by Rebel Hart
She shook her head. “All I’m saying is--”
I held my hand up. “I know exactly what you’re saying. You don’t like Max. You think he’s dangerous. You think I have no business being with him. And I hear you, Hannah. I’ve registered it. I’ve logged it away as your opinion. And then, I’ve made my own decision to stick with him because that’s what I want.”
“You’re making a mistake, Dani.”
“Maybe I am. But it’s a mistake I’ve made. And I have no intention of turning my back on that man until he turns his first. Because that’s what he means to me.”
She snickered. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re in love.”
I shrugged. “Maybe I am.”
Her face fell. “Are you serious?”
“What?”
“Are you in love with that man?”
“If I am, you’d be the last to know at this point.”
She leapt out of bed. “Are you seriously telling me that you’re in love with a man who wears leather, rides a bike, smokes like a freight train, and looks like he could kill you with his bare hands? Seriously, Dani!?”
I grinned. “You’re cute when you’re upset. You know that?”
“Ugh!”
I giggled. “Hannah, I know you don’t approve of Max. But listen to me when I say your disapproval isn’t going to make me change my mind. I really care about the man. He makes me happy. He takes care of me. I mean, he may not be what you’ve always pictured in your head or what you want for me. But you of all people don’t get to decide who that person is in my life. I do. That’s under my control. And I choose him.”
“Of course you do.”
“So you can either get on board or get off. The choice is yours. But I can tell you what I will do.”
I waited until Hannah looked me square in my face before I piped up again.
“I won’t live in a dorm room with this kind of tension any longer. It’s wreaking havoc on my study habits. It’s impeding my sleep.”
She frowned. “You sure that’s not Max?”
“I’ve pulled many all-nighters in the past and been fine. But this tension between us? That’s what’s doing the most damage. Some nights when I’d actually like to come back, I choose not to because I know you’re here.”
“What?”
“And some days, when I know I should come back and study, I end up not doing that at all and calling Max instead because being around him is better than being here. In this dorm. Or on campus, where I know I’m going to run into you.”
“You’re just trying to make me feel bad.”
“Whatever you believe, that’s your call. But this is on you at this point. You want to have a friendship with me? By all means. I’m more than open to it. You’re important to me. But you’re not important enough to weather this tension and this anger any longer. Either get okay with things, or I’m applying for another roommate at the end of the week.”
She balked. “You wouldn’t do that in the middle of the semester. That’s insane!”
I picked up my coffee. “No, Hannah. What’s insane is you thinking you can change my mind by constantly turning your back on me. And trust me, one of those times, you’re going to turn back around and I’m going to be walking away. For good.”
I sipped my coffee as Hannah searched for her words.
“Dani… I--”
“Whatever it is, I know you mean it. So, just know I mean it, too. I’m done defending myself. I’m done taking this energy that should be thrown into my studies and throwing it at you instead. Max has showed me how to stand on my own. How to be brave. How to dig deep and figure out who I really am and what I really want from my own life. I’m not trading that in for a guy who ‘might be nice’ because my roommate thinks her anger is going to turn my head, too. Because it won’t.”
She licked her lips. “I’m sorry, Dani. I didn’t realize--I mean, I didn’t mean--I just…”
I sighed as I continued sipping my coffee. Watching her struggle for the words.
“I’m just sorry, okay?”
I nodded slowly. “Me, too, Hannah. Me, too.”
I finished my coffee and started packing my things away. I had ten minutes to throw on something decent before I had to head to class. Yet again, I’d be rushing. And it wasn’t Max’s fault. I shoved my things into my backpack, shook my mug over my open mouth to get the last drops of coffee, then stripped myself down. I pulled on a pair of black skinny jeans and paired it with a simple red T-shirt before slipping my leather coat up my arms. And after putting on a pair of my flats, I picked up my backpack.
“Don’t wait up,” I said.
And that was the last thing I said to Hannah before leaving for class.
24
Max
My gaze dropped to the bubbling foam at the very top of my beer. The pitcher the waitress had brought Rupert and me was fresh. Cold. Crispy to its core. But for the first time in my life, I was too angry to drink it. Too angry to taste it.
All I wanted to do was hear the glass shatter against the wall.
“So you ready to talk?”
Rupert’s voice pulled my eyes up and I watched him take a pull from his own glass of beer.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he murmured.
My eyes fell back to my drink. “He’s guilty.”
“Wait, what?”
I turned the glass around on the tabletop. “My father’s guilty as sin.”
“So he’s the one doing all this shit to you?”
I nodded. “Looks that way. John still isn’t sure, but I am.”
“What makes you so sure?”
I snickered. “You know my old man’s a piece of work.”
“Well, yeah. But what’s his motivation? Did he at least give you that? Because what we’ve brainstormed doesn’t really add up.”
“My gut tells me he’s working with another crew. That’s why we haven’t had work in months. And it conveniently started when that bullshit client we almost got ourselves killed for up and decided not to pay us a penny.”
He paused. “You think that shit has something to do with all of this?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I do.”
I finally looked back up at Rupert and saw confusion littered across his face. Yeah, I know. We didn’t have all the pieces. But the pieces we did have all pointed toward my father. My father stood to gain the most and lose the most, no matter what angle we looked at this situation from. My father was the only one who knew my stomping grounds well enough to be able to send a professional team directly to where I was. Hell, he was the only one with enough money and enough anger in his heart towards me to hire multiple professional teams in the first place.
I leaned back. “It’s him. I know it is.”
Rupert shook his head. “Knowing and proving are different.”
“We don’t have to take this to the police. We aren’t putting the man on trial. We’re trying to figure out who’s trying to get me killed.”
“And you’re accusing your father of it, Max.”
“Are you telling me my father would do anything but kill me? You’re really trying to sell that point?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m just trying to play devil’s advocate as best as I can.”
“Might want to leave that to my father. He’s a professional at playing devil’s anything.”
I finally took a pull from my beer and I didn’t stop until the glass was drained. I set it back down onto the table and Rupert filled it up. Then the glass returned promptly back to my lips. Part of me wanted to drown out all of this nonsense. Part of me was ready to wake up from this massive nightmare with two random women in my bed, searching for a third round. But the rest of me knew this wasn’t a nightmare. Everything good--and bad--happening right now was real.
And Dani was the only thing I had going for me.
“So let me ask you this.”
I nodded. “Sure.”
“If you think your fathe
r’s in play with all of this, should we start doing drive bys on campus? You know, for Bambi’s sake?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. I honestly--”
I cracked my neck before my eyes fell back to my beer once more.
“I honestly don’t know where the hell to go from here.”
Rupert sighed. “Oh, boy.”
I shook my head. “I just need some time to process all this shit. I need some time to pilfer through what my father said to see if he might’ve hinted at anything I didn’t catch in the heat of the moment.”
“What exactly did your father say?”
“He was cryptic. As always. Warned me about slinging accusations around and that he didn’t appreciate me coming to his place only to accuse him of what I was.”
“What did he say that proved his guilt to you? That’s really all I’m concerned about.”
I closed my eyes and relived the moment.
“Dad was acting funny. Finicky. I mean, he wasn’t shuffling around or anything. But he had a very tight grip on the crystal glass he was holding. I watched that man sling back two massive drinks before he was even remotely ready to speak with us.”
Rupert drew in a deep breath. “So something must’ve happened before you two arrived?”
I opened my eyes. “Or he was that nervous to speak with us in the first place.”
“How do you figure?”
“My father has this tell. A tell he’s aware of. His pinky likes to twitch and exercise its free will to move whenever he’s lying. Or manipulating. I caught it early as a child. It’s how I was able to circumvent my father’s anger a lot as a kid. But as we grew up, he started finding ways to conceal it.”
“How so?”
I shrugged. “Keeping that hand in his pants pocket. Fiddling with a coin, or leaning his hand against the wall.”
“Or holding on to a drink.”
I nodded. “Exactly. Even though he slung back both of those drinks, not once did he put that glass down. He clung to it so tightly his knuckles were white. And the only time his hand ever relaxed around that glass was when he proclaimed that blood didn’t matter in affairs like this.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Back up. What did he say?”
“Like I said, things were getting tense. John was in the hallway, calling out for me to come on. That we needed to leave. Dad told me I needed to listen to my older brother and I said, and I quote, ‘I’m not walking away, John. And I’m not dropping this, Dad, until we get to the bottom of it. Blood doesn’t mean shit. Not if you’re the one coming for me.’”
He blinked. “You said that to your father?”
“Yep. And just after his hand relaxed against that crystal glass, he said, and I fucking quote, ‘You know what? Good for you, Max. That’s the first thing you’ve ever said that I respect. And that I agree with. Blood doesn’t mean anything when stakes like this are involved.’”
He paused. “Holy fuck, your father’s guilty.”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“What the hell does he get out of trying to kill you, though? That doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
“I know. And all I’ve got there are theories. Maybe he’s trying to dismantle the Red Thorns. Maybe he really does have it all-out for me like that. During the meeting, though, Dad mentioned something about us being small time.”
“Us, meaning…?”
“The crew. He said we were small-time, and that riding around town like we owned the place had probably pissed some people off.”
“And if he’s working with another crew, he might be talking about the fact that they’re pissed off.”
I nodded slowly. “My fear is that we’re about to get into a turf war with another gang, only my father’s going to be at the helm of it all.”
“And we all know how that ended the last time.”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. “Yeah. We do.”
The last time there had been a turf war, John ended up in the hospital for weeks. In a coma for part of his stay. It ended with my own flesh and blood being permanently disfigured with the inability to ever get back on a bike. And that was with Dad on our side. Technically.
The havoc my father could wreak on our club if he was on the opposite side made me shiver.
Rupert poured himself another glass. “Okay, speaking of facts for a second, your father’s been content for years using us as anything from errand boys to security detail.”
I nodded. “This is true.”
“And we’ve never let him down. At all. We’re consistent.”
“And affordable.”
“Plus, we’re low-key. That last client? That’s as noisy as shit has ever gotten for us. Because usually, our heads are down. I mean, ever since you stepped up to the plate, our enemies have become at least neutral. Some of them even allies.”
“Until now.”
He sighed. “You think your father’s working with one of our allies?”
I paused. “I think my father is working with someone who wants us out of the way. Whether it’s an ally or someone who’s neutral--or even someone who’s new--I don’t know. But none of that matters. The only thing that matters is their current motive.”
“Which is to get you out of the picture. Obviously.”
“Yep.”
I threw back my second beer before Rupert refilled my glass.
“You know what I think?” he asked.
I cleared my throat. “Give it to me.”
“I think we need to stop looking at this practically and start looking at it through the lens of your father’s eyes. Because if he’s really at the head of all this, logic doesn’t get us anywhere. Because your father doesn’t operate on it.”
I pointed at him. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said since we arrived here.”
He blinked. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult.”
I grinned. “Good luck.”
“Hey, Max!”
My head panned towards the voice. “Tiger! Holy shit, where the hell have you been?”
The man with three scars tearing down his face walked up to our booth and shook my hand. He leaned down for a pat on the back, and I held him a little longer than he was probably expecting.
“Man, it’s good to see you on two feet again. I didn’t think you’d ever get out of the hospital. How’s the leg doing?” I asked.
He bent his knee for me. “After the four surgeries, it’s doing fantastic. Sorry I was out of commission so long.”
“Man, you know you don’t have to apologize for shit like that. Especially after shoving your wife out from in front of a truck like that.”
Rupert chuckled. “Yeah. Only you could take a hit from a semi and walk it off after some surgeries.”
Tiger chuckled. “So I miss anything? Got any jobs I could hop on? We could really use the money.”
I sipped my beer. “I’m working on the job front. We’ve run into some snags. Some shit that’s happened since you’ve been gone. But any one of these guys will fill you in on what’s happening.”
He furrowed his brow. “Something I should be worried about?”
“Not to freak you out, but yeah.”
I watched Bub slap his hand against Tiger’s back before he winked at me.
“Someone around here’s chasing our damn president down. Not very nice, if you ask me.”
Tiger’s eyes narrowed. “Are you fucking kidding me? Who? Who are they? Tell me, and there’s no need for anything else.”
I chuckled. “You need to take a seat and keep on resting. And Bub! Try not to freak him out on his first night back. He’s got pins in his leg, remember?”
Bub smiled. “Ah, I’m just messin’. You know Max can handle himself.”
Tiger studied my face. “Are the bags underneath your eyes yellow? Holy shit, did someone actually land a punch?”
Bub wrapped his arm around Tiger’s shoulders. “Come on. Your ‘welcome back’ drinks are on me. We’ve got a lot to
talk about.”
I nodded. “I appreciate that, Bub. Thanks.”
He winked. “Anytime, Max.”
I watched the two men walk away as I sipped my third drink. Rupert topped it off before he held it in the air, beckoning for another pitcher to be brought to the table. I caught eyes with some of my men. Bushley and Mark. Grandfather and Sully. I waved at them and they came over to talk. Filling me in on their lives, their girls, and their adventures. I sat there and continued to drink, listening to every story they had for me. I loved hearing about their lives. What they got up to when we weren’t working.
I liked the fact that my men felt safe enough to live their lives. To go on adventures. To play with their children in the backyard and take vacations.
That was why this situation pissed me off so much. Because looming threats like this made my men fear for their safety. The safety of their families. Soon none of them would be on vacation. Or enjoying their lives. None of them would let their children play outside. Soon the paranoia would take hold, and that’s when mistakes were made.
“Think you should slow down on those drinks?” Rupert asked.
I drained my fifth--no, sixth? No, fifth--drink before I waved my hand at him.
“Hush. Larry here’s telling me about his trip to the mountains. You get any fishing done? I know how much you like to sit and fish,” I said.
I listened to Larry’s fishing trip stories and nodded as Panther talked about his newly-wedded wife. I slung back drinks and laughed with the guys, giving absolutely no fucks about how much I was drinking. This was just as much my night to enjoy as it was theirs. And I needed to enjoy something after that fucked-up meeting with my father.
What I didn’t take into account was all of that beer on an angry, empty stomach.
And as Rupert helped me stumble out of the bar, I wondered if he was right.
I wondered if we needed to start doing drive-bys near campus to make sure Dani stayed safe through all this.
25
Dani
I slipped into my car and decided to go hang out with Max for a little while. After my morning classes and that awful conversation with Kline, I needed to see him. Hold him. Kiss him. Hear his voice in my ear. I couldn't sleep. I’d barely eaten all day. I felt guilty for some reason. Even though I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. I just didn’t want Max to be upset with me. I didn’t want him thinking that I was straying, or whatever. I wanted him and only him. No matter what came our way.
