Then, just before noon, three bikers roared by, going just a hair under 60 miles per hour. The speed limit hadn’t changed, and I signaled with my sirens and lights for them to pull over. The biker at the front looked back, looked at the other two bikers, and then eventually pulled over. I pulled up behind them, radioed in that I had someone, and then got out of the car.
“License and registration, please,” I said to the man at the front.
The other two bikes stood on their bikes, glaring at me. I was outnumbered, but even an Anarchist wasn’t stupid enough to try and pull something here.
“Of course,” the man said, getting off his bike and opening his glove compartment. My hand went to my hip, just in case, but he pulled out what was requested. I looked at the license.
“Mr. Richards, do you have any idea how fast you were going?” I said as I held on to his license and registration.
“I might have been going a little fast, I apologize,” he said.
Mr. Richards was incredibly at ease. A little too at ease, in fact, for someone that had gotten pulled over.
“Well, you were going more than ten miles per hour over.”
“Oh, I am sorry.”
“I’ll be right back.”
I headed back to the cop car, cognizant of the fact that the other two bikers were still staring at me.
“You two will be processed in a moment.”
I headed back to the car. Sheriff Jones was trying to reach me.
“This is Officer Burton. I’m processing a speeding ticket for one Rick Richards. Am running now to see if he has any tickets. Over.”
The line went dead for a few moments while I read his information through the system.
“Richards?”
Sheriff Jones’ voice sounded very concerned.
“Yes? Over.”
I went back to working it. Rick Richards had… no arrest warrants out. He had a decent rap sheet, but he had nothing. The most I could give him right now was a speeding ticket of a couple hundred bucks.
“Officer Burton, do not give that man a ticket, over.”
What the fuck?
“Sheriff Jones, please explain, over.”
“That man is Vulture, the leader of the Anarchists. You give him a ticket, you are going to have a death warrant on your head tomorrow. The information that he was on your road is far more important than the money. Let him off and tell him to drive carefully. Over.”
Goddamnit. We’re going to let the bad man get off because he’s too bad? This is where the law’s handcuffs suck sometimes.
“Acknowledged, over.”
I stepped out of the car, only Mr. Richards’ license and registration in my hands.
“You may have been speeding, but you weren’t crazy about it,” I said. “Please just be careful driving and stay within the speed limit.”
“Of course, yes ma’am,” Mr. Richards said. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”
I left without another word. The two bikers behind the man called Vulture nodded to me, as if I had made the smart choice. With that, the three bikers rode off, and I stayed behind in the car to handle a few things.
Then I looked in the rearview mirror and saw another biker approaching. I reached for my pistol when, upon the man taking his helmet off, I saw it was Parker. But now, instead of concern, I had a hell of a lot of questions.
I stepped out of the car before he got all the way around, making sure that I was not at a disadvantage in the vehicle.
“Do ya know how close ya came to being killed?” he said. All of the humor that had been in his voice was gone.
“I’m well aware, thanks. Sheriff Jones warned me about him.”
“Ya avoided death for now, but ya still got a bounty on ya head for that stupid shit,” Parker said.
“I’m sorry, how—”
“Look, ain’t nothin’ to worry ‘bout, we got your back. I need you to come to the club and talk. Come tonight, after our club meeting. Say, 10 p.m.”
I rolled my eyes. Parker was a lot smoother when he wasn’t stressed.
“I’m serious, Liza,” he said. “Sheriff Jones knows some things, but he ain’t know everythin’. And ya need our protection. We need to talk.”
I know how to protect myself just fine. But the gravity of Parker’s voice convinced me that I at least needed to give him an audience, if not an entire evening. I figured a cameo would appease him and keep relations between the Savage Kings and the Romara PD good enough.
“Alright,” I said.
“If ya see any more Anarchists, don’t pull them over,” he warned. “Vulture’s gonna put the word out. Next one ya try to approach…”
“They’re not going to shoot me.”
“No,” Parker said. “But they’ll do everything else.”
5
Parker
I had a shot at killing Vulture.
I had seen Liza pull him and his cronies over. I had a real chance at ending the menace once and for all. I hadn’t gotten many clear shots in the years, but this one was one that was about as good as it got.
And I didn’t do a goddamn thing.
Because of her.
I knew that if I went in with guns blazing, even if I killed Vulture, the two men with him would have shot Liza without hesitation. I could not live with that. I did not want the Kings to get into the spot where we traded lives for lives. Our victory, in other words, could not be a Pyrrhic one.
And that was something that I could not let Liza know.
I didn’t want her indebted to me. I didn’t want our relationship to be one that was tracked by a ledger of who had saved who. But most of all, I just didn’t think she’d believe a goddamn word I would say. Even though I had shown up just seconds after Vulture and his men had driven off, I doubted she would have believed it to be anything more than a coincidence. And even if she was one of those smart people that didn’t believe in coincidence, she wasn’t going to buy that I could have killed Vulture.
All of that filled my head as I spoke at the meeting.
“We know they’re travelin’ along the north side of town,” I said. “The police set up speed traps. Got ‘em just on that side of town. They let him go, save their own asses, but they ain’t stupid. They’ve shared that information with us. Now we gotta take advantage of it.”
Brock, at the head of the table, nodded.
“We ain’t gonna sit back like we did with the vandalism,” I said. “We let them escalate shit. I ain’t gonna sit and watch them skirt around town. Fuck that.”
“We get it,” Brock said, though I’m not sure that he did.
I was a little edgy. I was always a little edgy compared to most people, but right now, I was especially edgy. I didn’t particularly feel like sacrificing Liza’s life so that we could stay calm and collected. She may not have gotten killed, but she had a red X on her photo at one of the hideouts of the Anarchists. She’d made herself a target.
“I am in favor of bolder action, I can get behind that,” Brock said. “But this new woman, this new officer, she may be of use to us. If we can put pressure on the Anarchists through the legal system, that’ll make them easier to squish when they fall out of the edges. We can—”
“So because we have one more officer here, we can take out that many more Anarchists?” I snapped.
I fell back, realizing that I was far too on edge. Petey took notice, too, and when Petey noticed something, there was no hiding it anymore. I sat back and crossed my arms.
“Fuckin’ hell,” I grumbled. “Tired of these assholes runnin’ around. They almost killed your woman and Petey’s woman, they’ve killed several of our own men, and now we know exactly where they are.”
“We did, but I’ll bet you anything that the Anarchists have adjusted because of Officer Burton. We can act on the intel, but we need to be careful.”
Then, finally, Brock said the words that I’d wanted to hear since the goddamn meeting had started.
“We’ll organiz
e a unit to go on a run to Golden Valley and see if we can find anything. I want to keep this smaller and quicker, maybe eight of us total. If we can kill Vulture, we’ll take it, but otherwise, we’ll stay back. Parker, can you lead the men out in fifteen?”
“With pleasure,” I said, grinning ear to ear.
“Then get on it. Meeting’s adjourned.”
Everyone started to leave. I stood up, but before I could get out the door, Petey held me back. And when old Petey held you back, you weren’t getting away.
“Yeah?” I gruffed after everyone had left the room.
“I’ve seen you pretty fired up before. You’re not a person who takes bullshit. You are one of the few people that are genuinely feared in this club, and I mean that in a good way. But you weren’t trying to push through bullshit tonight. You were trying your damndest to get action to happen. Why?”
I didn’t even try and bullshit Petey. But that didn’t mean that I gave him the full answer.
“It ain’t any of your business, Petey.”
“Is it the new cop? Liza?”
“I said, it ain’t any of your fuckin’ business,” I growled. “Down in Texas and back in the Marines, I subscribed to one policy only. My business was mine, and your business was yours. Whatever ya did, so long as it ain’t interfere with my life, was your business. Got it?”
Petey leaned back.
“I got it.”
I fucking knew that he knew as soon as he leaned back. He was too smart to not realize that I wouldn’t normally have pushed back like that so far. Fucking smart intellectual dipshit.
“Just make sure that your business doesn’t interfere with club business.”
I swore, I wanted to punch that motherfucker straight in the mouth and give him a Texas greeting. That fucking asshole…
But he left before I could say a word.
At least I was about to get my energy out on something else. At least I was finally going to kill some fucking Anarchists. At least—
“Parker!”
Brock’s voice broke through the barely open doors. I swung them open as Brock hurried over to me.
“Change of plans.”
“The hell?”
“Officer Burton’s vehicle got struck on the way home. I don’t think it was an accident.”
I was on my bike faster than anyone else could make sense of what was going on. I had my pistol and my guile, and that was enough to attack anyone that dared to stick around when I arrived. I made a beeline straight for the police station.
Her vehicle wasn’t at the station, but it was just outside it. It was also on fire, and Liza was trapped inside, unconscious.
“Sweet motherfuckin’ Christ!” I shouted as I slammed the brakes of my bike just a few feet away. I hurried off, scanned the area for Anarchists, and then pulled on her door, trying to pry it open. But the damn thing was all but sealed shut.
I then rammed my elbow into her driver’s side window as hard as I could, but that didn’t make a single crack’s worth of damage. I was strong, but not that strong, and I had never had to break down the glass of a window anyways. I reached into my pocket, unsheathed a knife, and stabbed repeatedly. Slowly, a crack started to form.
“Come on! Come on! Come on!”
The fire was getting hotter and hotter. Sweat poured down my face. My left arm started to feel like it would shrivel up from the heat. And still I drove the knife harder and harder on the window.
Then, with one last swipe, the cracks extended to the rest of the window, and the whole thing fell apart. I yanked on Liza’s shoulders, pulled her out, and hoisted her on my shoulders. I lay her on the grass just as the car exploded and the rest of the Savage Kings showed up.
“She’s fine,” I said. “You guys go look for the Anarchists that did this!”
Brock led the rest of the men out, even as he gave me a knowing look. Sheriff Jones showed up a second later, looking like he was on the verge of falling asleep.
“She OK?” he asked.
“Fine,” I said. “Knocked out, but alive. Think the Anarchists did this for her pullin’ over Vulture earlier.”
“Jesus,” Sheriff Jones said. “How did you—”
“I was there,” I said.
I didn’t elaborate. I didn’t feel like explaining that I could have ended this threat if I had had an ounce more guts, but couldn’t sacrifice her life. I didn’t feel like considering the possibility that I’d end up losing Liza anyways if I wasn’t careful.
“This war’s about to get a lot worse, huh?”
“If ya got any state or federal strings ya can pull on, now would be a real good time to get ‘em over here,” I warned. “This ain’t gonna get any better. Diplomacy is way out the window.”
The sheriff didn’t say anything else.
And then Liza woke up.
6
Liza
The last thing I remembered was slamming on my brakes as another car cut me off.
As I recalled the memory and slowly came to, I remembered that the car that had cut me off hadn’t just accidentally missed a red light or a stop light. It had moved almost as if it had meant to deliberately cut me off, as if it wanted me to hit it. I had slammed on the brakes far too late.
But I was alive, and Parker was standing over me. Sheriff Jones stood a few feet behind, smiling with relief.
“Ya alright?” Parker asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “What the hell happened?”
Parker recapped what he had seen when he arrived. He explained how he had saved me. He said that he strongly suspected that the Anarchists had done this as retaliation for the near-speeding ticket, and I had no reason to doubt him.
This moment, though, did make me realize something. It was only yesterday when I had told myself that the only condition I would even consider anything romantic or sexual with Parker was if he had saved me from death.
And, well, goddamnit, this qualified pretty well, didn’t it?
“Well, thank you,” I said.
I still tried to project the image of a professional police officer with the sheriff nearby, but there was little doubt that as I began to ponder my thoughts from before and what Parker had done that I liked him. Obviously, saving my life made him sexy, but it was like the fire from my car had also melted away a whole lot more than just the interior and exterior of my personal vehicle.
“Officer Burton!” Sheriff Jones said as soon as Parker stood up and let him have a word. “Are you OK? What happened?”
I recapped what I had just told Parker, except I made mine a lot shorter.
“Do you need a ride home?” the sheriff said.
“Um, no, actually,” I said, which was something of a lie. “I live literally two minutes away. I’ll call a tow company and get this resolved.”
“You’re sure—”
“You know we do towing,” Parker said with a wink. “Repairs don’t cover everything as far as expenses go, unfortunately.”
It was all I needed to hear.
“Yeah, I’ll wait here then while the Kings tow the vehicle,” I said. “You can go get some rest, Sheriff. I promise I’ll be OK.”
The sheriff looked at me and then looked at Parker. Awareness seemed to fill his eyes as he nodded and patted my shoulder.
“I’m just glad you’re OK, officer.”
“Not my first rodeo,” I said to Sheriff Jones as he walked away.
I turned my attention back to Parker.
“So, you know how you said that I could get a one-on-one meeting with you tonight to go over the Anarchists?”
“Yah.”
“Is that still on the table?”
“No way!” I said with a drink in my hand and laughter in the air. “You really mean to tell me that you kicked their ass that easily?”
“Yep!” Parker boasted as he cheered my glass. “It was just a matter of moving in full force. Wiped the floor of those assholes. Never stood a chance!”
I was a little drunk, sitti
ng on the Kings’ clubhouse couch. Parker had already advised me that my vehicle was toast and beyond repair, but I didn’t much care. Sheriff Jones had said I could use the squad car for personal use until I figured out what I wanted to do for a personal vehicle, and it didn’t sound like there was any type of particular rush in that regard.
“Damn, I guess you guys do do some good work for this town,” I said. “In my experience, most MCs aren’t really great for towns. They just say they’re for it and make a couple charity appearances a year while stirring shit up. But you don’t seem that way.”
“Not at all.”
He paused, smirked, and turned to me, putting a hand on my leg. I didn’t move it away.
“How do we seem?”
“Hmm,” I said.
Remember, you can have fun, but you better still be professional.
“Genuine,” I said. “You’re serious about your job. Fun. You are lighthearted and a little silly at times. Playful. Uh…”
“Sexy,” Parker added.
Laughing, I shoved him away, but that only gave Parker the excuse to “rebound” back to me, causing him to fall on top of me.
“I know you think this is sexy.”
“Is that so?”
But he didn’t respond. We hit a moment instead where both of us were locking eyes together, gazing into each other. It was a moment that I had fought so hard to not even approach, let alone fall into… but now that I was here, I realized just how much I’d missed this feeling.
This feeling of feeling close to someone, of wanting them in a way that words could not express. That feeling that you two could be silent for hours and say so much to each other. That feeling of trust and erotic tension.
He leaned forward slowly, almost hesitantly, like he didn’t trust the situation. I didn’t blame him. Even now, with me a little drunk and him having saved my life, I had a very loud voice in my head telling me that I was making a very stupid decision.
But there was no one else at the clubhouse. Parker had cleared it out. Sheriff Jones would never know. I would never tell anyone.
Twisted Romance: An MC Romance (Savage Kings MC Book 9) Page 3