Midnight Deceit: A Midnight Riders Motorcycle Club Romance Part 3

by Olivia Thorne

  What’s the scene?

  The heroine is being called by her lover after narrowly escaping death, followed by a night of intense passion. She’s overjoyed to hear from him so soon.

  And… ACTION.

  I pushed the ‘Answer’ icon on the phone.

  “Hey there,” I said cheerily, with an extra side of sexy.

  “Fiona… oh my God, you’re alright…”

  I was so confused by the relief in his voice that I didn’t have to try too hard to act.

  “Jack? What’s wrong?”

  “Where are you?”

  “At Charlie’s, getting some breakfast – what’s wrong?”

  “I dropped by your room. Somebody broke in and ransacked the place, like they were looking for something.”

  “What?” I asked, stunned.

  That was an authentic reaction. I knew that Eddie was going to toss my room – but I hadn’t bargained on Jack being the one to find it.

  Also, everything about the entire night still felt so unreal that I reacted exactly like I was hearing the news without any prior knowledge.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Y-yeah… I’m fine… somebody broke into my room?!”

  “Yeah. What are you doing at Charlie’s?”

  “I was getting some breakfast… I was too wound up to go to sleep… who the hell would break into my room?”

  “We’ll talk about that later.”

  THAT didn’t exactly make me feel better.

  Instead, I wondered how much he knew.

  “Did you drive to Charlie’s?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Get back over to the motel now. I need you to pack up your stuff… you’re gonna be spending the night at my place.”

  “Okay…”

  “Do you need me to come get you?”

  “No… no, I can drive…”

  “Alright. See you soon.”

  As I paid my bill at the front cash register, I didn’t need to ‘act’ nervous, either. I already was.

  “You alright, Fiona?” Judy asked.

  I weighed whether I should say anything at all, then figured it was good for my alibi.

  “I just got a call. I think my motel room got broken into.”

  She clucked again. “Well bless your heart… you need to get away from those bikers, darlin’. They’re bad news.”

  I couldn’t have agreed with her more.

  But there was no getting out at this point.

  I was afraid there was no getting out at all.

  Before I left Charlie’s, I tore up the telephone numbers on the piece of paper Eddie had given me and flushed them down the toilet.

  Then I walked out of the diner to go confront my fate.

  31

  I drove into the motel parking lot and stumbled out of my car. Jack was waiting for me just outside the door.

  “Hey,” he said, his voice deep and sympathetic. His arms wrapped around me and he kissed the top of my head. For a brief second, I felt safe again. Like all of this was a bad dream.

  But then I gradually woke up from the dream, and delicately pushed myself away from him.

  “Just… take it easy,” he warned me as I walked toward the room as though in a trance.

  The door was slightly ajar. The doorjamb was ruined – from Roach kicking it in.

  At least Jack wasn’t in on that ugly part of the evening.

  I pushed the door open and gasped. The room was a fucking disaster area. Every single piece of clothing I owned was strewn all over the floor. The mattress had been slit multiple times with a knife, with stuffing bulging out like an animal’s guts. The dresser drawers were pulled out, the place was –

  My photo album.

  The one with Ali’s photos.

  Jesus Christ.

  If Jack saw it –

  I checked all the drawers on the floor, since I wasn’t sure which one was which.

  None of them had it.

  I flung underwear, blouses, socks, and jeans off the threadbare carpet, but didn’t find a thing.

  No album. No sign of it. At all.

  I started to freak out. I didn’t have to act, either.

  My entire reason for being here – snatched out of my grasp.

  Every record I had of her – gone.

  It was like losing her all over again.

  I started violently sobbing.

  Jack misunderstood. I’m sure he thought I was just freaking out over seeing my possessions violated, my life in disarray.

  He came in and encircled me from the back with his big, strong arms.

  “Hey,” he whispered into my ear. “Hey.”

  I started to calm down. Just from the warmth from his body… the safety of his presence…

  As my brain started to function again, I realized that if I couldn’t find the photo album, Eddie must have it. I stopped hyperventilating and made the decision to contact him. Later.

  I stood there, surrounded by the wreckage of my life, and gradually came back to sanity with Jack’s arms wrapped around me from behind.

  “Did you… did you call the police?” I asked feebly.

  “No. In fact, I made sure they won’t come.”

  Best possible case scenario – but I was a little shocked to hear it. “Why not?”

  “I thought you wanted to avoid the cops. Your past…?”

  Oh yeah.

  It was hard to remember all my lies.

  “…how did you…?”

  “I bribed the manager. Lou owns the motel, so he’ll take care of the damages.”

  Lou.

  Owns the motel.

  I started shaking.

  It was like I’d stumbled into the spider’s web without even knowing it. I’d been sitting in the web for days, not even knowing that the spider was just waiting… biding his time…

  Not to mention there was a certain black humor to it all.

  After all, it was Lou’s fault the place had been trashed. If Roach hadn’t broken in, Eddie wouldn’t have had to make it seem like Roach had searched it.

  So it was only right that Lou was going to have to pay to get it all back to normal.

  Karma’s a bitch.

  And when karma happens to other people, she’s the most hilarious bitch ever.

  If you’re in the right frame of mind, that is.

  If you’re not, she’s just a bitch no matter what.

  “Who would do this?” I murmured.

  I had asked that earlier over the phone, but I knew exactly who. Lou had sent Roach, who had been stopped by Eddie, who had then faked the entire thing.

  I just wanted to know if Jack knew.

  If he didn’t, then he was a damn good liar.

  “I’m thinking the Santa Muertes,” he said.

  “Jesus,” I whispered, just for effect. I knew he was wrong.

  Although, to be honest, the idea that it was completely plausible that another group of psychopaths could have broken in here and done the same thing?

  Pretty goddamn chilling.

  “Which is why I want you over at my place,” Jack said.

  “No argument here.”

  Except there was. In fact, there were plenty of arguments.

  For one, I didn’t know how much Jack knew.

  And depending on how much he knew…

  …I might just be walking into the lions’ den.

  32

  Jack

  Fiona was a fantastic liar, I’ll give her that.

  Or she was completely innocent, and Lou was one hundred percent wrong.

  Either way, it was seriously fucking with my head.

  We drove up to my place as the sun was rising. I got her situated inside, with her two suitcases stashed in the corner of my bedroom.

  I hugged her close.

  As I did, I imagined I was holding a wild animal that could bare its fangs any second and try to gut me.

  I didn’t want to believe that.

  But I was the tiniest bit concer
ned.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “It’ll be alright.”

  She hung onto me. “Don’t go.”

  I liked feeling her latch onto me tighter.

  “I have to… got to go talk to the police and see Benjy. But I’ll be back soon.”

  I kissed her – enjoyed kissing her –

  – but couldn’t shake the feeling that I was toying with a cobra.

  I walked out of the house and got on my bike.

  Exhausted.

  Bone-weary.

  A dead man walking, on the last dregs of adrenaline.

  Threatened from every angle.

  I wanted nothing more than to curl up next to her. Feel her curves against my body, sink deep into her flesh, find oblivion with her, within in, my cock buried deep inside her.

  I wondered if that was the potential drug addict in me… or something closer to love.

  Because if it was love…

  God help me, I was totally fucked.

  I roared off down the road, a soldier called to war.

  All the while I was thinking of the woman back in my bed, unsure if she was friend or foe, my salvation or my undoing.

  33

  Fiona

  I waited until Jack was gone until I called the first number Eddie had given me.

  He answered on the second ring.

  “Already?”

  “Tell me you have my photo album.”

  He sounded irritated. “THAT’S what you called me about?”

  “TELL ME YOU HAVE MY PHOTO ALBUM.”

  “Jesus. Yes, I have it.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t think it was a good idea to leave it there for somebody else to find. Which turned out to be a wise move, since Jack showed up as I was leaving.”

  My vision blurred at the edges. “What?!”

  “Yep.”

  “Does he… does he know it was you?”

  “No. He thinks I was Roach.”

  “He told me he thought the Santa Muertes broke in!”

  “Well, now you know he lied.”

  I didn’t want to believe it.

  I fumbled for any excuse not to believe it.

  “Are you sure? Are you sure he couldn’t have mistaken you for a Santa Muerte?”

  “He yelled out ‘Roach’ as I was running away.”

  No.

  Oh God, no.

  Jack’s lying to me.

  It’s all one big fucking lie.

  “He knows,” I sobbed. “Oh my God, he knows – ”

  “Calm down.”

  “I have to get out of here – ”

  “Where are you?”

  “Jack’s.”

  I could hear the panic as Eddie asked, “Is he there?!”

  “No. He left.”

  Relief in his voice. “Then stay there.”

  “What?! Why?”

  “He hasn’t hurt you?”

  “No.”

  “Then he doesn’t know anything. He only suspects.”

  “Great – he only SUSPECTS.”

  “If you leave, he’ll know for sure. Besides, where would you go?”

  I grasped for somewhere, anywhere safe. “Back to LA.”

  “You’re going to quit? You’ll never find out who killed her if you do.”

  “No thanks to you,” I said savagely.

  “Look, you’re safer with me on your team than all by yourself, even in Los Angeles.”

  I couldn’t process it. It was too hard to concentrate, to parse all the variables and contingencies. In the end I settled on the one thing I wanted most, the simplest thing.

  “I want my photo album back.”

  “You’ll get it. When you’re situated in a safe place, somewhere Jack or anybody else won’t find it.”

  “I’m not fucking around.”

  “Neither am I. But in the meantime, stay at his place. You’re safest there.”

  “I thought I was safer with YOU on my team.”

  “You are. But he’ll protect you even better than I can.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because he wants you alive. He’s kept you alive so far.”

  Cold chills ran down my spine. “How do you know?”

  “Because you’re not dead yet.”

  34

  Jack

  I sleepwalked through the rest of the morning, caught somewhere between reality and a kind of half-waking hell.

  First came the hospital.

  I found Kade in the waiting room of the surgical ward.

  “How is he?” I asked.

  “He’ll survive,” my sergeant-at-arms replied. “He’s not out of the woods entirely, but they’re saying it looks good.”

  “Thank God… can I see him?”

  “Yeah, he’s awake.” Kade looked at me closely. He could tell something was up. “What’s going on?”

  I filled him in on everything. On Lou, on Roach, on Fiona. On how I didn’t know what to believe.

  When I finished, Kade was characteristically unemotional.

  “That’s fucked up,” he said, as though he were saying, There’s some magazines in the waiting room.

  “I’m going to need you to keep an eye on her,” I instructed him. “Tail her. Whatever it takes to figure out what’s really going on.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “After we get out of here, we have to go to the police station and give our statements.”

  “Are they pissed I didn’t stick around?”

  “No. Dan Peters is our new best friend.”

  Kade narrowed his eyes. “He’s back on Lou’s payroll?”

  I nodded.

  “Watch yourself,” Kade said, a shadow of concern coloring his voice.

  “Don’t worry about me. Just find out what Fiona’s up to.”

  35

  Next up was Benjy.

  God, it was depressing walking into that room. He was hooked up to three different machines, with just as many tubes running out of his nose and arms.

  I had a dozen flashbacks to times before.

  In half of them, brothers were in starched white hospital beds, way worse off than Benjy.

  In the other half, they were lying on asphalt in pools of blood.

  At least Benjy was alive, no matter how pale and weak he looked.

  And young. God, he was so young.

  “Jack,” he croaked, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

  “Shhh,” I whispered, and took his hand as I sat next to the bed. “Take it easy.”

  The smile faded. “…I’m sorry…”

  I stared at him in shock. “For what?”

  “…I shouldn’t have… let him do that…”

  “Jesus Christ, kid, if anybody should be apologizing, it’s me. I should’ve stopped him.”

  “…not your fault…”

  “It’s not yours, either.”

  “…did you… get him…?”

  I knew what he was asking.

  Had I avenged him?

  It stung that Lou was the one who had granted his request, not me.

  In fact, I had done everything I could to make sure Benjy hadn’t been avenged.

  Because the Midnight Riders were legit.

  Because we weren’t outlaws anymore.

  I wondered even more than ever if that was the correct call.

  Maybe Lou was right.

  No.

  Don’t question yourself.

  Revenge isn’t worth the club’s future.

  “It’s taken care of,” I assured Benjy.

  He nodded, visibly relieved, and drifted back into a narcotic haze.

  I left him like that, in the grey area between waking and sleep, life and death.

  36

  Much as I hated to, I called Lou out in the parking lot of the hospital. I needed our stories to be straight before I went to the police.

  “Did you find Roach?” was the first thing my VP asked.
/>
  “You could say that.”

  “I keep calling him but he doesn’t answer.”

  “Maybe because he knows I’m pissed at him.”

  “Why’s that? Did he… finish the job?”

  “No. She’s in the clear.”

  “Riiiiiight,” Lou said sarcastically.

  “She wasn’t even there. Roach tossed her room and left.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because the fucker took a shot at me as he was leaving the motel.”

  “WHAT?! Are you fucking with me?”

  “No.”

  “Roach took a shot at you,” Lou stated, as though he couldn’t believe it.

  “And then rode off on his Bonneville.”

  “What the fuck!”

  “Never mind that. I need to know if – ”

  “Where is she?”

  “I’m handling it.”

  “Jack – ”

  “I’M HANDLING IT. And if anybody so much as touches a hair on her head without checking with me first, I’ll cut their fucking balls off, and then I’ll cut their throat. Understood?”

  “Jesus, somebody’s on their period.”

  “UNDERSTOOD?”

  A long pause. Then a sigh.

  “Fine. So why the fuck did you call me, other than to threaten me with castration?”

  “We’re about to go see Peters.”

  “And?”

  “What’s the official story on the other Santa Muerte?”

  “He took off for the 5. Made it to the freeway and got away.”

  “Our guys went in pursuit?”

  “So did I. So did you. And so did Kade, if I’m not mistaken. He was gone for quite a while…”

  “But the gunman got away.”

  “That he did.”

  “That’s too bad,” I said sarcastically.

  “Oh well. Life’s a bitch, and then you die.”

  “Some people do, apparently.”

  “Some people do. Apparently.”

  There was a long pause before I spoke again.

  “Not a fuckin’ hair on her head, Lou,” I warned.

  “Twenty-four hours. That’s all you get.”

  “That’s all I need,” I said before I hung up.

  Kade looked at me. “Am I going to be protecting her and tailing her?”