Kitt

I fumbled with the papers on the desk. Switch took my breath away. I’d thought him huge and imposing when I saw him out on the side of the road. But here, framed by four walls and a ceiling, he seemed even more massive.

Two other club members came through the doorway to the garage with him. My heart stopped as I quickly read their patches. Gunn and Angel. They were big bad bikers just like Switch, but none of them was the man I’d come here to find.

He was here though. Sly Cullinan was here. I nearly fell off my chair when Brenna explained a little of the club dynamics to me. She said when Sly and the others were meeting in the garage I wasn’t to go back there under any circumstances. It seemed like an easy enough rule to follow. Still, curiosity burned through me. He was right behind that door. I waited, but no one else came through.

“Don’t let Brenna bust your balls too much,” the one called Gunn said. He snaked an arm around Brenna’s waist. She blushed as he curved her against him and planted a kiss on her cheek. They were married. The gold ring around his finger gleamed in the light.

“Kitt’s going to get along just fine,” Brenna said. Still, there was a wariness about her. She didn’t trust me. I would have to earn it.

“Thanks again,” I said to Switch. “I mean, for recommending me to Brenna. You’re a lifesaver. Truly.”

He stood beside my desk, towering over it. I had to crane my neck to keep his gaze. “Good timing for everybody,” he said. “You just let me know if you need anything while you’re here.”

“Off with you,” Brenna said, making a shooing gesture to Switch and the others. “You’re like a trio of bulls in a China shop. Go play with your engines or whatever it is you like to do. I’ve got about a hundred online orders to process.”

Gunn snapped his teeth and made a little growling noise that made Brenna squeal. An odd pang of jealousy went through me. They were clearly crazy about each other. Gunn seemed perfectly happy wearing both a patch and a wedding ring. That flew in the face of everything I’d been told to expect.

My desk phone began to ring. Smiling, I turned to answer it, feeling more than a bit self-conscious at having to do it in front of so many witnesses. “Hello,” I said. “Gr- er ... Benny’s Bike Shop, how may I help you?”

Brenna had explained that Benny was the original owner. Gunn kept the name when he bought him out as it was a regional fixture. I grabbed a pen and wrote down the caller’s message. Then, I successfully transferred him back to the mechanics.

“Piece of cake,” I said.

Brenna still looked dubious, but Switch and the other bikers seemed satisfied I wasn’t some blathering idiot, at least. It was phones, not rocket science, for crying out loud.

“Go!” Brenna barked. This time, the men did as she asked. Switch hesitated for a moment at my desk.

“I meant what I said. Anybody gives you any trouble, you give me a call. Green Bluff is a great little town once everyone gets to know you. It’s just ... things are a little stirred up right now with the club.”

I saw Gunn give Switch a sharp look. I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but Angel, the other guy, threw an arm around Gunn’s shoulder and the three of them headed out the front door.

“Don’t mind them,” Brenna said. “For the most part, their bark is a lot worse than their bite. At least around civilians.”

“Civilians,” I said. “Is that what I am?”

“Oh, you’re even worse,” she said. “You’re a civilian and an outsider. But the minute people around here know you work at least peripherally for the club, you should be all right.”

“Good to know,” I said, turning back to the desk. I found myself hoping for a busy day. I liked Brenna well enough, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer too many questions.

I got my wish. The phones started ringing like mad. One of the mechanics yelled for Brenna and she left me alone. I took the calls and did the filing she asked me to. It was a simple enough system but kept me on my toes. Before I knew it, five o’clock rolled around and Brenna poked her head back in.

“You can head out whenever you’d like,” she said. “Did we scare you off yet?”

“What ... uh ... no. It was fine. Great, really. I like staying busy.”

“Good,” she said. “See you tomorrow at nine.”

“Great. Is eight okay? I wouldn’t mind coming in and getting better organized. You don’t have to pay me for the extra hour or anything.”

Brenna made a clicking noise and pointed a finger at me. “You got it. But go ahead and punch in when you get here. You’re time’s worth money.”

I thanked her and left. There were two Harleys parked next to my rental car. I wondered if either of them belonged to Sly. He’d never come into the office, but I hadn’t seen anyone else leave after Switch and the others. It was probably for the best. I wasn’t sure I was ready to face him just yet anyway.

The sun just began to set as I made my way back to the Hansen. The place was fine for now. Clean. Simple. But I hadn’t planned to stay in a hotel forever. I hadn’t planned much at all beyond just getting to Green Bluff. Now I had a job. It felt like fate and I knew that was dangerous.

I keyed myself into my second-floor, corner room and kicked off my shoes. The Hansen’s neon sign flickered on as I plopped down on the bed and cracked the cap off a bottle of beer I had chilling in the mini-fridge. My phone rang just as I settled back against the pillows. New instinct kicked in when I answered.

“Benny’s ... I mean, hello?”

I heard a familiar crunching noise on the other end. Even without caller ID I would have known those Cheetos anywhere.

“Hey, Paulie,” I said.

Paulie Gates was my oldest and best friend in the world. He lived two doors down from the first foster home I was placed in at six years old. The Good One, as I liked to call it.

“Kitty Kat,” he said. “How’s it hanging?”

“Long and heavy,” I said. It was a very old, very bad joke between us.

“Well?” Paul asked. I bit my lip. I was surprised he’d waited as long as he had to call me. I left Topeka over a week ago.

“Well, I’m here. In Green Bluff.”

“Did you find the bastard yet? How was it? What did he have to say for himself?”

I pressed my thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose. “I ... uh ... I haven’t met him yet.”

“Huh.” Paulie waited a beat. “So what ... you’ve just been sightseeing? We looked it up, Kitt. The place is a step above a shithole. Get it over with. Drop your truth bomb. Tell him what a prick he is. Then haul your ass back here.”

I leaned over and pulled open the drawer beneath the bedside table. I grabbed the battered Tyvek envelope out of it and spilled its meager contents on the bed. A letter. A court order. A birth certificate. A newspaper clipping. These were the things that had sent me on this cross-country trip. It was Paulie who had procured them all.

“You need to let me do this my way,” I said. We’d had this conversation a hundred times since the first time I asked Paulie for help. He tried to talk me out of it then and a few hundred times more. But he knew me as well as anyone. He knew once I set my mind to something, there was no stopping me. So Paulie did the next best thing. He helped me find the way.

“Kitt, don’t tell me …”

“Paulie, I’m trying to be careful. There are a lot of things in that letter to consider. And I can’t believe every single thing I’ve been told. I know my grandmother’s version of the story best. Remember, she’s the same one who told me fairies left me on her doorstep the night I was born.”

“Jesus. Kitt. This isn’t a mystery. This is …”

“I got a job,” I said in a rush. Part of me hoped if I got it out fast, Paulie wouldn’t notice. He did, of course. Knowing him, if I hadn’t confessed that part, he’d do his magic and find the trail of the W-2 I filled out today.

Paulie let out a sigh. “So you’re planning to stay there?”

“For now. For a little while. I just ... I want to do this right. I want to know what I’m dealing with before I just rush in and blow this guy’s life apart. He’s got a wife. You didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t ... I didn’t look for one. What’s her name? Never mind. I’ll find it myself.”

“Paulie ... no. Don’t do any more digging. Not yet. These are people now. Not just names on your laptop screen.”

“Don’t tell me you’re getting attached. Dammit, Kitt. I knew I should have gone out there with you. Don’t do this. No more fairy tales. You already know the ending.”

“Relax,” I said. “I’ve got my eyes wide open.”

“Do you? Cuz you don’t sound like it. You wanna tell me what this job is or should I just find out for myself?”

“It’s a place called Benny’s Bike Shop. Custom motorcycles. Small engine repair. I’m answering phones and light filing. It’s connected to the club.”

I could hear Paulie typing away on his keyboard. It would take him about ten seconds to find out exactly what the bike shop was worth. “No digging!” I yelled. “I mean it. These aren’t a bunch of Neanderthals, Paulie. They might be able to figure out someone’s looking.”

Paulie made a noise. I’d just questioned his expertise. “I’m the gingerbread man, Kitt. You know that. Nobody catches me.”

“Be that as it may, I’d like to do this one straight for a little while.”

Paulie switched on a dime. “So what’re they like? Have you met any of them?”

I lay back against the pillows. If I told Paulie that I’d actually ridden on the back of a Harley with a patched member of the Great Wolves Motorcycle Club, I was fairly certain he’d have an aneurysm on the spot. The moment I thought it, my heartbeat quickened. I hadn’t let myself fully realize it, but I wouldn’t mind another ride like that. With Switch.

Shit. Maybe Paulie was right. I was getting attached and dreaming up fairy tales again.

“To be honest, Paulie, so far they’ve been really nice to me. I actually feel guilty.”

“Don’t!” Paulie shouted. “Don’t ever forget where you came from. Sly Cullinan is directly responsible for what’s happened to you. He’s not a stand-up guy. He’s the head of one of the most powerful M.C.s in the country and you’re nothing to him. Think about that. One word from him. One phone call. And your life would have been different, Kitt. Maybe your mom would even still be alive.”

My head started to pound. If I thought too hard, I might start to lose it. I might start to cry. I had no time for that. I couldn’t afford to shed another tear for my past.

“I’m tired, Paulie. It’s been a really long day.”

He got quiet. That was Paulie. I loved him, but he had no medium button. He was either in a rage or calm enough to be catatonic. He’d faced down plenty of his own demons as a kid. I was the one person he couldn’t hide that from. I’d lived two doors down, after all.

“Okay. Yeah. Me too. Just ... be careful, Kitt. And don’t forget to come home.”

Home. I’m not even sure where that was anymore. I’d lived in twenty-two different houses from the time I was six until the day I turned eighteen. After that, I went from job to job, never really feeling like I fit in. I wound up in Topeka because a girl I knew told me the bar where she worked was hiring servers and it paid more than the one I was at. That was two years ago. We were roommates for a while until she started dating a really bad guy. I didn’t want to stick around for that particular ending so I rented a room above the bar. Paulie and I started chatting again online and now here I was in northern California.

“I’ll be careful, Paulie,” I said. “As long as you are too.”

Dear, sweet, damaged Paulie. I’d been the one to grow up in foster care, but his home had been the biggest nightmare of all. Then one awful night when he was fourteen years old. His mother was drunk. Paulie tried to take the keys from her. In the end, all he felt he could do was get in the backseat and try to keep her from disaster. She found it anyway. Now Paulie would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Paulie didn’t say goodbye before he hung up. He rarely did. I put my phone on the charger.

I took the longest, hottest shower of my life. As I lathered the soap, a wicked thought flashed through my mind. I wondered what Switch’s rough hands would feel like over my naked body. He smelled so good. I imagined where those swirling trails of ink would lead if I traced them from his forearms all the way to his muscled back.

Dammit. Paulie was right. Once again, I was making up fairy tales. I toweled off and climbed into bed, pulling the covers over my head.