Chapter Three
Maureen
“Where can we take you?” King asked as he led me to the tow truck.
“Um, I have a room at the motel in town for a few days. I need to meet with the realtor in the morning to go see the house I bought.”
“You bought a house without seeing it?” Tank asked.
“Well, I saw pictures. I wanted to have something ready when I got out here. So I bought the house.”
“Where is it?” King asked.
Now, here is where it would be smart and not tell the biker I just met where the house I would be living in was, but if the town was as small as I believed it to be, he’d know soon anyway.
“Out on Dawson St.”
“Dawson? You didn’t buy the old Sullivan place, did you?”
“Um, I don’t know who owned it previously, but it’s a white clapboard house with five acres. A two-story with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.”
King looked at Tank, who winced.
“Lady, that place is awful,” Tank said.
“What do you mean? The pictures looked great. It might need a little work, but I’m looking forward to making it my own.”
“It needs more than a little work. The place has been gutted; it needs a complete overhaul. Kristy must have shown you old pictures.”
“No, they were recent. I saw the studs.”
“And you still bought it?” Tank asked. The way he stared told me he thought I was crazy.
“Yea. I came here to start my life over. To make it mine. It was only fitting that the new house I bought got to start over too.” I smiled at the incredulous look they both gave me. Tank shook his head as he walked toward the back of the truck to hook up my car to be towed.
“Do you know what you’re doing? I mean, do you know how to fix stuff?”
“Believe it or not, yes, I do. I may have been a housewife for the past thirty years, but I’ve learned a thing or two along the way.”
“Thirty years? Where’s your husband?”
“He passed away last year,” I uttered.
I wouldn’t elaborate that he was murdered. I wouldn’t even elaborate about my life before now. As far as I was concerned, Maureen Murphy died in the street alongside her husband.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Um, how old are you?” King asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
I tilted my head, raising one eyebrow in question. Didn’t he know you never asked a woman her age?
“How old do I look?” I asked, my hands planted on my hips.
“Fuck, I ain’t answering that,” he said with a smirk.
“I’m forty-eight,” I answered.
“Damn, woman. I wouldn’t have guessed that. I would have thought forty at most,” King admitted.
“Thank you, but I’m at the age I don’t succumb to bullshit.”
“I ain’t bullshitting you.”
Before I could say more, Tank let us know he had Betty hooked up and was ready to leave.
King said he would follow us to the motel, so I climbed into the tow truck with Tank.
We drove in silence for a few minutes before Tank spoke.
“He ain’t so bad, you know.”
I turned to look at the big man next to me. “Who? King?”
“The sheriff.”
I looked back out the window at my side.
“He’s the sheriff? I thought he was just a cop. How big is the station here?” I asked.
I needed to know what I was dealing with. Decide if I was going to stay. I might not be able to sell the house, but I could afford to take the loss.
“Not big. Besides the sheriff, we have I think, six deputies.”
Seven cops.
That wasn’t bad. In Boston, there were hundreds. Each section had its own station. South Boston, where Sal ruled, had at least fifty beat cops, not to mention the detectives, sergeants, captains, and the chief.
Seven was more than doable.
“You running from something?”
“What?” I whipped around to look at him again.
Why would he ask that?
“Seems women who show up here are running from something. We can help.”
“The only thing I’m running from is memories and tradition.” I sighed, refusing to add the man who, for some unknown reason, wanted to marry me.
I had known Sal my whole life, but we didn’t really know each other. My father was a captain, so that put me on the radar of the higher ups. Duane, a soldier, was known due to his connection with Sal.
Duane’s older brother, Duncan, was one of Sal’s henchmen. And well, then there was Darcy. Duane and Duncan’s older sister. She was Sal’s girlfriend when we were kids.
Still, it didn’t explain why Sal had suddenly asked me to marry him, or why he wanted me to stay in Boston.
“So, no exes or crazy parents coming to look for you?” Tank asked, pulling me back to the present.
“What a weird thing to ask someone.”
“Eh, we’ve had a busy few months,” he said with a small laugh. “Women showing up, secret babies, missing siblings.” He shrugged, finishing his list.
“Sounds like romance novel tropes.”
“Got one of them, too.”
“One of what?”
“A romance writer. Came into town and fell for my brother. He wasn’t a brother at the time, but she was related to a brother. Then, her batshit crazy parents showed up. That was after my other brother’s woman showed up with a little girl he didn’t know he had. Before that, we had the sheriff’s daughter show up, one he didn’t know he had. We could use some peace and quiet right about now.”
So, the sheriff had a daughter? One he recently met. I wondered how old she was. When was she born? Who her mother was?
Shaking my head, I reminded myself I didn’t need to know anything about the sheriff. My plan was to stay far away from him.
“Well, that’s what I’m hoping for. It’s why I chose Diamond Creek. It seemed like a quiet little town where nothing ever happens,” I said wistfully.
I prayed that was exactly what it was.
Tank snorted, and I began to question my decision.
We pulled into the parking lot of the motel and my heart sank.
“What the hell is that?” I asked, pointing to the run-down building.
“That’s the motel.”
“That looks nothing like what I saw online.”
“Really?” he asked, peering through the windshield.
“Well, I mean, the size and shape are the same, but the rest of it is shit.”
I climbed out of the truck, my eyes glued to the building in disbelief, as King pulled up beside us.
“Not what you were expecting, huh?” King asked.
“Not even close. I can’t stay here.”
Was this even safe? Despite looking like a crack house, I was more concerned about what I couldn’t see living on the furniture in the rooms. “Is there another place nearby?”
“Not within an hour I’m afraid.”
I turned and stared at the motel. It was two stories, but looked like it only had about twenty rooms. The paint was so faded that if I hadn’t seen the pictures online, I never would have guessed it was supposed to be blue. Three rooms had boarded-up windows, and two more had plywood blocking off the doors.
“How does this place stay in business?” I asked to myself.
“By the hour,” King said next to me.
Looking up at him, I asked, “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope.”
“Ugh. Ok, I have to do something else. I can’t stay here.”
“Why don’t you stay at the clubhouse tonight?” King offered.
“The clubhouse?”
“Yea, we got a few extra rooms. I can call ahead and have one of the girls get one ready. Tomorrow, I can give you a ride to meet with Kristy about your house.”
“I don’t know.” I sighed. “I paid for two weeks here, thinking I could stay until I had the bedroom done in the house. But my skin is itching just looking at this place.”
“Come on, you can stay as long as you like. Let’s go in and get your money back.”
“They don’t give refunds,” I stated, following King inside.
King and Tank walked me inside, and Tank rapped on the plexiglass partition.
“The lady needs a refund. She ain’t staying in this shithole,” King declared.
Without turning around, the guy pointed to the sign and reiterated what I said outside.
“No refunds.”
“Joey, turn the fuck around,” King growled.
Joey, the kid behind the plexiglass, who couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, spun in his chair, and his face paled as soon as he realized who he was looking at.
“Uh, King, um...”
“Not playing, Joey. Refund her money so we can get out of here.”
“Mr. Kelley will have my ass if I do that, King. I can’t lose this job. I need it.”
“You let me worry about Mr. Kelley. Refund her money.”
Joey looked at King, then Tank, and with a heavy sigh, he relented.
“Name?”
“Murphy.”
“Do you have the card you booked with?” he asked.
“I do,” I said, sliding my credit card through the small hole at the bottom of the partition.
Joey inserted the card, pressing a few buttons on the computer, then on the machine itself. He removed it from its slot and handed it back to me.
“It takes five to seven business days for a refund.” He looked over at King. “I got nothing to do with that. It’s the card company,” he said with hands raised in the air.
“Thank you.” I smiled at the young man, hoping to ease his worry.
Putting the card back in my wallet, I turned toward the door. Before I walked out, I heard King tell the kid, “If he fires you, come see me. We’ll get you something to work with the schedule you need.”
“Thanks, King.”
“That was nice of you,” I remarked once we were outside.
“Nah, Joey’s a good kid. His mom, well, she’s got some issues, and Joey takes care of his baby sister.”
“Ok, well, let’s go to the clubhouse, I guess. God, my daughter is going to lose her mind.”
“You got a daughter?”
Shit.
“Uh, yeah. She’s twenty-six.”
King looked over at Tank and smiled. “Interesting.”
Tank just shook his head and opened the door for me to climb in.
“We can drop the car off at the shop, and you can grab what you need for a few days.”
“Ok,” I conceded.
What else could I do? I had no car and no friends here. I could not stay at that rat trap called a motel. The clubhouse was the only option. At least the sheriff wouldn’t be there.
We dropped off the car, and I grabbed two suitcases from the trunk before we drove to the clubhouse. Tank insisted on carrying my bags, and I let him. They were heavy, and I was used to men doing things for me. No reason to say no if they offered.
I could hear the music coming from the three-story brick building. When we walked inside, the music abruptly stopped and everyone in the room turned in our direction.
There were only a handful of people and they were all staring at me.
“Where’s Cash?” King asked the room.
“Rach had a headache, so he took her upstairs,” a young girl with auburn hair explained.
“Everyone, this is Maureen. She’s new in town and gonna stay with us for a bit. She just moved to town, and her car broke down. She also bought the old Sullivan place.”
“That shithole?” someone called out.
A beautiful girl with dark curly hair walked up to me.
“Hi, I’m Sam. Welcome to the frat house.” She laughed, and it helped to ease the tension I was feeling.
“Hi, Sam.”
She hooked her arm in mine and brought me over to the group she had stepped away from.
“This is Jack, my old man,” she said, pointing to a handsome guy standing beside her. “This is Zero, Romeo, and Winchester.”
They all nodded a hello.
“That over there is Banshee and Mimic. Mimic is the younger one,” she offered, pointing to two gentlemen sitting at another table. Mimic looked young, but Banshee looked to be around my age.
He was handsome. I wasn’t sure with him sitting down, but he looked like a big guy. His black hair fell over his eyes, giving him a younger look, but his weathered hands gave him away. They spoke of years of hard work.
“This is Beck, and her old man, Blade.”
“Hi,” the woman, who answered King earlier, said. “Micah, say hello.” She smacked him on the back, and when he turned around, I couldn’t contain the gasp that escaped.
“No,” I whispered.
It couldn’t be him. The girl called him Micah, it’s not him.
He narrowed his eyes at me, and they turned icy.
“I-I’m sorry.” I shook my head, trying to gather my wits. “You look like someone I knew years ago. It surprised me.”
“Who?”
“Wh-what?”
“Who do I look like?”
“Oh, someone I used to know.”
“What was his name?” the man pressed.
“It doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t know him. He didn’t have any family,” I said quickly.
It was a lie. He had a family. A wife and a son. But Duane assured me he was dead. His family was dead. He had turned on the Mob, and that was something you didn’t do. I wasn’t one for advocating someone’s death, but his betrayal had led to the arrest of my father and his death behind bars. To add to my grief, my mother died less than five years later. He had taken my family from me, and for that, I would always hate him.
The man’s family wasn’t to blame, but Sal had said he needed to make a point. So I said nothing when Duane told me what happened.
The young man watched me curiously.
Turning away from him, I sought out King.
“Um, is that room ready? It’s been a long day.”
“Yea,” King said, though he was watching me too.
I knew he was looking for something to explain my reaction. “Amber. Please take Maureen up and get her settled in her room.”
“Sure thing. Come on, hon.”
“Prospect, take her bags and follow them up.” He touched my arm, stopping me before I followed Amber up the stairs. “Breakfast is between eight and ten. Come down any time. After you’ve eaten, I can take you to meet Kristy.”
“Thank you. I appreciate this so much.”
“No problem. Get some sleep.”
I nodded again and followed Amber up the stairs. She chatted along the way, telling me where things were and letting me know she was available if I needed anything.
I only half listened, wanting to lock myself in the room and think about everything that had happened over the last few hours. I needed to make a decision whether I should stay or not.
Diamond Creek might not be the place to start over after all.