“Liam,” he said, his voice shaky even to his own ears. “But everyone calls me Spider.” He took a deep breath, bracing himself for impact, trying to forget the one and only man who’d ever called him Liam, knowing that that man was impossible to forget, and even more impossible to avoid talking about here and now. “OK, guys. Hit me with it, whatever it is.”
Tex gave him a slow, lazy grin. “You’re a fan of the bandaid approach, huh, Spider? Just rip it on off in one go?”
“Yep.”
“You got it.” Tex stopped smiling, shifted his weight on his cowboy boots. “Ace killed Kirk Jensen, and now we have reason to think that the Fallen Angels will be coming after you.”
Spider blinked. He knew his mouth was hanging open, but he couldn’t seem to close it. Whatever he’d thought they were there for, that hadn’t been it.
“Uh,” he managed, then stuttered to a stop. What part of the clusterfuck to begin with? “Uh… Ace did what?”
“Killed Kirk Jensen,” Tex repeated slowly, like he was humoring a slow toddler. “Blew him away in cold blood.”
“Why?” Spider asked, stupefied at this news. God, he’d thought that Kirk Jensen had been indestructible, untouchable, immortal. “Why did he, knowing how dangerous it was to so much as touch one hair on that fucker’s greasy head?”
“He was protecting someone,” Honey said. “That’s all you need to know, alright? Ace didn’t have any choice. It was these other people or it was Jensen.”
“So – so Ace saved someone?” Spider said.
“Yes,” Tex replied. “He did. At great personal risk to himself, I need to add.”
“Oh.” Spider wrestled with himself for a second, trying hard not to feel a bit of pride about Ace’s good call. “OK… well. Uh. So if Ace killed that piece of shit, why would the Angels come after me? I didn’t have anything to do with it.” He paused, remembering just how involved he was with King’s Men, and he suddenly wasn’t sure that he hadn’t done something wrong, even inadvertently. “Did I?”
“Well…” Tex looked a bit uncomfortable. “Well… uh… this part’s a bit… it’s not… ummmm…”
“It seems that your ex held onto a pen drive with some very intimate pictures of you two,” Honey interrupted, clearly not the type to mince words or shy away from anything touchy. “Stupidly, he hid it somewhere in his apartment, and before Jensen died, he told Ace that his former MC brothers were in the process of tearing up his place with crowbars.”
“They – what?” Spider stammered. “But – why?”
“Because Jensen already knew that Ace was the one ratting him out.”
“Is that why Ace really killed him?” Spider said slowly. “To protect himself from being found out as an informant for King’s Men?”
“No,” Honey said. “No. What I said was the truth: he killed Kirk so someone else could live.” She thought about Warren Kane and Shay Alcott with fondness, wished them godspeed and good luck as they fled to their new life together. “Two someone else’s actually. I swear to you, I didn’t lie about that.”
“OK.” Spider sighed, feeling the wild urge to down a shot of vodka. Maybe two. “OK. So… Kirk Jensen figured out that Ace was working with you guys, and he told the MC?”
“Yep.”
“And they turned on Ace.” It wasn’t a question. “On their own President.”
“Of course they did,” Tex said, incredulous. “Ace betrayed them, man, and these boys may be vicious fucking wild animals, but they have their own codes of honor and ethics, and what Ace did was against everything they believe in. Hell, he’s lucky that Jensen decided to try to kill Ace himself. He could have just turned him over to the Fallen Angels, and told ‘em to let loose and have at him. If he’d done that, Ace’s death would have been slow and painful. It’d still be going on, to be blunt, and would probably go on until next week.”
Spider blanched, as image after horrible image raced through his spinning mind. Ace skinned alive and left to die in the mountains. Ace beaten for a week solid before succumbing to internal injuries. Ace burned with cigarettes for days before being set on fire. He shut his eyes, suddenly grateful that Jensen had been the type to want to take care of business himself, because his monster ego demanded it. That arrogance had probably saved Ace’s life. Far easier to take on one guy than an entire MC.
Not that Spider cared about Ace anymore, of course. He just didn’t want the man to be tortured to death. That’s all.
“So…” Spider said, refocusing on the situation at hand. “So you came here because…”
“Because we need to hide you,” Honey told him. “As soon as those animals find those pictures – and they will, make no mistake – they’ll come looking for you.”
“Oh. Oh, right.” Spider spoke numbly, automatically. “Of course they will.”
“We’ve come to take you to a safe house,” Honey said. “It’s all set up and ready, and King’s instructed us to get you there within the hour.”
“OK,” Spider said, still a bit stunned. “Uh-huh. Right.”
“Spider,” she said gently. “You with us?”
“Sure.” With a huge effort, he rejoined the here and now. “I’m fine.”
“OK.” Tex leaned his entire hulking frame back against the office door, crossed his muscled arms. “So we need to haul ass to the safe house, son. Like now. You go in, and you don’t come out until King declares that the coast is clear.”
“But…” Spider blinked, as a bit of reality began to hit. “But… what about my café? My apartment? My… well. My life?”
“If you give a good goddamn about your life, you’ll do what King says,” Tex growled. “Don’t be a fuckin’ fool, man.”
“But… I have responsibilities. Staff, suppliers, customers.”
“Right now, your only responsibility is seeing the sunrise tomorrow,” Honey said, her voice sharp. “Tex is right. If you have a death wish, then by all means, carry on with coming to work and serving up coffee and I hope you grow eyes in the back of your head, because whatever’s coming, you won’t see it and I know that for a fact. But if you want to be here to see the spring, then you’d better smarten up good and quick.”
“I’m not saying that I won’t come,” Spider said, stung. “I’m not an idiot, guys. I know what the hell’s at stake here. But it’s too sudden. I mean, can you call King and ask if I can have one night to put things in order? Go to the safe house tomorrow morning first thing?”
“No,” Tex and Honey said simultaneously.
“Just – no?”
“Just fuckin’ no,” Tex said, his voice rough enough to crush asphalt. “King said one hour, and you’re wasting time, man. You’re down to fifty-three minutes.”
“But –”
“You coming or not?” Honey interrupted him. “Because I have a really, really low bullshit tolerance threshold, and this conversation is boring me now.”
“Do I have a choice?” Spider said, a bit jokingly. “Or are you going to knock me out and throw me in the car?”
“Sure you do,” Tex replied. “We’re not gonna throw you in the trunk, and if you really want to take your chances, that’s your look-out. You’re a grown man. Your life, your call.”
“Oh.” Spider was a bit stumped. “Oh, right. Well… hang on a minute, OK?”
Honey sighed heavily and rolled her blue eyes. “One minute, and we’re out of here.”
Spider nodded, then walked across the room to the door. Tex just stared down at him, still leaning against it, arms still crossed.
“Um. Excuse me,” Spider said. “I need to go out there.”
“You think you’re heading on out there without me looking first, huh?” Tex said, sounding almost amused. “You really just don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?” Spider asked.
“That you’re a
fuckin’ dead man walking,” Tex said succinctly. “That me and Honey and King aren’t aiming to inconvenience you, or mess up your life, or cramp your trendy barista style. We’re trying to keep you in one goddamn piece – and all’s you’ve done thus far is tell us how unhappy you are about that.”
“I –” Spider stopped. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Honey said. “Just do what we say.”
“OK.” Spider took a deep breath. “Tex, could you please make sure that the café is clear? I need to get Mirrie in here.”
“Mirrie?” Tex said.
“Yeah. One of my staff.”
“What’s she look like?”
“Blonde hair. Nose ring. Neck tattoo.”
“The one wearing the purple skirt and red sweater and knee-high green boots?” Tex said.
Spider cocked his head. “You noticed her?”
“Hell, man,” Tex drawled. “We notice everybody. I can tell you what every single person in that room is wearing and what they look like… but let’s face it. Mirrie is memorable, no matter if you’re trained in personal security or not.”
“True.” Spider smiled for the first time in what felt like hours. “You guys know who she is?”
“Should we?” Honey rejoined, playing along though she knew exactly who she’d been looking at when she’d spotted Mirrie in her wild ensemble across the café. “Who is she?”
“She goes by the name Miranda Campbell now,” Spider says. “But her real name is Miranda Kane.”
“Kane?” Tex repeated softly. “Like… Sands and Joker Kane?”
“Yeah. Mirrie is Sands’ kid and Joker’s younger sister.”
“So… that makes her Shane MacIntyre’s girlfriend,” Tex said slowly, as puzzle pieces began to click into place.
“How’d you know that?” Spider said, startled. “How do you know Mac and Mirrie?”
“Never you mind,” Tex said roughly. “Lots of people are on our radars, man.”
Honey was silent, since she wasn’t able to talk about King’s Men ops with anyone except her fellow Men. The truth was that although Tex had been briefed on Mirrie Kane in a team meeting, Honey had actually been there the night that Shane ‘Mac’ MacIntyre had been taken by the Fallen Angels, and then a couple of King’s Men had been on a secret protective detail outside Mirrie’s apartment. It had all been an elaborate set-up, of course, with the end-goal being King shooting and killing Trigger MacGee, the Angels’ former President, and the man that Ace had taken over from.
The entire point of that op, of course, had been to blackmail Ace Cuddy. He’d been VP of the Fallen Angels then, and King had used Ace’s own gun – which he’d used to murder the President of the Road Devils, a rival MC, and which Spider himself had taken and hidden years before, as a sort of insurance policy – to kill Trigger. Ace’s fingerprints were all over it, and it was well-known whose distinctive weapon it was.
Essentially, King had given Ace a choice: take over as MC President and turn informant for King’s Men about Kirk Jensen’s dirty little deals – or King would make sure that Ace’s MC brothers not only knew that Ace had ‘killed’ Trigger with his gun, but that he was also gay.
Ace had crumbled, naturally, and that was how he’d ended up firmly in King’s pocket. He’d ratted Kirk Jensen and his own MC out, again and again, over and over, and King’s Men and the cops and feds had methodically smashed Jensen’s drug channels, his kidnapping rings, his sex-trafficking circles. People had died – mostly Ace’s own MC brothers, and Kirk’s favorite lieutenants. Kirk had known that someone close to him had betrayed him, of course, and he’d figured out soon enough that it had been Ace.
That was how Ace and Kirk had ended up in that lonely cabin in the mountains that very afternoon, and why Ace had been forced into a corner. He’d pulled the trigger and shot Kirk – but that act had actually been determined the second that Ace had agreed to King’s terms and had turned traitor. It had been inevitable, and now it was like karma and fate and justice and hell had all come knocking at the door at the exact same damn time… and if King and his people didn’t move fast, lives were going to be laid to waste.
Starting with Ace and Spider’s.
“What do you want Mirrie for?” Honey asked Spider now.
“She’ll have to run the café while I’m gone,” Spider said. “I mean, someone has to.”
Honey was quiet again, since she knew that, actually, King wanted Mirrie to go into hiding, too. Oh, her need to disappear was less-urgent than Spider’s, of course, but it was still there. After all, she and Mac were actively disliked by the Fallen Angels, and her father and brother had never forgiven her for leaving the MC family as a young woman. Yes, she’d paid for that freedom, first in blood, then in losing Mac for years to keep him safe, but a debt to an MC could never be repaid, and it could never be walked away from.
But Mirrie wasn’t Honey’s job. She was Mac’s – and Mac was King’s. Besides, the truth was that the MC wouldn’t make harming Mirrie a priority… not when word got out that Ace had killed Kirk Jensen, and when they found the hidden pictures of their President with another man. Their heads were – quite literally – going to detonate with rage, and they’d be unable to think about anything except finding and killing Ace and Spider. Mirrie had some breathing room, for sure, so for now, Honey just nodded amiably.
“Let Tex take a look around then,” she said. “Then you can go get Mirrie. You bring her in here and talk to her in this office.”
“In front of you?” Spider faltered. “What do I – how much do I tell her?”
“Nothing,” Tex grated out. “Nothing, man. Not until King gives the all-clear on sharing intel.”
“So what am I supposed to say to explain you guys showing up, and me just disappearing? You think she isn’t going to figure out that something’s going on? Especially since she knows about me and Ace and all the ways that my life intersects with the Fallen Angels’ crap? She’s going to jump to the score, no doubt about it.”
“Let her.” Tex shrugged. “Let her think whatever she wants right now.”
“But… but that’s cruel!” Spider protested.
“No.” Honey’s voice was as hard as it ever got. “It’s practical and it’s not our concern. We have our orders, and they don’t involve Miranda Kane. So move it, Spider, because we need to have you at the safe house in forty-nine minutes, and Tex and I never miss an op deadline. You get me?”
“I get you.” Spider sighed. “I’ll do as you say.”
“Stay back, man.” Tex opened the office door, stuck his head out and gave the café a quick, searching glance. “OK, go. No messin’ around, now.”
“Yes, sir,” Spider muttered under his breath as he passed Tex, earning him a baleful glare from those astonishing green eyes. “No messin’ around, that’s a promise, over and out, officer.”
“Shut your smart mouth,” Tex snapped. “Haul ass, son.”
“So bossy,” Spider said, lowering his own voice to a playful, teasing level. “Though I do like that, on occasion.”
As he’d hoped, Tex just glowered harder, which made his drop-dead-sexy face nothing but hotter. Spider didn’t usually go for blonds, but he’d be more than happy to make an exception for this drawling, smoldering cowboy. He was delicious, with his orders and demands and growls about the time passing and standing there with those large arms crossed.
All of this was, of course, just a gigantic distraction, and not at all the point. Spider sighed, then stuck his head out of the office.
“Mirrie?” he called.
“Yeah, boss?” she called back from behind the counter.
“Come in here for a minute, OK?”
“Sure thing.”
She crossed the café floor, her dark-blonde hair shining and bouncing, her amazing violet eyes warm as she returned the
customers’ greetings. As Tex and Honey had quite accurately pointed out, her clothing was a triumph of enthusiastic color and fearless combinations over anything even remotely practical, conservative or – some might say – tasteful or fashionable. But Mirrie didn’t give a damn about any of those things, and she dressed like she lived: brightly and proudly and vibrantly.
She came into the office, then stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Tex and Honey. Right away, she spun to pin Spider with a look.
“Who’s dead?” she demanded.
“Uh.” Spider grappled to look calm. “Nobody.”
“Don’t lie,” Mirrie said with an enviable eye-roll. “Also don’t treat me like a moron.”
Spider looked at Tex and Honey, his pleading desperation so huge that it was almost physical.
“Mirrie,” Tex said, his low voice rumbling out of his chest. “You know we can’t tell you anything, hon.”
“Don’t ‘hon’ me, Slick,” she shot back, making Honey grin. “And either you give me a clue what’s going on, or I’ll call King myself.”
“How’d you –” Spider caught himself. “Of course you know KIng’s involved.”
Mirrie rolled her eyes again, even harder, if that was at all possible. “Duh.”
“Mirrie,” Honey said, going for reasonable. “Mac will tell you everything soon.”
“Oh, will he?” Mirrie said, feigning delight. “So my big strong boyfriend knows what’s going on, does he?”
“Not yet.” Honey cocked her head at the other woman. “It’s a time-sensitive matter, Mirrie, and we need to haul ass out of here, and I mean yesterday. No time for histrionics or drama or hurt feelings. We need to get Spider out and away, and you need to cope with things here for him. Can you handle that?”
Extreme Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 7) Page 2