Did we just…? But back at the house, we…? After everything…?
My mind can’t make any sense of it. I’m so lost in the afterglow of that kiss that I can barely process the seconds that led up to this. One minute, I’m nearly sobbing over how I betrayed the one guy trying to protect me, and then the next, he is on me with those lips… oh those lips! They are as soft and as tender as I had imagined them. The taste of him, wood and smoke, still lingers on my tongue as I stand myself up.
“Mack…” I start. I always feel like I need to fill the empty silence with something, but right now, I can’t muster up a word.
He swivels back towards the front of the room. Adjusting his shirt, he says with quiet firmness, “Don’t say another word about it, Anna. I understand. This Riley guy is a piece of shit. I believe you when you say you have nothing to do with it and had no clue that it was him behind the mark tattoo. But we have bigger things to take care of besides you and me, got it?” I nod as he orders, “Let Zeke back in. We have to figure out a plan now.”
I too adjust my shirt and run my fingers through my tangled hair. I slid a hand across my soaking wet lips and even out the remainder of my eyeliner. Though, I guess it wouldn’t be too bad if Zeke thought I was in here taking an emotional beating from Mack. I peek my head out the door to find Zeke standing just a few feet away, his back leaned up against the wall. He uses his hand to call for me.
Shutting Mack’s office door behind me, I walk towards him, my head hung in embarrassment. “I’m sorry about him, kid. He can be real jackass when he’s upset. But don’t worry about it. We’ve got your back. I have the guys on call for a meeting in just a few hours, if he wants it. I know they’ll vote to take your dick of an ex-boyfriend out. The guys like having you around as much as he does, even if he won’t admit it.”
All I can reply is a quick, “Thanks.” I’m not sure what else I could respond with that wouldn’t give away what just happened back in the office. “Mack wants to see you now, and me too, I think.” He didn’t really say if I should still be a part of this or not. Though, now it feels as if I am permanently entwined in this whether I want to be or not.
I follow Zeke back in and take my seat right where I was. Mack looks more composed and adjusted. He places his hands on the desk as he says, “Now we know the whole story here, we need to come up with a plan. We can’t let her… or us be sitting ducks. If his phone call to the lawyer means anything, it’s that he knows exactly where to find her and that we’re behind her new life.”
“I agree with you, Mack,” Zeke says, smiling. “That’s why I have the guys on standby for a meeting. I didn’t say what it was for or anything… just to be ready to head down to headquarters on twenty minutes’ notice. You want me to send the signal out?”
“No, not yet. We three have to think of something—some way to trap Riley and take him out.” He looks at me with piercing, fierce eyes as he asks me directly, “Are you okay with that? Do you understand what I am saying?”
It’s hard to misunderstand the term “take him out,” especially when you’re talking to someone who regularly refers to “hits” and “wars.” Obviously, none of these men have clean hands when it comes to violence. I just didn’t know, until this point, how far they were willing to go to keep their territory and people safe. But I also understood that Mack needed my permission too. I was the one who would be most affected by Riley’s death. I was the one who had to say go.
I swallow back the fear, the anger, the sadness that has built up in me as I look back and forth between Zeke and Mack. “Yes, I understand what you mean. Do what you need to do. I won’t stop you.”
“Good, Anna,” Zeke replies, still smiling like this was me giving him permission to finish off filing my taxes. “We need to know everything about this guy. What’s his personality like? What makes him tick? Any secrets?”
My two-year relationship with him flashes back to me. There were happy moments—lots of them actually. I wander off in thought as I think out loud. “He was a great guy, at first. He treated me like royalty, even though I secretly think that he just liked having this tattooed bad girl around as a trophy. But we spent a lot of time at his mom’s house.” My mind pauses here as I look towards Mack with a firm, “Do not hurt her. I wouldn’t want to get my mom involved, we are not using his mom either. My rules go there.”
“Fine, fine. I wouldn’t touch an innocent civilian anyways.” Mack lifts his hands in defense, a coy smile breaking that steely glare.
“Anyways, when he started getting into motorcycles, he went to this body shop all the time… I think it was Tony’s or Tommy’s. I can’t remember. I really didn’t pay much attention to it, except that there were always guys around who wore patches like yours on their jackets. Not the same ones, just similar in design.”
Mack interrupts me to ask, “Zeke, you think that’s Totoli’s Auto and Cycle, the place where the Devil’s Furry hang out and get their repairs done?”
“I would bet my life on it. The Devil’s club is where all the newbs go at first. They would let anyone in that could give them some money and pledge loyalty. Do you think he joined up with them, Anna?”
I try to remember the few nights he came home angry, despondent. Those were moments and memories I would prefer not to think back on too heavily. So I answer quickly, “No. I don’t think so. After a few months, he stopped going there. At least, he stopped taking me with. He started dressing different, talking different. He went out late at night to Hickory’s Bar on South Street and didn’t come back for hours. That’s when I started to leave. I couldn’t stand being around him anymore.”
“Hickory’s is old Knight’s territory. I wonder if he was recruiting there, trying to round up the old guys like your boy said, Zeke. Anna, what about tattoos? What could be the connection there besides it being a Knight tradition?”
“That’s the thing, Mack,” I say, completely confused. “He absolutely hated that I worked giving tattoos. It was one of his control things. He thought that girl artists were skanks or low class. He thought I would sleep around with the guys even though he knew I wasn’t attracted to the whole motorcycle club or street gang thing.” At least until now…
“I don’t want to lure him in with you as bait, but what can we do to get him to come to us?” Mack asks, getting to the point.
“We have to use her,” Zeke says, sitting a bit higher in his chair. He looks back to me quickly as he spells out a plan. “He hates that you’re doing tattoos, and so he is using that against you, still. He knows that we’re using you for the tattoo business and protecting you in return. So we have to get you out there, doing tattoos in the open where he can make a move.”
“You’re fucking crazy, Zeke.” Mack stands and rounds the front of the desk again. “I am not putting her or our men at risk and doing it in broad daylight. Plus, how the fuck is she supposed to do tattoos outside the shop? He won’t set foot in there knowing that we’re around the block and always watching.”
Zeke points to the newspaper sitting on Mack’s desk. “We get him to the tattoo convention. We spend the next few days advertising the hell out of her booth, billing it up to be the best thing in Portland so he won’t miss the notices. He won’t be able to resist crashing on her big debut.”
“That’s stupid. He won’t take the risk to take a shot at her with a crowd around her. He’ll just wait till she leaves the show when we can’t protect her.”
My mind spins as I exclaim, “That’s why we need all of his guys there. We have to make it so that the Knights are invested in more than just killing off their president’s ex-girlfriend. You said it yourself that the new Knights were inexperienced, so that means they’d be drawn into a battle if they were pushed to it, right? Well, what’s the one thing we can do to offend them so badly that they will have to come?” I look back and forth at their blank faces before shouting, “We give everyone that mark!”
“What? You want to give people that mark? The circle with the three lines?”
“Yes. We give it to everyone we can—probably our club guys. I’ll do up different versions of it, but it will be largely the same. We advertise that this is my ‘specialty’ tattoo and that I’ll be tattooing it on anyone willing for fifty percent off the regular price so we draw even more in…”
Mack adds, “So the Knights will see it, be pissed off we took their symbol, and want to start a war with us in the convention hall. But we’ll be ready, just like the first time we defeated them.”
Zeke looks at me mystified, as if I have come up with the solution to curing cancer or finding world peace. “They won’t know what hit them, and they’ll be vastly outnumbered. It’s brilliant, Anna.”
“It’s still suicide. If shit goes down and we can’t take out Riley in time, you’re screwed. There won’t be anything I—or any of the guys—can do to protect you.” Mack is close to pleading with me to see reason, but I can’t. This is the only plan we have that will guarantee a total end to Riley and the Knights for once and for all. And giving that tattoo will be my way of seeking revenge for all the men who gave the tattoo before me—a punishment for taking their force out on innocent artists.
“We have to do this, Mack,” I reply calmly. “There is no other option.” I soften my gaze as I peer into his darkened features. That locked-in jaw juts out just slightly, as if he’s taking a hit for me already.
With a snap of his fingers, he sends Zeke out to get word to the club about their meeting. They were going to have to figure out a way to convince a lot of men to get a tattoo that symbolized death and assassins, but if anyone can do it, it’s Mack.