“I didn’t use the money for that. I put the money back,” Cody repeated.
“But you were going to, which is damn near as bad in my book,” the boss snarled, “We help club members and the family of club members only. Now, unless you have supplanted Bob and put yourself into Liz Mason’s bed while I was gone, Kyle ain’t your kid. He ain’t your brother, and he isn’t—”
“He might as well be. He helps out in this shop. He runs things for the club. He’s a good kid,” Cody defended.
“He’s a stupid kid. He gets into trouble, and he’s a show-off.”
“Who in this entire club doesn’t fit that description once in a while?” Cody demanded. “Hell, we get Twitch out of trouble every other month for being a show-off.”
“That little runt has put his time and efforts into this club. He’s earned the ability for us to come to his rescue. Kyle hasn’t. He’s a punk kid who needs to do a lot of growing. And since he isn’t family—”
“I’m dating his sister,” Cody spat out, pushing himself off the pillar and taking a step toward Slade. It was an aggressive movement, and both men knew it. “I’ve been dating her for a while.”
The boss froze. It wasn’t out of fear. Cody knew that. He couldn’t remember a time that the boss had ever been afraid of anything. There was a small tic in the square jaw of the big man. For a full half a minute, he did nothing but stare at Cody. “You wanna run that shit by me again?”
“Donna Mason came back into town a day or two after you left. We’ve been seeing one another.”
It wasn’t a lie, not really, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. It didn’t matter. Cody could handle the punishment that the club might deal out to him for using club funds to help out someone who wasn’t legitimately part of the White Tigers, but there was a chance the punishment might extend to Kyle, and maybe even Donna. Cody could lie to protect the two of them.
“You stupid little shit. You stuck it to Donna Mason?” The scoff was loud enough to echo across the walls of the shop.
There was something about the way he said her name that had Cody standing up straighter. He said “Donna Mason” like it was a prayer and a curse all at the same time. It was a well-known fact that Slade McGee didn’t treat women particularly well. Even his Old Lady said as much.
“It’s a little more complicated than that, boss, but yeah. I am. What of it?”
“We don’t use money to help random bitches we plow.”
Cody felt his hand clench and unclench at his side. He didn’t like anyone talking about Donna like that, and he liked it even less that it was coming out of Slade McGee’s mouth. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much. He’d heard the president of the White Tigers use far worse terms when it came to women.
“She’s not random.”
“You thinking about making her your Old Lady?”
“No, I’m thinking about leaving the club.”
Cody didn’t realize that he meant it until the words came out of his mouth. He was thinking of leaving the club. He was thinking about leaving it all behind: Twitch, Hulk, and everyone else. Cody wanted to be good enough for her, and she had made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t willing to be with a criminal.
The boss looked him over and then cursed. “You mean it, don’t you, you stupid little—” Quick as a snake, Cody felt the boss’s hand on the back of his head, hauling him closer so that their foreheads were pressed against one another like two rams who were midfight. McGee’s breath was laced with cigarette smoke and brandy. “Does she know?”
“That I’m thinking of leaving?”
“No, nitwit, that you’ve got a two-inch pecker!” McGee slapped his forehead against Cody’s with enough force that he saw spots. As an enforcer, Cody knew how to fight. As a lieutenant underneath Slade McGee, he knew better than to fight back. He didn’t know who would win. Slade was a heavy-handed bastard who could use his fists like a hammer. Cody was faster and had dropped bigger men, but there was no upside to a fight. If Slade won, then Cody would probably end up dead. If Cody won, then the club would be forced to respond… and Cody would probably end up dead. So rather than fight, he stood there and took the headbutt and let the man sneer. “Yes! Does she know you are thinking of getting out?”
“No, I haven’t discussed it with her. She’s been dealing with Kyle.”
McGee released him as suddenly as he had snapped him out. “I’ll just bet she is. I’ll fucking bet. Fine, you want out? We’ll hold a meeting, put it to a vote. See if you get out. You know what happens if you leave.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“It’s blood in and blood out. You know the rules.”
“I remember.” Cody did remember. He remembered just how hard the whole crew had hit him in order to make sure that he understood what he was getting into, and what might happen if he screwed up. He knew. He knew it would be worse on the way out because some of the guys would feel betrayed. “Why are you so damn pissed about this? Plenty of men have settled down and left. Not all of us have Old Ladies like yours who want to be part of this life.”
Slade shoved one meaty fist into a pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes that had been squashed to hell and back. “I don’t want to lose my best lieutenant.” He tapped a cigarette out with an expert flick of his wrist. “We are thinking of expanding. Patching in the little crew in the next town over, starting to make a business that can really do some damage.”
Cody raised his brow. “I thought that the White Tigers didn’t expand. That we liked local.”
“I’m not talking about going to Ireland, you wise-mouthed ass, I’m talking about making sure our area is ours. Not that complicated.”
“But then you’ll have more enforcers to choose from,” Cody said. “Some who are ex-military, if I remember the guys you are talking about. I’m not a great fighter.”
“Hell you aren’t. Maybe it’s all that Native blood running through your veins, but I’ve never seen a man take someone down as fast as you do. Besides, you know how to keep all the bikes running. That’s a hell of a skill no one else has.”
“I could still fix things for the club.” Cody shrugged. “Be stupid business not to.”
Slade took a long puff on his cigarette and shook his head. “Yeah, it’d be stupid. You’d also be stupid to think that Donna Mason would want to stay in Carson when she did everything she could to get the hell out of this town.”
It was the bitter way he spat out the words that had Cody thinking. Donna had talked about her ex, another guy who rode around on a bike and had used her all up. Slade had a real bad reputation with women, right up until Pamela had settled him down, at least as much as any person could settle Slade McGee down. Cody’s fist clenched at his side as he wondered if Slade McGee had put that cold distant look in Donna’s eyes as she talked about her past.
He was just opening his mouth to ask when the phone in his pocket started to vibrate. Cody thought about ignoring it, but since it was going on eleven at night there was every chance that it was someone important. When he tugged it out of his pocket, Donna’s name shined up at him.
“Is it her?” Slade asked.
“Yeah,” Cody responded, his finger already on the Answer button.
“Take it. I gotta head out anyway. I’ll let you know when the meeting is. You can make your case to the rest of the club.”
Cody shook his head and hit the button. “Hey, what’s—”
“I thought your little club didn’t deal in drugs, Cody. Isn’t that what you told me?”
Cody’s mind came to a halt. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Kyle went to that stupid concert, and he was caught with drugs. Where the hell did he get them?” Her voice was loud and shrill enough that it echoed through the now empty shop.
Cody shook his head. Kyle? With drugs? It didn’t make any sense. The White Tigers had clear rules on drugs. They weren’t allowed. Anyone caught pushing drugs was dealt with immediately. No one sold i
n Carson, no one who wanted to keep their legs.
“I thought we decided that he couldn’t go to the concert in the first place.”
“Really?” she sneered. “Is that what you are going to be taking out of this conversation? Don’t turn your guilt around on me.”
Cody felt a sick sensation crawl through his belly. Something else was going on here. There was something that wasn’t adding up. Kyle wasn’t supposed to be at the concert, with drugs or without them. He’d never known Donna to relent on much, and this seemed well outside of what she’d be willing to go easy on.
“I’m not,” he finally said. “I just feel like I’m not getting the whole story.”
“What more is there to know? Kyle went to the concert, and he was caught with… something. I don’t even know what. I was contacted by the security office. Does it matter?”
“Yeah, it matters. Was it pot? Was it crystal meth? It matters.”
“I don’t know,” she snapped back with enough force that he held the phone away from his ear an extra inch. This wasn’t like her—this wasn’t Donna Mason. She was cold and confident, even when she was pissed. This felt wrong. Cody clenched and unclenched his fist.
“What do you want me to do?” he demanded. “I don’t even know what’s going on.”
“You could start with answering my question. Where did my little brother get drugs in this supposedly safe backwater town?”
Cody didn’t know, but he was damn sure he was going to find out. He hadn’t been lying when he told Slade that Kyle might as well be a little brother. The kid meant a lot to him, and he wanted to know what was going on.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’m going to find out. You stay here. I’m going to go get him.”
“What? Why are you going to get him?”
“Because, between the two of us, I don’t have a problem with paying some minimum-wage concert security dude to keep this quiet so that it doesn’t go on Kyle’s record and immediately land him in jail. You are obviously incapable of keeping him at home, so I’m going to go get him.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He sneered, “Oh, sweetie, you don’t have to beg.”
He hung up the phone before she could respond. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason that he was so pissed, but that didn’t stop the feeling from being a hot simmer in his stomach. Something was going on, and he was going to find out what.
Chapter Seventeen
Donna
Donna’s BMW Z4 Roadster barely shuddered as she hit a hundred going down the highway. It did very little to cool her anger. In the past few weeks, breaking the speed limit laws hadn’t given her quite the thrill of relaxation that it used to. When she got back home she was going to have a spa weekend and then bury herself in work for the next seven years. That was where she belonged and what she ought to be doing.
She certainly wasn’t going to sit at home while the man took care of everything. If Cody thought she was the kind of woman who would just listen whenever she was given some instruction by some biker boy, then he was sorely mistaken. Kyle was her brother. Cody might have been some kind of surrogate, but what good had he really done? Her brother was heading down the road of drug use, and she wasn’t just going to let that go.
“How dare he,” she snarled as her knuckles turned white on the stick shift. Her anger was a ball of molten iron stoked by all the demands he had made of her. That damnable biker who hadn’t taken no for an answer. The one who had pushed, and in a moment of weakness she had given in. Oh, sure he had sides to him, but one of those sides was being a grade A jerk. She’d show him.
A cold trickle went down her throat as she realized that Kyle was going to be alone with him. Would he show Cody the pictures? Would her little brother try to blackmail her… current boy toy? What if he figured out the reason she hadn’t had a choice in her brother going to this stupid concert? The flaming ball of anger turned into a sick, heavy filling in the very pit of her stomach.
“Damn!” she cursed, thumping a hand against the wheel of the car. She added more pressure to the gas and surged forward to a hundred and ten. “Damn him. Damn Kyle. Damn this whole state and everyone in it.”
He had lied and she knew it. Worse, he was trying to keep her away from Kyle so that he could cover it up. She had nearly believed it. Donna had sat there and listened to him talk about how drugs had ruined communities, and she had almost believed that he had some scruples.
She followed the big signs for the amphitheater. The several acres’ worth of packed-earth parking lot was full to the breaking point. Cars of every make and model, most with band stickers sprinkled across the back, were lined up so closely that Donna was having a hard time picturing how anyone actually got out of their vehicles. Whatever, she thought as she found a tiny space toward the back of the lot. She was slender enough that she could make this work.
Two rows later she was beginning to regret her choice in shoes. Pinprick heels were not meant for angry parking-lot struts. She was storming near the entrance gate, where a large sign that said Security was glaring down with big neon yellow lighting, when she saw Cody’s bike parked alongside several other motorcycles. Just seeing it sitting there made the miasma of her stomach roll over on herself. She wasn’t sure now if she was anxious or angry or some wild culmination of the two.
She stormed past the row of bikes, her heels making tiny divots in her wake, and to the security office. She was just about to charge in when the door swung open. Cody and Kyle stood surrounded in the humming lights of the office behind them.
Cody looked like some kind of angel of retribution. The light made a play of shadows across his angular face so that all she could see was the glimmer of her cerulean eyes. His obsidian hair fell in a flat sheet behind his head. Her heart went still in her chest. He was so damn beautiful. For a moment, she forgot why she was here and that she was mad.
Then his lips curled into a sneer of disgust. “You just can’t keep your nose out of anything, can you?” he demanded. “You can’t just sit back and let people handle anything, no matter how small or easy it might be to deal with.”
“What the hell is your problem?” She threw her hands up in the air. Why couldn’t he understand that she had to handle this? “This isn’t small, this isn’t easy. This is my little brother with drug charges.”
“Hey!” Kyle snapped.
“Hush,” Cody and Donna said in tandem.
Kyle rolled his eyes in teen frustration. “You guys aren’t my parents.”
“No,” Donna said, “we aren’t. You are, however, temporarily in my custody. What you do directly impacts me.”
“I didn’t ask for that!” His eyes, so very like her own, were filled with the self-assured anger that only teenagers could have. “I never asked for you to do any of this!”
She was so taken aback by his fury that Donna couldn’t think of anything to say. She stood there while her brother glared at her like she was the worst person who had ever existed. He was right, he hadn’t asked for any of this. She had walked into his life and made a bunch of demands, the same way that her mother did or Cody tried to do. Guilt mixed with the cocktail of emotions currently swirling inside of her. Donna’s head felt suddenly light.
“No,” she said finally. “You didn’t ask. But here is the problem. You broke the law. You decided that what you wanted to do was more important than the lives you could have affected with your choices. You did this as a minor. In doing so you gave up the right to get angry when people step in and tell you what to do with your life.”
“Right,” Cody put in. “Because the worst thing you can do is break the law.”
“Stay out of this,” Donna said, holding up a hand. “I don’t need your help with this. You’ve done plenty. Kyle, get in the car.”
“I said I’d take care of this.” Cody put his hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “He doesn’t have to go there with you.”
Kyle jerked his shoulder out from Cody’s grip and s
tomped up to Donna. “I’m not a kid.”
“You’re sixteen. By the very definition of the law you are.” Donna crossed her arms over her chest, afraid that if she didn’t she’d start flailing around like a madwoman. Never had she been more frustrated in all of her life.
Kyle snorted and shook his head so hard that his hair made a fan around his too-thin face. “I can take care of myself. Everything was just fine before you showed up.”
“Yeah, your record proves that.”
Cody rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because shoving his failures in his face is the best way to deal with this. Jesus, Donna, are you even human? Come on, Kyle.”
BARE SKIN: A Dark Bad Boy Romance Page 47