Chapter Thirty-One
Jo
Back before my mom disappeared, she worked as a waitress at honky-tonks and truck stops. She had had to learn to protect herself from wandering hands and drunken Romeos. When my sister and I got old enough, she taught us what she knew about self-defense. We’d park the car in a field somewhere for a few days, and when we got bored, Mama would show us how to knee a guy in the groin, or worse. She made it clear that life wasn’t always easy.
As I walked down that dark alley and found the door behind the stinking Dumpster, all those memories came bubbling to the surface. I didn’t remember my CPR classes or first aid, but Mama’s lessons about stabbing up into the ribs were fresh in my mind.
I knocked on the door that the guy in the diner had told me about. But all I could hear was yelling. Shit. If Clint and the guys were in there, I needed to jump in and help them. If they weren’t there, I was walking right straight into an argument. Neither was a good option, but one was worse.
Taking a deep breath, I tried the doorknob—unlocked. Slowly I opened the door and looked inside. It was a crappy bar full of smoke and bikers. My bikers.
Clint and the guys were grouped on one side and the Silver Souls were grouped on the other side. At least I had found the right place. Clint had his gun to an old man’s head and Roach was holding the guy’s ear.
“Jo,” Clint said in a hoarse whisper. Of course the room was completely still with tension and everyone heard it. They all turned in my direction and hell broke loose. One of the Silver Souls grabbed my arm and hauled me back against his chest. I felt the guy behind me, panting hard. I had walked into the middle of something big—damn.
“Shut up, don’t scream.” He squeezed my arm. “We’re just doing a little bargaining.”
I reached into my hip holster and grabbed hold of the hilt of my stiletto, just in case.
“Stop! Everybody fucking stop!” Clint screamed into the insanity. “Look, just give me my woman, I’ll give you guys back your prez, and we’ll all be on our way.”
His woman? I didn’t know what Clint and I were to each other quite yet, but I did know that we belonged to each other and it sounded like he agreed.
“I’m gonna let her walk over to you, okay?” the guy holding me said. “She’s gonna walk nice and slow, as a show of good faith, and then we’re all gonna talk rationally about that long-term deal you mentioned earlier. Got it?”
“Deal,” Clint said, motioning me to start walking. “Start walking, babe.”
The man released his hold on me and gave me a push. Slowly, I put one foot in front of another and started to cross the space between the two groups.
“Stop!” someone screeched. The old man elbowed his way out of Clint’s grasp. Before anyone could react, he came flying and tackled me. I landed hard and hit my head. Sparks flew in front of my eyes. Someone was trying to haul me up, and I kicked against him. “Knock it off, bitch.”
Then I felt it. Hard steel against my temple. The old man had me in front of him as a shield with his gun pressed to my head. This guy was dangerous.
It was now or never. I had to be faster than his gun.
“This little piece of dark meat is your old lady, ain’t she?” the old guy shrieked to Clint.
“Yes I am!” I yelled. I was Clint’s old lady and I loved him. I wasn’t going to let this asshole kill me or him. I finally had someone who I loved and I wanted to be with him.
I pulled my stiletto and swung my arm back. I hit flesh. There was some resistance at first, but then my blade started to slide in.
“No,” someone said. It sounded far away, and I turned to look for the source of the noise. It was Clint.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. I put my arms out to him, but he passed me on to Rip. I watched from behind Rip’s back as Clint and Roach both tackled the old man.
“Stop screaming, Bill,” Clint commanded. “She barely fucking got you.” He had Bill in a police hold, face down on the ground with his arms behind his back. Roach had gotten Bill’s gun and was pointing it at him. “Someone get me some handcuffs or a zip tie. Your president is fucking dangerous.” He looked up and found me safely behind Rip. “You okay, babe?”
“I’m fine,” I called.
Someone from the Silver Souls threw a set of handcuffs, and Clint got Bill restrained. Bill moaned at every movement. I craned my neck to see, but there was no blood pooling on the ground by his feet, so my stab never really hit home. Clint hauled Bill to his feet and faced the crowd.
“Everybody, listen up. You’re all gonna put away your weapons. Snake, you and I are gonna negotiate a deal, like none of this shit ever happened. Got it? I’m gonna give you guys this asshole—” he shook Bill’s arm “—and he’s gonna goddamn retire. I don’t care how you fucking do it, but he isn’t gonna lead the Silver Souls anymore. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir,” someone said. “That’s a fair deal. We’ll take care of Bill on our own.”
“Fine.” Clint pushed the handcuffed man over to his club.
We all separated into groups. Bill sat in a booth with a couple of guys to keep watch over him. Clint and Rip sat in another booth with two of the Silver Souls and talked. I assumed they were negotiating some sort of deal.
Roach sat next to me at the bar and called Tate, told him to call off reinforcements. When Roach was done with his phone call, I turned to him.
“What are they talking about?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I probably shouldn’t say, but you’re in the middle of it. We’re gonna do more car business in this area, if they agree. Clint is trying to get them on board. It’ll be a new line of cash for everybody. We almost had the deal, and then you walked in and kinda threw everything into a tornado.”
“Oh.” My brain started to replay the events in my head. “Did I screw things up?”
“Naw, don’t worry about it.” He put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a friendly hug. “I thought you did great.”
Despite his assurances, I started to wonder. I did stab the president of the Silver Souls. From the amount of blood that wasn’t oozing out of his shirt, I didn’t do a very good job of it. But I still stabbed a member of a different club. I’d screwed up Clint’s entire operation. He had worked so hard for months and I’d just fucked up the negotiations with the Silver Souls.