Outcasts MC (Complete Series), page 75
Had Otis already warned them we would be there? Would our reputations, whatever it was that Dirk had said about us, precede us? I grimaced at the very thought of it.
Sure enough, one of the guys came up, holding out a hand to shake. “Hey, you must be the guys from San Diego,” he said. “I’m Kane. Welcome to the Greenboro chapter.”
“Uh, hey,” I said, shaking his hand.
“Don’t get too chummy with him,” one of the other guys joked. “He’s the president’s son!”
I blinked in surprise. I supposed Kane did look like Otis if I squinted, but he must favor his mother. Or maybe it was just that Otis seemed so much older that it was hard to find his features in Kane’s much younger, unwrinkled face.
“I’m Logan,” the other guy said, shaking hands with me as well. “I’m one of the collectors for the club, so we’ll probably be working together a lot, at least to start with.”
“Working together?” I asked doubtfully. It wasn’t like Devon and I hadn’t done this sort of work before. We might be new to these guys, and to this area, but we weren’t new to the Outcasts or the MC life. What did Logan think—that we needed babysitters to get the job done right?
I wanted to ask what they had heard about us. What lies Dirk had told to Otis, or what embellishments Otis had told to his guys. But before I could ask any of those questions, the president of the chapter himself was walking in the front door. Everyone fell silent, and guys quickly fell into seats around the room. Devon and I joined Logan on some chairs nearby, even though I didn’t want Otis to start lumping the three of us together in his mind.
I was perfectly happy continuing to work with just Devon to guard my back. After all, I didn’t know these new guys, and even though they might be my brothers in the MC, I wasn’t sure I could trust them. Not the way I had always been able to trust my actual flesh-and-blood brother.
Otis nodded at Devon and me at the start of the meeting and then turned to look around at the rest of his guys. “I’m sure you’ve all noticed we have a couple of guests with us today. They’re from the San Diego branch of the Outcasts, and they’ll be helping us out here for a little bit, getting to know how we do things differently from the California branch. Don’t get too close, though. I don’t expect they’ll be here long.”
That was it, dismissal in his voice. I bristled at the tone, remembering what he had said the previous day, about how if we were late, if we did anything wrong, he would kick us out of the club without showing us any remorse. Was it that he didn’t expect we would need to be here for long, or more that he didn’t plan on allowing us to stay here for long?
I gritted my teeth but forced myself to stay silent, knowing that interrupting the meeting while Otis had the floor was definitely not the way to keep him happy. I still hated that I was expected to show him so much respect when he had been nothing but rude to us since we had arrived in Greenboro. This wasn’t the way an MC should work. I was surprised that the guys here in Greenboro put up with this kind of shit.
The meeting wasn’t particularly interesting, not that I really had expected it would be. This chapter of the club did a lot of similar stuff to what we did in San Diego: protecting customers. But it wasn’t like there was that much work for them because who the hell lived out in the sticks in Massachusetts anyway?
I was starting to realize that my initial picture of Otis could really be extrapolated to the whole image of the club. This wasn’t like the San Diego chapter, or the New York chapter, or the Chicago chapter, or any of the other city chapters. Sure, these guys might do some business in Boston or wherever else, but mostly, they were just happy to be part of a low-risk club. Bunch of pussies.
Again, I started to wonder whether it wouldn’t make more sense to find a different club to be a part of. But then again, if there wasn’t much happening in this club, there surely couldn’t be too many things that Devon and I had to do to make Otis see we were adept at what we did. We could be headed back to the Outcasts in San Diego within the month if we were lucky.
It would be good to get back there, too. Even inside the clubhouse here, with space heaters in two corners of the room plus vents from some building-wide heating, it was pretty fucking cold. The longer we listened to Otis prattle on, the more I wished I were back home in San Diego, cruising along the waterfront. Or maybe curled up in bed with that attractive blonde who lived across the street.
Especially since the rest of the meeting passed without Otis even acknowledging Devon and me. What was the reason for us even being there in Greenboro? He didn’t appear to be giving the two of us anything to do throughout the week, either. He handed out tasks to every other person in the room, but there was nothing for us.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so easy for the two of us to get back to San Diego like this. He didn’t seem to trust us with even the most basic of tasks.
After the club meeting was over, though, just as I was preparing to get the hell out of there (maybe to get somewhere warm, or perhaps to take a long-ass bike ride to vent my frustrations), Otis beckoned the two of us up to the front of the room. I frowned and headed up there, noticing that Logan was already at his side.
Sure enough, it was just like I had feared: “I want the two of you to go with Logan today,” Otis told us. “He’s got a client in town that he needs to collect some money from. I want you to follow his lead; don’t get involved unless he tells you to. Shut up and listen to the way he works.”
I rolled my eyes, unable to help it. “We’re not new to this job,” I reminded Otis. “We know how to work with clients. We know what this club is all about.”
Otis scowled at me, and even Devon elbowed me to shut up. “You’ll do what I tell you to do in this club without asking,” Otis reminded me. “And if that’s not what you want, then you can get the hell out of here.” He paused. “It’s clear to me that you don’t know what this club is all about, based on what the president of the San Diego club has told me. Or at least, you don’t know how we run things around here. Without discipline, you’ll get yourself—and everyone around you—killed.”
“Then wouldn’t it make more sense for you to send Devon and me out on our own?” I couldn’t resist asking, my tone tart with frustration. “We’ve worked together for years, and we know how to look out for one another.”
Otis didn’t even deign that with a response. Instead, he turned to Logan. “Let me know how things go,” he said. “Anything that you know I wouldn’t tolerate in one of our new guys, you let me know.”
“Will do,” Logan said, keeping his tone neutral. But it wasn’t like the guy had any allegiance to us; he could be the one to decide if we stayed in the club or not, and he didn’t even know us. Where the hell was the fairness in that?
Was this the shit I had been pledging my life to for years now? A bunch of bullshit. But again, I glanced over at Devon. I knew this was his life, too. I had always wanted him to live a comfortable life, not to have to scrape by at a shitty job he hated, so I didn’t want to screw this up for him.
And Jesus, I would be glad to get back to San Diego at some point. Fine. If this was the way that Otis wanted to play things, Devon and I would follow Logan’s lead, I guess.
The one nice thing was that Logan had a car waiting outside the building, and we all climbed into that rather than getting on our bikes. “Did you guys seriously bike here?” Logan asked in surprise. “It was sleeting this morning. A bit early in the year, I know, but it won’t be bike weather for much longer.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like we really had a choice,” I said, rolling my eyes. Like I wanted to freeze my balls off driving around town or something.
Logan snorted. “You can’t tell me that you don’t have a car,” he said.
“No reason to have one in San Diego,” I said bitterly. “Worst weather you have to deal with there is the rain, and at least it stays pretty warm even when it does.”
“Shit,” Logan said, shaking his head. “I’ll talk to Otis and see if there’s something we can do to get you guys a set of wheels.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, and I knew that I was being unfairly rude to him even though it wasn’t his fault we were here or that we were stuck joining him on what should have been a one-person mission. “We aren’t going to be here for much longer, right?”
There was an uncomfortable silence in the car after that, but it didn’t take long until we were on the main street in town. Logan found a place to park. “We’re just headed a few blocks up,” he said as we all got out.
I glanced at the shops as we walked through town, my mouth curling with disdain as I saw a tailor’s, a fruit stand, and some other mom-and-pop shops. Quaint. New England. Suburban.
Not the kind of place I ever expected to find myself.
There was a woman out in front of the produce store, writing on a chalkboard. As we neared, she stepped back, putting her hands on her hips as she admired her work. Her blonde hair hung in a long braid down her back, and she had a good shape to her, almost a perfect hourglass figure. Her hips were wide, her ass pleasantly round. As she nodded to herself and headed inside, I caught a look at her profile and realized it was the same woman I had been staring at that morning, the one who lived across the street from Devon and me now.
I grinned to myself. That was a sign if I ever knew one. “I’ll catch up in a minute,” I told Logan and Devon, not even pausing to consider it. That girl was hot, and even if I couldn’t get her to agree to a quick fuck in the back room of her shop, I was at least going to get her name and make plans to take her out for a drink sometime.
It wasn’t like I needed a guide to show me around Greenboro; there was probably only one bar in the whole goddamned town. But hey, I could still play the “newcomer” card.
Logan looked like he might say something, but I could see from Devon’s smothered grin that he knew just what I was planning to do. He quickly asked Logan something to get him distracted, and I slipped into the store to meet the sexy blonde.
8
Holly
I tried not to look as David, one of our regular customers, browsed the shop. I had warned him when he came in that we were still waiting on our latest shipment, and I had apologized for the fact that our produce wasn’t up to snuff that day. I hadn’t gone so far as to suggest that he buy his stuff somewhere else that week and come back to us on Monday or Tuesday, but it had been close. I knew exactly what he would end up buying, and I cringed at the thought of it.
There wasn’t anything we could do about the situation, of course, and I wasn’t about to apologize to everyone who walked into the shop. But David routinely spent the most money there of anyone in town, and I didn’t want to lose him as a regular. Normally, I left it to Marie to be overly friendly to our regulars, but that day, I felt like an apology from the owner of the store could go a long way.
It was going to be an exhausting day of apologies if Brandon’s shipment didn’t get there soon. I was starting to covertly eye the clock, wondering just how late in the afternoon it might be before we got our new produce. If only there were a better way to do things. If only I had never gone into the fruit business in the first place.
Finally, David came up to the counter. He only had three bags of various produce instead of his usual five, but he didn’t look too upset. “Did you find everything that you were looking for?” I asked, more routine than anything else. Then, I winced. “Of course you probably didn’t,” I said. “Sorry about that.”
David laughed and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it,” he said congenially. “I know things are tricky for you guys. I get it. This should be fine. I actually think I’ll be making banana bread for my mother’s birthday, and I only got the idea when I saw those browning bananas back there. She’ll love that, though.”
I tried to smile, but it was hard to do when I couldn’t tell if he was mocking me or not. I tallied up his purchases and read him the total. He frowned. “You don’t have to charge me half price,” he protested.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry that we don’t have better stuff to offer you today,” I said honestly. “You know as well as I do that this isn’t up to our usual standard.”
“That’s all right,” David said, shrugging. “Don’t worry about it. I expect I’ll be getting fresh produce against next week. But you need to stay open long enough for that to happen.” He winked at me, and I couldn’t help blushing a little.
“Well, thanks,” I told him. “I’ll see you next week, then. Good luck with the banana bread.” It was such a silly thing to say. Banana bread was far from being a complicated recipe, and David was a chef at one of the local restaurants. He shouldn’t need luck to pull it off.
But he grinned at me anyway. “Thanks. Have a good weekend,” he said.
From behind me, Marie sighed dreamily as David walked out the front door. “He is so into you,” she said.
“Bullshit,” I said, even though again, I could feel myself faintly blushing. Again, David was one of our regulars. It seemed like every time he was in there, he paused to chat with me about something. There were winks and grins for sure. But was he interested in me? Nah, he was just a nice guy.
Marie laughed. “Bullshit?” she echoed. “Come on; he was flirting with you. And asking you to let him pay full price for what he bought? He wants to get in your good books. And into your pants.”
I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t know what to say in response to that. Instead, I busied myself with looking around the shop at what we were low on. We couldn’t avoid it any longer, I finally decided. I pulled some cash from the register. “Can you head over to the grocery store and get us some bananas and lettuce?” I asked her. “Just enough to get us by until the shipment arrives. I don’t want to do this, and we’ll have to be upfront with our customers, but I don’t want them to think we aren’t trying our hardest to keep them all satisfied.”
“Okay,” Marie said, taking the money and grabbing her coat.
I walked out front once she was gone, busying myself with the sign out front, deciding that we might as well advertise that everything was fifty percent off, rather than just telling people by word of mouth when they walked in the front door. Maybe this was an opportunity to bring in new customers who might not have come in otherwise. It was usually Marie who tried to look at the bright side in situations like this, but for today, if I didn’t borrow a leaf out of her book, I didn’t think I could get through the day.
Or at least, I didn’t think I could get through the day without calling up Brandon and telling him that I never wanted to see one of their trucks pull up outside our building ever again. I hadn’t had any luck calling other distributors in the area; it sounded like everyone was in nearly the same boat. Not that that made me feel any better.
I had just headed back inside and started to busy myself behind the counter when someone else came into the shop. I was surprised to see it was the same tattooed guy from that morning, although his tattoos were mostly covered by his jacket and heavy wool sweater now. I could see the very edges of them peeking out of his sleeves and collar, though.
“How can I help you?” I asked, trying to keep my tone neutral. I wasn’t sure I wanted this guy in here. I knew that the neighborhood I lived in wasn’t the best, and this guy could only mean trouble. Hell, maybe he wasn’t even my new neighbor by chance. Maybe there was a reason he was here to talk to me. Was he stalking me?
I couldn’t think of any reason why, though. Sure, I hadn’t grown up in the nicest part of Boston, but it wasn’t like I had left behind family or close friends who might have gotten in trouble back in the boroughs. That chapter of my life was totally over, and I wasn’t stupid enough to get involved in anything dangerous now that I lived here.
“How’s it going?” the guy asked, coming up to the counter and leaning casually against it. He was tall, I realized. Over six feet. Suddenly, all I could picture was him pressing me back against the wall, his body entirely framing mine as he kissed me, his lips insistent against mine, domineering.
I fought the urge to shiver, even as the rational part of me wondered where that thought had even come from. In the list of stupid things I could do to get involved with the kind of shit I had sworn never to get involved with? Sleeping with this guy ranked pretty damned high.
“I’m your new neighbor, I guess,” the guy said when it became clear I wasn’t going to answer him. He held out a hand, and I swore that the only reason I shook it was that it was automatic to shake someone’s hand when they introduced themselves. “I’m Nate.”
“Holly,” I responded, surprised to find myself faintly breathless as I said that.
“Holly,” Nate said, and there was something lewdly sensual about the way he rolled my name around in his mouth, almost like it was some fine wine he was savoring. “Nice to meet you.”
I didn’t know what to say. My heart was beating a little faster in my chest, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt this foolish and girly. I wanted him out of my shop before I could embarrass myself.
No, I wanted him out of my shop before I realized just what brand of trouble he was, I corrected in my mind. I wanted him out of my shop because he clearly wasn’t there to buy anything, and I didn’t want to know what other reason he might have for being there.
“Did you grow up around here?” Nate asked.
“What’s it to you?” I asked.
Nate laughed and shrugged easily. “Just wondering,” he said. “I’m new around here and was thinking you might be able to show me around a little.”
“I’m busy,” I snapped.
Nate looked around the empty shop, raising an eyebrow. “I can see that,” he said teasingly. When I bristled, he grinned. “I’m kidding,” he said. “I know running a business takes a serious effort. And you’re pretty young too, aren’t you? You must be proud of yourself for being able to keep a place like this open. I admire you.”
