Watching Jake’s chest rise and fall under sleep’s gentle embrace, Lucy let the full extent of their conversation wash over her. She’d cried in front of him. Cried!
Pulling back the tangle of sheets, she carefully, carefully climbed over him and off the bottom bunk. He stirred but didn’t wake and Lucy looked down at his peaceful face. In sleep the hard edge of his jaw softened and the lines around his eyes disappeared. Watching someone die in front of you must have been horrific, there was no doubt about that, but he looked like he’d let it infiltrate every part of his body, stiffening his muscles to the point of brittleness.
With a start, she realized what the tears really meant: she trusted him. Seriously? You’ve known the guy two minutes. It was true, but her whole body ached with the desire to wake him, to have the assurance of his strong form behind her when she stole into the night. Then she looked down at the tumble of his pants where a big set of keys from Wilde’s Hotel splayed from his pocket. He didn’t need more mess on his conscience, not when he was trying to build a life for himself with his newly discovered sister. And what she was about to walk into would mean more mess for him than it did for her. “Listen to your head, girl, sometimes your body is about as smart as a hippo on crack,” she whispered.
The illuminated hands on her watch said 4 a.m. It was time to go. Throwing on a black T-shirt and black jeans, she grabbed her helmet, a pair of wire clippers she’d borrowed from the storage area along with the rope, and her keys, and stole out of the bunkhouse without looking back.
Cold night air whipped at her through her cotton T-shirt as she rode over to Gav’s shop but she was almost grateful for it, it made her focus. What is your problem? You’re just getting what’s yours. True. But the implications of what she was about to do with them and Gav’s suppliers’ list kept creeping down her spine and threatening to bite her on the ass.
Parking a block away, just in case, she walked, fast, to the shop and stood in the shadows outside for a minute, listening. Nothing moved. The night was still, the world dead asleep. For a moment, Lucy let herself enjoy being up when no one else was. She could pretend that everything was alright with the world at this moment. There were no gang rivalries that could fuck everything up; no men out to control the women in their lives simply because their egos needed them to; children lost without a mother, wishing for just a glance, a hug, a flicker of emotion to wrap them up in their lonely beds. Stop it.
Shaking her head, Lucy checked the security camera, pointed at the front door. The red light blinked steadily; that was going to have to go, pronto. Luckily, there were trees along the side of the shop, a scruffy patch that Gav had always said he was going to trim but never did. The boys used it as their own personal urinal when the toilet inside got too hot or too gross, as it did in the peak of summer under its tin roof and with a jammed window. Make like a panther, babe. Holding her breath, Lucy slid through the trees, barely making a sound. Gah, the smell was intense and she gagged. So much for making like a panther. Breathing through her mouth, Lucy kept going and was finally at the side of the building, behind the range of the camera. Wheeling a garbage can under the camera, Lucy climbed up, clipped the wire connecting the security camera, and waited. Nothing. Silence. Leaning over, she checked, and yep, the red flashing light was dead. Fist pumping the air on the inside, Lucy clambered down and, using the hem of her T-shirt to cover her fingers, punched in the code for the door. It opened smoothly with barely a sound.
Lucy stood still again, not stepping into the shop until she’d made sure there was nothing moving inside. For some reason Gav had only installed the one camera on the outside of the building, so there were no more blinking red lights to deal with. Sliding the door closed behind her, Lucy stood still a moment longer, letting her eyes adjust to the darker gloom inside of the bike shop.
Ten minutes and she’d be out of there and could slip back into bed with Jake before he woke up. The thought warmed her and she allowed herself to indulge in the fantasy of waking up to his face for real. She’d bailed both times they’d been together. What if she didn’t next time? The last time she’d slept with a man all night had been . . . well, she couldn’t remember when it had been.
She wanted to trust him, then she realized what she was about to do and shook her head, all the more reason for not bringing him along on this crazy-ass mission. He had stronger ties to Hell’s than she did and he didn’t even know it yet.
Eyes fully adjusted, Lucy shook herself and headed over to the mess that Gav called the office. On his desk were stacks of invoices, and Lucy leafed through them to see if there was anything she might need. The white squares of paper stood out enough to show what they were, but in the gloom she couldn’t tell what was written on them. Lucky you spent all that time letting your eyes adjust. Flicking on the flashlight on her phone, she shone its watery beam over the papers, and took snaps of anything she thought might be useful.
On the wall, she found the main list she was after and took a bunch of shots of the names and details of suppliers, making sure she got the hand-written notes in the margins with details of what the various shops supplied, and what bourbon or beer they liked if there was a rush for a particular part.
Then, booya, opening a drawer she found most of her tools.
You did it. Now, get the fuck out. Putting the desk back as she’d found it, Lucy went over to the tools, messed them up a bit to make it look like a real break-in, then pocketed a few more tools so it wasn’t obvious that it was her. Turning to go, her phone battery beeped and the flashlight flickered. At the same time she heard a sound coming from outside. The flickering turned into a speedy fade, and all of a sudden she was plunged into darkness, even while she heard the sound of a car approaching. Heart pumping, mind racing, she started toward the exit, but without a light or the time to let her eyes adjust she walked into something, hard, and heard it crash to the ground. Putting her hand out, she felt jagged edges. A smashed headlight? Shit. Spooked that she’d made too much noise, Lucy headed for the exit, fast, and checking that there was no one outside, ran away from the shop as fast as her legs allowed.
It wasn’t until she got back to her bike that she allowed herself to stop and as the adrenaline raced around her veins, she fell into slightly maniacal laughter. She’d done it. No harm done. No one any the wiser. Giving herself a little hug, Lucy crammed on her helmet and belted back to Wilde’s.
* * *
Jake had rolled over in his sleep and his back was to her when she slipped into the bunkhouse. Stripping down to nothing, she slid under the sheet and curled up next to him, letting his warmth seep into her body.
As the dawn started to fill the room, she traced a finger down his spine. He rolled back over, and she had to squeeze right to the edge of the bunk to make room for his broad shoulders.
Her future was sitting right there for her to take. She let it out of her imagination, a shiny, glimmering thing and watched it fill up the room with possibilities. One phone call to Sly and it would all happen. She’d let him tell them she’d fixed his bike, just to see what happened. And it had been okay. No drama so far. Sly reckoned the Reapers of Menace had enough money for her to start up properly, to really make a go of it, to show everyone—Gav, Hade, Rocco, all of them—that she had it in her to be the best bike mechanic around, ponytail or no ponytail.
She looked at Jake’s sleeping face. What if he was part of that future too? Did she dare to even think it?
Her heart gave a hiccup and she tried to calm herself. First things first, she needed to sit down with the Reapers of Menace boys and work through the details, look them in the eye and check that they weren’t a bunch of A-holes that liked the idea of a girl in the bike shop so they could look at her ass but not actually let her work. She smiled at the thought and gave herself one more second to dream. She had the feeling Jake would like that meeting. He’d like seeing her lay it out and watch the smirks on their faces fall away when they realized she was the real deal, wouldn’t he? He’d be proud. He’d sit off to one side, calm, passive, the true Iceman pose, and then tell her about seeing the moment they all clicked. They could toast to her afterward and then—
“Morning, beautiful.”
The fantasy evaporated and Lucy looked into Jake’s black eyes, blurry with sleep. “Morning, yourself.”
“So much for our escapade in the dark of night,” he said, running a finger over her lip. “I can’t pretend that I’m not glad. Sounded like a recipe for disaster. Think we made much better use of our time, don’t you?”
The words almost spilled out, but Lucy caught them in time. No point telling him she’d up and gone. Not yet. Watching him support her with the Reapers of Menace in her fantasy was one thing, it happening in real life was quite another. Once she had it all settled, then she’d let him in on it. Surprise him with how easily she’d gotten it all organized without any drama between the gangs. This was about bikes, not the boys that rode them.
“Breakfast?” he asked, pulling her underneath him and reaching up for a kiss.
“What’s on the menu?” she said, pushing aside everything for a moment.
“Well, I’m starting with you, and then probably moving onto a second course.” Spreading kisses down her body, he got to the top of her thighs then looked up and grinned. “Hope you’re not too hungry, ’cause I’m starving, and I’m going to be a while.”
The first lick of his tongue made every muscle in her body tense and all thought of talking, or not talking, fled. The future could wait. At least for a little while.