Chapter 36

 

Ava

 

 

I DON’T KNOW what happened to Jayce, but he was gone longer than I had to wait in line for the porta-potty. Not seeing him, I walked toward the barn where the beer was, and that was when I ran into Len. He was trashed.

“Hey, pretty girl. Where’s Hollywood?” he asked, swaying back and forth.

I looked past him toward the barn door. “I don’t know. He’s supposed to be getting me a beer.”

“I just walked out of there. I didn’t see him,” he said, holding up his own beer. “I’ll help you look for Jayce, though. You shouldn’t be wandering around out here unchaperoned.”

“Why?” I asked, amused.

“’Cause if you’re not someone’s Ol’ Lady, you’re free for the pickin’,” he said.

“Don’t I have some say in that?” I replied dryly.

“Not enough. Mind you, most brothers would leave you alone, but there’s some guys here I’ve never met before,” he said, lowering his voice. “They might mistake you for a club whore or something.”

My eye twitched. “Wow. Thanks for that.”

“Sorry,” he said and laughed. “Not that you look like a tramp or anything. But, around here we get a lot of chicks willing to do anything for one of us Gold Vipers.”

Len wasn’t exactly a handsome or suave guy. He was tall and lanky with a lot of miles on his face already. I’d have guessed him to be in his forties, although I’d heard someone say he was in his thirties. He partied hard and smoked a lot of hash, at least that’s what Jayce told me. I imagined that without the club whores, Len would have had a pretty dull sex life.

  “It’s okay. I understand,” I replied, realizing that the opportunity had finally presented itself to start digging. “Let’s go find Jayce. Maybe he’s over by his bike?”

He shrugged. “I suppose we could look there.”

I didn’t think Jayce was by the motorcycles. I just thought it was a great opportunity to talk to Len.

We started walking toward the long gravel driveway, and I reached into my purse, and turned on the recorder.

“So, how long have you been in the club?” I asked.

“Since I was nineteen,” he replied and began to talk about how he’d joined up after going to a biker party.

I cut in to his story. “So, you were around when poor Peyton was attacked by creep last year.”

“Yep,” he said. “That motherfucker. He was trying to frame Tarot for some shit. The Blood Angels… they recruited him.”

He started going on about how they’d been dealing with the Blood Angels for the last few years.

“They’re disbanded now, though. At least the ones bothering us,” he said, taking out a cigarette and a lighter.

“What happened to Blade?” I asked, not really expecting him to answer me truthfully. But, he kept talking, which was a pleasant surprise.

“He got what he deserved. Tarot killed the asshole. I would have, too, if he’d been going after my woman and my child.” Realizing that he probably said too much, Len stopped abruptly and swore. “Me and my big fuckin’ mouth. Don’t you go repeating what I said.”

“Don’t worry. Jayce already told me about it,” I lied.

He relaxed. “Good.”

We started walking again.

“Hollywood was lucky he didn’t get killed that night,” Len said after a few seconds.

My heart started pounding. “What do you mean?”

“He was there, too. He surprised Blade and had him at gunpoint.”

“Jayce was there that night?” I said, the blood rushing to my ears.

He’d been involved in my brother’s death?

The very idea made me want to vomit.

“Oh yeah. In fact—”

Someone shouted my name. We turned to look and saw the the devil himself.