by J. J. Baxter
Damn it, we were being followed by the Dawn Vultures.
Thrasher flicked his helmet screen up, so he could get a good look at me, and yelled over the sound of our engines, “Take the next turn, make it home. Lock your doors!”
My heart was beating out of my chest as I did exactly what he said. I watched as he managed to lead them away from me.
Hammer went ahead of me and I couldn’t figure out why. Then it dawned on me that he wanted to see if my building was safe.
The Dawn Vultures split off at the very same time we did, and I had a single biker following me for what felt like ages until I continued to take a few sharp turns, heading down alleyways, and coming out onto streets I didn’t recognize until there was absolutely no sign of him. I stopped my bike for a moment when I realized that the coast was clear…I had to catch my breath. I was so scared, but at the same time, so grateful that Thrasher had been there with me. I was sure I wouldn’t have been able to lose them all on my own.
I couldn’t breathe, I was so worried that on my way back to my apartment they were going to somehow find me, but I had no choice but to go. I couldn’t wait around on the side of the street like a sitting duck, hoping that they weren’t going to come back. Hammer had to be there, so I decide to go and see. The streets were completely empty now, and I had to make sure that I stayed alert. I kept my eyes peeled in case they might pop back out of nowhere, ready to take the only shot they needed to send me flying right off the seat of my bike.
It took every ounce of energy for me to get back out on the road. I saw no one following me, not another person in sight, so I was finally able to breathe easily again. Though, I knew it would only be a matter of time before trouble came knocking on my door like it had before, and my secrets were starting to catch up with me.
I had to tread carefully, because I couldn’t fuck up the one thing that was ensuring my safety. I couldn’t give Scotch and the Reckless Riders a reason to believe that they had wasted their time helping me. They were my only way out of this, and I had to protect that with everything I had in me.
11
You Don’t Betray the Club
I had the master key to the apartments on her floor, which I swiped off of a maintenance guy that had been nice enough to make some polite conversation, and it wasn’t long before I was searching for Angelina’s apartment. Pick pocketing had come into play again, for me. It figured.
The place had been full with residents, but no one seemed to look at me suspiciously, as I tried to keep a low profile, blending in with the rest of the crowd.
I managed to sneak past the receptionist’s desk, making my way to the office behind the lobby where all of the registration documents were filed away. I kept a close eye on the door while I searched through each file looking for her name. I never even asked Angelina what her last name had been. I had to get creative, searching through some of the most recent files on the open computer, looking for the digital copies.
I found one with the dates that matched up with Angelina’s story, and before I could give it a second thought, I was on her floor, making sure no one was looking while I entered her apartment. Small like mine but it didn’t look lived in at all. I was surprised to see the dusty furniture, the mattress on the floor of her bedroom, like she hadn’t really moved into the place. I looked around, feeling a sudden pit in my stomach like something wasn’t right.
I opened up her closet door and found a filing cabinet chockfull of all kinds of files and documents, detailing where she’d been and what she’d been up to. I read through as much as I could, trying to figure out what this all meant, and that was when I found a picture sticking out of one of the files.
I stared at the young face of Scotch himself. I remembered seeing Angelina outside the Hidden Apple holding up a picture. I felt the blood boil beneath my skin, I had been lied to, she was using all of us, but I tried to calm myself down. I knew jumping to conclusions wasn’t smart. I wanted to believe Angelina would give us as explanation for all of this. Put things into perspective for me, make me understand why she hadn’t been up front about why she was looking for Scotch when we first met.
I remembered thinking how strange it was for her to bring up his name after she’d been cornered by that biker I saved her from, but I was led to believe that she was solely being hunted by the Dawn Vultures, and she was in need of rescuing. From all the information she’d collected on so many other people, including Scotch it was obvious she’d known about us for a while. I wondered why she would go to all this trouble, why she would try to weasel her way into the Reckless Riders if all she wanted to do was learn more about Scotch.
I started to dig deeper through her things and found a box stuffed into the back of the closet, pulling it out, opening it up to find an array of deadly weapons and syringes. I took a step back, as I realized what was true now. She’d wanted to be the one to hurt Scotch. It looked like a planned hit the more I gazed around the room, at her hidden cork boards and newspaper clippings. It was like she had been planning this for a very long time, like this was her entire life spread out into one small studio apartment.
I tried to keep my emotions down. I needed to figure out if she’d been playing us all along, trying to get us right where she needed us to finally go through with her plan. Though, so much about this wasn’t adding up. Why she was wasting her time trying to get to know me when it seemed to be Scotch was the one she wanted to get close to all along? I pulled out my cell phone, to tap Scotch’s number to tell him what I had learned, but I had an incoming call from Thrasher.
“Hey man, look. Angelina’s going to be back any minute. We were ambushed by some Dawn Vultures members when we left the bar. She’s heading home, and that’s the only place she’s going to be safe right now. Hammer is gonna be watching the building to. I don’t think leaving her by herself would be the smartest decision right now.”
“After what I found in her apartment, I don’t think she needs any protection, Thrasher. I don’t want any part in this anymore,” I said.
“You didn’t see them, Blayd,” Thrasher spoke again. “I did. They’re going to kill her, and I’m not sure what for, but now’s not the time to be losing your shit. Stay with her tonight. Then deal with whatever you found tomorrow. You’re going to feel a lot fucking worse if you wake up tomorrow and they managed to take her out when you weren’t looking. Right now, no matter what she did or you think she did, we have her under our protection. And until the prez says otherwise, that’s how it’s gonna damn well be.”
I had to agree. This was the way it had to be for now. I couldn’t afford to leave Angelina up to her own devices anyway, at least not until I heard the truth from her. I decided to stick around and follow what Thrasher said, not to be the one to save her from any incoming trouble, but so I could get to the truth before I walked right up to Scotch to tell him that he needed to cut Angelina out of the Reckless Riders.
“Alright, fine. I’m on it.”
“Good, and more men will be around watching the place. Do what ya gotta do, man.” He ended the call.
I didn’t know how to wrap my head around the fact that I had been falling for a hit woman who’d come into town looking for the President of the MC club I was now a part of. Scotch had changed my life in such a short amount of time, he gave me something to live for, and I wasn’t going to give that up. I wasn’t going to allow anyone, not even Angelina to take that away from me.
I sat on the faded couch in the living room, waiting for Angelina to arrive. I still couldn’t figure out what her connection to the Dawn Vultures was, because there wasn’t anything in her notes that even so much as mentioned them. It was possible that they went after her before she even knew who they were. They always managed to stay in the loop around here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we had been the ones feeding her all of the information she needed to know. It pissed me off to no end, but I needed her to tell me what the fuck she was up to.
I got sick of sitting and fe
eling frustrated by all of it. I got up, went into her kitchen to get a glass of water, but before I could even reach for the tap I heard her landline ring.
It threw me off-guard, because I would’ve imagined that someone like her wouldn’t want to keep a landline around. No normal human being would be calling anyone at this hour unless it was important.
The entire apartment had been silent, and I tried to put the thought of the phone call from my mind, but right as I did, it started to ring again. I got tired of hearing it, so I answered it. I heard the sound of heavy breathing on the other end of the line. “Hello?”
“Ah, I see you must be the new flesh around, huh? Seeing as you’re currently held up in Angelina’s apartment, I’m going to need you to give her a message for me,” the heavy breather said.
“Who the fuck is this?” I asked.
“You should know better, Blayd. We know all about you, but it seems you have absolutely no idea the lengths we go to in order to get what we want. Your little girlfriend has been poking into places that she shouldn’t be. Did she tell you that she was the one that tipped off the police trying to get us arrested for drugs?”
No, I didn’t know this. Obviously, I didn’t know shit. I realized I had to be talking to the President of the Dawn Vultures himself. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I want you to deliver her to us. Besides, she’s only going to bring you down the longer you keep her in your club, Blayd. The minute that Scotch learns the truth about her, he’s going to kick her to the fucking curb anyway. If you hand her over, there will be something in it for you”
“Like what?”
“We’ll back down, handle our business without entangling with yours. That is, if you bring her straight to us.”
“That’s not happening. Angelina isn’t going anywhere, whether you like it or not. I don’t do deals with shitheads like you. So, don’t give me a reason to take you down myself,” I said, through my teeth.
“You’re young, Blayd. You are gonna learn a lesson here, boy. Have fun with your little Angelina. I’m sure we’re going to have the chance to meet soon.”
I hung up, slamming the phone down on the table. I was fucking fuming, but I had to focus. Angelina did in fact have the entire Dawn Vultures MC after her. I wanted to punch something and leave. But I stopped to think about what Thrasher had said. Until the prez says otherwise, that’s how its gonna damn well be.”
12
The Interrogation
I finally made it back to my apartment safely, but I couldn’t stop my body from shaking, wondering how we managed to make it out of that alive. I felt the tension rise the moment I parked my bike, heading up to my floor, knowing that even though Hammer was somewhere around, it probably wasn’t the safest place to be right now. There were Dawn Vultures members that knew exactly where I was staying, and this fact would leave me sleepless for the next few nights while I figured out what to do.
Thrasher and Hammer had stuck their necks out for me, much like half of the other Reckless Riders I’d met, all telling me that they were going to keep me safe, but I was hiding a secret from them that would definitely make them change their minds. I felt guilty for not coming clean about it sooner, not telling them why I came to Las Vegas in the first place.
I unlocked my door, hesitant to even enter because I was afraid I would be walking into a trap wherever I went, but when I switched on the light, I saw a man standing in the corner of my living room with his back to me, staring out of my window.
I immediately reached for my gun, pointing it at him,
With no expressions on his face, he simply turned around to stare at me.
I stood there shocked. “Blayd? What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”
“The question is, Angelina, why have you been gathering information on Scotch?” he asked, not even bothering to explain how he got in here in the first place.
I didn’t lower my gun, because I could see the hurt in his eyes, feeling like I deceived him, but he had no idea that I was on my way to abandoning my plan the moment I learned that Scotch wasn’t the one that I should’ve been going after in the first place. I knew I had to calm him down, make him see that while I may have started out trying to hunt down the leader of the Reckless Riders, after becoming one of them, I had no choice but to change my mind. I wasn’t going to take out a man who did everything he could to get by, to provide a safe space for those that trusted him. He wasn’t out there blindly murdering people like I once imagined he was, because that was the reputation he had, at least amongst the police.
Blayd stared back at me.
I noticed the picture in his hands, it was the one of Scotch that I had been carrying around when I got into town. “I know you’re upset, Blayd. I know this looks terrible, like I’ve been the one causing problems for you all, but that’s not the case.”
He inched closer to me, not even bothering to take notice of the gun pointed directly at him. He was at a point now where he just didn’t seem to care anymore. It was either that, or Scotch had been right about his exceptional stance. “So, you’re going to stand there and pretend like you didn’t call the cops on us all, giving them false information about drug possession?”
“The thing is, Blayd, you all do push drugs. I came to town not knowing a thing about who Scotch was, apart from what I’d been told. It was just another contract for me at first, and I’m not going to pretend like there wasn’t a point where I was going to go through with it,” I confessed.
“So, what was your plan then? To get close to me, so you could get in with Scotch long enough to take him out? I found your fucking stash, all your little weapons that you’ve probably used to kill countless other people. That’s what you do, isn’t it?” he asked, and he was growing angrier by the minute.
I lowered my gun, gazing up into his eyes so he could see that I didn’t intend to fight him at all. I did what I never thought I would ever do, especially in a situation where I knew things could go south at any minute…I handed him my gun.
His fingers wrapped around the base as he looked up at me.
“I think we need to sit, Blayd. There’s a lot we need to discuss,” I said.
He remained silent as he held the gun close to him, taking a seat on my couch while I took the futon in front of him. He sat there with that no-show expression, waiting for me to tell him that this was one big misunderstanding and I hadn’t been using him all this time.
“I came to Las Vegas looking for Scotch after I’d gotten word of a contract with a high payout. I came all the way out here trying to learn everything I could about who Scotch was, but the more people I talked to, the more I realized he wasn’t the kind of person I was used to taking out. I went after people that deserved to pay for their crimes, those that should go down for the way they treated others. I have a rule that I only accept a job if the person was truly bad, hurt, or killed people. Ones who had used or abused the innocents and so on. I tipped off the police on the bikers in the area to see how he would react, to see if he was going to start killing people left and right the way my employers made him out to be, but he didn’t.”
“Who are your employers?” he asked, completely glossing over the fact that I was telling him all of the details he needed to know, confirming all of the suspicions that led him to break into my apartment in the first place.
“I don’t know who they are. It’s all anonymous. Though, after I tipped off the police, I realized that I’d pissed off a lot of people. I had the Dawn Vultures show up at my apartment, and every part of that story I told you is true. I didn’t realize that getting myself involved with all of this would have this many consequences, and it scared me because I’d always managed to go undetected. I’ve never had my position or my name compromised. I realized that the only way to protect myself would be to seek help from you and the Reckless Riders.”
“So, what you’re saying is after meeting Scotch, you decided you were just going to abandon your contract?”
“As crazy as it sounds, yes. I have a very particular way of dealing with business, and taking down people who certainly do not deserve it, is not part of my job description. I have canceled contracts before when I found that the mark was not a bad person. I have always made that clear to both the people that hire me as well as to myself. I never compromise my integrity, no matter how big the paycheck might be. Though, I never thought that I would be caught in such hot water. I never thought that I would be afraid to leave my apartment, to even stay in my apartment. They told me to stay away from my search, and I have a feeling that getting involved with the Reckless Riders only pissed them off more.”
Blayd nodded, not losing my gaze for a moment.
Silence fell in the room as he studied me.
True to his name, he showed no emotion at all. “You wanting to contribute to the club. What you said about wanting to be a part of the club, was that true?”
“Yes, Blayd. I have never felt like I fit in anywhere more than I do with all of you. I will understand if you walk me right up to Scotch and tell him everything that you learned about me. I will also understand if I no longer have a spot in the club, but I want you to know that in my time spent with you all, I found more than just protection. I found people that I’ve come to care about, and that’s not going to stop whether I’m forced to leave or not.”
He sighed, nodding his head. “I’ll decide what I’m going to do about Scotch, but you’re not going anywhere, Angelina. You’re in this position because you chose to go against your contact and protect Scotch instead of killing him. We vowed to protect you. You could have killed Scotch already if you were a true killer. Don’t get me wrong. It will take some time for me to feel like I can completely trust you. But I still want to protect you. I couldn’t in good conscience just literally leave you to the vultures.
