Digger
Maci stayed the weekend, but Monday morning when I went into Hawk’s shop, she headed back to her apartment. The second she disappeared from my sight, my stomach twisted. Felt like a part of me had been ripped off without morphine to lessen the pain. How the fuck had I gotten so damn wrapped up in her in so short of a time?
The fuck was wrong with me?
I had opened up to Maci more than anyone in my life—brothers included. Never talked so much in my damn life. Same as with fucking, I couldn’t get enough of learning about her. What made her tick, what turned her mind on. She in turn pulled stories out of me, one after the other, until I found myself confessing nearly every sin I’d committed.
Including how I got my nickname. I didn’t name Nicky, but he was the brother I spoke of when telling her about the night I dug the first grave for someone who thought to cross the Gliders. Turns out, I was so damn good at the grunt job that I tagged along with Nicky whenever he got the go ahead to off someone, digging graves whenever needed. And none of the shallow shit ones, either, that a dog or coyote would unearth. We made sure no one would run across bones. Ever.
“’Sup?” Hawk called out as I arrived at the shop, two Dunks coffees in hand.
“Same shit, different day,” I said, going with my usual. “Fuckers still trailing me.”
Hawk’s brow rose, and he moved to the garage window, flicked the toothpick from between his lips, and snagged his coffee from me on the way. “Same fuckers as before—driver’s a blond, passenger a redhead.” He swigged, and I strode over to peer their way.
I narrowed my gaze, but couldn’t make out any features, only the mop of red hair and the hint of blond on the other. Both sported beards. “Far from clean-cut. Definitely not the FBI.”
“Wouldn’t think so, no.”
We studied them for a few more minutes while I wracked my brain. “Who the fuck do you think it is?”
Hawk didn’t answer long enough that I glanced over at him. He chewed on his lower lip.
“What?” I asked.
“Janie talked to her dad a couple weeks ago. Just caught up a bit, let him know how she was doing. I listened to their whole conversation—at her insistence.”
Janie’s dad, the president of our rivals, the Silent Demons. My brow furrowed. “If he wanted to keep an eye on her, he’d be on your place, not following me around.”
Hawk heaved a heavy breath. “Who the fuck knows. What’s Jonny have to say?”
“He thinks it’s the FBI.”
“Any news on the whole inside snitch front?”
“Nothing new. We’ll see what happens with next week’s shipment, though. He’s got two cars headed north, one rumored to carry the goods, one actually carrying the goods.”
We moved away from the window, but my mind refused to leave the sedan thing alone. Twice before noon, I texted Maci to check on her. She’d sent a sad emoji face as her second reply, so I gave her a call.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when she answered.
Her sigh hinted at tears. “Just tough being here without her, you know? I’ve been caring for her so damn long…” She sniffed, and the desire to hold her, take her mind off her grief clenched my fist.
“What can I do?”
A huff of laughter eased the dent between my brows. “Just a process I have to go through,” she said, and I imagined a smile on her lips even though tears probably wet her eyes. “I’m thinking I need to find a new place, though. Leave these memories behind and start over.”
“You can crash at my place until you find something,” I heard myself say. So much for not making myself vulnerable… I wanted her come hell or high water. If she tore my heart out, proving to not be as loyal as I wanted in an old lady, so be it.
“Seriously?”
“Wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
“I just might have to take you up on that offer,” she said, her smile definitely widening, and my own lips twitched in response as I pushed my fears behind a steel door in my brain.
“It’s supposed to be in the sixties this weekend,” I said, needing to take my thoughts elsewhere. “Want to take a bike trip to the mountains? Get away for a couple days?”
“I’d love that.”
My mouth tried to smile, but I forced a grimace knowing how ugly I’d appear even though Hawk worked on the other side of the shop.
“I thought maybe I could take you to the pond while we’re up there.”
Silence hit my ear, and I cursed inwardly at suggesting it. She’d want to wait for her sister, not have a near-stranger tagging along for sprinkling her mother’s ashes.
“I—I’d like that,” Maci finally responded, her voice quiet. Small.
“What about your sister?”
“She always hated the camp.” Maci heaved a sigh over the line. “I’ll call her, but I’m sure she won’t mind. She’s said her goodbyes.”
“We can go up Friday. Take the back roads and stay at a little B&B up near Pine River Pond.”
“Sounds like a plan.” The smile returned to her voice. “Can I cook dinner for you tonight?”
“I’d love that,” I said, echoing her words, praying like fuck that she’d prove herself in the long run, or my heart would look like someone had taken a mallet to the fist-sized piece of flesh.
****
Hawk and I went to the club for lunch a little while later. We sat in Jonny’s office while Capone grilled up our burgers. Yeah, I might fall over of a fucking heart attack from eating them so damn much, but the man cooked one hell of a good patty.
“Same men?” Jonny asked Hawk, his brow raised.
“Sure of it,” Hawk replied.
Jonny stood and rounded his desk, grabbing a pair of binoculars from a small closet before making toward the door. “Upstairs.”
Hawk and I followed on his heels, up to the third floor. He entered the door of the room overlooking the club’s front without knocking.
“The fu—” Rucker said from the bed where two women worked him over, his curse cut off when landing on the three of us. Shelly and another skank started to back away, but Jonny ignored the trio and strode to the windows. We followed, and Rucker grabbed both women’s hair, pulling them back toward his dick. “Back to it, girls.”
Fucker didn’t have a self-conscious bone in his body.
As Shelly wrapped her lips around one of his balls, I turned away, pulling up beside Hawk.
Jonny held the binoculars to his eyes for a few seconds while the whores let out fake-ass moans alongside Rucker’s real ones. Jonny handed off the binoculars to Hawk.
The sounds from the three on the bed distracted me while I waited my turn to check out the fuckers in the sedan. I imagined shoving my cock down Maci’s throat, her swallows as I blew my load between her lips.
Hawk bumped my elbow, his brow raised, binoculars held toward me.
I cleared my throat and lifted them. My brow furrowed as I took in the two men. A redhead in the passenger seat, a bearded blond in the driver—same fuckers. Both sported tattoos and a couple face piercings.
“Anyone you know?” Jonny asked.
“Not your typical FBI, if that’s what they are,” Hawk muttered.
“Either they’re going to attempt getting in under cover,” I said while staring at the blond, who sent a tingle of unease down my spine, “or those motherfuckers are thinking about stirring up some shit.”
I lowered the binoculars, the memory of the blond’s face etched in my brain.
Jonny peered at me with his dark, assessing eyes—so like his father’s who’d sat in the president’s chair before him—but I didn’t shift. No one had shit on me. I had nothing to fear.
Rucker let out a low groan behind us. “Fuck, yeah. Just like that…”
“What do you want to do?” Hawk asked.
“Go stir up some shit,” Jonny and I both said at the same time as a shot of adrenaline spiked in my blood.
My lips actually pulled up into a grin.
“Blow your fucking load down Shelly’s throat already,” Jonny said to Rucker while turning for the door. “Then get your ass downstairs.”
The three of us trampled back down the stairs and downed a shot while waiting for Rucker. Only two other Gliders sat at the bar, and Jonny lowered the music to tell them it was time to confront the fuckers watching the club.
Once Rucker made an appearance, the six of us headed out the club’s front door, Jonny in the lead. I imagined what we looked like, striding toward the sedan—badass motherfuckers, fists clenched, confident strides, and murder in their eyes. Must have scared the shit out of the two men, because they lit out when it became apparent we headed their way.
“You have a brother?” Rucker asked as the sedan sped past us.
I jerked my head his way to find him peering at me. “No. Why?”
“’Cuz that monster driving is an ugly brute, just like you.”
One of the other brothers chuckled under his breath as we turned back toward the club, but I didn’t take offense. My mind chewed on what Rucker had said, that tingle of unease rippling down my spine again.
We ate our burgers at the bar, the eighties music still lowered. While wiping his mouth on a napkin, Jonny glanced at the closed club door as though he could see through it clear to the street, two blocks down where the sedan had sat. “They’ll be back, but probably not until after dark same as every night.” He leaned on the bar to catch both Hawk’s and my gaze. “Can you come back tonight at nine?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
I nodded without thought as Hawk also dipped his head in agreement. I’d have to reschedule the two tatts I had planned for that night, but it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Have your ladies stay at home. Let’s keep this as quiet as possible with no drama.”
Again, we both nodded.
“I think if it’s just the three of us and we act a little more nonchalant, maybe they won’t jet before having a few words.”
“Worth a try,” Hawk said.
“I’m game for whatever.” I met Jonny’s serious gaze—he knew exactly what I meant.
Lips pursed, he nodded. “If it comes to that.”
Hawk and I headed back to his shop, my mind on violence and the knowledge I had to protect Maci. She’d nabbed me with the first glance. Fucking owned me with the first kiss. Held my future in her hands whether I wanted her to or not.
Resigned to that fact, I prepared my heart and mind to be fucked over when she finally decided she’d had enough of my ugliness, enough of my lifestyle. But in the meantime, if knocking off a few assholes kept her and my brothers safe, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw down.