Black Jack

by A Parker

  Bates grunted. “Bullshit. He wouldn’t be riding out here to hand over the only leverage he has over me if you meant nothing to him.”

  “Maybe he just has a better moral compass than you and he doesn’t want someone getting caught up in your mess who shouldn’t be,” I said.

  Bates snorted. Jim and Hitch seemed to take this as permission to laugh as well.

  When their boss spoke once more, they fell silent. “Men like Jackson Black are easy to read and even easier to play. His motivations are simple and uncomplex. If he had it his way, I’m sure he’d be riding his little bike around Reno with his pack of weak-willed followers, pretending to be someone. What’s he ever done? What’s he ever left his mark on, huh?”

  Me.

  “You don’t understand him at all,” I said.

  “And you do?”

  Finally, I looked over at him and stared into his one good eye. “I know he’s nothing like you.”

  Bates clicked his tongue. “Now that might be the truest thing you’ve ever said. You’re right, he’s nothing like me. He’s a punk, just like his dead little brother, and I’m going to make you a promise right now, sweetheart.” Bates swung his leg off his bike, got to his feet, and loomed over me. I could smell the cigar smoke on him as his thin lips peeled off his teeth in a smile that looked too similar to the grin of the wolverine on the back of his jacket. “By the end of this shit, Jackson will be just as dead, just as insignificant, and just as forgettable as poor little William. Mark my fucking words.”

  As I stared up into his evil face, I wished I was the woman with the nerve to spit at him. I wished I was brave enough to give him a piece of my mind or knee him in the balls.

  But I was not that woman. Not here, not tonight. The heat and the fear consumed me whole.

  Bates tipped his head back to the sky and closed his eyes. “It’s going to rain.”

  I looked up at the sky too and noticed the stars were blacked out by heavy clouds. It was full dark and moonless. The only light came from the headlights of the motorcycles and the SUV.

  Clyde strolled up beside Bates. “Here they come, boss.”

  In the distance, engines rumbled. Lights winked to life around a bend in the road.

  Jackson.

  As the Devil’s Luck approached, the sky let loose the first droplets of rain. I breathed in the smell of wet asphalt as it began to pour and closed my eyes. Jim gripped my arm and pulled me into his side.

  His laugh sounded like thunder.

  Chapter 22

  Jackson

  The Wolverines were parked on the other side of the old tracks. Their headlights caught the rain falling between us as my boys and I killed our engines and got off our bikes. I strode forward, my eyes focused on one thing and one thing only.

  Samantha.

  She stood pinned to Jim’s side. I couldn’t make out her face, only her silhouette, because the lights of the SUV shining behind her painted her features in shadow. In fact, I couldn’t see any of their faces.

  Tex, who’d driven Caroline’s Range Rover to the location, flashed the headlights.

  The man who must have been Bates approached with a cigar pinched between his lips. This was the first time I’d seen him, and I was surprised by his sheer size. He stepped up onto the tracks and stood on the rails while he puffed a cloud of cigar smoke over his head. The rain pinged off the metal tracks and I stopped about ten paces away.

  Bates held both arms out wide. “It’s about time we met face to face, Black Jack. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but I have to admit, I thought you’d be taller.”

  His men, a headcount of a dozen, laughed behind him.

  Rainwater dripped off the tip of my nose. “Aren’t you going to ask if your daughter is okay?”

  The laughter died on their lips.

  Bates let his still outstretched arms lower slowly before bringing his hand to his mouth to puff again on his cigar. How it was still lit in the downpour, I had no idea.

  “Come a little closer so I can see your face,” Bates said.

  Sam, tucked in close to Jim still, tried to squirm away from him, but he held her fast.

  I moved up onto the tracks despite uneasy grumbling from my men, who stayed behind. Up close, I could make out more details about Bates, like the tattoos on his shaved skull and his one white milky eye. He looked me over, most likely taking note of me the way I was of him, and smirked.

  “You look just like him,” he said. “Or should I say, he looked just like you? He still had a bit of a baby face though, you know?”

  I hated that he had the nerve to speak about my brother, but I knew he was goading me. He wanted a reaction, and I refused to give him one.

  “We take after our mother,” I said.

  Bates finally put out his cigar before the rain did and crushed it under his boot on the tracks. “There are things we need to discuss now that we’re face to face, Black Jack. Starting with how we move forward from here. I’m willing to throw you a line. I’m not the ruthless monster you might think I am.”

  Yeah fucking right.

  Bates smiled almost sympathetically. “William pushed and pushed until I had no choice but to eliminate him. You know how it is, don’t you? When someone threatens what you’ve worked so hard to build, you have to take matters into your own hands. I tried to reason with him but he wasn’t a good listener.”

  I clenched my jaw to keep my head on straight. Pain lanced through my teeth and built below my ears, right where the top and bottom jaw connected.

  Stay in control.

  Bates slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans and began pacing a few feet to the left and right, balanced on the opposite rail like a balance beam. “He was a stubborn kid. Fierce as shit, too. I could have used someone like him in my crew, you know? He’d have made an excellent enforcer. Although something tells me he wouldn’t have loved spilling blood the way my boy now does.”

  His instincts were right. William would do whatever was necessary to protect what was his and what was the club’s, but he’d never had much of a stomach for death. He was too good for such things.

  Bates paused his pacing. “Have they told you how it happened?”

  I had to unclench my jaw before I broke a tooth. I tightened my fists instead.

  Bates nodded knowingly. “Ah, I see. Not ready to hear it, huh? That’s fair. It was a big fucking mess. Especially afterward. Fuck. You should have seen your boys trying to peel his busted body off the pavement. I think half of him was left behind.”

  “Enough.”

  Bates’ eyes flashed with satisfaction.

  Damn him.

  “I’m here for her, not to indulge you,” I said sharply. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “I have conditions.”

  “Fuck your conditions.”

  Bates hopped down onto the tracks, crossed them in one stride, and drew up about a foot in front of me. He stood barely half an inch taller than me and he gave me a crooked smile that suggested he was surprised, and perhaps pleased, that I hadn’t backed off.

  “If you want your little barmaid back, I suggest you shut the fuck up and listen to what I have to say,” he said.

  Had he forgotten I also had leverage? Did Caroline truly mean so little to him that he was willing to risk her being harmed, or worse, while in my possession?

  I kept my voice steady as I spoke. “Name your fucking terms, then.”

  “Simple. Only one request.” He leaned back with confidence. “I want you and the Devil’s Luck to disband.”

  I opened my mouth to retort, but he held up a hand and shook his head.

  “Disband,” he said, “or leave Reno altogether and set up somewhere else. Pick any other little town on the map that your heart desires, and fuck off. This is my jurisdiction now. This town isn’t big enough for the both of us, and I am graciously willing to let you off the hook. Just make sure you go far enough away that my reach won’t ever find you.”

  Ra
in pattered on my shoulders. Was he fucking serious?

  If Sam hadn’t been here, I would have drawn the gun out of the back of my jeans and shot him right there on the spot. Nothing would have made me happier than to end him. I fantasized briefly about shooting him in the gut, so I could take my time with it and make him suffer, but I refused to risk Sam getting caught in the crosshairs.

  Tonight was not the time.

  Bates slicked water off his bald head. “So, what do you say?”

  I’d looked evil in the eyes before. I’d confronted wicked men in Syria—both men of that country and men within my own platoon. They were always the same regardless of where they came from or what they were fighting for. Their wrongdoings were justified and necessary in their minds, and often painted with a brush of being “for the greater good.” Walter Bates was no different. He believed to his core, I was sure of it, that he had every right to take Reno for his own, simply because he could.

  A man like him was dangerous no matter what soil he stood upon.

  It started to rain harder, so I had to raise my voice over the sound of it crashing down on the railroads and asphalt. “No.”

  Bates cocked his head to the side. “No?”

  I never saw myself as a man who would put his life on the line for this shit town, but William loved this place, and I refused to sit back and let it burn at Walter Bates’s will. In the years that I’d been gone, it had already begun coming apart at the seams. My brother gave his life to keep it intact and try to preserve what people had built—what I had built with the Devil’s Luck MC.

  His death wouldn’t be for nothing.

  “Reno doesn’t belong to anyone but the people who live here,” I said evenly. “I will not disband and abandon them to you. I will not roll over to a fucking coward who thinks he can claim something simply because he wants it. I’ve crossed paths with men like you before, Bates. Dozens of times. Do you want to know where they are now?”

  Bates chuckled like he found this to be nothing more than a charade or performance. “I don’t give a damn where they are, you insufferable little prick.”

  “They’re six feet under, just like William. Just like you’re going to be when this is all over. If you’re willing to sacrifice your daughter, then fuck it. Let’s have it out right now. Let’s all die tonight.”

  Bates didn’t move.

  I gritted my teeth. “No? Then tell Jim to walk his fat ass over here, give me Samantha, and I’ll send Caroline back to you in one piece. Your call.”

  A war raged behind Bates’s single blue eye.

  For a moment, I wasn’t sure what he would choose. I thought he might draw his gun on me. His men stood tense and alert behind him, as I was sure mine were behind me. Nobody moved a muscle as the deliberation raged.

  He really wants to see me bleed out, I thought, but maybe he’s not as willing to sacrifice his daughter as she thought—or wanted us to believe.

  That thought didn’t make him any less of a monster. It just showed that he had some capacity to care for someone who wasn’t himself.

  Bates motioned over his shoulder for Jim to bring Samantha.

  My breath caught in my throat as Jim put a hand between Samantha’s shoulder blades and shoved her forward. She stumbled on the gravel but caught herself while she shot an irritated glance at him for manhandling her. I held my tongue and told myself he would pay for that later.

  Behind me, a car door opened, and I knew Tex was bringing Caroline out of the Rover.

  Jim and Samantha stepped up onto the tracks beside Bates, and Tex and Caroline stepped up beside me.

  Samantha looked like she was about to fall apart, but a quick sweep of her gave me some relief. It didn’t look like she’d been harmed. I prayed like hell they hadn’t hurt her in ways that didn’t leave evidence.

  Caroline huffed beside me. “Are you two finished yet? I’d like to go home and wash your fucking stench off me.”

  Bates held out a hand to his daughter. She moved forward, but Tex yanked her back.

  “Give us our girl first,” Tex said.

  I appreciated his commitment.

  Jim sneered at Tex before turning his head toward Sam, pressing his nose to the side of her head, and inhaling deeply. His eyes rolled back in his head. “I’ll miss you, sweet thing.”

  Sam tucked her chin to her shoulder as he ran his nose down her cheek. He released her on Bates’s nod, giving her another rough shove forward. Sam tripped over the railroad tracks and lurched forward. I met her in the middle, caught her around the waist, and pulled her up. Her fingers closed like vises around my jacket and she held on for dear life as Tex released Caroline.

  Unlike Jim, he didn’t shove her. He let her walk to her father, who took her hand and guided her off the tracks. Jim offered to walk her to the SUV, but she slapped his hand away and cursed at him. Jim grumbled and lumbered off after her while Bates turned and followed, pausing to glance over his shoulder at us.

  “Take care of yourself, Miss Lye,” he called. “Consider if this is where you really want to be. My offer still stands. Hand the bar over to me and take your freedom. Unless, of course, you think Black Jack here can give you that.”

  Samantha buried her face in my chest.

  Tex and I watched the men get on their bikes. Caroline got into the SUV and was the first to drive away. The others followed, peeling off one at a time and spraying gravel from their back tires. Once they were gone, Samantha tilted her head back and gazed up at me. I couldn’t tell the tears apart from the raindrops trickling down her cheeks.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered over and over. “I never meant to jeopardize anything. I’m sorry.”

  Tex stepped off the tracks and I pulled her head back down to my chest. “Did he hurt you?”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer.

  Samantha shook her head and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Thank God.

  Chapter 23

  Samantha

  Back at Grant’s house, I found myself sitting in Jackson’s lap while he and the others sat around a low fire-top table on the back porch. Flames flickered and danced between us but didn’t cast off much heat. It was still a hot night, and the rain had stopped on our ride home, but a chill had seeped into my bones from being caught out in the rain too long.

  My teeth chattered and I drew my shoulders up in an effort to keep warm.

  Mason, who sat right beside us, stood from his chair, removed the blanket hanging over the back of it, and draped it over my shoulders. He patted my back softly and there were so many sentiments in his touch that I appreciated.

  These men might have looked the part of villains, and might have even crossed some lines into wickedness, but there were good hearts here, too.

  Susan sat across the fire from me and I felt more heat in her stare after Mason gave me the blanket than I did from the flames, so I looked away and turned into Jackson’s chest. He ran an absent hand over my thigh, tracing figure-eight patterns on the denim, while he spoke to his men.

  “He wanted us to disband,” Jackson told them over the snap and crackle of the blue flames between us.

  Chips, who sat diagonally across from us, leaned back in his chair with an incredulous laugh echoed by the others. “Narcissistic prick. Who the fuck does he think he is?”

  The others joined in and dropped their own opinions of Bates. I agreed with every word they had to say, but they were missing the point.

  “He’s a cocky one-eyed fool,” Tex said, his hands clasped together as he stared into the fire. “If he really believed we would disband, what does that say about how out of touch with reality he is?”

  Susan nodded and spoke like she belonged amongst these outlaws. “I can’t believe he said that to you, Jack. Do you think he really believed you’d consider the offer?”

  Jackson shrugged.

  I, not thinking, shook my head.

  Susan’s attention shifted to me. “Something to say, Sam?”

 
; Suddenly everyone was looking at me, and I felt small and insignificant under the weight of their stares. Who was I to have an opinion on such matters? I poured beers for a living. All of this? This was way outside of my wheelhouse. I was the girl who made a perfect captive, not who participated in these conversations afterward.

  I wanted to go home.

  But they continued to stare at me, waiting for an answer.

  So I cleared my throat. “I don’t think Bates thought for a second that Jackson would accept his offer. I think…” I trailed off and looked around at the men and Susan, who still stared calmly back at me. I had their attention. “I think it’s all part of his long game.”

  One of the men snorted and shook his head. I was pretty sure his road name was Snake. “Long game? That dumb fucker doesn’t know how to play a long game. He’s impulsive. Reckless. Blood thirsty. There was no long game with William.”

  Everyone on the porch fell into a hush.

  Jackson’s hand on my thigh stilled, and Susan shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

  I licked my lips. “I don’t think that’s true.”

  Jackson pulled me a little closer to him, and I didn’t know if it was his way of telling me to be quiet or just him getting comfortable.

  The one I thought might be called Snake shook his head at me like I was a small child who didn’t know a thing about what we were talking about. “Nah, he ended William in the blink of an eye. There was no buildup.”

  Again, he was wrong.

  “There were years of buildup,” I said firmly. The men, especially Snake, stared evenly at me. To avoid the intensity of their eyes, I gazed into the fire. “Bates likes to string people along. He threatened me for years before he finally made a move and forced me against my will today. Years. He did the same thing with William.” I pulled my gaze from the fire and looked evenly around at them all. “He had William on the hook for years. He had all of you on the hook. You just didn’t know who you were up against until he decided to let you know by killing your President. Everything he does is meticulously planned, and if you underestimate him, he’s going to win.”