Vice

by Elana Johnson

  She wasn’t going to get her hot chocolate and her romantic comedy, snuggled up in Jordan’s arms.

  Chapter Nine

  Vice used every ounce of his willpower not to turn and look at Felicia while Maverik talked. Since the robbery several days ago, Mav had put his guys on high alert around town, and Earl had called in twenty minutes ago with news of two bikers with the Breath patches on their backs.

  He’d called in all the senior members of the club, and then locked it down.

  Problem was, Felicia was not a senior member of the club. She’d wanted to go home because of the snow. And dealing with motorcycle club business? Vice thrived on that, but Felicia wore every nerve plainly on her face.

  He glared Maverick into silence and stepped around the car to where Felicia had gotten out and frozen. “Let me take you upstairs,” he said, slipping his hand into hers. She didn’t look at him, and she barely moved when he tugged on her hand. “Come on, sweetheart.”

  She came then, and Vice willed everyone into silence until he could get Felicia upstairs to Maverick’s sprawling apartment. “Is Karly upstairs?”

  “Yes,” Mav said. “I’ll tell her you’re coming.”

  “Thanks.” Vice hated stairs, as they made him engage his core in a way that pulled against his displaced ribs. Still. But he knew the healing for ribs took months, not days. Didn’t mean his patience was where it needed to be to climb the sixteen steps to Maverick’s place.

  Karly opened the door before Vice reached the top of the steps, and she also wore concern on her face. “You must be Felicia,” she said with a smile. She flicked her eyes toward Vice, who pleaded with her with everything inside him.

  “She is,” he said. “Felicia Cheswick, this is Maverick’s wife, Karly.”

  Behind her, a child cried, and Karly turned that way. “Come on in, Felicia. I was just about to feed my daughter. Are you hungry? Have you had breakfast?”

  They reached the top of the steps, and Vice hugged Felicia while Karly turned to help her daughter. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered.

  Felicia clung to him for a moment, and then she stepped back. She looked half scared and half determined, and Vice felt his heart pulse out an extra beat for her. “I’ll be fine,” she said.

  Vice wanted to kiss her, but he knew it would be to settle his own nerves, and that wasn’t how he wanted the first kiss of this new relationship to be. “All right,” he said. “I’ll be downstairs.”

  Felicia went into the apartment with Karly, who returned with her daughter balanced on her hip. “We’ll be okay,” she said.

  Vice nodded, and in the past, he’d have believed her. He’d have been the first one to pull up to the clubhouse, not the last one. And he wouldn’t have arrived by car. He wouldn’t have Felicia with him, and she wouldn’t be in any danger.

  At the same time, he thrived on situations like this. They got his blood moving in ways nothing else did, and he went back downstairs as quickly as he could without causing too much pain. The others were gathered in the big room where they held church, and Vice appreciated the way they edged apart to make a spot for him in the circle.

  “Catch me up,” he said.

  “Is Felicia okay up there?” Mav asked.

  “Yes.” He didn’t want to talk about Felicia right now, though the safest place for her was right here with him. “Are they coming here?”

  “Their trajectory puts them here, yes,” Maverick said.

  “Why?” Vice wanted to know.

  “We’re not sure. We only have eyes on them.”

  “Boss,” someone said over the PA. “There’s a bike approaching. Single rider. I think it’s Bulldog.”

  They all turned to the TV mounted on the wall, where the security feed flashed to life.

  “That’s Tyson,” Vice said, and Maverick nodded. The garage where Felicia had parked started to open, and Tyson Pike entered. He took off his helmet and brushed the water from his shoulders before he came into the room.

  Maverick shook his hand, and they bumped shoulders. “What do we know?” Tyson asked, looking around at the others.

  Mav repeated what had been reported, and then he said, “My best guess is that they want to talk. Issue their demands.”

  “That would be my guess.” Tyson had come from an outlaw club, and his president had joined the Breath while he’d quit motorcycle clubs completely. “Do we know anything about Daddy?”

  “Nothing,” Mav said. “I honestly didn’t think we’d have any trouble with the Breath. We never have before.”

  “I made a couple of calls on the way here,” Tyson said. “Word on the underground is the Breath need a new path north, and they want to use the docks in Forbidden Lake.”

  “No way,” Maverick said, shaking his head. Vice felt the same conviction way down deep in his soul.

  “We don’t need them on our streets,” Vice said. “Our reputation is already bad enough.” And totally unwarranted, in his opinion. He’d done nothing criminal during his time in the Sentinels, and in fact, he organized some helpful community events. He’d ridden with guys from B.A.C.A. He’d escorted abused women to court so they wouldn’t have to face their abusers alone. Everything the Sentinels did was for good, and he did not want the Devil’s Breath down here, tarnishing that reputation he and the others had worked so hard to build.

  “We can’t have drugs moving through our town,” Bomber said. “Forbidden Lake is growing, but that doesn’t mean we need more problems.”

  “Especially drug problems,” Gramps said.

  “They’re going to ask us to look the other way,” Mav said.

  “We can’t do that,” Vice said, meeting the president’s eyes. “We can’t.”

  “We won’t.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair and down his face, where he kept a full beard. “But it’s not going to be pretty. And they have no rules to play by.” He looked around at the others. “No rules. That means they’ll have threats and guns and the strength to use them.”

  The weight of those words felt heavier than gravity. “Tyson,” he said. “Didn’t Daddy said he’d leave you alone?”

  “I’m not a member of your club,” he said. “He’s not bothering me by sending guys here.”

  “Is he in charge?”

  “No,” Tyson said. “But Daddy is extremely shrewd, and he craves the money and the drugs, almost at the cost of everything else. If there’s no money and no drugs, he’ll explore every option to get them.” He sighed and paced away. “I wish I hadn’t burned the clubhouse in Grand Central.”

  “It was the right thing to do,” Mav said. “Even having the drugs in Williamsburg is too close, in my opinion.”

  The small town sat an hour away, east of Forbidden Lake, and they enjoyed tourists that stayed on that side of the state park. No beachfront property, though, and they’d have to have been moving their illegal substances using the highways.

  “Boss, we’ve got two bikers rounding the curve.”

  They once again faced the television, and Vice knew just from the way they rode that they weren’t Sentinels. His muscles tightened, and his fists clenched. He wished it wasn’t snowing, because that made everything harder. Harder to see. Harder to hear. Harder to watch for the sign of a lie.

  The last thing he wanted was to go out in the snow, but he would. He’d do whatever was required to keep this club intact, this town drug-free, and Felicia safe.

  “Send ‘em out front,” Mav said. “Flood it with light. Call the cops.”

  “Should I call the cops, or have Connor call them?”

  “Ping Connor,” Mav said. “Then it won’t come down on us.”

  “Everyone knows you work with Connor,” Tyson said. “At least the Hawks did.”

  Mav didn’t change his mind, though, and he led the way out of the room and toward the front of the shop. Vice much preferred the back of the shop after hours, as he didn’t like the darkness in the front of the shop, with all the shadows and all the
easy places to hide.

  They went to the front glass doors and formed a line, and Vice loved his spot between Maverick and Gramps. These two men had shown him what it was like to be a real man, to listen, to search for a solution that everyone could live with.

  “That’s their Sergeant-in-arms,” Tyson said from further down the line. “They wear patches on their arms to signify.”

  The other man was their Vice-President, and Vice’s fists clenched again. He could never imagine a scenario where he’d ride into another club’s territory and set demands.

  “Are we going out?” Bomber asked.

  “No,” Mav said. “Not without making sure they don’t have weapons. We can talk through the glass.”

  “They can shoot through glass,” Gramps growled.

  The tension in the club increased as the Breathers took their time dismounting and walking toward the doors.

  “We don’t have weapons,” their Vice said.

  Mav nodded, and Bomber and a couple other bikers moved toward the doors. They went outside and checked pockets, jackets, ankles, and shoulders. When they came up empty, they escorted the two rebel bikers into the motorcycle shop.

  “What do you want?” Maverick asked. “You have five minutes, and you better give me every detail I need to make a decision.”

  Vice himself had been on the receiving end of a five-minute deadline, and he knew how menacing Maverick could be. But neither guy seemed cowed at all. They didn’t even blink.

  “We want permission to enter Forbidden Lake once a week,” one of the men said.

  “What’s your name?” Tyson asked.

  The man switched his gaze to Tyson’s, scoffed, and looked back at Mav. “I don’t answer to him. We want to come to Forbidden Lake on Wednesday nights. We’ll come after ten and be gone by first light.”

  “Why?” Maverick asked.

  “Club business.”

  “You want to move drugs using our ports,” Vice said.

  Their Vice met Vice’s eyes, and Vice was determined not to look away first. The other guy was just as tall, just as broad, and just as scary in his black leather. He didn’t look away. Vice didn’t either. No one spoke. The tension rose.

  “The ports close in the winter,” Mav finally said.

  “It’s eight hours,” the other man said. “Once a week.”

  “You can’t just call it club business and expect us to look the other way,” Mav said. “We want a detailed report of what business you need to do in Forbidden Lake.”

  “That’s not how we work.”

  “Well, it’s how we work,” Mav said, folding his arms. “This is our town. You wouldn’t let a rival club into Williamsburg, even for a few hours, without knowing what they were doing in your town.”

  “We’ll get you the report,” their Vice said. “It wouldn’t be wise to refuse this.”

  “Don’t threaten me,” Mav growled. He took a step forward, and Vice went with him. So did everyone else.

  “We don’t want trouble,” the man said. “We just want eight hours once a week.”

  “It’s not Wednesday,” Vice said. “Come back then, with your report.”

  “We will,” their Vice sneered, putting his helmet on. “You boys be careful until then.”

  With that, they left, taking some of the tension with them. It didn’t truly break until they rode away, and even then, Mav said, “Contact Earl and let him know I need to know when these guys leave town.”

  “It shouldn’t take longer than twenty minutes,” Electron said.

  “Twenty-five in the snow,” Bomber said. “Tops.”

  Everyone stood at the windows and watched the flakes fall. It wasn’t until Vice backed up and said, “They’re not going to give us the real reason they want to come to Forbidden Lake.”

  “And if we don’t agree, we have a turf war on our hands.” Maverick turned and started back through the shop. “All members-meeting tonight,” he said. “Ten o’clock. I don’t care if it snows two feet today.” He sounded snarly and surly, the same way Vice felt inside. “Vice, a word, please.”

  Vice went with Maverick into his office, a small room off to the side of the check-out counter. He closed the door behind him and sat heavily on the couch in the office. There was a desk, but Vice had never seen Mav sit behind it. He had an office manager who ran the storefront, and he’d probably be in soon to open Ruby’s.

  “We can’t give them permission,” Vice said. “I know that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “That’s not what I’m thinking,” Mav said. “I’m trying to see another way here, Jordan. We have a lot of people to think about. I’ve got a wife and kid. Lots of our members do. If we don’t let them come to town on Wednesday nights, all of them could be in danger.”

  Vice sat down, his ribs jarring a little bit. “Felicia could be in danger.”

  “Absolutely,” Mav said. “So we need to be smart about this. You bought us a little bit of time by telling them to come back on Wednesday. That gives us a few days to see what we can learn about their club.”

  “How are we going to do that? We can’t just roll up to their clubhouse in Williamsburg.”

  “I’ll call the detective contact I have over there,” Mav said. “And I’ll talk to Declan, see what he might know.”

  “I’ll talk to Tyson,” Vice said. “He obviously has contacts in the outlaw world still, and they seem loyal to him.”

  “He doesn’t want to be involved in clubs. It was his deal with Daddy.”

  “I know, but he was here,” Vice said. “They’ve already seen him, and they’ll tell Daddy the moment they roll up to their club. Maybe before that.”

  Mav let out a hiss. “I should’ve kept him in the back.”

  “He wouldn’t have stayed back there anyway,” Vice said. He closed his eyes and thought of the beautiful redhead he was supposed to spend the day with. He wasn’t even aware he’d groaned and sighed until he’d done it.

  “You should go home,” Mav said. “Take Felicia and Tyson with you. Talk to him there.”

  Vice nodded, because he was too tired to argue. Funny, he felt like he slept five times as much as he normally did, and yet he was still exhausted.

  “And pray this snow lets up,” Mav said.

  “Yeah,” Vice said. “Otherwise, I won’t make it to the meeting tonight.” Because he couldn’t ask Felicia to drive him that late at night, and if he couldn’t ride his bike over, he wouldn’t be able to attend. And if Felicia knew he was planning to do that….

  He once again felt torn between two amazing things. Felicia or the Sentinels. He wanted to honor both of them, but it always seemed that one was bound to suffer at the hand of the other.

  He stood up and looked down at Maverick. He looked tired too, and Vice realized it was way too early in the morning for the man to be up. “Go back to bed, brother.”

  Mav gave him a weak smile. “Go get your girlfriend out of my apartment. Have a romantic breakfast with her.”

  Vice chuckled and shook his head. “Right. With Tyson as a chaperone. No, thanks.”

  “Hey, at least you didn’t deny that Felicia was your girlfriend.” Mav’s grin widened then, and Vice just shrugged and left the office.

  After all, he needed to get his girlfriend and make sure she got home safely. Only then would he talk to Tyson about the threat facing the club.

  Chapter Ten

  Felicia stood in front of the window and watched the snow fall. The apartment had windows everywhere, and Karly had told her to make herself comfortable and then she’d disappeared down the hall that led out of the kitchen. She said they didn’t normally get up this early, leaving Felicia to wonder when ten o’clock in the morning had become early.

  She’d been up since six, first walking on the treadmill, showering, and then obsessing over every article of clothing and every curl in her hair before she’d driven to Jordan’s.

  She’d realized a lot of things since arriving at Ruby’s half an hour a
go. She didn’t know Jordan hardly at all. Or rather, she only knew one side of him. She’d been the one to put a rule on his motorcycle club side, and she didn’t know a huge part of what made Jordan the man he was.

  Guilt flickered through her, and she clenched her arms across her chest, trying to keep everything together.

  So she’d made a mistake. Lots of people made mistakes. She was trying to make it right, and Jordan had never said anything about how wrapped up his identity was in his club.

  “But you knew,” she whispered to the glass. And she’d refused to let that side of him come forth. She was now, though, as the anxiety rioting through her veins testified to.

  “Hey,” a man said, and she spun away from the windows to see the man she’d been thinking about walking toward her. He seemed to be tiptoeing as he got closer, and Felicia put a smile on her face.

  “Hey.”

  “We’re done down there for right now,” he said, reaching for her. She slipped her hand into his, glad when his large hand engulfed hers in warmth. He was sexy and strong in that black leather jacket, his eyes sparking like dark diamonds. “You want to go home?”

  She nodded, glad she’d get to spend the day in safety. “The snow’s not so bad.”

  “The plows are out already,” he said. They walked through the posh apartment, and Felicia saw it with new eyes now that Jordan was with her.

  “Maverick must do well,” she said.

  “Yeah, the shop does great,” Jordan said.

  “This place is huge.”

  “I think he intended for the club to use some of the rooms,” he said. “But it never evolved that way. We don’t live in a central clubhouse like some clubs.” He paused at the door and looked over his shoulder. “Where’s Karly?”

  “She said she was going to put Navy back to bed.”

  Jordan nodded and looked into Felicia’s eyes. Did he know what that look did to her pulse? To her fantasies? “I lived down the other hall for a while,” he said, nodding to the closed door that led out of the living room. “I helped with the renovation of this place as part of my rent.”