by A. J. Downey
“Put what to a vote?” I demanded. I wanted to fucking make sure we were crystal goddamned clear this time. No mistakes. No fucking up. No Tiny going on his own fucking program.
“My standing as SAA and within the club, period. What the fuck, Man?”
“That’s fucking right, and guess fucking what?” I pointed in the direction of the open bar room door and dropped both feet to the floor, the flip flops slapping loud against the concrete. “Someone, and by the set of her I’d say some sort of LEO, just came looking!”
“Oh Jesus Christ, Man! It’s been over a year, even if she was a fucking cop she ain’t got shit,” he tried to blow it off and I turned my pointing finger to a fist and brought it crashing down on the arm of my chair.
“You don’t get to decide that! Now I kept you on as a favor to Mac but this ain’t his club anymore. It’s mine and you have proven, time and fucking time again that you ain’t interested in falling in line and now you’ve put all of us, every single fucking one of us, in the goddamned hot seat! I told you, consequences, Man.” I crossed my arms while Tiny looked at me poleaxed.
“It ain’t nothing to make this bitch disappear too…”
“Have you learned nothing?” I bellowed, “This isn’t some girl with no family! No, you sit your ass right there.” I pulled my phone out of my cut and dialed Marlin, my VP. He answered on the third ring.
“Yo.”
“Marlin, Cutter, we have ourselves a situation. Get your ass and the rest of the council in here pronto.”
“Can you give me a heads up, Man? How bad is it?”
“No; talk when you all get here.” I hung up. The entire dialogue my eyes were locked with Tiny’s watery blue ones and he looked positively mutinous. He was standing alone on the sentiment. Dumb fucking cunt.
“You’re really blowing this shit out of proportion, Cut.”
“We’ll see what your brothers have to say about that.”
Stalemate. Tiny and I sat in an angry uncomfortable silence while we waited for the rest of the boys to arrive. Atlas, who was at the bar on his cell making calls, leaned back and gave me a chin lift, indicating Marlin had called him and he would be in with the rest when they came. Nothing showed first, then Marlin. Pyro took the longest but I knew what he was doing. He was out on a salvage tow, bringing a boat back into the harbor. There was no cutting corners in our line of work.
By the time my best friend rolled in, the boys had moved enough bar tables into the room down in front of my chair so that we had a meeting table. Without a word, Pyro closed up the big wooden doors leading back here. We were effectively plunged into silence. I slid the gavel out of its pocket where it hid behind the back of my chair and cracked it sharply on the arm.
“To order,” I called.
“What do you have, Brother?” Marlin asked me calmly. He was a good man, not my best friend, not my worst, but one of the most dependable dudes I had ever met. His eyes were a deep blue, the color of the fish, but that isn’t how he got his name. He got his name for pulling in one of the biggest motherfucking Marlin’s in state history. He was a sport fisherman by trade and ran a deep sea fishing outfit out of a slip a few down from my maritime salvage vessel.
“The Sacred Hearts Lake Run. The first one, I agreed to return one of The Suicide King’s girls to Tallahassee.” I watched frowns crush the expressions of my brothers around the table.
It was a big fucking tragedy what’d happened to that girl, and it was all my fucking fault. I’d put the matter into Tiny’s hands, him and a prospect’s. Told Tiny to ‘take care of her.’ I should have chosen my fucking words more carefully. When we went to head out the day after seeing The Sacred Hearts off, she’d gone missing. Tiny had choked the life out of that girl, scattered her parts all the way down the fucking highway to hell and gone… on my order.
“Why we revisiting this now?” Pyro asked, grim.
“I told you what would happen if anybody came looking and now someone has – ”
Tiny interrupted me, “Aw come off it, Cutter!” Marlin stood up, Pyro right on his heels.
“That’s your President, Dude. Show some fucking respect,” Atlas grated.
Pyro and Marlin sank into their seats and I could read it on all of their faces. They were all sick and tired of Tiny’s fuck ups and he’d run clean out of good will with every last one of them.
“Who was she?” I asked Atlas.
“Not sure yet,” he said honestly, “I’ve got calls out to every contact I’ve got. It’d be easier if I had a last name but that’ll come in time. Whole town is lookin’ out now. Won’t be long.” His phone vibrated across the table.
“Speak of the devil.” He scrolled down the screen and nodded, “Andrews, Hope Elizabeth Andrews.” He gave a low whistle like he was impressed.
“What is it?” Nothing asked.
“She’s a fucking badass, but she’s not exactly a cop. She works for ‘em though. Ex-military,” he glanced in my direction, “Army,” he clarified for my benefit, “Tested high with an aptitude for teaching so they made her into an instructor. A good one.”
“Relation to the girl?” Pyro asked for me.
“Nothing yet.”
“How the fuck did you get all that so quick?” Pyro asked with a frown.
“Linked In. Her whole work history is up,” he turned his phone and sure as shit, there was Hope, hair pulled up into a severe bun, face flawless and her dark brown eyes sparking into the camera. She looked every inch the professional badass. Mercenary style. Interesting.
“Names are powerful things, fellas. First and last and you can find just about anything on someone.” Atlas tucked his phone away.
“We need to vote this, I can’t have a Sergeant at Arms bringing down this kind of heat with piss poor fucking decisions. Going off halfcocked on his own fucking program all the time.”
“Now that’s bullshit! You gave me the order…”
“I say strip him.” Nothing said and stared coldly at Tiny, effectively silencing him.
“Of his rank or his whole goddamn patch?” Marlin asked disgustedly.
“Rank for now, probation for the patch,” Nothing clarified.
“I second,” Pyro said while Tiny sat there gaping like a landed fish.
“In favor of stripping rank say ‘yay’,” I said and immediately followed it up with, “Yay.”
“Yay.” Atlas.
“Don’t fucking look at me, I suggested it!” Nothing said flatly and I gave him the look. He looked sheepish for half a second and entered his proper vote for the record, “Yay.”
“Yay.” Pyro
“Nay.” Tiny spit on the floor.
“Shut the fuck up! You don’t get a vote when you’re the one getting’ voted on. Yay,” Marlin finished. I picked up the gavel and clapped it against the arm of my chair.
“So entered, so ordered.”
Tiny made to stand up but Marlin and Nothing were already there, pressing him down into his seat. I got up and snapped open the Panak switchblade Reaver had gifted me upon leaving with his woman, six months or so back. Tiny made a noise of protest and jerked against the hold of the men to either side of him.
“I’d hold still, wouldn’t hurt my feelings none if he cut you on accident,” Pyro’s smile was decidedly unfriendly. I went in and slashed the SAA flash off his cut and straightened. Tiny was glaring daggers at me but he kept his fucking mouth shut. Marlin and Nothing let him go and he jerked his cut straight on his body over his black tank.
“I could have done it,” he said gruffly.
“You ain’t exactly been on the level with us lately brother,” Atlas said and he sounded sorry. None of us enjoyed this but we enjoyed dealing with cleaning up after Tiny even less. I knew the minute he’d told me he’d killed that girl that some serious bad juju would come our way. Now the storm was just on the horizon and maybe coming in fast, hard to tell.
“Just be grateful you’re still even here, Man.” Marlin shook his head and j
erked his chin towards the door. Tiny scowled and went out to the bar, took two shots in rapid succession and went out. A second later his bike fired up and he peeled out. Fuck man. We all traded a look.
“Radar?” we all said in unison then broke into grins. Tiny was seriously the only fucking dude in this club not on the same page with the rest.
“Yeah, call him,” Marlin said. We brought Radar in. The rest of the club’s patched members were contacted, brought in, the vote cast and not surprisingly unanimously so. I bailed earlier than I intended and rode out along the strip. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking for that set of long, tanned legs out from under that short, white, fluttery skirt she’d been wearing. I was pretty sure I would see her again… The town just wasn’t that big and she’d gotten my attention for sure. Hope Elizabeth Andrews didn’t know it, but she was under my mark now. It’d be interesting to see where this was going to go. I just hoped for her sake and my club’s that it didn’t go anywhere tragic.
Chapter 3
Hope
I took my coffee off the marble countertop from the smiling barista and thanked her. I sipped the frosty confection and turned to head back out into the overcast, Ft. Royal afternoon, and stopped cold. Cutter, president of The Kraken motorcycle gang, was just outside the door to the place, shoulder leaned nonchalantly on the building’s overhang support pillar. He was the picture of smug carelessness, arms crossed over his cut, but narrow chest, clad only in his leather motorcycle vest. A pair of ratty cargo shorts hanging low on his hips. His well-defined hip flexors carved that delicious damn ‘V’ inviting my gaze lower and I wasn’t ashamed to take the invitation. Never have been, and never would be.
I caught his smug smile turning into a full on grin as I swept my gaze lower, pausing just enough where it counted even though there wasn’t terribly much to look at, the shorts just loose enough to leave you wondering. He had one foot crossed in front of the other, the toes perched against the cracked sidewalk, while the leg behind it remained flat to the ground. He was balanced well. Weight evenly distributed, and in total control of himself. I guess he hadn’t let his training lapse either.
“You following me?” I asked, arching one brow. His full lips crushed down in an attempt to look sincere as he suppressed his smile, and shook his head but his warm brown eyes sparkled with mirth.
“Nope, just coming in to get a cup of coffee. Small town, best place for it.”
As if on cue the barista at the register called out, “Usual, Cutter?”
“That would be fantastic, Lily,” he called past me.
I slipped out the door and onto the corner and waited for traffic to clear before I crossed.
“So? You find what you’re looking for yet?” he called nonchalantly, when there was nothing nonchalant about it, I looked back over my shoulder at him where he looked back over his at me. Our gazes locked and sparks flew.
“How do you know her?” I asked, point blank.
“I told you, I didn’t.” His eyes shut down, became calculating and I felt mine narrow.
“Oh, come on, Lieutenant. You can’t bullshit a bullshitter,” I raised my eyebrows and took a sip of my drink, holding the straw to my lips, and even though I didn’t show it, I let myself have a self-satisfied smile on the inside when his eyes fixed on the straw where I pressed it into my bottom lip. He smiled and it wasn’t warm nor cold, it spoke of a total lack of surprise on his part.
“You’ve done your homework,” he said quietly and the mock friendliness of a moment before crystallized and snapped into something much more real. We weren’t playing anymore. Good. Faith wasn’t a game to me, she was my sister and I needed to know what happened. Dead or alive, I had to find her.
“No doubt you’ve done yours too,” I said.
“No doubt about that, Sweetheart,” he winked at me and there was a lull in the conversation.
“How do you know her?”
“Why are you looking for her?”
“I asked first.”
“Uh huh,” he dropped his arms and buried his hands in his pockets, his shoulders hitching once in that thoughtful sort of physical expression people so often do but are completely unaware of. He chewed the inside of his cheek and stared off into space for a few heartbeats before shuffling into the coffee place. He picked up his drink off the counter and shuffled right on back out. It did not go unnoticed by me that he didn’t pay and the girls behind the counter paid it no mind.
I wasn’t really surprised, I’d been around law enforcement enough to know how this worked. Small town like this? The MC probably had more clout than the local P.D. I decided to test the theory some as Cutter drew up even with me after retrieving his drink.
“Let me guess, they pay you protection money or you have some other kind of racket going on with them?” I asked. Cutter grinned and goddamn it was disarming. I’m pretty sure if I’d been wearing any, my panties would have gone up in flames.
“Ha! What kind of thing you think we got going around here? Never mind, don’t answer that,” he stepped off the curb with me as I made my way up the street, the skirt of my summer dress swishing with each step. Okay, fine, maybe I put just enough swing into my hips to make it sway. It had the desired effect though. I stopped on the opposite side of the street and turned to look at him and most definitely caught him checking me out.
“What do you have going on around here?” I asked, since he opened the door, I would walk right through, thank you very much.
“You show me yours I’ll show you mine, Sweetheart,” his voice dipped low, for my ears alone and it was one hell of a sexy sound. He compounded the sexy by stepping just inside my personal space, I looked up defiant and he looked down the few scant inches separating us. His eyes flicked from my eyes to my lips and I almost wanted him to go there. God damn this guy was sex on a stick and it had really been too fucking long.
Hardcore attraction aside, I was always one to push my limits and to take things up a notch when challenged. I stepped just that liiiiiiittle bit closer and tipped my head back just so, so that our lips almost, almost, touched. I curled the edges of my lips into a heated, nasty little smile, and said, “I don’t give it up on the first date.”
I meant it to be a joke, a smart assed little remark because let’s face it, dry sarcastic humor and smartassery has always been my thing, but Cutter… fuck if he didn’t give me as good as he got.
The bastard smiled as if he’d won a fucking prize or something and touched the tip of his nose to the tip of mine rubbing out an adorable little Eskimo kiss. With a wink he said, “Fair enough, Sweetheart. What’re we doing?”
My brain went out to lunch without me for a second while the tip of my nose tingled from the contact, his warm, solid, energy pouring over me in a rush at our proximity, right along with the masculine scent of whatever cologne he wore. I blinked. Fuck, he got me… I wasn’t one to go back on anything I’d said when confronted with it, even if I had said it in jest. Backpedaling hadn’t, and would never be, my thing and now as a result I was at a disadvantage. I had somehow just put myself on a date with the president of a known illegal enterprise. This was not going to look stellar as a footnote on my resume but… Faith.
Fine, okay, I could let him have this if it got me closer to him opening up about what he knew about the bitch who was last seen with my sister. I took a half step back out of his personal space and his smile widened.
“Your town, why don’t you tell me? What’re we doing?” I conceded defeat for this round and kicked the shit out of myself mentally. He held out his elbow all gentlemanly like and I scoffed but looped my arm through it.
“How about a nice walk on the beach? Get to know each other some?” I looked out towards the water. I’d just run my ass off on the beach this morning, but sure. Sounded like a plan.
“Alright,” I assented and we set off at a leisurely pace in that direction sipping on our frothy blended coffees as they melted in their ecofriendly plastic cups.
&nb
sp; Chapter 4
Cutter
Oh boy, she was a hard ass, and did I ever love a chase! I held out my arm and she hesitated, she was even prettier up close under the cloudy skies, which were still a hell of a lot brighter than the dim interior of The Plank. She finally looped her left arm through my right and I led us at a leisurely stroll across the street and towards the water. I have to admit that I lost myself a bit in her damn good looks and my mouth got away from me.
“So what brings you to our fair town of Ft. Royal?” I asked. She dug into her purse and shoved the picture of the girl from the Sacred Hearts’ Lake Run at me again.
“This girl, you seen her?” she looked at me pointedly and it wasn’t friendly.
“Nope, I already answered that.” I smiled grandly and she shoved the picture back in her purse, switching her drink back to her right hand and taking a sip.
“Well I already answered yours,” she said tartly. The sass on this woman was out of this world, but I could tell, she would skate the line if not skate right over it into disrespect, which could either be problematic, or could lead to some really fun times.
“So tell me something I don’t know, Sweetheart,” I kept my smile on my face even though I let my tone carry some bite. She looked up at me and her dark eyes flashed emotion like lightning over the water, though what emotion specifically? I couldn’t tell you. She was quick to get her shit under control. I liked that. Solid. Different, and not entirely unrefreshing. I felt a little guilty for that last thought, a pair of pained green eyes flashing out from my memory, but I quickly buried it. I wanted to know more about the enchanting creature in front of me. I already knew all there was about a woman I loved but could never have.
“I don’t know what you already know, so how about you ask a question and I’ll answer it.” Hope’s voice rattled me loose from my pattern of thought and I smiled and nodded.
“Alright, where you from then?” I asked.
She snorted, “I thought you did your homework.”
“I did, but it seemed like a safe enough place to start,” I shrugged, “Don’t like that one? Okay, alright, let’s see… where to begin?”
