by Hope Stone
I flipped to my page with notes from my chat with Liz. I had tracked her down the afternoon after Pin slept over, and my hunch had paid off. Liz was a wealth of information. I just had to approach her from the right angle.
Instead of ambushing her at school, I had texted her an explanation of who I was and what I wanted. Zoe’s parents had already told Liz that they were hiring a PI, so Liz agreed to meet me at a coffee shop after she was done with school for the day.
Liz was a nervous girl. From the second she sat down in the seat across from me at the table I had selected in the corner of the shop, she was fidgeting. She tugged at the hairbands on her wrist and fiddled with the ends of her mousy brown hair. I gave her a big smile to try and put her at ease, but it didn’t seem to help. It made me wonder if she had always been this way, or if she had changed after Zoe left.
“I don’t really know if I can help that much,” Liz said. “I already told everything I could think of to the police.”
“That’s ok,” I said. “Honestly, I just want some insight into Zoe as a person, and I figured you would be the best one for that.”
“Oh.” Liz blinked three times as if it had never occurred to her that someone might want to know about Zoe’s personality or characteristics. I didn’t blame her. Our society has a strange habit of misunderstanding and misrepresenting teenage girls.
Liz took a dainty sip of her caramel latte and then set it down. She chewed on her lower lip as she thought. “Her parents could probably describe Zoe better than me.”
I did my best to not roll my eyes. I had great sympathy for everything a junior high school girl goes through on a daily basis, but I couldn’t stand low self-esteem. If Liz spent her whole life discounting her knowledge and words before she even said anything, then no one was ever going to listen to her.
“I’m sure Zoe kept a few secrets.” I gave Liz a conspiratory smile. “We don’t tell our parents everything, right?”
Most times, I hate that I look so young. It’s harder to get taken seriously. But in this case, I wanted Liz to see me as a friend. Not a parent. Not a police officer. I wanted her to think of me as someone just a few years older than she was. I had even worn skinny jeans and leopard-print ballet flats to try and look a bit more hip.
Instead of leaning forward to gossip with me, Liz just lifted one shoulder and let it drop. “It was just the guy she was dating. But she didn’t even tell me that much about him.”
This was a sore spot. I could tell by the way Liz looked down, it had hurt when Zoe had shut her out all those months ago. The wound was still tender. I could use that.
“Yeah, I heard about him,” I said. “She only told you that he was older, right?”
“I saw a text on her phone and asked,” Liz said. “She told me he was older and they had to keep it on the down low.”
“See, that’s odd to me.” I tapped my finger against my lower lip in a show of thinking. “I would think Zoe would wanna brag all about her new boyfriend.”
I widened my eyes and shook my head, as if I was so over girls who boasted about their boyfriends. Liz mirrored my annoyance in an instant. I had played it right.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t even know if he was actually her boyfriend,” Liz said. “To be honest, it seemed like he was using her.”
I leaned forward and raised my brows. Everyone loves to gossip. You just have to direct them to the right topic. “To deal drugs? Did she ever mention that?”
“Oh, no,” Liz said. “I never heard her say anything about drugs, I just meant it seemed like he was using her to make an ex jealous or something. Like, I got the idea he was not as into Zoe as she was into him.”
“How did you get that idea?” I asked.
“Well, Zoe would get really moody,” Liz said. “She would be on her phone all the time and, when I peeked over her shoulder, I would see that she was texting him but he wasn’t texting her back. It drove her crazy, but then eventually he would get in touch with her and she would be all smiles until it started over again in a few days.”
“You’re observant,” I said. “You’d make a good PI.”
Liz smiled up at me. Poor girl probably didn’t get enough praise. Liz wasn’t an athlete, nor was she a great beauty, and she didn’t have brains galore. She was just average. Overlooked by boys and adults. Now her one friend had vanished as well.
“Can you tell me anything else you noticed about him or the relationship?” I asked.
Liz pressed her lips together and looked at the ceiling as she thought. She was really thinking at this point, not just giving me basic answers.
“Well, he was a biker,” she said.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
Liz shrugged. “Zoe started wearing a leather jacket that he gave her. She mentioned him taking her on a few rides.”
I leaned forward with eagerness. “Did the jacket have a patch sewed on?”
“No,” Liz said.
An Outlaw Souls patch would have been all too obvious. I nodded. Then I leaned back and gave Liz a careful look.
“I know this might be awkward to ask,” I said. “But I do feel I need to know now if Zoe was sexually active with this guy. Do you know if she was?”
Liz’s cheeks turned pink. It was a safe bet that she was a virgin. It didn’t mean Zoe was, but I filed the information away.
“She had condoms,” Liz said. She lowered her voice to a tiny whisper on the last word. “But I’m not sure.”
“Ok, thanks for telling me,” I said.
“He also had a scar,” Liz said. “I never met him, but Zoe mentioned how he had this scar on his cheek from a fight he had gotten in and it was really hot or something.”
I nodded. As if this case wasn’t dramatic enough, now the main villain had a signature scar.
That was all I got from Liz when it came to the facts of the case, but at least it was something. She gave me plenty more context as well. She described Zoe as being really nice and kind-hearted, almost a pushover. Zoe had grown a little more glum and irritated when she started seeing the mysterious older guy, but she had always apologized to Liz after snapping at her.
Zoe was a people-pleaser, I realized as I skimmed my notes. She wanted to make everyone happy. It sounds nice, but it’s a surefire way to get manipulated. Especially if you end up in the wrong pair of arms.
Liz had been sad about Zoe. She missed her best friend. Something told me that Liz had been missing Zoe since before she even ran away. Zoe had become distant when she got involved with the biker, isolating herself. It was a classic tale. Get a young person away from all their friends, make them depend on you, and then they’ll do anything you say.
As for Hector, I still didn’t have much. I had chatted with a few of his friends who had confirmed what his parents told me. He got really into bikes. Started cutting class. Grew distant. Then one day he was gone.
His friends had seemed confused when I asked about drugs. I wanted to know if Hector had dabbled in anything before. They blinked before slowly nodding.
“Not marijuana,” I said. “I’m talking heroin or cocaine.”
Their little teenage eyes had bugged out of their heads, which was confirmation that Hector had not been shooting up, at least not in front of them.
I lifted my pen and jotted down the date of the barbecue. It was the day after next. I had an urge to invite Pin over. I wanted to see him. We could watch TV and chat, and it would take my mind off the case.
Except that was bad. Pin was part of the case. When I saw Pin, I should be thinking of the case, not the way his smile was ever-so-slightly crooked or the way he looked right into my eyes when I was talking.
Or how much I wanted to sleep with him again. I was happy we hadn’t gone further than kissing the last time we saw each other, but I couldn’t deny I had the urge to go further. I wanted to know what it would be like now that I knew Pin a bit better.
It was a distraction though. And it was dangerous to yearn for Pin like
this.
I decided I would tell him I was busy with work tonight and tomorrow. I would wait until the barbecue to see him again. That way, I could use the time apart to cool down. I would let my little crush fade.
Only, as I put away my notebook and prepared for bed, I worried that it wasn’t just a crush. I could tell myself over and over that the barbecue was going to be a reconnaissance mission. It was going to be crucial for my investigation into Outlaw Souls.
But when I thought about the barbecue, I just got excited to spend more time with Pin. And when I pushed aside the excitement, I only felt guilt. I was using him. He thought we were just starting to date. That we had innocent motives and clear intentions.
Before I met Pin, I would have said I was willing to do anything to solve a case. I would lie, beg, borrow or steal in the name of an investigation. Now I wasn’t so sure if I was capable of that.
Now it felt like I was about to cross a line.
Pin
When Claire showed up at my place before the barbecue, I almost suggested we bail on the whole thing. I took one look at her in her relaxed-fit green dress paired with combat boots, and I wanted to pull her into my bedroom and keep her there for a solid twenty-four hours.
Instead, I wrapped my arm around her waist and kissed her. I didn’t care that we still hadn’t defined our relationship or this was technically only our second date. I couldn’t resist.
To my joy, she kissed me back with enthusiasm. When she slid her fingers into my hair, I nearly threw away all my self-control. After extending the kiss for a few moments, I pulled back to gaze down into Claire’s glowing face.
Her eyes were big and full of mischief, as if it was the funniest joke that I had kissed her before speaking, and her lips were slightly swollen.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey,” she said.
“You look good,” I said.
“I wasn’t sure how to dress for a biker barbecue.” She stepped back to look down at her polka-dot dress. “I almost went with Daisy Dukes and bright red lipstick. Isn’t that what biker chicks wear?”
“Nah,” I said. “You’re perfect the way you are.”
She froze at the compliment. I hadn’t meant to be so intense, but it just came out. It was true, anyway. Everything about her from the tiny freckles on her nose to her black combat boots was amazing.
“Thank you,” Claire murmured.
I shrugged and grabbed her hand. “Should we go?”
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Claire said, adjusting her large purse on her shoulder and following me to the door.
“We’re just gonna take a car over,” I said.
“No bike today?” Claire asked.
“I’m gonna have some beer at the barbecue,” I said. “I don’t drink and drive.”
The barbecue was being held in the parking lot behind Blue Dog Saloon. We had gatherings like this at least once a month. A few of the guys would drag out grills and make hot dogs and burgers. We started in the afternoon, but usually the barbecue lasted long into the night. It wasn’t much, but it was my family.
As Claire and I walked up to the parking lot, a flurry of nerves rose up in my stomach. I had never so much as flirted with a girl at a biker barbecue. And I had certainly never brought a date. I hooked up with girls who were far removed from the biker world. I would never bring them to meet my brothers because there was no point. The Outlaw Souls were long-term only.
Yet here I was, walking into the barbecue hand in hand with Claire. Even before we reached the tables in the center of the lot, I could feel eyes on us.
Then Claire squeezed my hand a bit. I looked down to see her smiling up at me, and the tension in my chest eased in a heartbeat. As we approached a table, Moves appeared at my side. He reached out to shake Claire’s hand with a wicked grin.
“I did not think I would ever see you again,” Moves said.
I rolled my eyes, but Claire laughed, and the sound made me want to laugh as well.
“Don’t worry, I’m not scared off by sub-par wingmen that easily,” Claire said.
Moves blinked in surprise. “Fair enough.”
A flurry of black leather and dark hair appeared at Claire’s side.
“Kim!” Claire said. “It’s good to see you.”
“Girl, we need to talk,” Kim said. “I clearly need to catch up on a lot.”
With that, Kim pulled Claire away from me and over to a table. I watched her go with pride. Claire could fit in with the Outlaw Souls. Kim and Moves already adored her. She was different from us in many ways, but there was something in her spirit that we all recognized.
“Jesus, Pin,” Moves said. “You’ve got it bad.”
I focused back on Moves. I couldn’t deny his point, so I just shrugged.
“I have to say, I do like her for you,” Moves said. “Can’t really put my finger on it, but it works.”
He shrugged and made a move towards the food table. I followed. Claire could chat with Kim, and I would get her a plate of food and a beer.
Moves was right. There was something about Claire that just made sense. She was never going to be an obvious choice. I thought Claire was gorgeous, but she wasn’t the type to walk into a room and have all heads turn. Her legs were too short, her clothes were too simple, and she moved just a little too quickly to the side of parties where she could observe and comment.
But that was what I liked about her. She was sly and clever, and she did whatever she wanted. She didn’t need anyone else. Claire was the most independent woman I had ever met. So somehow it made it all the more flattering that she wanted to spend time with me and my brothers.
After I had picked up two plates of food, I wandered over to the table where Claire and Kim sat. Claire had Kim laughing, and it seemed like she had already met a bunch of guys.
As soon as she saw me, Claire scooted over on the bench to make room. I sat down and placed her plate in front of her. “I guessed cheeseburger.”
“You guessed correct,” she said. “I also would have accepted hot dog, burger, or grilled mushroom.”
I laughed as Claire dug into her food. Of course she wasn’t a picky eater. She was too full of energy and life to waste time complaining about food.
“So,” Claire said as she gave Moves a focused look. “I think I need a rundown on your role in the club, it sounds intense.”
A slow smile crept across Moves’ face. Anyone who didn’t know him would think it was a harmless grin. But everyone who had seen Moves in action knew that smile. It was a dangerous smile. He wore it whenever he had to channel his inner violence.
Strangely enough, Claire seemed to recognize the intensity behind Moves’ expression. The sunny smile did not fade from her face, but I felt her spine stiffen next to me.
“Best not to ask questions if you don’t want the answers,” Moves said.
“Oh, I always want the answers,” Claire shot back, quick as a whip.
Moves leaned back and raised his brows. I stifled a smile. Claire wasn’t going to be teased by Moves, and I liked that.
“Don’t let him scare you,” Kim interjected. “Moves is a big softie who only throws punches when it’s for a good cause.”
“Come on, Kimmy, don’t ruin my rep,” Moves said.
Claire laughed and turned to me.
“It’s true,” I said. “We all have rules that we follow, that’s why our club is so strong.”
“What kind of rules?” Claire asked.
“It’s like this,” Kim said. “When you’re wearing the patch, you’re not representing yourself anymore, you’re representing the Outlaw Souls – so anything you do or say, that’s on the brothers. That means you can’t just go rogue and do whatever. You have to respect your brothers enough to stay in line.”
“As opposed to illegal stuff?” Claire asked.
“We don’t fuck with that.”
We all turned to see Raul behind us. He was only a little bit older, in his thirties, but since he was the
road captain, we all gave him the same respect we gave the old guard.
Claire picked up on that right away and nodded. “I didn’t mean to offend.”
“I know,” he said. “And you have a right to wonder, seeing as you just got involved with Pin. So I thought I’d come out and say it, we’re not that kind of club.”
Claire nodded and leaned closer to me. “Good.”
Raul sat down and we chatted about the gigs we did and other club news. It felt natural. Claire had questions, admitting to her ignorance of biker culture, but even so, she fit in. No one minded explaining things to her. And between Kim and Raul, she did not lack for teachers.
After Raul gave Claire an entire breakdown of Outlaw Souls’ territory, I decided to save her. I grabbed her hand and pulled her around the party, introducing her to everyone else.
I kept getting the same look from my brothers. A knowing nod and maybe a wink as they smiled at Claire. It would have been embarrassing if I hadn’t known that they meant well. They liked her, and they liked her with me.
It was a big deal to bring a girl to a barbecue. We didn’t just bring anyone. Introducing someone you were dating to the brothers meant something.
I hadn’t thought too much about it when Moves suggested I invite Claire. Instead, I had acted on instinct. If I had thought too much about the implications, then I wouldn’t have asked her. It would have freaked me out that after I took this step, there was no taking it back.
I wasn’t freaked. In fact, I was feeling pretty great about all my decisions.
As the sun set, we all gathered around a small fire pit and continued to chat and throw back beers. Claire sat close to me on the bench, so that I could feel her warmth through my jeans.
I couldn’t help but glance down at her every few seconds, just to confirm again and again that she was real and there with me. Every time I looked at her, I noticed something else. How her cheeks flushed red after her second drink. Or how she had an extra piercing in the cartilage of her left ear. Or how she did this sharp intake of breath right before she laughed at something really funny.
