Thorn
I knew that bringing Jess with me on the road was a mistake, but I didn't really know what else to do with her. I was still silently fuming over the fact that she had overheard me, that I had made it so easy for my mission to be found out — or at least, what little I knew about it. I didn't know exactly how much she had overheard, but I had definitely mentioned the national president of the Sigma Saints a few times — and at least one of those times, it had been by name.
Anyone who didn't know the name 'Katia Sin' must have been living under a rock for years.
Early the next morning, I made coffee in Jess's kitchen before I went to make sure she was awake and ready to go. I had tied her to the bed the night before just to make sure that she didn't try anything over the course of the night. When I walked in, she was still asleep, her hair fanning out over the pillow, arms akimbo in the ties. She looked strikingly beautiful like that, and I was reminded again about how much I'd like to pound into her milky ass, grabbing at her curves and biting hard enough to leave marks littering her neckline.
But this whole thing was enough of a mess as it was without me sleeping with my hostage.
I roughly shook her awake and then moved to undo the ties keeping her there on the bed. “No funny business today,” I growled.
I saw a flicker of fear in Jess's sleep-heavy eyes for a moment, but then she blinked and pushed herself up into a sitting position. “What's the plan?” she asked.
“We're leaving,” I said.
“I know that,” Jess said impatiently, rolling her eyes a little. “You told me that last night. But how long do I have to ... freshen up? And where are we going? What should I pack?”
“You're not packing anything,” I said exasperatedly. “This isn't a vacation, this is a hostage-taking situation.”
“A kidnapping,” Jess said, nodding at me. “But can I at least take the suitcase that I already packed for the trip that I was supposed to take? Maybe with some modifications based on how the weather is where we're going — wherever that is.”
“I can't tell you where we're going,” I snapped. “The last thing I need is for you to be running around with even more information you can bring to the cops. It's bad enough that you already know—”
“I don't know anything,” Jess interrupted. “Really, you could just leave me here and I wouldn't be able to do anything. I don't even know if 'Thorn Riley' is your real name!”
“You wanted to be more spontaneous, didn't you?” I finally reasoned. And I could see in that slight hesitation that she was second-guessing herself. “Look, it's nothing dangerous. I just have a package that I need to deliver to someone — that's it. But in the spirit of being more adventurous, well, I'm riding clear across the country to do this, and there's still a lot of land left between here and where I'm going.”
“What sort of a package is it?” Jess asked suspiciously.
I shrugged. “Does it really matter? I don't really know; one of my friends needed it delivered to another of my friends, so here I am.” It was only partially a lie. I had my suspicions about what was there in the boxes that I was carrying across the country with me, but I didn't know anything for certain. There were only so many things that the head of one of the most dangerous biker gangs in the world would want delivered to her in jail, though.
Jess moved slowly so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed, cocking her head to the side. “But aren't you curious?” she asked. “You said on the phone that no one else would do this, that it was dangerous. Don't you want to know what you're carrying?”
And that, at least, gave me an inkling of how much she'd heard. It was too much. I narrowed my eyes at her. “It's none of my business,” I said.
“Whoever your friends are, they're putting your life at risk to carry this package, apparently,” Jess said. “I don't think that's the kind of thing that friends do.”
And oh, how foolishly and painfully naïve she was… But there was something inside me that wished I could be there with her, in that silly little world that she evidently lived in. I wanted to think that Katia Sin and Dorian and all the others were as interested in my well-being as ... well as Jess was in her brother's well-being.
But that was ludicrous.
“Can you at least show me the packages?” Jess asked. “I promise I'll go quietly, I just want to have some kind of idea what we're carrying. It'll be safer that way, in case we're stopped by anyone along the way. If anyone asks, then I can kind of have some sort of a story to cover with.”
And I had to admit, that was a pretty sensible thing to do. We weren't going to be crossing any country borders to deliver the package, but the police could stop us for all sorts of random things — although I kept my bike in tip-top shape, so at least I knew they wouldn't be stopping us for something silly like the lights being out.
“Fine,” I finally conceded. “I'll show you the packages. Just so we have a clear story, if the need should arise.”
“Good,” Jess said. We stared at one another for a moment before she started to look impatient. “Well? Are you just going to stand there and watch me change?”
I blinked, and for a moment, I was tempted to leer at her and say that, yes, that was exactly what I intended to do. But I needed her cooperation, so I reluctantly shook my head and left the room. “Be ready to go in fifteen minutes,” I told her over my shoulder as I exited.
Downstairs, I pulled out the three shoebox-sized packages that I was carrying, staring down at them. They were wrapped in heavy paper and taped haphazardly closed. On the outside, there was no indication of what they might contain, and that information hadn't been part of my briefing. I had a feeling I could open them and take a peek inside, but the curiosity hadn't really struck me until Jess had pressed me for details. Now, all I could think about was what might possibly be inside them.
Surely it would be best for me to open one of them, just to make sure I knew what I was carrying? That way there, I'd know what to do with the package's contents if the police stopped us. If it was drugs, I'd want to throw the packages away and declare it a lost cause. If it was something a bit less illegal, then maybe I could hold on to the packages, make up some sort of convincing story. Just a little look…
I hesitantly opened the first of the packages, glancing towards the stairs as I did so. I could still hear Jess puttering around upstairs, though. It would probably be best that she didn't know what it was that we were delivering, regardless of what was in the packages. But I knew women; she'd take a little while longer to pick out her clothes, fix her hair, and do whatever else it was that women needed to do in the morning.
I stared down at the contents of the first package and then quickly moved to the second package and the third. I had a sinking feeling in my gut as I contemplated just what it was I was transporting. Although there were no manuals or any sort of packaging to go along with the plastic pieces, there was only one thing that they could be.
I was transporting all the pieces needed to assemble cheap, plastic guns. And I was meant to deliver them to a known criminal who was currently serving a long sentence in a federal prison.
“Are those what I think they are?” Jess asked, surprising me as she appeared over my shoulder, staring down in disbelief at the still-open packages. She looked over at me, eyes wide. “Please tell me you have a license to be carrying guns with you.”
I scowled over at her, trying to hide my own unease, and began sealing the packages again. Inwardly, I was a bit surprised that she was able to identify what the plastic pieces were for so quickly. But I didn't comment on that. Instead, I had to come up with some way to get her to go along with me and not rat me out to the police at the first opportunity.
“Look, I'm about to make a fair amount of money for delivering these,” I told her. “I'd be willing to split that profit with you — I imagine you must not make much money, living in a place like this. This would be thousands of dollars that you could walk away with, enough to cover a new vacation to somewhere you actually want to go to. How does that sound?”
I could see indecision on her face, but finally, she nodded. “Okay,” she said, holding out a hand. I shook her hand firmly, somewhat amused that she required the gesture but again, not about to comment on it and risk upsetting her.
“Then let's go,” I told her. “We have a lot of ground to cover today to get to our motel for the night.”
“No more AirBnBs?” Jess asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Well, you can see how well that worked out for me last time...”