by Zoey Parker
Alex groaned and began to stir. “Please don’t hit me again,” he pleaded, looking up at Spike. “I swear, I have no idea where Felix is.”
“I didn’t hit you the first time!” Spike said indignantly. “You fainted!”
“Well, that’s embarrassing,” Alex muttered. Spike offered a hand and he took it, pulling himself up. “What do you want with Felix? If it’s to kill him, you’re wasting your time. Ivan’s already on it,” he said, gesturing to the building across the street with one hand while rubbing the back of his head with the other. “You sure you didn’t hit me?” he asked skeptically.
“To be honest, I don’t want anything to do with Felix,” Spike said, ignoring Alex’s comment, “but his sister, Georgia, came around a tad pissed off about Ivan wanting to kill her brother and looking for help. Thing is, I like to be informed before I go sticking my nose where it might get shot off, and Georgia hasn’t been very forthcoming with the details, see?”
If Spike were to be perfectly honest, he would have mentioned he hadn’t really asked Georgia for any details. There wasn’t any point to it, really. She was too close to him to see the truth about Felix. That was why he needed Alex.
“Why do you care what Georgia wants?” Alex blurted out.
Spike scowled at Alex and grabbed him by the back of the neck. “Do you want to ask questions, or do you want to keep your tongue?”
“Sorry!” Alex squeaked out.
Spike glared at him for another minute to make sure he got the point, then let go. “Tell me what happened with Felix,” he ordered, folding his arms.
“Well, I guess it all started out a while back when I met Felix, because, well, we were going to be heading to this place out in…the…” Alex’s voice faded as he noticed Spike’s menacing stare. He was nervous, and babbling because of it.
“Sorry,” Alex repeated. “Um, Felix has a pretty bad drug problem, especially when it comes to the nose candy, if you know what I mean, and he was always short on cash. So when Ivan gave us the opportunity to run some drugs, well, we took it,” Alex admitted.
Spike sighed. He could guess where this was headed. “Felix started tasting his own product, didn’t he?”
Alex fervently shook his head. “No way, man. Felix might ride the white pony a little too often for me, but he was smarter than that,” he insisted.
“Then what happened?”
Alex looked at his shoes. “We got jumped. They took everything; our money and our stash. Ivan was pissed. Told us we were responsible for it.”
Spike was nonplussed. “What happened to your guard?”
“Our what?” Alex asked, equally confused.
“Your guard,” Spike repeated. “You should have had a guard with you to make sure that exact thing didn’t happen to you…” He trailed off, seeing Alex wasn’t understanding anything he was saying. Come on, Ivan, Spike thought, aggravated. This is Drug-Running 101; where’s your head at? Unless…
“Alex, did you know who jumped you?” Spike asked urgently. “Did they say anything?”
Alex frowned as he thought back to that night. “No…” he said slowly. “Why?”
Spike sighed. “Because Ivan rolled you two.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked anxiously.
“It’s a fucked up thing to do, but then, Ivan’s pretty fucked up,” Spike said. “You send out a runner with no guard so they’re defenseless, then you send someone out after the runner to rob them. It’s easy because you know exactly where they are on the route,” he explained. “They come back and you demand they come up with the money or you kill them. Then they have twice as much, see? The only thing I don’t understand is why Ivan would pull this on Felix. There’s nothing to suggest Felix would be able to pay up,” Spike wondered aloud.
Alex’s shoulders suddenly drooped.
“What?” Spike asked suspiciously.
“My cousin, Victor,” Alex said miserably. “He’s rich—he paid for my share, and even some of Felix’s. Ivan must’ve been going after me,” he stuttered, clearly distressed.
“Yeah, probably,” Spike agreed absentmindedly.
This changed things considerably. It had been one thing to rile the gang up this morning, but as much as he hated to admit it, Cleo had been right—they weren’t going to be swayed for long by some sap who couldn’t pay his debts. But if Ivan was intentionally rolling his own runners, well, that was a different story.
The gangs of Chicago often hastily formed alliances and broke them just as quickly, that is, when there were enough gangs for an alliance to be necessary. These cease-fires, which were fragile enough to begin with, were most frequently broken when one gang jumped another gang’s runner. Attacking your own runner could inadvertently end a truce. Plus, it was just bad business—if you can’t protect your employees, no one will want to work for you.
I can take this back to Satan’s Disciples as a real issue. I can work this! Spike thought excitedly, purposely ignoring why he was so happy he was going to be able to help Georgia without putting too much strain on his role as the leader of the gang.
“Ex-excuse me,” Alex stammered nervously, pulling Spike from his reverie.
Spike snapped his head up to look at him. “What?” he demanded.
“Can I help?” Alex asked timidly. “Felix was—is my friend, and if I didn’t have my cousin, Ivan would be hunting me down right now, too.”
Spike didn’t think it was a good idea to bring someone of Ivan’s back to headquarters just yet, but he was glad to have a guy on the inside. He smirked, imagining Cleo’s face when he told her he had a double agent. That’ll show her, he thought smugly.
“What can you tell me?” Spike needed information, and quickly.
“Uh, well, um.” Alex was struggling under the pressure to remember the conversation he’d overheard only an hour earlier. Spike took a deep breath, trying not to strangle the kid with his bare hands. “Yury’s pushing Ivan to kill all you guys, well, not all, but enough that you won’t be able to do business anymore.”
“I know that already,” Spike said impatiently. “What did he say about Georgia? And Felix?” he added hurriedly.
“Oh, that. Ivan wants both of them by the end of the week,” Alex said. “I said something about maybe getting them to leave Georgia alone, but they didn’t like that. I…I don’t think it’s about the money anymore.”
Spike rolled his eyes. He could have guessed that much as well. Alex was essentially useless. But that didn’t mean he always would be.
“Okay, Alex, that’s great,” Spike lied. “Can you keep doing this? Can you keep telling me what’s going on with Ivan? If you do, I promise I will help your friend, Felix.”
“If it’ll help Felix—anything,” Alex said firmly. “Thank you, Mr. Turner.”
“No problem.” Spike rubbed the back of his neck, hurrying to leave before the kid burst into tears or something.
He needed to go to Georgia’s and talk to her about what he’d just found out, but he doubted she would want to see him right now. After he’d left so abruptly last night, he’d sort of been avoiding her.
Spike angrily rolled his shoulders. What’d she fucking expect anyway? I’m not the kind of guy who brings a girl breakfast in bed, and if Georgia thought otherwise, that’s her own damn fault!
He wanted to believe that was true, he really did, but deep down, Spike knew the reason he left last night was because of the weird, sick feeling in the pit of his stomach he couldn’t name. It was that feeling that made him run from Georgia’s bedroom last night, and it was what kept him from kissing Cleo earlier.
Either not wanting or not ready to face whatever it was that was growing inside of him, Spike shoved his emotions all the way down to the bottom of his gut and put on his game face. He would be all business when he saw Georgia, that was for certain.
***
“Ugh, that was so good. I needed that,” Georgia said, patting her distended belly.
“I don’t know whe
ther to be impressed or disgusted,” Stacy said in awe.
She and Stacy had just returned from Denny’s, where Georgia had completely inhaled six strips of bacon, two biscuits with honey, three sausages, three sunny-side up eggs, two and a half glasses of orange juice, and four pancakes loaded with strawberries, syrup, and butter, courtesy of Stacy’s mom’s credit card.
“Be jealous,” Georgia said, sighing contentedly.
She wanted nothing more than to fall back on her couch and pass out, but her sofa was still shot to shit, and more importantly, she still had to find Spike again. She was growing more and more concerned that he hadn’t stopped by, or at least called her.
What if Stacy’s right? Georgia thought worriedly. What if he played me—played on my situation?
Oh, right, her cynical side replied, the leader of a motorcycle gang has nothing better to do with his time than to trick someone like you into letting him eat your pussy, sure.
“What’s wrong?” Stacy asked, seeing her friend’s sour face.
“Huh?” Georgia was startled out of her self-deprecating thoughts. “Oh, nothing. I just remembered that Spike is supposed to come over soon to tell me his plan for Ivan,” she lied.
In reality, Georgia needed to figure out how she was going to get in touch with Spike, and since she wasn’t ready to admit to Stacy that she might have been conned, she was going to have to do it herself.
“Do you want me to stay? Give you an excuse to avoid…anything?” Stacy offered kindly.
“Um, I think he would probably see through that. You should just go,” Georgia said hurriedly. “But, thanks, really,” she added genuinely. Stacy was a better friend than she deserved right now.
There was a knock at the door that startled both of them. Stacy let out a little scream. “He must be early!” she said, laughing at her own reaction.
“Yeah…” Georgia said slowly, staring at the door, confused. “Must be.”
She walked over to the door, a small wave of cool relief washing over her. She didn’t know why Spike would just randomly show up to her house without notice, but she didn’t care. Georgia was just glad he was here.
She opened the door to see what could quite possibly be considered the very antithesis of Spike.
“Georgia!” Rocco exclaimed, throwing his arms around her—a difficult feat considering one of his hands held a massive bouquet of red and pink roses. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I pulled up and saw the house! What happened?”
Georgia gently but firmly pushed Rocco away from her, taking a deep breath now that she wasn’t being suffocated to death by a floral arrangement. “Rocco, what are you doing here?” she asked.
“You haven’t responded to any of my calls or texts for almost a week, so I thought I would pop by with a little surprise,” he waved the oversized bouquet, “and say hello!”
Georgia sighed and turned back to look at her friend. “Stacy…” Stacy cut her off with a wave of her hand.
“Got it,” she said, picking her bag up off of the floor. She gave Rocco a sympathetic little pat on the shoulder as she walked past him, shutting the front door behind her.
Rocco looked at his shoulder as though Stacy had wiped rat shit on it. “I don’t know why you talk to her,” he said, glaring after Stacy.
Georgia ignored him. She’d had that argument with him far too often for someone who wasn’t even her boyfriend. “Rocco, this isn’t a great time right now. I’m kind of in the middle of something,” she told him.
“I can see that, Georgia!” he gestured to the destroyed living room. His dull brown eyes narrowed at her. “This has something to do with your deadbeat brother, doesn’t it?”
Someone knocked on the door again, loudly this time. Figuring it was Stacy, Georgia went to answer it. Maybe she overheard Rocco and came back, she hoped.
She opened the door and was met by a pair of dark green eyes.
“Spike,” she breathed.
It wasn’t until Georgia felt this rollercoaster of expectations that she grasped how attracted she was to this man. Shoving this realization far into the deep recesses of her mind, she stepped back to let Spike inside.
“Who is he?” Rocco asked indignantly, a touch of fear in his voice.
“He’s helping me with my deadbeat brother,” Georgia said contemptuously.
Rocco’s face swiftly changed to one of regret. “Oh, Georgia, you know I didn’t mean that. I just worry about you.”
“I think the lady would prefer if you left,” Spike interjected menacingly, his hands unconsciously tightening into fists.
He felt extremely territorial coming over to Georgia’s house and finding a man already there—one with clear romantic intent, judging by the rosebush sitting on the table. Spike wanted nothing more than to take those roses and shove them somewhere they would never see sunshine again.
Deep down, he knew he had no right to this feeling. Obviously this…person had history with Georgia, one that predated all of the eighteen hours Spike had known her. That’s what makes it sting, though, he decided. His only claim to Georgia was the deal she was bound to. If it weren’t for that, she would probably be with what’s-his-face over there—the kid who couldn’t stop staring at Georgia with big, pleading puppy-dog eyes.
Spike snorted softly to himself, rolling his shoulders. That’s the problem with getting attached to people—it’s never what you want it to be, but you’re so dependent on them you become weak, he thought, looking over at the two of them. The sap was holding Georgia by her bicep, whispering agitatedly to her and glancing at Spike as though to make sure he was keeping his distance. Even worse, you don’t even see how pathetic you’re being.
He couldn’t think of anything more appalling.
Spike strode over to the pair, clapping his hand on the sap’s narrow shoulders. “Sorry, but the lady and I have business to attend to, and you’ve overstayed your welcome.”
Georgia tried not to giggle as she watched Spike steer a highly indignant and spluttering Rocco towards the front door, pushing him out rather unceremoniously. She felt a little guilty that she enjoyed seeing that so much.
Spike slammed the door, a firm sense of satisfaction clicking into place as he locked the deadbolt. “Goddamn,” he cursed. “I don’t know how you can stand even to talk to that guy, let alone fuck him.”
Georgia’s temper suddenly flared. “At least he’s there when I wake up in the morning,” she snapped.
Should have seen that one coming. “So suddenly I’m boyfriend material? That wasn’t the deal, sweet cheeks.” He grinned lustily.
“You are most certainly not boyfriend material,” Georgia vehemently agreed. “That’s the whole point with Rocco,” she explained. “I don’t have the time for a full-fledged relationship right now, but…something’s better than nothing,” she said, shrugging.
“Is that why you’re still helping your brother, despite the fact that all he does is weigh you down?” Spike asked suddenly. “Because some family is better than no family?”
“What?” Georgia said defensively. “No! Of course not! Felix is my brother and I love him. He does not weigh me down,” she informed.
“Oh, okay,” Spike said casually. “I only ask because I talked to his friend Alex today, and he told me that your brother is a drug addict who willingly got involved with Ivan and his gang,” he accused her.
“I told you right away that my brother had problems!” Georgia fired back.
“So you did know about him?” Spike said in disbelief. “You know all about the coke, and him running drugs? Everything?”
Georgia nodded defiantly. “So?”
“So I’m willing to bet this isn’t the first time you’ve had to bail out your brother, and because you refused to cut ties with him, now it’s about to be the last!” Spike said, letting out a small laugh. Georgia said nothing to dispute him, and he knew he was right. “I get you’re stuck on the family thing because of your dad, but let me be the first to tell you: families
suck, and people suck, too. And if you rely too much on them, you’re just giving them more and more opportunities to let you down,” he told her regretfully.
Georgia didn’t say anything for a long time after that. Spike began to wonder if his bluntness had triggered some kind of emotional breakdown, when she smiled brightly at him.
“I know you had a really bad childhood—far worse than mine, not that mine was great either. But one thing I remember is that when I was sixteen, my dad promised that he would take me to The Shops at North Bridge to get new clothes, and I was so excited,” Georgia said, her blue eyes shining. “Not because of the clothes, although that was a bonus, but because I was going to get to spend the day with my dad. He was going to be my dad again.” She fell silent.
