I hang up mid call and shove my phone down the front of my pants in case she decides to see who I was speaking with.
“Tristan, have you got something you need to tell me?” She stares accusingly, her lips pressing down together making her look duck faced.
I take a step closer to her and use my thumbs to press the lines away.
“Raney, I do have to tell you something… I’m fucking your dad.”
I hold her face in my hands and no shit I’m as serious as I’ve ever been, but the bitch just starts laughing as she walks off. Not just a small laugh either, it’s full on loud and over the top, leaving me standing there offended. In typical Raney style leaves the door open as she takes a piss.
“Tris, please, stop with the King joke. It’s getting old.” And then I see why she came into the toilet, besides using the loo. “Koz, the mixer is on which is why I couldn’t take your call, but Tris and I are hiding out in the bathroom. She’s got a secret lover she won’t tell me about, and I’m starving. Are you with King now, say hi and tell him I’ll see him for dinner, yeah?”
Raney cradles the phone on her shoulder as she washes her hands, talking non-stop to Koz. Together we sit on the vanity avoiding returning to the mixer. She and Koz talk about fuck knows what and I distract myself reading through the booking sheet Teddy sent over. Unsurprised that he failed to mention I wouldn’t be back until the next day, completely ruining any chance I had to see King.
I feel sick lying to Raney, but at the same time I keep trying to tell her too. I hop off the vanity, give her the finger and leave her to sweet talk with her Alpha and go pack a suitcase.
King assures me once all the threats are dealt with that we’ll tell the world, but I can see the conflict in his eyes. If push came to shove and Raney was vehemently against us being together,I suspect King would sacrifice his happiness for hers. He would suffer, so she doesn’t, and that breaks my heart.
The suite at Unity is quiet when I open it up, the scents of my girls lingering in our rooms like perfumed candles; Heidi’s apple scent, Raney’s jasmine, and Simona’s cookies and cream but I head straight to my very secret stash of King’s bourbon infused hoodies and I bury my face in it seeking comfort.
I’ve discovered a lot about myself since meeting King. There’s actually an art to lying to the people you love on a daily, sometimes hourly occurrence; you just need to hide your deceit in the smallest of truths. Of course there’s a cost, it feels a little like a single drop of acid falling on your skin whenever I lie, but King is someone I’d do almost anything to be with—including becoming a two faced double-dealing deceitful bitch.
Chapter
Eleven
MAVERICK
“Steel, say again,” I repeat, but the call drops out a weird hollow noise in my helmet instead of his voice. A quick check of the time and I see I don’t have time to pull over and dig my phone out of my pocket. All I can do is wait until he tries again.
He does. Because Steel is like a dog with a bone when he’s got shit to say and his brother Tyson and I are the only ones he’s got to mouth off to. We’ve learnt it’s better for him to get everything off his chest instead of overthinking and under sharing. The last time that happened was years ago, and he’s got a jagged scar to remind us how bad things can get when Steel gets backed into a corner.
“He’s a fucking prick,” he starts up as soon as the call connects. His dulcet tones are full of simmering anger, his emotion crackles through the Bluetooth making me edgy enough to think about turning around and gunning it back to the compound.
I fucking would too. But since Tyson is locked in his residency, working his ass off for peanuts, we need some fast cash and modelling is the quickest and easiest way to make money. We’re all so close to being able to tell Rex to shove hisclub and rules up his ass, and as soon as Tyson has finished this rotation we will. But not yet.
We would have ages ago except of course Rex found out along the grapevine that we were looking at moving out of the compound. The next day Steel was driving his mom to see Tyson at the ER for a split lip, and I was being pulled over by the local cops.
Shockingly but unsurprisingly too, they miraculously found half a key of coke in my saddlebag. Of course it was a complete set up, they knew it, and so did I. The cops executing the search of me and my bike only acted after receiving an anonymous tip off. They were also the same cops who walk through Rex’s titty-bars and chop-shop every second Tuesday, to leave with a wad of cash in their back pocket beefing up their already fat asses.
The situation was made worse because the drugs ended up back in Rex’s possession. The smug look on his face when Steel and I showed up that night to the clubhouse while he was cutting lines on the bar top confirmed it was him who set me up too.
“Mav, he keeps saying Harley needs to start paying her way. The asshole was smiling when he suggested she can work for him if she hasn’t got the cash. It was lucky he said it to me and not Tyson.”
People working is not a big deal, we ain’t rich but we’ve got enough money to survive at least. But Harley is Steel and Tyson’s thirteen-year-old sister and Rex saying she’s gonna be working means something else entirely.
“I’ll be finished before four and we can ride over to Tunda’s for a few rounds. We can catch up with Tyson at the hospital to figure out a rough plan for the next few days. You and I can keep an eye on Harley, but we need to get the girls gone. Hopefully when we get back to the clubhouse they’ll be too busy drunk, or fucking, and they ignore us so we can move some of their stuff in preparation.”
Steel’s quiet which confirms how wound up he is. Rex is a manipulative bastard even to his own flesh and blood. I’ve seen Rex do some fucking questionable shit since the three of us started hanging together years ago. I’ve seen first-hand the hate Rex has for his own flesh and blood but until we manage to get Sallyanne and Harley out of the Death Riders clutches, we’re not going anywhere.
Getting help for the girls has been something we’ve been working on for a long time. The problem is Rex has reach and the women’s shelters around here are too close and under-resourced. Since we’re broke, Tyson made a deal with the devil when he called The Phoenix Group, so the good news is we’re all waiting for the right time to get the girls out of here, while the bad news is as a pack we owe a debt that can be called at any time they choose.
“Yeah, maybe I should ride out,” he says eventually, weary resignation in his voice overtaking the raw flash of anger from a moment ago. “Harley's gone to her friends for the week. It’s all I could figure out at a moment’s notice but at least it gives us some time. And Ma’s got her hands full getting the club ready for the Chapter meeting.”
“Rex won’t be back till tomorrow, right?” He grunts an answer, and before he can argue I confirm what he needs to hear. “Your ma will be fine with all the other women, Steel.”
Sallyanne will be fine and could probably do with the break from her Alpha’s harsh hand, and her kids’ enduring support. Because despite the endless promises Sallyanne makes to leave Rex she never does. Each time it happens, one of us is there picking up the pieces. Sallyanne oozes guilt but only when her boys are around. Of course, the both of them wrap her up in a hug and tell her over and over it doesn’t matter before reminding her he’s there to help however he can. But knowing Sallyanne has locked into the same cycle, and the three of them are stillunder Rex’s watchful eye hurts her. I know it does because she’s told me. She’s also begged me to get Tyson and Steel to leave and never come back, but like this whole fucked situation, us escaping is a work in progress with lots of moving parts.
“Come on, we’ll be back before he is and we can check in with her then,” I offer quickly, also trying to focus on not getting sandwiched between two massive trucks.
