Dirty Little Secret

by Laramie Briscoe

  “He is, but I know he wonders about you.” He slipped that tidbit of information in, hoping that she wouldn’t shut down on him. It meant a lot to their relationship, and he wanted her to want that relationship as much as he did.

  She shook her head, her long hair hitting his arm. “I can’t.”

  “You can.”

  Inhaling deeply, she looked him in the eye. “Please respect that, right now, I really can’t. I might work up to it one day, but I don’t want to ruin his happiness.”

  “You wouldn’t be, it would make him even happier.”

  He could see that this caused her anxiety, that somehow she thought Jagger knowing where she was would ruin everything for him. “Okay, I’ll keep your secret for now, but I’m warning you, Christy. I won’t keep it forever. I’m telling you, if you don’t tell him in the next few weeks, I’m telling him. I can’t keep doing this.”

  The look on his face, the tired eyes, the taut features, told her that he was being completely honest. He couldn’t keep living a lie, and if she was honest with herself too, she was sick of being alone. Seeing that picture of Jagger, she wanted nothing more than to be included in that happiness. She might even want that kind of happiness with Travis. “Do you have any more pictures of them?”

  “I do,” Travis nodded. “Have you ever heard your brother sing?”

  She grinned, nodding. “He used to sing me to sleep when I was little. I knew he sang at Wet Wanda’s, but I was always scared to be scheduled on those days or to stick around. I was afraid I would blow my own cover. I haven’t heard it in so long.”

  He grinned back at her. “Then you’re in for a treat.” He flipped through a bunch of pictures—some of just Jagger, some of Jagger with other people—and then he opened up the videos on his phone. “Sometimes we have parties, and every once in a while, we’ll get Jagger to pull out his guitar and sing for us. He did this the other night.” He pulled up the video and pressed play, letting her watch it.

  By the time the video ended she was in tears.

  “Are those good or bad?”

  “Good,” she smiled. “He’s gotten so much better, and he stared at Bianca the entire time he sang that. He loves her so much.”

  “He does,” Travis agreed.

  He shut the phone off and then put it back in his pocket. Out of nowhere, he felt arms around his waist. Christine was hugging him. She was physically touching him someplace other than the back of his bike. This night would go down to be one that he never thought would happen but was so surprised that it had. He wouldn’t forget this night for as long as he lived.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning dawned way too early for Steele, and he knew that he had to bring it. Rooster had brought him in on something that he had absolutely no idea about. He just knew that his cousin had pointed him in the direction of something that maybe the Heaven Hill MC needed to be aware of. He met the guys, just like he promised to do, and took them out deep into Richardsville. Even though he had grown up on these roads, he hated them. They were so curvy, with twists and blind curves that made him nervous. There had to be a reason that Rooster had brought them all the way out there. At one point, they had to pull off to let other people come through the road, even though they were on bikes.

  “This shit is crazy,” Jagger breathed. “I’ve lived in this area my entire life and never knew this shit existed.”

  “This is why the county always took snow days last winter and everybody in town bitched ’cause there was nothing on the roads in Bowling Green. It was slick as snot out here.”

  “Are we almost there?” Layne asked from where he brought up the rear.

  “Yeah, couple more miles ahead,” Travis assured them as they got back on the road.

  The group of them came upon a broken-down farmhouse. It was obvious that it had been in disrepair for years. Travis signaled that this was where they needed to be, and they followed his lead, shutting their bikes off and parking them. “Is this Old Man Sullivan’s place?” Liam asked as he got off his bike and took a look around.

  “It is,” Travis nodded. “It was abandoned even back when we used to come out here as kids, but it was ours.”

  “I think Rooster brought me out here a few times, but the memory is hazy. I think we were doing a little more than playing,” Liam grinned. “We might have been drinkin’ a few beers and experimenting with some Mary Jane.”

  They laughed as Travis broke off from the group, trying to get his bearings. “I’m trying to think, it’s been a very long time since I’ve been out here.” He turned to the left and right. “Tyler, which way is northwest?”

  Looking up at the sun, Tyler pointed in the correct direction. “You’re gonna be over that way.”

  Travis took off until he rounded the house and spotted a large tree. “That’s it. What he wants us to find is over there, but it might take me a minute to get to it.”

  “Go do it. This place gives me the creeps,” Jagger said from where he stood. He had his gloves on, as well as his leathers, but he was fidgety.

  “You too?” Layne asked. “Almost feels like someone’s watching us.”

  “We’re gonna go check it out,” Jagger told Tyler and Liam as they stood there with Travis.

  “Sounds like a good idea,” Tyler agreed. He was also feeling twitchy.

  “Wouldn’t put it past that damn sheriff to be setting us up,” Layne mumbled as they made their way around the house.

  Liam grinned. “He is not a fan of Rooster’s.”

  “Not many of us really are,” Tyler admitted. “You have a much different relationship with him than the rest of us do, you have to admit that.”

  Liam sighed. The relationship he had with the sheriff’s deputy was different than those he had with any of the other guys. He and Rooster had grown up together, speeding down these back roads on bikes that they’d built themselves. They had been the best of friends until that fateful night that had sent it all crashing down. Liam wasn’t willing to relive that night just so he could explain to the guys why they weren’t close anymore. Not even Tyler knew. “I will admit that, but that’s all I’m gonna admit.”

  Travis groaned, digging his way through years of built up foliage. Rooster knew he didn’t do nature, and this was awful. “I could fucking kill him for putting this shit here.”

  “Are you even sure it’s there? Looks like that piece of earth hasn’t been touched in a long time,” Tyler called out.

  “It has been, just not much, but I swear to you, if some snake comes crawling out of this mess, I’m gone. Travis Steele does not do snakes.”

  The guys laughed at him, giving him a hard time as he shuddered. “Be a man,” Tyler laughed.

  “I am, but I do not do snakes.”

  He leaned forward and snatched up another piece of foliage, pulling it back. “Got it!” There was a large wooden box hidden underneath, and Travis pulled it out, throwing it on the ground. When he opened it, Tyler bumped his back and yelled “snake!” making Travis jump back and scream.

  “Fuck you, Blackfoot,” he yelled. “I got bit when I was little, and it was a motherfucking traumatizing experience. This shit is not funny.”

  Liam and Tyler got themselves under control while Travis sat back down to open the box. He pried it open and started pulling out an envelope. Written on the front of it was a note that said to give it to Liam. “Guess this is yours.”

  Liam was about to open the envelope when Layne and Jagger came running behind the house. “Hey, we got company,” Jagger yelled. He’d pulled his bandana back up over his face, so they knew it wasn’t friendly.

  “Who is it?” Tyler asked as he helped Liam and Travis gather their information—not wanting to leave any of it behind, in case Rooster had more in the box.

  “Some sheriff car has driven by here four times. It’s not Rooster, but the last time, the guy had his cell phone out. We need to get out of here.”

  Travis was confused. Rooster had directed them out to
this place because it was so far off anyone’s radar that they should have been able to be out for weeks before anyone knew. He and Liam exchanged a look. Had Rooster set them up?

  They ran to their bikes and fired them up. As they exited the driveway, the sheriff’s deputy pulled in behind them and flashed his lights. “We ain’t stoppin’,” Liam yelled. “I got a bad feelin’ about this.”

  That feeling was reverberating throughout everyone. They took the winding roads as fast as they dared, coming out onto Richardsville Road. This road at least had lines, but it wasn’t any less winding. Even though their bikes were smaller than the sheriff’s cruiser, it was apparent that whoever was driving had much more experience on the road than they did. Travis knew that they needed help, and he knew just the person that could help them. Being a techy sometimes had its advantages. Siri understood him better than anyone else, and he had a hands-free device in his helmet. “Call Cash.”

  Cash Montgomery answered on the first ring. “Yeah?”

  “You know that NOS system you want for your car? That one you’ve promised to work off on the weekends at the shop?” Travis yelled.

  “Yeah,” the younger boy answered.

  “I’ll give the fucker to you if you can intercept this fucking sheriff on 185.”

  “It ain’t Rooster, is it?”

  “Nah, some guy I’ve never seen before, and he’s hell-bent on getting one of us,” Travis yelled over the roar of the bike, his heart beating wildly as he went speeds he was not comfortable with.

  Cash laughed. “Must be their new asshole. He split up the street race on Louisville Road last night, lost a lot of money thanks to him. Word has it that he’s gonna be replacing Rooster. I’ll be there in sixty seconds; I was coming out that way anyway.”

  The two of them hung up, and Travis concentrated on not laying his bike down. They were pushing them hard. These were not race bikes, but Cash had a race car, one that easily won him every street race in this county. At eighteen, he was becoming a local celebrity. As they came upon the intersection that connected Highway 526 to Highway 185, Travis saw Cash’s cherry-colored sports car waiting on them. He could even hear the rev of the engine over their bikes. In the mirror of his bike, he saw Cash wait until the group of them passed—including the sheriff—and then he peeled out, leaving smoke in his wake. It was a few seconds later that Cash caught up to them using the oncoming traffic lane, to inject himself in between the sheriff car and the group of MC riders. Normally, Travis would feel bad about doing this, but they had stuck a stolen license plate on the back of Cash’s car after his last speeding ticket, and he regularly interchanged them. If the sheriff decided to do something, and that was a big if, they would have a hell of a hard time finding out exactly who and where Cash was.

  Cash slammed on his brakes, making the sheriff do the same and giving them a few extra minutes. They took the turn-off at Detour Road and then Cash gunned it, shooting ahead of the sheriff car. It was his decision, who was he going to go after? Was he going to go after any of them? None of them stuck around to find out. They rode straight to the clubhouse. As they all got off their bikes, Liam looked at Travis, breathing heavily.

  “Call Cash and make sure he didn’t get caught.”

  “Will do,” Travis nodded. “I told him that if he did that we’d take care of that NOS system for him.”

  “Sounds good.” Liam started taking his riding gear off. “Just make sure he made it alright. When you’re done, meet us at the table, we need to talk about this.” He held the envelope up in his hand.

  Since becoming a dad, Liam hadn’t exactly gone soft, but Cash was only four years older than Mandy and Drew, and he felt like he had to watch out for him. Especially when he had been doing something to help them.

  The call to Cash took a few minutes. Things had worked out fine, which made Travis feel better about calling him. He’d hated to call the guy in; he was young, but fuck could he drive a car. There was no one else that he trusted to help get them out of that situation more than the man who drove the cherry-red sports car. After he hung up, Travis made his way to the table.

  “Cash alright?” Liam asked. The guy had come to them a few months ago, wanting an engine put in after he’d blown his street racing. Since then, they had all come to like him and had helped him make his car even better. Some of them even bet on him once in a while—it was usually a given that he was going to win.

  “Yeah, he was pulling into his house when I called. He’s good.”

  Liam nodded, happy that had gone well. “Alright, let’s see what this shit is and then figure out what the fuck happened with that cop.”

  Liam opened the envelope and dumped the contents onto the table. He inhaled sharply as he took in the pictures that sat before them. They took him back years, back to a place he didn’t really want to go.

  “What is that?” Tyler asked, turning the pictures so that he could see them. “Are these a crime scene?”

  “They are,” Liam answered. “I didn’t ever expect to see this again,” he breathed out.

  “What are these?” Jagger asked as he thumbed through them.

  “This is the night that changed mine and Rooster’s lives forever. What the fuck is he doing with these?”

  No one could answer that question but the man himself. Liam cursed. He had trusted his old friend, maybe too much. Now he was pissed. He’d finally put this behind him and here this shit was. “Motherfucker,” he spat, as he got up and pulled his phone out, punching a number in furiously.

  Whoever he called must have answered on the first ring. “Explain this shit now.”

  Within minutes he’d hung up. “Rooster’s on his way.”

  None of them knew whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  Chapter Seven

  Afternoon around the Square in Bowling Green was different depending on what time of year it was, Christine was learning. In the late summer or early fall, there were usually concerts in the park, or they were setting up for the Saturday “buy local” events. Now that they were moving into the winter months, she noticed that it wasn’t as busy throughout the day, and at lunchtime it was downright dead. She never seemed to know what would happen from day to day, but she liked that. Routine had been something that Clinton had thrived on, and while she did like a little bit of routine, there was another part of her that liked to live by the seat of her pants. That part of her was Jagger through and through. The phone rang, and she jumped before shaking her head and picking it up.

  “Thank you for calling the Curly-Q, can I help you?”

  She always had to bite back a snicker whenever she pronounced the name of the hair shop she now worked at, but she loved this place. She didn’t know now what she would do without it. Getting her the job here had been one of the best things that Travis had been able to do for her. She’d never had a job before, besides being a stripper, and this was something that she really enjoyed. There had even been thoughts in her head of maybe attending cosmetology school once she got everything straightened out.

  “Hi! Can you tell me if Shelby has any openings for tomorrow afternoon?”

  Christine checked the calendar that was labeled in pink. Shelby had been named for the Steel Magnolia’s character and pink was also her signature color. “She has one at 4:30 PM if that wouldn’t be too late.”

  “No, that’s perfect,” the voice on the other end said. “I teach, so that’ll give me time to run some errands and then be over there.”

  “And what’s your name?”

  “Bianca Hawks, but Shelby knows me as B.”

  Christine almost dropped her pencil as she wrote the name down. What if Jagger came with his girlfriend? Part of her was okay with that, another part was scared to death. “Alright, Bianca, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Her tone was sugary sweet, over-compensating for the shock, but the other woman didn’t pick up on it. Within moments, they hung up.

  “Who was that?” Shelby asked as she came out of the back, putt
ing some hair clips on her apron. She also carried a broom and a dustpan to clean up after the client that had just left the shop.

  “Bianca Hawks,” she said as normally as she could. “She wanted an appointment with you tomorrow.”

  “I love that girl,” Shelby grinned. “And her boyfriend. Holy hell is he a fine piece of ass! He’s got that dangerous thing goin’ on too, ya know, since he’s a member of Heaven Hill.”

  Christine played dumb, but there was a part of her that wondered what Shelby would think if she told her that Jagger was her brother. “I’ve heard that.”

  “Who am I kidding?” Shelby shook her head. “All those men are fine pieces of ass. But all of them are taken, except for the kinda hot, nerdy one.”

  “Travis Steele.” She could definitely vouch that he was a bit nerdy, but he was hot too. Becoming hotter the more she hung out with him. In fact, they had a lunch date scheduled for today, and she was very excited about it.

  “Yeah, that’s him.” She snapped her fingers. “He’s hot in his own way, but he is definitely no Jagger or Tyler.”

  Christine was kind of offended to hear the other woman talk about Travis like he was a second-class citizen. For the first time—ever—she admitted to herself that he was a good-looking guy. He wasn’t huge in a muscular way; he was strong, but had a little meat on his bones. She liked that, along with the fact that he was always doing something different with his facial hair. Sometimes he had a goatee, sometimes he had a soul patch, she had seen him with a full beard, and she had seen him clean-shaven. All ways she liked him, even when he wore those nerdy hipster glasses that she usually hated on men. She still hadn’t gotten the nerve to ask him if he really needed them or if he did it for a fashion statement.

  “He is hot in his own way. In fact, I think he’s hotter, and he’s really nice.”

  She hadn’t meant to say those words out loud.

  “Have you met him?” Shelby’s green eyes were lit up with an enthusiastic need to be nosey. “I’ve never met them or talked to any of them, but I’ve always wanted to. Jagger’s never come in with B, but he’s dropped her off before. I have a cousin who used to be a stripper down at Wet Wanda’s, and she said they were all polite when they came in, but they were badass if someone got out of line.”