Chapter Four
Bones
“How much ground beef should we get?” Riley asks.
Glancing down at the woman, I just stare. How the hell am I supposed to know how much ground beef to get when I have no idea what she needs it for?
“I think ten pounds should be fine,” Riley answers herself, completely unfazed. “I mean, how many tacos can a group of bikers eat, anyway?”
“I could easily put away ten,” Tank answers as he grabs three of the giant logs of beef. Far more than ten pounds.
“Ten pounds of tacos or just ten tacos?” Abby lifts a brow, smirking like she already knows the answer.
“Yes,” Tank grins, completely unrepentant.
I sigh and stare off into the distance, praying for the sweet release of death. Or at least for one of them to forget I’m here.
“Bones, do you think we should get meatless meat in case someone is a vegetarian?” Riley asks.
I blink. Meatless… meat? What unholy blasphemy…
“I don’t think you can be a biker if you don’t eat meat,” Tank mutters, visibly offended. “Really, Riley? Meatless meat? What even is that? Like tofu dressed up for Halloween?”
“Hey,” Abby pipes in, “some people have dietary restrictions.”
“Yeah,” I grumble, “like common sense.”
Riley crosses her arms. “It doesn’t hurt to be considerate.”
“It hurts me, ” I mutter under my breath.
Tank snorts. “Let’s just stick to real beef before Bones snaps and commits a felony in the frozen aisle.”
Honestly? It’s a close call.
“Fine,” Riley sighs. “I need to get some baby food while we’re here.”
I glance at my phone as I follow them to another aisle.
I need to head to The Underworld for my shift in an hour.
Despite its name, it’s just simply a bar and grill.
However, we use it as a base of operation for weapons smuggling.
Now that the Police Commissioner is no longer up our asses…
because he’s dead…we can get back to business.
“Oh no, they only have the rice powder,” Riley says. “I don’t think that’s what we’re supposed to start with.”
“It says here that you can add this to the baby’s bottle to thicken their milk,” Abby reads from the container. “Maybe we can just make it super thin.”
“Can I help you with something?”
Fuck.
“Sunny,” Riley smiles brightly. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been wonderful, thank you,” Sunny says, her face glowing as if talking to Riley was her greatest pleasure. “How are you guys? I haven’t seen that baby in weeks.”
“I’ll have to swing by your place sometime soon so we can visit,” Riley says. “That is if you ever have any free time.”
Wait? Are they friends?
“I swear,” Abby laughs. “Every time I see you I just want to throw out my entire closet and make you come shopping with me. How do you get away with wearing such cute dresses at work instead of those ugly yellow uniform shirts everyone else has on?”
“Because I run this place,” Sunny smiles. “Marv might own the business but it wouldn’t function without me. And I wouldn’t function in such ugly clothes. We’ve compromised. Besides, I always love your outfits. Don’t you make them yourself?”
“I dabble,” Abby blushes.
“Oh!” Riley exclaims. “We were just talking about you earlier, weren’t we, Bones?”
I shoot her a look sharp enough to skin a man alive. And I should know. I’ve done it several times.
“Yeah?” Sunny turns to me, eyebrows raised, a smile hanging on her lips like she’s expecting me to say something clever.
I just grunt.
“That a yes?” she asks, still grinning.
I stare at her. Say nothing. One second too long. Maybe two. Just long enough for her smile to turn a bit bigger.
“Bones is shy,” Abby says with a laugh.
“I’m not shy,” I growl, finally breaking the silence. “I just don’t waste words on bullshit.”
Sunny blinks. And damn it, she doesn’t even flinch. Just tilts her head like I’m some kind of puzzle she plans on solving with a smile and sweet words.
“I like your honesty,” she says like it’s a compliment.
Hell. I need out of this aisle.
“We need to hurry,” I mutter, checking the time. “Got a shift at The Underworld.”
“Oh,” Sunny says, still too damn cheerful. “Is that a real place or just something you say when you’re trying to ditch someone?”
I pause. Give her a look. “It’s a bar. Real rough crowd. You wouldn’t like it.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“No,” I grunt. “It’s a warning.”
“I don’t think you know me enough to judge if I’d like something or not,” she says, still fucking smiling. “Bars aren’t really my crowd, but I can guarantee that I wouldn’t hate it. Anyway, what can I help you guys with?”
I slam my mouth shut before I say something stupid like ‘You look too damn good to be standing next to baby food.’
Great, now my fucking mind is creating poetic shit.
“I want to start Asher on solids,” Riley tells her. “But everything here looks too thick.”
“Oh, you just need a level one jar,” Sunny tells her. “We just got some in a few hours ago. I’ll be right back.”
Sunny walks off like she owns the whole damn world, all bounce and confidence and that irritatingly pretty smile.
“Is she always that chipper?” I mutter under my breath.
“She’s a sweetheart,” Riley says with a knowing smirk. “You’d like her if you gave her a chance.”
I grunt again. That’s not happening.
Tank wanders up behind me, tossing several packs of shredded cheese into the cart.
“I don’t think anything can ruffle that woman’s feathers,” he laughs. “I’ve never in my life met someone so positive about everything.”
“I don’t think one exists,” Abby says.
For the next ten minutes, I follow behind Abby and Riley as they grab everything needed for tacos.
“She should have been back by now,” I grunt.
Riley glances over her shoulder. “She probably got caught stocking something or helping another shopper. It’s a grocery store, Bones, not a war zone.”
“You’d be surprised,” I mutter, scanning the end of the aisle like some threat might leap out from the endcap of canned beans.
“Relax, man,” Tank says, elbowing me like I’m just being dramatic. “She’s a big girl. Sweet, yeah. But she’s not glass.”
No. She’s not. But she’s also not the kind of woman who should be navigating this world alone. Not with the kind of shit I’ve seen and the kind of sweet she is.
“She’s been gone too long,” I say again, already turning toward the back of the store.
“I think someone’s got a crush,” Abby sings behind me.
I ignore her.
It’s not about liking Sunny.
It’s about protecting her.
Even if she doesn’t know it yet.
***Sunny***
“Now, where did they pile the baby stuff?”
I look around at the endless piles of boxes and sigh. I really need to get after the young men responsible for keeping this stuff organized. Luckily, the stockers are coming in after closing to restock the shelves. I’ll talk with them then.
“I told you that you had a week.”
The voice comes from somewhere behind the towering stacks. It’s low. Rough. Not familiar.
I freeze.
A second voice answers, higher-pitched, shaky. “I… I know. I was gonna drop it off this morning, I swear. I just needed a few more hours to finish my shift.”
“I don’t give a fuck about your shift. The payment was due this morning. You were warned what would happen if you were even a minute late.”
My heart stutters.
Payment?
I take one slow step back, but my heel knocks into a box. It scrapes the floor loud enough to make me suck in a sharp breath. But the voices don’t stop.
“Again, you were warned,” the rough one says. “Where’s my money?”
“I’ll have it to you by the end of the day,” the boy pleads. “I didn’t bring it with me. It’s at home in my safe.”
“Good. One last thing.”
“Anything,” the boy whispers.
“You’re fired.”
A soft pfft breaks the air.
It doesn’t sound like anything. Not like a gunshot. Not like anything I’ve ever heard in real life.
But the thud that follows it? That’s a body.
I slap a hand over my mouth. My whole body goes cold.
Did I just witness a murder?
I did.
I just heard someone die.
I can’t move. Can’t blink. Can’t think.
The silence stretches out. Then slow footsteps. One after the other. Getting closer.
I press myself into the metal shelf, praying, begging, for whoever it is to turn the other way.
The footsteps stop.
Then turn.
And leave.
I count to ten. Then twenty. Then maybe fifty. I don’t know. My legs finally unfreeze, and I backtrack, slipping around the corner as fast as I can.
I don’t even realize I’m shaking until I crash right into a wall of muscle.
Not a wall.
Jack. But his friends called him Bones.
His hands close around my arms instantly. “Easy, doll.”
I can’t breathe.
His brows draw tight. “What happened?”
I shake my head, but it’s no use. My mouth opens. No words come out.
“Sunny.” His voice is low. Firm. A voice that means he’s not playing around. “Talk to me.”
“I…” My throat burns and tears cloud my vision. “I think someone just got killed.”
That gets him.
His eyes sharpen. “Where?”
I point a trembling hand toward the back. “Behind those boxes.”
Without another word, he turns and leads me from the back of the store to his friends.
“Tank!,” Jack barks. “Watch her and stay with the girls.”
“What’s going on?” Riley asks, alarmed.
“She saw something. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
And then he’s gone.
Gone to see if I really heard what I think I did.
God help me. I know what I heard.