by Jayne Blue
This got a laugh out of me. I was beginning to think Crystal Falls, Texas was one strange-ass town in more ways than one. I’d never had a mechanic offer to fix anything for free. “Well, I appreciate that. But, I know the kind of pain in the ass it is to work on the thing.”
“You in a hurry, son?” Pete asked. “I mean, I was actually planning on heading out to Clemente this week anyway. I’d be happy to pick up your part and bring it back. You could even tag along if you’d like.”
I scratched my chin. It was becoming abundantly clear that me and my ‘36 El were the most interesting things to happen to Crystal Falls in a damn long time, at least as far as these two were concerned. The truth was, when I left Emerald Point, I figured my route might meander. I wasn’t in a huge hurry and I’d told the club I’d need a couple of weeks at least. I looked back toward Pete’s shop. Sure enough, I saw a shadow move in the window. Thea had been watching.
“Well, I suppose I could figure out a reason or two to stay in town. You sure we’re only talking about a couple of days?”
Mickey put a hand over his heart. “Would the Lady Liberty’s uncle lie?”
This got a genuine laugh out of me. “Fine. You want to point me in the direction of the best motel in town?” I said the last bit as a joke. I’d bet my left nut that Crystal Falls, Texas only had one motel if I was lucky.
“I’ll do you one better,” Pete said. “I wouldn’t let my dog stay in the motel up by the interstate. I’ve got an apartment above my shop. It’s not much. One room. A foldout couch that’s pretty comfortable, a kitchenette and a bathroom. But, it’s clean and it’s vacant. Are you handy?”
I raised a brow. “I’m afraid to ask why, Pete.”
“The kitchen’s got a leaky sink I haven’t gotten around to fixing. If you’re any good with a wrench I won’t even charge you for staying.”
“Sounds like a slice of heaven. You’ve got a deal. You sure it won’t upset your employees if I’m banging around upstairs?” I looked back toward the store. Thea had flipped the closed sign and moved away from the window.
“What, you mean Thea? Nah. The minute that girl gets in front of her workbench, she’s in another world. She keeps to herself. That’s another thing though. She gets in pretty early. I’m afraid her hammering might wake you up.”
“Well, I’m an early riser too.” I stuck my hand out and shook Pete’s again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He unhooked one from the ring and handed it to me. I thanked him.
“You might want to give her a heads-up that I’ll be there though,” I said. “She damn near took my head off with her staple gun when I went back to compliment her on her work.”
Pete winced. “Geez. Sorry about that. I think I told you, Thea’s a little eccentric. But, if you don’t bother her, she won’t bother you.”
“She’s not from around here,” I said. “How’d you find her?”
Part of me felt a little off about probing Pete for information. But, meeting Thea hadn’t quelled my curiosity about her. Just the opposite, spending just a few minutes with her didn’t seem like enough. It had only taken a few seconds, but the girl got under my skin.
“Thea? I’ll be honest, she kind of found me. She walked into my shop one day last year and started bitching that the finish on some of my pieces wasn’t authentic. She talked a good talk and I gave her a shot. Best decision I ever made. That woman might be quirky as hell, but she’s got a good eye for detail and a hell of a work ethic. She actually lived above the shop for the first few weeks after she came. Now she rents a place from Lottie about six blocks over. She’s fixing it up, actually. I swear I don’t know when she sleeps.”
I lifted the key and gave Pete a nod. “Sounds like a good hire, then. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to head on down the street and see about that apple pie the whole town raves about.”
“You betcha,” Pete said. “I’ll check in on you in the morning. See if you feel like riding into Clemente with me.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing. I’m going to need to rent a car unless Mickey here’s got a loaner.”
Mickey held up a finger. “No loaners, sorry. But, you can call the rental place off 71. They’ll drive a car out to you. Give ‘em Pete’s address.”
“Will do. You’ve convinced me the bike’s in good hands, so I’ll let you get back to it.”
I didn’t take three steps before Mickey and Pete huddled over the bike again. The two of them were happier than pigs in shit, and I hoped that translated into them getting the job done and me on my way. Though this trip was supposed to be a little bit of a vacation, I still had business to do.
I walked the three blocks and into Lottie’s diner. The place, like everything else in this town, had a 1940s vibe with red and white vinyl booths and gleaming white countertops. Lottie herself stepped out from behind the counter and slapped a menu in front of me. Her name was embroidered over the breast of the powder blue dress she wore. She had bluish-gray hair twirled up in a bun and deep dimples in her cheeks.
“Your pie’s just coming out of the oven,” she smiled. Laughing, I shook my head. Yeah, I was apparently the most interesting thing that had happened in this town in a good long while. Pete or Mickey must have told her I was coming.
“Well, thank you, ma’am. How about you bring me a plate of that fried chicken special you’ve got written on the board too?”
Lottie folded her hands in front of her and smiled. She called back to somebody named Ed then left me alone. I guessed Ed was probably the Pa of this Ma and Pa place and that the fried chicken would be the best I’d ever tasted. Not five minutes later, she brought me all my food at once. I took one bite of the pie and decided Pete and Mickey had been holding out on me. I rolled my eyes in ecstasy and gave Lottie a thumbs up. Beaming, she went back behind the counter and shouted something to Ed.
I had a window seat and a good view of both Mickey’s garage and Pete’s shop. Though the showroom floor lights were off at Pete’s place, I could still see a faint glow from the workshop in back. A part of me wanted to go back there and take another crack at Thea. Maybe this time she’d let her guard down a little.
My phone vibrated inside my jacket and I pulled it out; still keeping my eyes on Pete’s shop, I answered.
“How’s El Paso?” Nash, my club’s President, asked. I could hear a baby crying in the background and it made me smile. Nash had gone domestic last year. He had a wife, two kids, and a third one on the way.
“I wouldn’t know. The Knuck broke down on me. I’m cooling my heels in this little town called Crystal Falls. But, I found a mechanic who seems to know his stuff. He should have me on my way in a day or two. How’s everything back there?”
“You want me to send a couple of the prospects out for you? Even Luce is itching to take a road trip. I can’t spare Shakes just now, but you should let him know what’s going on with the bike. He’s kind of attached to that thing. I swear to God he damn near cried when he found out you were planning to ride it solo up the coast.”
I barked out a laugh. Shakes would probably cough up a lung if he found out I was letting any other mechanic but him even touch the thing. “Maybe we better hold off on telling Shakes anything. It’ll give him an aneurysm.”
“Good thought.”
“Seriously though, Nash. I hate to leave you this long. I know Harper’s about to pop.”
To punctuate my point, the crying baby on Nash’s end turned into a full-throated howl.
“No, we’re good,” Nash said. “You needed to take some time. I know it wasn’t easy after your old man died. Son of a bitch as he was, it’s still a loss.”
I didn’t mean to do it, but I found myself clenching my fists so hard they shook. Nash of all people knew exactly how big a son of a bitch my old man was. Though I hadn’t met Nash until we were both almost eighteen, he’d been around for the tail end of the shitstorm just before I finally moved out and lived at the clubhouse full time. It had been the
club that had saved me and taken me in when I had nowhere left to go.
Nash and every other member of my club would take a bullet for me and I for them. Our bond was deeper than if they were my blood brothers. I’d never had any of those but didn’t need them. Maybe I was just imagining it, but there was something in Nash’s voice that unsettled me, like he was holding something back.
“Is there something going on that I should know about, man? I mean it. My old man died a year ago. And I hadn’t seen him in almost ten before that. Don’t keep something from me because you’re worried about my feelings, Nash.”
“And you know I wouldn’t. But don’t forget I was there with you when you cleaned out that bastard’s house.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. If Nash hadn’t been there with me that day I probably would have lit the place on fire and watched it burn to the ground. I’d fantasized about it often enough.
“But there’s something,” I said. “Come on, man. This is me. If there’s something brewing, tell me about it.”
Nash let out a heavy sigh. “No. Nothing except the same old shit.”
The same old shit usually meant threats to our territory. My charter sat on prime real estate along the Emerald Coast of Florida. For decades, we’d protected it against other gangs and drug cartels looking to set up lines of distribution for heroin and other bad shit in from the Gulf of Mexico. Things had been quiet for a little while after we took on a dirty mayor and stopped the latest threat. But, we all knew it would only be a matter of time before shit got stirred again.
“What is it, Nash?”
“Nothing yet. Nothing concrete, okay? I swear to God on that. But, I’ve heard some rumblings. There’s been some movement along the coast.”
I gripped the phone tighter. “What do you need from me?”
“King, nothing. Not right now. I told you, it’s just rumblings.”
“Nash, I don’t have to remind you the last time we had rumblings we lost Ghost.” During the dustup with the mayor last year, one of our members had gotten killed.
“Fine,” Nash said, his voice taking a hard edge. “Okay. There is something. But, I hate to send you off alone on this.”
“Name it.”
He sighed again. “I think we need to reach out to the Saints.”
I closed my eyes and blew out a hard breath. The Dark Saints owned the territory near Corpus Christi in a town not much bigger than this one called Port Azrael. They were still knee-deep in various criminal enterprises and hadn’t gone legit like we did. But, on one thing we agreed: keeping drugs out of our territories served us both. We’d forged an uneasy alliance over the years, but we’d never call it deep trust. But, we had common enemies.
“You think they’re at risk again?”
“I think they might be. I think they need to know just how close shit got to turning upside down in Emerald Point.”
“Right. Well, then it makes sense to reach out and make sure we’re all on the same side at least on this one issue.”
“King, I mean it. I can take care of this myself.”
I laughed in his ear as I heard his daughter start to howl again from further in the house. “Nash, I’m here. It’s two hundred miles away. You and I both know it’s better if I go alone. That way it’s not a formal sit-down. It’s just me passing through.”
“Yeah, well. That’s what I’m thinking. But where the hell is this place you’re staying again?”
As soon as he said it, Lottie came back with a second plate of fried chicken. The look in her eye told me any plan I had to wave it away wouldn’t end well.
“A tiny little nothing of a town called Crystal Falls.”
Nash laughed. “Sheeit. Sounds like hell.”
Just then, the front door to Pete’s shop opened. Thea walked out. She slung a canvas bag over her shoulder and looked both ways before she crossed the street. Her tits swayed as she walked and she swung her hips. She threw a wave to Mickey and Pete as she walked by. My jeans tightened and I adjusted in my seat.
“King?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “Let’s just say the place has certain charms I think I might like to explore before I leave.”
“Fuck, man. Sometimes I miss those days.” Nash knew exactly what I meant.
“Who are you kidding? You’ve got the life, Nash, and you know it.”
I heard a soft, feminine voice in the distance and Nash’s voice grew muffled as he must have pulled the phone away from his ear.
“Well, enjoy yourself, man,” he said. “Give me a call before you head down to Port Azrael.”
“You got it. And don’t worry so much.”
Nash said some other things, but Thea walked directly past my window. She didn’t turn her head but kept looking straight ahead. I tilted sideways and craned my neck to get a better view of that sweet ass of hers in those tight shorts. Oh, yeah, Crystal Falls had a charm or two worth exploring, all right.
Chapter Four
Thea
“Son of a bitch!” The skin split right across the knuckle on my right thumb. Stumbling, I braced my back against the wall to keep the end of the trunk from slipping out of my grip. I had my other hand caught between the doorjamb and the sharp edge of the trunk. Pushing off, I took a few heavy steps forward and barely managed to keep the chest off the ground.
“Pete!” I yelled, blowing a strand of hair out of my eyes. The shop was quiet. “Fucking figures,” I muttered. Pete had a way of disappearing whenever there was heavy lifting involved. I knew I should have waited for him before trying to move this piece myself, but I was eager to get a start on it this morning.
I weighed my options. The trunk was too heavy for me to carry this way. I’d never get it up the three steps from the storage space behind the shop into my workroom. There was a tight turn. I’d have to figure a way to get it up on the handcart on its end without scratching the hell out of the ornate carvings on the side of it. Right now, I was in a stalemate with gravity. It was just wide enough for me to grasp on either end, but I’d grossly misjudged the weight of the thing.
Slowly, I sank down, trying to let the end settle gently on the floor while I figured out how to extricate myself from the small space I’d managed to wedge myself in. Sweat poured down my back and my thumb started to bleed freely.
“Motherfucking Pete!” I yelled to no one. If he were here, I’d have heard his signature morning whistle. If all else failed, I could see if Pete’s nephew Chaz had taken his spot on the corner. He had a temporary gig standing in front of Freedom Tax Service waving at traffic wearing a Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam costume depending on the day.
I blew out three quick breaths, committed to the task at hand. Then, I tightened my grip on the chest and pushed myself forward. I took three staggering steps but tripped hard over the first step going up into the workroom. I tried to tighten my grip, but the chest started to slip. “Shit!” I screamed.
Just before the chest hit the floor, strong arms covered in ink reached around me and grabbed either end of the chest. My heart dropped and the smell of strong soap and masculine musk filled my nostrils. King stood behind me; his breath kissed my ear. My backside molded to his front and I felt the outline of every muscle of his chest, hard as steel. He seemed to materialize out of thin air like some tattooed superhero. If I weren’t so grateful for not losing the chest, it might have occurred to me to be startled.
“Looks like you could use a hand,” he said, his words a deep, sultry cadence that rumbled up my spine.
“I didn’t...I wasn’t...I’ve got it,” I said, too stubborn to admit he’d just saved my ass. Plus, my heart hadn’t yet worked its way back down into my chest and thumped somewhere in the vicinity of my larynx.
King laughed. “You sure about that? I’ll tell you what, why don’t you let go and slip out from under my arms and let me carry this for you? What the hell is it made of anyway, lead?”
“Laurel,” I said. “Camphor on the inside.”
King shifted, getting a tighter grip on the ends of the chest. It put him even closer to me. Heat flared from low in my belly and flamed in my cheeks. I had the strongest urge to let go of the chest and turn to face him. I wanted to know what it would feel like to have him wrap those strong arms around me instead of the chest. But, I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. It was crazy. I’d just spent so much time alone it was making me edgy.
“Well, baby, I gotta admit I kinda like the view, but are we gonna just stand here, or is there somewhere you’d like me to move this thing for you?”
“The view?” I craned my neck to try and look into his face. Towering over me, King looked straight down. From that angle, he had a bird’s eye view down my shirt. No doubt he could see the tops of my boobs where they swelled out of my pink lace bra. My breath caught and I jerked forward.
“Whoa, whoa,” he said teetering forward after me. The chest wobbled, but King’s grip was strong.
“Sorry,” I gasped. “Let me just...are you sure you’ve got it?”
“I’ve got it,” he said. “I wouldn’t dream of letting it fall.”
Strong, sure, King was a mountain of muscle. I let out a hard breath then bent my knees, sliding out of the space he made for me. Turning, I went backward up the three steps to the workroom and motioned him forward. King adjusted his weight, heaving the chest further up. God, he was shirtless. When he flinched, his pecs rippled. He had an intricate silhouette of a howling wolf’s head inked across his chest.
He came toward me. A smile spread across his face and he locked those dark eyes with mine. “Where to, baby?” he asked. I blinked hard. The answer on my lips was “anywhere,” but I could never be bold enough to say it.
“Oh, right. Uh…” I turned around. Shoving two stools out of the way, I cleared a space in front of the largest workbench where the light was best.
