Smolder: Trojans MC

by Kara Parker

  “It’s hard to trust a cop. It’s hard even for me, and you’ve saved my bacon twice now,” Hillary said. “There’s no way to explain it. Some kids are raised being told to call the police if there’s ever trouble. Other kids are taught to run away when the police come. It’s a hard-learned habit, and one that’s not easy to quit. But I like you, Olivia. The clubhouse has been re-opened. It looks dark, but the remaining members are all there right now, trying to figure out what to do.”

  “Is David with them?” Olivia asked, jumping up out of her seat.

  “Don’t know if he’s there, but they know where he is.”

  “Thank you, Hillary,” Olivia said, crushing the woman in a strong and fierce hug. “I won’t let you down.”

  “See that you don’t,” Hillary called after Olivia, who had already run out of the door and was headed to her car.

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  Rick’s proposal hung in the air between the two men. Join him? David thought. He seriously thinks that I would join him after what he’s done? David opened his mouth to tell Rick to go fuck himself when he remembered where he was: Trapped in a basement with no way to contact anyone.

  “I...I don’t know, Rick,” David said, as his mind struggled with what to do. He was never actually going to work with Rick. However, he did need to get out of this basement and find Olivia and make sure she was ok.

  “Well, now,” Rick said, putting his hands behind his back and pacing slowly in front of David like some poor imitation of a college professor. “You did just try to betray me yesterday. So I would need some proof of your loyalty before you could officially join the business.”

  “What proof would you need?” David asked, honestly curious what a man like Rick would expect.

  “Something big, David. Something very big,” he paused ominously and stood in front of David, his face solemn and grave. “You would have to kill for me, David. And I mean that quite literally. That cop with the short hair, Waters. She insulted me, got in between a fight with me and my woman. I want her killed and her body dumped in the desert in such a way that it will never be found.”

  Rick’s words were replaced with a buzzing noise, as David tried to comprehend what was just said. Rick wanted Olivia dead because she had insulted him. That was it. Not because she was a good cop or a threat, but just because she had embarrassed Rick in front of a woman.

  “Sure, Rick,” David said, his voice surprisingly clear of any inflection. “I can do that for you. And in return, you’ll make me rich and keep me out of jail?”

  “That is the deal,” Rick said. David looked at the man in front of him, looked him up and down. How had he never noticed how pompous Rick was? This time a month ago, David would have taken a bullet for Rick, would have gone to jail for him, and would have considered him a friend. The David of a month ago was starting to look like a real idiot.

  “No problem,” David said. And all of the sudden he wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh right in Rick’s face and then pound his face into the floor. However, he kept his cool and remained almost otherworldly calm. In a lot of ways, this was perfect. Olivia was safe, and she would continue to be safe because David would have died before he hurt her. “So what’s the business? Weed, heroin?”

  “David, my boy. That’s not the half of it,” Rick said. David stared at him and thought that if Rick called him ‘my boy’ one more time in that patronizing voice, he wasn’t sure if he could contain his fists. Just get out of the basement, he reminded himself. There is still the bald guy with the gun up there, and I’ll need to get past him before I can escape.

  “Drugs are one end of our operation. Women and guns are the other.” Rick looked down at David with an expression that was so disgustingly proud of itself that David didn’t know what reaction he should have in response to it.

  “Women?” David asked.

  “Yes, pretty young things. They are so desperate to come to our great nation, and we do them the service of bringing them here, giving them a place to live, and putting them to work. They, of course, have to pay us back on our investment, but we have a good repayment plan,” Rick said with a disgusting smile on his face. “Although, David, I do have a rule that the men are not allowed to sample the merchandise for free. They can, however, have it at a reduced rate.”

  David nodded numbly. He felt sick; he didn’t think he could stand to hear Rick talk about women as merchandise for another second. “Yeah, that’s all good, Rick, but I would really like to get out of this basement if you don’t mind.” His mind slipped back to that night so long ago when he had escorted Rick to the safe house, when he had thought he’d heard a woman crying. Rick had promised him there were no women in there, but he had clearly been lying. David felt like he was going to vomit when he realized that he had a hand in moving those women. If only he had gone inside and investigated. If only he had never trusted Rick.

  Rick squinted at David. “Can I trust you, David? Will you swear your loyalty to me, discard the Reapers, and join me?”

  “I thought you didn’t believe in loyalty oaths,” David said. “You just said that they were old-fashioned and useless.”

  “But you are also rather old-fashioned—although far from useless,” Rick said. He was holding out his hand, and David didn’t hesitate. He stood up from the bed and shook the other man’s hand.

  He looked Rick in the eye and then said, “I swear my loyalty to you above all others, Rick. You’re one of my oldest friends, and you’re clearly smart and have a plan. I am with you.” He didn’t blink or look away; his voice stayed even, as he lied through his teeth. He had never thought he could be the kind of man who could take an oath and then throw it away, but he had never experienced anything like this. He needed to do what was smart; he needed to get out of that basement and have Rick arrested. Then, he needed to find those women and make sure they were let go.

  With Rick leading the way, the two men walked up the stairs and into a sparse and rather dirty kitchen. A window unit was pumping air into the house, but it was still warm. Bill was sitting on the table, a crossword puzzle half done in front of him.

  “Bill, David is on board. Isn’t that wonderful news?”

  “Sure is. We need some more hands around here,” Bill said. “The ladies come in tonight; we’ll need a place for them to go the bathroom before we separate ‘em and send them north,” Bill said absentmindedly, more focused on the crossword than the conversation.

  “Well, you’ll have to handle that. David has something he has to do for me first. Don’t you, David?” Rick said, clapping David on the back.

  “Yeah,” David said, his voice still sounding detached and emotionless. “Big night, loyalty points to earn.” David took a deep breath. He felt better, or maybe he was just getting used to running around half beat up all the time. However, his headache was gone, his belly was full, and he was ready to destroy Rick, to bring him down. But how?

  “Where are we?” David asked, looking around the house. He wanted to get a good look at it to see if anyone else was inside. There was a very good chance he could end this whole thing right here and now. He had Rick’s trust; now all he would need to do was incapacitate Bill and take Rick to justice.

  “A house a friend owns,” Rick said. “But I don’t yet trust you to give you all my secrets, David. Do what I asked you to do, and then we can talk. Your motorcycle is out back; you should go now.”

  “Yes,” David agreed, but in reality he was thinking about Bill’s shotgun that was only a few paces away. He could make a break for it and try to go for the gun, but he was still outnumbered, and he would be defenseless while he lunged. It would be too easy for Rick or Bill to sucker punch him and lay him out. He could try to take the two men in a fight, but they were just plain bigger than he was, which gave them an advantage. Plus, he was still pretty battered and bruised.

  So David decided to wait, to bide his time. He wasn’t leaving that house without Rick.

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN


  Olivia took a deep breath, as she sat in her parked car looking at the clubhouse that belonged to the Reapers. The cops couldn’t shut down the club entirely. This was still America, and they did still have the right to assemble. Plus, the Reapers were devastated; there were less than a dozen still free and the ones who had been arrested had been processed and charged. Olivia hadn’t been able to find out how they had done it, but she knew that both Mike and Rick were cleared of all charges and they were free men again.

  Olivia was just glad that David hadn’t been arrested. She knew how deep his loyalty went, and she knew that if Mike had asked, David would have taken the fall for the older man. The unfairness of it all burned her. Who were Mike and Rick that they could enjoy freedom while other men went to prison for them? Olivia couldn’t understand why David was so attached to the club. She could sympathize; she just didn’t agree.

  Her gun was in her lap—not her police issued gun, her personal gun. She was debating if she should bring it in with her. Common sense said no. The Reapers would want to know if she was wearing a wire and would surely frisk her. However, going in there unarmed seemed insanely dangerous. In the end, she locked the gun in her glove compartment. Olivia wasn’t planning on going with guns blazing anyway, so bringing it with her would just create distrust.

  The street around the warehouse was unearthly quiet. No cars passed, no one pulled up or left, and there were no bikes parked outside. Normally, there would be a large door open, letting the noise escape and fresh air come in. It would have been normal to pass this garage on an average day and see a dozen men hunched over their bikes, like mothers over their newborns. However, today, there was only silence and the sadness of something lacking.

  She walked up to the front door and banged on it three times, waiting to see what would happen. A small window on the door opened and a pair of angry eyes glared at her from the other side.

  “Fuck off, pig,” the voice spit, and then the window slammed shut.

  Olivia rolled her eyes and pounded on the door again, but there was no answer. So she kept hitting it with her fist until finally the man came back and opened the window.

  “I want to talk to Mike,” Olivia said, before the man could speak. “I have some information for him and him alone.” She could see confusion in the man’s eyes; they shifted back and forth and looked at her, as the person behind the eyes decided what to do.

  “Wait,” he muttered, slamming the door closed. Olivia looked around the desolate streets surrounding the Reapers’ headquarters. She was on the lookout for squad cars, aware of how much trouble she would really be in if anyone found out what she was about to do.

  Finally, after three minutes, the door was opened, and Olivia was beckoned inside. From the bright outside light, the headquarters looked dark, and Olivia strained her eyes, but she couldn't see anything inside. Giving one last prayer to any God that might have been listening, she stepped into the darkness and heard the door swing and slam shut behind her with a finality that was terrifying.

  “Up against the wall,” a gruff voice said, and Olivia complied, pressing her hands flat on the cool cement walls of the headquarters and spreading her legs shoulder width apart. She felt the hands of the biker run up and down her legs and over her torso. She focused on keeping her breathing calm and reminding herself that she wasn’t hiding anything so there was nothing to fear from the frisk.

  “I need that,” Olivia said, as she felt her phone pulled out of her back pocket.

  “All clear,” a gruff voice said, and Olivia stood away from the wall and held out her hand for her phone. The remainders of God’s Reapers were a sad group indeed. There were about nine of them total, most of them older and paunchy and not terribly intimidating looking. They had that haunted look of men who had been running and scared for days on end. They crossed their arms and glared at Olivia, muttering to each other in low voices.

  “I’m Mike,” one of the men said. Olivia looked at the man who David had so admired. He was a giant, over six feet tall and with a substantial belly. However, there was intelligence in his eyes, and unlike the men that surrounded him, he had not quite given up.

  “I need to speak with you privately,” Olivia said. The eyes of the men around her shifted from Olivia to Mike and back again, and there were rumblings, mentions of Olivia being a cop and a pig and untrustworthy. “You want to hear what I have to say,” Olivia said. She stared into Mike’s eyes, trying to convince him with her gaze that she was someone to be trusted.

  “Come on,” Mike said, jerking his head to the left. She followed him up a set of metal stairs and entered his office. She closed the door behind her and sat down across from Mike. Without speaking, Olivia put her phone on the desk between them and hit play, and within the second, the robotic voice spilled the Reapers’ secrets out into the world.

  She watched Mike’s face closely. She watched as confusion turned into anger and then anger into incredulousness and then a shocked understanding. They listened to the recording in full, and by the end, Mike was shaking his head. His face was pale, and he looked drained, like listening to the tape had taken something out of him.

  “It’s Rick,” Olivia said. Mike jerked his head up and stared at her, his mouth open.

  “You...David?” he stammered.

  “We started working together after the raid, not before it. I swear it to you. We just wanted to figure out who it was and why they did it. He never betrayed you. You can’t imagine the respect that he has for you and how important you are to him. When we found out it was Rick, David made me promise not to arrest him until he had spoken with you.”

  “David was right,” Mike said, and it was as if he only believed the words as he spoke them. “Rick betrayed us.”

  “And he’s started his own business. He knocked you guys down so he could take your place and be the one in charge.”

  Mike nodded and said, “I know, David told me. I didn’t believe him. My God,” he said, running his hand over his forehead, “I didn’t believe him.”

  “I can’t find him. I haven't heard from David in two days. He was supposed to call me after he told you, but he never did. Do you have any idea where he could be?” Olivia was leaning across the desk, trying to force Mike to look her in the eye to see her sincerity and desperation.

  “I know where he is,” Mike whispered. His voice was so quiet and his face had gone gray, and Olivia was worried he was about to have a heart attack.

  “Where?” Olivia said, as her heart plunged in her chest. She could see the look on Mike’s face, his ashen demeanor. Please, she thought, please let him be ok.

  “Rick has him,” Mike said, finally looking Olivia in the eye. “After David told me what he had found, I didn't believe him. I thought he was trying to push blame onto Rick. I told Rick what David said, but he just laughed and told me not to worry about it, that he would handle David.”

  “Handle him?” Olivia repeated numbly. “What does that mean?”

  “He’s not dead. I told Rick not to hurt him too badly.”

  “Where is he!?” Olivia said, and she was out of her chair before she knew it and advancing on Mike on the other side of the desk.

  “4567 Michigan Street,” Mike said quickly. “It’s far out into the desert, no other houses around, few cars go anywhere near there. It’s far out, and it’s very isolated.” He was leaning back in his chair, trying to create distance between himself and Olivia, even though he was three times as big as she was and she was unarmed.

  Olivia snatched her phone off the desk and turned to leave, but when she was at the door, she spun around and said, “You were wrong. David is a good man, and you should have trusted him. You don’t deserve his loyalty.”

  Mike nodded once, and Olivia stormed out of his office, slamming the door behind her. She jumped down the metal steps and was at the door when she heard a voice from the catwalk above.

  “Wait.” She looked up; it was Mike looking down on her, but he was no longer t
he shocked, ashen-faced man from a moment ago. Now, he was all thunder and leadership, and Olivia finally understood why David respected him. “We’re coming with you,” he said. “Boys, suit up. It’s time to ride.”

  “You want to go with me?” Olivia asked, her voice echoed around the warehouse. The corners and the back were still dark and empty, and it sounded like her own voice was shouting back at her from the darkness. The members of God’s Reapers who were still free looked up at their boss on the catwalk. There were eleven of them, all of them grizzled and old. They weren’t the first people Olivia would have chosen to ride with her onto battlefield, but it was better than going alone. “If we do this, we have to do this my way. I’m a cop and I want my job back. So, I’m going to arrest Rick and I bring him in,” Olivia said, clenching her fists as she stared up at Mike on the platform.

  The bigger man took a step towards Olivia, his foot hit the metal stair and a thud rang out around them. It was like he was a different person than the one she had met in the office. When he had listened to the tape, he could have been any man Olivia was delivering bad news to, like an uncle or a grandfather. But now, as he loomed above her, she saw the man that had taken control of one of the most powerful biker gangs in the state. He stood strong, his neck and back straight, his expression stern, and in his eyes was a look of vengeance.