Hiding in Plain Sight

by Hornbuckle, J. A.

  All conversation stopped and I caught their looks. Jilly was confused, Lock jutted out her chin but Dee? Dee was on to me, I think. Her eyes were narrowed as she took a long slow drag.

  "Where are you supposed to be going, pretty girl?" she asked, glancing down as she used the ashtray.

  "Ah, Casper. You know to meet up with Brand's brother." My voice sounded funny even to my own ears.

  "We were told you were to stay here until Brand came for you," Lock said, standing up and fiddling with the stack of napkins on her side of the bar.

  "That's what we were told and that's the plan we're sticking with," Dee said firmly, crushing out her cigarette.

  Jilly placed her hand on my arm. "We gotta stick with the plan, Reesie."

  Oh, shit. How was I going to get out of this one?

  *.*.*.*.*

  "So how do you want to proceed, Brand?" Trey asked quietly from the kitchen. Dare was standing over the four trussed men laughing at something Wilbur had said.

  "I'm figuring Laza pulled his men out and these are from Deschames," Brand started.

  Trey gave a sharp bark of laughter. "Christ! If this is all the codger could scrape up, he's gone senile!"

  "I am thinking to call the Sheriff and press charges for breaking and entering. Not much else we can get them on, and I am not willing to kill them just for being fucking idiots," Brand said with a wry grin.

  "There might be a better way that could send Deschames a message that won't be missed," Trey offered with a one-sided grin.

  "I'm listening…" Brand replied.

  *.*.*.*.*

  My heart was racing. I needed to get on the road, grab my mom and get out of there before Brand came to pick me up. I might still need to hide for a while but at the moment, getting away from him was my number one priority.

  "Does Brand know that you're going to Casper?" Lock's question only shot my panic up higher. Glancing at all three women, I saw the doubt in each and every pair of eyes.

  "Can I give you some advice, Reese?" Dee asked me directly.

  "Sure," I replied, trying to sound breezy, like my heart wasn't gonna beat out of my chest.

  "Never, ever play poker."

  "Your face is an open book," Lock said with a smile.

  Jilly's hand moved from my arm to my hair. "Maybe you should try tellin' us the truth, Reesie. We can help."

  "We're good with helpin' each other." Lock leaned over the bar until she captured my eyes.

  "You know how our men call each other brothers? That means we're family. We're like your sisters, Reese," Dee explained quietly, her head tilted as she watched me. She shifted, re-crossing her legs before hooking a heel over one of the pegs on the stool. "Why don't you tell us what you've got going, and then we can figure it out with you, all right?"

  "Namaste, bitches!" came a feminine yell from the doorway. All of our heads whipped around and I saw the redheaded Carly saunter her way around tables, making her way towards us. "What's shaking?"

  "You mean besides your purchased boobs?" Lock shot back, her smile huge.

  Carly glanced down at her chest and pushed her leather jacket back, watching her huge breasts dance underneath her t-shirt. "Nice, aren't they?"

  Dee rolled her eyes before Jilly started speaking. "Brand and Reese's place was hit tonight and Brand had Reese get to Snake who brought her here and Snake went back to their place to do cleanup. Reese, though, says she's got to go to Brand's brother's house and Dee just asked her if Brand knows and we could all tell she was lying and that's when you walked in."

  "Fuck, Jilly. Did you even take a breath in there some place?" Carly asked, her eyes wide at younger girl's little speech to get her caught up to speed.

  All of them, except me, laughed. I smiled and once they realized I hadn't joined them, Carly snapped her fingers underneath my nose to get my attention.

  "Okay, girly. Spill," she said, removing her jacket and purse, handing them to Lock to be put behind the bar.

  I crossed my hands over my waist and looked at each of the women in turn. Maybe it would be better to get it out, to get other opinions on what I needed to do to get and keep me and my mom safe. Lord knows I hadn't done so well when I'd tried to run on my own and having my mama with me could find us both stranded and without hope. Something I never wanted Mama to feel ever again. Plus, these women were smart and savvy. I could trust another woman's advice, even if they were bikers.

  Getting their take on what to do was probably the best idea. It couldn't be any worse than trying to work it out on my own, that was for damn sure.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  All laughter on the patio came to an abrupt halt when Trey and Brand went back outside. The bikers kept quiet and impassive, allowing the tension to build.

  "What cho' all gonna do to us now?" Wilbur asked on a deep swallow.

  Not a word was spoken and the large men's faces remained emotionless.

  "You cain't just hold us here like this!" Al yelled, sweat appearing on his forehead and upper lip. "We got rights. We're citizens of the…"

  At a not so gentle booted nudge from Dare, Al quickly shut up. At the interrupted speech, Melvin and Stan both twisted and seemed surprised to see Al still breathing.

  All eyes were on Trey when he hunkered down next to the restrained men. "Who sent you?" His voice was a menacing growl as his eyes roamed the squad of four.

  "Louis Deschames outta Beaumont, Texas," Wilbur whispered harshly. He was now sweating and his expressive eyes were wide with fear.

  "Why?" Trey asked the one question on a harsh bark.

  "To kill the bitch's husband and bring her back," Al yelped, following Wilbur's lead of full disclosure.

  "Who is her husband?" Brand wanted as much information as possible before he went to Texas and resolved this issue in a hands on, very final way.

  "Huh?" Stan asked. "Whaddya mean?"

  "You have the three of us here. Which one of us is her husband?" Dare clarified, crossing his arms on his chest. Four sets of eyes followed Dare as he stepped over the trussed men to stand next to the crouching Trey and Brand.

  "Uh…" Al started.

  "I'm thinkin' he's the young, good-lookin' guy, wouldn't you say, Wilbur?" Stan offered. Brand had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing out loud at how ridiculous the whole scene was as it unfolded.

  "And which of us do you find good-looking, Stan?" Trey put just the right amount of spin on his words for the implication not to be missed.

  Stan's face again went red. "That ain't what I meant!"

  "Which one?" barked Dare, dropping his arms and taking a step forward.

  "The one that taped us up," Melvin said with a sigh, closing his eyes. While he was the quietest of the bunch, Brand was willing to bet he was the smartest as well.

  "We don't rightly know, though," Wilbur whimpered and Brand saw a wet spot begin to spread over the crotch of the fat man's khakis. "We only have a picture of her."

  "Since we din't do it, no harm no foul, right?" Stan asked on a hopeful note and a head nod.

  "We do things differently here than they do where you come from," Brand started.

  "Montana justice is on a whole different level than down south," Dare continued.

  "Lots of mountains and canyons to hide what needs to be hidden," Trey finished.

  The four would-be killers all blanched at the words, and it was Stan's turn to wet himself. Al begin to quietly cry, turning his face to the concrete.

  "Why does Deschames want the woman?" Trey asked and Brand had to school his features so as not to show his shock at the question, although it was valid. He only had Reese's version of the story to go on. What if she'd lied? Something he regularly caught her doing in the beginning.

  "He's hot for her. Likes how feisty she is, how she fought him when he'd try to touch her." Quiet Melvin took the time to explain when both Wilbur and Stan shrugged. "Louie wants to bring her to heel."

  "And you know this how?" Brand asked, his heartbeat going
a million miles an hour at the quiet man's confession.

  "I was one of the guards when he brought her to his place. He had me hold her after the first couple of times she clocked him for tryin' to feel her up," Melvin answered. "Made me sick. That half-dead, old man gettin' his kicks from havin' a handful of somethin' that wouldn't've looked at him twice. But when he started with the pinchin' and bitin' and shit, smilin' the whole time he was hurtin' her? I tried to find somethin' else to do and let one of the other ones do the holdin'."

  Brand's stomach turned at the mental image of Reese being pawed, pinched and bitten by anyone, much less the piss-ant who set himself up as king in a mid-sized Texas city.

  "Why did you stay with Deschames if you didn't like his ways?" Dare challenged.

  "He has my kid brother and sister. Parents are gone and if I don't do what he says, he'll hurt 'em," Melvin's voice was a croak as he tried to explain. "If I don't go back, there's no tellin' what that crazy old fuck will do to 'em."

  Brand saw Trey hold up three fingers behind his back before twisting his head to glance at Dare and Brand.

  "I'll need a towel," Dare explained. "Don't need another man's piss on my shirt."

  From just the few words spoken, Brand got with the plan. He went back inside and pulled three towels out from the dirty clothes hamper.

  "What do you need a towel for? Huh? Wilbur, why do they need a towel?" Stan was almost screaming.

  "Shut up, Stan," Wilbur advised, resignation clear in his voice. "We took the job and fucked it up. Now we pay."

  Al's crying went from quiet tears to streaming, deep sobs.

  Dare took the towel and put it next to Wilbur's head before reaching for the tape again. After covering each of the assailant’s mouths, he picked up the towel and draped it over his shoulder before crouching. He lifted the fat man like nothing more than a heavy bag of feed and upended him over his shoulder.

  Brand followed, finding Stan was much lighter than he looked in his baggy clothes.

  Trey took on Al but not before advising Melvin they'd be back for him. Brand caught the sorrow in the young man's eyes before he turned the corner of the house. He was sure the grief so visible on Mel's face wasn't for himself, but for his remaining family.

  It was yet another reason why Deschames had to be stopped.

  *.*.*.*.*

  "That is so romantic," Jilly breathed, her chin in her hand and stars in her eyes.

  I'd just told the whole of my story from start to finish and, surprisingly, without interruption. But it was her innocent, sweet voice that brought all of us up out of the spell of my tale.

  "And you want to leave this guy? Are you fucking nuts?" Lock asked her face incredulous. "Damn, girl."

  Carly didn't say anything, but she was opening and closing her mouth as if she didn't know where to start. I glanced at Dee to gauge her reaction.

  "You want to know what I think, pretty girl?" Her voice was a mix of rough and soft.

  I nodded jerkilym watching as she lit another cigarette. She'd chain-smoked throughout my talk.

  "I think with the way you were brought up, you wouldn't know a good man if he bit you on the ass," Dee started, going a completely different direction than I'd anticipated. I thought she'd be talking about the loyalty to the club or about sisters helping sisters or some such shit.

  "He's a good man, Reese. One a girl doesn't find very often and usually, only in the pages of a romance novel. And I should know, since my sister writes that fucking stuff. Ever heard of Felicia Whitehouse?"

  "Dusty's Desire?" I mumbled, shocked to my toes. That was one of my favorite books and I must've read it a hundred times.

  "That's one of 'em," Dee said with a smile and another drag. "But you and I both know that's not real life. Real life isn't easy to get through in one piece without scars. Sometimes the only way out is to crawl on your knees until you're done with the hard shit."

  I wondered what Dee's difficulties had been. The look in her eye said it had been bad, maybe even worse than mine.

  "Sounds to me like our boy Brand saved you in more ways than one. And I'm thinking you know it, too." She ran her hand from the top of my head down the length of my hair before stopping between my shoulder blades. Her lips were twisted in a wry smile. "You were raised in a house of hurt and never learned to trust or to love, which is a damn shame for anybody. No one deserves to grow up in that kind of environment."

  Yeah, she had experience with pain, and I was guessing it was when she'd been younger.

  "It makes a kind of screwy sense that you'd run from being on the receiving end of the good shit, when all you've known is bad. That's what I think you're trying to do. Running from the good." Her words hit me at a deep level, and I turned them over and over in my head before Carly finally figured out what she wanted to say.

  "Don't forget about regret, Dee," the redhead cautioned, before turning her wet eyes to me. "Regret of shoving a good man away will eat you alive, Reesie."

  Lock reached and gave the taller woman a one-armed hug before she, added to the conversation. "And, I hate to bring it up now, but you take one step away from Brand and there'll be a hundred women lining up to take your place. Myself included. And not just for the great sex but for who he is, all that he is. His kind are few and far between, let me tell you."

  My heart sank at her words. She'd been with my Brand, had gotten a taste of all the beauty he could bring to the sex act, and it hurt to have her talk about it. The pain of her plain speech must've shown on my face.

  "It was before you, Reesie," Jilly advised with a shoulder bump. "I know it hurts to hear. I get it about Snake, too, and it's like a knife in your gut to know he's fucked one of the other girls. But you gotta keep tellin' yourself it all happened before you, before he chose you."

  "And, to my knowledge, he never admitted to loving any of us in any language," Carly said, using a napkin to wipe underneath her eyes. "Much less two."

  Fuck! Her, too?

  Glancing at my face, Carly reached a red-taloned hand and patted one of my white-knuckled hands gripping the bar. "It was a couple of years ago, Reesie."

  Dee cleared her throat and crumpled up her empty cigarette pack before shooting her eyes to me. "So, here's how it’s gonna play out. I'm not gonna let you fuck up your life. You're staying here until Brand comes. You want to leave then you stop being a pussy, put on your big girl panties and 'fess up. He lets you go, then fair enough. But you want to let a good man go, then be a better than average bitch and tell him face to face. None of that sneaking out shit. You get me?"

  I opened my mouth to answer her, but no sound came out. Just the effort of trying to speak broke my control and I dissolved into tears. Not a couple of quiet, easing-down-the-face kind of sniffles. No, I was out and out sobbing and covered my eyes with both hands to try and hold the emotions in. I wanted so much, so goddamn much, to believe what my heart had already recognized—in the love that Brand and I shared. But the hurt of what I'd known all my life was almost like a brick wall between embracing my new life and letting go of the mistrust and abuse I'd grown up with.

  I felt hands touching me, stroking my back, my hair, holding my forearm as I sobbed. Giving me comfort and support as I worked through the shit in my head.

  Dee was right, I knew she was right. I was being stupid in running from Brand, the man who loved me, cared for me and protected me as if I was one of his body parts he'd protected during his beat-down.

  It took more than a few minutes, but I finally got myself under control and mopped my face with a handful of bar napkins. I looked around the circle of women and noticed I wasn't the only one who was having to clean up streaked mascara.

  "Got you," I mumbled feeling a sense of relief in knowing I wasn't going to be able to leave my man, my Brand, any time soon. Maybe I wasn't gonna get rid of that brick wall of doubt completely or overnight but I was going to move heaven and earth to make sure that I did everything I could to get around the son of a bitch. "I won't
let nothing, not even myself get between me and the best thing I've ever had."

  "By George, I think she's got it!" Lock exclaimed in a terrible British accent.

  "I think she always had it, but just didn't know it," Jilly shot back, wrapping an arm around me and squeezing.

  I think Jilly was right.

  *.*.*.*.*

  It had been a long, lonely boring night for young Nelson Cache, a new recruit to the Missoula County Sheriff's department. He knew he was paying his dues by working the night shift on dispatch. It was a grunt job but either the first rung or the last when working the career ladder at MCS. But he'd discovered the hours spent behind the desk with nothing to do was almost a deal breaker on his chosen path of law enforcement.

  It wasn't any wonder then when the call came, he lit up like a Christmas tree and made the executive decision to get the Sheriff directly involved.

  "Yes sir, three naked men tied up with duct tape and strapped to the outside of a black, late model Pontiac pointed south, out where the 93 crosses the Bitterroot River. Just past the U-Haul place," he explained to his chief for the third time. "Dells and Smithson are on duty but on the north side of town attending a domestic. Meridian and James are at the Uni for a B&E in one of the dorms."

  There were more bleats in his earpiece as the Sheriff alternated between cussing and berating the young man on dispatch for interrupting his sleep. Nelson couldn't help his scowl and wondered if this was going to be the end of his dream of being a deputy sheriff.

  "No, sir. I know I should've used the codes," the young man hedged. He hated using the different codes to explain the call outs. Turning an issue into a code took some of the excitement, the danger, away somehow. “I don't know the code for naked guys standing on a highway. Erm, Sir," he added, knowing the Sheriff both commanded and demanded respect.

  "No, sir. They're probably not going anywhere for the moment. Yes, sir. I'll turn it over to one of the teams," he replied before signing off.

  He was gonna be fired for sure this time.