Maniac: A Bad Boy Biker Romance (Winter Cobras Book 1)

by Jade Kuzma

  “We don’t know her,” Jordan said. “But we’re all sorry for her loss.”

  “Maybe there’s something we can do about it though.”

  “Like what? You mean like pay the funeral costs? You know you still gotta pay your dues, brother.”

  “No… Nothing like that. I’m just saying, bodies don’t just go floating down the river on their own. Something happened.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Rex said. “Maybe the kid was murdered. You gonna go solving this crime?”

  “Somebody’s gotta do something. The police probably don’t give a shit.”

  “He’s got a point,” Teddy said. “We all know how bumbling Sutton and his crew are.”

  “What are you saying?” Jordan said.

  “Look,” I said as I put my hands up. “I’m not saying we have to do anything. I just think it’s something we should look into. Stay out of the drama with all of the other MCs. Keep our heads down. I get it. But this is something the club can do in the meantime while we’re waiting for the next hustle.”

  Everybody was still looking at me skeptically.

  “I’ll do the work,” I said. “I just need to make sure it’s cool with all of you.”

  “I got your back,” Doc said.

  “Do what you have to do, Mikey,” Jordan added.

  Teddy and Rex didn’t say anything. Both of them were skeptical but it wasn’t like I needed their approval.

  “Anything else?” Rex said.

  “That’s it,” Jordan said. “Meeting adjourned.”

  He snapped his fingers and everybody stepped out of the chapel.

  “Called a meeting just to tell us nothing is happening…” Rex muttered.

  “Hey, at least now we know we can chill out for a bit,” Teddy said.

  The two of them headed over to the bar to waste their time like they always did during the day. I was busy myself trying to figure out what to do when Doc patted me on the back.

  “You all right there?” he said.

  “I’m fine,” I said with a shrug. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “You don’t gotta hide anything from me. Dead bodies getting found in rivers isn’t exactly kosher, no matter what you’ve seen.”

  “It’s Mrs. Solomon. I just feel bad for her.”

  “No shit. We all do.”

  “I gotta do something.”

  “Like we said, we won’t stop you. We’re here if you need us. Just make sure you don’t go getting yourself into any trouble.”

  “Yo, Mikey!”

  Rex called out to me from the bar.

  “Come over here a second. Teddy and I know just the way to celebrate.”

  “Speaking of staying out of trouble…” I sighed.

  I glanced at Doc. The older man shook his head as he chuckled to himself.

  “Welcome back to Ivory, Micah.”

  Chapter 2

  AUDREY

  I hate that feeling you get when you’re lost. When every direction looks as dangerous as the next. When you don’t recognize anything. That twisting in the pit of your stomach. A blind hope telling you all you have to do is keep going and maybe you’ll find whatever it is you’re looking for.

  “Dammit…”

  I couldn’t shake it. I wasn’t that far from home but I might as well have been on the other side of the world.

  I wiped away a bead of sweat with the back of my hand. A hard swallow let me know how dry my throat was. I expected it was hot, what with it being summer and all. But the Ivory sun seemed to be shining bright enough to annoy me.

  “You all right there?”

  A woman in rags who looked like she’d seen better days walked up to me. Her tan face was dirty along with the rest of her clothes. She had a bag of recyclable bags and a backpack that was probably carrying everything she owned. Her hair was stringy, tied into a ponytail on top of her head. It was hard to pinpoint whether the smell was coming from her hair or her clothes or her belongings. Probably everything.

  Despite all that, she still had a friendly smile on her face.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “It’s just a little hotter than I thought it would be. I figured a tank-top and some jeans would be comfortable in a place like this…”

  “You’re not from around here.”

  “You can tell that from looking at my clothes?”

  “I can tell that from just looking at you. You’re here.”

  “…What?”

  “You’re here. In Ivory. In Old Town. I don’t know if you noticed, but there aren’t very many people in this part of town.”

  “I noticed…”

  “There’s only a couple of reasons why people would come to Old Town. There’s that fancy restaurant down there…” She pointed down the street toward one of the only spots that had some cars parked around it. “…And then there’s this place over here.”

  I looked toward the bar a few meters away from us.

  “Something tells me you didn’t come here to have lunch,” she said.

  “You’d be right.”

  “What’s a young woman like you have any business in a place like Hades?”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. She wasn’t that old but the look on her face was the kind you’d get from a grandmother who knew you were up to something. I couldn’t help a smile even though she was still just a stranger.

  “I have business there, yes,” I said.

  “Nobody ever finds what they’re looking for in Hades.”

  “Doesn’t hurt to look.”

  “But it does. A sweet girl like you, you might lose something.”

  “…I don’t have much else to lose these days.”

  “What a shame. I feel bad for you. But I do hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”

  The older woman went along her way down the sidewalk without a care in the world. I noticed a few other homeless people lurking in the alleys. They were all just resting, doing their best to find some shade from the sun.

  I cleared my thoughts as I headed to the bar the woman just pointed out to me. The parking lot was mostly empty outside of the bikes. Just one chopper would’ve been enough for me to take notice but there were five of them.

  “This is the place…”

  I exhaled a deep breath before stepping inside.

  The air-conditioning alone was enough to make me appreciate being indoors. The bar was a lot cleaner than I was expecting, too. There wasn’t much else for scenery outside of photos of people I didn’t care for and club banners I didn’t recognize.

  It was mostly empty outside of a few men scattered throughout. They all looked the same. Indistinguishable strangers in denim and leather. Even with shirts on, I could see how their tattoos trailed all along their arms and likely the rest of their bodies.

  The bartender didn’t pay attention to me even after standing at the bar for nearly a minute.

  “Ahem…”

  I cleared my throat and the man finally looked up at me.

  “What can I get for you?”

  “I… I’m looking for Sebastian Cain.”

  The bartender closed an eye like he was trying to get a good look at me.

  “Is he here or not?”

  I didn’t bother waiting for him to give me some sort of approval.

  “…Cain’s a busy man. He’ll be more likely to talk to you if you’re a paying customer. He loves customers—”

  “Gimme a beer. Whatever cheap piss you have back there.”

  The bartender smirked as he cracked open a bottle for me.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  He disappeared to the back of the bar. I swiped my beer and took a sip. I noticed I’d gotten the attention from some of the patrons in the club. They were all wearing leather vests. Each one of them had matching patches. I was definitely in the clubhouse of an MC.

  Just relax… They won’t try anything… Not if they know what’s good for them…

  I didn’t have much of a chance
to examine them because the bartender returned a few moments later.

  “That’s her.”

  The bartender pointed me out to the man walking with him.

  The first thing I noticed about him was how tall he was. Even sitting on a high stool, I still had to look up at him when he approached me. Messy dark-blond hair. Biceps bulging enough that it stretched out his shirt. And the same leather kutte that every other man in the place was wearing.

  The man had a confident smirk on his lips. You had to be a little arrogant to be who he was. I didn’t hold it against him but it didn’t make me his biggest fan, either.

  “Are you Sebastian Cain?” I said.

  “Who wants to know?”

  “I do.”

  “And who are you, young lady?”

  “I’m not young. And I’m not a lady.”

  “I can see that.”

  He chuckled softly to himself, shifting his eyes up and down.

  “Audrey,” I said. “Audrey Prescott.”

  “All right, Audrey Prescott. You mind telling me what the fuck you’re doing here?”

  “I came to talk to you.”

  “Just talk? It seems like you came here to do something else. Especially with that on you.” He shifted his eyes down my jeans. “You’ve got a switchblade in your pocket. And you’ve got a piece on the back of your waist. Problem with that is it makes it more obvious. Especially on a woman in nothing but a tank-top. You must not carry very often.”

  “I don’t carry very often but I know how to use it.”

  “I don’t doubt that. But women who are packing don’t just wander into my clubhouse and ask to talk to me. So I’m gonna have to ask you again, what the fuck are you doing here?”

  He raised his eyebrows at me and crossed his arms. For a man who told me he was threatened, he sure seemed to be in a good mood about it, judging from that smirk on his lips.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said. “About business.”

  “Business. And what kind of business—”

  “I’ll cut to the chase. I need information. And I was told if I needed information, the Devils were the MC to come to in Ivory.”

  “And who told you this?”

  “They did.”

  “They, huh?”

  “That’s right. Are you denying your reputation? Because I have a phone and all it’ll take is one search to see what kind of criminal history you’ve got.”

  I wasn’t about to be intimidated by him. Not by the rest of his men in his clubhouse. Nothing could stop me from getting what I needed.

  Cain still had that same confidence about him. He sighed a deep breath and stayed leaning against the bar.

  “Information will cost you,” he said.

  “Name your price.”

  “The price depends on what kind of information you’re asking for. If you want a recommendation on beer, you’re already drinking a good one. That’s free info.”

  “I’m looking for someone. His name is Oliver Pearson.”

  He didn’t say anything, so I knew I had his attention.

  “Do you know him?” I asked.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve never heard that name before. But I can find out if I need to. What’s your business with this Pearson, fella?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “No, but it’d be nice knowing what I’m getting into.”

  “I can’t risk him finding out I’m in Ivory, too. All you need to know is that he’s here in Ivory and I’m looking for him.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “I’m sure. I’d bet my life on it—”

  “Careful now… You don’t wanna gamble with something like that.”

  “If that was the case, I wouldn’t have come to Ivory in the first place.”

  He scratched the side of his head and looked out into the bar. I took another sip of my beer to give him more time to think.

  “You come into my bar, start telling me to look for someone without giving me any of his details, and you expect me to find him. Sounds like you’re asking for a miracle.”

  “Can you do it or not?”

  “…I can do it. It’ll take a few days but I can do it. But I can’t promise you it’ll be cheap. This info is hard to get, you’ll have to pay for it.”

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small roll of cash. I swallowed down the rest of my beer and put a few dollars on the counter.

  “Whatever you want…” I glanced down at the patch on his vest. “…Venom.”

  That half-smirk still on his lips, Cain gave me a nod.

  “Come back in a day or two,” he said. “If I don’t have your information, it means he never came to Ivory or he never existed.”

  “He’s here. That’s all you need to know.”

  “Oliver Pearson. I’ll find him.”

  Can I trust this guy?

  I wasn’t sure what to make of him. Everything in this town was strange. But I had to start somewhere and there was no better place.

  “In the meantime, I say you should check out Finn’s,” he said.

  “Finn’s?”

  “It’s a bar. I doubt your man is in Old Town. If Pearson isn’t at Finn’s tonight, someone who knows him will be.”

  I gave Cain one last look before giving him a nod and leaving. As soon as I stepped outside, I was reminded of just how hot it was. I couldn’t help a deep sigh as I wiped away the bead of sweat that immediately dripped down the side of my face.

  “Find what you were looking for?”

  I turned around and saw the homeless woman coming from the alley.

  “I don’t know yet,” I said with a shrug.

  “Nobody ever knows. That’s life for you. You spend the whole time searching for something, even until you’re old and gray, but you never do find it. Me, personally… I’m just looking for a beer to make me forget about everything.”

  I laughed softly at her. Despite how weathered and dirty her face was, the kindness in her smile beamed through.

  “A beer is no good,” I said. “That restaurant down the street… Do you feel like having lunch with me?”

  “Sure but… Are you sure you wanna eat at a place like that?”

  “I’m new in town. It seems as good a place as anywhere else. Maybe you can tell me a thing or two about Ivory.”

  “I’ve been around long enough to know a thing or two.”

  “Good. Maybe you can start with telling me about Finn’s.”

  “Finn’s?” She arched an eyebrow at me. “Why do you need to know about Finn’s?”

  “Because I’m heading there tonight.”

  “Finn’s speaks for itself. My advice? Be careful.”

  Chapter 3

  MICAH

  The dingy place looked like it hadn’t seen better days in decades. The wood paneling on the walls and on the floors needed to be replaced. The cloud of smoke in the air made the lights dimmer than they actually were. And then there was the smell. The smell was… Well, the smell was something you had to get used to quick. Some combination of alcohol, leather and dust from riding on the road for too long. Most people would’ve had enough just looking at the place from a distance but Finn’s was the spot to be at if you wanted to do something stupid. And the fools here were exactly the kind of motherfuckers who were candidates for doing something stupid.

  Picture the loudest, most foul-mouthed fools drunk on more liquor than they could handle and you’d have a good idea of the crowd at Finn’s. I always said when a man got a patch, there was a time when he acted like it was bulletproof. In here, every man believed it.

  The women ate it up of course. If they were at Finn’s, they wanted to see a man step up and defend her honor. Whether it was taking some loud-mouth punk out back and separating from his consciousness for a few minutes or taking a girl for a ride with no regard for the speed limit, there was something about Ivory broads that made them just eat that shit up. Tonight, there was no shortage of them
trying to find a man to keep them entertained for the night.

  “Look at that shit. So much ass on display. I don’t know where to start.”

  Teddy rubbed his hands together like he was a kid in a candy store. I couldn’t blame the man for staring. Hell, the women here would’ve been offended if he didn’t. Rex had my focus though. He pushed the shot of whiskey in front of me and widened his eyes.

  “Here you go, sweetheart,” he said. “Something more your size.”

  Along with Teddy and Rex, the other man at the table, Quinn, was eyeballing me just the same.

  “After you,” Rex continued.

  “I guess you’re just never gonna let this go,” I said.

  “No, I’m not. If I’m drinking, I expect you to do the same. It’s a fucking celebration! We got Micah fucking Lawler patched up! A proud Army Ranger in the Cobras! That’s what I’m talking about!”

  Nobody gave a shit about his announcement. That didn’t stop them from downing their shots like water. I took the whiskey down and ignored the sting as it burned down my throat.

  “Goddamn…” I muttered. “You just had to get the cheapest shit on the rail, huh?”

  “That’s right!”

  Rex cackled to his own amusement. Teddy was too busy scouting all of the women walking by us. Quinn seemed too anxious to react one way or another.

  “I’m serious though,” Rex said. “Tonight is a special occasion. It’s not every day we patch a man in. And the boys voted you in quick. I say that’s reason enough to celebrate. Getting in after a month doesn’t happen often, brother.”

  Rex finally wiped that confident smile off his face. I knew better than to let him bother me. Deep down, he respected every man in the club. He wouldn’t have been VP if that weren’t the case.

  “Take my boy, Q, here for example,” he said as he wrapped an arm around Quinn’s shoulder. “This boy right here will be waiting for a long time. But he might not even get in.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said to Quinn. “You’ll get in. Keep your head down and do your job. That’s all the Cobras expect of you.”

  Quinn gave me a nod and started looking around the bar the same as Teddy was.

  Quinn never said much. Not that he was shy. He was a prospect and he knew he had to show a certain kind of respect if he wanted to get patched in. I didn’t doubt whether or not he could stand up for himself. The guy was big enough to hold his own, that much was clear. But he was young. Young enough that he looked barely old enough to drink, not that I gave a shit one way or another. More than anything, Quinn knew his place. That was all that mattered.