There was a small group of us tonight, and a second group would come tomorrow, that way we didn’t push anyone too much. The days were getting longer, so the sun wouldn’t be fully set for about three hours. Plenty of time to cover a lot of ground.
My mind lingered on Kat while I walked with the metal detector. Today, work had been more of the same. She ignored me or was hostile, and I found my frustration mounting. As expected, she didn’t change her attitude just because we had sex outside the bar. In fact, she seemed even more determined to push me away, as if my presence was a bigger problem for her now. If she thought she was going to get me to quit my job just because she decided to back the wrong horse, she was dead wrong.
Most of the land was flat, any trees that had previously been here being cleared out so that houses could be built on top of it. In the distance, we could see subdivisions being built, the same few cookie-cutter designs repeated over and over in various shades of tan, yellow, or blue, all sitting way too close to each other. I’d lived in places like this growing up, with their HOAs and everybody in each other’s business. I hated it.
Looking around, it was obvious that Raymond was holding onto this land for a reason. There were houses sprouting up everywhere on the lots surrounding this one. The metal detector in my hand made a noise, and the readout indicated there was steel beneath my feet. I got excited for a second before I heard Trainer’s detector going off to my far left.
Right, there could be more than one piece of steel here. It was impossible to know what was underground. Shaking up my paint can, I marked a big red X on the grass and continued onward. I wasn’t into spending much time in nature, but I could appreciate the beauty of this place. The sky was colorful as the sun started to set, and the breeze in the air made the tall grass and trees sway.
We kept at it until it was fully dark outside, but we hadn’t even covered half of the property yet. It was that big.
“I’ll come back out tomorrow night with Chalupa, Kim, and Swole,” Ryder said as we met back up at his truck. Hawk packed away the metal detectors again while he talked.
“Then comes the fun task of digging,” Trainer said drily.
“You got it,” Ryder agreed. “Now, let’s get back to the Blue Dog. The first round’s on me.”
That sounded pretty good to me, and so we hopped on our bikes, ready to follow his truck back to the bar, but a movement from nearby caught my eye.
“Hey, wait a minute,” I said, lowering my kickstand and hopping off the bike.
“What is it?” Trainer asked.
“Someone over there,” I pointed in the direction that I’d seen what I was sure was the outline of a man. “Behind that tall shrubbery.”
“You sure?” Trainer asked, getting off his own bike.
“Yeah. Someone’s watching us.”
As soon as those words were out of my mouth, we heard the unmistakable sound of motorcycles starting. I hurried forward, coming around the bushes to see who was there, just as two motorcycles took off in the opposite direction, following an unpaved road that would lead them back to La Playa. I wasn’t able to see who the riders were, but there was no disguising the patches on the back of their jackets.
“Las Balas,” I murmured.
“God damn it,” Trainer said from beside me. “They were spying on us.”
“You think they knew what we were doing?”
“There’s no way they do, but it’s still not good news. This shitty situation just got even more complicated.”
I couldn’t help but think of Kat. She’d heard a snippet of Ryder talking about what we were doing here tonight. Did she hear enough to send her Las Balas buddies to watch us, or was it just coincidence?
I hated feeling suspicious of her, but she’d made it clear that Las Balas were her people. I would have to talk to her about it, and I hoped like hell that I was wrong.
Nineteen
Kat
I was finished with my mother’s room. The space had a new paint job and decor. It was now a guest bedroom. I stood in the room after making the bed and felt a lightness in my heart that I hadn’t thought would come for a long time. It hurt to let her go, but I was finally ready to start moving past it.
Next, I was redecorating the living room. My mom had painted the room a salmon color when we moved in years ago, back when I was still in diapers. I’d never liked it because it was too girly for me, so now I was going to change it.
I felt like I was changing my life as I changed my house. I was in the best place emotionally that I had been since my mom died. Then, I thought about Blade and decided that might be bullshit. Why couldn’t I move on from this guy? He was trouble for me, with his Outlaw Souls patch on his back.
But I’d slept with him on Tuesday at the bar, and I couldn’t stop thinking about doing it again. I’d never had such an insatiable need for a man before. Of course, it had to happen with the wrong guy.
I could really use another cigarette. It was too bad that I threw the pack I bought away when my commitment to kick the habit returned.
Embracing the idea of a distraction, I went to the hardware store to look through paint samples, choosing to focus on something productive instead of my confusing feelings for Blade. There were so many color options that I was almost immediately overwhelmed. I knew I didn’t want the ugly pinkish color that had been on the wall, but other than that, I was lost.
