The slap of the minifridge door closing broke us apart. Cruz grabbed a beer, spun off the lid, and leaned against the bar. “Once you’re done using your mouth on my girl, we need to talk.”
She wasn’t only his girl. She was mine, too. What the fuck was I thinking? Another complicated situation. I could walk. I should walk. But I wasn’t going to. She was the only good thing going for me. Her, Romeo, the Hellers. And they were all tangled up with Cruz.
“Are we okay?” she whispered so only I would hear.
No, I wouldn’t say we were okay. But I wasn’t a dick. Did I want her with Cruz? No, but I needed her to be sure I was the one she wanted. “We’re good.”
She slid off my lap, curled into the corner of the couch, and I covered her with the quilt.
“Do you want a drink?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I’m too tired, and I’m still buzzing from Levi’s cherry bombs.”
Cruz sat in the recliner across from us and rolled the beer bottle between his palms. “What happened at Chrome? How are you mixed up with the Kings?”
I went to the fridge and grabbed a soda. “We have a misunderstanding.”
“Ryatt, you’re hanging with my girl. Kings were at Chrome. Were they looking for you? And what would’ve happened if Hellers hadn’t been there? I’m trying not to lose my shit—”
“Cruz—” McKelle interrupted, but Cruz shifted his glare to her.
“Nah. You and I are permanent,” he said to her. “You don’t know him, and until he convinces me he’s not dangerous to you, you’re not riding with him, not on the track, and not on the back of his fucking bike.” He turned to me. “You put her in danger, and I’ll make you disappear.”
“Fuck, dude, do you really think I’d want her anywhere near the Kings? I wouldn’t put Levi or Romeo in that situation either. I’m careful. Chrome isn’t anywhere close to King territory.”
“Not careful enough.”
I had no argument. Tonight had scared me, too. I returned to the couch and started at the beginning. “A couple months ago I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and mixed up with the wrong people.” I wasn’t sure how much, if anything, Cruz knew about me. McKelle wouldn’t be the only thing we had in common. This sucked. I wanted the life of the man sitting across from me. The club, the girl, the brotherhood.
But without being a douche.
“I caught a drug charge. The DA tried to charge me with trafficking. I had a decent public defender. The overcharge was to get me to take a plea. They threatened me with five years and five thousand in fines. I walked with eighteen months of probation, three months in a halfway house, a thousand in fines, and court-ordered outpatient, drug treatment.”
I leaned back on the couch, and McKelle uncurled until her feet rested against my thigh. She closed her eyes and sighed into the throw pillow under her head.
“Why are the Kings after you?” Cruz asked.
“Because a couple weeks after I got out, there was a raid over in Shady Valley. One of their guys was found dead. A bunch of dealers went down. Kings want the narc, and someone gave them my name.”
Cruz stared at me.
I raked my fingers through my hair, uncomfortable with the scrutiny. “I swear, dude, I don’t know anything about who turned me in. I wouldn’t make Kings my enemy. I’d get pills off this guy Sam. He ended up dead in a bathtub with the shit beat out of him and a lethal dose of heroin pumping through his veins. I wouldn’t have touched his supply if I’d known he was pushing product for the Kings. You can’t trust them.”
Cruz stood, crossed to the large windows, and stared into the darkness. In the reflection of the glass, I watched his jaw clench, and his brows form a deep V.
“I’m not a narc. The information didn’t come from me. But I’m on probation, and they got guys looking at twenty to life. I was strictly recreational weed, and I sometimes popped a couple of blues. Never enough to get me hooked. I did sell to friends. I swear, I’m donewith it all. I never had a habit, but drugs still fucked up my life.”
Cruz tipped the beer to his lips and finished it.
“I’ve been laying low. I don’t socialize with anyone at the halfway house. I don’t want to unknowingly meet someone connected to the Kings. I’m doing deliveries on my bike, staying out of King territory, hitting my NA meetings, and seeing my PO on the reg.”
“He’s a pervert.” McKelle entered the conversation. Her eyelids barely parted, and she glanced at Cruz with a sleepy smile. “He’s fascinated with Ryatt’s dick. He likes to watch him pee in a cup.”
Cruz smiled at her. “Do you want me to comment on that?”
“No.” Her feet slid into my lap. “You’ll scare him away.”
“Nah.” He stared at me while speaking to her. “I already threatened him, and he still pursued.”
