by Brook Wilder
Lori sent Carrie a pleading look.
“I don’t know about this, Carrie. I don’t think I can go through with it.”
Carrie grabbed her by both shoulders and turned her around until they were face to face. Lori tried to look away, but Carrie gave her a shake.
“You know why this has to happen, Lori,” Carrie said fiercely. “Gears is only going to get worse and I’m worried about you.”
“I’m worried about me too,” Lori said, forcing a small sad smile onto her trembling lips.
She had to bite her lower lip to keep from blubbering and breaking down completely. Suddenly, Carrie’s arms were wrapped around her in a tight hug.
“Don’t worry, hun,” Carrie whispered. “We’ll take care of this, I swear. We’ll figure it out together.”
After a minute, Lori pulled out of the hug, trying to strengthen her spine.
“Why did you have to call in the cavalry?” Lori asked, rolling her eyes toward the living room where the two men still plotted.
Carrie just shrugged off her question.
“I called for Porky for help, not Tex,” Carrie said after a moment. “I guess they’re just a package deal.”
Lori held back a snort, but just barely.
“Well, I don’t think Tex is exactly the type of help I want.”
“I don’t know,” Carrie said with a sudden grin. “I saw the way he looked at you when you opened the door. He might not be the type of help you want, but he might just be the type of help you need, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean, you sex-crazed maniac,” Lori stammered out on a shocked laugh.
She shouldn’t have been surprised by anything that Carrie said any more, but somehow the other woman still managed to shock her.
They both cracked up, the much-needed laughter lightening the mood and easing some of the tension that sat heavy inside her.
But it didn’t last nearly long enough. The humor faded, the grin fleeing Lori’s face as she looked over at her best friend.
“I really don’t have a choice, do I?” she asked with a disheartened sigh. She hated feeling trapped.
Slowly, Carrie shook her head.
“I don’t think so, honey. You can’t stay here much longer. It’ll spell trouble for you for sure. Any time at all is too long, but you need money to leave. And this is the quickest way I know to make a butt-load of cash.”
Lori nodded, still apprehensive, but resigned to her course of action. Carrie was right. It was the quickest way. With no other options forthcoming, she turned, threw her shoulders back and marched into the living room where Tex and Porky were waiting.
“I see you’re done pouting,” Tex muttered under his breath, but loud enough for Lori to hear.
She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but Porky quickly forestalled their argument.
“Okay, here’s the plan, if you’re ready to be rational, civilized adults and hear it?” he asked, starring hard at both of them, until Tex and Lori both backed down.
“Sorry. Go ahead,” Lori said after a moment, studiously ignoring Tex and trying just to focus on the giant of a biker. Carrie stood beside her, nodding enthusiastically at Porky as well. The big man blushed under her attention but finally he cleared his throat and continued.
“Alright. So, here’s the plan. My cousin is going to meet us at the county fair a town over. He used to work there, so he knows the place well, and says no one will recognize us or even blink at us meeting up.”
Porky rocked back on his heels. There was something else, which he was obviously holding back.
“What? What is it, Porky?” Tex demanded and, for once Lori agreed with him. “Just out with it already.”
“Well, here’s the deal. It’s a fair, right? Rides, games, funnel cakes and… dates,” Porky said. “So, we’re all just going to have to pretend a little bit here.”
“Pretend what?” Lori asked, with a sinking feeling in her stomach as she waited for the answer. She was already afraid of what it was going to be.
“We’ll pretend to be on a double date,” Carrie said, speaking up as she walked over to Porky’s side and grabbed one of his hands in hers. “Me and Porky will be one couple, and you and Tex will be the other.”
“Yep, just two couples going out on a date to the local fair. Nothing suspicious about that at all.” Porky added with a grin directed at Carrie. In fact, they both looked pretty ecstatic about the whole idea.
Lori fought back a snort. She was pretty sure they just came up with this ludicrous plan so that they could keep holding hands and staring at each other like love sick puppies. Then Porky turned back to where Lori was still standing, frozen in place.
“So, you and Tex will have to pretend to be together to make this work.”
He gave a shrug, as if to say he was sorry, but there was no apology in the big man’s eyes.
Suddenly Tex shot her an insolent look, his voice catching at her from where he was standing on the other side of the small living room.
“Do you think you can handle it, sweetheart?” he drawled, taunting her with an eyebrow raised in challenge and a smirk on his lips.
It was infuriating. Her life was on the line and he wanted to make a big joke out of it. Well, the joke was about to be on him.
Anger fueled her footsteps as she sauntered up to him, not stopping until they were standing toe-to-toe. Her arms wrapped around his waist and she let her body press against his as she tilted her head and pasted a sweet and sultry expression on her face.
“How’s this? Is this handling it enough for you?” Lori whispered low and hoarse and intimate.
She was shocked by the immediate conflagration she saw burn in his wide green-eyed gaze.
She stayed like that for another second before stepping away, brushing him off like it had never happened, and telling herself that she hadn’t at all been affected by the feel of his hard muscles against her soft curves. She told herself that it was just anger that was making her pulse race and nerves that made it hard for her to breathe properly.
“Satisfied?” Lori asked, tossing the question at him as casually as he could.
But then she made the mistake of looking at him. He was still standing there, almost lounging, but she could see the tension that pulled every muscle tight and the way his eyes bored into hers, trapping her with their heat, and the promise of retribution she saw burning in their depths.
“Not even close, sweetheart,” Tex drawled after clearing his throat.
She saw that he was about to open his mouth again and she was already sure that she wouldn’t like the words that came out. She didn’t want to get into another argument with him, so she hurried to speak.
“Come on. Let’s just get this over with,” Lori sighed, forcing herself to break the intense hold he had on her and look away. “The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can all go our separate ways.”
Porky and Carrie led the way enthusiastically, still hand-in-hand as they walked towards Porky’s motorcycle and climbed on, Carrie straddling the bike behind him and wrapping her arms around the big man.
Lori looked from them to Tex’s own dark red motorcycle and back again, before swallowing hard.
“I don’t have my car here.” The words were barely more than a whisper and she forced herself to stand up straighter and meet Tex’s gaze head on. “Looks like I’m riding with you.”
He stood there for a long moment, giving her an incomprehensible look, before tossing her a helmet.
“Let’s go for a ride,” he said roughly as he threw his leg over the seat and kicked up the kick stand.
She had no choice but to follow his lead. She just wished that his words hadn’t set off a slideshow of images of her head that had nothing to do with riding a motorcycle and everything to do with riding something else.
With a deep breath, Lori climbed on behind him and tentatively placed her hands at his hips. However, as he gunned the engine, she had no
choice but to wrap her arms around him or risk sliding off the back.
She hoped the fair was close. She didn’t know how much of this she could take.
Chapter 9
Tex’s jaw was clenched so tight he was surprised he hadn’t cracked a tooth yet. Or two or three.
Lori was on the back of his bike as the pavement stretched out ahead of them and the blue sky above. Dusk was just starting to spread out overhead. He didn’t see any of it. In fact, it was all he could do to keep them on the road, the way his thoughts kept taking a nosedive straight into the gutter.
Her arms tightened around his waist and Tex let out a string of curses a mile wide at the agony of it all.
She was the sweetest, strongest, most convoluted woman he’d ever come across, and he’d met his fair share of complicated women. Hell, just take a look at his ex. But Lori was nothing like Kayla. In his own way, he had understood Kayla, her motivations. She was easy to understand when everything she’d done had been solely for herself.
But not Lori. She seemed to genuinely care about Carrie and the crew she was member of. It made everything that much more complicated and it made her that much more unpredictable. After that stunt she pulled in the living room, Tex didn’t think he could handle her being any more unpredictable than she already was.
The whole ride was pure torture for him. Tex tried to wrestle his thoughts back under control, but it was a useless fight. All he had to do was feel her pressed against him and they were all shot to shit again.
And it wasn’t just his wayward thoughts, either; his emotions grew ever more tangled and chaotic as the night darkened the Texas sky around them. He hated this plan. Hated the idea of Lori putting herself in such a risky position, even though he’d been in that same position plenty of times in the past. The only difference was that he’d known what he was doing. It was obvious that she didn’t have a fucking clue as to what she was about and had no business selling drugs. Sure as hell, not this amount of them. She could get serious jail time if she fucked up and she could end up taking them all down with her.
But if Tex was being honest with himself, that wasn’t the real thing that was bothering him. He couldn’t help but think of what Lori had said, the truth she’d revealed about Gears and her precarious situation. How he’d threatened her.
For a moment, Tex idly wondered how much simpler it would all be just to take out the threat himself. Then she wouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense of her selling the pills at all. But he knew that, if he did that, it would like throwing a lit match on a pile of tinder.
Things were already tense between the three gangs. Their territories were overlapping more and more as they competed for the market, and that was a recipe for all-out war between the Grim Riders and the Devil’s Martyrs. He couldn’t touch Gears and he hated it.
It was a long painful ride to get to the carnival and, by the time they arrived, night had well and truly fallen, and the fair was alive with multi-colored lights and swarms of people walking, chatting, and rushing from ride to ride and game to game.
He pulled his bike into the lot next to Porky’s and Lori jumped off the back before he’d barely even had time to shut off the engine. He felt instant relief at the space between them, but there was also a pang of regret at missing her sweet touch.
Tex shook it off as he leaned the motorcycle on the kickstand and got to his own feet. Carrie and Porky were already halfway through the line to get into the fair and he and Lori hurried to join them.
They bought their tickets and walked into the fairgrounds, a stiff and silent tension falling between him and Lori as they trailed after their respective friends. Carrie and Porky were having a blast together. They were treating it more like an actual date rather than a ruse to sell some pills.
But that didn’t stop them from giggling at each other and holding hands as they walked around the booths and concession stands.
Carrie tugged on one of Porky’s arms, pointing at a game booth where you had to shoot at milk bottles with rubber bullets, imploring him to win her something to remember the night.
Tex snorted as he watched them. He already wanted to forget all about this entire experience. This wasn’t a real date, for fucks sake. It was serious business. They had a good number of drugs on them, the rest hidden safely back at Lori’s house. But Porky and Carrie were in a world of their own. He was stuck babysitting a sullen Lori.
Sudden guilt hit him low and sharp. It he was being honest with himself, he deserved every bit of her anger and probably more. He’d never meant to blow up on her like he had earlier. He’d just gotten so pissed after she’d told them about what Gears was doing to her that all the wrong things had come spilling out of his mouth. Where the hell had all his vaunted charm go? Normally, he had no problem with the ladies, but it just disappeared whenever he was around her. It was like he was a tongue-tied teenager. And it was damned inconvenient.
Out of patience, Tex walked up to Porky. He had to tap the man three times to drag his attention away from Carrie.
“Porky, where the hell is your cousin,” Tex growled, trying to keep his irritation under control. “Aren’t we supposed to meet him?”
“I called Kyle,” Porky said with a shrug. “He said he’s running a little late, but he’ll be here. Guess you’ll just have to suck it up an enjoy yourself. And at least try to look like you’re here with Lori. I can feel the ice from here.”
Tex rolled his eyes at his friend but he didn’t say anything else as he wandered back to where Lori was loitering a few feet away.
“Well?” she asked, her voice clipped as she stared into the crowd, at the rides… basically anywhere but him.
“Porky said his cousin’s running late, but he’ll be here.”
“Fine. We’ll wait.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, still avoiding looking at him, and Tex let out a rough sigh. Damn it. He really had fucked up early. Not that he’d been wrong. She really didn’t know what she was doing. But maybe he could have taken it a little easier on her.
“Look, Lori,” Tex started.
The apology was still forming in his mouth when, suddenly, Porky was interrupting him.
“Hey guys. Carrie wants to go on the roller coaster.”
He pointed at the ride behind them. Roller coaster was a bit of an overstatement for the ride and Tex tried to brush him off.
“I don’t think…”
“Great, let’s go,” Lori said sharply and the other three were taking off before he could even get a full sentence out.
Tex huffed in irritation before throwing up his arms and following along.
“I guess this is your idea of staying in character?” he said as he caught up to them, directing his question at Porky.
The other man grinned back at him as they climbed the ramp to get on the ride.
“Exactly.”
Tex just shook his head as his friend and Carrie got into the cart first, sitting in the front together and leaving the back seat open for Tex and Lori. Reluctantly, Lori got in and scooted as far away from him as she could. The bar came down over their laps, securing them in. Now there was nowhere to run.
“Lori, I just wanted to apologize for earlier,” Tex said slowly, forcing the words through clenched teeth.
She turned to look at him and he was caught by the fierce look in her shifting hazel eyes. This close, he could see the way they morphed from blue to pale green to gray and then back again.
“What part are you apologizing for?” Lori shot back. “The part where you shot me down before we even started, where you told me I was incompetent and ignorant and no idea what I was doing? Or the part where you basically blamed me for being a victim of Gears? Well?”
Her words were hard enough to break rocks and it took everything in Tex not to flinch from the anger in her eyes.
“Honestly? I’m sorry about that last part. It was out of line.” He shrugged before continuing. “But the others are all just the plain truth,
no matter that you don’t want to accept it.”
Lori stared at him with that hard look of hers for another painful moment before turning away without another word.
So, she wanted to be pissed off? That was fine by him. He was pretty pissed off too. He’d been roped into this situation by Porky and now here he was, on a god damned roller coaster of all things. The desire that ripped through his body only added fuel to the fire raging inside him.
Tex had to grit his teeth at the feel of her thigh pressed so tightly against his own. The warmth from her body wrapped around him as the night sky closed in on them, the stars overhead twinkling brightly despite the neon lights that lit the fair below.
