by Blair Grey
I might not want to be leader of the MC in Ray’s absence, but I was starting to realize that there was a reason he had considered tapping me to take the position either way.
“You’ve been loyal to Red Eyes for a long time, and you’ve proven your loyalty by refusing to give any information to these new guys,” I continued. “Rest assured that until your business is up and running again, we will use that money to pay your salaries.”
Linda looked first shocked and then grateful. “Thank you so much,” she said. “You don’t know how much that means to me. I knew that you always had my back, but that still means so much to me.”
Braxton looked like he was going to protest, but I gave him a sharp look. “We’ll be in touch with you,” I promised Linda. Then, I turned and led both Braxton and Cameron away from her. “We have to,” I said before either of them could protest. “We don’t need word getting out that we can’t protect our businesses. That they're going to burn to the ground right in front of the owners’ eyes and that we’re not going to help them at all afterward.”
“But Red Eyes can’t go around paying for all the salaries in this town,” Braxton growled.
“He’s right,” Cameron said, shaking his head. As the treasurer, he knew what our club intake looked like in terms of dues. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to be an isolated occurrence. They’ve already drawn attention to themselves by burning down this building. Linda might not be able to identify them, but the police are going to be looking for arsonists. They may as well wreak as much havoc on the town as they can before they get brought down.”
“But Linda can’t identify them,” I pointed out. “You just said that. If Linda can’t identify them, then the police have nothing to go on at the moment. Why not stay safe in their anonymity?”
“Because they know that we’re going to find them and take them down now,” Braxton growled. “This was clearly a message for us. They want to ruin as much of our territory as they can.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “And you have no right to be the one making promises to Linda to smooth things over.”
I shrugged. “Ray isn’t here,” I reminded Braxton. “Someone needs to think about the business owners, and you’re too busy thinking about the Unknowns.”
I thought he was going to punch me over that, but fortunately, Cameron intervened before things could get too ugly. He caught Braxton’s shoulder and hauled him back with a strength that I didn’t realize the tall, narrow man had. “Not here,” he hissed. “We’re still surrounded by shopkeepers from the local area, the police, and maybe even the people who burned this place down. The last thing we need is to show signs that there are cracks within Red Eyes.”
Braxton shrugged Cameron off but nodded once. Then, he turned on his heel and left. Cameron turned back to me, his brows knitting together. “You’d better be careful,” was all he said before he left as well.
I watched the flames lick at the few last pieces of Linda’s business. What if more of the businesses burned to the ground? What if this destroyed the community that I had grown up in? No, we couldn’t let that happen. Like Braxton said, we needed to find out who was behind this. But for now, we needed to make sure the business owners knew that we weren’t going to abandon them to this fiery fate. It was the only logical thing to do.
I needed to talk to Ray about all of this, to make sure that he was on board as well.
But for now, all I wanted was to get out of there, and not just because of the scorching heat. As I was walking away, my phone started ringing again, and I sighed, sure that it must be Braxton. “Yeah?” I grunted as I answered it without looking at the caller ID.
“Oh!” Holly said, sounding surprised at my gruff tone. “Is this a bad time?”
I closed my eyes and leaned against a nearby wall, wishing I could just drown myself in her voice and forget all about Red Eyes, the Unknowns, the arson. “Actually, this is a great time,” I told her. “What’s up?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to meet up tonight,” Holly said.
My whole body ached with how much I wanted to meet up with her, but I knew that I couldn’t. I was already starting to take over for Ray, even though he hadn’t officially tapped me yet. And if there were arsons on the loose, I wanted Holly as far away from it as possible. I couldn’t see her again, at least not until things had calmed down.
I sighed. “Actually, I have some work things I need to get done tonight,” I said. The sooner we figured out who was behind this, the sooner we could get them locked up. And the sooner I could, in good conscience, see Holly again. The first step would be to come back over here tonight, once the police had cleared out, and comb through the place. See if there was anything that the police had missed. Any clue of who had done this.
I had to believe that there was a clue. That there was a simple answer to all of this. After all, like Braxton said, this had been intended to send a message to us. They would want us to know who had done it. If it was the Unknowns, they would want to make sure we knew that they were back. What was revenge if you didn’t even know that it was revenge?
“I’ll call you when I get a chance,” I promised.
“Okay,” Holly said. I could hear the disappointment in her voice, and it tugged at me, but I hung up anyway. I didn’t know what else to do.
22
Holly
I had to admit; I was a little relieved that Grant didn’t want to get together on Saturday night. Deceiving him was really starting to weigh on me. I knew I had a job to do and that I couldn’t let my feelings get in the way of it. I had to keep putting myself out there and hoping that Grant would come out with me. That he would eventually tell me everything that Ryan wanted to know.
But it made me feel terrible all the same. Grant had been nothing but kind to me, and I was starting to wonder if he was really the kind of man that Ryan seemed positive that he was. A biker, sure. But a cold-blooded murderer? Doubtful.
So one more night of Grant declining to see me meant that I had one more night of freedom from that whole charade, pretending that I was just some girl from Montana who was falling in love with him. It was becoming harder and harder to remind myself of who I really was: the undercover officer tasked with bringing him to justice.
At least his refusal to see me had sounded genuine. Actually, he’d sounded like he really did want to see me but just didn’t have the time. It didn’t sound like I had done anything wrong. That was a relief. I still wasn’t sure that it had been right to sleep with him when I had. I was still afraid it was going to make him lose interest in me in the long run. That he’d move on to someone else.
But it didn’t seem like things were going that way. It seemed like he wanted me just as much as I wanted him, when I wasn’t thinking about all the other bullshit that was in the way of our actually having a relationship.
“What’s that face for?” Vera asked, coming into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and then various cupboards while I struggled to think of how to answer. She wouldn’t want to hear that I was so hung up on Grant. She already didn’t like the fact that I was involved in this operation.
Fortunately, Vera had other things on her mind. She turned around, a grimace on her face. “I’m about ready to make that face too,” she said. “There’s pretty much nothing in this house that I can throw together for dinner. I should have done the shopping today, but there were about a thousand police cars over on Anderson, and the traffic was terrible. I couldn’t get through.”
“What happened?” I asked in surprise. I knew that some of the businesses loyal to Red Eyes were over on Anderson. In fact, that was where some of the recruits had been doing their training surveillance.
“I think there was some building that burned down?” Vera said, shrugging a shoulder. “Don’t you hear all of this stuff on your police radio?”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have a police radio,” I reminded her. “Having one of those blaring in my ear would be a little inconvenient when I’
m trying to stay incognito.”
“Fair enough,” Vera said. “Anyway, I wasn’t really paying attention. I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to get to the store today. But I didn’t realize we have absolutely nothing left to eat in this house.”
I shrugged. “Let’s just go out to dinner,” I suggested. “It’s been a while since we did that. We could go to Mazzolo’s for pizza.”
“Ooh, I like that idea,” Vera said. “We haven’t been there in ages. Let me just go grab my stuff.”
Unfortunately, Vera decided that dinner was the perfect time to pester me. “So what was that face for?” she asked while we waited for our pizzas to arrive at our table.
I groaned. “Can you just forget about it?” I asked her.
Vera looked taken aback. “Fine,” she said, her tone distinctly frosty. “I just thought that maybe because we were sisters, you might want to talk to me about it. We always tell each other everything. Or so I thought.”
I ducked my head, feeling even more guilty. Guilty that I wasn’t being honest with her, guilty that I wasn’t being honest with Grant. Who knew that undercover work would mean giving up all of my principles?
“It’s Grant,” I finally said, because I couldn’t take Vera’s wounded expression any longer. “I’m really starting to have feelings for him.”
Vera stared at me for a long moment. “Does he know that you’re an undercover cop trying to get him arrested?” she finally said, her tone matter-of-factly.
“No.” I sighed. “Of course he doesn’t know.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Vera asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know that I’m going to do anything. I mean, I can’t give up my career just because of some guy. I’ve worked hard for this.”
“I know you have,” Vera said delicately. “But if it’s just going to make you unhappy, maybe it’s time that you considered what your options are.”
“I don’t know that I have any.” I sighed.
“You always have options,” Vera said staunchly.
I grinned at her optimism, but the amusement was fleeting. “He’s got a terrible past. I know that’s part of why I’m falling for him. I just can’t help but feel sympathetic for him. He was orphaned very young, and he just bounced around the system for all of his childhood. But he didn’t have a big sister that he could rely on. He had to do it all on his own.”
I paused, shaking my head. “The thing is, I’ve seen a lot of criminals. And deep down in my heart, I know that Grant just isn’t one. He’s a good guy in a bad situation. It’s no wonder he fell in with the MC. What else was he going to do with his life? They gave him a place to belong. Brothers, if you will. I don’t think that he really wants any part in the MC life, though. I mean, I can tell that he loves his bike, but that’s about it. He’s just not like the other guys.”
Vera was silent for a moment. I was glad that she didn’t just immediately dismiss what I was saying. I could always count on her to listen to me and to answer me honestly. I appreciated that.
Finally, though, she shrugged. “Whether he wants any part in the MC life or not, this is the situation that he’s put himself into,” she reminded me. “He may have a heart, and he may not be like the rest of them, but you have to know how those clubs work. He has to do what the leader asks him to do, doesn’t he? Whatever his personal feelings are. Just like you have to do what your boss tells you.”
“I guess.” I sighed.
“And besides,” Vera continued. “He’s an adult. If he didn’t want to be part of the club, he could have gotten out of it.”
“It’s not that simple,” I protested, even though I knew that she was right. Grant might feel a sort of kinship with the other guys in the club, but all the same, he could have gotten out of it if he was really opposed to the things that Red Eyes routinely did. If he didn’t want to be a criminal, he didn’t need to be.
The fact that he was still in the club made him a criminal. Because if nothing else, he was hiding information from the police.
“I really wish I could say something else,” Vera said, looking sadly at me. “I want you to find the perfect guy. I want you to be happy. As your big sister, I’m always going to be protective of you, but I don’t want to be the kind of sister who tries to tell you what boyfriend to have. But I can’t help feeling that there are a million men in the world who could make you happy, and I really don’t think this is the right guy for you. If you’re having to question throwing away your career for him, he can’t be right.”
I stared down at the table. On the one hand, I knew that she was just trying to protect me. But on the other hand, I couldn’t help feeling these things that I felt for Grant. Even if I wanted to stop things between Grant and me, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to. I was going to have to keep seeing him, unless I wanted to jeopardize my career, which I couldn’t bring myself to do.
“I just want you to be careful,” Vera said. “And I think it’s better that you don’t get too close to Grant.”
I nodded. Even though I knew in my heart that Grant couldn’t be the bad guy that Ryan made him out to be, I also knew that I shouldn’t be involved with him. Not least of which because he was going to want nothing to do with me if he ever found out that I wasn’t some girl who had just moved here from Montana. Hell, I barely knew the first thing about Montana.
Things could never work out between us. So Vera was right: the best thing to do would be to keep my distance as much as I could.
Thankfully, Vera left it at that and changed the topic. “You know, another thing that we haven’t done in a while that we should do soon is go shopping,” she said. “I saw some really cute things in this little boutique window the other day.”
I smiled at her, happily turning my thoughts away from Grant for now. Or at least, as much as I could because he was still always there in the back of my mind.
So it was a surprise to see his bike parked on the street as we were on our way home that night. “Wait, stop,” I said to Vera. “Pull over here.”
She gave me a look, but thankfully, she complied. It was definitely Grant’s bike. I recognized it even more now that I had ridden on it. And it was parked on Anderson, right outside the business that had burned down earlier that day. I stared at the bike, the gears turning in my head. What business could Grant possibly have there? And at this time of night? It wasn’t quite dark yet, but it would be getting there soon.
“Can we go now?” Vera asked, startling me from my thoughts. When I looked over, I could tell that she was pale. “As much as I want you to be safe, you know I’ve never stood in the way of you doing your job, but I don’t want to be in the car while you’re scouting out Red Eyes criminals.”
“That’s fair,” I said. Again, those guilty feelings swirling up inside of me. “Let’s go home.”
Vera nodded and put the car back in drive. She was speeding a little on the way home, but fortunately, no one stopped us.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about Grant’s motorcycle outside that burned-out husk of a building, even after we got home. I felt restless. I knew this was the kind of information that Ryan would love to have. Was Red Eyes somehow involved in the burning of this building? I knew that this was one of the businesses that paid its dues to them, but maybe they were trying to distract the police from something else that was going on? They had to know that we were watching them. I couldn’t just forget about this. I had to see what was going on.
23
Grant
The police still didn’t want anyone in the burned remains of Candy, claiming that it was a safety hazard, but I found a way around that. “I really appreciate you helping me get my things out of the building,” Linda said, as I hefted another box and brought it out to her car. “Like I said earlier, we all know that Red Eyes is there for us, but I guess I never realized just how much you would help.” She looked around, tears in her eyes. “But I suppose I never imagined that such a thing could h
appen to my building.”
“We’ll have you up and running again in no time,” I said again, trying to soothe her. Soothing people wasn’t really my specialty, though. I cleared my throat. “Why don’t I head back inside and see if there’s anything else left that you may have overlooked,” I suggested.
“I’d appreciate that,” Linda said, her eyes still brimming with tears as she looked at the pitiful two boxes of things that we had been able to salvage so far, after spending the better part of an hour digging through the wreckage.
Just as I was walking into the building, though, a pair of headlights flashed across me. I frowned at the vehicle, realizing that it was Holly’s car. I headed over to greet her. “What are you doing here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” she said, a smile on her face. “My sister and I went out for pizza tonight, and on the way back, I saw your motorcycle. I know you said you had work, so I got curious.”
“I’m helping a friend whose business burned down,” I said, gesturing toward Linda. “We’re just trying to see if there’s anything we can salvage from the place before it sits in the ashes for too long. We’re almost done, though.”
“Can I help?” Holly asked, to my surprise.
I blinked at her, internally debating whether or not to let her stick around. I wanted her company, though, and there was no reason for her not to be there. Braxton and Cameron were following different leads that night, trying to figure out who had done this, and since I wasn’t particularly good at comforting people, things with Linda had been a little bit awkward. Having Holly around might make things a bit more comfortable for everyone.