guys had her surrounded.
Brett and Jason, the big enforcers.
Hawk with his finger always on the trigger.
Ellis and Zac.
Levi right in the middle, holding another bag with the rest of the stuff in it.
And Reese facing off with Starla.
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” Reese said. “Running drugs through this town doesn’t work for us. Running it through this place here is even worse.”
“Which leads us to a difficult situation,” Levi said. “You’re too pretty to kill.”
“Nobody is too pretty to kill,” Hawk said in a cold voice.
“Please,” Starla said.
She put her hands together. She bent her knees a little. The robe started to open, showing off a lot of skin.
Reese lifted her by her arms. “No, no, Starla. No getting on your knees for this one.”
He turned her and put her on one of the vanities. She grabbed his face, and quickly stole a kiss.
Reese broke away fast, gritting his teeth as he seethed with anger.
“Tell us right now,” Levi said. “There’s no way out of this.”
“We can forget this if we know where it came from,” Reese said.
“I’ll get killed,” Starla said.
“Either way then, you lose,” Levi said. “But if you help us, we can protect you.”
“Yeah, I know how that goes,” she said. “You say you’ll help me but then I end up dead. And nobody gives a damn. Nobody ever gives a damn about me.”
Her voice cracked.
“Save the woe is me routine, sweetheart,” Reese said. “You’re the one with the bag full of drugs.”
“In my town,” Levi said through gritted teeth.
“We’re burning daylight here,” Hawk said. “Let me just take care of this the right way.”
Hawk reached for his gun and Starla turned, pulling her knees to her chest, sitting on the vanity. She began to rock, whispering something.
Reese put a hand out and approached her again.
“What are you whispering?” he asked.
Starla looked at him. “This isn’t me. This isn’t what I want.”
“What else?”
“This isn’t what I will become. This isn’t my life.”
“Why are you whispering that?”
“I used to say it with my sister when my father would beat on our mother,” Starla said. “We’d hug each other and say it. It helped.”
“Is it helping now?”
“Am I going to die, Reese?”
Reese curled his lip. “You’re the only one who can answer that.”
She slowly moved, swinging her legs off the vanity. Her robe opened quite a bit, showing off plenty of skin. Reese kept his eyes locked to hers.
“It was some guy,” she said. “I had been looking for something for fun. Okay? You guys have this entire town terrified of anything like that.”
“Good,” Levi said.
“So, there was a guy I met. He was dressed all in black.”
“A suit?” Reese asked.
“No. Not a suit. He had a black car with the windows all black, real low to the ground. Another guy told me to meet him in an alley. North part of town, where some of the buildings are abandoned.”
“Okay,” Reese said. “What happened?”
“I said what I wanted, and he
said he had an offer for me. I could get my stuff for free.”
“Free,” Reese said.
“Yeah. He said if I help him hold some supply, I get my own. For free.”
“Jesus Christ,” Levi said. “Do you have any idea…”
“Prez,” Reese said. He kept his focus on Starla. “What else?”
“That’s it,” she said. “He said he would let me know when it was time to get his stuff. He warned me that if anything happened, he’d cut me into pieces. Then he’d drive my pieces up and down the coast, leaving me in random places.”
“Shit,” Hawk said. “That sounds like-”
“We got it,” Reese said.
He looked over his shoulder and widened his eyes. There was a chance that Starla was lying. Right now, they needed to play their hand low and calm, in case she did anything else stupid.
“What now?” Starla asked.
Reese backed away. “We’re keeping the supply. If your person contacts you, you contact me. We’ll handle it from there.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“Not today,” Levi said. “If you ever do anything like this again, we won’t hesitate. You’re now in the middle. You’re now our pawn. So be ready to do what we say, when we say.”
“You’ll protect me though, right?” she asked.
“We’ll do what we can.”
“I’ll start the protection,” Hawk said. He tucked his gun away. “She owes me a dance anyway. And then some.”
“Have at it,” Levi said.
Starla stood up and let the robe open. Hawk was right there.
“Wait a second,” another voice said.
Reese turned his head and saw Josie approaching.
“What are you doing, sweetheart?” Reese asked.
“Starla okay?” Josie asked.
“She’s here,” Reese said.
“I need to talk to her for a second,” Josie said.
Starla put a hand to Hawk’s chest. “I’ll be with you in a second.”
The second Starla got near Josie, something wild happened. Josie swung her hand and hit Starla so hard in the face, she went stumbling into another vanity, knocking things over.
“Holy shit,” Brett said.
“Give her a patch, Prez,” Jason said.
Josie went after Starla again. This time it wasn’t an open handed slap, but a closed fist punch. Starla covered her face and started to scream for help.
Reese gave it a few seconds before he wrapped his arms around Josie’s body and pulled her away.
“Aw, come on, VP,” Hawk called out. “It was just getting good.”
Josie kept swinging as Starla leaned against the vanity, shaking.
“You ever call me a bitch again and I’ll kill you,” Josie said. “You fucking whore. You fucking bring that junk in here again and you’re done. You think what these guys can do is bad? Just fucking wait.”
“Okay, okay,” Reese said. “Easy, sweetheart.”
He turned, but Josie wasn’t having it.
So, Reese looked back and nodded to Levi.
“We’re good here,” Levi said.
“I’ll lick her wounds,” Hawk said. “And her pu-”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Reese said.
With his arms around Josie’s body, he lifted her and carried her to the front of the club. Just beyond the black curtains, next to the stage. The music was thumping loudly as he put her down and spun her around.
It was going to be almost impossible to talk.
Josie grabbed his leather cut and Reese touched her face.
He grinned.
She shook her head.
He leaned in and put his mouth near her ear. “What the fuck was that, sweetheart?”
Josie pulled herself to her toes and put her lips to his ear. “I’m tired of this shit, Reese. I feel like I’m going to snap.”
Reese didn’t respond.
Instead, he pulled her closer, his hands slipping around her body.
The music playing wasn’t romantic.
Reese’s thumb stroked Josie’s cheek.
He inched down and brushed his lips to hers.
It was dangerous.
But the only road Reese knew was danger.
Chapter Ten
When Josie heard the words sixteen weeks, she jumped up from the black chair and stood there, switching her gaze between Steph and the doctor. The doctor was a woman with short black hair. She moved quickly and spoke quicker. She had the demeanor of someone working in the ER, ready to shout a hundred orders as she ran up and down the hallway.
“So, here’s what we need to…”
“Wait a second,” Josie said. “Sorry. Did you say sixteen weeks?”
The doctor - Dr. Klen - looked at Josie and smiled. “Yes. Give or take a few days here and there. I’d personally say we’re closer to seventeen weeks. Judging by the size of the baby.”
“Seventeen weeks pregnant,” Josie said. “And she didn’t know?”
“Everyone’s body is different.”
“But she’s not showing…”
Steph put a hand near her stomach. “I’ve felt… off…”
“Off?” Josie asked. “Sixteen weeks. Seventeen weeks. That’s… four months. That’s almost halfway there.”
“This isn’t all that uncommon,” Dr. Klen said in a soft voice.
As she turned to deal with Josie, Josie realized that she was starting to freak out a little and was starting to embarrass herself and Steph.
Screw that. Seventeen weeks pregnant?
“Some people know right away,” Dr. Klen says. “Some don’t. I know the first thing some will say is ‘what about having a period?’ but it’s not always that simple. Some women have irregular cycles and they don’t realize anything has changed until they feel bloated. They start showing. Everyone is different.”
Josie put her hands to her hips. “This is really happening?”
“What did you think was going to happen today?” Dr. Klen asked.
Josie opened her mouth, but didn’t speak. She just shook her head.
“Well, let’s talk good news here,” Dr. Klen said. “The baby is healthy. The baby is a good size. I’m confident about the due date. We’ll keep monitoring and see. As for you, Stephanie, you need to get on a prenatal vitamin right away… we’ll get you in again…”
Dr. Klen spoke and Josie turned. She covered her mouth. Here she thought they had a lot of time. She expected the doctor to say four weeks. Five. Six. Seven at the most, maybe. But seventeen weeks? That meant this situation began four months ago.
Now there were two choices.
Josie could be the supportive Josie… take care of Steph and figure out how to get through this and help Steph become a mom. Or, Josie could be the version of herself like back at the club with Starla. When she heard Starla call her a bitch, something had snapped. She wanted to tear her apart.
But that meant nothing now. Drugs? That wasn’t Josie’s business. That was Reese’s business. The MC’s business. But that put Reese’s life right back on the line, which was the one thing that messed everything up years ago.
“You take good care of yourself, Stephanie,” Dr. Klen said. “You too, Josie.”
Dr. Klen touched Josie’s shoulder and offered a sympathetic grin and nod. Meaning she understood what Josie was going through.
When they were alone in the room, Steph sat up and swung her legs off the table as she started to clean herself up from the ultrasound.
“Please don’t,” Steph whispered.
“Don’t? We’re beyond don’t, Steph. The clock is ticking, and we just lost ten weeks.”
“We?” Steph asked.
“Yeah, we. Unless you have some grand plan here, I’m stuck with this. There’s no room for a baby in my apartment. There’s barely room for you. Seventeen weeks? Are you fucking kidding me? You couldn’t have said something sooner? Why not just wait until you went to use the bathroom and just had the baby? Huh?�
�
Steph got dressed and stood facing Josie, tears in her eyes. “You done?”
“No. I’m not done. Do you even know who the father is? Honestly. Can you even make a top five list?”
“Right,” Steph whispered. “Because you think that some guy is going to be rich and have all the money to take care of me.”
“So that means you got knocked up by some guy at a bar. How fucking fitting.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing, Steph. How about you look around for a second. Where do you think you’re going here? I’ve let you slip for so long and I blame myself for this.”
“Right,” Steph said again.
That was her go to move. When she was cornered and knew she was guilty. She would just repeat the same thing over and over.
“Seventeen weeks,” Josie whispered. “I can’t even imagine that. And what to do next here. How to make this work.”
“You know what?… I’m just going to go to the car,” Steph said.
“Yeah, you do that. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of making the next appointment. I’ll take care of making sure you know what to get, take, whatever. I’ll even buy it for you. How’s that sound?”
Steph lowered her head and exited the room.
The second she was out of sight, Josie felt a terrible guilt weigh down on her. She shut her eyes and put a hand to her mouth.
Did Steph deserve that? Yeah. Did she deserve it right then? No.
Josie took care of checking out at the desk, making the next appointment, and getting all the papers with information from the doctor.
She left the office building and walked to the parking lot to her car.
She expected to find Steph waiting in the passenger seat, either crying or scrolling aimlessly through her phone.
Instead, the car was empty.
There was a note stuck under one of the wiper blades.
Josie slid the note out and quickly knew it was Steph’s handwriting.
And it said two words.
I’m sorry.
Josie didn’t know where else to go.
She pulled into the lot of Back Down Devil MC with her heart racing and the feeling that she was going to throw up. Steph was gone. And she wasn’t answering her phone. She couldn’t think of anything else to do. Going to the police would have been useless because Steph wasn’t actually missing. She voluntarily walked away. Somewhere. Josie thought she could find her. How far could Steph have really walked in the few minutes it took Josie to check out at the doctors?
The Devil's Curve: a Back Down Devil MC romance novel Page 9