Enforcer's Price

by Sarah Hawthorne

  “Pretty slick.” He introduced me to a few of the guys working. But when we got back out into the parking lot, I had to ask. “So the cars, are they hot? Where do they come from?”

  Tate shrugged. “Some stolen, some are purchased. Depending on the vehicle and the work needed, the seller might get a higher price selling to someone in the US. Some cars are just sorta created from the leftovers from crashes. But they look real nice by the time they get to us. We don’t do much work. Just help them avoid taxes and customs and create the paperwork to get them the registration process.

  “So what do you think?” Tate asked. “We gonna pass the cash flow requirement to get into the Horde?”

  I nodded. “Shit yeah. You guys got that covered. We just have to get that leak taken care of with the cash. That’s your only problem.”

  “That and getting everybody on board.” Tate strapped on his helmet.

  Yeah, that was a huge problem.

  “When are they coming back?” I asked. Having the president of the club all to myself and not having to deal with club politics had made this fucking easy as hell. But the guys had to be on board with the patch-over or else the deal was screwed. It was starting to make me a little uneasy that they were still on a run.

  “Couple of days.” He sat on his bike. “They were delivering some vehicles to a new customer in Portland. Oregon’s smog laws are a little trickier. I wanted the guys on hand in case the cars didn’t pass through the DMV.”

  “Hey, you want to ask Krista about the missing cash? See how she responds?” It messed up my fucking insides to even admit that I had done it last night at dinner. “I talked to her a little about it, but she seemed clean.”

  Tate shrugged. “Next time I see her, I’ll bring it up. I don’t think she has a hand in this, do you?”

  “No.” I fished the address she’d given me out of my pocket and handed it to Tate. “You know where this is?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I got a general idea. Bunch of flophouses on that block. You’d better not need a score.” He raised an eyebrow.

  Fuck. I stared back. Just a little challenge. The Demon Horde could be a mean bunch of assholes, myself included. But it was a well-known requirement that you had to be clean. Pot was accepted, but nothing harder. We got drug tests to prove it.

  “I’m gonna pay Krista’s ex a visit. He roughed her up a little.”

  Tate blew out a breath. “So she’s your old lady? You responsible for her?”

  Yes.

  No.

  Fuck.

  “She’s a friend. I wanna help her out.” That was the only thing I could come up with. I jerked on my helmet and sat on my bike. “You gonna come with me? If I’m headed to a huge drug den, I’d love some backup.”

  Tate handed me back the address and started his engine. “Just remember, son, if the rest of the guys see you acting like her man, then you throw her over, it’s gonna get ugly. You gotta make up your mind. But I’ll back you up. That fucker needs another beating.”

  The house wasn’t far away from the chop shop. Tate followed me up the front stoop and I banged on the door.

  Robby answered. Higher than a motherfucking kite. “Well, helloooooooo! You got my money?”

  This was going to be easy. I grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him down the front step. I’d roughed up enough crackheads to know that you always take them outside. No telling what kinda shit you’ll pick up inside their hole.

  “Why are you shaking Krista down for cash?” I left my arms loose at my sides in case he decided to take a swing. But the fucker was too interested in dancing.

  “She owes me.” He opened his arms wide and started to turn in a circle. “I paid her fucking rent when she got fat and had a kid. She said, ‘He loves me for me.’” He pitched his voice real high and waved his arms over his head. “I want my moneeeeeeeey.”

  I punched him in the gut. He was too high to reason with and I was sick of listening to his shit. I clocked him a few more times on the face so he would remember this when he sobered up. Then I picked him up by a handful of his T-shirt.

  “Stay away from her. Do you understand me? No asking for money, no trying to see Becky. Just stay outta her life.”

  His eyes rolled back in his head. “He loves me for meeeeeeeeeeeeee,” he sang.

  I dropped him on the grass and left him there.

  He loves me for me.

  I kept replaying that phrase in my head on the way home and then later in bed as I stared up at the ceiling. Did Krista say that? Did she tell Robby that I loved her?

  Did I love her?

  When I first sat on my dad’s bike, he would always tell me, “Don’t look at something if you don’t want to hit it.” If you looked at something on the side of the road, you would automatically steer the bike in the direction that you were looking. So, the best way to avoid a wreck was to keep staring straight ahead. Eyes on the road.

  I couldn’t stop looking at Krista. I had tried, but I just couldn’t.

  Tate was right. I needed to figure my shit out, and fast. I could try and hide things from Tate for a while, but I couldn’t hide things from an entire motorcycle club. If I was gonna act like her man, I had to commit. I had to put Krista on the back of my bike so I could keep my eyes on the damn road.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Krista

  It was the middle of the night and the rest of world was sleeping, but for me, sleep was not even on the horizon—I still wasn’t used to working days. I had already applied to every single job posting I could find and now I was just sitting in a kitchen chair on my porch with a bottle of glue, trying to repair a flowerpot. A car pulled into the apartment lot. Two headlights—I had been hoping for one.

  I was pathetic. Sitting here, counting headlights. Hoping for what, exactly? A biker to come over at two in the morning? Tell me that he’d beaten up my ex like I had asked and then come straight over to my place to profess his love?

  Too bad I didn’t have any alcohol in the house. I needed to forget my life for a while.

  The two headlights turned out to be Janice coming home from her shift. She was still wearing her outfit from the club, a tiny black sequined dress with high heels. As always, her hair was teased with every strand in place and her makeup was perfect. Even when I was stripping there, I never understood how she could look so put together after a night of work.

  “Krista, honey. Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Her thick acrylic heels echoed on the stairs. “Waiting for your knight in leather to show up?”

  I rolled my eyes. “No, I worked a day shift. The guys are on a run.”

  Janice leaned against the railing, ignoring her fancy dress and tall shoes. She always seemed so at home in her outfits. “If you wanna come and serve drinks or something while the guys are gone, you can. We’re short-handed. You interested?”

  I’d waitressed and stripped at the club as a fill-in many times. Two weeks ago, I would have jumped at the chance.

  “No thanks.” I smiled. “We’re doing okay for now. I know one of the jobs I applied for will come through.”

  “You want him. Don’t sit around and wait for him. Don’t let your fear get in the way.”

  Under the fluorescent lights, I could see the crow’s-feet that had escaped Janice’s eyeliner. The tiny smile brackets that framed her shiny lips. I realized that she was getting old. And tired.

  “Did you ever let your fear get in the way?” I asked.

  Janice took off her heels. “Every day.” She blew me a kiss as she walked away.

  * * *

  I got Becky to school and did some grocery shopping before I made it to the club. Honestly, I had no idea what I had left to clean. Kitchen, rooms, pool tables, it was all sparkling. The guys had been gone a long time. Today was supposed to be my day
off, but and I could use the extra cash. Besides, I would have missed Colt. He’d only been here a few days, but I couldn’t remember what it had been like without him.

  We kept the unopened bottles on the shelves under the bar. Crouching down, I surveyed the liquor. Time to get organized. Absinthe on the left, whiskey on the right. I sat on the floor and started alphabetize. I tried to concentrate, but I just couldn’t get out of my own head.

  I had pushed Colt away so many times that there was a good chance he didn’t want me anymore. But I had to try. I couldn’t just give up on it. I needed to show him that I was committed to trying to make something work between us.

  I needed to ask him out on a date.

  It was my job to ask guys if they wanted to have sex, then negotiate a price. Asking someone on a date should be easy, right?

  I thought back to high school. I’d never asked anyone out. Robby just sort of assumed we were dating and so we were. Then, after Robby, I started turning tricks and there was no more dating.

  All I had to do was ask. It couldn’t be that hard.

  I was still sitting on the concrete floor when I heard the front door open and footsteps cross over to the bar.

  “Right, well. Tell Hawkeye to call me when he gets back.”

  It was Colt, on the phone.

  “Yeah, these guys look legit. Everything the prez has been saying checked out so far.”

  Shit. Club business. I popped up and set a bottle on the bar top near his elbow. I didn’t want to hear anything that I shouldn’t. That was how they lost the last girl who had been in my place.

  He nodded at me and ended his call.

  “Sorry, I was working under the bar. I didn’t mean to hear anything.”

  He smiled. “No worries, okay? Hey, I wanted to talk about something.”

  “Good, thanks.” I cringed. That was the wrong response. I flirted with guys all the time, and that was the best I could come up with. If I was going to follow Janice’s advice and go after him, I needed to do better than that.

  Then I saw his knuckles and all thoughts of flirting flew out the door. They were scraped, he’d been in a fight. Our eyes met and I knew. He’d gone to see Robby. “You want some ointment?”

  “Sure.” He pulled up a barstool. “Not sure I got through to him.” He frowned. “He was high as hell and I doubt he’ll remember much.”

  That was pretty standard for Robby. I focused on holding his hand and dabbing ointment on his knuckles. “I appreciate that you talked to him.”

  He squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry that you have to deal with that asshole. I can go back again tonight. See if he’s sober.”

  I shook my head. “Robby won’t be sober, there’s no point.” I took a deep breath. It was now or never. “You could come over for dinner tonight. I’m making a casserole. It’ll be chicken and noodle and milk and butter and cheese.”

  I realized I was rattling off the list of ingredients, so I tried again. “I thought we could have dinner and watch The Wizard of Oz. Becky’s been asking.” Shit. Maybe he didn’t want to hang out with a kid all night. “I mean, she’ll probably fall asleep real soon and you can head out early if you want.”

  Colt raised his eyebrows and I shut up. This was much harder when you actually liked the guy. His knuckles were glistening with too much ointment. Dropping his hands, I shoved the gauze and medicine tube back in the first aid kit.

  As I was trying to smash the lid closed, Colt grabbed my hands. “Krista?”

  I was afraid to look up. I had just told him my casserole recipe and invited him to watch a children’s movie with my daughter. The evening sounded awful, even to me.

  “Are you asking me out?”

  His eyes were intense, as if he could see into my heart. I couldn’t bear to open my mouth and have something stupid come out again, so I just nodded.

  “What’s changed?” He squeezed my fingers a couple of times. “The other day you pushed me away when I went to touch you. If we start to date, eventually I’m gonna want to do that again. You gotta be straight with me. Did someone hurt you? Robby?”

  He was asking me if I had been raped. That was why he thought I had pushed him away?

  I shook my head. “Oh, no, no. Nothing like that.”

  He relaxed his grip on my fingers and waited.

  Colt deserved an explanation. I had changed my mind and dragged him along for days now. I had to say something, the truth.

  “I just realized last night that I was more scared of losing a chance with you than I am of losing my job or changing my life.” I searched for the words, but the only thing I could think of was my grandma’s house. “I’m more afraid of not accomplishing my dreams than of losing what I’ve built.”

  Colt untangled our fingers and ran his hand over his buzz cut. He frowned at me.

  My plan to ask him out had washed away in a stream of consciousness crap. I sighed.

  “I must sound stupid. I just thought we’d have a nice night.” I picked up a rag and started to wipe down the clean bar. “Six o’clock, if you change your mind.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Colt

  When I left Krista polishing the bar that afternoon, I wasn’t sure if I’d show up. But now, I was glad I did.

  Becky chattered on, telling me all about The Wizard of Oz. She was a lot like my nephew. Just be interested in whatever she was interested in and we got along great.

  She had picked up those new dance steps right away. When the song came on the movie, she jumped up and started practicing. Krista helped her out and the two of them put on a show. Krista could have been a dancer too. It was obvious where Becky got her talent.

  After the little show, the girls settled down and watched the movie. Becky got scared and cuddled up to me during the apple trees. By the time we left the Emerald City, she had passed out.

  It was the best night I’d ever spent with a woman.

  I was part of the family. I was the one clapping at Becky’s show, laughing when Krista wiped a bit of ice cream on Becky’s nose, and I was the one imitating the munchkins’ song on the movie.

  My cut hung on the back of a kitchen chair and I had kicked off my boots a while ago and put them on the linoleum by the door. Fuck, I wanted to come home to this apartment every night.

  Krista was different from Tina. Tina and I had started out partying and then we just never stopped. Then Tina had started plotting about how to betray me. How to use our relationship for money. She traded secrets about me to the goddamn DEA. Everything with Tina had been fake, just a way for her to exploit me. But with Krista, it was real. There was no alcohol haze to convince me she was a good person, Krista just was.

  I was moving pretty fast, but only because I didn’t have that much time. On our second night together, I’d asked Krista to be with me and probably scared the shit out of her. She gave me a second chance, and now I was sitting on her couch like I fucking belonged here.

  Too bad Krista didn’t know what she wanted. I needed to get up and end this goddamn fantasy before I got myself deeper into a pit of broken dreams.

  “You want to help me put her to bed?” Krista whispered. I nodded. I could do that. “Can you pick her up? I’d like to try and get her to bed without waking her.”

  Leaning to the other side, I picked up Becky. It was kind of awkward at first, like picking up a bag of ammo from the bottom, it spread out and was hard to keep together. I jostled her around a second until I was holding her more securely.

  Krista grabbed the little blanket that was covering her. “Her room is back this way.”

  I placed Becky on her bed and Krista removed her tap shoes. We both covered her up. She was so innocent. She was a kid, unspoiled and new. Life hadn’t yet screwed her up. Leaning against the doorframe, I watched her sleep.


  Something light brushed my arm. Krista’s fingers. It must be time for me to go. I turned and found Krista just an inch away from me.

  She was standing in front of me, barefoot in pajamas. A lot like the other night when I beat the shit out of her ex and put her on the back of my bike. The night I knew I wanted her.

  It had been three years since I was with a woman. It wasn’t like riding a bike where you instantly remember. I was rediscovering happiness, lust—it all came tumbling in at once and felt too fresh, so new. Like I’d never felt it before, and I wanted more. I wanted it all.

  She took a step closer. Even with two layers of clothes between us, I could feel her nipples rubbing against my chest.

  We’d been here before, though. I’d made a move and she’d pushed me away, so, I waited. Like a goddamn eighth grader. I waited as she rose up on her toes to reach my lips.

  Soft and plump, perfect against my mouth. I wanted more, but she wasn’t kissing me back. Our lips just happened to be touching here in the hallway. Fuck, I wanted to pull her over my cock and end this torture. Instead I sucked on her bottom lip, hoping she would open her mouth to me. She’d started it, but now she was frozen. I wanted my tongue on her, in her. I wanted it all. But she still remained stiff.

  I put my arms around her. She softened and I felt her open her mouth. She was finally kissing me back. She whimpered a little and pushed me away. Instantly, I let her go and stepped back.

  Fuck. She was the one who kissed me first. I didn’t want another scene like we’d had last time, so I put my hands up in the air and shook my head. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I’ll leave right now.”

  I brushed past her and headed for the front door. It was time to go. I had broken my promise and there was nothing left to do but leave. The more I stuck around, the worse it was going to be.