They finally noticed her. “Hey, look what we’ve got here! The other chick!”
The truck got swarmed.
They were catcalling her, baiting her. She reached in her bag, gripped the bear spray. It wouldn’t be enough to fend off all the men surrounding the vehicle, but it would buy her time if she needed it.
I won’t need it, she thought, with icy calm.
“Come on, cutie,” the guy who had accosted her outside the library said, his leering grin wide. “Come see your boyfriend!”
She looked over to see Drill on the ground. He was squirming slightly, obviously in a great deal of pain.
A lot of the bikes and several other trucks had their lights on, illuminating the scene. The bikers started shaking the truck, pushing on the frame, causing her to fall to one knee to keep her balance. She glared at them.
“Who’s your leader?” she shouted. “Who’s in fucking charge here?”
They laughed at her. “It sure as hell isn’t you!” someone yelled.
She’d have to take her chances, then. She took off her coat, and they started cheering.
“Strip! Strip! Strip!”
She pulled up her sweater, and turned slightly.
“Who here recognizes this?” she shouted. “Come on, you can’t all be this fucking stupid. Who knows this mark?”
Someone was climbing up in the truck bed, getting ready to grab her. She pulled out the bear spray, but kept the sweater up.
“Tell me somebody fucking recognizes this!” she shouted. “What kind of club are you? Seriously, are you just a bunch of redneck hicks or what? Nobody recognizes this symbol?”
There was a guy with a gap in his teeth whose eyes narrowed as he got a good look. “What the… holy shit!” he squeaked. The other guys were still jeering at her, but that guy started backing away, his hands up. “I never touched you. I never fucking touched you!” he said quickly. “I had nothin’ to do with this!”
Thuy’s smile felt feral. Finally. After all these years, and all that trauma, her childhood was finally going to do something good in her life.
“What are you talking about?” Sledgehammer asked the guy, who was wide-eyed with fear.
“That’s a brand. Fucking Red Dagger. Don’t you know anything?”
There was a murmur that ran through the crowd, electrifying it. “Red Dagger?” A few more men backed off.
They’d heard of it, all right.
“A brand?” Sledgehammer repeated, sounding unsure.
“That’s how you know it’s not fake. It’s not like a damned tattoo. That gets done to you, man. Red-hot iron shit.” The gap-toothed man shook his head. “Okay, party’s over. If Red Dagger’s into this, I am out of it. This ain’t worth it.”
A man with dark brown skin and surprisingly light eyes stepped through the crowd, followed closely by a blond man who held a rag to his nose. Blood had seeped through it. Obviously, he had broken it. The black man’s jacket had the patch: CATFISH.
This was the guy Drill was talking about. The man in charge.
“You’re with Red Dagger?” he asked. His voice was one of quiet authority, a deep baritone. He looked calm, while the blond guy looked irritated.
“So fucking what?” the blond said, although his voice was muffled and sounded like he had a bad cold. “We’ll take her out with Drill…”
Catfish turned and hit the blond guy right in the stomach. He fell to his knees, coughing.
“Thought you were a librarian,” Catfish said, hazel eyes narrowed as he turned back to Thuy. “Did Drill know you’re with that crew?”
She nodded. “I’m just out here trying to live my life, but my dad’s the leader, and my brother’s one of their best. I make a call, and they’re out here.” She paused a beat. “I go missing, and they’re definitely out here. Pissed. And looking for payback.”
Catfish swore under his breath.
“These people — Maddy, Drill — they’re under my protection. The Red Dagger’s protection,” she said, making sure her voice carried. “You really, really don’t want to fuck with me.”
“Who is the Red Dagger?” Sledgehammer asked, looking both confused and frustrated.
“Support club,” Catfish said, shaking his head. “They make the Black Pistons look like saints, though. Anybody who follows the national scene knows about them, although last I heard, they were headed toward Detroit.” He narrowed his eyes. “They headed for the south, librarian lady? Maybe Tennessee?”
“Not to my knowledge,” she said, her voice sounding level and unaffected. She sincerely doubted it — her father hated the humidity. Of course, they didn’t know that, or need to know it.
“So why are you here? Hiding out?”
She shrugged. “My father didn’t have anything for me to do.”
“Yeah, right,” the blond said, with a nervous guffaw. “Short little thing like you? What’re you gonna do, stab my ankles?”
“My father is Long Nguyen,” she said sharply. “He’s about five foot two. And I have watched him kill people in ways that would make you shit your pants.”
Silence fell over the crowd. The blond stared at her. “Are you kidding me?”
“Shut up.” Catfish’s irritation was clear. “Don’t you know anything? A support club like Red Dagger moves in, and shit goes down. All local clubs, all territories, get threatened. Or wiped out. Didn’t you hear about Tempe, and the Bronze Skulls?”
Finally, it got through. Blond guy’s eyes went wide. “That was them?”
She nodded.
Catfish sighed. “We didn’t know,” he said, with the smoothness of a politician. His eyes glittered in the light of dozens of high beams. “We’ll leave the farm alone, and your people.”
“But Drill!” the blond protested.
“… is under protection.” Catfish raised his voice. “Drill is cut out of the brotherhood. He’s no longer a Wraith. Nobody here touches him — nobody harms him. But nobody helps him, either. You do either one of those things, you’ll find out what happens to traitors.”
“He needs to be banished,” the blond whined. “If you’re out of the club, you’re off our turf!”
Catfish looked at her.
“My. Protection.” Her voice brooked no argument.
Catfish sighed. “He’s cut out. It’ll have to do. We don’t need the shit.”
The group that had been so drunkenly enthusiastic now looked chastened.
“Come on. We’re riding out.” Catfish turned to Thuy, nodding his head as if he were tipping a hat. “We won’t be seeing you.”
“Be sure of it,” she replied. She nodded back.
The blond looked irate, but also scared. He followed.
Thuy stayed on top of the cab, riding an adrenaline wave, watching the parade of motorcycles and trucks roll down the dusty driveway. When the last light had disappeared onto the main road, she carefully climbed down, her muscles shivering violently as the rush left her system and relief flooded in. She made it to the ground, and bolted over to Drill.
He looked terrible in the porch light. Both eyes were swollen shut, and his mouth was a bloody scrawl. His puffed cheeks were one big bruise.
“Thuy?” he mumbled.
“I’m here,” she said, tears of residual fear and concern falling down her cheeks and hitting his skin.
“I’m sorry,” he slurred. “I did everything I could to keep you safe. I didn’t want this to happen.”
“It’s okay. We’re okay,” she said, and gently kissed his shoulder. The world smelled like gasoline and booze and car exhaust. Thank God she’d been able to talk sense into them before they burned the place down.
He coughed, and then made a pained sound. She had to get him out of here.
Maddy and David emerged from the barn. David held the shotgun. “They’re all gone?” David asked, scanning the road.
“Yes. And I think they’ll stay gone,” Thuy said. “In the meantime: can I borrow your rental car? It has GPS, right? I’
m taking him to the hospital in Knoxville.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Drill didn’t remember much of the rest of that night. He spent Christmas day itself drugged to the gills, barely registering his sister and Thuy hovering over him. It was the day after Christmas now. He could see out of his eyes, although his face still hurt like a motherfucker. He could tell he’d cracked some ribs, and his body was sore all over. Still, they hadn’t broken his nose, unlike Timothy King. He grinned at the thought, then winced as his split lip tore slightly.
Tim had deserved that, and more. Catfish was going to have his hands full with that asshole.
Not my problem any more. He remembered Thuy’s shouted declarations from that night. He hadn’t been able to see what was going on, but he knew that she’d managed to back down the entire Wraith crowd with her bravado — and threats of her powerful family. The Wraiths were too fragile to take on a support club like Red Dagger. Catfish knew better, even if Tim didn’t, and he’d keep the rest in line.
As for being cut out of the Wraiths? As far as Drill was concerned, he couldn’t have gotten a better Christmas present.
“You awake?”
Drill looked over to see Thuy walking over with a cup of coffee and a plastic cup of apple juice. “Hope that coffee’s for me,” he croaked.
She shook her head, popping a straw in the cup. “Juice it up, buddy,” she said. “Trust me. You’re not going to want hot beverages on that lip for a little while.”
He drank the juice gratefully, realizing that his throat was parched. “How are you?” he asked.
“Better than you look and probably feel,” Thuy joked, but her eyes were dark with concern. She put the coffee down on the nearby tray, then pulled up a chair and took his hand. The feel of her soft skin and small palm in his large, rough hand was like being touched by heaven. He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I just wanted to keep you safe. I didn’t want to drag you into all of this shit. They almost burned down the house. They could’ve hurt Maddy. They could’ve hurt you…”
“Shhh.” She got up and sat on the bed next to him, looking at him intently. “We didn’t get hurt. You could’ve gotten killed, do you realize that? You did everything you could.”
“I never should’ve joined up,” he said bitterly.
She sighed. “You were sixteen years old, and they were what you needed at the time,” she said, her voice gentle and soothing. “Besides, you know what I’m figuring out?”
“What?”
“If you hadn’t joined, then Maddy might not have gone to Berkeley. She wouldn’t have David, or me. She wouldn’t have the baby she’s so eagerly expecting.” Thuy smiled at him. “And I wouldn’t have found you.”
He swallowed hard, and it had nothing to do with the dryness of his throat.
“And I hated my childhood, and my family. I hated what they did to me,” she continued. “But it wound up saving my life, and yours. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I’m making peace with it. What happened to us makes us who we are.”
He thought about it. She was right. His father’s cruelty was a result of his own harsh upbringing. And as much as he hated the thought, he’d go through anything if it meant getting a chance with Thuy.
“Are you going to catch any fallout?” he asked. “Using the Red Dagger’s name, I mean.”
She sighed. “I thought about that later,” she admitted. “I don’t think it will be a problem. It’s not like they’re going to catch wind of it. But even if they did… when they branded me, my father told me that I’d always be a part of the club. That I couldn’t escape it. If anything, it would be a big ‘I told you so’ moment for him.” She paused. “And up till now, he could’ve killed me at any time — it’s not like he didn’t know where I was. So I think I’m good.”
He held her hand, squeezing it. He didn’t like the thought of her being scared, living with the potential that her father might kill her at any time. It made him want to tuck her against him, put her someplace safe, and stay with her forever. Not that she needed protection, as was evident with her run in with the Wraiths. But still, he wanted to be with her.
Which brought up his next problem.
“Are you still thinking of moving back?” he asked. “To Oakland, I mean?”
She shook her head.
He frowned. “It’s not just to protect Maddy and me, is it? Keeping us ‘under your protection’ and all that?”
She chuckled. “You know, Maddy asked the same thing?” she said, shaking her head. “No. I’m staying because I like it here. I might not have a job at the library, but I could still volunteer or something, or work on book drives for the school. I could always get a job somewhere else, or work remotely. And I can still help Maddy, even if it’s just watching the baby so she can get some sleep.”
Drill stroked her hand, covering it with his other hand. “Does that mean you’ll give us another chance?” he asked quietly.
She took a deep breath, then put his hands up to her face, kissing his bruised and battered knuckles. “I was leaving because I thought we didn’t have a chance,” she said. “If you’re willing, if you’re ready to commit…”
“Are you kidding? I’m all in,” he said eagerly, interrupting her. “The only reason I thought you should go was because I thought you’d be safer. Well, and because I thought you were too good for me. And that you might not be happy here.”
“And now?”
He grimaced. “I’ll be honest. I’m too fucking selfish.”
She laughed.
“I’ll make it up to you,” he said. “I’ll learn to make the fancy food you like, or take you to the city. And I’ll do everything to make sure I’m good enough for you.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” she said. “You’re just what I need.”
They smiled at each other. He tugged her so she was next to him on the bed, even though his cracked ribs protested. He coughed a little, then settled her in.
“So what are you going to do now?” she asked.
“Now that my career in a motorcycle club is finished?” He mulled it over. “I was going to talk to Maddy. Technically, if I decided to work the farm, too, it’d belong to both Maddy and me. I need to talk it over with her, but I think I could help with the farming. It’d be good financially. She could focus more on the marketing and the specialty produce, and David and I can work the land more for the larger crops or for livestock. There are decisions we can make.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Thuy enthused, nuzzling his shoulder.
He cuddled her. He’d never been a cuddler before, but he could see himself getting used to it.
“You know,” Thuy said slowly. “If you’re going to work on the farm, you might want to, um, live there. Like in the cabin.”
He smiled at her, her words warming his chest. “Only if you’re there with me,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “I know, that’s stupid fast, but…”
“I fell in love with you stupid fast,” Thuy said with a smile. “If you’re in, I’m in.”
He kissed her. Gently, but with a deep promise of more.
“I love you,” he said against her lips. “And if you let me, I’m not going to let you go.”
She kissed him back. “Damn right you’re not,” she replied, and he laughed.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Thuy went back to the library after more than a week of being away. She hadn’t been scheduled, and after her little talk with Julianne, she wasn’t sure she was going to be scheduled in the future. But Naomi had called her, asking her to cover a shift, and she’d complied.
Drill was back now, settled in the cabin, convalescing. She had an early shift, and she was going to go home and make him some homemade pho. She already had the broth going in the crockpot she’d gotten from Maddy for Christmas, for just such usage.
“Thuy? Can you come back here for a moment?” Julianne said.
Thuy si
ghed. They hadn’t opened for business yet, so she doubted it would take long. And she didn’t think that Julianne would fire her when she was covering Naomi’s shift. Who else would man the desk? Still, she was nervous as she accompanied Julianne to her office.
“I wanted you to know, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since our talk,” Julianne said, gesturing to the same seat Thuy had occupied then. “I’ve been here so long… it’s meant so much to me. I was threatened by the changes you wanted to make, and you’re right: I didn’t think that you understood what it meant to be a librarian here. To care about this place, and this community.”
Thuy didn’t know what to say to that, so she stayed silent.
Julianne sighed. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized… you’re right. This isn’t about keeping things the same as they were, necessarily. Tradition is a good thing, one I value. But change is both good and needed, especially when things could be done to improve the lives of the people of Green Valley. People I care about very much.”
Thuy nodded.
“That said, I did a lot of soul-searching, and I can’t help but feel that the library’s role and vision is dictated by its head librarian,” Julianne said solemnly. “The head librarian sets the tone, makes the choices, that guide the institution into the future.”
Thuy felt her heart fall a little. So, even if she agreed that change might be necessary, ultimately, she was the head librarian. And what the head librarian stated was law. Which meant Thuy and her rebellious notions didn’t fit.
Okay. Fine. She had other options, and she’d readied herself for this outcome, even if it was disappointing to her.
“That’s why I’ll be retiring this month,” Julianne said. “And recommending that you be hired as my replacement, as head librarian.”
“What?” Thuy said, blinking. She was sure she hadn’t heard that correctly.
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