Tread: Biker Romance (Ronin MC Series Book 1)

by Morrow, Justin

  Lola shook her head, the blonde beehive on her head never budging. “They took everyone on this ride.” She moved her tongue across her teeth, her eyes unfocused. “Never happened before.” She took a deep breath and straightened. “But they wouldn’t have left it completely unguarded. I’m sure Harvey let those Border Patrol guys know. They’ll be making drive bys.”

  “But we’ll be okay out there unprotected?” I asked nervously.

  Everyone simultaneously snickered. “We aren’t helpless damsels, Gracie. Why do you think we’ve been takin’ you out shootin’ all the damn time?”

  “I see,” I said as strongly as I could, knowing enough not to show fear or weakness with them. We had been spending a lot of time with guns, and I was a fairly decent shot. Something I never thought I would be. Just feeling the holster at my back gave me a level of comfort and self-confidence I had never experienced.

  “So we’ll meet after the dinner crowd moves out of the saloon. We’ll close up early. Ain’t nobody gonna be in all hours with the guys gone, anyway. About seven?” Lola confirmed.

  I had an idea. “Hey, why don’t we get a tree and decorate it out there? When the guys come back, they’ll be on shift out there, some through Christmas.”

  Everyone eyed me like I had asked them to make a dirty movie together. “Just a small one.”

  Lola leaned, her elbows planted firmly on the table. “You wanna decorate a tree in the guard shack?” she asked incredulously.

  I shrugged and looked around. “Like soldiers when they’re deployed. It has to be demoralizing around the holidays.”

  Tatum was the first to roll her eyes. “You’re such a saint, Grace.”

  “I am not!” I fired back.

  “You do what you want, child, and we’ll help,” Veesa declared firmly, daring anyone to contradict her.

  And that was that.

  AFTER MAKING THE HOUR LONG trek on dirt roads, I was certain every ornament I had bought was in a million tiny pieces.

  I jumped out of the truck and looked around, not that there was anything to see. The rusted single-wide trailer was a black ghost against a starry sky. No street lights lit up the fence at the border we had seen illuminated in the headlights as we pulled in. It was eerily silent. Even the bugs were hushed and muted.

  Tatum grabbed a box and shook it violently.

  “Hey, be gentle!” I yelled. My voice seemed to echo off the barren land.

  Tatum laughed and walked away, leaving me by the truck to gather more things.

  “BOO!”

  I screamed, dropping my box and spinning around. Marley held her stomach and doubled over against the back window, wheezing as she cackled. “Jesus, Marley!” I bent, retrieving the box, and the distinct sound of broken glass met my ears. “Great,” I grumbled.

  “Would you two shut your fool mouths! You want to broadcast to every coyote in fifty miles we’re out here alone!” Lola whisper-yelled to us, snatching my box and stomping away.

  Marley and I quickly filled our hands with more things, elbowing each other silently all the way to the front steps.

  Veesa was already inside, a trash bag half-full as we fought each other to get in the door first.

  The smell hit me like a wall. “Oh!” I coughed, bringing my nose to my shoulder to try to block it. “What is that?”

  Lola sighed, dropping her box on a sagging, threadbare couch and looked around in disdain. “That, my little owl, is the scent of unwashed bodies, decaying food, and weed.”

  “Marijuana?” I asked in surprise. Not that I didn’t know most all of the men smoked, but there was no alcohol allowed out here.

  “Sometimes they take a little from the top when they get a shipment.” Lola rolled her eyes. “Checking the product and all that.”

  I tried not to show my surprise. So they trafficked drugs? I looked around the room again uncomfortably.

  Veesa put a heavy hand on my shoulder, and I met her wizened brown eyes. “Most every soldier you’ll ever meet has rebelled against the system. For years they do for their country, and have to shave, cut their hair a certain way, drug tests in the middle of the night. When they get out, particularly these men who join an MC, they break every rule they can to prove they can still do the job.”

  “Right,” I agreed, having nothing better to say.

  “That’s where the money comes from, Grace. All of the fancy bikes and old cars. It ain’t from the auto shop, kid.” Marley reached into the box and immediately tried to suffocate us in Febreeze and air freshener.

  We all groaned, coughed, then opened every window in the place while Lola snatched the bottles from a trigger happy Marley.

  The TVs flickered off after five minutes of showing the outside perimeter at all angles. I jumped as I was wiping down a coffee table as the screens suddenly went black.

  “Motion sensored,” Tatum said in passing. I threw the blackened paper towel away and started on the end tables while Veesa conquered the refrigerator. The thump of containers hitting the hollowed floor frayed my nerves even more in the silence.

  I moved to a bookcase that took up one whole wall, all the way to the ceiling. There had to be a thousand DVD cases lining the shelves. A few cases stuck out, and I reached to push them back in to dust then jumped back. “Oh my God!”

  Pairs of feet stampeded to my side in seconds.

  “What?”

  “What happened?”

  “Is someone outside?”

  Everyone looked around frantically. I pointed in horror. “They’re all porn!”

  Everyone exhaled simultaneously. Marley and Lola turned without a word, going back to their chores.

  “The westerns and action flicks are at the top,” Tatum clarified before leaving me, too. Before she disappeared down the hall, she sent a smirk over her shoulder. “Come on, Grace. What do you think a bunch of guys do out here for a week at a time?”

  I shifted uncomfortably and used a paper towel protected hand to push the covers back in.

  “Grace,” Veesa said, bringing my attention to her. “You feel uncomfortable knowing my son has watched these things?”

  I struggled to not give myself away, but failed miserably. I sank to the newly cleaned coffee table, the only sanitized surface in the place. “Why does he want me, Veesa? I can’t be any of that stuff. I’m not—” I grabbed a title and read it aloud “—a Buxom Blonde, or Anal Party 45. Ew.” I quickly shoved them back and wiped my hands on my jeans.

  “Mija, I will tell you this once. Tread is a man, and men have needs.” I rolled my eyes, but she held up a hand. “He will never not do it. It’s the way these men pass the time out here. But I know my boy. He will not cheat, and he did not bring you into this life as his old lady without serious thought and commitment. That is not cheating.” She waved her hand. “Now, if you ever find him on the couch with a Soiled Dove, you have my permission to use your gun. I didn’t raise that kind of man.”

  I smiled, but still felt myself deflating.

  “He tells me you bring him peace. That is something no one, or no video, can give him. He chose you. Now you have to have faith in him.” She waved to the back. “Talk to Lola if you don’t agree.”

  “Talk to me about what?” Lola came in, snapping her gum loudly, a pair of yellow gloves up to her elbows.

  “If it bothers you that Harvey watches that mess out here,” Veesa supplied.

  Lola scoffed as she tossed another trash bag out the door. “Oh, love bug, that’s just inspiration. You know how I know Harvey’s been watching the X files? It’s when he brings new moves to the bedroom. It’s the same as you reading a smutty romance book. You ever read one of those?”

  I shook my head.

  “Well, you can borrow some of mine, and your man can thank me later. Don’t stress, this is small potatoes in a huge pot of good. They don’t want hard rock titties and gaping holes. They like what’s soft and tight at home.” Lola winked then headed off to the other end.

  I knew for cer
tain that Tread loved that I had only ever been with him, and he loved to teach me new things. Putting the thoughts aside, I got back to work.

  When the majority of everything was straightened and cleaned as much as we could manage, we set up the tree. It was small and sat on the dining room table away from the window. There were no lights, but it was stuffed with ornaments, and had a huge star on top that wouldn’t stay straight on the small branch holding it up.

  “They’re gonna just love it,” Lola exclaimed loudly. “Good call, Gracie.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled back.

  “Do you have that iPad, Grace?” Veesa asked from behind me.

  “Oh, yeah. It’s in my purse.” Marley handed it to me from her position next to the door, and I quickly grabbed the iPad and opened the app. I moved and swiped my fingers, trying to figure out where the dot was in conjunction to the state, but it seemed off.

  “Give me that.” Tatum snatched it out of my hands.

  “Hey!”

  “Oh hush, you don’t know what you’re looking at, anyway.” She zoomed out and slowly the state took shape. “That’s not right.”

  “What’s not right? Let me see.” Lola pushed Marley out of the way then straightened, quickly making eye contact with Veesa.

  “What?” I ask in alarm.

  “They’re in Mexico. Are you sure this is his GPS?” Tatum asked, glancing at me over her shoulder.

  “Mexico? Yes, I watched him sync it up yesterday to his watch GPS thing. Why are they in Mexico?”

  “Well, they’re headed north now. Where ever they went, they must be done.”

  “Tread said two days. What would take that long if they’re almost home?” I asked them.

  “So cool. I wanna see the other half of this thing. If I know my brother, he has two of them,” Tatum said with a smirk, ignoring my question.

  “I guess the love of tech runs in the family, huh? He does have another one. How did you know?” I asked.

  Tatum rolled her eyes. “My dad always said you needed one for backup. It’s the three Ps: Preparedness Precedes Performance. Tread may have taken it with him on the run, though. I’ll never get to play with it.”

  “I can look and bring it in tomorrow if I find it—”

  Veesa pulled the iPad from Tatum and turned it off. “It doesn’t matter. They are on their way back. We will get answers then. We will vacuum and be done. Vámonos.”

  “But we just va—” I protested.

  “One more time!” Veesa shoved the handle into my chest then grabbed the box of cleaning supplies and headed out the door.

  As I ran the vacuum again, I noticed the TV screen come on. When I was done, I started to roll up the cord as Marley and Tatum came out of the back bedrooms with trash bags and spray bottles.

  “Mom already loading up?” Tatum asked with a sigh.

  “Yeah, Lola, too.” We were all quiet as we collected our things. We closed the rest of the windows, and I grabbed an empty bottle of Lysol by the bookshelf when movement from the screen caught my attention.

  I stepped closer to try to make out the black and green night vision, but I couldn’t make sense of it. “Hey, Marley, what is that?” I asked, pointing to the top portion of the set. The TV was broken into six screens, all at different angles.

  “It’s Veesa and Lola. Let’s go,” she said, not looking up.

  “No, that’s Veesa and Lola,” I said, pointing to the bottom screen. “What is that?”

  Marley and Tatum carried their loads to stand on either side of me.

  “That kinda looks like . . . ”

  “Is that . . .”

  I looked to either side of me and was horrified when both of their faces drained of color. I looked back to see Veesa and Lola’s pale faces in the night vision loading up their wares. My eyes shot back to the top. The figures were getting closer, their shapes moving from black to lime green. I stopped breathing when eyes started to glow in the light.

  “Oh my God! Mom!” Tatum dropped everything and ran, the two of us right behind her. We piled out of the door, hitting dirt and running.

  None of us spoke. The silence was suddenly far more deadly than before.

  “What—” Lola started to shout in her usual, overloud way. I slapped my hand over her mouth, cutting her off.

  “Get in the house,” Marley whispered fiercely. Instantly, the older women reach behind them for their guns and ran with us back to safety.

  When the door was closed, we watched the people walk by one screen and out of the shot. They had packs on their backs, big square things that looked heavy, but they trudged on into the night.

  “I counted eight,” Marley murmured.

  “I saw six. We’ll wait to see where they go,” Veesa said, gun in hand.

  “What are they carrying?” I asked quietly.

  “Drugs. Probably pot. I’m calling Harvey,” Lola said, reaching for her phone. She slapped it closed moments later. “No service out here.”

  “Should we stay here until it’s clear?” I asked.

  “There’s satellite phones in the spare bedroom,” Lola said, ignoring my question.

  My heart felt like it would beat out of my chest. I put a hand on it, as if to keep it behind my ribs. “Maybe they won’t even come by here. There’s cameras all over, right?”

  No one answered. Lola walked back in the room, hitting the end button and dialing again. “Come on, you bastard,” she mumbled, sinking to the couch.

  “There they are.” Tatum pointed her little hand high, the shortest of us all.

  “There’s definitely six.” Veesa nodded.

  “Could we call the Border Patrol? They have to know they’re there, right?” I tried again.

  “We’ve never been in this situation. We need to know what to do,” Lola said firmly from the couch.

  “I knew we shouldn’t have come out here.” Tatum stomped away to the kitchen to turn out the lights. Marley and I jumped to turn them off, having just realized we were lit up like a beacon. There were heavy black out curtains on the windows, but off seemed better. The green lights on the TV glowed in the dark room, and Veesa shut the curtains firmly.

  “Harv, we got us a situation.” We all turned to Lola as she spoke quietly into the phone. “Now listen. This isn’t any of that. We’re at the trailer . . . Will you shut your mouth a minute? We were cleanin’ it and there’s mules on the surveillance . . . Six. Should we call the Border . . . all right, all right, keep your pants on. Yeah, they have packs.” She stood up and we moved out of her way. “They were on the first one then moved to the second . . . Harvey, we got the kids here . . . I don’t think we should . . . Yeah, we got guns . . .” Lola walked to the back of the trailer and we stared after her in shock.

  Veesa suddenly shouted, “Fuck!” making us jump.

  “What?” I asked, my voice trembling.

  “Mom, he’s not gonna make us take the packages is he?” Tatum asked, her voice as small as I’d ever heard it.

  Veesa put a hand to her cheek then one to mine before moving on to Marley. “Yes, babies. But we are strong, and he wouldn’t do that unless he had faith in us or thought we were in danger. They will be coming upon the trailer soon. That’s the only reason. We take them before they take us. But we are Ronin, and we can do this.”

  I wanted to shout that I wasn’t Ronin. Not in the way these women had grown up, or done things their whole lives. I was a fraud, a transplant that was barely taking as it was.

  Lola walked back in, her arms filled with shotguns and rifles, her face solemn.

  “He is sure, Lola?” Veesa asked severely. Lola nodded, her beehive shivering for the first time since I’d known her. She dumped the guns onto the table next to the Christmas tree then walked back out.

  “Let me get the ’munition.”

  Veesa reached for a shotgun and handed it to me silently. I swallowed past the boulder in my throat and took it, automatically checking to see if it was loaded. The chambers were clear.
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  “Here, everyone put on these vests,” Lola said, struggling to hand me one. I almost stumbled backwards at the weight, and followed Marley’s lead as she slipped it over her head and tightened the Velcro straps. Forty pounds of lead made it even harder to breathe, but I didn’t complain. I wanted a full suit of armor a la Ironman right about now.

  “Harvey said we have about ten minutes from when they left the second camera ’til the mules get to us.”

  “We can’t just leave? Get in the car and drive away? Why can’t we drive away?” I asked shrilly, feeling like I was about to pass out from fear.

  Lola shook her head, loading magazines into the pockets of her vest. “He said it would be easy. Nothin’ to it. They’re rarely armed in such small groups. We take the packs and turn them around. Send ’em on their way. Stash the packs in the usual place.”

  “Where’s the usual place?” I asked, looking to Tatum. She shrugged and cocked her shotgun.

  “We’re takin’ it with us. We’ll load the packs first, put the trash on top. I’ll worry about gettin’ it where it needs to go.” Lola looked at us, her usually bright face seeming to age before our eyes. “You shoot first, ask questions later. Any sudden moves and you don’t hesitate.”

  I looked around wildly. “Are we seriously talking about killing people? Are you all out of your fucking minds?”

  Marley cleared her throat. “Grace, if they’re coming on us, they could break into the trailer. One good kick and we’re sittin’ ducks to a group of men and women who’ve walked days in the desert with drugs on their backs. This is as desperate as people get. If we have to do it, then it’s gotta be done.”

  “We need to get outside. Grace and Tatum, you stay with me. Marley, go with Lola. We’ll take the truck. You two move around to the back of the house. They’ll get to you first.” Veesa walked out the door, Tatum behind her. Lola pushed my back and I stumbled into the darkness.

  We took position and waited. And waited. Frost was collecting on the windshield. The only sound I could hear was my pulse beating in my ears. But as the temperature fell below freezing, drops of sweat fell from my forehead and between my breasts. I wiped my palms on my thighs when the heavy gun started to slip.