Outcasts MC (Complete Series), page 2
“I know,” Becca repeated. “I know you can take care of yourself and that you don’t need help from anyone. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m okay,” I insisted. “Seriously. Things are going pretty well. I’m getting more work.”
I wasn’t, not really, but I didn’t want her worrying about me. I was doing just fine for myself. The first step was keeping my place for another month. And keeping food on the table. I was doing just fine.
Fortunately, Becca let the matter drop. She started telling me about her work, or more specifically, her coworkers. Some of them were disgustingly used to having money, and plenty of it, and Becca told me about some of the crazy lunches she’d seen them bring in, or the fact that one of the guys’ wives always showed up at the site in three-hundred-dollar heels. I just shook my head at all of it. Even if I ever made it big, I vowed that I was never going to spend that much money on things.
No, if I ever made it big, somehow, I was going to save and save and save that money, so that maybe one day…
But no, I wasn’t going to think about what I really wanted to do. “One day”—that might never happen. I might never manage to do more than just scrape by. Better not get my hopes up. Better keep my expectations realistic.
We finished eating and browsed around the mall for a little while. I tried not to think about the fact that Becca could probably afford to actually go shopping now, to buy something more than the essentials.
I was happy for her, so happy for her, but at the same time, I couldn’t help wishing that I had been the one to meet the guy who wanted to give me a leg up.
“Wow, look at those,” Becca said, pausing outside of Walton’s. It was the same pair of red pumps I’d been eyeing earlier. She whistled through her teeth. “Jesus, two hundred and fifty dollars.” She laughed and shook her head. “Do you know how many hours I’d have to work to be able to afford a pair of shoes like that? And where would you ever wear them to anyway?”
“Clubbing on a Friday night,” I sighed, also staring at the shoes. God, I wanted them. Everything else in my life was so practical. So utilitarian. Like the sneakers I was currently wearing. I shook my head. “You know Walton’s is owned by one of those shitty gangs. That’s probably why the price is so high.”
And suddenly, I had to do something about it. A little act of rebellion. Against the gang and against the life I had. I needed to have those shoes.
“I’m going to take them,” I resolved, heading toward the door.
Becca grabbed my arm. “Are you crazy?” she asked, her eyes wide. “You just said this place is owned by one of those gangs. Stealing from this place is a terrible idea.”
“No, the gang itself is a terrible idea,” I corrected. “They’re basically stealing money from the community and doing all sorts of horrible things at the same time. And the police just look the other way. Meanwhile, people like you and I get stuck down in the dumps, and we’re the ones that the police come after. Fucking eviction notices and jail time for stealing.”
“You taking a pair of shoes that you don’t need isn’t going to fix the corruption in the system,” Becca said, trying to be reasonable.
But there was no stopping me now. Once I had the idea in my head, nothing was going to stop me. “Come on; it’s not like they’re going to know it’s me. They probably won’t even notice that anything’s missing; they just use this store to launder money.”
Becca started to protest again, but I wasn’t listening to her. I marched into the store.
3
Dax
I headed into the kitchen on Saturday morning to make breakfast, but I paused in the living room, looking at the couch. Kane. I frowned and went over to the furniture, giving it a kick. Kane jolted awake, his eyes wide. But he relaxed when he saw it was just me. I raised an eyebrow at him, and his look turned sheepish.
“Hey, man, sorry to crash,” he said, running a hand through his dark hair and yawning. “I didn’t feel safe sleeping at my place last night.”
“Fair enough,” I said. I hadn’t had any trouble getting rid of the body, but by now, the Savages had to know their guy had gone missing. And it was only a matter of time before they found out who had offed him. I wasn’t naïve enough to think that Kane hadn’t been seen beating up the guy, or that I hadn’t been seen getting rid of the body.
Hell, the Savages wouldn’t even need to get firm information about who had taken their guy out; they’d probably automatically assume it was something to do with the Outcasts.
But there was no point in pointing out how stupid Kane had been or telling him it would serve him right to have the Savages after his ass. He was my little brother, and he’d made a mistake. All that was left to do was make sure he was safe. And if that meant having him sleep on my couch, well, it wasn’t like that was a problem.
“Want some breakfast?” I asked. “Think I’ve got enough eggs and bacon.”
“Fuck yeah,” Kane said brightly, following me into the kitchen. He hovered by the table while I worked at the stove, throwing together some omelets. “Did you tell Dad about yesterday?” he finally asked, sounding nervous.
I rolled my eyes. “You know if I had, you wouldn’t be standing there right now,” I said, glancing back over my shoulder in time to see Kane’s pained wince.
“Yeah, he’s going to be so fucking pissed.” Kane bit his lower lip. “But you’re going to have to tell him, right?”
I was quiet for a long moment. The truth was, I probably needed to tell Dad about this. Give him a heads-up that there might be trouble. But at the same time, I was worried what he might do to Kane if he heard about this latest fuckup. In the spirit of protecting my little brother, it was probably best that Dad didn’t know all the details of what had happened.
“He really was trying to rob me,” Kane said quickly. “I swear, there’s nothing more to the story. I wasn’t, like, trying to prove myself or anything.”
“I know,” I said. I sighed. “But you need to straighten up. This is a pretty big fuckup.”
“I know,” Kane said.
“Do you know if anyone saw you?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Kane said. “I mean, I don’t know about when I was actually fighting the guy, but I don’t think anyone saw me afterward, before you got there.” He frowned. “Where were you anyway? It took me forever to get through to you.”
“I was talking to Dad about you joining the Outcasts when I got that call from you,” I said. I was a little worried at how uncertain he sounded about whether or not he’d been seen, but I tried not to dwell on it. Either way, we probably had a problem. All that was left was to see how things played out. See what the Savages chose to do about it.
“What did Dad say?” Kane asked hopefully, distracted from the massive mistake he’d made. “Is he finally going to let me in for real?”
I shrugged. “He didn’t want to talk about it,” I said, deciding that was the safest thing to say. If I told Kane that Dad still didn’t think he was responsible enough or mature enough to join the club, Kane would probably try to prove him wrong. And that was the last thing we needed right now. Kane needed to keep his head down until this whole thing blew over.
Kane sighed. “Well, hopefully he won’t ever know I was the one who killed this guy. Otherwise, he’s never going to let me get involved.” He paused. “You don’t think he’s going to figure it out, do you? The Savages can’t possibly know it was me.”
Again, I could hear that note of worry in his voice. He was trying to pretend he wasn’t really worried, that he was strong and cool and collected, that he had everything under control. But I knew him too well.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I said, even though I was honestly worried that that might not actually be the case.
“Do you mind if I hang out here for the day anyway?” Kane asked. “Just in case.”
“Go for it,” I said. “I need to head over to the clubhouse for a little business, but you can hang here for as long as you want.”
“Thanks,” Kane said, with nearly palpable relief.
When I got to the clubhouse, Dad was out front with two guys I only vaguely recognized, but their jackets identified them immediately for who they were: Savages. I felt my hands ball into fists at my sides, and I said a silent prayer that things weren’t going to turn violent already. That they weren’t here to tell Dad about what Kane had done.
I stepped closer, watching as the two guys’ eyes flicked over me. I could tell they weren’t looking for a fight just in the way they looked at me. Good.
But they were talking about their dead man.
“Hey, we’ve got no problem with you guys as far as I’m concerned,” Dad was saying, spreading his arms out to either side. “We’ve had a truce with the Savages for years now; you know that. We’ve each got our own territory.” He narrowed his eyes. “And unless you have evidence proving that this guy was killed by someone in my MC, then you need to leave. I’ll overlook your wild accusations this once.”
The guys looked back and forth between Dad and me and then looked at one another. They shrugged and turned to walk away.
As soon as they were gone, Dad narrowed his eyes at me. “I swear to god, if this was Kane’s doing…” he said. Then, he stopped and shook his head. “If this was Kane’s doing, I don’t want to know about it.”
I knew I should probably lie and tell him it wasn’t Kane’s doing or that I didn’t know anything about it. I knew my silence spoke louder than words. But I couldn’t lie to Dad. Our family might never have been particularly warm and fuzzy, but if nothing else, he was the leader of the MC I was a part of. I couldn’t lie to him.
I watched the Savages get on their bikes and ride off. But I knew that wasn’t the last we’d be hearing from them. Even if they didn’t have any proof.
4
Olivia
I was a few streets away from my apartment complex when I noticed the two men following me. I frowned, glancing back at them without trying to seem too suspicious. Maybe they just happened to be walking this way. But something about their clothes told me they didn’t live in this area, and I had never seen them before in my life.
I shook my head a little. All I wanted to do was finish grocery shopping. The last thing I needed was some jerks trying to mess with me.
I made a couple of weird turns, cutting through alleyways. Part of me hoped I would lose them. Part of me hoped that they were never following me to begin with. But as they continued to follow along after me, I knew that they must really be following me. I sighed and turned around, waiting until they caught up.
“What the hell do you want?” I asked. My heart was beating a little faster, but I didn’t want them to know that. They were both huge; there was no way I could take them on, not on my own. If they were after my groceries, or if they wanted to hurt me, they could easily do that. I didn’t have any money for them to take, though; everything I’d had, I had spent on groceries. Well, unless they were interested in the sixty-two cents in my pocket.
The guy on the left narrowed his eyes at me, folding his arms across his chest. “We know you stole from Walton’s yesterday,” he said.
Fuck. They had to be gang members. Still, I tried to play it cool.
“So you want the shoes back, whatever,” I said.
“We want our money,” the man corrected.
“With interest,” the other man added.
“I don’t have money like that on me,” I said. I didn’t have money like that period, but I doubted that was what they wanted to hear.
“You have until tonight to pay up,” one of the guys said.
“Or what?” I couldn’t resist asking.
The other guy narrowed his eyes, a menacing glint to them. “Or we’re going to take you and make money off you,” he snarled.
Now, my heart was really beating faster, and I knew they could probably see how pale I was. But they didn’t try anything else; they just turned and retreated in the direction we had come from, leaving me standing there with the groceries in my arms.
Fuck, what was I going to do? I had tried to offer to give the shoes back, but it didn’t sound like they were interested in that. No, they wanted money. I hadn’t even been able to afford the shoes in the first place, let alone this whole matter of “interest.” I could only imagine what they would do to me if they didn’t get what they wanted, though.
Take me and make money off me? I didn’t like the sound of that. In fact, the thought of it made me sick to my stomach.
What the hell was I going to do? I headed immediately for Becca’s house. I knew she wouldn’t be able to protect me forever, that I couldn’t hide out there. I didn’t want to put her in danger, either, but I didn’t know what the hell to do.
“What’s wrong?” Becca asked immediately, taking in my harried expression.
I shook my head. “I did something stupid,” I blurted out.
Becca raised an eyebrow at me. “Something more stupid than stealing from a store owned by a gang?” she asked wryly.
Of course she would connect the dots that quickly. “That’s just it,” I said. “I was on my way back from my grocery shopping, and I noticed that these two guys were following me, and I asked them what they wanted. They told me they were from the gang and that they knew I had stolen those stupid shoes.”
Becca groaned. “I knew you were going to end up in trouble for that,” she said. “I hope you at least had the sense to give the shoes back.”
“Well, I didn’t have them with me,” I said. “They’re not exactly grocery-shopping shoes.”
“True. But did you arrange for a time and place to meet them? You know that they’re going to get the shoes back, one way or the other, if that’s what they want.”
“That’s just it, though. It seems like that isn’t what they want. I offered to give them the shoes back, and they told me that they wanted the money instead. Plus interest.”
“Yikes,” Becca said, grimacing. “So what are you going to do? Wait, is that why you’re here—you need money for the shoes?”
“I don’t know…I’m worried that it’s not going to stop at that,” I admitted. “They said something about how if I don’t pay them back, with interest, they’re going to kidnap me and use me to get their money back. And they didn’t specify how much they want in terms of interest, so for all I know, they’re planning on doing that either way.” I bit my lower lip. “I don’t know what they’re going to do. I’ve heard some terrible stories.”
Of course, I didn’t believe everything I had heard about the gang was true, but I definitely knew that some of the stories had to be at least partially true. Stories of cruelty, stories of violence. If they weren’t happy with the interest payment I made, who knew what they might do to me. I could pay them thousands of dollars for those stupid shoes, and they might still decide I had embarrassed them or whatever. That it was a matter of pride.
“So you need a place to hide, is what you’re saying,” Becca said, nodding sagely. She sighed. “Oh, Olivia. You know I can’t hide you here. Things are going well for me right now with David. I don’t want to mess that up.”
“No, I know. I just didn’t know who to even talk to about this.” I could feel tears prick the corners of my eyes. “And I guess I’m here to say goodbye because I have no choice but to get the hell out of town for a while.”
I hated the idea of leaving Becca behind. We had grown up together; I had known her for my whole life. She was my go-to for conversation and for fun and really for everything in life. We shared all the good times and all the bad times. But it wasn’t like I could ask her to come with me, for the same reason that I couldn’t hide out there. Things were going well for her right now, and it was my own fault that I had screwed up my own life this time. Better not drag her down with me.
“I don’t even know where to go,” I continued. “I guess I could hitch a ride to New York. They probably wouldn’t find me there.” Of course, I would need to find a new cleaning agency, and I knew that New York was even more expensive than Boston. But I would never find a cleaning company to work for if I headed to Vermont or New Hampshire. There just wasn’t enough demand for my skills there.
What the hell was a girl to do?
Becca snapped her fingers. “We have to give you a disguise. So no one would ever recognize you. You know, like the Secret Service would do. A whole new identity.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “You think that’s going to work?” I asked.
“Well, you’ll need to get out of town too. But honestly, with the way that these gangs work, I don’t think just getting out of town is going to be enough. They could still come after you, if they were really angry with you. Which I assume they are if they followed you and threatened you.” She shook her head. “You should never have stolen from them.”
“I know,” I sighed. “But that’s done now.” I paused, fingering my long blonde locks. I’d been growing my hair out for years now, but I guessed that she was probably right and that disguising myself was the best way to go. Just for a little while. Maybe I could stay right here in Boston with the right disguise.
“Come on, let’s get you to a hairdresser,” Becca said.
“I can’t afford that,” I said. “Why don’t you just cut it for me?”
Becca rolled her eyes. “Because if I give you a totally botched haircut, you’re going to turn heads even more than usual,” she said. “That wouldn’t exactly be ‘undercover.’”
“I guess not,” I sighed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll cover you,” Becca said. “I think I know someone who’d be able to protect you too. You could stay here in Massachusetts, but you’d have to get out of Boston. He lives in Greenboro.”
