by Paula Cox
I unlock the door and take my place behind the desk, just as I had over two weeks ago when we first brought Anna in. She sits next to Zeke, her eyes not leaving me this time, even as he leans in with his arm draped over the back of her chair. I grab a pack of gum from the inside drawer and break off a few pieces for myself. Nervous tick.
“Earlier today, we got a call from Jason, our attorney and real estate agent.” He directly turns to Anna to explain the rest. “He’s the guy we use as a front. He’s a real professional, licensed and all, but he works for us in making sure our holdings look like they’re on the up and up.” After a pause for potential questions, he continues, “Anyways, he called about the tattoo shop. Some man wanted to know if the owners were interested in being bought out.”
I lean back in my chair with my head resting against my cupped hands. Irritated, I ask, “So what? She’s successful. The place is booming and booked out for weeks now. Of course there are investors interested in the place and competition ready to purchase it. Just say that we aren’t interested and move on.”
Anna coughs slightly and looks down at her hands as she cuts off Zeke. “Who was the buyer? Did they get a name or anything?”
“That’s the thing—the reason why we brought you both in tonight. The buyer called himself Riley. And I don’t know about you, but that name is a bit too uncommon for this to be a coincidence. The new President of the Knights goes by Riley too and is hunting down Anna over a tattoo?”
I quickly scan over to Anna’s face. She’s white as her bed sheets and visibly shaking. Something isn’t right. I stand up and walk around the desk, leaning up against the front of it. I want her to look at me. I want her to tell me whatever she knows before Zeke does.
Zeke looks us both back and forth before continuing on. “So, with Jimmy’s help, I got a hold of Anna’s old boss Ian and asked him about it. Turns out he knows Riley. He made an offer to buy out the shop over a month ago, but he turned him down. He turned him down because Riley is Anna’s ex.”
My jaw locks into place, my hands curl around the corner of the desk, and I can feel the blood drain out of me. “Leave us,” I order Zeke, my words pressing firm against the roof of my mouth. He tries to argue or say something on her behalf, but I don’t want to hear it. With a wave of the hand, he stands and walks backwards towards the door, his eyes straight on Anna, who continues to avoid making contact with me.
The door shuts quietly behind him, leaving us alone in our silence. With a whisper, she says quietly, “I tried to tell you. I should have said something earlier, but I tried to tell you tonight when Zeke called. It’s the reason why… why I didn’t kiss back.”
“Who the hell is Riley? I want you to tell me everything.”
“But—”
“Everything, Anna, or you’re in some deep shit. I’ve risked men’s lives over you. I put your needs and protection over the good of the club, put my sister’s business on the line if Riley would have attacked the building, and have defended you when anyone’s questioned your presence here. You fucking better start spilling or I swear to God, I’ll make you.”
My anger pours out of me like a fountain. I’ve never spoken to a woman like that, ever. It feels almost vile, but the rage inside of me, this unmistakable feeling of betrayal cannot be pushed down. She lied to me. She withheld vital information that could have ended this case a week ago. She could have been the key, but instead she went on living a freaking lie this whole time.
I give her a few seconds before I grow impatient. My fist slams on the solid wood side of the desk. She finally looks up, her head held high with her chin slightly quivering. “Riley and I dated for two years. He was a good boyfriend, a normal guy with a normal nine to five job. He hated that I was doing tattoos. I don’t know if he thought that I was cheating on him or that guys were constantly hitting on me when I was working… whatever it was, he got controlling, so I tried to break up with him a few times.”
She pauses as she looks past me towards the small, square window where an alley lamp post is shining through. “While I was trying to figure out how to end it once and for all, he started to really get obsessed with motorcycles. It was just about buying and restoring them at first. Normal stuff. Then he started hanging out late with guys who were just as crazy about them as he was.
“I didn’t think anything of it until I finally figured out how to break it up to him. He started driving around Ian’s shop and following me home. One night, he threw a brick through the window and the cops got involved. He told me that I was dead for that, and that he would find me. He always finds me. I was living at my mom’s because of that, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until he found me again.”
“So you knew when we said ‘Riley’ the first night I brought you in here. You knew it was him, or at least you suspected and you never told us?” My mind is completely numb. I can’t figure out if I’m feeling a different level of anger or if pity is winning over. From here, the sassy, headstrong woman I’ve gotten to know looks smaller and smaller sitting in my office chair.
“I did, and I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to think that I brought it on myself or that I was part of his… I don’t know… plan. You have to believe me when I say that I had no idea about the tattoos or that he was the President of the Knights. I couldn’t have known… I’m sorry, Mack. I’m so sorry.” She stands up and paces the floor, her finger to her lips as her head hangs low.
I slide off the front of the desk and walk towards her. She steps back. It’s the first time I’ve seen her afraid of me. I can’t stand this anymore. With two long strides, I force her back into the corner, her body planted up against the wall. She can only let out a gasp as I place my hands to the side of her head to lift her upwards. With one sweep, my lips find hers, pressing down their weight onto hers. Her lips part and everything disappears in the seconds and minutes that pass quickly over us.
My eyes slowly open as I come up for air gasping. We’ve traveled the length of the office back to my desk. I’m sitting in a chair and she’s sitting on my lap, cradled in my arms. How did we get here? It doesn’t matter. All that I can see is her face stained with tears and those small, delicate hands trembling in fear. I want to make this go away. I have to. It doesn’t matter what has happened over the past few weeks, what she has told me or kept hidden. All that matters is keeping Anna alive and finding the bastard that has broken her.
CHAPTER 8
Did we just…? But back at the house, we…? After everything…?
My mind can’t make any sense of it. I’m so lost in the afterglow of that kiss that I can barely process the seconds that led up to this. One minute, I’m nearly sobbing over how I betrayed the one guy trying to protect me, and then the next, he is on me with those lips… oh those lips! They are as soft and as tender as I had imagined them. The taste of him, wood and smoke, still lingers on my tongue as I stand myself up.
“Mack…” I start. I always feel like I need to fill the empty silence with something, but right now, I can’t muster up a word.
He swivels back towards the front of the room. Adjusting his shirt, he says with quiet firmness, “Don’t say another word about it, Anna. I understand. This Riley guy is a piece of shit. I believe you when you say you have nothing to do with it and had no clue that it was him behind the mark tattoo. But we have bigger things to take care of besides you and me, got it?” I nod as he orders, “Let Zeke back in. We have to figure out a plan now.”
I too adjust my shirt and run my fingers through my tangled hair. I slid a hand across my soaking wet lips and even out the remainder of my eyeliner. Though, I guess it wouldn’t be too bad if Zeke thought I was in here taking an emotional beating from Mack. I peek my head out the door to find Zeke standing just a few feet away, his back leaned up against the wall. He uses his hand to call for me.
Shutting Mack’s office door behind me, I walk towards him, my head hung in embarrassment. “I’m sorry about him, kid. He can be real jackass when he’s up
set. But don’t worry about it. We’ve got your back. I have the guys on call for a meeting in just a few hours, if he wants it. I know they’ll vote to take your dick of an ex-boyfriend out. The guys like having you around as much as he does, even if he won’t admit it.”
All I can reply is a quick, “Thanks.” I’m not sure what else I could respond with that wouldn’t give away what just happened back in the office. “Mack wants to see you now, and me too, I think.” He didn’t really say if I should still be a part of this or not. Though, now it feels as if I am permanently entwined in this whether I want to be or not.
I follow Zeke back in and take my seat right where I was. Mack looks more composed and adjusted. He places his hands on the desk as he says, “Now we know the whole story here, we need to come up with a plan. We can’t let her… or us be sitting ducks. If his phone call to the lawyer means anything, it’s that he knows exactly where to find her and that we’re behind her new life.”
“I agree with you, Mack,” Zeke says, smiling. “That’s why I have the guys on standby for a meeting. I didn’t say what it was for or anything… just to be ready to head down to headquarters on twenty minutes’ notice. You want me to send the signal out?”
“No, not yet. We three have to think of something—some way to trap Riley and take him out.” He looks at me with piercing, fierce eyes as he asks me directly, “Are you okay with that? Do you understand what I am saying?”
It’s hard to misunderstand the term “take him out,” especially when you’re talking to someone who regularly refers to “hits” and “wars.” Obviously, none of these men have clean hands when it comes to violence. I just didn’t know, until this point, how far they were willing to go to keep their territory and people safe. But I also understood that Mack needed my permission too. I was the one who would be most affected by Riley’s death. I was the one who had to say go.
I swallow back the fear, the anger, the sadness that has built up in me as I look back and forth between Zeke and Mack. “Yes, I understand what you mean. Do what you need to do. I won’t stop you.”
“Good, Anna,” Zeke replies, still smiling like this was me giving him permission to finish off filing my taxes. “We need to know everything about this guy. What’s his personality like? What makes him tick? Any secrets?”
My two-year relationship with him flashes back to me. There were happy moments—lots of them actually. I wander off in thought as I think out loud. “He was a great guy, at first. He treated me like royalty, even though I secretly think that he just liked having this tattooed bad girl around as a trophy. But we spent a lot of time at his mom’s house.” My mind pauses here as I look towards Mack with a firm, “Do not hurt her. I wouldn’t want to get my mom involved, we are not using his mom either. My rules go there.”
“Fine, fine. I wouldn’t touch an innocent civilian anyways.” Mack lifts his hands in defense, a coy smile breaking that steely glare.
“Anyways, when he started getting into motorcycles, he went to this body shop all the time… I think it was Tony’s or Tommy’s. I can’t remember. I really didn’t pay much attention to it, except that there were always guys around who wore patches like yours on their jackets. Not the same ones, just similar in design.”
Mack interrupts me to ask, “Zeke, you think that’s Totoli’s Auto and Cycle, the place where the Devil’s Furry hang out and get their repairs done?”
“I would bet my life on it. The Devil’s club is where all the newbs go at first. They would let anyone in that could give them some money and pledge loyalty. Do you think he joined up with them, Anna?”
I try to remember the few nights he came home angry, despondent. Those were moments and memories I would prefer not to think back on too heavily. So I answer quickly, “No. I don’t think so. After a few months, he stopped going there. At least, he stopped taking me with. He started dressing different, talking different. He went out late at night to Hickory’s Bar on South Street and didn’t come back for hours. That’s when I started to leave. I couldn’t stand being around him anymore.”
“Hickory’s is old Knight’s territory. I wonder if he was recruiting there, trying to round up the old guys like your boy said, Zeke. Anna, what about tattoos? What could be the connection there besides it being a Knight tradition?”
“That’s the thing, Mack,” I say, completely confused. “He absolutely hated that I worked giving tattoos. It was one of his control things. He thought that girl artists were skanks or low class. He thought I would sleep around with the guys even though he knew I wasn’t attracted to the whole motorcycle club or street gang thing.” At least until now…
“I don’t want to lure him in with you as bait, but what can we do to get him to come to us?” Mack asks, getting to the point.
“We have to use her,” Zeke says, sitting a bit higher in his chair. He looks back to me quickly as he spells out a plan. “He hates that you’re doing tattoos, and so he is using that against you, still. He knows that we’re using you for the tattoo business and protecting you in return. So we have to get you out there, doing tattoos in the open where he can make a move.”
“You’re fucking crazy, Zeke.” Mack stands and rounds the front of the desk again. “I am not putting her or our men at risk and doing it in broad daylight. Plus, how the fuck is she supposed to do tattoos outside the shop? He won’t set foot in there knowing that we’re around the block and always watching.”
Zeke points to the newspaper sitting on Mack’s desk. “We get him to the tattoo convention. We spend the next few days advertising the hell out of her booth, billing it up to be the best thing in Portland so he won’t miss the notices. He won’t be able to resist crashing on her big debut.”
“That’s stupid. He won’t take the risk to take a shot at her with a crowd around her. He’ll just wait till she leaves the show when we can’t protect her.”
My mind spins as I exclaim, “That’s why we need all of his guys there. We have to make it so that the Knights are invested in more than just killing off their president’s ex-girlfriend. You said it yourself that the new Knights were inexperienced, so that means they’d be drawn into a battle if they were pushed to it, right? Well, what’s the one thing we can do to offend them so badly that they will have to come?” I look back and forth at their blank faces before shouting, “We give everyone that mark!”
“What? You want to give people that mark? The circle with the three lines?”
“Yes. We give it to everyone we can—probably our club guys. I’ll do up different versions of it, but it will be largely the same. We advertise that this is my ‘specialty’ tattoo and that I’ll be tattooing it on anyone willing for fifty percent off the regular price so we draw even more in…”
Mack adds, “So the Knights will see it, be pissed off we took their symbol, and want to start a war with us in the convention hall. But we’ll be ready, just like the first time we defeated them.”
Zeke looks at me mystified, as if I have come up with the solution to curing cancer or finding world peace. “They won’t know what hit them, and they’ll be vastly outnumbered. It’s brilliant, Anna.”
“It’s still suicide. If shit goes down and we can’t take out Riley in time, you’re screwed. There won’t be anything I—or any of the guys—can do to protect you.” Mack is close to pleading with me to see reason, but I can’t. This is the only plan we have that will guarantee a total end to Riley and the Knights for once and for all. And giving that tattoo will be my way of seeking revenge for all the men who gave the tattoo before me—a punishment for taking their force out on innocent artists.
“We have to do this, Mack,” I reply calmly. “There is no other option.” I soften my gaze as I peer into his darkened features. That locked-in jaw juts out just slightly, as if he’s taking a hit for me already.
With a snap of his fingers, he sends Zeke out to get word to the club about their meeting. They were going to have to figure out a way to convince a lot of men to get a tatt
oo that symbolized death and assassins, but if anyone can do it, it’s Mack.
CHAPTER 9
“Are you ready to go, Mack?” Anna calls from the back of her shop. “I told Ian we would be there a half hour ago.” I look over at the clock hanging in the waiting area. She’s right. I hate being late. It’s a sign of disrespect in my circle, evidence that you can’t even manage your own time correctly.
“Yeah. I’m waiting on you, Anna. I can’t go anywhere without you telling me what to pick up.” Even a month later of practically manning this tattoo shop with Anna, I still don’t understand or even know the names of the majority of the equipment. Needles, okay. Ink, okay. The rest of it? Yeah, not so much. I never was a big techie kind of guy.
Zeke’s actually been the one doing all the big advertising online. He thought it would be the biggest bang for our buck if we could micro-target potential members of the Knights online. He put ads up for Anna’s “Circle of the Night” tattoo on porn sites, motorcycle information pages, and travel guides. They even figured out how to make it so that people in the same zip code as Knight Territory would see it when they logged in to their social media accounts. I was, and still am, pretty impressed by all of that. The old dog in me would have just stuck with the newspaper like my original ad for Anna’s Crazy 9’s.