Mark
“Ryan stopped by. I think he’s staying somewhere in town,” I mentioned one afternoon to gauge Nora’s reaction.
She nodded nonchalantly but didn’t say anything. It looked like she was trying to brush the information off. She hadn’t so much as mentioned him since all this started, and I was beginning to wonder how she really felt about everything. I knew they went way back; she was already in the picture when the MC started doing business with him.
“That’s good,” she finally said. “I hope things are working out.”
Her thoughtful tone contradicted her expression. I couldn’t tell if it was because she missed him or was still mad at him. I really hoped it wasn’t the former. For some reason, the thought of her missing Ryan really bothered me. I hadn’t expected that reaction from myself.
Our relationship was strictly business, probably more so than her relationship with Ryan had been. But, still, there was a small amount of jealousy there. Nora was mine.
“He hasn’t been by?” I asked, trying to sound like I was curious instead of like I was checking up on her.
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head and sounding indifferent.
I wondered if I hadn’t sewn this indifference into our arrangement by the way I had been treating her. Sex between us had taken precedence over everything else for the last several weeks. I would come over and we would fuck, and I would go. I had tried to slow down a little, taking more time to sit with her afterward, to perform a little bit of aftercare by gently rubbing her arms and back or by running a hand over her hair.
I had come to look forward to our afternoons and evenings. Being with her was nothing like being with the club girls. I usually tossed them back once we were finished, keeping very few repeat offenders, as I called them. By keeping Nora around, I felt like we had given each other more freedom together.
She allowed me to be myself, and by continuing our arrangement, I was able to explore my desires with her, to figure out what worked best for both of us. I had tried things with her that I hadn’t tried with other girls, things I couldn’t have tried with other girls. And despite her almost professional demeanor regarding the whole thing, I felt like she responded better the further along we went.
She was the perfect submissive. She knew her role and had no trouble giving in. She also made sure all of my needs were met, from sex to everything else. I didn’t make her cook the way Ryan had. I didn’t make her handle all of the domestic duties. She wasn’t a housewife, and we weren’t playing house.
“I left the money on your nightstand,” I said, standing with her in her doorway. I knew she knew where it was, but I felt the need to fill the space with words. One of us needed to talk since it felt like both of us were holding back.
“Thank you,” she said, looking at me with something strange in her eyes.
Were we starting to connect on a different level despite our efforts to keep things professional and not personal? Could she see straight through my façade and know that I was feeling a little strange about having Ryan back in town? I did feel like my territory was being threatened. She was my territory.
She reached up and placed a hand on the side of my face. “See you soon?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” I told her, taking her hand in mine. I kissed her fingers and gave her hand a gentle squeeze before smiling at her and heading downstairs to my bike.
As I drove back to the clubhouse, I couldn’t help thinking about Ryan. I felt certain that he was going to try to make a move while he was in town. He had avoided the topic of Nora when he’d been in the office. He’d barely even made eye contact with me. Business was still good, for the time being, but I had felt a tension between us that was personal, not professional.
When I got back, Ozzy was still hanging out talking to Ed at the bar. I tilted my head toward the office when I walked in, telling him to follow me in.
The president’s office still technically belonged to Alan, so it was still decorated for him. He had pictures of himself and all the other old-timers on the walls, and a few photos from the previous president and his men. Everything on the desk was his. I knew that just as Alan had done, I was going to have to replace everything when I moved in permanently. My office was going to have to represent the MC under my leadership.
“What’s up?” Ozzy asked as we walked in and I closed the door behind him.
“I want to keep eyes on Nora’s apartment,” I told him, keeping my voice down.
“Why? What’s going on?” he asked, taking a seat in the armchair in front of the desk.
I walked around and sat in the desk chair. “Is Ryan gone?”
“Yeah, he’s been gone. He left before you did. You know that,” Ozzy said.
“I wanted to make sure he didn’t come back for anything. Look, I don’t trust him not to try to pull something. He’s been acting shady, and I expected it to get better after giving him money to pay off his debts, but that didn’t seem to help. You saw him earlier,” I remarked to him.
“Do you think he’s going to try something?” Ozzy asked.
“I don’t know,” I told him. “I don’t want to risk it though. I want eyes on the apartment in case he does.”
“Okay, I’ll get someone over there,” he told me. “Do you want me to get someone on Ryan?”
“It’s not a bad idea. Nothing too invasive. I just want to know when he leaves town so we can stop monitoring them,” I explained.
“Okay, I’m on it.” Ozzy got up and walked out of the office, leaving the door open.
It was a shame, I thought, that I felt like I couldn’t trust Ryan or Nora. Nora’s nonchalant response could have been because of a genuine lack of interest, but it also could have been because she was hiding something from me. I hated having to be the president who kept tabs on everybody, but I needed to show the MC and everyone else that I was not afraid to protect what was mine.
In the meantime, things were getting worse in New Hampshire and Vermont. Despite the presence of my guys in those markets, the supply chains were still being threatened. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Ryan might have had something to do with it. My troubles had actually increased around the same time I had given Ryan the ten grand for Nora. I hoped, for his sake, that it all turned out to be one unfortunate coincidence.
He’d been acting funny ever since the trouble started. And asking me for extra money? It was entirely possible that he wasn’t even in debt. It seemed possible to me that he was getting ready to make a move, and that was why he needed the cash.
I didn’t stop back by to see Nora while Ryan was still in town. I needed to stay vigilant in case he did make a move locally, or in case someone caught him working with the guys who were disrupting my supplies out of state.
Once he was gone, I resumed my normal routine, until he showed back up a few weeks later. I had Ozzy greet him at the door to the clubhouse and escort him to the office.
“Hey, what’s with the security?” Ryan asked as he entered the room. He checked over his shoulder as Ozzy walked in behind him. We normally met in private.
“Can’t be too careful these days,” I told him.
“I see that.” He sat down across from me and put his package on the desk.
“Yeah, it seems I’ve had a lot of trouble the last couple of months.”
“I’ve heard,” he said.
“Oh, you have?” I asked, eyeing Ozzy. He flexed his hands together and stepped up behind Ryan’s chair. “What have you heard, exactly?”
He looked over his shoulder and then back at me. “I mean, I’ve heard that there’s been trouble. I don’t actually know anything.”
I nodded to Ozzy, who grabbed him by his neck and slammed his face into the desk. Ryan’s wasn’t the first face to meet Alan’s desk. He pulled him back up so that he looked at me with dazed eyes.
“Mark, I swear, man, I don’t know anything about it.” He held his hands up and looked back and forth between us, pleading with us through his expression.
“Ozzy, is it just me or is this story hard to believe from him?”
“Come on, guys, you know me,” Ryan pleaded.
“I’m not inclined to believe him at all,” Ozzy agreed before slamming him back into the desk.
“That looks painful, kid. You might want to come clean with what you do know. Let us decide if we feel like you know more,” I told him.
“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.” He shrugged his shoulders to get Ozzy to let go of him.
I nodded, letting him step back from Ryan. “Speak.”
“I don’t know for sure because I don’t have the kind of manpower needed to verify stuff like this, but I heard that it’s the same guys who stuck Alan behind bars.”
“The Asphalt Demons? You heard? Where did you hear this?” I asked.
“You know, man, there’s talk on the street. I hear things from time to time.”
“Of course, if you’re working with those guys, they could have told you to tell us that,” Ozzy accused him.
“What the fuck? I don’t supply those guys. They have their own operation,” he said. “Even if that didn’t, I wouldn’t have shit to do with them. I work with Shadow Reapers. Talk about a conflict of interest,” he laughed nervously.
Ozzy went to reach for him again, but I held my hand up to stop him. “I believe him,” I said. “You have your problems, Ryan, but I do believe you.”
“Does that mean you’ll pull the security detail off of me?” he asked.
I grinned. He was smart and observant when he wanted to be. I was amused that he’d seen his security detail and that he knew it was us. The guy watching him was driving a car, not his bike.
“Not a chance,” I told him. “I trust you’ll understand why I can’t pull the security detail from you.” Luckily he knew better than to argue with me.
He simply accepted what I’d said and moved on to do business. We made our exchange – drugs for money – and he got up to leave. There wasn’t much need for talk after the deal, especially in his position.
“Hey, Ryan,” I said, stopping him at the door.
“Yeah?” he asked slowly, turning around to look at me.
“You need to make sure you don’t get involved in this,” I told him.
“I don’t plan on it.”
“Good, because if you do get involved, I’m going to have your head,” I told him.
He nodded. “Got it,” he said, before turning and walking out. Ozzy followed him.
I slumped back in my desk chair. The guys who were trying to sabotage our supplies in Vermont and New Hampshire were supposedly tied to the guys who had placed Alan behind bars. I couldn’t believe they were back, especially after what Alan had done to them the last time.
I locked up Ryan’s package and locked up my office. I needed to see Nora. It was time for things to start moving forward.