Chapter 27 Riding Lessons
Riding Lessons
Havoc
She just looked through me this morning. Like I wasn’t even there. Yet I watched the entire time she smiled at Creed and gave him this perfectly packed breakfast.
My son doesn’t need a second breakfast from a woman that hates me.
He certainly seemed to enjoy what she brought him.
That woman is the only thing I seem to be thinking about…It certainly isn’t the paperwork in front of me. I push it to the side.
Reading boring numbers won’t take me out of my head and my guilt. I need something interesting to grab my attention.
Something dramatic.
Even Sylver has been quiet so far.
There’s a knock on the door, and then it pops open.
Fly rushes in. “He made contact.”
Contact? The drug dealer. “Which one?”
“Ryot.”
I knew it was going to be him. Out of all of them, I knew his situation would be too tempting for a drug dealer to ignore. “When? How?”
“Last night at the club. One of the other bouncers asked him if he wanted to make some real money and get out of that car of his. They’re going to give him a test run.”
A test. “They want him to sell drugs?”
“Yeah. To some college students.”
“No way. They aren’t going to be part of the problem.” My gut twists.
“They have to. Or the information flow stops with this one minion. We need to get Ryot further into the group.”
I know that. I’ve known all along. “We need kids to buy drugs without taking them.”
Fly nods. “We could use our own—”
“No way.”
“—but I wouldn’t recommend that. Our kids are recognizable if they’re watching us. Which is a possibility, with as much of a hit as they’ve been taking in Silent Valley lately. We need smart, but untraceable kids.”
Like those are just hanging out on every street corner—“Willow Street.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“Maddox is going to kill me.”
Fly nods. “You aren’t asking them to do anything but go to a club and buy some pills.”
He’s still going to kill me. But most of the kids over there have a lot of skills at self-preservation and street smarts. “I’ll ask.”
“Good. You have today and tomorrow morning.”
Nothing like a deadline. “Fine, I’ll call him and take a ride out there today. Wanna come?”
“See Willow Street? Absolutely. Do you think Fiona will be there?” Fly is going to get someone killed.
“She owns the bakery there…so I’d say yes.”
“Good.” He grins.
“Try to keep all your skin attached to your body.”
“She’d be worth losing it.”
Yeah, she would be. Is Greer a woman like that? She feeds my kid…
***
As always, our bikes draw a crowd of kids on Willow Street.
Fly raises an eyebrow at me, but none of these kids are even an option. We need college-age kids, not tweens.
The sweet scents coming out of the bakery fill the street. I almost hope Fiona is nowhere to be found.
All we need to do is make it to Maddox’s office…and back to the bikes.
Creed would love it here. Everywhere I look, there are teenage girls. Girls that he didn’t grow up with. All the more reason to make sure never to bring him here. I don’t need him falling in love at sixteen.
Creed in love…That boy would have an instant obsession. She would be his entire world. His entire reason for being in the blink of an eye.
He feels too much. Greer was right. Creed could be my clone. We’re so alike. I didn’t just go all in with the woman who gave birth to Creed. I went ALL IN. She was my sole focus in life.
We reach the bakery, and Fly stops to peek in to see if he can find the cause of his imminent demise.
I breathe a silent sigh of relief that Fiona isn’t inside.
We might just make it to Maddox’s office with all our skin intact.
A giggle echoes down the alleyway as we walk past. I turn my head to find Fiona pinned against the wall with Max smiling down at her. It’s clear that the two of them have been kissing. “You good now?”
Fly frowns. “Why are all the good ones taken?”
Because men aren’t stupid. When we find something amazing, we lock that woman down…How is Greer still single?
Why is she invading my brain? “No idea.”
Fly bumps me. “Like you even want to find one.”
I’m not opposed to finding a good woman. Who wouldn’t want a ride or die? A woman who’s loyal and loving. Greer’s face flashes in front of my eyes. “I’m not opposed to the idea.”
Fly stops dead in the middle of the street. “What?”
“Leave it.” I growl.
“Totally leaving it.” He grins, which means the entire club is going to hear about it by the end of the day, and every old lady is going to introduce me to a single friend of theirs.
Why didn’t I keep my mouth shut?
Isn’t that the kid that Maddox brought by once? The smart one he didn’t want us to poach? The kid has a computer on the bench next to him as he’s furiously typing. His fingers move faster than I can comprehend.
Is he a tech guy? Is that why Maddox didn’t want to share him? “Detour.” I change directions.
Fly doesn’t need to be told twice.
“Hey, you’re Everett, Maddox’s protégé, right?”
The boy glances up at me and snaps his computer shut like there’s something I shouldn’t see on it. Interesting. Definitely giving me tech-nerd vibes.
“I was. Now I work with my brother Max.”
Please say there’s another Max in the world. One who is less likely to kill me. “Max Rage?”
“That’s him.”
We can’t avoid the guy, it seems. “You’re pretty good with that, aren’t you?”
The kid snorts in an attempt to snicker. “Yeah, I’m pretty good with it.”
Time to poach. “Would you be interested in learning how to ride a motorcycle?”
The kid’s eyes narrow, but there’s just a little tremble of excitement in his hands.
“My son is about your age. He’s been riding for a while now. If you like, I could teach you how to ride.”
“In exchange for what?”
I knew the kids around here were street-smart. “No strings. Maddox will vouch for me being a solid person.”
“Solid or not. You want something.”
Impressive. “I’ll teach you to ride regardless of whether you help me.”
“What is it that you need?”
Let’s not beat around the bush. “Help finding a drug dealer. We have a couple of brothers who are good with computers, but they haven’t been able to find out anything about this drug dealer. It’s like this guy is a ghost.”
The kid’s eyes widen slightly, but he gives no other signs of interest.
Maybe he isn’t interested. Kids are fickle at that age.
Creed isn’t. Everett doesn’t give me the impression that he is either.
“I might be able to help.”
That’s definitely a yes. I pull a card out for the clubhouse, not the shop. It has my personal number on it. “Call me, and we’ll set up a time for those lessons.”
“I don’t have a bike.”
“Figured that. No worries. You can practice on one of Creed’s older ones.” Or one of the ones we keep around the clubhouse to teach the kids to ride. We aren’t going to risk a hundred-thousand-dollar bike just for them to wipe out the first go-around.
“My brother will probably hate the idea.”
Max Rage isn’t too keen on his family being hurt. “Bring him with you. I’ll make sure he isn’t too uncomfortable.”
“Cool.” The kid takes the card from my outstretched fingers.
As we walk away, Fly asks. “You really think the kid is that good?”
“Do you know who Max Rage is, other than being Don Vincenti’s kid?” Like that isn’t enough.
“No.”
“Billionaire tech mogul Massimo Vincenti.”
“Oh. Oh. If Everett gets hurt on one of your bikes, that guy is going to put us back into the dark ages.”
Probably. Life is a series of risks.
Every time I enter Maddox’s office, I’m glad Creed never asked for a pet snake.
“Havoc.” Maddox walks over with a snake wrapped around his neck and down his arms. “Thanks for the assist with Fiona.”
“Anytime. We were just happy to help take down a bunch of human traffickers.”
Maddox strokes the snake. “You said you needed our help.”
“Yes, but please think about it before you react.”
“It’s that bad?”
Worse. “There should be almost no risk involved.”
“It’s the almost part that’s getting to you, isn’t it?” Maddox sits down. “You know the Adders don’t mind taking a few risks.”
You don’t with grown men. “We’re hunting down a drug cartel.”
“We’d be happy to help.”
“You’re going to want to hear the details first…”