by Brook Wilder
She didn’t see Elle fill the left-behind glass with a bare splash of the alcohol before walking over to where Carla had collapsed, but she felt the couch dip next to her. Her friend was silent for a long time, taking a tentative sip at the burning liquid before crinkling her nose in that particular way she had and putting the glass down on the coffee table. She pushed it a little further away for good measure.
“Okay. Tell me,” Elle said, her voice firm but Carla just shook her head, fighting back another wave in the endless deluge of tears. Where to even start? How to even explain what had happened, how they had gotten to that point?
“Carla,” Elle was still talking, leaning forward so she could drive home her point, “I know something is wrong. Did something happen? I’m your friend, you can tell me.”
“I know, I know I can. But I messed up so bad, Elle…” Carla trailed off, swiping at a tear that let loose to roll down her cheek. She could still feel the angry heat of Joel’s glare, could feel the moment his terrible words hit her like a physical blow that sent her reeling back.
“I doubt that,” her friend said matter of factly, “And besides, everyone makes mistakes. But I can’t help you figure it out until you tell me what happened.”
Carla took a deep breath, trying to determine what to say, how to begin. At the very start, she decided. That was only place that she could.
“You know that when I went to work for Maurice, all the problems I had with him?”
“Yeah, the guy was a total creep,” Elle filled in, one lip lifted prettily in disgust.
“Yeah, he was, and it turns out he’s a lot worse than just a creep.” Carla took another deep breath, casting her mind back to that last day. It was the day she had decided to steal the shipment of weed and sell it for herself. The day that she had first met Joel and the Dirty Cruisers. The day that had changed her life forever.
Elle gestured for her to go on and she pulled herself out of her thoughts before continuing. “Well, I told you about what happened. About the shipment of weed that went missing and was taken by the motorcycle club.”
“Yeah, the same gang that your boyfriend is in,” Elle sent her a mocking look of disapproval and Carla had to crack a smile at the over exaggerated expression.
“Yes, that’s the one,” she took another sip of the whiskey, “Well, anyways, there’s something I didn’t tell you about that day. I was…I was planning on stealing the shipment for myself–”
“What!” Elle gasped, scandalized.
“I was going to steal it and turn it around and sell it, otherwise I was going to lose my house and then I could quit working for Maurice because it was getting so bad there, he kept…he cornered me and…” Carla shuddered at the memories and Elle put a hand on her arm in comfort, her expression murderous.
“Carla, did he…did Maurice ever–”
“No. No, it came close a few times. Too close. But it never went that far.”
“That doesn’t make it any better,” Elle said, still defending her and Carla’s heart melted a little at her friend’s staunch loyalty.
“No, it doesn’t. But that was one of the reasons I was so desperate to leave, to get away from him. So, obviously, my plan didn’t work out the way I had hoped. Before I could get away with the marijuana Joel and his club had taken it, but…there was something about him. He gave me his number and told me if I wanted repayment for the lost weed to call him. So, I did,” Carla shrugged, remembering that first night at the clubhouse. How out of place and overwhelmed she’d felt.
“Once they found out about my situation, they devised a new plan, a plan that would help both of us. I would find out when the next shipment was to leave and alert them. They would steal it again and give me a cut of the profits.”
“Carla that’s…that’s illegal,” Elle said with a tinge of horror making her voice breathy. Carla cast her an arch look.
“I know that, Elle. I knew the risks. But I thought, if just once things worked out for me I could have enough money to get away from Maurice. And it didn’t hurt that it would cost him his shipment at the same time, the bastard,” Carla growled, and Elle growled in agreement right along with her.
“Anyways, none of that matters now because it didn’t happen. There were complications with the first stolen shipment. They were planning to move it across state lines and flip it in Utah, but somehow Maurice knew I was involved. He called in the police to investigate and Joel was out of time. They couldn’t go with the original plan and had to bring in another contact. And somehow, every time we moved, Maurice was there. Always tailing us even though he shouldn’t have been able to.” The knowledge of just how he’d been able to do that made Carla’s stomach clench in painful knots, but she wasn’t to that part of the story yet.
But the idea that Maurice was tracking her, knew exactly where she was, who she was with, made nausea build inside her and she had to swallow hard against it. She glanced at her cell phone that was on the table. It was turned off, she’d been too afraid to power it on, but she still felt an uncomfortable prickle between her shoulder blades as if someone was staring at her.
“Well, what happened next?” Elle finally said after she was silent for too long and Carla shrugged, trying to ease that feeling before speaking.
“The first time Maurice found us, we got away. But the second time, when we were moving the weed, he brought the cops. They got Hot Wheels, one of the members of the crew and she was arrested. She only had a small portion of the marijuana on her, it was split up amongst several different vehicles, but it was enough to get her locked up. They’re fighting it,though. It wasn’t enough drugs for a serious charge and the rest of the evidence is circumstantial. There’s nothing to prove that she was involved in the theft but it was…it was hard for everyone, especially Joel.”
Carla shook her head, remembering how personally he took it. He was responsible for taking care of the crew and he felt like he had failed, like he had let everybody down.
“But even still, we took the rest of the weed that we had and sold it to this unknown contact. Joel and I drove back to the safe house and we thought the only thing we had to worry about was how to clear Hot Wheel’s name, but…” Carla trailed off, biting her lip.
“But what?” Elle asked, her expression urgent as she sat on the edge of her seat, “What happened then?”
“The next morning at the safe house…they were there. Maurice and the police. They told us to come outside and we didn’t really have a choice. They arrested Joel and cuffed me and took me in for questioning, but I think it was just a ploy to get Joel to cooperate. He was the one they were really after. They took us to the police station and interrogated Joel. They put me in this little room and then…and then Maurice was there. Somehow he had been behind all of this.”
Carla shook her head, still unable to believe that he had masterminded it all. He must have messed up somewhere. She just had to figure out where and how she was going to use that to her advantage.
“Maurice said…he told me how he kept finding us, even when he shouldn’t have been able to. He’s able to track me using the GPS signal on my phone. He must have put an app on my phone or something and all he has to do is pull up the screen on his own phone or computer and it shows him exactly where I am. He’s been…he’s been watching me.”
“Oh my god, Carla! That’s…that’s…that’s super illegal and creepy and horrible and illegal! Why didn’t you tell the police?” Elle said, her voice at a near shriek by the time she’d finished.
“Because, he has proof, Elle! He can prove where we were, and what time, and that I was with them. It’s the hard evidence the cops need to put Joel away for good instead of the circumstantial evidence of Maurice’s allegations,” Carla paused, taking a deep breath as another hitching sob threatened to send her spiraling into tears once more, “That was the first thing I thought about, but he knows. He knows exactly what happened and he doesn’t care. He actually thanked me, Elle.”
�
�For what?”
“For getting him all of his weed back,” Carla shrugged helplessly. “What am I supposed to do? Joel knows that I’m responsible for all of this. If not for me, Maurice would never have been able to track them. It’s my fault Hot Wheels got arrested, it’s my fault that Joel got arrested and he hates me for it. I can’t even blame him, but I….” Carla trailed off and Elle threw her arms around her in a massive bear hug that gave her the strength to push back the tears one more time.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Elle finally said, but Carla pulled away, shaking her head.
“But I’m not okay, Elle. I did this. I was the one who messed things up. And now I need to figure out a way to fix it.”
“But how?” Elle asked, always the practical one.
“I don’t know,” desperation tinged Carla’s voice as she drained the last of her whiskey, dragging herself to her feet to pour another. There was heavy moment of silence as both of them focused on their own thoughts, but when Carla walked back to the couch there was a look of consternation on Elle’s face.
“What is it?” Carla asked, taking another swig.
“It’s just…I can’t help but think about how he thanked you.”
“I know, it was awful,” Carla interrupted morosely.
“No, not that, I mean it was awful, but you said he thanked you for getting all of the weed back,” Elle finished, her words drawing out slowly as she thought it through. Carla sat up.
“You know, it was odd. I remember thinking about it, but…”
“Yeah, didn’t you say that Hot Wheels only had a small amount of the weed on her, right?” Carla nodded to Elle’s question, her own wheels turning over Maurice’s words.
“So, how did he get the rest of it back if Joel sold it to some drug dealer in Utah?” Elle finally asked and there was dead silence in the room for a long moment before Carla set her glass down on the coffee table with a loud clink.
“Maurice is dirty,” Carla whispered, it all finally snapping into place. “Maurice has a connection with the illegal marijuana industry in Utah. That’s the only way. He’s dirty.”
“Okay, so Maurice is somehow even worse of a person than I thought,” Elle said with a sigh but when she turned to Carla that was a fire burning in her warm brown eyes. “What are we going to do about it?”
Chapter 29
Joel sank back into the worn wooden seat and sighed at the contrast between that and the hard piece of rock he’d had to sit on in that so-called cell. More like torture chamber. And then they had just tossed Carla in there like salt in the wound. As soon as the memory started to rise painfully in his thoughts he shoved them away, back into the dark corner where he shoved all of his heartaches and focused on the task in front of him.
James Smithe, his attorney and the lawyer for all of the Dirty Cruisers was able to get him out on bail and it felt good to be back at the club house with the rest of the crew arranged at the table around him. Well, most of the crew anyways. Hot Wheels was still locked up and Honey was out in the main room of the clubhouse bartending. It seemed like the entire club had shown up to celebrate his momentary freedom and the bar was getting rowdy. Someone had to stay out there to make sure the whole place didn’t burn down.
“Alright boss, so what’s our next move, huh? What’s going down now?” Viper asked, his voice growing even more nasal as excitement got the better of him and he shifted from foot to foot. Joel just shook his head at the overeager crew member.
“For now? We do nothing. We lay low–”
“What? But there are still plenty of other shipments we can jack, boss,” Viper interrupted him and Joel sighed. He leaned forward, locking his gaze onto Viper’s and the other man jerked away from the steely silver look.
“We do nothing,” Joel repeated, slowly but no less harsh for that.
“Joel’s right, Viper,” Tucker added, his voice low and deep, his words slowly spoken and thoughtful, “the cops are going to be on us if we even look in the wrong direction. We just need to be perfect, upstanding citizens until the heat cools down. If we do anything now it will be too risky.”
Joel nodded with a grateful look at his right hand man. He opened his mouth to ask how the rest of the club was getting on but, just then, the door to the back room opened and a moment later Honey’s head poked through the door frame.
“Hey, uh, Joel?” the man asked tentatively with a furtive look toward Tucker and Viper, but Joel waved him to continue.
“What is it, Honey?” Joel finally said impatiently as the man stood in the doorway shifting uncertainly for a long moment.
“Well, it’s just that, um, someone’s here to see you. They said it’s…that it’s important and they need to speak to you right away.”
“Who is it?” Joel asked, already rising. Honey started to shake his head but then stopped himself.
“You should…I think you should just come and see for yourself.” Before Joel could say anything else, Honey had fled the back room and his footsteps were quickly drowned out by the muffled rowdy noises coming from the main bar of the clubhouse.
Joel sighed, his irritation spiking at the man’s mysterious behavior, but with nod at Tucker and Viper letting them know the meeting was over he followed Honey’s path down the short hallway and through the heavy double doors that led into the clubhouse. He froze immediately.
It was as if a magnet was dragging his gaze, forcing it over towards the bar where she was standing, the shock of her presence shattered through him. He knew it right then, with a stone cold certainty that no matter how much time and distance he tried to put between them, she would always have this effect on him. As if whenever she was near his entire world narrowed until only she was left. Carla. His blue bird. But not his any longer, he reminded himself painfully, angrily.
Fighting off the shock, Joel took a few jogging steps, catching Honey hard by the shoulder and drawing him to a stop. They were still just inside the crowded bar and the noise and mass of rowdy bikers made a screen in between them and Carla. She hadn’t noticed he was there yet even though her bright blue eyes scanned the crowd. She looked nervous. No, scratch that, she looked downright terrified, and for a moment his heart ached for her but then he remembered her betrayal.
His voice was almost as hard as his expression as he dragged Honey around to face him, noting the bashful look on the other man’s face.
“What the hell is this? What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Joel growled out, but Honey just shrugged.
“Listen, Joel, just hear her out. You might not have the whole story–”
“She betrayed us,” Joel said harshly, interrupting, “What else do I need to know?”
“Just talk to the girl, Joel! Find out the truth!” Honey said, pulling his arm away and walking towards the bar, but after a step or two he stopped and turned around, giving Joel a sad look, “I know this is killing you. The others may not see it, but I’m a bartender, man. It’s my job to read people and I can tell. This is tearing you apart. Just give her a chance,” with those last words Honey finally left.
Joel stood there for a long moment, Honey’s words echoing in his head and his eyes glued to her. He was struck with indecision, unable to move forward or back. All of the oxygen seemed to be sucked from the room. No, this was too hard. Too painful. He couldn’t do it. But just as he turned to flee back towards the back of the building Carla’s ocean blue eyes collided with his from all the way across the bar and he felt it like a sucker punch to the gut.
Suddenly, before he could move, she was coming towards him, running towards him. She pushed her way through the mass of drunken bikers and he clenched his fists as jealousy washed over him at the appreciative looks the men gave her as she passed by. Even now, even with everything, he was still jealous. He shook his head.
You’re a fool, Joel Lasseter, a fucking fool. But that still didn’t stop his feet from moving forward to meet her halfway, or his hand from reaching out and grasping her wrist.<
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The touch of her soft skin was torture to him and she opened up her mouth to speak, to yell over the noise drowning out the rapid beating of his heart but before she could, he turned. Still holding her by the wrist, Joel led her out of the main bar and dragged her back through the heavy doors he’d just come through.
The noise was instantly muffled but he didn’t stop until he’d reached the door to his own small apartment, shoved open the door and pulled them both inside before kicking it shut again behind them.
The sudden quietness seemed deafening and he could hear the rapid sound of her breath sawing in and out of her lungs, he could see the way her pupils were dilated, making her sapphire blue eyes look even wider and the flush that spread the prettiest pink across her cheeks.
