by Zoey Parker
“How long can that go on? How long before she’s not a novelty anymore? The kid has to go to school. She needs her friends, structure. She needs a life. This isn’t a life. It’s a sideshow.”
We faced each other, both of us breathing heavily.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he warned menacingly. “And neither are you.”
I gasped again. “You’re insane. That’s it. You’re insane.”
“I’m not insane. And if you’d shut up for a minute, I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why I’ve been going fucking crazy all day. Not because you’re taking Gigi. It’s because I couldn’t let either of you go as long as I don’t know what happened to Rae.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? What does she even have to do with this anymore?”
“Everything. It was one thing when I didn’t know she went to see The Scarecrow the night before Gigi came here. Now? I don’t know how much he knows. If she owed him money or fucked him over, who do you think he’s gonna come after if he hasn’t already gotten to her?”
My eyes went wide as the weight of his words hit me like a ton of bricks. He smiled, seeing that I understood.
“This is the only place she’s safe right now. I know you would do anything to protect her, but like I said, there’s only one of you. There are a lot more of us, and we’re locked and loaded. I’ll do anything to protect her, too.” He paused. “And you.”
I didn’t know what to say. It was all so much to take in at once. When I found my voice, I said, “Me?”
“Yeah, you. I don’t know how much he knows. He might have followed you from your place when you left and came back on Friday. I just don’t fucking know, and it’s making me crazy. I can’t let you go.”
“I…I have to work tomorrow.”
“Take a vacation day.”
“I can’t just do that. It has to be approved in writing six weeks out…”
“So tell them you have a family emergency or something. The kind of thing they can’t give you shit over. Leave a message, tell them. It’s Sunday night. Nobody will be at school right now.”
It was like he’d already thought it through. How did that happen, this half-brained moron outthinking me?
It was convenient to think of him that way. It made life easier. The reality was he was anything but a moron. He had the savvy to lead a club the way he did. He had the charisma and wisdom to influence others. They followed him, trusted him. A moron couldn’t do that.
“No! I can’t do that! Damn it, don’t tell me what to do. I’ve worked hard to make a life for myself, and you’re screwing it all up with these stupid head games. I don’t believe you. Nobody’s after me. I don’t have anything to do with anything. I’m leaving, and you can’t stop me!”
He didn’t answer. He only took me by the shoulders, pulled me to him and crushed his lips against mine.
My eyes flew open in surprise, and I instinctively tried to fight him off. I pounded my fists against his chest, but it was about as effective as pounding granite. It did nothing. He kept kissing me.
After a few moments of that, his strong arms holding me close, his body pressed against me as his lips moved sensually against mine, I did the unthinkable. I stopped fighting and started kissing him back.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, giving over to the sensations rushing through my body. The almost giddy feeling of his mouth on mine, his tongue darting out to lick my lips. I opened them, letting him invade me, touching my tongue to his. He licked me, then withdrew…licked, then withdrew…on and on, driving me crazy, making me press my mouth harder to his. Drawing little whimpers from my throat.
My heart raced, my blood pounded in my ears, and the only thing in the world that mattered was the way he kissed me. I didn’t know it could be like that.
He pulled away, and I followed for a brief moment. Wanting more. Then I got hold of my senses and pulled back.
He was just as breathless as I was, and more than a little smug. “Call out,” he whispered. “Stay here.”
I disentangled myself from his arms, straightening myself out before leaving the room without a word. I didn’t stop to speak to anybody, not even Gigi. I walked straight upstairs to my room and slammed the door.
I leaned against it, catching my breath. Holy crap. What was that all about? It felt like my body was on fire. I put a hand to my chest, feeling the way my heart still beat against my ribs like a bird in a cage. I had never understood before how people got swept up in passion. It was the sort of thing that happened in the movies—man kisses woman, and in an instant they’re in bed, rolling around, clawing at each other. I never could understand how that happened.
Until Lance kissed me. I could easily have sunk to the floor with him and let him take me then and there. That was how passionate, how intensely erotic the kiss had been. I ached between my legs, and the wetness there was surprising. It was just a kiss, and it hardly lasted twenty seconds. But it might as well have lasted forever.
And I wanted more. So much more.
I looked at the bed, where I’d left my suitcase. I was ready to leave. I wanted to take Gigi with me.
I didn’t want to leave. Not when I knew everything Lance told me. Not when Gigi was in danger. Not when I knew how he could kiss.
Instead of picking up my things, then, I pulled the cell from my purse and dialed Vickie’s office line.
“Hi, Vickie. It’s Jamie. I just got word of a family emergency. I need to take a plane out tonight. It should only be a few days. I’ll forward my lesson plans for the week, just in case, before I leave. I’ll give you a call to keep you updated. Thanks in advance for your understanding.” I hung up before I lost my nerve, then stared at my phone. I remembered Gigi asking me if it was okay to lie.
I would have to tell her that it was also okay to lie when you thought you were protecting somebody you cared very much about. The way I cared about her.
All I could do was hope to get out of there soon. I needed to get away from Lance—and my attraction to him—before it was too late.
Chapter Eleven
Lance
I hardly had time to catch my breath after the kiss before Jamie ran away. She went up to her room, and I knew she was avoiding me. I also knew she would make the phone call to her boss. The look in her eye told me she would. I knew the way a woman looked when they decided to do what I asked them to do. I had seen it plenty of times.
I practically hid out in the office until my hard-on went down. It was surprising how turned-on she made me. I only expected to kiss her to shut her up and get her to do what I wanted her to do to.
That’s not true, a voice in my head said. You wanted her.
That was the truth. There was something about her that brought out something in me I didn’t know was there before I met her. I never had that urge before, to grab a woman and kiss her, to make her mine. It was funny, too, since all we did was fight.
But when we got along, we got along well. I liked being with her when she wasn't a bitch. And I wanted her around. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t like her being there at the clubhouse. She brought something to my life I didn’t know I was missing.
When it was safe to leave the office, I went out to the lounge. Gigi was on the sofa, eating crackers and peanut butter. When she saw me, she handed one to me. “You want one?”
“Thanks.” I grinned, taking it from her. She looked happy that I took it, happier when I ate it. It didn’t take much to make a kid happy. How come so many people were so shitty at it?
“Will I go to school tomorrow?” Erica was sitting with her, and we looked at each other.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
“Why not?” She looked so damned innocent.
“Just because. You’ll go back eventually. Jamie will help you keep up. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I miss my friends, though.”
“You have friends here.”
“It’s not the same.” I couldn’t argue
with that.
“Soon. I promise. Hopefully this week.”
“Come on,” Erica said, smiling, trying to brighten things up. “We’ll finish cleaning up after our mess in the kitchen, and Jamie will read you a bedtime story when we go up.”
“Good night,” Gigi said, climbing off the couch. She still didn’t call me anything, I noticed. I didn’t expect her to call me Dad. But not even Lance. Nothing.
I watched her go to the kitchen and felt sort of sad. I wanted her to like being with me. It was the weirdest thing. I couldn’t have imagined I would ever feel that way.
I went back to the office, waving Flash in with me.
“What’s up?” He closed the door.
“I need to find The Scarecrow.” I watched him wince. His tanned skin got a little pale, too.
“You’re sure you wanna go looking around for him? That’s pretty dangerous stuff.”
“Since when are you afraid of dangerous stuff?” I grinned.
“Since I grew up and got a little common sense.”
“Oh, so I don’t have common sense?”
“Not right now. It sounds like you’re thinking with your dick, your heart, everything but your brain.”
“I’m not thinking with my dick.”
“You’re thinking about her.” He jerked his head upward, and I knew he meant Jamie.
“Anything but her. She’s the least of my problems.”
“Bull.”
I shrugged. “Whatever you say. Fact is, I need to find him. I need to know where Rae is. I need to be sure Gigi’s safe. That’s all I care about.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Isn’t that enough? I mean, Jesus.”
“Oh, it’s enough. I wanna be sure the kid’s safe, too.” He sat down on the sofa, stretching out with his feet at the other end. “So what do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know yet. That’s why I’m talking to you about it.” I ran my hands through my hair, lacing my fingers behind my head.
“We know the sorta people he hangs out with,” Flash said. “And they’re all bad news.”
“Yeah, and we know where they hang out. And that’s bad news, too.” I shrugged. “What else can I do? I’ve gotta start somewhere.”
“Don’t start there. Go to Rae’s. Jamie will tell you where she lives. She went there, right? She knows where it is.”
I mulled it over. “Yeah. You’re right. I’ll start there. Maybe she’s been there lately and the neighbors saw her or something.”
“It’s worth a shot.”
I frowned. Yeah. It was worth a shot. I had the feeling I wouldn’t be lucky enough to find what I needed on the first try.
I went upstairs, where Jamie was closing the door to Gigi’s room. She gasped when she turned and saw me standing there. I held up hands up in front of my chest.
“I’m not gonna touch you or anything. Don’t worry.” She relaxed.
“What do you want?” Her voice sounded a little shaky.
“I just wanna know where Rae lives. I have to go to the house to look for her.”
Even in the dark hallway, I saw her body language change. She crossed her arms, looking me up and down. “What good do you think that’s going to do?”
“You went, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, before I knew she ran off.”
“How do you know she didn’t come back? You don’t know everything. It’s been a week since she left Gigi here. Maybe she finished what she was doing and went home. Or maybe I’ll find something there you didn’t think was important.”
“How? The house is locked up, and I can’t believe I just said that because you’re obviously going to break in.”
I pressed my lips together, trying to keep from laughing. “Are you gonna give me the address, or what?”
“Yes. I’ll text it to you.” She turned and went to her room, closing the door a little louder than she needed to. A few minutes later, she sent the text.
***
The next morning, I went out before Jamie or Gigi came downstairs. I didn’t want to answer any questions, and I sure as hell didn’t wanna face Jamie after that kiss. I still got a little hard just thinking about it.
I could imagine the shit Flash would give me when he found out I went looking for The Scarecrow on my own, which was why I didn’t tell him what I planned to do. If anybody saw more than one of us coming at a time, they’d be on guard. I didn’t need jumpy fingers on triggers. I didn’t trust many people, but junkies were the worst. Where I was going, there were plenty of them.
Our town was divided into four parts. There were the ritzy houses, like the ones in Riverview Terrace. I imagined what Jamie’s house looked like. It probably had a nice view of the river, where she could see boats rolling past. Maybe she went out there sometimes. Maybe her boyfriends took her out on boats of their own. My chest tightened when I thought about it.
Then there was the urban part of town, where the clubs sat, the office towers, the overpriced boutiques and stuff. That was a pretty popular area, and riding through on a Monday morning was always interesting. Watching the drones rush to the coffee shops on every corner, packing them, begging for the boost they needed to face their boring lives in their boring jobs. I was so glad that wasn’t me. I felt the wind in my hair as I rode. I had freedom.
There was the middle-class section, which was bigger than all the others. Nice little houses up and down the tree-lined streets. Bikes in front yards. School buses. Crossing guards. Two-car driveways and garages. I rode down the street a little slower, keeping an eye out for kids going to school. I thought about Gigi when I looked at the faces of some of those kids. She should be on her way to school like the rest of them. She should feel happy and normal. I wanted to give that to her. She deserved it.
Then there was the shitty part of town. I lived right on the edge, where the houses got smaller—still clean, still nice enough, but smaller. Smaller yards, smaller lawns, not as many trees. Then it went downhill fast. I crossed one wide boulevard and ended up in the ghetto.
It was depressing. Everything seemed sort of dirty, sort of gray. I thought about Gigi growing up in a house like the ones up and down the street, and it bugged the shit outta me. She needed a better life. I hated Rae for never telling me about the baby. I had plenty of money put away—one thing about my life was the money it helped me make. Sure, the business wasn’t totally legal, but it was profitable. I could have set them up in a good place. I would’ve paid the bills directly, of course. No way I’d give cash to Rae. I couldn’t trust her.
I got to the string of houses everybody knew was a drug den and parked my bike outside. There were two strung-out-looking dudes in the doorway, sort of slumped over. They eyed the bike up like they just hit the lottery. I made sure my gun was ready, tightly tucked into the holster under my kutte, before climbing off.
“Hey,” I said, walking to them. “I’m looking for The Scarecrow.”
One of them looked up at me with bloodshot eyes. He grinned like I just said the funniest thing he ever heard. “Why you lookin’ for trouble, man?”
“I’m not lookin’ for trouble, man. I’m just looking for him. I’m trying to find a woman.”
“Ain’t we all?” The two junkies laughed together, falling over each other. I shook my head.
“Listen,” I said, looking inside the dark house. “I’m gonna trust you two, okay? I need you to keep an eye on my bike while I go inside.”
“I don’t know, man. Bike like that could go for a lotta money.” The second man fixed me with a cold stare. I wondered if he was half as high as he pretended to be. He seemed pretty savvy.
“I’ll give you both a hundred bucks to make sure it stays safe.”
“Bullshit.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out two fifty dollar bills. “Half now, half when I come out. Okay?” They both reached out to snatch the money from my hands.
“Deal,” they muttered.
“Don’t go o
ff putting that in your arm before I get back, either.” I stepped around them and walked inside. I could almost hear their thoughts, knowing they had another high coming up. A big one, too. A hundred bucks could buy a lot.
I didn’t know exactly who I was looking for, and I took my time as I went from room to room. I half hoped Rae was there. Maybe she spent an entire week getting high. Maybe she knew she was going to do it, and that was why she left Gigi with me. So she could. I had to believe something would go my way.
