by Ivy Black
“So, you think we should use the rumor mill, but we shouldn’t plan it out? We should have it happen immediately?” Nick asked.
“And here. It wouldn’t make much sense if we weren’t agreeing with one another to not be on our turf.”
“He’s right,” Tess added. “The most believable story is if we’re here.”
Nick nodded. “Okay. I like it. The bar could suffer some damages, but it’d be worth it to keep those Dogs at bay. We’ll get word out to the Rebels and Raging Vipers and have them tailor the rumor mill.”
Nick seemed to be accepting of my suggestions as nothing more than just intelligence on the situation, it seemed, and as I scanned around the bar, staring with Tess and making my way around, the looks in my direction were indifferent, but there wasn’t suspicion in anyone’s eyes.
And then I locked eyes with Taylor, who, slowly but surely, developed a wide, ear-to-ear, evil, and malicious grin.
Chapter Eighteen
Tess
Weighing the options in my head, it almost seemed like it was the best idea to just get Colin out of the bar for the time being. My dad had, not so subtly, exerted a threatening dominance to get the club to vote Colin in as an officer, and that couldn’t have improved his station in their eyes. Colin finally agreed to stay in Hoppa, and now my dad was pulling stunts like that, and it wasn’t helping anyone.
As terrified and angry as it made me, Colin seemed unphased if not completely lost while thinking about something else. Whatever it was, I’d have to ask later. My goal at the moment was to give Colin and the other officers some time apart. Hopefully, once they got to know Colin better, they’d see that my dad was just doing what he thought was best, even if he strong-armed the club into doing it.
“Hey,” I said to Colin once the MiD meeting was over. “Do you wanna take Lockjaw and head home?”
“Tess,” Colin replied. “I’ve told you already—”
“I know.” Though I wanted to put my hand on his face to help drive home my point, I didn’t want to piss anyone off any more than they already were. “It’s less about you and more about them. This is unlike my dad. Give them some time to take it all in and get some booze in ’em, then come back this afternoon. You may have to play a couple of games of pool to make up for it.”
Colin rolled his eyes. “Do you think that would help?”
“I do, but only after they’ve had some time to cool down.” With a foot on Lockjaw’s rear, I scooted him a little forward. “Go do some male bonding or something.”
“Okay,” Colin said. “Text me later?”
“Of course.”
Colin didn’t linger after that. He tapped his leg, and I watched as Lockjaw bounded after him, and they both left the bar. Colin didn’t have a special seat for Lockjaw like my bike did, but his bike was also more equipped to carry another rider, even if that rider was a meaty pit bull. They’d be fine getting home, at least.
Once Colin was gone, I tried to figure out what I needed to do first. The guys already didn’t like me, and even if Bullseye did his best to treat me normally, and even if Bullet had lost himself for a second and asked for a bit of dating advice, I highly doubted that my involvement in the apparent coup my father was pulling was helping tip my needle in the right direction. They wanted me to interfere with my dad long before now, so if I knew them all, and I did, they were probably all blaming me a fair amount.
So that left talking to my dad. At first, I thought he just liked Colin, but I’d never seen that kind of aggression out of the man before in my life, at least not toward people he cared about. He loved the club and the guys in it like a family. I’d been blind to some of the stuff he’d already pulled because I love Colin and wanted him to be safe, but it was as if a shroud had been lifted. Colin would be okay regardless, but what my dad was doing was going to make it pretty goddamn difficult for either of us to get a leg up.
“Hey.”
The way I jumped when Taylor’s voice growled out behind me was borderline embarrassing. For God’s sake, he was my brother, even if he had been losing it a little more as of late.
“Hi,” I replied. “Sorry, I was thinking. You scared me.”
“I’m requesting a formal audience,” he said.
My eyebrows knitted together. “With dad? Just go ask to talk to him.”
“With you.”
If my heart could have fallen out of my chest, it would have. “Why do you want an audience with me?”
“Are you declining?”
The language was specific. Taylor knew the bylaws like some people knew the Bible. There was probably some fine print that required the president and vice president to hear out any requested audiences or something, so even though I would have rather jumped into the Grand Canyon than been alone with Taylor, I shook my head.
“Not at all. In the back?”
Taylor didn’t respond, only led the way back behind the bar, past dad without saying anything to him, and back into the warehouse. All of me was shaking despite my best attempts to keep myself still, so I was glad when I was finally sinking down into a chair at the table. I could at least clench myself together and attempt to seem unafraid.
Taylor sat across from me and crossed his arms before leaning back in his chair. “How are you?”
“What do you want?”
A deep smile curled from one end of Taylor’s face to the other. “You know, I was just thinking about when we were kids. Do you remember?”
His angle was a mystery, and it was terrifying. “Sure.”
“I know I was much more of a homebody, but you… you were always so popular. Everyone loved you.”
I cleared my throat. “I don’t know about all that. I had friends.”
Taylor leaned forward suddenly, his eyes bugging out and his smile growing impossibly larger. “That’s right! You did have friends! Didn’t you have one in particular? A boy.”
My stomach collapsed in on itself, and I thought I was going to throw up. “Um, I knew several boys.”
“No, no, no. You had one in particular. One who you were always following around like a little puppy dog. What was his name?” Taylor stared to the sky, and I said a silent prayer, but he snapped his fingers, and I knew it fell on deaf ears. “That’s right! Colin. Colin Jones.”
“Did I?” I stuttered. “Maybe? It was a long time ago.”
“It’s so interesting,” Taylor said. “Don’t you think that CJ could be short for Colin Jones?”
“CJ is CJ, so I don’t know what you’re insinuating.”
Taylor nodded, leaning back in his chair. “That’s good. It’s good that it’s not short for Colin Jones. It’s good because I think we’d be in real trouble if it were Colin Jones.”
I hunched my brow. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t matter. I looked up Colin Jones, but if CJ is not Colin Jones, then we don’t need to be worried about Colin Jones, do we?”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but it was the most manic I’d ever seen Taylor, and I wanted out of the room as quickly as possible. “No. We don’t have to worry about him.”
Taylor smiled wide. “Well, good, then. That’s it.”
“That’s it?” I asked.
He nodded. “That’s it.”
“Okay.”
With quickness, I got up from the table and rushed out of the warehouse using the back door. I did need to talk to my dad, but that was going to have to wait. The fear coursing through me was too much to bear, and I just needed Colin. To look in his eyes and have him tell me that everything was going to be okay.
The dust kicked up as I kicked a leg over my bike and prepared to leave when some of Taylor’s words ambled across my brain.
I looked up Colin Jones, but if CJ is not Colin Jones, then we don’t need to be worried about Colin Jones, do we?
The feeling that I’d done something inexplicably dumb wouldn’t shake away from my mind. Why didn’t I do a quick search for Coli
n after he first showed up, claiming that his name was CJ and not Colin? I was suspicious by nature. My default assumption was that someone was lying to me, but ever since Colin showed up, I was able to take everything he’d said to me at face value.
But it was Colin. He loved me, and I loved him. That was what mattered.
I started my bike and pulled out of the Taphouse, bound for home. All I could think about was curling up with my boyfriend and my dog and just forgetting about the day’s events. Hell, maybe we needed to plan a vacation and just get away from it all for a bit.
I think we’d be in real trouble if it were Colin Jones.
There was nothing troublesome about Colin. The urge to pull over to the side of the road and do a search on Colin from my phone was hard to resist, but I did it. I trusted him. He wouldn’t lie to me, certainly not about anything major. Whatever Taylor said was said specifically to psych me out, and I wasn’t going to let him get to me that way. Home was just a block away, and once I was there, I could forget all about Taylor.
That’s good. It’s good that it’s not short for Colin Jones.
Why?
By the time I was pulling my bike into the driveway in front of my house, the curiosity had burned a hole straight through me. Before even unmounting my bike, I dragged my phone out of my pocket and opened it to a web browser. I typed in Colin’s name, and for some reason, my heart was pounding. The search seemed to take longer than it should have, almost like it was preparing me. When the results splashed across the screen, I immediately felt sick to my stomach.
Unchained Dogs’ Colin “Phantom” Jones goes free again with no evidence to tie him to the latest murder.
Phantom Jones is the real ghost story Rumble citizens are afraid of.
The Unchained Dogs’ sharpened teeth are president’s assassin, Colin Jones.
To be safe, I clicked a few of the articles, but they all returned images of Colin. Some of them were mugshots, and some of them were shots of him standing alongside the Unchained Dogs’ President, Luther.
Biting back my emotions, I climbed off my bike and walked into the house. Colin was standing in the kitchen, making a sandwich, and Lockjaw was patiently waiting next to him, hoping for dropped spoils.
“Hey,” he greeted me with a smile when I walked. “I wasn’t expecting you back so soon. Want a sandwich?” My throat felt tight, and my nose burned. Tears were already rising to my eyes, but I held them back as much as I could. “Tess?” Colin asked.
“When you left Hoppa, where did you go?” I asked.
Colin froze. “What?”
“You heard me,” I said. “When you left Hoppa, when your mom took you from here, where did you go?”
He stood staring at me for a long time, then finally sighed. “Rumble.”
What a simple question I never thought to ask before that moment. “Ah,” I responded. “What’d you get up to while you were there? Any jobs? School?”
Colin shook his head. “How’d you find out?”
My hand went to my mouth. “It’s true? You’re with the Dogs?”
“No,” Colin responded quickly. “I’m… not anymore.”
“Anymore!” I yelped. “You were with the Unchained Dogs! My family’s rival motorcycle club?” My heart sank. “Oh my god. Are you here infiltrating us?”
“No, Tess.” Colin walked around from behind the kitchen bar and attempted to approach me, but I quickly pulled my gun and held it on him. He stopped and held up his hands. “Tess. I swear. I’m not still with them.”
“Why would I believe you? You’ve been lying to me this entire time!” I started to laugh. “Fuck! I’m so dumb! Of course you’ve been lying to me. You didn’t just show up out of the blue. You came here with a purpose.”
“Please, please, just let me explain.”
“Explain!” I cocked my gun. “You’re lucky I don’t bury bullets in you right now.”
“Tess.”
“Get out.”
“Please, Tess.”
“Get out!” I snapped my fingers. “Lockjaw.” Lockjaw looked up at me, and his ears folded back over his head. He started to whine and back away from Colin. “What are you—”
“He’s mine,” Colin muttered.
“What?” I said.
“Lockjaw. I was his first owner.”
Tears streamed down my face. No wonder he seemed to take to Colin differently from anyone else. “Please, just get out.”
Colin opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. He grabbed his wallet and keys off the kitchen counter and rushed out the door. I stayed frozen in place while I listened to his bike start and rumble out of the driveway, and it wasn’t until the rumble of his bike had totally faded from sight that I collapsed on the floor, tears flowing as I sobbed. Lockjaw whimpered as he timidly approached me, but when I held out my arms, he came into them fully and licked my face.
How could I have been so blind?
Chapter Nineteen
Phantom
“Room 208. I’d take the staircase on the left. The right’s closer, but it’s busted.”
The keys scraped as I slid them across the dingy motel reception desk counter. “Thanks.”
“Hey, you seem pretty down. You need some company tonight? I can get you a girl. Fifty bucks for a nice one. Twenty-five if looks don’t matter.”
Tess’ pristine body, beautiful curves, auburn hair, and sparkling eyes cracked across my mind. “There’s not a single person you could offer that would satisfy me.”
“What? Like a guy? I got guys, too.”
I turned my back to the motel clerk, followed his instruction down the row of motel rooms and up the staircase on the left end, then walked down to my room. The lock let out a dull thud as I turned my key in it, and when I opened the door, I actually let out a groan at the state of the room. The bed was covered in a coat of dust, and the television was already sparking like trying to turn it on would get me electrocuted.
On the run again.
Tossing my bag onto the bed, I walked over to the bathroom nook near the back of the room and peered into the mirror. My facial hair had gotten longer, but I quickly noticed something else.
There was a darkened hickey on my neck.
My stomach turned as I touched it and did my best to remember the feeling of Tess’ soft lips on the spot. God, had I fucked up. I started to count my chickens before they hatched. All I had to do was come clean on my own, ease Tess into it, or say something to Nick before he started going haywire. Better yet, I shouldn’t have come to Hoppa at all. I’d selfishly dragged Tess, Nick, and all of the Steel Knights into my mess.
Tess would have to tell Nick the truth eventually. It killed me to think that he would believe I betrayed his trust. I made a sincere promise never to hurt his club or his daughter, and I did both. Maybe one day, once everything had blown over and I was safely within Munich, I could call him and explain everything. He may not believe me, regardless, but I’d sleep better at night if I knew that I’d at least apologized to the man. He was willing to trust me with everything and even risked isolating himself inside his own club.
Someone who would do that did not deserve what I had done to him.
What I couldn’t figure out was how Tess had come across the truth, to begin with. When I left her at Hoppa’s not ten minutes earlier, she was none the wiser. Had she just broken down the advice I gave and figured it stemmed from somewhere?
The sound of shrill ringing brought me back to attention with a jump. It’d been such a long time since I heard my phone ring. Well, it had been before I left Rumble. Tess and I would text when we weren’t together, but that wasn’t very often since we’d been attached at the hip for the most part. I walked over to my bag on the dusty old bed and pulled it out. My heart dropped into my stomach.
It was a foreign number.
“Hello?” My attempts to keep my tone even as I answered failed.
“Colin?”
Dust drifted up as I fell down t
o sit on the bed. “Caid.”
“Hey!”
Tears came to my eyes immediately. He sounded so healthy, so strong. “Hey. You…” I laughed. “You sound great.”
He chuckled from the other side of the phone, and I couldn’t stop myself from fishing out that old, burned picture of Caid in his hospital bed that I’d saved. The voice I was hearing sounded nothing like one that would go with the feeble body in the picture.
“The treatment is going really, really well. I feel the best I’ve felt in my entire life. I’ve been walking round the hospital all on my own. Well, my nurse walks with me, but I can keep myself up.”
All of the times that I had to brace Caid on my shoulder and carry him from place to place flashed across my mind. To hear that he was walking on his own two feet was nearly too much to bear. “That’s amazing.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner, but, well, I was kind of nervous. I knew that things weren’t great when I left, so I was afraid I might learn… bad news.”
As much as I tried to shield Caid from my life, eventually, he caught on. Though he was holed up in a hospital for most of his life, he could still read my mind like it was his own. Mix that with the fact that he worked on his brain for every day that he couldn’t work on his body, and one day he flat out asked me if I’d joined the mafia.
Close.
“Yeah. It was wild for a while, I’m not gonna lie to you, but…” I sighed. “I came back to Hoppa, and I reconnected with Tess. She’s kept me safe.”
“Wow! That’s an old, old flame. Or is it rekindled now?”
“It was. I fucked it up.”
“Don’t tell me, you focused a little too much on your brother and didn’t live your own life?” he spat back.