Ryker: MC Romance

by Percy Preston

  This is fucked up.

  What the hell was Harold trying to achieve here? Why target the Black Souls if they weren’t doing anything wrong? I needed solid proof before I could take any of them down.

  I didn’t know what to do about Ryker. I was conflicted about him. I knew better than anyone that the law didn’t always matter in the courtroom. It all boiled down to reasonable doubt and evidence. If I wanted the facts to line up, and the real criminals to face jail time, I had to do a better job uncovering the truth and make sure the right people ended up behind bars.

  I needed to know what Harold was really after. I had a gut feeling there was more to it than he let on. A man with as much power as him could do just about anything he wanted with those bikers. At first, I wanted to get them all off the streets just like he did, but now I wasn’t so sure.

  The police station was busy when I arrived. The other cops were always running around like something was on fire, the copier never stopped printing, and assistants looked panicked. I understood why everyone was so on edge all of the time, but it made the nauseous tumbling around in my stomach worse.

  I tossed my things underneath my desk, sat down, and laid my head in my hands. I felt like I was spiralling out of control. I just started this job and I already felt like a major disappointment. I had to figure out how to handle myself better if I hoped to keep the chief happy.

  I heard Ryker’s side of the story loud and clear, but now I wanted to find out if Harold had any information on the Black Souls that he would be willing to share. He didn’t tell me that much when he assigned me to this case, and I hoped there was more. It was probably a longshot learning anything new, but I had to ask. Whatever was left in evidence didn’t amount to much. If it did, I wouldn’t be running around trying to find out what illegal activity these bikers were involved in.

  I counted down the minutes until Harold’s last meeting was over, and his assistant called me into his office.

  “He’s waiting.” She gave me a forced smile. It didn’t take more than a couple days on the job to figure out no one hardly ever smiled around here and meant it.

  I got up from my chair, taking a deep breath, as I pressed the seams of my suit jacket down, ready to face him. I knocked on his office door, and waited patiently for him to invite me in

  “Come in.” He called after a few seconds.

  I opened the door and I sat down. He waited a few more seconds before he looked up and gave me his attention.

  “Anna, it’s good to see you again. How is your research going? Find anything that warrants an arrest yet?” He asked.

  That was the very question I had been dreading all morning. My mind was running rampant with everything that happened since the moment I met Ryker. I was caught up thinking about him when Harold had to snap me out of it.

  “Anna?”

  “I’m sorry, sir. A lot has happened over the last few days, and during my search, I ran into some bikers that made a pass at me. Frankly, if given anymore time, they were probably going to end up doing something horrible. Though, from what I heard, they don’t seem like they’re from around here.”

  “Did you catch the name of the biker gang?”

  “The Hell Riders,” I confirmed.

  “Yes, well they’re not your concern right now. They’re not a local gang. We’re looking for the biker gangs that are engaging in illegal activity here in Coronado, Anna.” Harold disregarded everything I just told him.

  “You don’t understand, sir. The Hell Riders are here, and they are engaging in illegal activity. They’re far worse than the other bikers I ran into. Actually, one of them saved me from the Hell Riders when they were trying to attack me,” I said. That caught his attention. He rested his elbow on his desk before he placed his chin in the palm of his hands.

  “A biker saved you from them?”

  “He was a member of the Black Souls, and after talking to him, I wonder if we’re going after the wrong guys here,” I said. I was pushing this too far, but I couldn’t stop. He needed to know the truth, and understand that until we had more of the facts, our hands were tied.

  “Don’t be so naive, Anna. The Black Souls are just as bad as the rest of them. They will kill, run drugs across state lines, and do whatever it takes to keep their precious little club alive. Don’t you see? You’re being played. I expect better from you, and I need you to get back out there and find out more,” he said.

  I gritted my teeth, and tried to keep a straight face . I had no other choice but to follow his orders.

  “Yes, sir. There’s something else.”

  “What is it?”

  “I was wondering if you had any old files on the Black Souls. Research you or a predecessor collected. Any information you have could help steer me in the right direction faster than me going at this blindly,” I said.

  “Yes, check with my assistant. She’ll get you whatever you need. I expect more when you get back this time, Anna. Do yourself a favor and keep your distance while you’re digging around. Be careful with the Black Souls. You won’t see it now, but they are just as bad as those bikers that attacked you. Remember, they’re the criminals, and you need to do your job. Find the evidence that will put them where they belong. Behind bars.”

  “Yes, sir. I’m on it.”

  I left his office feeling defeated. I wasn’t getting anywhere, and felt even more stuck than I did before I talked to him. At least he had old files I could scour through. Hopefully, those would help narrow down my research.

  I thought about Ryker, and how safe I felt with him after what happened. Then the look on his face when he told me what the Hell Riders had done. He really did look afraid. I couldn’t think about that now. I had work to do.

  I took a deep breath, and headed straight for Harold’s personal assistant to get the files I needed. He wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted. I could see it in his eyes. He was fed up with the Black Souls and would do whatever it took to get the result he wanted. And that scared me.

  If I didn’t do what he said, I’d be out of a job. I needed this job more than I needed anything else, but I couldn’t compromise my values and ethics in the process. I came into this wanting to help people, prosecute the real criminals, and provide for my daughter.

  I saw both sides of this story, Rykers and Harold’s. It was up to me to figure who was telling me the truth. This wasn’t going to be easy. I hated feeling like this, especially because I wanted to believe Ryker. I heard the way he spoke about the people in his life, and what he did to protect them. He didn’t sound like a criminal. He sounded like a man trying to do whatever it took to survive. Was that so wrong?

  9

  Ryker

  I wanted to kill them. They destroyed my bike. The one thing I loved more than anything else. If they were trying to send a message, I received it loud and clear. I was tired of sitting around and waiting for shit to fix itself. Before something worse happened, Lucifer needed to get it together, and I needed to find a way to make those fuckers pay for what they did.

  I scrolled through the names in my contact list, and Anna’s name caught my eye. She’d given it to me when we were out at the bar. At the time I wanted to think she was interested in me, but she didn’t deny my accusations when I saw her again. She had only gone with me to the bar to extract information that she could use against me.

  I sighed, thinking about what she said to me, and how I told her she needed to be careful. No matter what I said, she wasn’t going to stop searching for the information the chief requested. I worried that would drag her into even more trouble. The kind she couldn’t argue her way out of if I wasn’t around to help.

  I thought about calling her to ask her to meet me to talk. I knew I shouldn’t with Lucifer’s warning. He told me to stay far away from her, but I couldn’t stop myself. I decided that it was worth a shot, and I’d texted her anyway. What could it hurt to just talk. If I had a handle on what she knew and how she planned to use it, that would be a goo
d thing. Right?

  I sent off a quick text to her asking to meet up later that day. Hopefully she’d agree.

  But first, we had a club meeting. I sat on the couch at the clubhouse, with a cup of coffee in my hand. I was exhausted and there was no amount of coffee that would give me the energy I needed, but I drank my weight in caffeine anyway.

  I didn’t get much sleep after what happened to my bike. It took every ounce of energy to resist heading straight to the Hell Riders’ hideout and shooting up the place. Maybe if I did that I could find a bike nice enough to replace mine.

  I scoffed. It’d take a long time to get over losing it. That hunk of metal had been with me through my entire journey as a Black Souls rider. I ran my hands through my dark hair, and I tried to keep a straight face. I glanced around as all the other members gathered. We were all anxious to hear what Lucifer had to say. They were all going to have their own opinions about where we were going to go from here, but as long as we took action, I didn’t care.

  My cell phone ding just as Lucifer came in through the front door, and I took a quick look at it, and read Anna’s reply.

  Meet me at my building around seven. We’ll talk then.

  Lucifer stood in front of us all, and I could see that there hadn’t been much change in how he looked. He was just as exhausted as I was. His face was dull, and his eyes darted across the room frantically. But he managed to pull himself together long enough to talk.

  Outside of Jay and I, most of the other members were clueless to the threats we’d been tracking. To them, things had been good around here over the last few months. There had been no cause for concern, at least not on the surface, but Lucifer, Jay, and I were aware that this had been something to worry about ever since he stepped up and became president.

  I followed his eyes around the room watching the expression of every member's eyes. If I saw the slightest change that could lead me to believe they could be our mole.

  The thought of someone in the Black Souls having sold us out enraged me, but I couldn’t let it make me do anything stupid. Lucifer needed people around him that he could trust, and it wasn’t like the mole would come forward on their own.

  Whoever it was, they’d done a great job of hiding from us. We couldn’t waste our time grilling every member now, especially not with the Hell Riders breathing down our necks. I stayed calm, and watched Lucifer get ready to address everyone. What he had to say was about to put everyone on edge.

  “Thank you all for joining me. As you know, things have been quiet around here for the past few months. But that’s about to change. There has been talk on the streets that there are some bikers gunning for me. It appears the Hell Riders are back in town, and they are back with a vengeance. They’ve got the police looking closely into everything we’re doing, and they don’t look like they’re going to let up anytime soon. I need you all to stay alert, and protect yourself because I can assure you, this is going to get ugly,” he said, firm and composed.

  “What the hell are we supposed to do? Just wait around until they strike first?” Asked one of the new prospects, playing with the metal buttons on his jacket.

  “If we strike first we risk alerting the cops to what’s going on. Unless you want to end up behind bars, I suggest you listen to me when I tell you to do something.” Lucifer snapped.

  Everyone backed down, and there wasn’t another person in the room that would even think to challenge him when he was like this. I needed to start thinking on my feet if I wanted to help him. Maybe talking to Anna would actually help. He told me to stay away from her because he thought she was trying to uncover more about our businesses, but I promised myself I wouldn’t tell her anything that could incriminate any of us. But if she told me what the chief was really up to, then that would give us an advantage.

  At the end of the day, the club was all I had and I vowed to protect it no matter what. It was risky going behind Lucifer’s back, especially now that he was on the verge of losing his mind, but I had no other choice. I was tired of letting the Hell Riders take things from us, and try to destroy the best parts of who we were.

  They were driving around town making sure the civilians noticed how much havoc they caused anywhere they went. And those actions put the police’s attention on us. It was driving me crazy. The fact that they had the audacity to show up in our town and fuck shit up, made me want to kille very last one of them. I had to relax. Lucifer needed me. Jay was here to help, but I was the only one that was fully in the loop when it came to how bad all of this honestly was and Lucifer needed me thinking clearly.

  The rest of the meeting had been normal, a quick check-in about all of the weapon movements and sales over the last week, but everyone seemed to stop paying attention. They were all lost in thought about where this was going to leave us, and even though Lucifer assured them that they were going to be protected, it wasn’t enough for them to calm down and get back to work.

  I cornered Lucifer after the meeting, asking him to meet me upstairs, because I wanted to see where his head was at.

  “What now, Lucifer? There has to be another way to take down the Hell Riders before it results in a full-fledged biker war.”

  “Listen. I don’t know how many of them we’re dealing with yet. I need you to get back out on the streets and track down their main hangout spot. It’s the only way we’re going to know for sure if making a strike is the best way to go right now. They’re destroying everything we’ve worked for. I can’t let them do that anymore. They have to go down, one way or another. At this point, I’d take any solution I could get,” he said, running his hands over his face with a sigh.

  He was fed up, and he had every right to be. This was more than any of us bargained for, especially because the Hell Riders had been quiet for so long, doing whatever it was they did out in Tijuana.

  “I’ll get on it. I’ll find us a way out of this. But you need to be careful. Bring Jay in more to help out. You and I can only do so much. I don’t know how many threats it’s going to take before they show up here opening fire before we have the chance to fight back.” I warned. I needed a clear look into what they had planned, and if I didn’t find that out soon, we were all going to be good as dead.

  “I’ll have Jay keep his ears open and watch for any strange activity at the places we frequent most, but I’d rather not put him at risk. I already hate that I’ve put you at risk.”

  “I’m fine. I’ll do whatever it takes.” I appreciated his concern, but he couldn’t do this on his own.

  “I know Ryker, you’re a good friend.” He let out a long sigh. “Now, about the police, I have a contact that might be able to get us in touch with the sheriff. I don’t know what his price is going to be, but if I can get them off our trail, it will make dealing with the Hell Riders a whole lot easier. If all goes according to plan, I’ll meet with him, and hopefully we can get ahead of this. But, I need you to stay focused. Find out what the Hell Riders are doing and report back to me,” he said.

  “I’ll be in touch soon.”

  “Grab one of the bikes in the shed out back. I know it’s not much, but you have to get around somehow.” Lucifer slapped me on the shoulder before turning to leave.

  “Thanks, man.”

  I got onto the back of the old, dusty bike. The paint was chipping off around the front, and it was rusty around the edges, but it was going to have to do for now. But the bike was the least of my worries.

  I hated lying to Lucifer, but I had no other choice but to talk to Anna. I still didn’t know if I could trust her, and I spent the entire ride to her building going over every detail of what I planned on saying to her. I couldn’t tell her much about what was going on with the club. Not until I knew how much of it she was reporting back to the chief. I couldn’t fuck this up for Lucifer. We already had so many problems coming at us. If I made one wrong move, the entire Black Souls MC could go up in flames.

  I had my work cut out for me. It wouldn’t be easy figuring out what
the Hell Riders had planned. They weren’t always stupid enough to talk about those things in public.

  We were all frustrated, and worried that we were about to lose everything.

  I wasn’t going to allow that to happen, and I needed to make Lucifer proud. I’d do whatever it took to save him and the club. Even risk meeting with Anna.

  I rode the rickety old bike to Anna’s apartment building. I couldn’t believe it actually held together. The old junk definitely needed some servicing soon otherwise it would drive me straight into a streetlight.

  When I arrived, Anna was waiting on the front steps. I hated the worried look on her face, like she knew I was about to ask for something impossible. But I was running out of options, and Lucifer was way over his head. He couldn’t protect himself without leading us straight to the Hell Riders without help.

  I shut off the engine, and approached her as she tossed her strawberry blond hair to her back. Damn, I wanted to run my fingers through it and find out if it felt as soft as it looked. She crossed her arms, and kept looking over her shoulder at the apartment building. I assumed her daughter was inside, but she looked distressed and I couldn’t figure out why.

  “You came.” Her voice was low.

  “Of course I did. I was the one that asked to meet remember?”

  “I know. It’s just … things are tough at work right now, and I’m not even sure I should be talking to you,” she said, looking down at her feet and avoiding eye contact with me.

  I wanted to sit next to her, wrap my arm around her, and assure her everything would be okay. But I resisted.