Tess
My hands flew to my mouth as the tears flowed from my eyes.
“Hey there, Tess.” Jace beamed at me in a three-piece suit. He opened his jacket like he was impressed at how he cleaned up. “I look fucking fetchin’, right?”
I laughed at his words. How he got in here was beyond me.
“I know I’m not Brick, but can I still get a hug?”
I hurried over and wrapped my arms around his midsection. He smelled like the club, and the walls I had been carefully building started to buckle under the pressure.
I flinched when his arms tightened.
“Oh, you okay?”
I nodded while I stepped back and willed the tears away. “Just still a little sore from—” I shook off the memory. “How did you get here? They run a detailed background check on everyone. You’d have to have at least a hundred grand in your account, or they wouldn’t even consider you.”
He smiled as he sat on the edge of my dresser. He looked so different and so much more grown up. Well, until he opened his mouth.
“You’re forgetting Trigger’s rich, and he knows a lot of people.”
The very mention of Trigger’s name in such a casual way nearly tore me down. I reached behind me for the mattress and eased back to help with the heaviness.
“I suppose that’s true.” My mouth became dry.
“This room is bomb, Tess, and that bathroom! Shit, your tub is the size of my bed.” I welcomed Jace’s lack of attention to my emotional state. “No wonder Brick got you an apartment and didn’t make you slum it at the clubhouse right away.”
Trigger.
Brick.
Clubhouse.
All the words I hadn’t dared to utter since I left three and a half weeks ago. Damn, it felt so much longer, but with Jace here, it felt like yesterday. I rubbed my chest where my heart was determined to make an imprint.
I yelped when he jumped onto my bed like a seven-year-old, landing on his back. His arms went behind his head as he sighed. “I slept in Rail’s garage for a month before I got a spot in the clubhouse. I thought that was nice.” He chuckled as he wiggled into the comforter. “Now I can see why you came back here.”
I hated that he didn’t see how dark this place was for me. How much I’d died inside the past few weeks. My insides coiled, and I wanted to scream. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down, but it was hard because he kept rambling. “Why are you here?” I blurted, harsher than I intended.
He sat up and tugged at his tie, and his mood changed.
“Trigger needed to know where you were.”
My body tingled in an alarming way. There was more to this.
“Why?”
“Someone showed up and caused problems.” He wouldn’t look at me, and I wanted to question why. “Trigger just needed to know you were all right.”
Oh.
“Well,” I cleared my throat and rubbed my wrist, “as you can see, I’m fine.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He grinned, but it fell when I didn’t match it. “You sure you are Tess?”
My phone vibrated, and I pulled it from my purse.
Ven: The Wicked Witch is finally busy. You need me?
Tess: I got this one.
Ven: Okay…just text me when you’re done, okay?
Tess: K.
“How’s Brick?” I diverted the attention off me.
“Pissy.”
I felt my lips go up without thinking. Brick could be wicked at shutting people out when he was digesting something heavy.
“Give him a chocolate milk drink box.”
Jace looked at me oddly. He folded his arms and nodded for me to elaborate.
“Just something from when we were younger.”
“I’ll stop on my way home.”
Home. Ugh.
“Any tricks for Trigger?”
His words were like a physical punch to the gut.
“You should see the slaughter room. It’s permanently stained red.”
Shit.
He stood and straightened his tie in the mirror. “Even Tammy can’t get near him.” He grinned at me and missed my mood change yet again. “Well, I’ve seen you, and you look fucking sexy. I’ll report back you’re great.”
“Jace.” I huffed in disbelief that this was happening.
A knock at the door sent a jolt through me.
Oh, no!
“Jace, lose the jacket and look like you’re buttoning up your shirt.”
“What?”
“Play along, okay?” I tugged off his jacket and pushed him on the bed. Just as I settled in on his lap, the door slowly opened.
“Tessa—oh, forgive me.” Clark’s eyes narrowed in on Jace’s shocked expression. “I didn’t realize you were working.”
Like hell. The blood pumped to my face, and I hid behind my hair. My hands trembled as I pressed them into Jace’s chest.
“Close the damn door, asshole.” Jace covered my hands to hide my nerves and glared at Clark.
Clark ran his tongue across his lips as he stared at Jace, and then he looked back at me.
“Tessa, please find me when you’re finished here.”
I gave a slight nod and waited for the click of the door. I let out a long, deep breath to calm my nerves.
“Thanks for that, Jace.” I couldn’t look him in the eye.
“Shit, so you are a—an escort.”
No wonder Trigger sent him. To confirm his ex was a tramp.
My eyes welled up. This wasn’t something I chose, it was something I was born into. I had never slept with any of the men here except Clark, but that was different.
“No wonder Trigger flipped the fuck out after you left the church.”
I shifted back and covered myself up with my pathetic excuse for a robe. I shoved hard against his chest. “How dare you judge me? It’s none of your fucking business, or Trigger’s. Get the hell out, Jace, and tell him I’m just fine.”
Jace shifted on the bed and pulled his phone free.
“I gotta go.” He shrugged on his jacket and mumbled about missing his bike. “I miss having you around, Tess. I wish you hadn’t left.”
“Well, I did, so…”
“Okay, well, I gotta run.”
I tucked my hair behind my ear and nodded. I wished it was Morgan who came instead of Jace. He would have heard me.
I barely registered his hug and turned away as he left. I felt raw and exposed, and I had to get a grip on my emotions.
I locked the door, turned off the lights, closed the curtains, and curled up in a tiny ball on the blanket in the center of my bed.
Maybe I wasn’t a whore, but I sure felt like one now.
***
The next morning, Clark paced his office like a panther, while I stood like stone, curious what he had to say. I was sure it was something important.
“Are you enjoying working here?”
I felt my back go up. Seriously?
“If I did?”
“Clients are asking for you specifically now?”
“Clark,” my voice carried a warning, “I never asked to work in the house. I wanted to go back to the stage. If you want to change that, I welcome it. You made your choice, so keep your jealousy out of it.”
He thought for a moment before he came around the desk and towered over me, just like Trigger used to. His soap was different, though, and it brought back so many memories of feeling loved and cherished by him. I had to shake myself and remember the truth, that there had been an undertone of deceit the whole time, and I would do well to not forget. I took a step back. He clouded my head and confused me.
“Tessa,” he whispered and brushed my hair off my shoulder. “God, I have missed the heat from your skin.”
I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate, and I pulled hard from a deep place. His lips brushed my earlobe, and I turned my chin away.
“Don’t.”
“You used to love it when I kissed you here.” He pressed on the side of my neck, and Trigger flashed before my eyes.
“Stop.”
“Your body doesn’t agree with your words, sweet girl.”
I pushed at his shoulders and shoved him away before I turned on my heel and hurried to the door. It opened as I touched the handle.
My mother’s evil glance tore a hole through me. Her eyes honed in on my neck, and I felt she could see his kiss.
“Clark, honey,” she said over my head, “come to bed.”
I sighed as I moved around her. My mother’s hand snapped to my upper arm. She glared inches from my face. “Give me a reason to kick you out again, Tess. Just one.”
“Felicia.” Clark’s tone told me he knew what she was referring to. “Enough.”
Her words lashed at the deep wound. Just as she was about to let go, her hand slid down and fingered my scar.
“Sometimes you do have good ideas. Shame you can’t follow through with them.”
The air was sucked from my lungs as she slammed his door in my face.
***
Trigger
“Where?” I rolled out the map in front of Cray, the VP of the Arizona crew. Morgan leaned over the table with Gus. Brick closed the door behind him after he sidetracked Peggy, who wouldn’t take get lost for an answer.
“Here and here.” Morgan pointed to two spots that ran over Twenty-Third and Ocean Park Boulevard.
I glanced at Gus. He knew southern California like the back of his hand.
“Just an old drive-in theater. There’s a building in the back. Maybe he’s squatting there?”
I popped my neck, weighing the odds of whether this was a trap.
“Look, I have eyes everywhere. If they said they saw him, I believe them.” Morgan stood while we all sat. I knew he trusted his men, but I didn’t. I caught Brick’s eye, and he shrugged, but I could tell he wanted to follow this lead.
“Vote,” I ordered.
“Aye.” Morgan started us off and raised his hand.
“Aye.” Cray nodded.
Gus started to cough from his joint but managed to squeak out, “Aye.”
“Aye. This shit needs to end.” Brick checked his phone before he tucked it away.
My eyes hurt as the demons within weighed in their vote.
“Just us, and bring the rifles. We leave at dark.”
Morgan waited until the rest of the guys left before he rolled the map and put it away.
“I need Peggy out from behind the bar,” he muttered as he turned to look at me. “She can’t pour for shit, she’s leaving to fuck whoever during her shift, and God forbid she counts to twenty.”
I leaned back, not needing that right now, but I knew his frustrations were legit. Peggy was a fucking train wreck.
“Who do you want?”
“Tess,” he blurted and sucked his lips inward.
A burn ripped over my skin, and I relished it. Pain was good for the body, kept you sharp. What her name did to my head was a different story.
“I have someone I can bring in for a while,” he said, not fazed by my look. “My friend’s cousin used to work in that shithole by the beach. If he could work there, he could work here.”
“Fuck Tess. She’s gone. No outsiders. Speak to Cray, see who he can send over.” I was pissed. I had never needed a damn bitch to care about, and now look what the hell it was doing to my head. Just the sound of her name set me on fire.
He nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t happy about it.
I tapped the button on my helmet and filled the dead night with “Psychosocial” by Slipknot. I needed something to calm the chatter.
A thick thrill seemed to hover in the air. It sent tiny shocks into my skin that absorbed into my bloodstream and set my senses to overdrive.
I pointed to the turnoff, and our headlights lit the driveway as we swung in off the main road. We stopped a few yards back behind an old bus.
We moved swiftly in pairs across the property to the only door on our side.
“This feels a little too familiar.” Next to me, Brick checked the clip of his 9mm. “Ready?”
I scanned the guys to make sure we were good to go. Big Joe was further back and would stay outside to text if we got company. I opened the door with my flashlight and stepped into the blacked-out warehouse.
The moment my boot landed and I felt the texture, I didn’t need to look down to know what it was. The smell hit second. Rotting flesh was something you only needed to experience once to have it permanently burned into your memory.
Rail gagged behind me but kept it together. Brick snickered something, and he shut up.
“What’s the noise?” Morgan whispered as he came up to my side. “Pipe leaking?”
I tuned out the guys and moved forward, my light scanning at waist height so as not to miss anything. There was a door ahead, partly open. I nodded to the guys that I was heading over, and they followed. I turned back once to count to make sure they were all with me. I didn’t trust this place, and the mole was playin’ hard on my mind. If one was going to show themselves, now would be the time.
The slime grew thicker as we approached. Our boots squashed with each step, alerting anyone around that we were there. All things my father would think of.
I pushed the door open, and my light played over the walls. I felt a deep chill enter the room.
“No,” Gus hissed when he saw one of his oldest friends hanging from the ceiling with barbed wire wrapped several times around his neck. The blood had drained from his body in sticky puddles. His hands were torn up, and a bone from his thumb was sticking out—all signs of a fight to the death.
A heavy wave of grief ran over us when we saw more of our San Diego crew strung up across the room like holiday lights. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I stopped when I saw the seventh was different than the rest. I stepped closer and saw the tattoos.
Gator.
His lips were sewn shut with wire in an X, meaning he ran his mouth. Gator had brought the drugs to Palm Springs to test the zig-zagged product, and the result was Ty, my prospect, meeting the same fate. A brutal death. I shook my head, and rage started to take over my body.
“Seven,” I hissed at the men when they joined me.
“Eight,” Gus corrected. “They got the other runner too.”
My fingers were buzzing. The blood pumped to my arms, and the veins grew big and thick with it as the pressure increased under my skin.
He touched my family.
My phone lit up my pocket just as a door in the far corner opened and slammed shut.
Holy shit, we’re not alone.
Rail was the first to step forward when we heard three shots from outside.
“What the hell?” Morgan quickly raised his weapon to scan above us.
I turned my phone over to read what I thought was Big Joe’s warning.
Jace: I found Tess.
Suddenly, the lights flickered on, and there were at least thirty cops with laser beams pointed at our chests.
“Drop your weapons!”
Fuck me!
***
Everyone was separated and taken to the station in handcuffs. Big Joe had fled the scene before anyone saw him. He called our lawyer, who was now next to me and had just given me the same old speech about keeping my mouth shut. I had been through this enough times to know what to do—and what not to.
We sat in a room for four hours before we saw anyone else. The loss of my men sat heavy on me, but that three-word text from Jace hounded me the most. Was she okay?
“Sam.” I kept my head down. I knew we were being recorded. “I need my…” I made a gesture for my phone under the table.
That he was nervous around me had been made clear a few times before. I punched him in a bar once for mentioning information in front of a prospect. Sam was good, which was why he was still employed. “I can’t. They have it.”
“Get hold of Jace for me.”
He nodded and pulled out his phone and started to text. Just then, the door swung open, and in walked one of the biggest dicks I knew.
“Officer Doyle.” I leaned back in my chair and examined the douche-bag kid I grew up with. His sister was decent in bed, but she wanted more, and I didn’t. I thought Doyle was more upset about that than we were. “I hear you’ve been working a side job.”
His smile confirmed what I’d hoped was a lie.
“Well, now,” he pulled the chair out and held his tie back as he eased into the seat, “always fun seeing you with bracelets on.”
“Not for long.”
“We’ll see.” He opened the file in front of him and ran his finger along my rap sheet.
“My client didn’t do this,” Sam started. “There was no evidence that would suggest they were there during the actual murders, and let’s be frank, this is his crew. No reason to kill his own.”
“There’s always a reason when Trigger’s involved,” Doyle answered while still reading.
The door opened, and there was Sam’s hot assistant. She gave me a shy glance before she handed him an envelope.
Sam smiled as he pulled the photo out and slid it across the table. “As you can see, my clients were caught on camera coming out of the bike shop at the time of the murders.” He tapped the time stamp. “Now,” he stood and motioned for me to do the same, “we are done here.”
“Actually,” Doyle squinted, “there is still a little problem with the shooting that happened only two minutes before we turned the lights on. Sit back down, Trigger. You’re in for a long night.”
“You don’t think my client shot that guy and raced back inside in time.”
“I don’t know anything at this point.” Doyle’s tone dropped. “So, sit back down until we do.”
I folded my arms. “Must feel good to finally have a little power in your life.”
“Trigger,” Sam warned as he settled into his seat again.
“You know what? It kind of does.” He smirked.
I calmed myself then glanced at the clock and wondered if Jace made it home yet.
“I want my phone call.”