by Nicole Fox
True, I still needed Koen to get to Volkov, especially after my last plan hadn't worked. But, maybe, just maybe, I could come up with something else.
I couldn't get too comfortable with this broad-chested biker boy, though. After I got Aleksey, what I had with Koen would be over. He'd never want to touch me again, no matter how intoxicating our bodies felt when we put them together.
# # #
Koen
Jace stirred beside me, but I kept my eyes closed, just enjoying the feel of her warm body coiled up against mine. My body ached from the night before, every fiber of my being calling out for me to stay in bed. Who knew leaping from a moving bike onto a semi-truck speeding down the highway would take so damned much out of a man? But, still, the feel of her tiny form pressed into mine was the best excuse I'd ever come up with to stay in bed.
I'd fucked more women than I could count, even with my boots off. Fed once joked that I should just get a revolving door put on my bedroom or, better yet, one of those subway style turnstyles that kept count for you. I didn't even remember most of their names, to be honest. They'd always been a flash of blonde hair, or brown, a soft body pressed beneath mine that I could do with as I pleased. I'd pump 'em till I couldn't anymore, then I'd toss them by the wayside.
It was what I did.
Far as I was concerned, they couldn't leave my bedroom fast enough.
Which was what made it so damnably weird that I was thinking of what Jace and I were going to eat for breakfast.
A woman had never gotten under my skin like this before, I realized as Jace started to move beside me. I reflexively pulled her back down to my chest. I could feel her eyes fluttering against my skin, her eyelashes feeling like butterflies on my pecs.
Like fucking butterflies. Never thought I'd say that.
I just wished I'd met her a week earlier, before her brother Tomlin had died, before she'd set off on this stupid ass vengeance jag. Then, I could still have her.
But, no, she just had to try and double-cross me. She just had to lie to my face over and over.
In a game like the one I was playing — one where people ended up in the bayou with their heads and hands gone — Trust was spelled with a capital T. It was the most important thing you could have between two people.
In a relationship, too, it was just as important. You had to have it there to keep something strong and unbreakable.
But we didn't have it, did we? What little I had for her had been left on the side of that swamp highway, splattered with blood in the cab of that semi-truck.
Chapter Fifteen
Jace
We took one of Koen's spare bikes back to Club Hellfire. The city was already alive and teeming with life as we rode through traffic and pulled up behind the bar on Bourbon Street.
Koen's face was stony, his expression set in granite as we rode. No smiles, no laughter. Of course, he had made breakfast for me. That was nice. It had been a while since a man had made me eggs after I'd spread my . . . well, you get it.
Koen didn't bring up what happened the night before, and I didn't either. He didn't lean in for a soft lover's kiss like the one from the night before, and I paid it no mind. Focusing on keeping him happy kept me from keeping my mind where it needed to be: Aleksey Volkov.
Together, we headed upstairs, into the center of the F&B MC operations.
Koen went around collecting Fed and Happy, and whoever else was around, while I stopped in and checked on Benji.
I knocked on the door and waited for her to call out.
“Come in,” she said after a while, her voice sounding a little lower than normal.
I pushed open the door and went inside, the smell of antiseptic hitting me like a subtle sledgehammer. She was sprawled out in her makeshift hospital bed, her skin pallid and the rings around her eyes so dark she looked like she'd pissed off the wrong John. “Hey,” she warbled at me, smiling widely.
“How's it hanging, girl?” I asked with a wan smile as I went over and propped one hip up on the edge of her bed, taking a seat.
“Tired,” she said. “Hurts like a sumbitch still, but other than that I'm good.”
I smiled at her, reached out to push some of her lank hair behind her ear. “Guess you can scratch getting shot off your bucket list,” I said.
“Yeah,” she said, laughing a little, “guess so.”
We didn't say anything else, not for a long moment. “So,” I finally began, purposely and slowly speaking each word, “I wanted to apologize for fucking everything up last night.”
She nodded as she listened.
“I fucked up. I fucked up real bad, and I almost got you killed. I'm sorry, Benji.”
“Yeah, you're right,” she said after a while. “You did fuck up bad. I mean, like, horribly, awfully, astronomically bad.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, my lips pressed tight together.
“Like, so bad, if I were to tell someone on the street what you did, they'd call me a liar. Because no one ever fucks up that bad. Never.”
“Yup.”
“So bad, in fact, we could probably call up Guinness World Records on the phone and get them out here.”
“I agree.”
She smiled and shrugged. “But, it's kind of okay. I forgive you, I guess.”
“You guess?” I asked in a fake, unsure tone, taking one of her hands in mine and squeezing it. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding and squeezing weakly back. “I love you like a sister, Jace. Even if you do some stupid-ass shit sometimes. Just don't ever forget that, okay?”
I nodded, my eyes starting to spring a leak. I reached up with my free hand and wiped away the rain drop that had suddenly fallen from the sky. “Okay. I love you, too, girl.”
“I know,” she said, smiling back with that same wan smile. “But, I'll be fine soon. Doc says I just need to rest.”
We stayed like that for a little while, just talking. Koen came by soon after, though, and knocked on the open door. “Jace,” he said. “Meeting time.”
“Coming,” I said, and had to suppress a little bit of a grin at my words.
“Oh no,” Benji said after Koen disappeared back into the hallway. “You fucking slut,” she said good-naturedly, her tone saying she was just messing with me.
“What?” I asked, trying to fake my innocence.
“Oh, Jace,” she said, grinning. “How was he?” she asked, readjusting in her pile of pillows. “Big?”
I grinned. “No idea what you're talking about.”
“You're telling me you can get me shot with a harebrained scheme, but you can't tell me what his cock looks like?” Jace asked, shaking her head. “I thought we loved and trusted each other,” she squeaked lowly.
“Jace!” Koen called from the hallway again. He'd returned, and he looked more frustrated and impatient than anything else. “Let's fucking go!”
“Back in a few,” I promised as I got up off Benji's bed and headed for the door.
“Don't leave me hanging, woman,” Benji squeaked out at me, her voice sounding more like her own. “Just tell me!”
Koen gave us both an inquiring look as I approached.
“Nothing,” I assured him. Then I turned around and, grinning, gestured to her with my hands eight or nine inches apart, estimating about how long I thought Koen was.
Benji laughed. “You go girl,” she squeaked as she weakly pumped her tiny fist in the air.
Together, he and I headed through the halls, destination: meeting room. I had to fight the urge to just stare in awe at him as he stalked through the halls. Memories of the night before flashed in my mind. Memories of his hand entangled in my hair, of his grip on my throat, of his lips wrapped around a stiff nipple as he pounded into me on the hood of his Camaro. I pushed them all down, though, and tried to remind myself what I was doing here.
“Your friend doing okay?” he asked, his voice gruff and a little distant.
“Yeah,” I said. “She'll be fine.”
I almost laughed, but I kept it bottled in. Instead, I just nodded curtly. “Yep. He did fine.”
We went into the meeting room, where Fed and Happy were already waiting for us.
“Alright men,” he said as we took our seats at the table. “Where do we go from here?”
He seemed at first glance like he was open to negotiation, and input from his men. But, from what I'd learned with just my short time here, his mind was made up. This was all a formality to him.
“We need to lay off Volkov,” Fed said. “That much is obvious.”
“Why's it obvious?” Koen asked, settling back into his chair. “He doesn't know it's us.”
Fed laughed and shook his head. “You mean last night wasn't a tip off that he did?”
Koen dismissed Fed's concerns with a wave of his hand. “Look, if Aleksey knew it was us, we'd have guys kicking in our doors, wouldn't we? I, for one, didn't have any goons whispering in Russian outside my bedroom door last night. Did you, Happy?”
Happy shook his head, smiling a little.
“I think he knows it's one group ripping him off. But, I bet last night was just their new security. And, besides, no one got a good look at us. Least, not anyone that could say anything.”
A somber moment descended on the room as the two other men recalled what Koen had done the night before, the two bodies they'd tossed out into the bayou to be either discovered by the cops, or eaten by gators.
“Still say it's risky,” Fed replied. “Happy?”
“Well,” Happy said, dragging the word out, “everything's pretty damn risky, when you get down to it, don'tcha think? I mean, we're ripping people off and shit, no matter which way you look at it. Back when we was doing electronics knock-overs with Koen's Pa, you still was worried about some trucker going all Shotgun Willie on you. Personally, if you might get shot either way, I'd rather get a fat payday for my troubles.”
Fed grumbled a little at Happy's support of Koen's plan, but he seemed to resign himself to it. The club was with their president, even if it was a bad idea.
But, strange thing was, I didn't think Fed was trying to wrench control away from Koen. At least not on purpose. He just seemed like he was cautious, and was trying to think of the safest way to keep the cash flowing in. No one wants to die, right?
Koen turned his attention to Fed. “How about we give it a month?” he asked. “Let things cool down, see if Aleksey picks up our trail or not.”
Fed grumbled a little as he considered his buddy's words. “Fine,” he said after a while, “a month. I'll agree to a month.”
Personally, a month was probably prudent. It would make Aleksey focus on other gangs, maybe, convince him to lower his guard a little. More importantly, though, I thought it would give me a chance to come up with another plan while I laid low and looked at my options. Of course, I had to make sure I didn't spend that month mooning over Koen's rugged face and hard body. Or, well, other hard things.
I had to remember to keep it all business from here on out.
“A month, then,” Koen said. “Jace, you got anything?”
I slowly shook my head. “A month seems reasonable,” I said. “Perfect, in fact.”
Just one more month, Tommy. Just one more month.
“Alright,” Koen said, nodding emphatically. “One month. And, we'll need it. I got a plan, and it might take a while to cook up. This time, though, we're gonna pull it off without a hitch.”
# # #
Koen
“Come on, Fed,” I said to my best friend as he rolled his eyes, “let's have a little optimism in the room here.”
Fed sighed and Happy grinned. Happy and I might not have been buddies, not the way Fed and I were, but he was at least always down for a good heist.
I'd come up with the plan on the ride into Club Hellfire, and I immediately felt ridiculous for not coming up with something like it sooner.
“Alright,” I began. “This one's easy. Doesn't involve the girls as bait, so we ain't got any innocents in the mix. The plan was good before, but it wasn't flexible enough to deal with any unexpected twists. This time, we're going to go straight for the source. We take out a guard at the port, and the driver, and we just drive that whole goddamn thing out of there. Knock 'em out, no killing, nothing like that.”
“Shit,” Fed and Jace both said at the same time. They both looked at each other and shook their heads.
I glanced over at them, one eyebrow raised. “Problem?”
Before they could answer, though, there was a knock at the meeting room door.
“Happy?” I asked, gesturing to the door with a nod.
Happy got up and answered the door while Fed started to detail his objections to the idea. “Dude, the Port Authority ain't someone to fuck around with. Ain't we getting into Federal shit on that?”
“Koen?” Happy asked. “Your grandpa's on the line for the club.”
That was strange. Grandpa Xavier never called here looking for me. Normally, I guess, he would have just called my cell phone, but I had to leave that out in the hallway so we could keep the room free of anything that could be a risk of being bugged.
“Dunno what he wants,” Happy said, “but Slash is saying he sounds fucking pissed.”
I got up from the table and went to leave the room. “Alright,” I said. “I'll talk to him. Just a minute, guys.”
I grabbed the phone from Slash, one of the lower guys in the club, and stepped away from the meeting room as Happy closed the door behind me.
“Grandpa?” I asked as I took the phone. “What's up?”
“Get your ass out to the house right fucking now,” he said, his voice hard and brittle, the words clipped and devoid of any of the belly-laughing chuckle it normally had. “We need to talk, and I know your phone probably isn't safe.”
Then, he just hung up on me without waiting for my response.
I pulled the handset away from my ear and looked disbelievingly at the phone. Grandpa had just cussed at me like I was a naughty teenage boy that had been busted skipping school. He'd never spoken to me like that before, not in my life. I knew it was bad, then. Real bad.
I gingerly hung up the phone and went back into the meeting room. “Jace,” I said, “we gotta go. Now.”
I told the guys I'd explain later and rushed Jace out of the room. We hopped on my bike and sped out to Grandpa Xavier's house. Jace was smart enough to keep her questions to herself as I wove through traffic at a breakneck speed, my hands so tight on the grips I was amazed I didn't end up with diamonds in my palms when I came to a halt in the driveway.
“What is this about?” Jace asked as we got off the bike.
“Dunno,” I said. “Grandpa's got something to tell me, and he couldn't do it on the phone. And, he sounds pretty pissed, too.”
“Great,” Jace said. Clearly, she didn't feel like getting yelled at today, either.
I led her inside as we entered the house without knocking. “Grandpa?” I called out.
“In the kitchen, Koen,” he shouted back, his voice just as angry as when we'd spoken on the phone earlier.
Jace and I exchanged a glance, one that said she'd cover me if I wanted to make a run for it. I shook my head a little bit, frowned, and we headed into the kitchen to join Xavier.
“Sit,” Xavier said as we entered the kitchen, his voice tightly wound. “Now.”
We both silently took a seat, the stools scraping on the tile like wretched claws on a gravestone. All you could hear was the air-conditioning blowing in the other room, and the slight wobble of a ceiling fan as it shook in its mounting.
“Got a call from someone I still knowing in the Bureau. There's footage of you at the Hilton the other night, the night Sven Morokov was shot to death. Front and center.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but he just hushed me like a child.
“Don't you fucking say a word to me,” he said, his voice low and filled with unspoken threat
, “unless it's to explain how in the goddamned fuck you got mixed up with the Wolf.”
I sighed, my mind already trying to figure out a way to explain this and keep Jace's hands clean in the whole affair. There wasn't any sense in her getting yelled at, or worse, so much worse, over this whole thing. “Okay,” I started. “I was there, with Fed, that much is true. But it's not what you think.”