He nods in approval at my quick offer to help. “You and Mouse go to a police station. The story will be you and he met in Tucson and got together. You came back to get some of your clothes.”
My face falls. “The place was smashed up. All my clothes cut to pieces. That story won’t fly.”
He’s quiet for a moment, thinking. “Just tell the truth. The house was like that when you arrived. As it had been vandalised, you moved on. You decided to stay a couple of days in the city to show your new boyfriend the sights. Mouse is making sure you, he, and the boy have been booked in to the Holiday Inn for a few nights. He’s working on that now.”
How can he do that? Leaving it aside, I wonder aloud, “Should I suggest Ron trashed the house?”
“I wouldn’t go there unless you are pressed. Thompson’s a cop, his colleagues will have his back. Don’t make accusations with nothing to back it up. You’re just reporting in to let them know you’ve not been kidnapped or harmed by Mouse. Put him in the clear. We’ve enough to watch out for over our shoulders, don’t want that on us too.”
I look down at my bloody t-shirt, and Drum follows the path of my eyes. “Road?” As the prospect jumps to attention, he continues, “Go buy a new top for Alex, will you?”
Open mouthed, I watch the prospect run over to his bike. He hasn’t even asked my size.
“What about Tyler?”
“Take him with you. Hey, kid. You think you can pretend Mouse is your mom’s boyfriend?”
Tyler looks at him, then at me. At my nod of encouragement, he grins. “Sure can, sir.”
“Good boy,” Drum praises, and Tyler gives him a chin lift. Then the prez looks at me again, his steely eyes softening. “We’re sorting out your attire, but what about your pain? You mustn’t give away your hurting. Think you can hide it?”
“If I have another of Road’s Tramadol, I’ll be able to.” I’ll have to. These men stopped at nothing to find me and rescue me. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be here today.
“The records show you’ve been listed as missing. Strangely, Tyler has not—I’m presuming Thompson altered any record made of your sister’s report. Snake was gonna give him to Thompson. When Snake assumed Fang and Gator had taken him, he told Thompson he’d be getting him soon.”
I shiver. Going back to Tucson under the protection of the Satan’s Devils does seem the safest option. Being a cop, Ron’s got too much power.
It doesn’t seem long before Road’s back. He’s bought me a couple of plain t-shirts in two different sizes. The first one’s a bit small and shows the outline of my bandages, but the other is fine, and I grin as he smiles shyly and hands me something else. I nod my permission for him to give it to Tyler.
Drum’s been speaking to Mouse, who comes over with some keys in his hand. “Ready to go clear my name?” Without waiting for me to reply, he holds out his hand. Once I’ve been helped gently onto my feet, he leads me slowly over to the truck. He programs in an address, then turns to speak to Tyler, but laughs when he sees what’s in his hands.
“Where the f… hell did he get that?”
Grinning to show my appreciation that he stopped himself from swearing, I give him the answer. “Road.” I carefully twist to see the toy motorbike being lovingly examined in Tyler’s hands. He’s got a rapt expression on his face. I don’t know much about bikes, but even I can see it’s a Harley.
Mouse shakes his head, laughs again, and then we’re off.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him as we’re driving down the street. “I didn’t mean for any of you to get into trouble over me.”
“Ain’t your fault. And no matter. Hopefully it will be simple to get this cleared up.” He looks behind him as he speaks, flicks the indicator, and switches lanes. It doesn’t take long before we arrive at a station house I’ve not been to before, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I’d been worried we’d go to the one Ron’s based out of. Mouse finds a space and parks.
Noticing my look of concern, he gives my hand a reassuring squeeze. “Shouldn’t take long, darlin’. Just a quick in and out.”
As we enter the building, I’m unable to shake the feeling I’m putting my head into the lion’s den. But I’ve promised I’ll do this. He keeps hold of my hand as we walk inside, with Tyler alongside still holding his new toy. As we approach the front desk, Mouse pulls me closer and plants a kiss on the top of my head.
“What can I do for you?” the desk sergeant says in a bored voice.
“My name’s Tse Williamson,” Mouse begins. “Heard you’re looking for me.”
The policeman consults his computer, and his boredom rapidly seeps away. “Mr Williamson, please come with me.”
Mouse makes no move to follow him. “I’d like to know what all this is about. My girlfriend, her son, and I have been spending a few days in San Diego. I have no idea why you want to speak to me.”
“If you’ll come this way, a detective will be with you shortly. And you, ma’am, you can wait here.”
I don’t want to be separated. As I’m opening my mouth to speak, Mouse gets in first.
“Unless you’re arresting me, we stay together,” he states.
The cop looks confused. “And you are?” he asks me directly and closely examines Tyler.
“Alexandra Thompson,” I reply, as steadily as I can.
He consults his computer again, and his eyes open wide. “But you’re missing!”
Mouse looks down at me and smiles. “Don’t think you are, are you, babe?”
Getting up from his desk, calling one of his colleagues to make sure we don’t leave, the cop disappears. Quickly he returns, followed by a detective.
“Mr Williamson and Mrs Thompson, would you come this way please? We’ve a couple of questions to ask you.”
“Is this going to take much time? We’ve got things planned.”
The detective seems flummoxed. “No, er. It depends. Please, follow me.”
We do as he asks and are shown into a plain interview room with seats on either side of the desk. Having seated ourselves, Mouse squeezes my hand again, and it’s only then I notice his look of concern and his brief glance down to the wounds on my chest. I press my fingers to his to show that for now I’m doing okay. The Tramodol’s doing its job. Tyler’s over in the corner, tracing the chrome on his bike. Then he gives me a sly look and runs across to Mouse.
“Mouse, look at this.” Mouse puts his arm around him and makes appreciative sounds as Tyler shows him the detail on the toy bike. I’m full of pride for my son.
The man with us coughs to get our attention. “I’m Detective Parker,” he says, introducing himself.
As Mouse pats Tyler’s arm and tells him to go play, I ask, remembering to use his proper name, “Why do you want to speak to Tse?”
“Well, Mrs Thompson, you’ve been listed as a missing person, and we’ve been following up leads. Mr Williamson’s fingerprints were found at your residence, and at a cabin that belongs to your parents.”
“Well, that’s no surprise,” I state, as if the answer is obvious.
The detective leans back in his chair. “Would you like to tell me what your relationship is?”
“Not that it’s any of your business,” Mouse speaks for me, “but Mrs Thompson, Alex, is my girlfriend. We got together in Tucson, where Alex moved to after she parted ways with her husband.”
“And you’re in San Diego, why?”
At Mouse’s nod, I pick up the agreed story. “I wanted to collect some more clothes from my house. But when we got there, it had been vandalised. My parents had said I could use the cabin anytime, so we decided to go there for a couple of days.”
“You know how it is,” Mouse breaks in, raising my hand to his lips and kissing it. “New lovers and that. We wanted some time to ourselves and for me to get to know her son. Then Alex wanted to show me her hometown, so we came back to town and have been staying at the Holiday Inn for the past few days.”
“Room number?”
&
nbsp; Mouse gives it while I wonder what magic he’s done.
Having written everything down, Parker leans forward. “Mrs Thompson. Your husband has listed you as a missing person.”
I try my best to look surprised. “I don’t know why he would have done that. We’ve been separated for months.”
“Hmm. We’re trying to contact your husband. I know he’ll want to see for himself that you’re okay.”
Mouse sits forward, but I push him back. “Detective. I have absolutely no wish to speak to my ex-husband. Anything he wants to say to me can go through our lawyers. Now that you’ve met Mr Williamson and understand our relationship, and that which I no longer have with Ron Thompson, I presume we can leave?” Mentally I’m crossing my fingers. There’s no way I want to be confronted by my ex.
“Can I offer you a coffee?”
And keep us waiting until Ron turns up?
“No.” Mouse takes over. “Unless you’ve something you want to charge me with, I presume we’re free to leave.”
“Going back to the Holiday Inn?”
Mouse shakes his head. “No, we’re heading back to Tucson later today.”
He doesn’t like that. “And your address there?”
I give Celine’s address. Ron already knows that.
Mouse nods at Parker. “Now, if you’ve got nothing else, come on darlin’, you wanted to show me Coronado before we get going.”
I force myself to put an eager smile on my face. “I did, didn’t I? Detective, Tse is never going to believe how close the planes fly to the buildings, and Tyler always loves watching them land. It’s a great view from there, isn’t it?”
Mouse stands up and offers me his hand. I lean on it a little too hard to help me to my feet, but all the time I keep smiling. The detective’s frowning. He doesn’t want us to leave, but his hands are tied. There’s no reason to stop us.
“One last thing, Detective. You’ll get that APB cancelled? We’ve explained my fingerprints, and you can see Alex is fine, and so’s her son. Wouldn’t want to be stopped and have the end of our vacation spoiled.”
“Er, yes. Of course.”
Mouse leads me out of the room, looking around to check Tyler’s following. Then we’re out of the station house and he helps us into the truck. I don’t think either of us breathe easily until we’re on the move again.
Then we look at each other and burst out laughing. I don’t know about Mouse, but I’m envisioning Ron’s confusion. After having left me for dead, I’ve just spoken to one of his colleagues alive and appearing completely unharmed. My wounds might still be hurting, the panic and fear not forgotten, but the thought of the look on Ron’s face? That has me smiling.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dart…
I’m driving an SUV Lost managed to find for me. Mouse is in the passenger seat, and Alex and Tyler are in the back. Glancing in the rearview mirror, it kills me to see pain etched on her face. I’ve already given Doc our ETA and asked him to be ready at the club to change her dressings and check none of the stitches have been pulled out. She’s had a terrible few days, being put through emotional and physical hell. Currently she’s twitching in a fitful sleep, but Tyler’s happily amusing himself, playing on a tablet which Mouse had stopped off to buy for him, his new motorbike close at hand by his side. I only hope my brother’s view of what’s a suitable game for a six-year-old is the same as Alex’s. He’s enjoying it though, and it’s keeping him quiet. Kid deserves a little spoiling after what he’s been through.
Drum sent Mouse and I back with Alex, and Slick’s staying on to help sort out the rogue chapter. I’d offered to stay and help, but he thought Alex would feel easier if I was with her back home. I’m yet to be convinced on whether he’s made the right call, unsure that there’ll ever be a way back from my stupid mistake. Staying behind dealing with traitors would probably be easier than making things right between us. Why is it you only realise you want something so badly when the chance has been taken away?
Even while I’m wondering if there’s any chance I can rescue my relationship with Alex, particularly now Thompson’s given her even less reason to trust a man, I can’t help but think about what’s going on at the warehouse we just left, suspecting there’s going to be one hell of a showdown. Both loyal and disloyal San Diego club members will be shortly receiving a text summons, supposedly from Snake, to gather them all together. Drum’s not relying on Gator’s info about just who was involved in the coup and who’s not. His plan is to confront them all and watch who takes which side.
We might still have doubts about who, but we’d gotten to the bottom of why when we started questioning Snake. While Satan’s Devils still run a few guns, nowadays, we get most money coming in legit. What we don’t deal in are drugs. Seen too many clubs go sideways when their members start sampling the product. Snake thought it was a sign of the mother chapter’s weakness to insist on staying out of that trade. When he’d realised his game was up, he tried to tempt us with talk of the money he thought he’d be bringing in.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mouse glancing over his shoulder. When he sees Alex is sleeping and Tyler otherwise engaged, he starts to speak. “I’ll feel easier once we’ve crossed the border into Arizona. I’ve a twitching feeling between my shoulder blades that Thompson’s gonna be coming after us.”
“Yeah, the sooner she and the boy are on the compound, the happier I’ll fuckin’ be.” Automatically, I check in the rear mirror that there isn’t a cop car approaching with lights flashing. Then, bringing my eyes back front, I concentrate on the road for a moment, overtake a slow-moving truck, and then continue. “Spoke to Drum about taking Thompson out. However much I want to tear him to pieces with my bare hands, Prez is concerned about blowback on the club.” I hate it, but Drummer’s right. “Can’t just disappear the motherfucker, Mouse, not with you on the cop’s radar already.”
“I overheard. Looks like he’ll be having a nasty accident soon.”
“Wish I could make him suffer for what he did.” I bang my fist on the steering wheel. “Fucker mutilated her, scarred her. A clean death’s too easy after what he made Alex go through.”
“Dead’s dead, Brother. Dead’s dead.”
“Yeah, I suppose.” I don’t like it, but can see Drummer’s point. The sooner that motherfucker stops breathing air, the better I’ll like it. “Fuck knows how we’ll do it. I’d have left it to the San Diego boys if we knew who we could fuckin’ trust.”
“You thinking of going back down there yourself, Dart?”
“Don’t know what the fuck is gonna happen, Brother. Just know all this shit going on doesn’t rest easy with me. Snake! Who’d have fuckin’ thought it?”
Mouse sighs and tries to stretch out his long legs. “Think he thought the mother chapter was weak, as we’ve called on his help a few times.”
“Only because we were up against something bigger than us. Fuck, man, Tucson weak? Not with Drum at the helm. Never in a million fuckin’ years.” Fuck anyone who thinks it.
We drive on another couple of miles and then Mouse voices his thoughts again. “You reckon Lost will take the prez’s patch?”
“Who else is there? Unless Drum’s thinking of disbanding the whole fuckin’ chapter. It’s so rotten, that could be in the cards.”
“Didn’t like leaving our bikes there.”
I grimace. “With you there, Brother. Drum’s promised to get a prospect to drive them back.” Again, I signal and move out when it’s clear.
The checkpoint comes up, and we go through without hassle. Once we’re through, Mouse and I bump fists. I swear the Arizona air smells different. I can physically breathe easier, and when I catch my first glimpse of a saguaro, I feel like I’m home.
It’s full darkness by the time we arrive at the club. Jekyll’s on the gate and slides it open. As most of our members are in California right now, the clubhouse seems quiet. Alex has slept most of the way, and Tyler had abandoned his game at some point and a
lso nodded off. Now I wake them up.
Alex blinks her bleary eyes and looks around.
“Come. Slick’s given me the key to his suite—he and Ella have rented a place in town while they look for somewhere to buy and rarely use it now.” I grin for a moment. Slick wanted to put some distance between Jayden and Paladin, but there’s no need for Alex to know that. “The suite next to his is empty—it used to be Wraith’s, but he’s living with Sophie. We’ll get you settled in Wraith’s and I’ll stay in Slick’s so I can be close by.” Unless I get pulled back to San Diego of course. As she looks at me in confusion, I realise she’s only been to the clubhouse once before and hasn’t seen any of our accommodations except a brief view from the outside, so it must sound like I’m talking gibberish. It’s easier to just show her. “This way,” I encourage. Tyler’s awake, but only just. It feels natural to sweep him up into my arms. “Come on, little man. Let’s get you to bed.”
Alex follows me up the compound, her eyes open wide as she realises this is nothing like where she’d been staying in California. No, nothing can match the standard of our housing. Blocs sitting side by side, two suites in each. We’re the envy of a lot of biker clubs having this old vacation resort as our home. There are crash, or fuck rooms in the main clubhouse, but each Tucson brother has a suite of his own, most with amazing views of the desert basin and up over to the Tucson mountains opposite.
We come to the bloc containing Slick and Wraith’s now redundant suites. The key to Wraith’s is in the door. Turning it, I let her inside, then take it out of the lock and hand it to her. She takes it absentmindedly without looking, far too interested in examining the large space, noting the bed, closet, desk, and comfortable chairs, and then spies the adjacent bathroom. Her eyes widen when she sees the balcony and the view.
She touches my arm. “This is more than I expected, Dart.”
I nod toward the bed. “The old ladies have made sure you’ve got clean linens. Tomorrow, I’ll get a prospect to go to your sister’s house and pick up some clothes for you and Tyler.”
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