by Nicole James
Crystal had been hired to work the reception desk. She stood staring out the large front window, her fingers drumming on the counter. The three inches of beaded bracelets that stacked up her wrists clicking against the Formica, restlessness rumbling inside her. Her birthday was coming this weekend, and she missed her friends. She missed them terribly. Trying to start a new life in a new city where she knew no one, was hard. Sometimes she questioned the insanity of the decision. When she’d left San Jose, she’d just driven, just gotten in her car and driven until she’d found herself in this town. She’d liked the rustic look of the place and stayed a few days, trying to decide what to do with her life, how to start over, even questioning her decision to leave at all. There were so many times on the drive that she’d felt like turning the car around.
Her thoughts took her back to Wolf. She remembered a birthday she’d had when she’d first started working the bar at the clubhouse. She’d been alone one afternoon, setting up for another Friday night, when Wolf had come in and taken a seat at the end of the bar. She’d looked over and smiled.
“Hey, Wolf. Can I get you a beer?”
He’d nodded.
When she’d brought it over to him, he’d had a cupcake sitting in front of him. She’d frowned at him, eyeing it as she’d slid the beer on the bar. He’d given her a sly grin as he’d stuck a candle in it and pulled a lighter from his pocket and flicked it. His eyes connected with hers as he brought the flame to the candle and lit it. Then he’d pushed the cupcake toward her.
“Happy Birthday, Crystal.”
She’d sucked her lips in and felt her eyes start to sting with tears. No one at the club knew it was her birthday. And she’d meant to keep it that way, letting it pass quietly. But then she’d stared down at that cupcake, and she’d realized how nice it was when someone knew, when someone cared enough to do something like that to let you know you mattered. She’d whispered, “How did you know?”
He’d winked at her. “I have my ways.”
She’d frowned at him.
He’d shrugged. “I do security setups. I run backgrounds on every potential prospect… and every employee.” He’d waggled his brows. “I know everything about you, babe. Down to your bra size.”
She’d stared at him, and then a smile had broken out on her face. “Oh, really?”
He’d grinned. “Really, babe. Now you gonna make a wish and blow out your candle?”
The phone rang in the tattoo shop, shaking her from her memories.
She picked up the receiver. “Good morning, Brothers Ink. How may I help you?”
“Crystal?”
She frowned. “Shannon?”
“How are you?”
“I’m great. God, it’s so good to hear from you. How are you?”
“Good. Angel and I were sitting here having coffee, and we just realized it’s your birthday this weekend.”
“Oh, God, don’t bring that up.”
“What’s the matter? Not wanting to turn thirty?” Shannon teased.
“I’m staying twenty-nine forever.”
“Sorry, kid. It doesn’t work that way.”
“Rats.”
“So, anyway, we’ve decided a girl’s weekend is in order.”
“You’re coming here?”
“No. We were thinking bigger.”
“Bigger?”
“Vegas, baby.”
“Vegas? Are you insane?”
“Nope. I already made reservations. And don’t worry about the cost. It’s on us. Your birthday present.”
Crystal bit her lip. “I appreciate the thought, but I can’t. I have to work this weekend. Pretty much every weekend.”
“No excuses. You’re coming.”
“Really, Shannon, my boss would never let me off.” Crystal noticed someone out of the corner of her eye and turned to see the man himself standing with his arms folded looking at her. And he wasn’t happy.
Shannon’s voice sounded in her ear. “That’s why we already asked him. I’m betting he just walked over to your desk, didn’t he?”
“Yup.”
She heard both Shannon and Angel giggling through the phone. “Pack your bags, sugar. He said yes. Oh, and by the way, he was a little pissed you didn’t mention your birthday.”
“I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“I’ve got to go.”
Shannon giggled. “I bet you do. See you tomorrow night. I just emailed you all the info.”
Crystal quickly said her goodbyes and hung up the receiver, her eyes on her boss. “Sorry about that. Did you want something?”
“Were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you? Tell you what?” Crystal played dumb. He looked pissed. At her. Oh, God, what had Shannon done, going straight to her boss like that? Crystal wanted to crawl under the desk in embarrassment. Not only had Shannon called him, but then he comes out and catches her on a personal call. Shit. But it had been the only one since she’d been here. He couldn’t possibly be upset about that, could he? Although, she had to admit, he had a temper, a true Irish temper. She’d seen it on occasion, but in all the months she’d worked here, he’d never turned it on her. In fact, he’d never been anything but nice to her.
His brows rose. “Were you going to tell me that it’s your birthday Saturday?”
She swallowed. “They shouldn’t have called you. I’m so sorry.”
“Your girl, Shannon, she told me you were turning thirty, and they want to treat you to a girl’s weekend. She seemed sure that you’d make excuses for not being able to go. Work, specifically.”
“We work every weekend. It’s when you’re the busiest. I couldn’t possibly go. And she shouldn’t have called you. I’m sorry about that.” Crystal frowned. “Is that who that last call I put through to you was? She used a Texas accent. That little fraud.”
“Don’t change the subject.” He glared at her.
She huffed out a breath. “No. I wasn’t going to tell you. Why would I? It’s not exactly something I’m looking forward to. Thirty. Woo hoo. I’m so excited.” She twirled her finger in the air.
A slow grin formed on his face. “What’s wrong with turning thirty? Things just get better, Ace.” He winked. “I’m thirty-eight. You sayin’ I’ve lost my sex appeal?”
Her eyes skated down him as he stood with his muscular arms folded, leaned back against the L-shaped end of the counter, his legs crossed at his booted ankles. He certainly hadn’t lost it. He was tall and built with a long dark blonde ponytail and pretty blue eyes. From the expensive boots he wore, to the watch on his wrist, he was head-to-toe GQ. Ralph Lauren had nothing on him. Except maybe the tattoos that ran up his forearms, revealed by the expensive denim shirt he wore rolled up at the sleeves. No, Jameson O’Rourke had not lost his sex appeal.
But he wasn’t really Crystal’s type. Maybe he was just a little too polished, which was strange for the profession he chose. But since he viewed what he did as an art form, she guessed it made sense. The shop was lined with framed art. All of it his.
“No, of course not. You haven’t lost your sex appeal.”
He grinned. “Maybe this isn’t an appropriate conversation to have with your boss.”
“Pretty sure not.” Crystal rolled her eyes.
He nodded toward the phone. “They must be pretty good friends to go to all this trouble.”
“They are, but I can’t leave the shop. Not for a whole weekend.”
He lifted his chin toward her work area. “Wrap up whatever you were doing, and get out of here.”
She frowned. “What?”
“Go. Get out of here. You’ve got a bag to pack. And if I know women, you’ve got shopping to do before your trip.”
“I can’t go.”
“The hell you can’t.”
“Jameson…”
He turned and ambled off, saying over his shoulder. “You’re still here in an hour, you’re fired.”
“Fired?” Crystal whined at his
retreating back.
He kept walking. “Happy Birthday, Ace.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Cole stood by his bike in the gravel parking lot of what once was The Pony, one of Nevada’s most successful brothels. A brothel the Evil Dead MC owned. Well, not outright on paper. Their ownership was buried in dummy corporations a mile deep.
“Let me bum a smoke,” he asked Red Dog, who dug a pack out of his vest and shook one out. So much for trying to quit. At this rate, he was going to have an ulcer as well. Pulling his silver Zippo from his pocket, Cole lit the cigarette up, drawing hard. He flipped the lighter closed and shoved it in his pocket, letting the smoke expand in his lungs and the nicotine flood his system like sweet nirvana. Blowing out the smoke, he said, “Thanks, Dog.”
They both watched as Crash approached them from the rubble of the gutted building. Beyond him, Cole could see Mack still standing talking with the Fire Marshall.
Crash reached them with the update. “He says it’s definitely arson. And the way he’s questioning Mack, I’m betting he thinks it’s an inside job.”
Cole exhaled and squinted at him through the smoke. “So, they think we burned our own goddamn business down? A business bringing in a ton of money? For what? Insurance money?”
Crash shrugged. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just telling you what he’s thinking.”
“And does he know what and where it started?”
“Says it was at the back of the rear wing, where the lighting was probably the worst.”
Jason walked up and Cole turned on him. “I thought we had security cameras?”
“We do. But we also have a ton of customers coming and going at that time of night. We don’t have someone staring at the monitor non-stop. Dolly and I are busy with customers and payments and keeping the Johns in order.”
“I thought we had dogs. What happened to the two Dobermans you kept out back?” Cole prodded.
“They found their bodies behind the building. They were shot.”
“And you didn’t hear that shit?” Cole snapped.
Jason held his hands out. “Look, everything happened so fast. One of the girls reported hearing something, but then the smoke detectors started going off, and then building started filling up with smoke. People were panicking, and we were just trying to get everyone out.”
Cole ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “You do a good job, man. I’m not trying to blame you. I’m just fucking pissed.”
“What’s the next step? You planning to rebuild?”
“Not sure. Mack’s gotta work that out with the state licensing board, I’m not sure how it all works. Maybe they’ll let us set up something temporary and keep the girls working. Maybe not.”
Jason nodded.
“They all doing okay?” Red Dog asked.
Jason shrugged. “They’re all pretty shook up. Dolly’s with them. The Red Cross is putting up some of them temporarily down at the Kingman Motel.”
Cole lifted his chin toward Jason. “Give us a minute.”
Jason nodded at the look Cole gave him that meant he needed to discuss club business, and that wouldn’t be happening in front of him.
When Jason walked off, Cole’s eyes swung to Crash. “They recover the safe?”
“It’s buried. They’re pulling it out now.” He nodded back toward a couple of firemen working through the debris.
Cole nodded. His mind went over every enemy they had. Burning the place to the ground was a little drastic for a pissed off client or jealous boyfriend, but not outside the realm of possibilities. But Cole couldn’t help thinking this had to be directed at the club. If someone wanted to hit them where it’d hurt, this was definitely a way to do it. Financially, it was going to be a major hit.
“You thinking this is connected to Temecula?” Crash asked in a low voice.
Cole’s eyes swung to him. “If somebody is wanting to fuck with us, they’re doing a damn fine job of it.”
“If there is a connection that pretty much rules out another cartel in the Temecula hit. There’s no way a cartel would bother with this.” Crash nodded toward the rubble.
“So who does that leave?”
“Another club, I’m guessing.”
“But which one? DKs? Death Heads?”
Just then Green came hopping on one foot across the parking lot toward them.
“Oh, look. Here comes Peter Cottontail,” Red Dog bit out with a grin.
“I stepped on a motherfucking nail!” Green shouted.
Dog shook his head with a smirk. “You dumbass.”
****
“We have to text the guys. We can’t wait any longer,” Angel insisted as they rode the elevator.
“Speak for yourself,” Mary looked over at her with a ‘not-on-your-life’ look. “I’m not telling Dog a thing. How stupid do I look?”
“Come on, Mary. We agreed,” Shannon insisted. “We have to tell them all at once, otherwise they’ll hear it from each other, and it’ll just be that much worse when we get home.”
“You’re joking, right?” Mary gave her an arch look.
“Just get your phone out. If we’re going down for this. At least we’re going down together.”
“Why can’t we just tell them when we get home?” Natalie asked, biting her lip.
“Natalie, are you worried about Mack?” Angel asked with a teasing look.
“Of course not! It’s just, well, we just arrived and I was hoping we’d get at least one day in before we were all ordered home.”
“They can order all they want. We’re here, and they’re there. What can they do about it?” Shannon insisted.
“I wouldn’t underestimate them. The only thing we’ve got going for us is that they don’t know where we are,” Natalie murmured.
“Exactly, so why are we texting them?” Mary whined.
“I just can’t lie to Cole,” Angel insisted. “I have to tell him.”
Mary let out a heavy sigh. “Oh, all right. But don’t say I didn’t warn you if this all blows up in our faces.”
They all pulled their phones out and typed off a text. Then they looked at each other.
“Ready? Set? Send.”
“Five bucks says our phones all go off before the elevator doors open,” Mary insisted, watching the numbers illuminate as they climbed to the eighteenth floor.
“I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we all turn them off, and let’s go get drunk?” Crystal suggested.
“Excellent plan!” Shannon concurred, shutting her phone down and tossing it in her bag.
****
After hours standing in the hot Nevada sun and smelling the burnt remains of the Pony, the boys had finally finished getting shit in order, loaded up and pulled out.
Twenty minutes later, the six bikes rolled into a gas station to fill up before heading back up to San Jose. They all dismounted.
Wolf pulled the nozzle from the pump, unscrewed his gas cap and shoved the end in the tank, squeezing the handle. His eyes slid to Green where he stood one pump over and had begun rambling on some random topic, like he often had a tendency to do. Leave it to Green to start-in yammering on about something no one gave a shit about. Like his favorite brand of waffles, or why dog’s drool.
“Do you believe in auras?” Green asked.
Wolf gave him a look, which didn’t shut him up, not that it ever had.
“I watched this show about it the other day, and it said the color of someone’s aura reveals what they’re really feeling.”
Before Wolf could respond, Green’s attention was distracted as a car pulled up, and a hot blonde got out. The girl began pumping gas and Green, abandoning his conversation, wandered over to flirt with the woman.
Shaking his head at Green’s totally unsurprising behavior, Wolf turned away to talk to Cole. “So, Jason’s gonna call you with an update tomorrow?”
Cole glanced over. “Yeah. After he meets with the County Sheriff and the District Attorney.”
&n
bsp; Wolf nodded. Then a commotion drew his attention. Glancing back, he saw the woman Green had been flirting with duck into her car and come out with a handgun which she aimed over the roof of the car toward Green.
“Get away from me or I’ll shoot your junk off!” she yelled. Then she jumped in her car and sped away.
Green shouted after her, “We’re soul mates. The sooner you figure that out the less creepy I’ll seem.”
Wolf held back his laughter long enough to call out, “Hey, Green.”
“What?” Green replied, still staring after the disappearing car.
“I think her aura was a bright shade of ‘fuck off and leave me alone’.”
The guys all burst out laughing.
“I think she liked me,” Green said, still staring.
“I’m no expert, but when a woman threatens to shoot your dick off, I’m pretty sure it’s time to back the fuck off,” Cole chuckled.
“Wolf, think I can track her down by her plate number?”
Wolf rolled his eyes. “Let it go, bro.”
Red Dog shook his head as Green walked past him back to his bike. “Some of your behavior is completely embarrassing, but highly entertaining at the same time. So, keep it up.”
Cole snickered, “Why can’t Green find a girl? The mystery continues.”
Green slammed the cap back on his gas tank. “Screw this, I’m goin’ inside and getting me some snacks.”
“Get me a pack of smokes and a water, will you?” Cole shouted after him.
Red Dog chuckled. “Better give him a list or he’ll end up in the booze aisle.”
Green’s response was to keep walking but lift his arm up, flashing them all the finger over his shoulder.
Crash chuckled at that as his cell phone went off. He pulled it from his pocket, looking at the screen. Incoming text from Shannon. He smiled as he swiped his thumb over the screen to open it. The smile on his face faded as he read it.
“Jesus Christ.”
Cole frowned over at him as he screwed the cap on his gas tank and hung up the nozzle. “Problems?”
“It’s Shannon. She’s in Vegas.”
