by Cat Porter
“My thoughts exactly.” His eyes tightened. “How’s this gonna end now, pretty?”
“Let’s finish it, Vig. I’m done.”
“That’s not up to you.”
“Ruby’s dead, and I’m staying in South Dakota now to take care of my nephew. I need out. For fifteen years I did just what you wanted. Didn’t I?”
“You did.”
I gulped in air. My incessant adrenaline rush kept my arms taut and raised high enough for my gun to remain aimed at Vig’s chest. A cold sweat beaded along my brow.
“We need to make a deal,” I said.
“Honey, this ain’t no deal making meet.” Vig chuckled and shook his head. “That’s over with. The minute the One-Eyed Jacks took my truck, all the rules changed. I’m holding you hostage, pretty. Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Just an Old Lady trying to make things right.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“They wanted to get your attention by taking the truck tonight.”
“Well they got it. And now I’ve got you.”
“You and Jump should get your shit organized. You used to be on the same side, remember that?”
Vig sighed. “Sounds sweet. You gonna serve tea and cookies at that meet?”
Creeper wailed behind us. “My leg! My fucking leg! Shoot her ass. Now!”
Vig and I kept our eyes locked on each other, our guns still raised. Vig’s phone rang.
“It’s Jump. Should I answer it? Or send him one of your fingers instead?”
“I have all the keys on me right now, Vig. Every single one from each and every bank. All for you.”
He said nothing, only stared at me.
“I never told, not to anyone,” I said. “I’ve kept your secret safe.”
“You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking.” I held Dig’s small nylon travel case open in my hands. I was looking for his extra sunglasses. Instead, I found a baggie filled with raw gold granules and two small diamonds.
Dig’s eyes were hard.
“How could you agree to work with Vig?” I asked.
“He needed somebody outside his immediate circle to trust. He knew I was that man.”
“I can’t even begin to comprehend…”
“Vig’s been going underground working with the Russian mob doing odd jobs for them out west. Making big contacts for the Demon Seeds. But he took a few more diamonds than he was supposed to have for his cut. And now they’re out looking for them. He managed to pin it on somebody else of course, but they might see through that one day.”
“Oh, my God.”
“He needs to keep his diamonds out of circulation for a long while, leave no possible trace to himself. I agreed to stash them until he needs them. For a healthy cut.”
“A healthy cut? And how much are all these diamonds worth anyhow?”
“Easily over half a million.”
The blood drained from my head. “Do your brothers know about this?”
“What do you think, Sister?” His jaw tightened.
“Holy shit.”
“Calm the fuck down!”
“The Russian mob could be after you?”
“No, there is no way in hell,” Dig said shaking his head. “Everyone thinks, no, everyone knows, me and Vig can barely stand to be in the same room with each other, ever since our disagreement over Ruby taking the heat and butting heads over you. It’s been that way for years and probably always will be. But I can have respect for my enemy. We can both find a way to strike a bargain when it comes to a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“A bargain with the devil,” I breathed.
“Oh, come off it, Grace.”
“You’re not going to tell your brothers?”
“Not right now, no. Maybe later, when it’s done. I always share though, they know that. They won’t question me, once they see what I can put on the table. I’m going to have to tell you where I stashed them, just in case.”
“Just in case of what? Oh, my God!”
“Now that you know some of this, you should know the rest,” he said. “You’ll be the only one.”
“That explains the diamonds, but what about this gold?”
“That’s nothing,” Dig said. Last week this freak tried to outmaneuver me when buying a bag. It got ugly. Afterwards, I found it on him. Bonus. I figure I lay low for a few months, and then I can work on flipping it. No one knows about that either. It’s safer this way.
“Luck?” My voice shook. “Bonus?”
“Relax baby, it’s all good. Things have been real quiet, haven’t they?”
“It is not good, Dig! How can any of this possibly be good?”
“I know what I’m doing.”
I shook my head. “All I did was forget my sunglasses at home.”
“This is why I don’t tell you this shit.”
“It’s never enough is it?” I pulled fiercely on my ponytail. “Whatever variety of shit the club has going on, whatever money comes in, it’s still never enough.”
Dig’s eyes flared. “Sister, I saw a play, I made it,” he bit out, his voice harsh. “You always have to be ready for a new play. You know that.”
“Always have to think one step ahead?”
“That’s right.” His eyes flared. “I don’t sit back on my ass and wait to get served. That’s not me. How can you not want better for the club?” he asked. “For us?”
“We have that, don’t we?” My hand passed over my middle.
Dig’s eyes shifted to the movement. He exhaled and licked his bottom lip.
“Baby, you know what I mean.” He held out his hand, and I handed him the nylon travel case that held a sample of his blood-laced investment in the future.
A veritable Pandora’s box. But Dig didn’t see it that way.
He tucked it inside his jacket. “Hop on, we’re out of here,” he said. He swung a long leg over his bike, settled in the saddle and revved the engine. I didn’t move. His eyes cut to me. “Babe.” The muscle in his jaw pulsed.
My back stiffened. “Coming.”
“What did you say? Didn’t hear you,” he spit out, his face tight. Any irritation or worry I expressed was sometimes translated by Dig as a personal challenge especially when he was already ticked off or tense. My stomach seemed to drop ten feet like a boulder over a cliff. I detested that particular tone in his voice, that chilling authority.
I swallowed the quiver in the back of my throat and shuffled over to the bike. His lips were in a stiff line. His knuckles were white around the handlebars. I placed my hand on his shoulder to steady myself, but he grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me in to him.
“Sister…” He studied my face.
My fingers pushed his hair back. The sun was setting; the orange golden glow in the sky broke over his handsome features.
“Get on,” he said softly and planted a kiss on my temple. His lips lingered on my skin just a moment longer, and I let out a sigh. I got on the back of his bike and leaned into him wrapping my arms around his middle.
“Your doctor said no more bike rides for you after this, right? So let’s enjoy it,” he said over his shoulder. The bike thundered to life under us. We took off.
Less than half an hour later gunshots exploded over us. Blood, flesh and bone rained over me. The bike skidded out of control. I went flying and stopped breathing. I landed on the green earth at the side of the road. Pain radiated through me. My blurry eyes struggled to focus on the once glorious Harley that now crushed Dig, his one leg horribly twisted back.
I dragged myself up on my knees despite the jabbing pain that streaked through my abdomen. “Dig?” I shouted. I hobbled up and scrambled over to the groaning Harley. The bike’s wheels spun slowly and their burning scent scalded my nose.
“Dig! I screeched.
“Baby,” Dig’s bloodied lips trembled. “Baby…”
“I’m right here.” I dropped down next to him. My hand stroked his blood and dirt-streaked face. I pressed my ha
nds over his chest. Two burning bullet holes. I counted. One. Two. One. Two. No. So cold. So cold. No. No. So much blood. My hands were red, wet, swirling in blood.
His strained eyes flitted to mine. “Diamonds…”
“Where?” I asked “Where are they?” I leaned over him. He told me what I needed to know. I swept the matted hair from his face.
“Get gone,” he breathed. “Want you… safe.”
His eyebrows jerked up.
“Get gone. Now, sweetheart,” Dig said, his breath choked.
One. Two.
“I love you, Dig. I love you. Dammit, you stay with me! Please! I can’t… Please, Dig, please!”
His head jerked back in a soft, strange way, his Adam’s apple kicked back. Blood glugged up in his mouth. His beautiful golden brown eyes were dull, unmoving.
One. Two.
“Dig!”
A sharp pain tore through my abdomen again. I clutched my stomach. “No. Don’t you leave me. Don’t leave me!” I shouted at Dig. I pleaded with our baby.
Slow crunching steps approached me in the dim twilight. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. My heart banged wildly. It would surely explode.
“You do what you have to do. Always be ready for it. Never hesitate. Don’t be a girl about it.” Dig’s voice from years ago pumped adrenaline into my veins.
“You know what to do, Sister.” Wreck’s voice assured me and pushed air into my lungs. “You know.”
My eyes darted down the bike over my husband’s mangled, lifeless body. My shaking, bloody fingers reached out and snapped open the small hatch at the side. It was there, the extra gun. My fingers wrapped around the cold hard metal. I tugged it out.
The crunching had stopped. I put the gun low at my side and pushed up off the hot metal of the fallen bike. I bit hard on my lip, ignored the cramping in my belly, and raised myself up. A single shot whizzed close to me.
My thigh burned. I crumpled. A wail broke from my throat, and I choked on my breath. “Don’t look down!” I hissed at myself. “You’re shot, don’t look at it!” I didn’t look down. I held my breath, aimed the gun at the dark figure popping out from the shadows, and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed the goddamn trigger. My entire body shook, my ears rang, and my arm throbbed. I flexed my fingers, the gun dropped onto the asphalt.
I turned back to Dig. My blood stained fingers sunk inside his jacket and pulled out the travel bag. My eyes rose over the small rock tunnel that Dig and I didn’t have the chance to go through.
I pushed through the searing pain in my leg and clambered over to the tunnel clutching the nylon case. I clawed at the dirt with my hands and buried the it on the side of the tunnel. I repacked the soil and padded the top with a pile of small rocks. Then I wretched over the rocky earth. I took in deep breaths, crawled back to Dig and sunk my fingers in his damp hair. Was it sweat? Blood? Twilight had seeped into darkness. Why did it do that so quickly? I wouldn’t be able to see Dig’s eyes or his face now. I wouldn’t see them ever again, would I?
Never again.
My fingers stumbled over the mobile phone in my jacket pocket. Somehow I managed to find the contacts menu and locate Boner’s name. I tapped the center button. The ring droned on and on. I twisted to the side, and my stomach churned out its contents onto the road once more.
“Sister? Sister? You there?” Boner’s voice cut through the pressing velvet darkness.
A cramp sliced at my insides and took my breath with it. A warm sticky river of wet seeped down the inside of my legs and another oozed over my right outer thigh. My pulse thudded in my leg. I was draining. My fingers curled into the sleeve of Dig’s leather jacket.
Life was strangled, shredded, and drowning inside me.
My cold fingers scurried up the side of Dig’s throat. No pulse. No life.
No life.
Yes. Let’s die together, baby. All three of us, together.
The phone clattered from my cold, shaking fingers onto the warm pavement. Another slash tore through me. I slumped to my side against the smoldering bike. My eyelids sank.
And that was all there was.
Vaporized.
Vig fingered the flakes and granules of gold. “Price of gold is five times now what it was back then.”
“If I hadn’t hidden it that night along with a couple of your diamonds that Dig had in that case, the Feds would have found it and been all over me,” I said. “They were watching us day and night as it was. Remember that? They would have been all over the club, and they eventually would have been all over you. How would that have gone down for everybody, I wonder?” I asked. “Where would you be now? I’m not sure orange is your color. I know it’s not mine.”
His jaw tightened, and he chewed on his thick lower lip.
“Here are all the keys.” I placed the heavy envelope with every one of the small keys into his hand.
When I had finally regained consciousness in the hospital, the first thing I did was grab onto Ruby’s hand and beg her to go to the tunnel and retrieve Dig’s travel case that I had buried there under the tower of rocks. I made her promise not to open it and just head straight to the bank and open a safety deposit box with both our names on it and stash it there. I had retrieved it yesterday to have it ready for Vig. All his Russian diamonds were in safety deposit boxes in both our names in every city I had ever lived in over the past fifteen years. How he got me to do that for him is a whole other story.
“You don’t have to give me the gold, Sister.”
“I can’t even bear looking at it, Vig. A stupid drug deal gone bad got my husband killed when the buyer’s brother came after him. Totally unrelated to your diamonds and your crime lords. But both of those men were your nephews. How perfect was that? How perfectly fucked up was that?”
“Those punks were my sister’s kids. They were good for nothing meth addicts that wanted to patch in,” Vig said. “No way in hell was that gonna happen. When the one idiot disappeared after he murdered the old grandpa and stole his gold, the cops started suspecting Dig. Then the other idiot goes after your Old Man to get the gold back, and the moron ends up killing him.” Dig shook his head. “It did continue the legend of hate between me and Dig. Everyone assumed I had Dig killed as revenge for my nephew. Like I gave a shit. He did me a favor without knowing it. And so did you. Who’d ever suspect that Dig and I were working together after that? That I would trust him with those diamonds?” he said. “Sister, the last thing I wanted was your Old Man dead. It was fucking perfect, though. A fucking perfect stroke of fate.”
“Perfect for you.”
“Yeah. Look, shit’s over when I get my truck back fully stocked.”
This shit would never be done. We all knew that, didn’t we? This was the way of things in outlaw land. There were no smoothly tied up Hollywood feel-good endings to be had here. But it wasn’t my burden any longer. At least those keys, the diamonds, those grains of gold weren’t anymore.
“Vig, I don’t want Dig’s cut. I just want to be free. I want my family free.”
He tilted his head at me. “Alright. I’ll give it to you. You did good, Sister.”
“My nephew. He’s off your radar. Forever. Say it.”
A different ring tone went off on Vig’s phone.
“Talk.” His lips tipped up at the edges as he listened to his caller. “Alright. Later.”
He lowered his gun. “Got my truck back. It’s all good.”
“Vig. My nephew.”
He frowned. “Kid’s safe.”
My shoulders shook. I slid the gun in the back of my waistband and swiped my face with my hand. Vig packed away his goodies. I turned and stared at Creeper’s bike. I mounted it.
Vig’s eyebrows shot up. “You sure you can handle Creeper’s hog?” he asked.
I turned the ignition and gunned the engine. My eyes cut to Vig. “Are you done talking?”
“My bike! Get that bitch off my bike!” Creeper wailed in the darkness.
“Your bik
e rides like shit,” I said and turned to Vig. “Jerk doesn’t take care of his own bike?”
“Fucking disgrace,” Vig said. “Son of a bitch, gotta deal with his ass now.” He took out his cell phone again.
I gripped the handlebars, hit the kickstand, made a tight U-turn then tore off through the tunnel.
“Sister!”
Boner roared up alongside me just as I had turned off the hillside road which led back to the club. I shot him a glance. His long hair flew behind him. I could see the whites of his wild eyes in the inky darkness lit by our headlights.
I knew that look. Last time I saw it was when he had fought with the responding police officer, Trey Owens, and the paramedics at the scene to get to me. I had lost consciousness once again though and had never found out who won that battle.
That look clawed at my heart now and hurtled me through time. It was that same mixture of pain and anger that Boner wore when I insisted he bring me the pills so I could end it in the hospital. He did it for me, but it didn’t work. Caitlyn had figured it out. She screamed for the nurse, and they had pumped my stomach. I woke up to face my hell all over again.
That’s when Vig had paid me a late visit in my hospital room. He sat at the edge of my bed, took my hand in his, and peered into my eyes.
“You know why I’m here?”
I nodded.
“He told you?”
“Only because I found a couple by mistake. Then he told me. Just in case, he said.”
“Smart man,” said Vig. “You’re my only option now, pretty girl. I’m sorry he was taken from you. I’m sorry about your baby. But I need you.”
I tried to pull my hand away from his, but I didn’t have the strength. His fingers pressed in on my hand.
“I heard what you tried to do last night,” he said. “Don’t throw your life away, Sister. You be strong. Hardest thing you ever gotta do after everything you lost. But you got it in you, I know you do.”
“I don’t,” I whispered through dry lips.
“You do. And I’m gonna make you a deal to inspire you. You stay alive, your sister stays alive.”
“What?”
“You stay alive, get better, and get the fuck out of South Dakota, away from your club. You go wherever the hell you want. But you keep moving every so often, spreading my diamonds as you go. In both our names. You do what Dig was doing for me, but in a new way, a better way. I need this done. My shit’s on the line until things settle down. Your Old Man gave me his word. Now it falls on you.”
