Chapter 6
Bear
T his wasn’t in the plan. I drove—not exactly paying attention to the road as much as I was trying to figure out the point in the conversation where Carl took the upper hand.
I’d reacted as expected. I got a good deal. Carl’s promise of eight grand on time and a buyout at the end of the month was better than good. We finally could cut Carl loose without him setting us up.
So , why did this sit all wrong?
The girl clinging to my back was one good reason. The other was Carl’s utter lack of fear. The only times he showed any emotion were when he dangled Roishin by the hair and when he corrected me on the date.
What kind of nutjob gets that worked up about a fucking holiday? And what was that shit about martyrs? I had some research to do.
Good thing I could delegate. I slowed down and pulled over along the highway. Out of habit, I put my hand on Roishin’s leg and said, “ Stay seated, just making a call.”
She squirmed.
What if she bolted? I tightened my hand and tried to scroll for Skinner’s number with my thumb. It wasn’t working well and took longer than I wanted it to.
The connection finally went through.
“ Yo , you out?”
“ I am. Got a rabbit hole for you. Why would someone call November first the day of martyrs?”
Behind me, Roishin made a noise.
“ Call you back.” I disconnected the call and twisted around to lay down the law. “ When I’m talking to my brothers, you don’t listen, and you don’t make a sound. Got it?”
“ In the year 609 or 610, Pope Boniface the Fourth stole, sorry, converted the Pantheon from use by the polytheist worshippers in Rome to reconsecrate it to the Virgin Mary and the martyrs of the Christian church. It was celebrated on May first until Pope Gregory the Third stole Samhain from the Celts and designated that day as the day the Church would remember the consecration. It was named All Saint’s Day for the martyrs—of which, they collected like Pokémon by that point. ”
Her eyes dipped to my neckline.
I glanced down to where my hammer had worked its way out of my shirt from the vibration of the bike. Then looked at Roishin , where she waited for a response.
“ Fuck those assholes.”
She smiled. “ I agree. Not literally, just in a spit on their tombstones sort of way.”
A snort snuck out. “ That’s a funny thought. Traveling all the way to Rome to spit on the floor of a church.”
She spoke loudly enough that I heard it. “ I’d do it.”
Hell . I wasn’t supposed to like her, or discover a common thread of discontent lacing her voice with anger. She was a far cry from the docile woman I saw at Carl’s .
Which begged the question, was this an act ?
Her diatribe told me one important thing, and no, it wasn’t that she was interested in pagan things. I knew that already. What I hadn’t known was that Rose , Roishin , whatever, was a very smart woman. And I shouldn’t underestimate her. Carl likely hadn’t.
She squirmed, pulling her shirt away from her body with a grimace.
“ Off .”
I didn’t give her time to protest. I stood up and braced the bike while practically pushing her off with my free hand.
She stumbled a couple of steps, giving me time to lock the bike down. Rose stood still, likely in shock, waiting to see what I’d do. A truck screamed by, buffeting us in its wake.
Even I didn’t like what I was going to do. I backed her up against the Jersey wall. There was a stone sound barrier behind it, so she had nowhere to run.
“ Take off your shirt.”
She clutched at it instead.
“ I didn’t fucking stutter. Take it off.”
“ It’s cold.” She glanced at the highway where cars buzzed past without even slowing down. It was late enough that half of them probably didn’t even see us on the shoulder.
“ Take off the shirt, or at least prove to me you aren’t still wearing that goddamn fuzzy thing you had on earlier.”
Her eyes went wide.
Fuck . She was wearing it.
I flipped open my knife and turned my back to traffic so they wouldn’t see it. “ Easy way or hard way?”
She scrambled to take off her sweatshirt and reveal that horrifically ugly garment. As soon as she did, I realized no one in their right mind would willingly put on something so heinous.
What kind of hold did Carl have over her to make that happen?
“ Take it off.”
I grabbed her sweatshirt and held it up so the traffic wouldn’t see her unraveling the string ties holding it together.
“ I promise I won’t stare at your tits.” That was a lie.
No sooner than she got the left side loose, the soft curve of her breast peeked out.
The glow from an ultra-high LED headlight set bounced off the cement wall behind her, giving me a perfect view of her skin.
Reddened .
My anger boiled like a fucking volcano. I glanced away, deliberately counting the lines carved into the wall to absorb sound. Carl was a dead man. She tugged the sweatshirt from my hands. The rustling of her pulling it over her head clued me that I could look again.
Rose had the hair shirt in her hand. I took it from her and squeezed it. It pricked me as if it had steel wool or fiberglass fragments in it. “ You wore this?”
Her head dipped once.
“ Willingly ?”
Her response was silence as she stared at the ground. I shoved the thing in my saddlebag and cursed. “ We’re burning this fucking thing, understood?”
Rose’s mouth opened.
I waited for a protest to come out.
Her mouth closed.
Like I said, smart . I pointed at her. “ New rule, no arguing with me.”
“ Argument isn’t the same as requesting an adjustment to your course of action.”
I barely heard her over the rumble of a truck passing by on the opposite side. Sarcastically , I said, “ Really ? Enlighten me on your brilliant plan.”
“ I was going to ask if I could light the match.”
If she hadn’t still been looking at the ground, I’d have guffawed with laughter. But the situation wasn’t funny. Somehow Carl had gotten inside her head so far, she was afraid.
Of what? An asshole who was now firmly in her past?
I had one month to come up with a solution to shove down that son of a bitch’s throat that would allow me to keep Rose .
His quote was a hell of a lot of money to lose out on.
But I was willing to offset the loss with my own money if I had to.
And if he didn’t let me keep Rose , bullets for my 50-cal were less than five bucks.
I should bypass the offer and save myself a lot of scratch.
I didn’t even have to wait that long to do it, either—only three days.
One thing held me back. The why . Why would someone as obviously smart as Rose — Roishin —willingly wear a torture device? What would she possibly fear more than constant pain? That mystery had me rethinking my plan.
“ Get on the bike. I’ve got a grill at home.”
She swallowed her fear and climbed back on. Before we took off, I pulled out my windproof jacket liner and zipped it up over her hoodie. Even with the bulky layer under it, the thing hung on her and covered her hands. It puddled where her ass met seat.
“ Are you warmer?”
Roishin nodded.
“ You know that whole ‘don’t talk’ thing I bitched about at Carl’s ? That isn’t a rule, just don’t interrupt me when I’m talking to someone with this coat on. That’s disrespectful. Even if I’m only on the phone with ’em. Got it?”
“ Got it.”
Good . I scanned traffic to find a hole to pull out into, but something held me back. Instead , I pulled out my phone again. I held it high enough and pointed at my coat to let Roishin know I was calling Skinner again. “ Bro .”
“ Bear , what the fuck? Since when do you hang up on me?”
I did that shit all the time. “ Fuck off.”
“ I suppose you got another rabbit hole for me, don’t ’cha?”
“ Naw , I need to meet up. How far out are you from the tattoo shop? I got stuff for you.”
“ I’m fifteen minutes from there now.”
“ I’m twenty.”
“ Where the fuck are you?”
A truck blared past, drowning me out, and hopefully telling Skinner what he needed to know. “ I had to stop to call you.”
“ Get a fucking Bluetooth like everyone else.”
“ I ain’t wearing no pansy-ass piece of radioactive shit on my head.”
Skinner tried to log a protest, but I cut him off.
“ Remember our curious little puzzle I went to solve?” I asked Skinner , reminding him of Roishin and Carl .
“ Yeah ?”
“ It got weirder. Brace yourself.”
Twenty minutes later, I pulled up to the back door of my tattoo shop.
Skinner’s van sat in the little lot off the alley. I tucked the bike beside it. Roishin got off and waited as I crab-walked it into place.
“ Where are we?”
“ My shop.”
She looked around. This side of the river walk was still in a state of renovation where old and rundown met new.
Some of the buildings were occupied, many weren’t.
A restaurant opened two buildings down. Their dumpster was still so pristine it didn’t stink.
That would change. And when it did, I’d bitch.
Food was meant to be enjoyed, not left out to rot.
Her eyes fixed on the lighted street.
“ Are you thinking of running?” I asked and braced for the lie.
“ I’m supposed to be at my friend’s house.” Roishin licked her lips.
That was a tell. There was a lie in there. “ Who’s this friend?”
She clammed up.
Of course she did. I hadn’t exactly been all warm and fuzzy. “ Do I need to pull my knife again?”
Even in the dim light of the alley, I could tell that the blood left her face. She shook her head, ending it seriously with a hard-pinned stare at me. “ I —my friend, Beth , is in the hospital. I was supposed to go over to her place after dinner and help take care of her children.”
The dinner I’d interrupted. Stew and fresh bread. Carl had something that sweet in life and gave it up transactionally. That was… foreign, bizarre, inhuman . More proof to me that he was fucked up in the head.
“ Can you call?”
“ I think I left my cell phone at Carl’s .”
A grunt escaped. I hadn’t exactly given her a lot of time to bug out. “ Do you know the number?”
She nodded.