Midnight Obsession: A Midnight Riders Motorcycle Club Romance Part 4

by Olivia Thorne

  “Not only that, but she’s working with that same guy she fucked behind your back to bring down the entire club. She’s going to destroy the Midnight Riders, and she’s going to laugh about it when she does, just like she laughed at you while she was takin’ it up the ass from her stud and all his buddies. So – knowin’ all that – what do you think you should do to Venus?”

  His lower lip trembled. “…Lou?”

  I leaned forward in anticipation. “Yeah?”

  “Her name is Ali,” he said softly, his voice sad.

  Fuck.

  At first I thought it was over, that all was lost. There was no way he was going to pull a gun on this girl, much less shoot her.

  But I had another one of my genius flashes, and I saw my way in.

  And it was all about her name.

  “No, Benjy. Ali’s that nice girl you fell in love with… but she ain’t here no more. She’s gone. She started down the wrong path, buddy, and her mind and her soul got took over by a demon. Ali got replaced by a lying, cheating whore who’d do anything to get high. Venus took over. Ali’s gone, and Venus is all that’s left. You wouldn’t be killing Ali… you’d be killin’ Venus.”

  He looked at me for a second, then asked in a child-like voice, “Like Anakin?”

  The fuck?

  “Huh?”

  “Like Anakin. He went bad and turned to the Dark Side, and then he turned into Darth Vader.”

  I didn’t know who the fuck this Anakin cat was, but everybody knew Darth Vader, so I just played along.

  “Yes. That is exactly right,” I said, pointing my finger at him. “Exactly like that.”

  “But… Darth Vader turned good at the end,” he whimpered.

  Shit.

  “That was a movie, Benjy. This is real fuckin’ life. You listen, and you listen good: Ali’s gone. That traitor Venus took her place. Venus is the one who fucked you over. Venus is the one who made fun of you behind your back. Venus is the one who made a laughingstock out of you and betrayed the entire fuckin’ MC.”

  I could tell I had him… almost.

  So I kept going.

  “And if that traitor does destroy the club, you know whose fault it’s gonna be? Yours. Because you coulda stopped her. You coulda done something to protect me, and Jack, and Kade, and all the other guys in the club… but you didn’t. All for some chick who banged a bunch of assholes behind your back, and laughed at you while she did it. Not Ali – Venus.”

  I could see it in his eyes. He was almost there. Just one more inch…

  “You know how you want us to patch you in, but we haven’t yet?” I asked.

  He raised his eyes to mine. “Yeah?”

  “We don’t patch in just anybody. We make ‘em do brave things for the club. Unpleasant shit, but shit that’s got to be done. This… this is some bad shit. This is gonna hurt. But you’re gonna save the MC, man. You’re gonna save the Midnight Riders. If you do this, you’re gonna be my hero. And we need heroes in this club. I’ll make sure Jack patches you in the very next day.”

  His eyes gave him away. No matter how much it hurt, he was sold.

  “So what’s it gonna be, Benjy? Are you gonna take down the evil bitch who cheated on you, and lied to you, and humiliated you? The traitor who’s gonna destroy the Midnight Riders? Are you gonna be a hero, or are you gonna be a coward and turn your back on your brothers and walk away while we all die?”

  His lips trembled, and tears spilled down his cheeks.

  “…how should I do it, Lou?” he whispered.

  111

  From there it was all just a matter of logistics.

  I gave him a revolver from my office safe, one I’d bought from a back-alley dealer who got it from God knows where. I’d been keeping it specifically for a moment like this.

  I told him to wear gloves when he did it, just in case he dropped the fuckin’ gun. I didn’t mention that part, though – didn’t want to put ideas in his head. Instead, I told him to bring the gun back to me, and I’d get rid of it. I didn’t need him tossing it in a trashcan somewhere and some garbage man finding it.

  “Come to my place afterwards,” I told Benjy. “Park your bike on a side road behind a bush or somethin’ and walk to my place, you hear? I’ll leave the back door unlocked. Have a drink when you get there, but don’t do nothin’ else – just wait for me.”

  I made him repeat the instructions five times before I let him go.

  Next, I needed my boy an alibi, so I rounded up a group I could count on to lie in court. Not that this was ever going to court. More than anything, I needed some motherfuckers who knew how to keep their mouths shut, even around other club members.

  I left Eyeball out of the mix, seein’ as how he and Benjy fuckin’ hated each other. Instead I got Cowboy, Chuck, and Wild Bill to go play video games at Chuck’s trailer home. It was originally going to be poker, until I pointed out that Benjy would lose everything in the first two hands and go home out of boredom. That’s when Chuck mentioned his Playstation.

  The best thing about Chuck’s place was it sat on a couple of empty acres out in the middle of nowhere. Nobody to see Benjy wasn’t there, and nobody to say he wasn’t.

  Finally, I called up Jack. “We got a problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Our girl is back on food stamps.”

  112

  I met Jack and Kade again at the body shop the very next morning.

  “How do you know?” was the first thing out of Jack’s mouth.

  “I don’t. Not for sure.”

  Jack exploded. “Then what the fuck was all that on the phone about – ”

  “Did you know she ran off to Vegas two days ago?”

  Jack glanced at Kade, who shrugged.

  “Apparently not,” I said. “She only stayed one fuckin’ night, too. Got there in the evening, left the next morning.”

  Jack frowned. “Who’d you hear that from?”

  “Benjy.”

  “Why the fuck would Benjy tell you?”

  “He came to me for advice while she was workin’ at the Veils. Said they went to Vegas, and she slipped out in the middle of the night while he was asleep.” I gave a bitter laugh. “He’s afraid she’s cheatin’ on him, but you and I both know the Riders are who she’s really fucking in the ass.”

  Jack shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Maybe she went out to get high.”

  “They got high together, Jack. You saw it yourself when you busted into their motel room that time. Why would she run out on him for that? Makes no fuckin’ sense.”

  “Maybe she went out to score drugs.”

  “I thought that might be the case, too, but Benjy told me they had a shitload when they got there, and they didn’t even get through half of it.”

  “Really,” Jack said grimly.

  “Yeah. Really.”

  “Fuck,” he grumbled, and stared at the wall for a few minutes. “Alright, I’ll talk to her again.”

  Like last time was such a rousing success.

  Fuckin’ pussy.

  “Well, if all you’re gonna do is talk, I wanna be there when you do,” I said.

  “Lou – ”

  “Your previous little one-on-one doesn’t seem to have stuck, so I’m going to be there to make sure it does. I’ll be bad cop, you can be good cop.”

  “She’s not going to say shit if you’re there. If she was afraid of you before, she’ll be terrified of you now.”

  “She should be terrified of me. Sounds like she definitely ain’t terrified of you, Jack.”

  “Lou – ”

  “Bring Kade. Bring the whole club. Bring the fuckin’ Dalai Lama for all I care. I don’t give a damn – I just want to be there, because I think we can turn this whole shitstorm to our advantage.”

  Jack frowned. “How?”

  “The DEA thinks they got a mole in our operation. But what if we had a mole feedin’ lies to the DEA?”

  Jack sat back in his chair, surprise
d by the idea. “A double agent?”

  “Double agent, motherfucker,” I grinned.

  Nice bit of acting on my part. Turning the bitch into a double agent was the farthest thing from my mind.

  “But,” I said, “I want to be there, because I want to impress upon her how deep ‘a shit she’s actually in. I want her to realize she better play ball and not fuck up a third time… cuz three strikes and she’s out.”

  In reality, I didn’t care one bit about being at the meeting. If everything went well, there wouldn’t be a meeting. I just wanted my alibi.

  But Jack didn’t know that.

  He thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Alright. When should we do it?”

  “Tonight,” I said. “Call her now. She’s at the Veils, or should be.”

  Jack called her cell. When that didn’t work, I had him call the club directly and tell Shelly to pull Venus offstage.

  “Put her on speakerphone,” I ordered Jack.

  He shot me a pissy look, but he put her on speaker anyway.

  “…hello?”

  Venus sounded scared as hell.

  That alone cemented her guilt in Jack’s head. I could see it in his face.

  “Ali,” he said. “We need to talk.”

  113

  Jack didn’t say anything outright, but you could tell Venus knew she was busted. She put up a half-hearted fight, but Jack wasn’t having it.

  “We’re meeting – that’s all there is to it,” Jack snapped.

  “You keep saying ‘we,’” she asked warily. “Is ‘we’ just you and me, or…?”

  “No. Kade and Lou will be there, too.”

  She almost lost her shit right there on the phone.

  “NO – Jack, please, no – ”

  “This is club business, Ali. You fucked with the club, and now the club leadership is getting involved.”

  She started crying. “Jack, please, I’ll meet you anywhere you want, but Lou wants to kill me – WAIT, does he KNOW?!”

  I shook my head ‘no,’ but Jack ignored me.

  Goddamn prick.

  “Yes, he does, but – ”

  “OH GOD – why don’t you just kill me yourself, Jack?! Oh my god, no, no – ”

  “Ali – Ali, he isn’t going to hurt you,” Jack said, suddenly turning into the Soother-In-Chief. “In fact – ”

  I expected the next words to be he’s right here.

  This time I waved my arms and shook my head violently ‘no.’

  Jack looked irritated, but he gave in and didn’t finish the sentence.

  “‘In fact,’ what?” she asked, suspicious.

  “In fact, that’s why I’m bringing Kade along, just to make sure you feel safe. Between the two of us, we’ll keep Lou in line if he starts to get… testy.”

  Yeah, RIGHT.

  Nobody keeps Lou Shaw in line. FUCK you.

  I looked over with a smirk at Kade, who just watched me emotionlessly from the corner.

  “Jack…”

  “Look, Ali, you fucked up, and you’re putting the entire club in danger. Lou’s the VP, he has a right to be there. Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you. You have my word.”

  She sobbed, but finally gave in. “I don’t want to meet at the Seven Veils. I don’t want to be there when we do this.”

  “Why don’t you come over now?” Jack suggested.

  I made a Cut, CUT motion across my neck with one hand.

  “Wait – hold on a second, Ali,” Jack said, and put her on mute.

  “No fuckin’ way, man,” I snapped. “What if the DEA’s got your joint cased? Do you think it’s a good idea to let them see her come here if she’s gonna be a double agent?”

  Jack nodded grudgingly. “Alright – where, then?”

  “Tell her the alleyway behind the Ace of Clubs. Midnight.”

  The Ace was a dive bar downtown surrounded by clothing shops and knickknack stores. At midnight, nobody but a handful of barflies would be around to hear gunshots. I was friendly with the Ace’s owner; I knew he hated bums, and did his best to keep the alley clear of homeless types.

  For what I had planned, a lack of eyewitnesses was a plus.

  Jack frowned again. “That’s a shitty place to meet.”

  “It’s out of the way. Plus there’s four or five ways out if the federales show up and we have to make a run for it.”

  Jack sighed and took Venus off hold. “Hey Ali – how about the alleyway behind the Ace of Clubs? Say, midnight?”

  “Yeah… okay.”

  My plans depended on things working like clockwork. Maybe not German clockwork, but at least not South American. I needed her to not be a flakey bitch, so for the first and only time in the conversation, I spoke up. “Be on fuckin’ time. And if you tell the Feds about this, you’re dead. Understood?”

  Jack was furious, but he couldn’t argue with the results: after a pause, Venus answered, her voice small and scared.

  “…understood.”

  114

  The meet was set for midnight. I called Benjy and let him know to be there at a quarter to twelve, waiting in the shadows.

  “And get out of town for the rest of the day,” I said. Venus might go see him beforehand and start blabbing, which would fuck things up royally. “Go for a long ride up north. Get dinner over in Bakersfield or somethin’. Basically, stay out of Richards until later tonight.”

  “I don’t know if I can do this, Lou,” he whined.

  “So you’re gonna let the club down?”

  “…no…”

  “You’re gonna let us all go to jail?”

  “…no…”

  “And all because some whore stabbed you in the back, and you ain’t man enough to take care of business?”

  He didn’t answer that one.

  “Remember what I said? This ain’t Ali any more – this is Venus, a cokehead stripper. Who are you going to go see?”

  “…Venus.”

  “Who?!”

  “Venus.”

  “Good. Be there at 11:45 in case she shows up early.”

  I hung up the phone.

  Now I just had to take care of a few minor details.

  One: make sure Venus couldn’t go contacting the Feds for backup.

  Two: make sure she didn’t get all weepy on Benjy and soften him up. Which was a definite danger.

  I stayed outside the front door of the Veils, smoking a cigar in the parking lot, until I heard the DJ’s muffled voice say, “Now let’s give a hand to the goddess of love Venus, who’s here to rock your ‘wild thang’… worship her with your dollar bills, gentlemen!”

  I walked through the front door and startled Peanut at the register.

  “We got a pair of bolt cutters, right?” I asked.

  “Huh?” he asked, glassy-eyed. Probably drunk.

  “Bolt cutters, motherfucker, BOLT CUTTERS. Those things you cut goddamn chains with – not to mention fingers and toes? Look like a two-foot pair of pliers?”

  “Uh – yeah, I think so…”

  “Well go get ‘em and meet me in the green room.”

  I walked past him and entered the club.

  Venus was up on the stage. If the ‘goddess of love’ really was looking for worshippers, she’d come up with a sorry crop here. Just a couple of out-of-work truckers and dirty old men, all watching from the cheap seats. But, that was your typical crowd at 6PM.

  She was doing a halfhearted job up there on the pole. Her face coulda been the picture in the dictionary next to ‘boredom.’

  But as soon as she saw me, I swear to God she almost pissed herself from fear.

  I glared at her, then walked on past without another look back.

  I barged into the green room, where the dancers put on their makeup and get changed. The only two strippers in there whirled around, startled, and then calmed down when they saw it was just me.

  “Shit, Lou, you almost made me stab myself in the eye,” one of them said as she went back to a
pplying her mascara.

  “Get out,” I said.

  They both looked at me like deer in the headlights.

  “Do you understand fuckin’ English or not? GET OUT!” I roared as I threw a chair across the room. They both shrieked and beat a hasty retreat.

  I went over to the lockers. The girls didn’t trust each other with their shit, which was probably the smartest thing about them, so the Veils provided banged-up gym lockers to store their purses and clothes. There were locks on a number of them – padlocks, dials, the little flip kinds with numbers – but I knew which one was Venus’s. As top dancer in the club, she’d claimed the top center locker. Nobody else ever touched it.

  There was a shitty little dial lock through the loop. Probably could’ve used a hammer on it and busted it open, but just then Peanut walked in with the bolt cutters. “I found ‘em, Lou.”

  “Give ‘em here and get back out front.”

  Once he was gone, I took the cutters to the metal loop on the lock. One hard squeeze of the handles and the blades bit right through the metal: CLICK.

  Easier than takin’ off a pinky.

  I tossed the lock and looked inside. There was her metal-studded leather purse and her street clothes. I rummaged through the purse and pulled out her phone, which was in a rhinestone-covered case. I tried to open the lock screen, but the damn thing had a code. Either that or you could use a fingerprint.

  I slipped it in my pocket and waited. I let the bolt cutters dangle behind my leg, out of sight.

  She finally came in after the end of the second song. She eyed me anxiously – until she saw her open locker. Then she got mad as a hornet in a paper bag.

  “What the fuck, Lou?!” she shouted as she ran over and started scrabbling through her purse.

  “You lookin’ for your phone?” I asked. “I’m going to keep it safe for you until after our meeting tonight.”