by Zoey Parker
My stomach knotted up, and my veins turned to ice. I hadn’t given much thought to what Brawn was trying to tell me. I had been worried about my father coming back early and walking in on me while I was talking to Brawn or digging through his paperwork. I hadn’t thought it was possible for him to already know what I was doing. I took a deep breath, resolving not to let Brawn know that his warnings made me nervous. “Yeah, if anything goes wrong, I’ll let you know immediately.” I peered through the window of the office trailer, watching for my father in the empty jobsite. “But I’ve got to let you go before he shows up and finds me talking to you.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you soon.”
We said an awkward goodbye. I could hear it in his voice, and I was sure he could hear it in mine: we both seemed to feel like there was something else we wanted, or needed, to say. My heart swelled with feelings for him as we hung up the phone. There were things we’d been ignoring, things we hadn’t discussed because of pride, the business we’d built together, or for whatever reason, and those thoughts and emotions were bubbling up to the surface now. At least, they were for me, now that I was forcing myself to be away from him.
I locked up and walked to my car. I felt so utterly exposed, completely alone and out in the open. The jobsite was deserted. No one had shown up from the MC; they’d all been called off. And I had no idea where my detective was. He hadn’t said anything else since our text conversation earlier. I knew he was likely to be stealthier than my father or any of The Twisted Ghosts, but I didn’t like not knowing where anyone was.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt like someone was watching me. I held my phone in my hand. If anyone tried anything stupid, I wanted to be able to call for help right away. Nerves took over as I fumbled with my car keys, trying to get in.
“Come on, Maria. You’ve got this,” I said aloud to encourage myself. Finally, I was able to unlock the car. I got in and cranked it up right away, before I put my seatbelt on. I checked behind me as I backed away from the trailer and turned around to head out of the lot.
I stopped and checked both ways on the road for traffic. I had the road to myself. It was as if the entire world had stopped so it would be easier for someone to spot me. I rested my head on the back of the driver seat and closed my eyes for a moment. Talking to Brawn had made me as paranoid he’d been.
If Detective Collins had been watching me, it would have made sense. If my father had been watching me, it was also to be expected. I had to ask myself if I honestly felt like someone had their eyes on me, or if it was because I’d talked to Brawn and allowed him to put those thoughts in my head.
I decided it didn’t matter, and I left the jobsite, heading home. I kept my eyes on the road, checking behind me occasionally to see if anyone was following me. I decided I was okay. There were no headlights behind me.
As I drove closer to the house, I ran into more traffic. It was comforting to see other people out and about. I felt like I was blending into the world and fading from view, like I was just another person heading home from work once again.
My phone buzzed on the console next to my seat. I checked to see who it was. Brawn was calling me already.
“I haven’t even had time to make it home,” I pleaded as the phone rang. “I’ll call you back.”
At a red light, I unlocked my screen and muted my ringer. I put the phone down face down on the console. He was going to have to deal with his paranoia on his own instead of dragging me down with him. He was so certain something was going to go wrong.
My father might have been involved with the mob, but I felt insulated against the dangers of his involvement. I had worked my way back into his good graces by agreeing to take over the company and leave Brawn and The Twisted Ghosts behind in the process.
I turned up the radio and let the music fill the car, leaving no room for me to worry about what might have been waiting for me at home. He was supposed to be out of town, and if he wasn’t, we were going to have our little talk anyway. Things didn’t have to go completely according to plan to work out.
I pulled into the driveway and parked behind the closed garage door, like I always did, like I had the day Brawn had changed my life. Every time I pulled into the driveway, I chuckled a little bit as I remembered his horribly botched kidnapping attempt. It really had become amusing.
I shoved my phone in my pocket, not thinking to check if there was another incoming call. I got out of the car and walked up to the door. I grabbed the house key, but when I touched the handle on the door, it opened.
My heart stopped. My father, or one of his associates, must have been waiting on me. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. I walked quietly through the house, stepping softly enough not to make a sound on the carpet. I didn’t know who was waiting for me, but I didn’t want anyone to catch me by surprise.
A light flipped on while I walked through the living room, and my father stepped around the corner.
“Ah, Maria,” he said in his stiff voice, “I’m glad you came home. I know you had other options, especially after I disappointed you this morning over our meeting. Please, have a seat.” He gestured to the chairs and the couch in the living room as he moved to his large leather armchair.
“I was going to grab something to eat first,” I said, trying to come up with a legitimate reason for creeping through the house instead of heading straight upstairs to my room.
“This will only take a minute. Then, I was thinking we could go out for dinner or something, to celebrate,” he said with a sly smile on his face and gleam in his eye.
“To celebrate what?” I asked cautiously as I took a seat on the couch.
“To celebrate handing the company over to the next generation of Kellys. That is what you wanted to talk about, isn’t it?” he asked. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being lured into a trap. He was playing dumb, pretending he didn’t know what I had been up to. And he’d been home all day, planning what he was going to do to me once I got home from work. I knew it in my bones.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about this morning. There are a few things I need a better understanding of before I can take over completely. Maybe we talk about it another time?” I asked.
“No, after tonight, everything will be crystal clear for you, I think.” He allowed the full weight of that statement to hang in the air between us before continuing. “You won’t need me to show you anything at the office after tonight.”
Something was wrong. My heart started to pound in my chest, and a voice in the back of my head started shouting at me to text Brawn, to let him know I was in trouble. Or I was about to be.
“That’s great news,” I said with a nervous smile and laugh.
“Yeah, I thought you might like it.” He crossed his legs and rested his hands comfortably in his lap, and it hit me that he was wearing a suit and tie, as if he had, in fact, been handling serious business all day. Probably mob business.
I narrowed my eyes as I scrutinized his look. I wondered if he was being promoted or brought into the fold by the guys he’d been working with for all these years. I wanted to know, but I also felt like I was better off not knowing how far my father had gone in with his connections.
He caught me looking him over and decided to address it. “I supposed you’ve been curious what kind of business I’ve been handling out of town,” he started. “I assure you, it’s not going to impact the business at all. In fact, the connections I’ve been making over these last few days have made it imperative that you take the business over as soon as possible.”
I knew from his self-satisfied tone that he was confirming everything I’d been thinking. If I were forced to take over the business, I would always be under his thumb. There would be no more school, no more Brawn, no more of my own company, my own success. It was time to make a move, whether I was ready or not.
Chapter 26
Brawn
I finally spoke to Maria after I’d shown u
p at the clubhouse. After talking to her, I walked back into the main room downstairs. It was like a party. Everyone was sitting around drinking, playing pool or darts, or watching TV, or just shooting the shit at the bar. It was the exact opposite of the worry in my head and my gut.
“You need a drink,” Shift said, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me over to the bar. I could smell the whiskey on his breath already.
“No, I don’t,” I told him. “I need to keep a straight head for this.”
What happened next came out of nowhere.
“What is the problem, little brother?” he asked, looking at me like I’d just slapped him. “It’s like you don’t even want to have anything to do with the MC. We’ve got your back on this shit with Maria and her dad, and you’re trying to tell me you can’t have a drink with us?”
Luckily, the other guys in the room were too distracted to notice that we were having a little talk right there. I didn’t want to draw their attention to the fact that my brother was right. Plain and simple, he was right. I would defend the MC because they were family. I wouldn’t let people run The Twisted Ghosts’ name through the mud. But I had never been a very active member.
“I guess that makes sense,” Shift kept on. “You didn’t want my help to get the shop off the ground. You even argued that you were going to make it happen on your own. But, you took help from Lucas Kelly’s daughter without hesitation. I bet she was the one who convinced you to accept my help.” He narrowed his eyes at me while he talked.
I was going to need a drink, regardless, if he kept it up. I didn’t know if I could deal with him sober, not the way he was acting.
“She’s setting us up, isn’t she? And you’re in on it. You’re going to put us in harm’s way for a piece of ass. I knew it.”
“Whoa, Shift, where the fuck is this coming from?” I asked him. “Seriously, where do you get off accusing me of being in with Kelly?”
“You better hope you’re not,” he said ominously. “If it turns out you are, I’m kicking your ass, and we’re removing you from the MC.” He walked up to the bar, ordered another shot, and slammed it back before walking off.
“What was that all about?” Chip asked from behind the bar.
“I don’t know, brother. He’s been drinking. I turned down a shot because I want to keep my head on straight in case shit goes wrong tonight,” I told him.
“Oh, talking about your old lady?” he asked.
I shot him a look, and he stepped back, raising his hands like he didn’t want a fight. Chip had long brown hair, a thick beard, and tattoos covering every inch of his body from his neck down. He showed them off by only wearing jeans and his kutte. He never wore a shirt. It didn’t even matter how cold it got during the winter; that boy was always in just his kutte.
“I only know what they tell me, Brawn, and everyone says that’s your old lady.”
“Give me a drink,” I told him. “You assholes are going to make me drink.”
“Scotch?” he asked.
“Yeah, make it a double.”
“Here you go, brother,” he said, sliding the glass over to me.
“Thanks, man.” I reached for it, but he stopped me.
“Hold up, let me drink with ya.” He poured a shot of tequila for himself.
“I don’t see how you do it, man, drinking tequila like it’s water,” I said.
“You get used to it. Anyway, here’s to brothers. Cheers, fucker.”
We tipped our glasses back, both of us downing essentially two shots a piece. We slammed our glasses back down at about the same time.
“That’s a tie. You gotta go again,” James said, walking up.
The scotch was already relaxing me and unraveling my nerves. Still, I shook my head, declining. “Gotta keep a clear head tonight,” I said, checking my phone. I expected to hear back from Maria pretty quickly.
“You say that, but you’re drinking with Chip here,” James argued, laughing his hoarse old laugh. He talked like all he wanted to do was party and drink, but I could hear the miles he’d put on his body in his voice. He’d driven himself like an old hog for decades, and he didn’t seem to be slowing down one bit. He’d only cut back on the violence and business we conducted. He oversaw all of it, of course, but he stayed back, appointing other members to handle the dirty work.
I often wondered what happened to him to make him cut back the way he had. It might have been as simple as letting the other guys prepare for taking over his spot one day.
“I sent your brother off to cool down,” he said to me without looking away from the Jack and Coke Chip had just made for him. “He’s pretty upset, says he thinks you’re a traitor.”
“James, come on, man, you know better. The Twisted Ghosts are my family.”
“I know, but what’s been bothering everyone is that you’re mixed up with a rival family right now, the Kellys.” He took a sip of his drink and winced as it went down.
“That’s just business. Maria was trying to get away from her dad, and so was I. We just happened to do it at the same time. We wound up working out this plan together,” I insisted. What the hell was going on? I thought everyone had been accepting of my business and my partnership with Maria. Shift had even told me as much, and we’d done what we could to get the MC involved more in the business by bringing a couple of the old ladies into the office and a few junior members into the business as apprentices.
“Your story doesn’t make sense,” James said nonchalantly, just as he would have said he didn’t like anchovies on his pizza. “Why would Lucas Kelly’s daughter suddenly want to jump into a business arrangement with a member of a local MC? And why would she suddenly want to take her father down? Why would she be interested in his mafia connections all of a sudden?”
“What the hell? Why didn’t you or Shift, or anyone else come to me with this shit earlier?” I asked. “Why now? Why wait until we’re in the thick of it?”
“Think about it. He had you arrested for kidnapping. He hired one of your boys to work for him instead. He’s trying to get you out of the way. He’s trying to get us out of the way. It’s obvious.”
“And that’s why I’m working with her to take him down first,” I argued against James.
“You better hope you’re right,” he warned.
“You sound just like my brother.” I pulled out my phone and checked it. Still no call from Maria. Either something was wrong, or everyone was right and she was setting me up.
James started to walk away with his glass, but I decided I’d had enough of everyone’s random shit all of a sudden. I grabbed him and turned him around. I knew I put myself in danger of being kicked out if I confronted our president, but I didn’t care anymore.
“If you were all so concerned about this being a setup, why the hell did you even agree to back me up on this?” I asked him.
“Because I’m not going to let one of my men go on a suicide mission alone. You may not want to admit it, but you’ve made her one of us, even if it’s just because she’s your business partner. We’re going to look after her the way we would look after any of the old ladies or your brother’s girls, for instance,” James rationalized.
“Whatever.” I looked down at my phone again. Still no call. “But if you are backing me up, you need to let the guys know we might be heading out soon. Something’s wrong. She should have called me by now. She was supposed to call when she got home.”
“You don’t think she’s trying to lure us into a trap?”
“If that was what she was doing, yes, this is a pretty good way to do it, but you’ve got to trust me, James, that’s not Maria. I can trust her. I do trust her.”
I knew if I had told them about how all this started with a stupid attempt at kidnapping her, it would have made sense to everyone else just like it did to me. But no one would have been happy to hear I’d done something so stupid on my own. Still, where in the hell was all this doubt coming from all of a sudden?
“She’s not
trying to cross us, James, but I think something’s wrong. I think maybe her father set her up, and he was waiting for her when she got home,” I told my president.
I could see the doubt in his eyes. He doubted Maria was on our side.
“I’ll tell the guys to get ready. Regardless of which one is setting us up, her father’s going down,” he said.
“Thank you, James.”
“You can thank me by being right. You’ve kept us in the dark too long on this, Brawn. And now, suddenly, you’re bringing us in. I agreed to get everyone together because it meant protecting our own. I’m letting you call the shots on this one. You’re in the lead here. Don’t fuck us.” He turned and walked off.
