by Zara Teleg
His duffle strap was across his chest, the big bag on his back. How long was he planning on staying? With a kiss to our hands, he winked and asked where he should put his things. I gave him the instructions and sent Ivy out for some pizza and a few other things I could whip up for our guest over the next few days. She and Hawk were just about to leave when I remembered I needed her camera. I was going to post some things on a local yard sale site.
After lighting a calming aromatherapy candle and taking a few magic anti-anxiety herbal drops, I began to get my head on straight. The shaking and nausea stopped, and I was able to form a plan. I already had a good bit packed. I needed all the money I could get, so selling the big furniture I had would really help.
When Ivy returned with the food and camera, I temporarily set my worries aside and focused on making dinner. We still had most of the kitchen intact so I allowed myself the simple pleasure of cooking, one of my favorite things to do.
After a few hours of cleaning and packing and I was ready for sleep. I just wanted this day to be over. My head hit the pillow but sleep wouldn’t come. A million crazy scenarios ran through my mind. I hoped that Paige was ready to meet me. I had spoken with Paige earlier, and she seemed annoyed at the idea of moving but still agreed to it. With our parents out of the country, it just wasn’t safe for her to be by herself. We would go to Colorado. There were a few small towns there I had researched. One had an ER looking for nurses, so Paige might like that.
Guilt was leaning its heavy head on my shoulder. It hung thick in the air. What if I was taking opportunities away from her? Would she understand I was trying to save her life? From my fucking mistakes.
Tiny needle sensations pricked my eyes. I blinked until they passed. No more damn tears. As much as I regret ever being with Antonio, it did lead me to Rage. I would never have moved to Sugar Maple if not for everything that had happened. I would never have known love, real love.
It was already 3 am, but I was still awake. My fears were keeping me awake, but also Bodie’s snores. They weren’t cute little snores, but big sawing-wood, vibrating-the-house snores. I had just fallen asleep when the buzzing of my alarm startled me. Fluffy bunny slippers on cold floors had me dragging myself into the kitchen to make coffee. Lots of coffee. My eyes were practically sealed shut as I went through the memorized motion of boiling water and pouring it into the press over the grounds. I made a mental note to stop by Roasted and stock up before I left town.
I quietly sat with my brew and made a list of everything I had to do. First thing was to take Lord over to the vet. He was going to stay the night. He needed minor surgery on a small lump that I had found a few weeks ago. Dr. Hennesey thought it was nothing, but I wouldn’t take a chance and it might be a few weeks or longer before I could find a new vet in Colorado. Bodie said he could take him for me so I could keep packing. I had a feeling that it was really because Dr. Hennesey had a super cute nineteen-year-old daughter who worked there every morning. Kaitlyn was one of my best yoga students, and she drove most men wild. A beauty inside and out.
My phone had a crap camera so I pulled out Ivy’s camera, taking photos of the items I was going to list. Bodie was still sleeping, so I was being extra careful not to make noise and wake him.
I poured a second cup and sat at my laptop to load the pics on the site. A screen popped up that it was downloading twenty-three new photos. I had only taken about seven. I guessed Ivy still had some on there. Oh, boy, I hoped there was nothing embarrassing. As the screen opened with thumbnails, my phone rang.
Rage
After the unsuccessful night with Sherri, I was first to volunteer to go on the two-week run out in the middle of fucking nowhere to get to the bottom of the cartel-MC connection. I decided during the first few days on the road that when I got back, I was going to see Juliet. I had unfinished issues to resolve. I wasn’t letting her take off without answering some of the questions in my mind.
Ivy and I had had a short conversation before I left; she had made me feel like a real asshole for letting Juliet go and not fighting for her. My ego and the part of me that wanted to protect myself had forced me into a bad decision. I knew that now. So, the minute I got back, I was going to see her, and she was going to listen to what I had to say whether she liked it or not.
So far, Kai and I were on a cold track. We had several more people and places to check out, but as of now, the intel we had did not seem to be current. These guys moved a lot.
Kai, as the sergeant-at-arms, had a twisted way of getting information out of the solo punks who relied on the MC drug dealers for their next fix. After persuading them to cooperate, it didn’t take the burnouts long to give up secrets.
It took two hours to make it to the next town on our list. We’d been here since yesterday, and we hoped this would be our last stop. The bar we walked into was near Columbus, Georgia. It was close to the highway, university, mall, and airport. Out of all the places we’d been, this city made the most sense.
There was one big problem. Stained Souls MC did not have a presence in the immediate area. Not only was it Devil’s territory, but it was also where their mother chapter was. We had no business being here. This bar visit had to be undercover. No cuts. No bikes. We had to act new to town, take an Uber, and act dumb. We were too old to pass as college students, so we went with two guys looking to open a gym near the university.
We had scouted it out the night before. Locals arrived around 7:30, and the members of the club and the rougher crowd came after nine. It was about two hours before the bar filled with locals. By 9 pm, we had been chatting it up with a few pretty girls when a very unwelcoming Devil’s Damned member stumbled in, already halfway drunk. He noticed us as outsiders pretty quickly. He was tall and broad with a noticeable beer gut and unshaved face. The beard was not very long but gave him an unapproachable air.
The man took a seat near Kai. He pointed to the bar, and the sexy bartender set down a foamy beer and a shot of tequila in front of him without him uttering a word. He lit a cigarette, directing the smoke to our direction before turning back to the bar.
A deep, gruff smoker’s voice said, “Never seen you two in here before.” He looked straight ahead, watching the bartender lean under the bar to get out a bottle that was stashed low and far back.
Kai answered him—he was better with talking. “Who, us?” he said, playing dumb.
That made the big man swivel his chair and look at the both of us carefully. Another drag from his cigarette. “Yeah, I’m talking to the two of you.” His eyes appraised us.
Kai was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved white V-neck, and I wore black jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt, both of us hiding our ink. Kai extended his hand. “I’m Brian, and this is Matt,” he said, pointing to me. “We’re in town for a few days, scouting out some possible locations to open a boxing gym.”
The man’s face was expressionless as he looked at Kai’s hand but did not reciprocate. He faced forward to stare at the bartender again. “If you’re looking for gyms, why are you in my bar?”
Kai smiled and said, very convincingly, “You know, the best way to get to know a town is by visiting a local bar.”
The man nodded one short nod. He took the shot, slammed it on the bar, before turning to us again. “You can look all you want, but don’t touch. Every bitch within these walls is the property of the Devil’s Damned MC. You understand?” he asked, leveling his gaze with ours.
Kai responded by getting the bartender’s attention and pointing to the empty glasses in front of him, asking for a refill. “Please add his drinks to my tab.” Then Kai turned to the man and said, “Appreciate you not throwing us out of your bar. We got it—look, don’t touch.” The man pursed his lips, raised his glass, and nodded his head up and down.
A few minutes later, when his drink was half gone, he spoke again. “You two hotshots don’t look like you will fit in around here.”
“And why is that?” Kai asked.
“Pret
ty boys and a boxing gym? The Devil’s run this town. We, let’s say, ‘work’ with any new businesses that open in town.”
“You mean you take a cut of their business?”
“You’re a sharp one, ain’t ya?” the man said.
“So, if you take a cut,” Kai continued, “would you be able to assist in finding a source for some…enhancers? We are relocating from South Florida and don’t know any suppliers around these parts.”
“Mmm-hmm” was all he said, slamming the second shot down after emptying its contents. The dark circles under his eyes made him look older than he probably was.
“You any good?” he asked. Picking at his nails with a toothpick that he snagged from the bar.
“At?” Kai asked.
“You said a boxing gym, aren’t you boxers?”
“We were in college. Paid our tuition through the underground, then opened our first gym near the university. We built it up over five years then sold it last month. We signed a no-compete clause, so we needed to find a new location far away from where we were. We prefer being near a college, so this town was third on our list of spaces to check out.”
Grizz finally introduced himself, and we ended up talking to him for two hours. All the free drinks had him spilling a little more than he intended. Kai was great at getting info out of people without them knowing. The man had a gift.
It wasn’t long before he bragged about the cartel and what goods and services they could provide. Bingo! The Devil’s Damned was undoubtedly the club that was working with the cartel. Joker and his crew were seen in Black Rock a few weeks ago, and now we knew why.
It looked like we were headed on a ten-hour ride home tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Juliet
I answered the phone on the second ring, knowing from the tone that it was Ivy.
“Hey, Ivy,” my voice sounded somber from all the craziness.
“Hey, Jules, how are you feeling today? Did you get any sleep?” She knew me too well.
“Not really, but the big guy is still snoring on the couch,” I said looking at the two big, sock-covered feet sticking out from the blanket over the side of the sofa.
“He is going to take Lord to the vet for me at noon. I need to finish packing.”
“Jules, you shouldn’t be there alone. What if they come back?”
“Ivy, I’ll be fine for an hour. Besides, I think Bodie would like to see Kaitlyn.”
“You are so stubborn. I guess you should know, Hawk has men on the Devil’s Damned. He said that last night a whole group went through town and headed down south. I’m pretty sure they’re gone now, so maybe it was just a scare tactic, you know, trying to freak you out. They most likely think you and Rage are still together.”
My short sigh had her saying “sorry.”
“It’s fine, you’re probably right. I have to focus. I only have a few days to get out of here.”
“Jules, I don’t know how I’m going to live without you. We’ve always been like sisters, I…I just can’t believe you’re leaving me…” she sniffed.
“Please, Ivy, don’t get me started again,” I said, begging her to rein it in.
“It’s temporary. Someday, I’ll be able to stop running, and I’ll return here. This place is my home, it’s in my soul. But for now, until things are safe, you know I have to do this.” I said emphatically.
“I knooooow, but I’m going to miss you so much,” she whined.
“Come by around eight if you’re not too exhausted after your class. I’ll have some dinner ready, and we can pack the rest of the bedroom if I don’t get it done today.”
“Did you post any of the furniture yet?”
“No, I was going to do that today, though.” I looked at the still-open laptop with the thumbnails I hadn’t viewed yet.
I jumped what felt like three feet off the ground when Lord started barking uncontrollably. That got Bodie to his feet, pulling out a pistol, his sleepy eyes were wide, and his hair was in every direction.
“Put that away! It’s okay. It’s trash day. Lord always barks as soon as they get within hearing distance. He hates garbage trucks.” I tried to soothe the startled biker who was on high alert in my living room. Bodie’s shoulders relaxed and wiped his hands over his face, one hand over his heart as he breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Geez, Lord, you scared the shit out of me, buddy.” He laughed and gave Lord a good head rub.
I offered him a steaming mug of coffee with enough sugar, the spoon could probably stand on its own. He gave me a grateful look and “thanks, doll” before inhaling the coffee. He placed the half-empty cup down and stretched his long arms wide.
“I got some good news.” He smiled, looking more awake. “Colt texted me last night. All of the Devil’s are gone, out of town. You should be okay to get finished packing and get out. We have someone surveying the bridge, so if any of them come back, we will know. He said there is a massive rally in Atlanta that most clubs are attending.”
Relief washed over me as I looked around the room, knowing I could finish this up over the next few days and be out without worrying about the Devil’s Damned.
“I can still take Lord to the vet for you this morning so you don’t have to stop what you’re doing.”
“That would be great. Thank you, Bodie. I’ll make some breakfast and get his things ready.”
Two hours later, I was saying goodbye to my boy for the night. A deep sadness crept over me as I looked into Lord’s eyes. I didn’t know how I would get through life without the constant love of my goofy white pit bull. He was a guardian angel if there was such a thing. I traced the scar down his chest before giving him one last hug and handing Bodie his favorite blanket.
I threw my arms over Bodie’s neck and pulled him in for an appreciative hug. Bodie took two steps back. “It’s fine, Juliet. You’ll be okay.” He patted my back.
The house was quiet. Too quiet. I had to distract myself, so I put on some decently loud music, grabbed another cup of coffee, and sat back in my chair to get to the task of listing the furniture on the yard sale site.
When I flipped back on the screen with all the thumbnails, I found out why there were extra pictures. These were from the Fourth of July fight. My eyes immediately stung. How could I go from so happy a few months ago to total despair? Ivy had promised to send me these. It had been so long, I forgot all about them.
I clicked on the first photo. Three smiling, very made-up divas stared back at me. Ivy, Shelly, and I in our ring-girl outfits. Damn, we looked smokin’, I must say. No wonder the guys were having a fit. That thought made me smile. I clicked on the next. It was a candid photo of Rage and Leo. Rage’s hands were being wrapped by Leo, who looked to be saying something valuable, judging from the intense look on Rage’s face. The next was of Rage and me, as I wished him luck. I didn’t know Ivy had been able to take this shot.
The next few were of the fight, I could tell from the thumbnails. I skipped them momentarily to click on the one of me in Rage’s arms after he had been declared the winner. The picture was perfect. A perfect moment of us staring into each other’s eyes and about to kiss. The next picture was of the kiss. By just looking at the photo I could recall the feel of his grip, the warmth of his body, the way his lips touched mine. He had captivated me so absolutely that I had blocked everything else out. That night, I had decided to move forward and give Rage and I a chance. How quickly he had become my everything. And now it was all gone.
The pain I felt in my chest was so much worse than any pain I had experienced before. A gaping hole was left in my heart, ripped open by my own lies. The picture I held of this happy couple was now blurry behind the tears that wouldn’t stop. I was in mourning for losing Rage and the life I had built here. I blotted my eyes with tissues and took long, deep cleansing breaths until I could see again.
I clicked on an action shot next; it was stunning. Rage was throwing the Superman punch that knocked Richard out. His curle
d fist and predatory look stayed frozen on the screen. His body was in the air, his fist about to make contact with Richard’s face. I was so proud of him for taking down Richard.
I sipped my coffee as I studied the photo more; Richard already had damage to his face, but from the photo, it looked like he knew that this punch was going to be the end of him. The next pictures were of the crowd cheering as Richard lay knocked out on the mat. I guessed I hadn’t really noticed how many men in suits were mixed in with the bikers that night. I had seen a few suits that looked out of place for the setting, but the pictures really captured the mixed audience.
One photo caught my attention. There was a group that was not cheering. They sat on the third row, center. They looked like bodyguards flanking the sides of a few men who were dressed impeccably. The man in the center looked familiar. He was stoic, like a king, sunglasses covered his eyes, his black hair was slicked back, a large ring on his finger. It was odd, he wasn’t looking at the fighters. He was staring somewhere to the side…at me.
The next pic was the same, only his arm was stretched out, pointing at me. The man next to him was taking a picture. What the…? I zoomed in closer, and then closer, to get a look at his face.
My mug fell from my hand, the coffee burning my feet as it spilled. Uncontrollable shaking took over my body as I zoomed into the next picture. It was Marco. He was whispering into the ear of the other man who was taking my picture. I propelled out of my chair, directly into the bathroom where I only just made it. I heaved, my stomach emptied its contents, convulsing. My head spun.
Marco had recognized me. My time was up, he was coming for me.
