by Naomi West
“You what?” Torque had expected discussion of the war, but not news like this. No biker gangs worked closely with the police and preferred to avoid them entirely. This couldn’t be good news. “Why?”
Acer sighed. “This town isn’t big enough to support both Satan Seed and the Dirty Bastards. As much as I’d like to carry on as usual, this war has been coming for a long time. I went down and talked to one of the officers that was at the scene the other night, because I needed to know for sure who shot that cop. If it was one of us, then we’d have to deal with it. I might not exactly be a law-abiding citizen all the time, but I sure as hell don’t condone that.”
“What did he say?” Torque leaned forward, his elbows on his knees to keep himself in his seat.
“They don’t know the exact identity of the man who did it, but by the description it was a Bastard. I’m sure you know how relieved I was to hear it, but the incident has made the citizens far more aware of the fact that they have a town full of bikers. They’re not pleased about it, and neither are the cops.”
Torque shifted, uncertain where this was going. “I guess this means we’ll have to be looking over our shoulders for both the police and the Bastards.” It was a heavy burden to bear. How could they win at all if everyone was against them?
“That might have been the case,” Acer agreed, “except I explained to the officer what I wanted for this town. Satan Seed has agreed to work closely with law enforcement to eradicate the Bastards. They’ve been the cause for too many incidents around here. I told him we were on the side of the town, and that we didn’t want a fight on our hands.” Acer laughed softly. “I think he was about ready to shit his pants. It surprised them enough to see me walking into their headquarters, but I’m sure they never expected that.”
“So, what do we do from here?” Torque was eager for a plan. Waiting around at the clubhouse didn’t suit him well.
“I’ll be sending our members out in teams on patrol duty. Apparently, the Bastards have been causing problems all over town. The cop showed me reports of burglaries, fires, and small riots like they’ve never seen before. We have to agree not to engage with the DBs if at all possible and to report what we see to the police. Now, I know.” He held up his hands to stop Torque from interrupting. “We’re the kind of guys who don’t wait around for someone else to help us, but this is the only right thing to do. The citizens, if they know we aren’t the bad guys, are going to feel safer if they know there are that many more sets of eyes watching out for them. The cops will be happy because they know we’re on their side. This alliance unifies everyone in town against the Bastards, and we couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”
Torque leaned back and studied the vintage Indian Motorcycles sign on the wall behind Acer’s desk. It had been there as long as he could remember, with its splotches of rust around the edges. Never in his life would he have imagined that Satan Seed would unite with the cops. It was a sign of just how bad things were, and the stone in his chest dropped down into his gut with a thud. “Blue isn’t back yet. I’ve got to go find her.”
Acer nodded, not arguing this time about the safety of Blue now that Satan Seed was protecting the whole town. “I’ll arrange a patrol to go with you.”
“No,” Torque argued. “I’m going alone. I’ll be too conspicuous otherwise, and I still don’t want the Bastards to follow me to her. I’ll get her and bring her back. Once I know she’s safe, then I’ll join in the patrols.”
The president opened his mouth to argue, but he just sighed instead. “Go, then. I sure hope this girl is as important as you make it sound.”
“Trust me, she is.”
Torque roared out of the garage a few minutes later, still kicking himself for letting Blue go alone. The Bastards hadn’t settled down as they had expected, and there was no telling what might have happened to her in the few hours since she had been gone. President or not, he never should have let Acer talk him into something so foolish. Once he found Blue, he would keep her in his sights at all times. She might not be very happy about being confined to his quarters at the clubhouse, but at least Torque would know she was safe.
Blue’s house was closest, so it made sense to check there first. Her driveway was empty, the lights were off, and there were no signs of a struggle. With no more time to waste, he headed for the shop.
He wasn’t anywhere close to it when he saw the black plume of smoke rising into the air, and his gut clenched. The Bastards had lit another fire. He would have to report it to Acer later, once he had found Blue. He wasn’t officially on patrol duty yet.
But as he turned into the parking lot, he quickly realized that it was Spencer’s Shop that had been set ablaze. Brilliant flames licked at the glass across the front of the building, tinting it black. One of the windows had been broken, and smoke poured out through the hole. The roof of the place had caught flame, sending up the charcoal-colored cloud he had seen before.
With his heart pounding, Torque leapt off his bike and grabbed the door handle. It was too hot, and he ripped off his vest to wrap around his hand. Once inside, he wrapped it around his face to keep too much smoke from getting inside his lungs. The shop, once a clean place filled with beautiful artwork, was now nothing more than a box full of flames and toxic gases. He shoved aside the curtain that led to Blue’s booth, but nobody was inside. Torque moved to the next booth and immediately spotted the body lying on the floor.
With a growl of anger, Torque grabbed Spencer by the armpits and threw him over his shoulder. He deposited him in the parking lot before running back inside to finish checking through the place. A firebomb had been thrown through the window and had caught the upholstery of the waiting room furniture on fire, evidenced by the melted plastic arms of the chair and the intense heat at the front of the building. He searched through the other rooms, but he couldn’t find Blue.
When he returned to the parking lot, Spencer was waking up. The thin man rolled over on his side as coughs racked his body and his eyes watered. Burn marks seared his clothing, and the bottoms of his shoes looked as though they had melted slightly. He blinked up at Torque for a second, a look of fear in his eyes, before trying to crawl off across the parking lot.
“Hey!” Torque put a heavy hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Where are you going?”
Spencer swiped at his eyes and squinted up at the biker once again. “Oh, it’s you. I thought it was one of them.”
“Did the Bastards do this?” Torque already knew what the answer was. Nobody else would feel the need for that sort of action. “Was it Rat?”
The tattoo artist shook his head as he coughed again and gasped for air. “I think it was one of them, but it wasn’t Rat. I only got a glimpse of the guy, but he was wearing the vest of a Dirty Bastard. Is this the war?”
“Just the beginning of it. Where’s Blue?” Torque demanded as he retrieved a bottle of water from his saddle bag, opened it, and handed it over.
Spencer took the drink with a shaking hand and tipped it into his mouth. He swished the liquid on his tongue for a moment before spitting it out onto the asphalt and doing it over again. “I don’t think I’ll ever eat barbecue again.”
“Where’s Blue?” Torque repeated. Spencer had surely suffered from smoke inhalation, but there was no time to waste. Whoever had done this was no doubt taking out Rat’s revenge.
The water had helped, and Spencer pushed himself up to a sitting position. “How do I know I can trust you?” he wheezed. “For all I know, this is what you’ve been planning since the beginning.”
Torque grabbed him by the front of his shirt and only managed not to strangle him with the utmost self-control. Spencer had the information he needed, and he was important to Blue. “Are you fucking kidding me? I could snap your neck in a second.”
“Then go ahead,” the shop owner replied sleepily. “If that’s what it takes to protect Blue from someone like you, then I’ll do it. But we never had any trouble until you came around and
confronted Rat. Now Blue’s knocked up, my shop is burning down, and I doubt there’s any safe place around this city.”
As much as Spencer was pissing him off, Torque had to give the man credit. He wasn’t big enough to fight a biker, but that didn’t mean he was just going to give up. He was protecting Blue, and that meant a lot to Torque. “You and I are on the same side,” Torque growled. “Satan Seed are on the side of the town. We’re doing our best to go out there and stop these guys. I don’t need you to get in my way.”
“You don’t see me stopping you,” Spencer muttered. His eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp.
Torque picked up the bottle of water and poured it over his head. “I’m trying to find her so I can keep her safe. Now just tell me where she is!”
Spencer sputtered and swiped at his face, but he managed to crease his eyebrows at the big biker. “She already is safe, and she doesn’t need any more help from you.”
His patience was wearing so thin it was practically transparent. “Just because you think she’s safe doesn’t mean she actually is. The Bastards are hunting her down. I’ve got a place for her where she can be protected by my men around the clock. There’s no telling what might happen if you don’t help me.”
His dark brown eyes cleared a little as Spencer studied Torque’s face. “All right, but I’m only telling you this because I think you’re the best choice out of a lot of bad options. She’s at my house, with my family, over on Greer Street.”
“Why did she go there instead of coming back to the clubhouse like she was supposed to?” As relieved as Torque was to know that Spencer had not only seen Blue but knew where she was, he didn’t understand why she would have gone back on her word.
“Why do you think?” Spencer spat. “You’ve been nothing but trouble for her. You think you can protect her, but all you do is get her into trouble. You aren’t what she wants, Torque, and you don’t belong in her life.”
Torque let go of Spencer’s shirt. “We’ll let her be the judge of that.” Just as he turned toward his bike, he heard the roar of another motorcycle. He looked up just in time to see one of the Bastards zooming out of the parking lot. He knew in his gut that it was probably the same biker who had set fire to the shop. He also knew that the Bastard had overheard every word. “Shit.”
Chapter Fourteen
Blue
“You can have this room while you’re here.” Bri had Ava on her hip, but she opened the door at the end of the upstairs hallway with her free hand to reveal a full-sized bed, a dresser that looked as though it had been around since the eighties, and deep blue carpeting. The walls were empty, and the open closet door revealed only a few spare coats that had been stashed away. “I know it’s not very welcoming right now. It’s just sort of been our guest room, and I haven’t taken the time to decorate it. But we can put a pretty vase of flowers on the dresser, and maybe we can hit up the junk shops for some cute framed prints this weekend.”
Blue shook her head. “You don’t have to worry about all that. It’s nice just the way it is.” Even her bedroom at home wasn’t as decent, with its old paneling and worn carpeting. She had always had the idea of fixing it up, but there was never the time or the money. She had just hung up a few posters that she’d had and called it good enough. The guest room at the Hagens’ might have been stark, but the paint on the walls was fresh, the carpet was free of stains, and the mattress didn’t sag in the middle.
“At the very least, I do have these for you.” She left the room for a moment and came back with an armful of books. Bri dumped these on the bed before setting Ava down so she could arrange them on the top of the dresser. “I bought every pregnancy and baby book I could get my hands on. And before you ask, yes. I’ve read every one of them, cover to cover.”
“Why did you keep them?” Blue asked as she scanned the titles. There were some that covered the raising of babies and toddlers, which made them relevant, but the vast majority were about pregnancy itself.
Bri shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I thought I might want another baby someday, and that it would be good to go back and read them. I can’t tell you how many times I turned to these books when I was worried about something. It worked out, since you can read them now.”
Picking up a volume with a heavily pregnant woman on the cover smiling down at her swollen belly, Blue nodded. “Yes, I guess I can.”
“You look tired. I’ll let you get to sleep.” Bri scooped up Ava, who was busy playing with the handles on the dresser drawers.
“No, don’t bother. I’m tired, but there’s no way I could sleep. There’s too much going on in my mind, and it won’t go away. I feel like I’m obsessed.” She sat down on the end of the mattress and tented her fingers over the bridge of her nose.
Bri sat down next to her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Ava reached out to touch Blue’s hair, watching in fascination as the colored strands ran through her fingers. With her dark hair in little pigtails and her wide brown eyes, Ava was just a miniature, female version of Spencer. She was so soft and adorable, but she made Blue hope her child looked nothing like Torque. She didn’t want a reminder of him for the rest of her life. “I don’t know. I guess I just don’t know if I’m doing the right thing.”
“As a mother, you never really know if you’re doing the right thing,” Bri said after a long moment. “You just do your best and hope it works out. I won’t know the results of some of the decisions I’ve made for many years.” She patted her daughter’s head, twisting her fingers around one of the delicate pigtails.
Blue sighed. “It’s Torque, more than anything. I don’t know if coming here was the right thing to do, or if I should have gone back to the clubhouse. I know he was waiting for me, and by now, he’s worried sick.”
Bri gave her a doubtful look. “I know you and Spencer said Torque was practically working security for the shop, but that doesn’t mean he’s a good guy. You’ve got to think about the kind of lifestyle he would be providing for a baby.”
“But I’m a tattoo artist,” Blue argued. “Is that really any better?”
“Let’s see. You work steady hours, you make an honest living, and you don’t ride a dangerous machine everywhere you go. Oh, then there’s the fact that you don’t go starting fights with anyone, much less a war. I think you’re ahead of the game, maybe more than you realize.” Bri set a wriggling Ava down on the floor and looked Blue square in the eyes. “I’m sure Torque is tempting. He’s the bad boy type, right? The kind of guy who seems all hot because he’s large and in charge? I get it. I do. But it’s not the kind of thing that works long-term. You need someone different.”
“Like anyone else is going to want me now.” She looked down at her stomach. It was still just as flat as ever, but she knew it wouldn’t be for long.
“Oh, please. It’s the modern world. Men expect women to already have kids these days. Besides, it gives you the chance to actually pick out a dad for the baby once you see how the two of them are together. You don’t have to rely solely on common DNA.”
Bri had a point, but Blue felt like she was trying too hard to make it. “So does that mean you would pick out someone else to be Ava’s dad instead of Spencer?” she challenged.
“Not a chance,” her new friend assured her. “Spence and I haven’t had a perfect relationship. I went through a lot with him when he was an addict, but it really let me see who he was. There were times I never thought we would make it, but he came out of it a much better person. No, Spencer and I are perfect together, and he’s a wonderful daddy to Ava.”
The child looked up and smiled when she heard her name, revealing dimples in her chubby cheeks. “Daddy?”
“He’ll be home later, baby.”
“Daddy wok?” Her version of the word was adorable.
“Yes, Daddy is at work,” Bri replied patiently.
Ava bent down to peer under the bed, and then crawled underneath it.
“I wish I cou
ld have the kind of certainty you do,” Blue said. “I think I want to be with Torque, but I just don’t know anything.”
“Do you know if he wants to be with you?”
Blue shrugged. She remembered what he had told her when they had made love in the park, that he wasn’t there just to mess around with her or make her do anything she didn’t want to. He’d said he wanted her, and he had been very protective of her when they’d gotten back to the clubhouse. But Torque had never directly said that he wanted to be in a relationship with her. He hadn’t even said much about the baby.
“Maybe? He seems like he wants to protect me, but I’m not sure beyond that.”
“Sounds to me like the two of you have some talking to do.” She rose from the bed and walked around the room slowly with a mischievous smile and a wink. “Where’s my Ava? I saw her just a minute ago, and now I can’t find her anywhere.”
