ASIA

 

I sighed as I stared out the window of the diner. It was a typical morning in Ivory. The sun was shining bright and everybody was in the middle of getting their day started.

“More coffee?”

I turned my head up and looked at the waitress.

“Sure,” I said.

She refilled my cup and gave me a polite smile before leaving me alone at the table. I stared at the black coffee as I stirred more sugar into it.

The alcohol I had the night before was starting to get back to me. A slight pain throbbed in my temples. Even though I drank more than I usually did, it was still enough for me to remember everything that happened.

What the hell am I doing?

I should’ve known Charles was trouble. Just one look at him was enough to tell me I should’ve stayed away from him. But I couldn’t. I just had to be the one woman he picked in all of Ivory.

I sighed as I took a sip of the sweet black coffee. A few seconds later, I saw Charles pull up in the parking lot. For a moment, I couldn’t help but admire the way he looked. The jeans. The boots. The leather kutte. Like so many other women in Ivory, I couldn’t deny the appeal of a man in an MC. Of course, I would never admit it.

Charles walked up to my table and took a seat across from me. He didn’t look any worse for wear after getting arrested. If anything, he looked like he was in a good mood, a subtle smile hidden behind his thick goatee.

“Can I get you something?” the waitress asked him. “Some coffee.”

“Sure,” Charles said. “That sounds good.”

He kept his eyes locked on me as the waitress poured him a cup.

“You want something to eat?”

“Gimme a couple of eggs. Scrambled. Side of bacon. Sausage. How about some toast, too?”

“It’ll be ready in a second.”

The waitress gave him a friendly smile and left me alone with the biker.

“You look like you’re in a good mood,” I said.

“Why wouldn’t I be? You ever spent a night in jail before?”

“I have…”

“And weren’t you in a good mood when you finally got out?”

I sighed a deep breath.

“I guess you have a point…”

Charles’s attitude wasn’t enough to make me feel any better. I was still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened last night.

“Thanks for meeting me,” he said.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here. I shouldn’t be here.”

“Why not?”

“Are you seriously asking me that?”

I leaned forward across the table to make my point clear to him.

“You chased a guy through the back alley of a bar and clobbered him in the middle of the street. I don’t know where you’re from but you can’t get away with shit like that in this town.”

“Apparently you can. A night in jail… I could do that shit standing on my head.”

“It’s good to see you’re taking it well.”

He finally wiped the smirk off of his face.

“Listen,” he said. “I’m sorry about what happened. But Walsh is the only reason I’m here. I had to take the chance to settle my business with him. Now it doesn’t look like I’m gonna get that chance…”

“What do you mean?”

“I talked to this bitch last night. Lieberman. She’s a federal agent. She told me she’s got a giant sting operation going on.”

My eyes widened when I heard it.

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“Apparently, she’s got her eye on Holmes… on Blade, your boss. And she’s tracking his every move. Him and everybody she’s dealing with. Once she figures out everything he’s up to, she’s gonna drop the hammer on him. I’m guessing that includes Walsh, too.”

“Then that should make it easy for you.”

“Make what easy?”

“You just said Lieberman is targeting Blade and all of the people he’s making deals with. That means you can let Lieberman take care of Walsh.”

It made perfect sense to me. But for whatever reason, Charles didn’t appear to feel the same way.

“What?” I said. “What’s the problem?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“And why not?”

“I don’t know Blade. But I’m guessing he didn’t get to where he is by being an idiot. I’m pretty sure he knows Lieberman is running surveillance on him. If that’s the case, Walsh could just as easily wiggle out of whatever trap Lieberman is setting for him.”

“Lieberman is a federal agent. You said it yourself. She’s not some incompetent cop like everybody else who works in this town.”

“Don’t underestimate your boss. You should know him well enough to know that he’s capable of anything.”

I looked out the window in frustration. I couldn’t argue with Charles’s reasoning. Blade was as conniving as any man I’d ever met. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had some way to slip out of law enforcement’s hands. Even the feds.

But I had to convince Charles not to go through with it.

“Call it off,” I said.

“What?”

“Call it off. Whatever you’re planning on doing, just let Lieberman handle it. Please.”

He raised an eyebrow at me.

“What’s gotten into you?” he asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“Fifty-grand. That was the deal. You were all on-board. Now all of a sudden you changed your mind. What happened?”

“What happened? I saw you chase a guy into the middle of the street and nearly beat him to death. That’s what happened.”

“Are you backing out? Are you not interested in the money?”

“I…”

I sighed a deep breath.

I was ashamed to admit that the money appealed to me more than anything else. I couldn’t just back out of the deal so easily.

But there was something else.

When I looked into Charles’s eyes, there was a part of me that wanted to believe he was doing the right thing.

“I promise you, nothing will happen to you,” he said. “I won’t allow you to get hurt. I won’t allow you to get caught up in all of this.”

“I’m already caught up in all of this…”

I stared back at Charles and for some reason, I couldn’t help but smile. It was strange to see that he’d somehow managed to work a smirk onto his own face.

“Do you even know what you’re gonna do?” I asked. “After what happened last night, I’m sure Walsh is gonna be watching his back. He’s gonna be a lot more careful. There’s no way you’re gonna be able to get your hands on him.”

“I’ll think of something,” he replied. “There’s still time.”

The waitress arrived with our food before she overheard our conversation. The sight and smell of the stack of pancakes were enough to make me forget about all of my problems at the moment. My mouth watered as I poured syrup all over them.

Charles didn’t wait for me. He started digging into his food.

He was bigger than most men. A barrel chest with bulging arms. I knew how muscled he was underneath his chest. And he ate like it, too.

“Hungry?” I said with a laugh.

“They didn’t feed me when I was locked up. I guess they must’ve arrested me right after dinner time.”

“What about breakfast?”

“I guess they released me right before breakfast.”

He chuckled softly as I smirked at him, his mouth half-full of food.

“I’ve always had an appetite,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid. My mom was always shoving food onto my plate and I would polish it off. It never stopped. From high school and when I enlisted.”

“Enlisted? You were in the military?”

“Army Ranger. I did four years. Iraq. Afghanistan. More tours than I’d care to count.”

“And then what happened?”

“And then I went to Corvus. Got patched up by the Reapers. But I was never much for sitting around. Went nomad and they were cool with it.”

“And you’ve been riding ever since.”

He gave me a nod as he took a piece of bacon into his mouth.

“Yeah… Something like that…”

I started cutting away at my pancakes. The sugar on my tongue helped to relieve some of the stress I felt but I was still thinking about everything that happened in the past two nights.

“Are you ever gonna tell me what this is really all about?” I asked. “I know people are attached to their pets but I can’t imagine wanting to kill some guy over it.”

“How long have you been in Ivory?” he asked suddenly.

“All my life.”

I shrugged as I answered his question.

“You got any family?” he said.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Not anymore anyway…”

“Yeah, me neither. I lost my parents a long time ago. Never had any brothers or sisters. Closest I ever had to someone like that were the boys in my squad…”

His words trailed off. Even though he was still chewing his food, his eyes told me that his mind was somewhere else.

“Whiskers,” he said.

“What?”

“His name was Whiskers. The brightest orange you’d ever see. You could spot him even in the dark. He’d always be there lurking on my bed, staring at me when I was trying to fall asleep.”

I stopped eating as Charles continued.

“One night, I heard some shit on the other side of my place. Sounded like broken glass or something. I didn’t want to think it was crooks but it was. Turns out it was Walsh looking for some shit to take from me. Probably wanted to flip some of my stuff into some quick cash.

“Whiskers wasn’t in my room that night. I was too late when I found him. The asshole shot him. He killed a harmless cat and ran off.”

Charles continued staring off into space, stuffing another forkful of eggs into his mouth.

“How do you know it was Walsh?” I asked. “You said he got away.”

“He got away before I could get to him. He was wearing a mask but not over his eyes. I remember his eyes. I could close my eyes and remember the way he looked at me.”

“But how do you know—”

“He dropped his wallet. The dumbass brought his ID with him before he robbed a house. I did a little digging and sure enough, it was him. Dealers like him can’t keep going without eventually getting recognized.”

“And you chased him all the way to Ivory…”

“…And I chased him all the way to Ivory.”

Charles finally shifted his gaze back toward me. He no longer looked lost in his memory, his eyes focused.

“You think I’m crazy because I want to kill a man for killing my cat,” he said. “That’s fine. I think I’m crazy myself for everything I’ve done. But I can guarantee you that Walsh has done a lot worse shit than what he did to me. Nobody would miss him.”

“Taking justice into your own hands… Even if he’s a bad guy, what gives you the right?”

He shrugged and shook his head.

“I wish I could tell you,” he said.

“You don’t have an answer for me but you’re still planning on going through with this. All you’re gonna do is get yourself locked up or killed. You said it yourself. All eyes are on Blade and Walsh. And if they’re looking at them, they’re gonna be looking at you.”

“I’ll think of something. You don’t get paid until I’ve settled my business with Walsh. Unless you wanna back out now.”

He raised his eyebrows at me.

Dammit.

I was ashamed to admit that the money was still motivating me to keep going.

“Just do me a favor,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“One night. Can you go just one night without making a scene?”

He chuckled at me.

“Sure,” he said. “One night. What did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking that maybe we could go somewhere quiet and relax. Maybe that’ll help you think about what your next move is.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

He stuffed some of his breakfast into his mouth, smiling at me as he chewed. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

I sighed as I turned my attention back to my pancakes. It was barely enough to make me forget about everything else going on.