D’s brows rose sharply. “Why?”
“He realized that...” She stared at her clasped hands in her lap.
“What?”
Bella closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them before continuing. “That my loyalties lie with the club.”
“Yeah. And?” he asked, satisfaction clearly in his voice.
Of course Diesel wouldn’t see a problem with that. He lived and breathed DAMC. “He can’t be involved with someone who might have ties to... illegal things.”
His head jerked back and his eyes narrowed. “Ain’t nothin’ illegal.”
“Right. But... with all the shit that’s been going down with the Warriors... Squirrel and Black Jack’s disappearance. You getting shot. Plus, you and Hawk getting arrested after that fight in South Side... And he knows your crew’s hunting Warriors, D.”
“My crew ain’t a part of the club.”
“Your business is. A percentage goes into the club coffers, D. So really, it is.”
D grunted. He knew she was right.
“I told him it wouldn’t work from the beginning. He kept pushing. Then reality hit him and he pushed me away instead.”
“Ain’t pushin’ you away.”
Bella sighed. “D, he already did.”
Diesel shook his head, planted his palms on his desk and leaned forward. “That man ain’t pushin’ you away. Saw it with my own two eyes.”
Bella sat back and studied her cousin. The one who always had her best interest at heart, even though he could be the biggest, most unfeeling asshole out of all the brothers. “Why are you telling me this?”
D sat back, too, running a hand over his short dark hair. He frowned. “Hate what his blood did to Z, freezin’ him out. Hate they turned their back on the club. Hate they didn’t do shit when Z went inside. But hate it even more that I fuckin’ had no clue what Rebel was doin’ to you. Hate that Rebel had the opp to fuckin’ do you wrong. Hate the fact I didn’t get the chance to take ‘im out ‘cause I woulda gutted the fucker.” His eyes got hard and his body went solid when he growled, “Really hate the fact you kept that secret from me, Bella. Shoulda told me.”
He slammed his palm on the desk and Bella jumped.
“An’ it pisses me off that he took that life from you. From all of us. Good thing Rocky took the fucker out. Woulda loved to filet our colors off Rebel’s back with the knife he stabbed you with.”
“D—”
He raised his palm and shook his head. “Hate the fact you love a cop. An’ hate that he loves you. But, woman, that’s the fuckin’ facts. You love each other as much as I hate it.”
“You’re getting all mushy. You getting soft now that Jewel’s got you wrapped around her finger?”
D grunted.
That wasn’t a no.
“The fact is,” Bella stated, “it’s not going to work. We’re too different.”
“Got DAMC blood runnin’ through his veins. He’s a biker at heart.”
Bella shot up straight in her chair, surprised. “You are getting mushy!”
“Shut the fuck up,” he muttered.
“Fact is I love you, you big asshole. And I’m lucky that you have my back.”
D grunted, but she didn’t miss his eyes softening just a touch.
He jerked his hand toward the door. “Get the fuck outta my office. Got work to do.”
Bella pushed up from his chair and hid her smile until she faced away from him. Then she beamed as she reached for the door handle.
“Expect the fucker at the party. Time for this club to start movin’ forward in all ways.”
“Can’t promise that,” she said over her shoulder, without looking at him.
“Get it done,” was the last demand she heard before heading down the corridor and back out to her car.
She had no idea how she was going to do that. She wasn’t leaving the club, not that anyone would let her, anyway. So Axel was either going to have to accept her as she was... DAMC. Or she was just going to have to disappoint Diesel.
And Sophie.
She sighed. That reminded her that she needed to go apologize to the woman for freaking her out.
Bella frowned at her brother, Dex. “You are supposed to be keeping an ear out for the stolen toys.”
“We are,” he insisted as he made change. He shoved the cash register drawer shut, then thanked the customer. “Need help takin’ that to your car?”
The man grabbed the stereo speakers and told Dex he didn’t.
After watching the customer walk away, Dex turned his dark brown eyes to her with a frown. “Why’re you here, besides bein’ a pain in my ass?”
Bella looked over her brother’s shoulder to see their sister behind the glass in the back office. Ivy made a face at her and Bella made one back. “I came to talk to Ace.”
“He ain’t here.”
She groaned. “Thanks, Captain Obvious. So now I’m talking to you.”
Dex twisted at one of the large clunky silver rings that he wore on his fingers. “We’re keepin’ an ear out.”
“Did Axel stop by here to talk to Ace yet?”
“How the fuck would I know?” he snapped.
Bella narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t you work here?”
“Bad enough I gotta work with Ivy,” he lifted his chin toward their sister, “but now you’re in here pestin’.”
“Dex, this is serious. Thousands of dollars’ worth of toys went missing.” Not missing, swiped by those asshole nomads.
“Know that.”
“Don’t you care?” she asked him.
If anyone would care it should be him. Their mother was a single woman raising three children on her own. If anyone knew what it was like to not get a lot for Christmas, it was the three of them. They probably would’ve gotten nothing if it wasn’t for their uncle Ace and their aunts helping out. So she understood the need for a charity like Toys for Tots.
“Yeah. Of course, I do.”
“Then act like it.”
“Fuckin’ bitches,” he grumbled.
Bella jerked her eyebrows up. “Really?”
“You hardly ever talk to me unless you want somethin’,” he grumped.
“’Cause you’re a pain in the ass, too. Ever think of that?”
Suddenly he grinned and leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “Was gonna give some info to D...”
Bella’s ears perked. “What info?”
“Gotta call from a shop in Baldwin.”
“Baldwin!” she exclaimed. The Dark Knights were expanding into Baldwin, so it surprised her that the Warriors would dare step a foot into the other outlaw club’s territory. And the Knights had a great dislike for the Warriors, wanting to see them obliterated as much as the Angels did.
“Will ya let me finish?”
Bella struggled to pin her lips together.
“Asked if we were gettin’ a high influx of kids’ electronics in. New shit. This is the time of year people are buyin’ presents for kids, not sellin’ ‘em.”
“Right. Have the name of the shop?”
“Yeah. Baldwin Pawn.”
Well, that wasn’t obvious. “Thanks.”
She began to turn to leave when his brows furrowed and he jerked out his hand to stop her. “Hold up. Whataya gonna do?”
“Just go take a ride up there.”
“Uh. No. Tellin’ D to check it out.”
“No. Hold off on D. I’ll go talk to them and if I find out anything useful I’ll give it to him.”
“Uh, no,” Dex repeated, shaking his head. “Ain’t happenin’.”
Now her brother cares what happens to her? “Ain’t got a say in it, Dexter.”
His face became stormy at her use of his full name. Which he hated for good reason. “Okay, Izzy.”
“Dex,” she warned.
He lifted his palms. “Shouldn’t have told you then.”
She sighed. “I got it. I’m just going to go talk to the
m and see if they know anything else.”
Her brother stared at her for a few seconds then sighed, too. “Look, I’ll call ‘em an’ tell ‘em you’re headin’ up there. Then you gotta promise to tell D if you learn anythin’, got me?”
“Got you.” She smiled at him and turned to leave. She stopped and looked over her shoulder, blowing him an exaggerated kiss. “Love you, brother.”
He grunted in reply.
Bella headed out to the parking lot and before she got to her car, Ivy was rushing out of the shop in her high-heeled boots, pulling on her leather jacket. “Hey, wait up.”
She hit the automatic locks on her Challenger and looked over her shoulder as Ivy caught up with her.
“Where are you going?”
“Why?”
Her sister shrugged then smiled mischievously. “I’m bored to death. Dex can handle the pawn shop’s customers until Ace gets back.”
“Heading to Baldwin to check out a lead.”
“For the theft?” Ivy asked.
“Yeah. You should stay here.”
“Fuck that!”
They heard a screamed “Hey!” from above them.
Both their heads turned up to the apartment over the pawn shop. Jewel stood at the top of the landing with her hands on her hips. “What are you sexy bitches doing?”
Ivy snorted and Bella sighed.
“Going to Baldwin,” Bella yelled back.
“For what?” Jewel jogged down the metal steps and approached the car.
“Dex got a lead that someone might have pawned some shit at a shop in Baldwin.”
“Cool. Can I go?”
“Diesel going to have a shit fit?” Bella asked.
“Probably.”
Bella turned to her sister. “Jag going to have a shit fit?”
“Probably” was Ivy’s reply.
Bella smiled. “Mount up, ladies. We’re heading to Baldwin!”
All three laughed as they climbed into the Dodge. Bella turned the key and the big block roared to life.
Chapter Twelve
Bella leaned back against the brick building and eyeballed the man who was obviously a biker but not wearing any colors. He had pulled into Baldwin Pawn’s lot a few minutes before in a piece of shit van of the multi-color variety. As in the van had been wrecked and been patched back together with parts of several other pieces of shit vans.
Hurry the fuck up.
Though, she said it silently, she really wanted to shout it in the direction of that asshole. Her leather jacket wasn’t warm enough to allow her to brave the elements for any length of time, especially during December in Pennsylvania.
Shit, this fucker was slow as he dug through the back of the van.
Two days ago, when her and the girls stopped in Baldwin to talk to the pawn shop owner, he’d been very cooperative. Since it was now Knights territory, she should’ve given them a heads up, but she hadn’t. And she wasn’t planning to, either.
If she told her plans to the Knights’ enforcer, Magnum, he was sure to call Diesel and snitch on her. And she was determined to get the stolen toys back from those fuckers.
All she needed to do was find out where they were being kept. Then she could formulate a plan to steal back what toys remained.
She was sure both Axel and Diesel would be supportive of her idea. She snorted.
And that’s why she wasn’t giving them a head’s up, either. If she did, the PD would go riding in like the Calvary, then seize the toys as evidence until after Christmas, which would do the needy families no good. Or D and his crew would just go in and create chaos. This needed to be a stealth operation. There was no way she was letting those nomads get away with stealing shit. Not on her watch.
She also didn’t tell the women she’d be coming back to Baldwin to “hang” out and hope that the Warrior, who had been stopping in every couple of days with new merchandise, would show up.
She also had to trust that Jewel hadn’t told D anything they learned the other day.
Bella pushed away from the wall as the Warrior finally pulled a box from the back of the van and kicked the door closed with his boot.
She moved past him, avoiding eye contact as she went back to her car. The shop owner said he’d purchase any toys that the nomad club brought in and then donate them back to Toys to Tots, and that Bella could stop back next week to pick up anything he bought.
As she climbed into her Challenger, she wondered where else the fuckers were selling the stolen goods.
The earth would be a better place if the Warriors didn’t exist, but she’d leave that to D’s crew to deal with. Right now, she had to find out where the stolen toys were.
Bella sat in her idling car with the heat blasting for ten minutes until the asshole came back out of the shop, sans the box of toys. When he finally pulled out of the lot in the van, she rolled out to follow the vehicle.
Good thing somebody had a leaky valve gasket. The smoke rolling out of the exhaust pipe helped her track him from a distance without being spotted. She only hoped the dickhead headed back to wherever he was stashing the toys.
The Warrior headed north out of Baldwin toward the city of Pittsburgh and she made sure that she stayed far enough behind him where she could keep track of him, but not close enough to get made.
When the vehicle turned right, she went straight, then sped around the block, coming out a few streets down. They were no longer in Baldwin but another town nearby that she’d never been in before named Whitehall. Luckily, she spotted the van up ahead and began to trail him again.
When the van pulled into a driveway of an abandoned house—it had to be, because no one in their right mind would live in a house with busted out windows in winter—she pulled over to the curb quickly, parking behind another car.
Shoving the shifter into park, she leaned toward the windshield, watching as the dirt bag biker entered the house. Now, she just needed to wait until he left so she could enter the house and see if her loot was in there.
She hoped to hell it was...
Her heart skipped a beat, and she squeaked in surprise when her door was ripped open and a big body filled the opening. At first, she thought it was Diesel but as a bald head popped into her doorway, there was no doubt it wasn’t. The massive man, a hell of a lot darker than D, was pissed. And that was putting it mildly.
“Move over to the passenger seat,” he barked.
Fuck!
“Magnum,” she pleaded, gripping her steering wheel tighter.
“No fuckin’ lip, woman. Get into the passenger seat now before we’re spotted.”
With a grumble and a last reluctant glance toward the house, she awkwardly climbed over the center console and ended up on her knees on the passenger seat, while Magnum jammed his bulk into her driver’s seat, shoved the seat back, and slammed the door shut.
His head spun toward her like he was possessed. “What the fuck, woman?” His shouting was way too loud in the now much smaller interior of her Dodge.
“I was just—”
“Just!” he barked. “Just? Just nothin’. Fuckin’ first of all, you’re in Knights territory without an invite or permission. Second, you’re fuckin’ up what we’re tryin’ to find out with those rat bastards. Had that shit under control an’ you almost fucked it up.”
“I—”
“I nothin’. Takin’ you directly to Diesel. Fucker’s gonna be pissed.”
Shiiiiit. “You don’t need to do that. I can head home myself.”
He shook his dark head, the gold skull earring in his ear flashing as he did so. “No fuckin’ way. In our house now. Gonna make sure you get outta here in one piece. Fuckin’ Warriors would like nothin’ better than to snag your ass an’ torture the fuck outta you like your other sisters.”
He shoved her car into reverse and backed down the street into a side alley, then he shoved it into drive and smashed the gas pedal down. Squealing the tires and fishtailing, he tore out of town toward Shadow Valley.
/>
“What the fuck you thinkin’?”
She had a feeling she would be asked that several more times before the day was over. “I’m getting those toys back. They aren’t going to get away with that shit. Stealing from kids!”
“No shit! Said we’re workin’ on it. Ain’t a woman’s job.”
Bella sighed as he drove her car balls to the wall down the road. “Can you slow down?”
He only grunted, which she assumed meant “fuck you.”
“Do you know if they’re storing them in that house?”
No answer.
Jesus, he was like a black version of Diesel. Just what the world needed: two grunting meatheads.
“If they are, are you planning on going in and getting them back?” she asked.
Bella’s answer was silence. No, that wasn’t true. It was Magnum turning up her stereo to drown out her questions. She reached over and turned the volume back down.
“Hey, don’t be turnin’ down Black Sabbath.”
“My car. My rules,” she muttered as the sign welcoming visitors to Shadow Valley whipped past them in a blur.
Magnum opened his mouth to bark something at her, but closed it quickly and flicked his gaze up to the rearview mirror. “Fuck,” he grumbled.
Flashing lights and a screaming siren chased them down the road. Bella glanced over her seat to the SVPD cruiser following on their tail at the same high rate of speed. She turned to Magnum, “Going to pull over?”
He grunted.
“If I were you, I’d pull over,” she suggested. “Like soon before this turns into a pursuit.”
He grunted again and mumbled something under his breath before yanking the car over to the side of the road and hitting the brakes. Bella braced in case the cop behind them couldn’t stop in time and rear-ended the car she loved so much.
As it was, the cop had to lock up his brakes and swerve over quickly to park at an angle behind her Dodge.
“Let me do the talking,” Bella suggested, hoping Magnum wouldn’t be a complete asshole to a cop she might know.
Magnum cocked a brow at her.
When she twisted in her seat, she saw exactly who was getting out of the cruiser.
“Oh fuck,” she whispered, making Magnum check the rearview mirror a little closer.
Down & Dirty: Axel (Dirty Angels MC Book 5) Page 14
