Chapter Twenty
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sitting on the porch with the blanket wrapped around her, Keeley sipped from her coffee mug. She’d had a restless night. She hoped the bright morning sunshine would burn off some of the sadness left over from yesterday’s conversation.
She heard the door open and footsteps approach. Owen didn’t look like he’d gotten any more sleep than she had.
His hands were jammed in the pockets of sweatpants worn low across his hips. His hooded sweatshirt was unzipped over his bare chest. She deliberately looked away. She had to find a way to smother her feelings so her heart wouldn’t ache so badly.
He checked the coffee level in her mug. Wise man. He stared out over the valley, waiting through the appropriate level of caffeine consumption before finally speaking.
“ Come with me today.”
Her heart gave a hard knock of excitement and she sighed. Damn her stupid heart. “Where to?”
“ Tahoe.” He held up a hand at her raised brow. “Hear me out. We’ll take a road trip. Totally platonic. No hand holding, no kissing. Just friends spending the day together.”
“ I told you I’m not sure I can be your friend.”
His gaze held hers. “I don’t want to lose you.”
She looked away. She knew it wasn’t healthy for her to go with him, but the idea of spending a day together made her yearn. She had absolutely no self-discipline where Owen was concerned.
“ What about Easy Money? ”
“ Jen asked for more hours, so she’ll be fine being in charge tonight. You aren’t scheduled to work. It’ll give us both a break.” He frowned. “There’s something else. Sawyer texted. Romero made bail this morning.”
“ I see. A road trip is your way of keeping me safe from Jaxon.”
“ I don’t need a road trip to keep you safe. That’s merely a side benefit.” Owen sighed. “Look, when I was a detective and a case wasn’t coming together, if I could swing it, I’d take a ride on my motorcycle. It helped me clear my head and get a fresh perspective.
“ I’ve got the Bronco now, but you and I can talk through the case and see if we can come up with an explanation about what’s been happening. You’re the connection, and we need to figure out how and why.”
Keeley didn’t want to be the connection. She wanted all bad guys to forget she existed and leave her alone. Because she had no willpower, she said, “I’ll go with you, but why Tahoe? It’s on the other side of the mountains and a long drive.”
“ It’s a little less than an hour and a half one way, so not too bad. I got a text from my cousin Zoey. She and her husband and kids have a cabin on the lake for a couple days and invited me to hang out.”
A drive over the Sierras in spring would be beautiful, and meeting Owen’s family sounded intriguing. But she was honest enough with herself to acknowledge what she really wanted was time with Owen.
“ We’ll need to check on Iggy on our way out.”
Keeley called her mom and chatted while making sandwiches, letting her know Iggy was doing fine.
Bruce was doing well and having a good visit with his sister. Abby thought they might extend their stay. After an update on what they knew about the attacks on Keeley, they signed off.
Keeley added Fritos and a baggie of sliced strawberries to a tote bag and figured they had lunch covered.
She dressed in jeans and low-heeled boots with a green fleece sweater over a t-shirt, and because mountain weather could change rapidly, she’d grabbed her down coat and tossed it in the backseat of the Bronco.
After leaving Iggy with fresh water, a full food dish, and a good pet and snuggle, they started the drive, taking Highway 50 east out of town.
Keeley relaxed and took in the gorgeous scenery. The winding highway split through stands of tall pines crowding the road then straightened as they flew past wide meadows bordered by tumbling creeks.
The sky was the deep dark blue of high altitude, broken only by crows and an occasional hawk circling overhead. There weren’t many other people out today, and occasionally they passed cars coming the opposite direction.
“ This is really nice. I haven’t been this way in too long. It’s easy to forget how much I love this landscape.” She smiled at him. “I’m glad you invited me.”
Owen’s hands tightened on the steering wheel and he nodded.
“ Me too.” He put on mirrored sunglasses. They looked like a shield. He might want a platonic friendship, but she had a feeling he was struggling with it like she was.
“ Tell me about your cousin. Are you close?”
He glanced in the rearview mirror and frowned. “Close enough. We both had challenges growing up, but my grandparents wanted us to know each other. When I spent the summers in Sisters, my grandparents would have Zoey and Charlie, that’s her brother, come out for at least a week or so. We all work to stay in touch.”
His gaze went to the rearview mirror again. Keeley shifted in her seat so she could see the side mirror. A group of motorcycle riders, she counted at least a dozen headlights, were fast approaching from behind. They stayed there until the road straightened when they passed, open throttles making a loud rumble.
The riders wore matching leather jackets with Ravagers MC stitched in Gothic-style lettering across the back, and black helmets Keeley thought looked like those worn by the Nazis in World War II.
“ Shit,” Owen growled.
“ Problem?”
“ Ravagers are an outlaw motorcycle club out of Sacramento. They’re known to cause trouble.”
The riders disappeared around the bend and Keeley breathed easier. That is, until Owen steered around the curve and immediately hit the brakes.
The riders blocked the highway, and when Owen swerved into a turnout, they moved as a group and arranged their bikes as a barrier to keep the Bronco blocked in.
“ Keep your seatbelt on. This goes sideways I’m flooring it to get us out of here, even if I have to take out some of them. That happens, princess? You get down as low as you can get, and you stay down until I say we’re clear.” His voice was hard, eyes like flint. “Got it?”
“ Yeah, I got it.”
He stopped the Bronco, keeping it in drive with his foot on the brake. One of the Ravagers swung off his bike, took his time to remove his helmet and stow it on the bike, then lit a cigarette. He took a drag as he strolled toward them. Owen threw his sunglasses on the dash and pressed the button to lower his window.
Motorcycle guy had a grizzled face with a long beard and gray hair pulled back in a scraggly ponytail. Below the sleeves of his shirt, his hands were tattooed, another design creeping up his neck from under his shirt. “Owen Hardesty. Guess you’re wonderin’ why I stopped you.”
“ You know my name. What’s yours?”
The older man’s eyes were hidden behind dark goggles. He blew out a stream of smoke. “Go by Nero. This ain’t what I’d call an adversarial interaction. I got no beef with you. I got no beef with your lady.”
“ Get to the point,” Owen growled .
“ I got no beef, but your lady here’s got somethin’ of ours. We want it back. I get it, you’ll be free to go.” He tapped the cigarette to knock off some ash.
“ You’ll need to clarify.”
“ Talkin’ about her former boyfriend who stole something from my club. The former boyfriend says she has it and we’re wantin’ it back. She gives it to me, we’ll be on our way. She don’t give it to me, well, that’ll be a problem.”
“ This former boyfriend got a name?”
Nero’s forehead wrinkled above his goggles. “We’re talkin’ about Jaxon Romero with a fuckin’ stupid man-bun.”
“ I know the guy. We agree on the hair. What’d he steal?”
“ Information.”
“ What kind of information? In what form?”
Nero took another pull on the cigarette. “You’re askin’ a lot of questions.”
Owen let the statement hang.
Leaving the cigarette dangling from his lips, Nero tilted his head and sighed like he was in deep contemplation. Finally, he said, “See now, I did a little research. You got background as a cop, and I expect if you’re not carrying, you’ve got a weapon in this vehicle somewhere. This leads me to deduce you’re an hombre who don’t mess around. Given that, I don’t want you too curious about the information fuckin’ Romero stole from my club.”
Keeley shifted nervously in her seat. Other club members had parked their motorcycles to box in the Bronco. The riders had dismounted and several stood with their hands on their hips.
She didn’t think it was an accident that their stance opened their jackets to display the weapons they wore strapped to their bodies. Some had guns in shoulder harnesses, others were in holsters at their waists, while still others had knives in scabbards on their belts.
Keeley’s heart was thundering in her ears. Owen rested an arm on the steering wheel. He looked relaxed, but she had no doubt he’d move fast if he decided to. The Bronco engine was still running with the transmission in drive.
“ My girlfriend doesn’t have anything of Romero’s.”
Nero dropped the cigarette on the ground and Keeley could hear the scrape of his boot as he stepped on it. “See, thing is, Romero was our accountant.”
Keeley could sense Owen’s heightened interest. He spoke carefully. “Theoretically, an accountant would have access to illegal activities of a club. If he downloaded that information, he could try his hand at extortion, demanding payment to get the information back. Be stupid, but he might think it worth the risk.”
“ Let’s just say it turns out my accountant’s a stupid man. Thought we had an understanding, but he got greedy. Me and Romero recently had us a come-to-Jesus talk.” Nero jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “My boys persuaded him extortion isn’t a healthy enterprise.”
Which explained Jaxon’s battered face.
“ Romero got chatty and says he gave an encrypted flash drive to someone for safe keeping. Thought it would be to his advantage if we couldn’t lay our hands on it.”
“ How much he want for it?”
“ Two million.” He shoved his goggles to the top of his head, revealing faded blue eyes. “Look here, Hardesty. I gave you enough so you know what’s up. You’ve given me nothin’.” He shifted to focus on Keeley. “No offense, miss, but I’m thinking you’re the one he gave the file to. Maybe he didn’t let on, but Romero was all about covering his ass, and if he could do that by stowing that flash drive at your place, he’d a done it.”
“ You’re aware Jaxon Romero is out on bail,” Owen said.
Nero nodded. “Also know he was at your lady’s house demanding she return the flash drive before he got himself arrested.”
“ Jaxon said I had something of his, but never said it was a flash drive,” Keeley told him. Then she added, “I know you, Mr. Paulson. We’ve met before. ”
Nero jerked back like he’d been hit, and Owen swung his head around with a startled expression.
“ Your granddaughter Destiny was in my class at Vista Middle School. She’s a wonderful girl. I’m Miss Montaigne. You came to her IEP meeting in February. How’s Destiny doing?”
Nero stared at her hard, then turned his head to address his men. “Stand down.”
The other Ravagers’ demeanor instantly changed. Some removed their helmets, they started chatting amongst themselves, and a few took out cell phones.
“ That one got by me, miss. Didn’t recognize you.” Nero smiled wide showing stained teeth crowded together. “My granddaughter’s doin’ good, thanks for asking. Smart as a whip but needs a little extra help, which is what you gave her. Know she’s heartbroken the other teacher came back and you had to leave.” His attention shifted to Owen, then back again. “You’re sure Romero didn’t give you anything of mine?”
“ I’m sure.”
He pulled on his beard. “Flash drive is small. Could be he hid it thinkin’ it would be safer with you and he could get it later. Once I get my hands on Romero again, we’ll persuade him to clarify what he did with it.”
Keeley didn’t want to know how his men would persuade Jaxon.
“ Meantime,” Nero continued, “maybe you can have a look around, see if he hid it anywhere.” He paused, then gave a quick nod. “You folks are free to go. We’ll be in touch.”
“ I’ll look for it, and thank you, Mr. Paulson.”
Nero signaled for a path to be opened.
Ravagers mounted their bikes and moved them out of the way. Owen took his foot off the brake and eased the Bronco onto the highway.
They drove in silence until Owen muttered, “You’re something else, you know that?” He glanced at her, then back at the road. “You got the president of the Ravagers to back off and let us go.” He shook his head like it would help recent events make sense.
“ I find appealing to people on a human level helps to defuse a situation.”
“ Certainly true in police work.”
“ It’s true in teaching too. If a kid is being disruptive in my class and I can have a minute to talk with them one on one away from their peers, I can almost always defuse the situation.”
“ The human level.”
“ Exactly,” she agreed.
“ Nero thinks you’re a good teacher. I’d say he’s got that right.” He glanced again at the rearview mirror.
“ Are they behind us?”
“ No, they took off going the other way.” Owen put his sunglasses back on, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
“ They really want that flash drive back. What do you think is on it?” she asked.
“ You can bet something high stakes. Accountants deal with cash flow, right? My bet is they hired Romero and paid him well. Ravagers would have been explicit that what Romero learns about their organization stays where he finds it.”
“ What could he have learned?”
“ Evidence of drug dealing, weapons trafficking, prostitution, other criminal activity. It’s a business to them, and businesses need to keep records.
“ Romero might’ve seen an opportunity, made copies of sensitive files, and threatened to turn the information over to law enforcement or to a rival criminal organization if he wasn’t paid off.
“ Something spooked him, and he decided to stash the flash drive with you. You’re squeaky clean and nobody’d suspect it. But then you broke up with him, leading to trouble for Romero retrieving it.”
“ Squeaky clean sounds boring.”
He gave her a look that had heat kindling low in her belly. “Looks like squeaky clean does it for me. ”
She breathed slowly through her nose to calm herself. “You want our relationship to stay platonic, you can’t be looking at me like that.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face, his beard making a crinkly sound. “Dammit. Sorry.”
Keeley leaned back in her seat, thinking of all times she’d spent with Jaxon. “I remember, Jaxon and I went out to dinner once, and a guy came to the table acting kind of creepy. He was a big guy, super muscular with tattoos across his knuckles and neck. He asked Jax how he was doing, and I could tell it unnerved him. Then the guy asked to be introduced to me, which Jaxon did.”
“ You get his name?”
She shook her head. “Not that I remember. He told Jax to be careful and that eyes were on him, then he left.
“ I went to use the restroom and when I got back Jaxon had my purse and was standing by the table. He said we were leaving and practically dragged me out of there. He wouldn’t even give me a minute to tell the waiter to cancel our order.”
“ Would you have noticed if he’d put a flash drive in your purse?”
“ Probably not if it was in one of the zippered side pockets. I don’t go into them on a regular basis.”
They’d been driving uphill and topped a long grade where they were greeted by a sweeping view of the eastern slopes of the Sierras.
Lake Tahoe shimmered like a sapphire gem in the distance.
Owen turned at a sign indicating a day-use picnic area.