“I think this is a bad idea.” Brick might have looked casual, leaning back in his chair, only the back legs still on the ground, arms crossed over his chest, but he was anything but.
Caine looked up and cocked his eyebrow. “Got that from the vote, brother. Nothing more needs to be said.”
“That’s where I think you’re wrong. We’re putting her right in the line of fire. If this goes bad, and you and I both fucking know it will, she will never have a life, never be able to get beyond this one bad decision.”
“She made her choice and is already in the line of fire by taking that contract. All we can do is mediate the damage.”
“Bullshit!” Brick barked, letting his chair fall forward. “She’s chasing ghosts for nothing and could get herself killed, or have you already forgotten how we found Paris? Raped, beaten, fucking dead, thrown on our doorstep, and all she had was a fucking notebook with some preliminary information. What Ryan is talking about has the ability to take down the cartel in the right hands. You don’t think Perez will come at her hardcore? And for what, a pipe fucking dream? I was there, Caine, when Tiny was shot. He’s not alive out there somewhere, living and breathing. It was a direct shot to the head. No one survives that!”
“What’s really going on here, Brick? You pissed because you got played or because her coming here makes you question what happened that day, what you saw and what you did after?” Caine wasn’t being a dick. He was asking the same damn question running through Brick’s own head. “Listen up, Ryan checks out. She was accepted to MIT with a full-ride at sixteen. She turned it down, choosing to go to a community college closer to home.”
“How the fuck does that check out? Who turns down MIT for community college?”
“She did it because she knew she would be headhunted, even at sixteen. Tuck confirmed she was approached by several alphabet agencies to train and utilize her skills. Hell, he tried to recruit her after Talon left the roost, said he would love to have her on his team. She turned them down and from all appearances, stopped hacking. We know that’s a bunch of bullshit. She works from home, programming and developing video games. The chick built her own cover, man, and it’s good. Unless you know what you’re looking for, Ryan Lowe looks just like any other average person in the U.S.”
“And that doesn’t bother you? She’s been manipulating and fooling people since she was a teenager. What makes you think this time is any different?”
Caine just looked at Brick as if he was trying to see way more than Brick wanted him to. Brick expected Caine to bust his balls or mess with him.
“Don’t you remember Tiny talking about her, how she built her own computer at like eight or some shit because they couldn’t afford one? Hell, man, even I remember Tiny bragging about Ryan. He was proud of her and thought it was hilarious that she would bomb tests on purpose because she didn’t like the attention she got from acing everything and being the youngest kid in the class. She had most of her college credits before she even got her first period. He used to tell her to own that shit, but she was shy. That’s another thing she obviously got over.” Caine laughed at Brick’s expense.
He wasn’t exactly happy about it, but what could he really say? He’d been drawn to Ryan like a moth to a flame, but he remembered something else Tiny had said about his sister. The threat of a voodoo curse if any of them so much as touched her, and he had touched, kissed, and licked that woman for hours. Reaching down, he adjusted his balls, making sure they were still there. When Tiny used to get all hillbilly magic man, it had given him the willies. The man had uncanny perception skills and an intuition that rivaled anyone Brick had met to this day. He also had nightmares about the way his brother had died on Brick’s watch.
Fuck, he needed to leave his balls and dick out of this, look at the facts, and try to wrap his head around this because it was all happening whether or not he wanted it to. Tuck Masterson wanting Ryan in his club meant she was top-notch in her field. It also meant she had lady balls of steel to turn all of them down. He respected that but hated the thought of Ryan being involved with anything to do with Miguel Perez.
“I still think it’s the wrong move. I don’t think you would have agreed to it unless the club gained from the access. She’s chasing a ghost, for God’s sake, Caine.”
Caine got up and walked toward the door, stopping to put a hand on Brick’s shoulder, the two men not even looking at each other.
“It might be a ghost hunt, it might not, but we owe it to Tiny and Ryan to find out.” Caine smacked his shoulder, and he heard him as he walked away, “But I’m not going to lie to you, man. If I can get anything to take Perez down, you bet your ass I’m going to take the risk, and the club will watch out for Ryan.”
Brick sat there for a couple of minutes. He had his orders. He was supposed to make Ryan comfortable but watch every move she made. Fucking perfect. Perez wasn’t the only sadistic fucker. Caine seemed to get a perverse joy out of making uncomfortable situations, or as he would say, forcing the guys to clean up their own shit.
Getting up, he walked through the club and down into the basement to the room where she was being held. His hand rested on the doorknob a couple of seconds too long. He was being a pussy. He needed to treat this situation as an op and get on with it. It didn’t matter what had happened a few hours before. It was about getting shit done, doing his duty to the club, and keeping his own personal shit out of all of it. He fucked women nightly. Ryan Lowe wasn’t anything special, just another in a long list. They were both adults and knew the score, and if she didn’t, Brick would be sure she did. Resolved with the situation and determined to get his head and dick under control, Brick opened the door.
Fuck, she still blew him away, even with dark circles under her eyes and the makeup washed from her face. Hell, she was even hotter without the war paint. Her hair hung loose in long waves, and her tired eyes focused on him. Brick knew he was in trouble, but he wasn’t going to let this woman get to him again.
“The vote passed. Caine is willing to let you play with our lives, but it didn’t pass unanimously, so watch your step.” He had been prepared to say what he had to say, take her to the room the prospects were setting up, and leave, but for some reason, he found himself leaning against the door. He didn’t know if he wanted an explanation or an apology, but he wanted something, maybe even another taste, which fucked with his head even more. Brick was not the kind of guy to go back for seconds. One and done was the motto he lived by, but there was something about Ryan that had drawn him from the first moment she caught his eye.
“Why did you do it this way, Ryan? You could have come to any of us, and we would have at least listened to what you had to say.”
Ryan rubbed her face. Her voice came out strong but resigned.
“Would you have, Baden? I researched every one of you. You’re protectors by nature, disguised as outlaw bad boys. Tell me you would let a civilian go up against a monster like Miguel Perez.” Brick opened his mouth, but Ryan said, “No, wait, not only a civilian but the sister of one of your lost brothers? I didn’t feel I had a choice, but I never set out to use you to get what I wanted. That just kind of happened.”
Brick moved away from the wall but only took a couple of steps, “Used me? You drugged me.”
“I gave you some kava, Brick. I didn’t roofie you. You were very much in control at all times. I never heard the word no, or hell, you ask me my name even once.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Brick might have said the words, but the lie grated. Instead of saying anything else or going into territory he didn’t want to, he gave her the facts. “What you’re looking for, you are never going to find. I was there, Ryan, on that mission with Tiny. I watched as an insurgent put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. I still have nightmares. He didn’t survive that, no one could have. You’re letting your grief cloud your judgment.”
“Am I? When I was told my brother had been killed in action, I accepted it. I grieved for him, but I
moved on.”
“Then what changed?”
Ryan rubbed her cheek, her hand resting over her mouth for a couple of seconds, tears filling her eyes but never falling.
“Tiny was more than just a brother. Our father walked out on the family shortly after I was born, saying it was too hard. Our momma had to work all the time, cleaning houses, waitressing, mending, basically doing anything and everything she could to keep clothes on our backs, food on the table, and a roof over our heads. Tiny was only eight when I was born, but he took on the responsibility of raising me when our mom wasn’t around.”
Brick knew some of the story. Tiny hadn’t talked a lot, but he had shared that the Lowes had been dirt poor. Brick knew Tiny had sent the lion’s share of his paycheck from the military home to his mom and sister. Brick had never asked a ton of questions and only visited twice when they were on leave. He remembered Ryan. She had been shy and reserved, stealing glances at him. He had thought it was cute but hadn’t paid much attention to the awkward teenager. They were on leave, looking to get some good food, their dicks wet, and drunk off their asses—not necessarily in that order.
“When Tiny decided to go in the military, he didn’t just come out and tell me since I was ten at the time, and he knew it would blow up my world.” Ryan wiped a single tear that had fallen down her cheek. Brick had the urge to comfort her but forced himself to stand back and away from her. “Anyway, our mom always had this thing she said about idle hands. She felt like if we weren’t working, we needed to be creative in some way. She never got my fascination with computers or even understood it. You had to have seen Tiny whittling, right?”
Brick remembered Tiny always had a knife and a piece of wood in his hands if they weren’t on a mission, training, or on maneuvers.
“I tried everything, painting, beads, drawing, and I sucked at all of them. I just don’t have that creative gene unless it has to do with numbers and the strokes of a computer keyboard, but one day… Tiny plunked a big old pile of clay in front of me and told me to make him something. I can still remember that day. We had such a good time, the two of us just talking, and I made him a horse. We waited for it to dry and fired it the old-fashioned way in a pit. For almost a whole week, we both did something with the little statue. I even got little pebbles from the creek for its eyes, Tiny...” Ryan choked on a sob but got hold of herself and held back the tears threatening to fall. She was definitely a tough one. “Anyway, after it was all done, Tiny had taken the horse to the local store and asked Mr. Kilpatrick to put it up on a shelf with a ridiculous price tag on it for five thousand dollars.”
“It must have been good.”
“No,” Ryan said, shaking her head and smiling a little. “It was god awful and looked like something a preschooler had made. It wasn’t about the horse. The time he spent with me, the price tag, placing it in the store, was about saying goodbye to me but letting me know that he would be back. He took me to the store, showed me the horse sitting on the shelf, and told me he was leaving for the military, but he would be back. Then he would buy that horse and take me anywhere in the world I wanted to go. It was sweet.”
Brick knew how much they all made when they first joined the military, and with Tiny sending most of his paycheck back, he wouldn’t have been able to save much money.
“Did he do it? Did he buy back the horse?”
Ryan shook her head. “No, life happened, and the statue was basically forgotten by both of us. Him coming back was all that really mattered to me, anyway. Although he might not have made it back as much as I wanted, he still came home… until he didn’t.”
It hit him in the chest when she cried or just looked sad, but a part of him was still pissed.
“It’s a good story, Ryan, but I don’t get why you’re telling me now.”
“See, that’s the thing. Five years ago, someone went into that store and bought it for five grand. I thought it was a joke at first and was pissed off because someone had messed with my memory of my brother. I went to the store with the commission check in hand, bold as you can be, and bitched out the new store owners. Mr. Kilpatrick had died years before, and the new owners had honored his wishes to keep the horse there. I just thought they decided to get rid of the monstrosity and still keep face. They insisted the person was real. They had paid cash a couple days before and had only bought the horse. I still didn’t believe them, but they had a surveillance system, so...”
“You hacked it.”
“Yep. The picture sucks, but the man who bought it was relatively the same size as my brother, a little bulkier, heavier. He was wearing a baseball cap pushed down low, and I never got a clear picture of his face, but I could see his ear, and there was a notch missing… just like Tiny’s.”
Chapter Six
Damn, Ryan knew this would be hard, but she didn’t realize how much of a toll it would take on her, just talking about her brother. She had kept it to herself for years. She hadn’t even let her mother know what she suspected. The poor woman already had all the hope in the world that her little boy would come home to her one day. Ryan hadn’t wanted to add to that hope if any or all of it turned out bad. She knew the chances of her brother being alive after all this time were slim. If he was alive, she knew the chances of him being changed or broken were even higher, but she still had to try. She also felt obligated to explain to Brick. She didn’t want him to think she had just used him because she hadn’t… not really.
Going into the clubhouse and getting access to the computer, yeah, she needed that to happen. What she hadn’t expected were feelings, her feelings or his, to become involved, but they mattered. She wasn’t going to ignore them, and if she had to apologize a hundred times, she would.
“Damn, Ryan, the story is sweet, hell, it’s a downright tear-jerker, but that picture could be anyone. You already admitted the build was off. You’re putting a lot at stake for theories and hopes.”
Gone was the smooth-talking ‘want to get in your pants’ heartthrob Brick. He had been replaced by the hardcore, cynical, former soldier, now biker. It wasn’t much of a surprise. All these guys were cut from the same cloth as her brother had been. She had bruised his ego and lost his trust. All she could do now was hope she could fix them with time. If not, she would have to live with it. Getting Baden “Brick” Wahl to like her again wasn’t her first priority.
“You asked why, and I told you. I can’t give you any more, only that I feel it in my gut this is the right move to make, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.”
“Even if that person is you?”
“Yeah, even if that person is me.” Ryan watched as Brick moved back to the wall. His eyes were squinted, his jaw tight, and that same gut feeling that told her all of this was the right move to make. It also told her the next thing out of his mouth was going to hurt.
“That’s pretty damn selfish. Your momma already lost one kid, now you’re setting it up, so she loses another, all based on a picture you can’t even say for certain is Tiny. I just hope you’re as good as you say.” He turned and opened the door.
Ryan didn’t know if she should follow or stay sitting, freezing her ass off, and wait for the next person to come in. When he barked, “Come on,” she got up off her ass, and against her better judgment, said, “I am that good. After all, I got to you, didn’t I?”
Brick glared at her getting really close until they were eye to eye.
“Sweets, I fuck a different woman every night. Don’t think you were anything special or even memorable.”
“Noted.” Ryan laughed. “Thanks for the warning, sugar.” Ryan started using the over-exaggerated drawl she’d used with him in the bar. “I’ll be sure to make an appointment with my gynecologist when I’m done here. And excuse me for giving you exactly what you wanted.”
His head jerked back, and he stepped away, leaving space for her to walk through the door. Ryan bit her lip when her back was to him, thinking maybe she should work a little harder, trying to get
the man to trust instead of giving him more to piss him off. God, she might be smart, brilliant by some standards, but sometimes, common sense eluded her, especially when it came to dealing with actual people, mainly the opposite sex. Computers and cyberspace were just so much easier to navigate.
Brick got in front of her in the hallway without saying a word, his stature tense, his easy gait long gone. He was on alert, pissed, and who the hell knew what else. He led her to a room just down the long dark hallway. Opening the door, she stepped inside. It wasn’t much better than the other room. A metal-framed cot sat on one side, another metal chair and smaller table on the other, scratchy looking bedding folded up on the bed, and one door on the back wall, she hoped and assumed was a bathroom. There was nothing else to look at except the cinderblock walls and cement floor.
“This is your new home while you’re here. There will be guys stationed outside the door at all times. You won’t be given any electronic devices and will be searched every time you enter or leave this door.”
Ryan had hoped for a little more, like a real bed and maybe a window, but she could deal. What she really wanted right now was to get warm and dry and get to work. Her clothes were still damp from her impromptu dip in Sedona’s pool.
“What about my stuff?”
“Roo and Junior have gone to the location to retrieve it. When they get back, it will be placed in the room next door. You will be watched as you set up your equipment, and each piece will be examined and tested. You’ll be given a wifi password each day. While you’re online, a member will be watching, and another one will be sitting with you.”
Giving her a password daily was a good move for an amateur. She could hack into and get the passwords on her own, but she was determined to play nice—for now.
“After you get the system up and running, you will brief the club on everything you have, including the picture of the man from the store. Complete disclosure, Ryan. I find out you’re hiding any damn thing, and you will regret it. Do I make myself clear?”
Brick: Blacktop Renegades (BRMC Book 2) Page 4
