Kim didn't turn away from her, meeting her gaze dead-on, but she kept the corner of her eye trained on Diesel, wondering if he knew what she was talking about. Kim had a sneaking suspicion, and though Sophia only hinted at it, she seemed pretty sure of herself. Finally stepping forward, Kim challenged, "You should be sure you have your facts straight before you start making accusations. Sleeping with the enemy can lead to all sorts of false information, and sharing that with the authorities is a federal offense."
"Oh, please!" Sophia laughed derisively. "Let's not even get started on filing false police reports! Honey, I'm so deep in my immunity no cop can touch me with a thirty-foot pole!"
"If you don't get the hell away from here like we agreed, we'll just see how pristine you are," Diesel threatened. "I can have you forcibly removed." It wasn't an empty threat, either. Kim saw him reach for his phone in his pocket.
Sophia narrowed her eyes at each of them. "I'll leave, but you should think about what happened and how you act around me." She pointed a finger at Kim as she opened her car door again. "Maybe you should school him in manners rather than trying to pretend you're enough of a badass to ride." With that, she got in the car and drove off, leaving Kim and Diesel staring after her, feeling a bit nervous.
Chapter 7
Three days of mental torture had Diesel in a foul mood, and he had half a mind to hunt down his ex-wife and put her six feet under. She had enough contacts to blame it on someone else. Hell, he could even stage it as self-defense, as if she attacked him with a weapon. He didn't like the way she'd rode in with complete confidence and laid threats down, not only to him but to Kim as well.
And if he read between the lines, she was threatening the entire club.
He wasn't one to overreact, but there were big fish involved now, and he had to tread lightly to keep everyone safe. If he could play the ignorant fool to the cops, and his brothers in the Shadows corroborated his story, no one would be able to prove it was his gun that had done the worst damage.
Only Kim had kept him riding that thin line between irritated and murderous, but it all went to hell in a handbasket when those damn suits came sniffing around again. They arrived in the afternoon, during another riding lesson. Kim had ridden up and down the street by herself several times now, getting a feel for the bike, and this time, it looked like an escort, the black unmarked following dangerously close behind her as she pulled back into the drive.
Diesel knew he needed to show respect to the authorities, but he expected the same concern in return, and he voiced it as they casually stepped out of the car and idly strolled toward where he sat in front of his garage, nursing a long-neck. "Gentlemen, I would have expected the two of you to show a little motorcycle courtesy. You should know better than to ride that close to the back wheel. If you ever clip one, you'll have a lot more trouble than being suspended from the force."
The driver held up his hands in surrender. "My apologies, my friend. It was an oversight. I'll be more careful going forward."
"Thanks," Diesel groused. "And for the record, we are not friends." He stood and walked over to Kim as she swung off the bike and locked down the kickstand. He kissed her quickly and told her, "Good job."
She beamed under his praise, but he could feel her tension as she eyed the two detectives. Following her gaze, Diesel asked impatiently, "If you have business here, get to it, or get off my property. I've taken issue with people thinking they can just loiter around here."
The taller one tucked his fingers into the back of his pants, a calculated move that lifted his blazer and showed his shoulder holster. "I'm not going to mince words with you. We need to get a full statement from you, now that you're healing up and everything. We didn't want to push while you were in the hospital, on meds and fresh from the brawl." Diesel could have laughed him right across the American border for that bullshit, but he remained quiet. "But it's been a little over a week, and we can't do our job without an official signed statement from you."
Diesel crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at them. "If you think I'm inviting you into my house for this chit-chat, you're a bigger fool than I am." He motioned toward the garage. "I can grab a couple chairs and bring them out and talk to you right here."
But the shorter guy shook his head, his brow heavy like some Neanderthal. "I'm afraid that won't be sufficient. We're going to have to ask you to come down to the station to give your statement." He glanced at Kim. "If your girlfriend here has anything to say, she's welcome to join you. Otherwise, we'll just be working with you for now, trying to clear up any...misunderstandings."
Misunderstandings. More like tips from a certain ex-wife? Or maybe accusations from the Skeletons or even the Pagodi family regarding Felix. Diesel didn't know for sure, but he certainly had no machinations of making it easy to entrap him. At the same time, he didn't want Kim involved in any way, so he had to make a decision. Which card did he play today?
Taking a deep breath, he said, "Alright, detectives. I'll come down to the station and see what I can tell you. I can't promise it'll help, since I didn't see anything. But you'll have to wait out here and let me make sure my girlfriend is comfortable here at my house, waiting for me. And I'll be following you in my car, not riding in yours. I have no intention of spending the night in your facilities." He turned deliberately to Kim and said, "I'll be home by dinner."
She nodded, still silent and wide-eyed, and he kissed her. "Come on, let's get you settled." He hurried her inside, hitting the button to close the garage in case the detectives got any ideas to snoop around, and he kept an eye on the window so the cops were in sight the whole time. "Don't worry, Kim. This is all going to blow over," he told her, as much to convince himself as to convince her. "The police are the least of our worries."
Kim didn't seem very accepting of that. "What if Sophia..."
"I doubt it," he cut her off before she could finish the statement. "Whatever Sophia knows, she's not saying because it would implicate the whole club. If she did that, she would be as good as dead. I won't rule out the mob, though. It could very well be them leaning on the police force." More likely, these detectives were just hungry for a big bust. The mob liked to take care of things on their own. "I'm going to go play the ignorant fool, and I'll come home."
Resigned, she nodded again. "Okay. Be careful." She gave him a quick peck and asked, "Are they going to question me?"
He shook his head. "What good would it do?" But he knew. Anything he'd told her was fair game, and if she didn't divulge that information, she was an accessory. Diesel had put her in danger by sharing information she should never have had. Now, it was his responsibility to fix that.
He drove to the station and let the two men lead him into an interview room, complete with two-way mirror. He purposely sat with his back to it, deciding there was no reason anyone outside needed to observe him, considering that there had been no Miranda rights, no mention of being a suspect or person of interest, nothing that would warrant such treatment. They were supposedly looking for a statement, and that's what he would give – the same statement of obliviousness he'd given in the hospital.
They sat across from him and just stared for a moment before the taller one said, "It's my understanding that you haven't been completely honest with us. It seems you might have seen who shot you and fired back."
Diesel rolled his eyes, though he didn't like where this was going. "Who told you that? I was too dazed from being hit to even search for the shooter. I had drawn my gun, but only in self-defense, and I dropped it. And considering I never got it back, I'm assuming either you guys collected it as evidence or someone else grabbed it. I haven't gotten it back."
The tall one eyed him with a false confidence he recognized from years of facing down cowards that were all show. "We have a reliable source..."
"Who, Sophia?" Diesel stopped him.
Neither man spoke, and finally, the shorter one leaned forward on his elbows on the table. "Listen, your wife..."
"Ex-wife," he corrected, losing his patience and leaning forward the same way, only with a more intimidating look that he leveled on both men. "Sophia wasn't there, and she's not a real witness, so you can't lay that on the table. It's just hearsay. And the only thing she's reliable for is a little physical pleasure. Unfortunately, as her husband, I wasn't the benefactor of those favors, but I can guarantee she was no more reliable for anything else, either, especially the truth. So, if that's all you have to go on, the word of a woman always looking to better her own interests, I'll be leaving now."
When there was no protest from either, and he saw jaws clenching, Diesel pushed to his feet and left the room, not waiting for an escort out of the station. He certainly wasn't in the clear, and because he had opened his big mouth to Kim, neither was she. But now, he had time to put together a plan that would hopefully take both of them out of the line of fire, literally.
Chapter 8
Waiting by the window for Diesel to come home hadn't done much to ease Kim's nerves, and when he finally returned and walked in with a scowl on his face, it took all her willpower not to pounce on him with questions. He'd already been plowed with questions, and he didn't seem thrilled by the results. Kim told herself he would eventually be ready to talk about it and forced herself to wait.
She kept a small distance but followed him into the kitchen, where he bent over and pulled a beer out of the fridge, taking a long swig of it as he leaned against the counter. "You want one?" he asked casually, as if nothing in the world was wrong.
But she could hear the underlying anxiety in his tone. Diesel was definitely worried about something. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head. "Just a soda. I can get it." She reached into the fridge herself for the drink and popped the top, wishing he would cut to the chase and not keep her hanging.
"They tried to bring Sophia into the conversation," he said finally, a rueful grin on his face.
Kim didn't know how he could smile about any of this. "What did she tell them?"
Diesel just shook his head. "Nothing. She's not that stupid. They just wanted to try to weasel something out of me. I told them not to forget she's not even a real witness and walked out."
Narrowing her eyes, Kim asked, "That's not the end of it, though, right? I mean, it's not like they're going to close this investigation."
"No, they won't, and that's what I want to talk to you about. They'll come for you next, and you'll have to tell them what I told you."
"Why should I tell them anything when you don't?" Kim argued. "I can play naïve pretty well."
But Diesel shook his head again. "If they find evidence to the contrary, you'll get taken in as accessory after the fact. You have to tell the truth, or you need to be in a position that they can't force you to talk at all."
Confused, Kim stared at him. "I don't really think that's possible. I mean, it's the law, and they have to enforce it. I don't see how..."
"If we were married."
The words were heavy and should have fallen flat on the ground with an earth shaking thud. Instead, they hung in the air, and Kim couldn't quite swallow the gravity of their meaning. "What?"
He shrugged, as if he'd just mentioned the weather report and not something life changing. "A spouse can't be made to testify against his or her spouse. You have sort of a level of immunity there." He gave her a boyish grin. "Besides, we're practically married anyway. We're basically living together."
Kim laughed incredulously. "You're joking, right? This is too hairbrained an idea to be real."
But Diesel looked wounded. "I thought it was pretty brilliant myself. Ingenious even. It means we can both choose to avoid answering questions, and I selfishly get to call you my wife."
She shook her head, trying to comprehend what he was talking about. He was dead serious, and while Kim was madly in love with him, this seemed awfully sudden. And convenient. She didn't want to be a wife of circumstance, but she'd already offended him and didn't want to say anything about that, in case she was wrong. "But your divorce..." She trailed off as he shook his head.
"It was final two days ago, right after Sophia came by. I think it was her last ditch effort at stopping it." His smile spread further now as he set down the beer bottle and came toward her, wrapping her in his arms and gazing down into her eyes with a meaningful expression. "Why are you so adamantly trying to deny it, Kim? Is there something you're not telling me?"
"No, I..." But she trailed off again, speechless. Why was she trying to find an excuse not to marry this man? She loved him. He loved her. They wanted to present a united front that couldn't be divided for any reason. It would thrill her, make Diesel happy, and make Sophia wail with defeat. What better idea was there? Maybe it was a little crazy, but it was crazy in a good way, and she felt the smile spread slowly across your lips. "Look, it's a crazy idea. Are you sure that's what you want?"
He bent his head and gave her the most passionate kiss they'd shared since he'd come home from the hospital, making her toes curl and her blood boil. When he pulled back, his dark eyes were electric and sincere. "Kim, there are a lot of ways to protect you. I can send you away, and I can just strike you from the record, like you never existed. But that's not what I want. I love you, and I think getting married is a great idea. It solves a lot of problems and gives me what I want anyway. My biggest concern is that you don't want to. Or that me being so unattractively selfish in this is intolerable to you and pushes you away."
Kim couldn't help but laugh, suddenly giddy, and shake her head. "No, it's endearing. But how are we going to do this? Because if we're eloping, it has to be between my gigs, and that's not a lot of time. And we have to have witnesses."
His smile nearly split his face in half. "We'll get Bryce and Nettie to come with us. And you don't have a gig tomorrow night, so pack a bag, and we'll take off as soon as your show ends tonight. It'll make the detectives' heads spin!" With that, he lifted her and twirled her, making her squeal and giggle, but he winced as he set her down.
"Watch it, buster," she chastised. "I want to marry a man who's whole. That shoulder's not well enough for you to start slinging me around!" But she wasn't too miffed and ran off to get her keys. She had to go home to pack an overnight bag and be back here in time to head to her show.
***
As he walked out of the small chapel behind Bryce and Nettie with Kim under one arm and the folder with the official marriage documents under the other, Diesel couldn't help himself. His sense of elation overrode his anxiousness about what might happen with the police or, worse, the mob. In this moment, he was truly happy and had everything he could want. And to top that off, he could tell Kim felt just as excited.
"I can't believe we're here," Kim said, sounding in awe as she looked around at the busy streets of Quebec City. "I haven't been here since I was a little girl, visiting my uncle."
"It hasn't changed much," Nettie called back. "I grew up here, and it all looks the same as it did when I was six years old."
It didn't matter, Diesel thought. Everything was different now, a new perspective on everything taking over his mind. "Are you sure the two of you don't want to renew your vows while you're here? My treat," he offered.
But Bryce scowled back at him. "Isn't swearing my obedience to a woman once in my life enough?" he joked. Then, he laughed. "Oh, that's right, I forgot. This is your second round. Although, I think you've done much better this time."
Diesel gave him a withering look. "Very funny. Besides, I never swore to obey Sophia. I may have been blind but not stupid." He dismissed the subject. "It doesn't matter, though. This time, I'm sure about the whole thing. No cold feet, no second thoughts." He squeezed Kim against him and kissed the top of her head.
"The question is, how sane are you, Kim? To marry this lug?" Bryce chuckled.
But Kim shot right back, "No crazier than you to be his best friend and let him go through with this." They all laughed as they climbed on their bikes and headed toward the hotel.
For some reason, though, Diesel felt strange being alone with Kim in the room. It was ridiculous. They'd been alone in the house so many times, but now, their relationship was official. They were married, had the certificate of authenticity and all. There were papers to fill out so Kim could change her name and take his, and they'd signed the license.
"Does it feel a little surreal to you?" Kim asked, drawing him out of his reverie. He turned to look at her, and she smiled, shrugging as she opened her bag and rummaged through it. "The whole 'husband and wife' thing. We've been together for a while, I guess. Not long, but a while. But being 'together' isn't the same as being married. So, it all seems a little strange and surreal right now. I just wondered if you felt the same and how long it would take to settle in and seem real."
Diesel smirked, feeling a little less discomfort. "I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling a little awkward. I totally understand what you mean." He moved toward her, embracing her loosely and gazing down into her eyes. He was thrilled to think that he finally had someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with attached to him. Someone who seemed to feel just as confident about this decision as he did. It stirred things inside him he'd ignored for a long time.
He sensed Kim's arousal a split second after his own seemed to completely overwhelm him. His body tensed, and his groin ached as he dipped his head and took her mouth with serious, passionate intent. She met him full force, her desire pouring out of her to match his, and he knew the flames that were igniting were going to blaze out of control very soon.
Chapter 9
Kim's heart beat wildly in her chest as Diesel slid her blouse down her shoulders, his lips following the trail his fingers made. It seared her skin and made her breath come in short, fast, shallow gasps. Her fingers trembled as she reached for the fly of his jeans, wanting to be skin to skin, nothing between them. The bond they'd built made her tingle, the emotional and mental connection that had grown so swiftly makign the physical element all the more glorious.
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 12
