“We were leaving Sands Bar, you know the one with the roulette wheels, when he came up to me, demanded my winnings.”
“Brave motherfucker.”Tank huffed.
“I know, right.I told him to fuck off and turned around.Didn’t think anything more of it.Next thing, little shit has put a bullet in me.”
“Fuck, and I thought you’d had a run-in with another club.”Tank shakes his head.
“Nothing so fucking exciting.”I pull the Elastoplast off my arm, curl it into a ball, and flick it away.“I just didn’t keep my wits about me, thought he’d see the cut and the patch and fuck off.Anyone sensible would.”
“He obviously had no idea who he was dealing with.”The tone of Jock’s voice is deadly.“If I ever get my hands on him.”
“There’ll be nothing left of him if I get to him first.”I laugh but not with humor.“Stupid thing is, I don’t even think I’d recognize his face.That’s how little notice I took.He just didn’t seem like a threat.Must have been in his teens, but only just.”
“Just goes to show they start young these days.”
For a moment I am quiet.I started young with Sons of Sin.I was fourteen when they took me in—a group of ex-cons, soldiers, street hustlers.Home had become hell and I’d taken my stepfather’s Harley—son of a bitch didn’t deserve it—and rode from Oregon to Denver.In Denver I’d met Tank when I was shooting pool.After thrashing him he’d asked me where I was staying.I’d told him truthfully, the lot at Bear Park, the Harley my only companion, and he’d invited me back to the clubhouse for a shower and a feed.I’ve never left.
It hadn’t been easy.I’d had to prove my loyalty, and that took sweat, blood, and tears.I’d earned my stripes as a prospect and worked my way up.Then after a few years as enforcer, keeping everyone in line, handling security, I got voted in as vice president.That suited me well, I had no further ambition, because if I became president, it meant Jock would be gone.And that didn’t bear thinking about.
“You didn’t leave a trail at the hospital, did you?”Jock asks me after Ghost fills him in on our trip there.
I shake my head and an image of the pretty doctor pops into my mind—her long red hair swinging from a ponytail and curling at the ends, her green eyes that held so many secrets.She had a peppering of freckles over her cute snub nose and beneath that white doctor’s coat and scrubs I’d bet there was one hot body with great tits and buttocks that would be perfect handfuls.
“Reaper?”Jock says with a scowl.
“No fucking way.No trail,” I say.“Doctor, she was ...I told her to keep her mouth shut.”
Jock nods slowly.“A female doctor.”
“Yes.Beggars can’t be choosers.”
Ghost laughs.“Beg or choose, I’d have her, she was hot as fuck.”He holds up his hands and makes squeezing motions.“She’d look great bouncing up and down on my cock with nothing but that stethoscope around her neck.”
I frown.For some reason I feel possessive over her.She wasmydoctor, she fixedmeup, not Ghost.
“You get a name?”Jock asks.
“Doctor Scarlet Mesa,” I say.Where the fuck had that knowledge sprung from?I close my eyes and remember reading her name badge.Hadn’t thought the information had lodged in my brain until now, though.
“Redhead,” Ghosts continues.“Bet she’s red down there too.Not one of those phonies who—”
“Shut the fuck up.”I slam my hand on the table and hold in a wince when my wound complains.“She did us a solid, have some respect.”
Ghost laughs and lights a smoke.“Fancy her, do ya?Wanna bone the cute little doctor?”
“I swear I...”
“Yeah, yeah.”Jock puts his hand on my shoulder.“We’ve got bigger things to worry our heads about.But for the record, Reaper, outside women are complications we don’t need right now so don’t go there, okay?”
“Sure, I know that.”I glug on my beer frustrated that Jock had to point out a truth to me.Trouble was, I couldn’t get her out of my mind.What was going on with her?She gave an illusion of calm control but there was more beneath the surface.I saw it, I swear I did, and my curiosity had been piqued.
“Fucking Hyenas,” Tank mutters, “will they ever give up?”
“Yeah.”Ghost blows out a stream of smoke.“It ain’t as if Columbia isn’t big enough, they should stay on their own turf.”
“More money to be spent this side of the border,” Jock says.“Always worth the risk of selling here to double their income.”
“I swear if I had one wish it would be to see this cartel burnt to the ground,” I say, bringing my focus back to the conversation around the table.“Trouble from day one.”
