by Alexx Andria
“You know we’re just going to kill you as soon as you come down from there,” Hunter promised. “So get on with it. I’m done listening to you flap your jaws.”
“But wait, you might want to know this…the shipment isn’t tomorrow as you thought. It’s tonight. I changed the drop and the location.” Dimas let that information sink in and when Hunter and Jax shared a subtle look of confusion Dimas let them in on the deal. “Those boxes you think are filled with guns? Yeah, they’re empty. Decoy boxes so if anyone can by the warehouse — mainly either of you — you wouldn’t get suspect anything was different. Fact is…the guns are nowhere near here.”
“You sonofabitch,” Jax muttered under his breath, going to the closest box and prying open the top to peer inside. He swore and looked to Hunter, confirming Dimas’ story. “They’re fucking empty.”
“Don’t worry, I know where the real shipment is. You have bigger problems.”
“Such as?”
“Always in such a hurry…hold on, there’s more to this story.”
“This story bores me. Get to the fucking point.”
“My point is your little reporter played quite the important role without even knowing it. Simms was the only other person who knew about the drop change and of course, loose ends gotta go. Conveniently, Simms was banging that Dog woman, Sanchez and it was easy enough to knock them both off and make it look like a club hit. Everything was quiet until your little fuckbuddy started asking questions, which then made you go and talk to Bronx — I mean, I never saw that coming — and that’s when you figured out that someone on the inside was pulling strings behind your back. It was only a matter of time after that and I like to hedge my bets. But honestly, when it all came down to brass tacks, I just didn’t want to share. Simms got greedy and started pushing the boundaries, saying he was going to go to you and Jax with the details. Couldn’t have that, now could I? So, yeah, greed kills, man.” He checked his cell. “Oh, game time. As much as I’d love to stay and shoot the shit, it’s time to put the players into the game. Mainly…the pawn.” With a sudden, gut-wrenching movement, Dimas pushed Zoe from the catwalk and both watched in utter horror as Zoe plummeted to the ground like a bird with a broken wing.
#
Funny how time works when you’re about to die. Moments before Dimas shoved her off the catwalk, she’d been thinking, how had her life taken such an abrupt change in direction? And then she answered her own question: Jax and Hunter. But even so, she couldn’t say she would change anything if she’d known ahead of time what her fate was going to be. Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true but she knew that she didn’t regret anything. Certainly not the time spent learning what it was supposed to be like in a lover’s arms. Two lovers’ arms to be exact. Tears slid down her cheek as she listened to the men trade insults and Dimas ranted like a lunatic. He thought he was so smart, so smug. If she managed to survive this night…well, let’s be honest, she probably wouldn’t, but if she did, that asshole deserved a hot poker up the keister.
And then that awful push.
Followed with frightening speed by the terrifying plunge.
It was true what they say about your life flashing before your eyes because seconds before Zoe went boom, splat, dead, she saw her entire life zip like one of those 8mm movie reels from the ‘60s. Why not digital, she had no clue but there was something nostalgic and sweet about the old-time movie feel. Maybe that was why. She’d always been partial to real film anyway. Digital had no soul as her father used to say. But here was the thing, until those days with Jax and Hunter her life had been terribly dull. And so her last thought was of Jax and Hunter — naked, of course! Because if she were going to die, well, hell, she was going to go out with the dirtiest thought in her damn head to make up for lost time.
Hopefully, they had hot, hunky guys with a thing for chubby girls up in heaven, too.
That was the point of heaven right? Total bliss? A week ago her idea of bliss might’ve been a fresh chocolate éclair but now? It was Jax and Hunter — all day, everyday. Funny how things changed, huh?
#
Jax watched the whole thing unfold as if watching a nightmare. Everything moved in slow motion up until Zoe crashed through an empty wooden decoy box like a broken doll flung by a giant to the floor. Hunter and Jax ran to her side, forgetting about Dimas for the moment, which was likely his intention, and carefully with shaking fingers checked for a pulse. Sweet Jesus! “She’s alive! Call a fucking ambulance,” Jax shouted and Hunter rose to do exactly that, fumbling with his phone to dial emergency. There was so much blood. How was it possible that she was still alive? “I’m going to kill Dimas with my bare hands,” he promised in a hoarse tone, trying not to hurt her by inadvertently moving her. He’d read somewhere that people with possible neck or back injuries shouldn’t be moved. Well, falling ten feet onto a wooden box on a cement floor probably qualified as possibly breaking something. It seemed to take days for the ambulance to arrive but soon Zoe was loaded into the ambulance and speeding to the hospital, leaving Jax and Hunter to answer questions from the local PD and lucky them, they got their favorite (not) police officer, Richard Bent or, as they enjoyed calling him, Officer Bent Dick.
“What happened to the girl?” Officer Bent asked, going straight to the point, his shark gray eyes boring into Jax. “You push her or something? She one of your club whores?”
“Watch it,” Hunter growled before Jax could. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and find the asshole who did push her from the catwalk. His name is Dimas Michaels and he was last seen running that way,” he pointed toward the back of the warehouse “like the fucking coward that he is.”
“Dimas Michaels…last I heard you were running together. What changed?”
“What difference does it make?” Jax shot back, irritated. “The fact remains, he did this to Zoe. She’s a good woman who didn’t deserve what Dimas did.” “What reason would he have to push her from the catwalk?”
“Because he’s a dick,” Jax answered, deliberately withholding information about the evening’s events. Dimas was going to pay but it wasn’t going to be Officer Bent Dick who put the screws to him — that pleasure was reserved for Jax and Hunter.
“Look you can tell me now or I can take you downtown and we can talk there. Either way, someone is going to tell me what’s going on. Let me tell you what I think went down—“
“This ought to be a laugh-a-minute,” Hunter muttered, shooting Jax a glance that mirrored his own feelings of immense fuck-all irritation mixed with fear that Zoe was dying and Dimas was getting off-scot-free with a shit-ton of money that they’d worked their asses off to secure. “Don’t cops get some kind of training before they’re set out on the streets to fuck with people?”
Bent’s gaze narrowed. “Keep it up, asshole. It’d make my day to run your ass in and tie you up in paperwork until the morning. Your girl looked pretty bad off. I’d hate for you to be in jail when she kicks it, you know?”
“You sonofabitch,” Jax bit out, hating that Bent had the upper hand. “Get on with it. Dimas was holding a grudge for something that happened a while ago and he saw an opportunity to get even. He knew Zoe was our weak spot and he used it. He fucking pushed her from the catwalk to punish me and Hunter. End of story. He’s a twisted fuck and you’re letting him get away by asking us stupid questions. If you’re not gonna go after him, I will. You feeling me?”
Bent regarded Jax and Hunter for a long moment, weighing whether or not he bought their version of the story, then with a dissatisfied grunt, he motioned for them to go. “Your friend Dimas will pop up sooner or later. Scum has a way of oozing out from beneath the rocks eventually. Bit of advice...stick to your own kind. People like you bring nothing but trouble to girls like her.”
Jax held back the snarl but Hunter’s stony expression was everything he was feeling inside. Bent was an asshole but he was right. It was their fault that Zoe was in the hospital. They should’ve stayed away — they should�
�ve made her stay away. But they hadn’t been able to stop seeing her — from craving her body to knowing her quirky mind. She was the total package, the girl they were never meant to have. And this was their punishment. Their life wasn’t conducive to whatever they’d been doing with Zoe. She belonged with people like her, people who had backyard barbecues and chatted with their neighbors over the fence about the best grass feed or pool cleaning service. She was everything they’d never have and before she came along, Jax was fine with that. But now…he wanted what he couldn’t have, tasted the forbidden fruit and found all else lacking. And Zoe was paying the price.
Hunter and Jax went to their hogs and climbed on but when Hunter confirmed they were heading to the hospital, Jax shook his head. “She’s in the best hands. There’s nothing we can do for her.”
“So we just leave her?”
He shot Hunter a dark look. “Don’t you think we’ve done enough damage to the girl? Jesus Hunter…Bent was right…the best thing we can do for Zoe is to get out of her life.”
“You don’t mean that,” Hunter said.
Jax didn’t answer, just throttled his engine. “We’ve got a score to settle,” he said before punching the gas and tearing up the pavement. When he found Dimas, he would rip him to pieces with his bare hands. Maybe that would ease the inexplicable roar of anguish bellowing silently in his heart. Or maybe it wouldn’t help at all. But that’s all he had right now.
Because what he wanted was to go to straight to Zoe’s side and promise to never put her in harm’s way again. That woman had changed him and he didn’t think he could handle the consequence of being different.
Not now. Not ever.
Several days passed with no word on Dimas. Contrary to what Bent thought, whatever rock Dimas was hiding under, he seemed content to stay there.
“Anything?” Hunter asked when Jax returned, a dark glower on his face. “Nothing?”
Jax fell heavily into the chair with a shake of his head. “Not a goddamn peep. Either he’s dead or he’s being damn careful about not showing his fucking mug around
town. Any word on Zoe?” “She’s stabilized well enough to be moved from ICU but she’s still pretty banged
up,” Jax answered, chewing on the side of his cheek. A nurse friend of theirs was keeping
them in the loop on the sly, seeing as neither was family and didn’t actually have the right
to know about her recovery. “Caro said they’re keeping her sedated with plenty of good
drugs so she’s not in too much pain.”
“Well, that’s at least something,” Hunter said, risking a brief look at Jax. “Want to go take a look? See for ourselves how she’s doing?”
“No,” Jax said brusquely. “We need to fucking find Dimas. He has $5 million of our money. If we don’t catch him soon, we’ll lose it all. Besides, I told you, Zoe is better off without us.”
“I get that,” Hunter snapped. “I don’t need you schooling me on what’s important.
But only getting the bare minimum of information on Zoe’s condition is driving me crazy, you know? And if you were being honest with yourself, you’d admit that, too. Instead, you’re funneling all of your rage, fear and frustration into the search for Dimas.”
“Yeah, well someone has to keep us focused on the real details. Zoe is better off where she’s at, which is the exact opposite of our money. Get it?”
“Don’t get the wrong idea, I care about the money,” Hunter said. “But I don’t know, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“I’m being serious.” A long moment of silence passed between them until Hunter continued, “You know I never believed in love at first sight and all that bullshit but if that doesn’t exist…why do I care so much about Zoe?”
Jax shoved away from the table where he’d been sitting, not interested in this conversation. Hunter was only voicing the same questions he’d been asking himself but it didn’t help that he’d been avoiding the simple truth for as many days. “What’s the fucking point of all this?” he demanded. “It’s not like we’re cut out for the kind of life Zoe deserves so who fucking cares what the answer is. Maybe in the biggest cosmic joke of the century, we just happened to find the perfect woman for us — as if that were fucking possible — and she just happened to be the most incredible woman on the planet but none of that matters, right? Because we’re not good enough for Zoe and you know it. So who fucking cares about the answer!”
He stalked away and slammed the door behind him, leaving Hunter to shake his head with fatalistic understanding. Yeah, Jax was right. What a fucked up situation. They never thought they’d find a woman like Zoe, equally attracted to them and not the least bit hesitant or shy about being loved by two men, and so they’d buried deep that burning spark of hope. But Zoe had somehow unearthed the spark and fanned the ember into a raging fire that he wasn’t sure how to stomp out.
Who was he fooling? He didn’t want to stomp it out. He wanted to feed it, watch it grow and see what would happen if they allowed it to consume them all.
#
Zoe blinked through the haze of medication that kept her halfway to Zonked-Out Land and nearly to I-Don’t-Know-My-Own-Name Land and fought the lethargy that came with heavy doses of narcotics. She was in bad shape, that much she knew but she didn’t like this zombie-out feeling. She’d rather writhe in agony with perfect lucidity than languish in pain-free nothingness. Maybe she was weird that way. Wouldn’t be a huge surprise if she were.
One thing she did know was that Jax and Hunter had abandoned her when she needed them the most. Who was she kidding? Why did that knowledge hurt so much? It wasn’t as if they’d pledged some kind of commitment to her. If she’d been able to properly work her mouth, she would’ve barked a short laugh at her stupidity. Bad boys were bad for a reason — because they weren’t good. Good men didn’t dump their injured lovers off at the hospital and disappear. Yeah, preaching to the choir, snarky Inner Voice of Captain Obvious. Tell me something I don’t know. She shifted in her bed, having the wherewithal to wince. So, that was it. She had her epic fling of a lifetime — a brief, glorious, insanely dirty and wild love affair that she could remember fondly into her dotage — and now it was time to get back to real life. Honestly, what had she been thinking was going to happen between them? Who fell in love with two of the most unattainable men in their entire zip code in epically rapid time? A dreamy-eyed girl whose version of Prince Charming had tattoos and a rap sheet, apparently. Were they supposed to ride off into the sunset together? Throw motorcycle rallies and take turns playing house so no one caught on that she was actually the girlfriend to both men? Imagine the scandal around the Homeowner’s Association table! ‘Dirty whore’ would become her new nickname in civilized circles. She certainly didn’t relish that idea. Why did people have to poke their nose into the business of others, anyway? Hellllllooo pot calling the kettle black. Sticking their noses where it didn’t belong was the bread and butter of every journalist. It was dangerous and reckless, particularly when she’d just been unceremoniously dumped, but she couldn’t help but wish that if things were different, she and her bad boys actually could find their happy ending together. She never imagined that it would feel natural to be sandwiched between two men, both physically and emotionally, but it really did. Almost as if they’d been born to find one another. Ah crap, Zoe, romanticizing again! Stop it, already.
The reality was whatever she’d had with Jax and Hunter, it’d run its course. Time to focus on putting the pieces of her life — and body — back together again. After she’d recovered, she’d find a good man, probably someone who was financially responsible who drives a car listed in Consumer Reports as a sensible investment and she’d resign herself to vanilla sex because the trade-off was fair. Maybe it was the meds but she saw things very clearly. Maybe she’d been chasing the wrong dream. McMurphy was never going to give her a fair shot at something better; he was too comfortable in
her specific role as a fluff feature girl and she was naïve to think that even if she’d managed to pull off the story on Jax and Hunter that he’d ever see her as anything more.
But she wanted more — in every facet of her life.
She wanted more professionally and she definitely wanted more in her personal life.
Time to change everything. Time to dump all the contents of her life onto the kitchen table and start sorting out what to keep and what to toss.
McMurphy and the cramped creative cage he’d put her in — definitely toss.
That was an easy decision.
The hard one? The one involving her stubborn heart.
She knew the right decision was to walk away from Jax and Hunter as surely as they’d walked away from her but it hurt more than she imagined. Hurt more than her broken bones.
And there were no meds for that particular pain.
Put your big girl panties on and just deal, Zoe. Just deal.
#
A week after Dimas pushed Zoe off the catwalk and split with their payday, Hunter burst into the club office with news. “Someone’s seen Dimas.”
Jax perked up, instantly on alert. “Yeah? Where?”
“He’s hiding out with a cousin of Paula D’Ann’s. The word is he’s been waiting on a fake passport and I.D. so he can skip the country, likely Mexico but Dimas didn’t plan on his counterfeiter getting picked up and now he’s sweating it out until the guy gets let loose.”
Jax smiled, the first ray of hope splitting his heart. “Well, let’s go pay our friend a visit before he says goodbye.”
Hunter paused, surprising Jax when he said, “Maybe we ought to call Bent. Let him take care of the shit.”
“Why would we do that?” Jax queried in irritation. “Dimas is our problem. We’ll handle it.”
“Because if we kill Dimas, Bent will know it was us and no amount of money is going to do us any good if we’re sitting in prison on a murder charge.”
