Chapter 19
Luke
We still hadn’t heard from Sam. I kept hoping he would call and tell me he’d been forced to run but was safe and just couldn’t make it to talk to me. I was starting to doubt that phone call would ever come.
I wanted information on Dalton, of course, but I wanted Sam to be alive more. I didn’t want any more lives to be ruined.
I knew the motorcycle gangs were hard, that life wasn’t valued the way it should have been and that many people died. I hadn’t realized how serious it was until now. I hadn’t realized how much danger Dalton had been in from the start.
If I’d known, maybe I would have tried harder to talk him out of it. Maybe I would have tried to do something about it.
But that wouldn’t have been possible. Dalton was just as stubborn as his sister. He’d decided it was the life he’d wanted to lead. Still, I would have known how serious he was when he’d told me that he was in danger and he thought someone was after him.
I didn’t want to admit this to myself, but when he’d asked me to look after Alexa, deep down inside I hadn’t thought there was a reason for him to ask me.
How naïve I’d been.
I stopped at a gas station on the way back home from work and filled up my car. I stood with the pump in my hand, waiting, watching the numbers tick up when someone came up behind me.
I felt his presence before he cleared his throat.
Koby Mason was in his fifties, with hair graying at his temples and dark beady eyes that missed nothing. He had a nasty look on his face. The scar that ran from just below his left eye in a hook to the corner of his mouth didn’t make him look any friendlier. He wore faded jeans that were a little torn on one knee, a leather vest with no T-shirt underneath, and one of those leather caps.
“Yeah?” I asked. I wasn’t in the mood for shit. Today was a bad day to mess with me. I’d lost my best friend, someone who was helping me had gone missing, the girl I wanted was looking for a stranger to dominate her, and the fucking gas prices had gone up again.
“I’m Koby Mason,” he said, “president of the Samurai.”
“I know who you are,” I said. I’d seen his ugly face before. It had been a while ago. I’d been out with Dalton, and Dalton had pointed him out. I didn’t need a refresher to know what Koby Mason looked like. That scar was a dead giveaway.
“Good,” Mason said. “Then we’re already off on the right foot. I make a point of having people understand who I am.”
I didn’t answer him. I wasn’t in the mood, but I wasn’t ready for conflict, either. I knew Mason was a dangerous man, and I didn’t want to get killed.
“Word has it you’ve been hanging around with Sam Thomas,” he said.
“Really. Do you keep track of all my friends?”
Mason smiled at me, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. “You think you’re cute,” he said. “Do you know what happens to people with smart mouths?”
I shook my head.
“No one does,” Mason said. “They disappear.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I was smarting off to him, but I was under no illusion that Mason wasn’t dangerous. If I pushed my luck, I didn’t doubt he could take me out right now. Yes, he was scary as fuck, and I didn’t feel like being next on his hit list.
When I didn’t answer, Mason carried on. He seemed satisfied with the established pecking order.
“Speaking of people disappearing,” he said. “Have you heard from Sam?”
I shook my head. “We haven’t spoken since last week.”
Mason nodded slowly. “What did you meet him for?” he asked. The question was too straightforward for my liking.
“We had lunch together,” I said. “You know, to catch up. Life gets so busy you tend to drift apart. Damn shame.”
Mason chuckled without emotion, but he didn’t challenge me on my facts. I’d gone out to lunch with Sam a few times before, where we really did just catch up, and I knew that a few people who mattered had seen us. That was enough to back my lie for now.
“Did he mention anything?” Mason asked.
I sighed. “You’ll have to be more specific. We talked about a lot of things.”
“Anything of importance,” Mason said. I didn’t like his calm demeanor. People who were calm and collected could shoot you at point-blank range and not blink an eye.
“Nothing that I remember,” I said. “Unless you consider the Yankees’ score important. Personally, I thought it was a disgrace.”
Mason’s beady eyes drained of life, and it wasn’t hard to imagine him pulling the trigger on someone without remorse. Or did they do something else to kill people? I shivered and pushed the thought away.
“You better watch your mouth, son,” Mason said me. I shrugged off the pet name because it was not a good time to get cocky about that, too. “I want to know what Sam told you.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“He didn’t tell me anything we don’t usually talk about.”
There, that was a safe comment. We’d spoken about the same thing the last two times now, but my sentence made it sound like we had just spent time talking shit. Point for me.
Mason narrowed his eyes at me, and I thought he might push the topic.
“If you see or hear anything, if Sam contacts you at all, I need you to contact me. I have urgent business with the man, and I don’t appreciate being stood up.”
When he said those words, my stomach clenched. Did he know something?
I had to calm down. “Sure. How do I get in touch with you?”
I had no intention of ratting Sam out if he showed up again, but I might as well pretend to be on Mason’s side.
“Take my card,” Mason said, handing me a business card. It was professionally printed with the club name and everything, as if he were a businessman. Looking at his fucked-up face and his intimidating way of talking, it was hard to imagine him being professional about anything.
“Yeah,” I said, tucking the card into my shirt pocket. “You’ll hear from me if I hear from Sam. Or if I find anything worth reporting.”
Mason walked toward me until he was face to face with me. I hated it when people got right up in my grill. I didn’t back down. Mason smelled like cigarette smoke, overpowering cologne, and an undertone of sweat. In any other situation, I would have punched him in the face for getting this close, but this was not the time for that. Mason needed to believe he’d successfully intimidated me. If I went at him now, I might win, but I would lose in the long run.
“I don’t think you understand what I want you to do,” he said. “You’re not going to call me when you find anything worth reporting. You’re going to call me when you find something I think you should be reporting. Do you understand me?”
His voice was low, and I nodded, swallowing.
“I would hate to have to take care of a problem that doesn’t need to exist. Are you going to be a problem?”
I shook my head.
“Good,” he said, clapping me on the back much harder than was necessary, knocking the wind out of me a little. I breathed in through my nose when he stepped away and turned around. He was showing me his back. He wasn’t scared of what I would do to him when he turned around.
That was because there was nothing I could do to him. He’d threatened me, and I was sure he could dish out pain. A lot of pain. If it was just me I was looking out for, I might have stood up to him differently. But Alexa was in my life, and I needed to keep her safe. And if they did find Sam, I didn’t want them to punish him for what I was doing, either.
There were no rules in this game, and I was in way over my head—a featherweight in a heavyweight match. What had started out as me being cocky had turned into me realizing that playing with fire would only come back to burn me.
And I wasn’t ready for that kind of shit in my life.
I finished up at the gas station and got in my car to drive home.
I was a hell of a lot more worried about Sam now. I didn’t know where the guy was, but I sincerely hoped he wouldn’t fall back into Mason’s hands. After what I’d seen now—and I was pretty sure Mason had gone easy on me—I was starting to realize what Sam and Dalton had been so terrified of. I would be, too, if this guy was my boss and I had shit that I needed to hide from him.
And they’d both told me that snitches got killed. I believed that now more than ever.
When I arrived at my apartment, Alexa was sitting in her car, waiting for me. She got out, and I smiled.
“This is a surprise,” I said, hugging her. “You have no idea what a rough day I had.”
“I come bearing gifts,” she said, joking about what I’d said that morning with the doughnuts. It was becoming our line.
She lifted a plastic bag with takeout, and I was glad she’d taken care of that. I would have done the same thing. I wasn’t in the mood to even cook a microwave meal.
“Are you okay?” Alexa asked when we turned to walk toward the apartment.
“Fine,” I said. “I’m just tired. It’s been a hard day with…difficult clients.”
“I feel you,” Alexa said. “Sometimes I wish we could cut out the people part of our jobs.”
I chuckled and nodded, although my job wasn’t really what had me on edge. But I wasn’t going to tell Alexa that. I was going to keep the whole conversation to myself. She didn’t need to know what had happened. She panicked easily enough as it was, and it was unnecessary to add to her stress. Part of keeping her safe was protecting her emotions.
“How was your day?” I asked her, trying to get her to talk so that I didn’t have to.
“Oh, it was all right,” she said. “Nothing new. I get so bored sometimes. But I’m looking forward to my night out tomorrow.”
She glanced at me.
“I’m glad,” I said. “If anyone deserves to let loose a little, it’s you.”
I thought about the irony of that statement. I knew what she was going to do. She was going to wait for the stranger she’d met at the club. She was going to lose her virginity to a masked marauder who would dominate her until she trembled and melted.
I didn’t want to think about sex right now. I didn’t want to think about what Alexa was getting herself into. I wanted to eat and relax. I didn’t want to think about Mason and Dalton’s death at all.
Hopefully Alexa could keep me distracted tonight.
“Do you want to watch a movie again?” Alexa asked.
“Yeah. I’d like that,” I said. “This time I choose.”
I couldn’t do another night of corny romance.
“Deal,” Alexa said and smiled. “As long as it’s got nothing to do with murder and loyalty and threats. I don’t feel like something heavy.”
Oh, God. I didn’t think I could handle that either.