Page 23 of Hard Heart

“I wish we could get into the house.”

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Do you believe in ghosts?”

“No, and it wasn’t a ghost who murdered Ruby.”

“I know that, silly. It’s just that this place is kinda spooky, don’t you think? I bet they threw awesome Halloween parties.”

It was starting to get dark, and Heidi wasn’t wrong about the creep factor. We’d spent quite enough time here already, and we still had to walk back to the car, which we’d left in a lay-by down the road because I didn’t want to attract even more attention by pulling into the driveway.

“Come on, we need to go.”

“Just five more— What’s that noise?”

I heard it an instant after Heidi, a deep rumbling in the distance that grew louder with every passing second. Louder even than my heart beating against my ribcage as my pulse raced.

“Sounds like bad news.”

“No, it sounds like a motorcycle.”

“A motorcycle? More like ten of them. We’re leaving right now.”

Or not. Eight bearded men in leather blocked our exit, their oversized Harley penis extensions fanned out across the end of the driveway. I glanced behind me. If we scarpered, would they catch us? How fast could a biker move in those big, clumpy boots? I was willing to bet that Heidi could hop faster than I could run, and I was also beginning to regret the amount of time I hadn’t spent in the gym.

Two of the men climbed off their bikes and walked towards us, arms folded.

“You’re trespassing,” the taller of the two said.

“Uh, so we took a wrong turn,” I tried.

“This is private property.”

“We’re looking for a friend’s house.”

“What friend?”

Crap, I’d walked right into that one. How well did these psychos know the neighbourhood?

“I’m not sure that’s any of your business.”

“If you’re here on this property, then yeah, it’s our business.”

Huh? Had they bought the place or something? Or were they squatting here? Maybe they knew the property was empty, and they’d turned it into a weed farm, or…or…

“Oh, really?” Heidi said. “Well, my friend here is a lawyer, and she represents the owner of this property, so how about you explain what you’re doing here?”

I elbowed her in the side. “Shut up!”

“What? They’re not going to murder us in broad daylight.”

“You think? Do you see any witnesses?”

The tall guy’s gaze ping-ponged between the two of us. “Levi don’t got no lawyer.”

Wait a second… “You know Levi Sykes?”

In all my research, not once had I seen a connection to any motorcycle club, and that was surely who these men were. They wore matching waistcoats with the same logo—a snake crawling through an empty skull, in case the intimidating glares and ugly scowls weren’t scary enough.