Chapter Thirty
It was more than a week since the ‘okay’ incident, and I was feeling anything but okay.
How could he just blow off everything we could have been with such a blithe response, like it didn’t matter?
Like we… I… didn’t matter. The ‘okay’ kept playing on me, and at this point I was practically seeing him smirking at me and saying it, with this asshole fucking demeanour that made me want to punch him in the nuts. He didn’t even argue. Just okay.
“Fuck’s sake! Did you see that fucker?” Evers pulled out of the side road, flipping on the lights and siren, and I watched as he picked up speed to follow a speeding motorcycle, and yes, as we got closer, I saw the cut, and the patch on the back, and groaned.
It was a member of Phoenix MC. I shot a panicked glance in Evers’ direction, and he groaned.
“We can’t just let it slide. I didn’t know, but we’re now visibly pulling him over, Jay. Stay in the car and I’ll handle it.” It was a good idea in theory, but as the biker pulled over, I found myself hopping out of the car and storming in his direction.
“Helmet off!” I yelled as I approached him, and I watched as the biker lifted off a black helmet, and shook his shaggy hair loose. It wasn’t Grease. There was no dark slicked back hair, and no smirk that made me swoon.
“I said I’d handle it,” Evers said as he caught me up, but one fierce glare from me had him rolling his eyes, “fine whatever.”
“Is there a problem, officer?” The guy was vaguely familiar, as in I’d definitely seen him before, and he recognised me right around the same time, as a smug grin spread across his face.
He was attractive, and muscular, but not Grease.
I was surprised to realise how disappointed I was about that fact.
“You were doing fifty in a thirty zone,” I snapped at him, hearing Evers sigh heavily behind me.
“Actually I was in a forty zone,” the asshole quipped, offering me a sly wink.
“Off the bike,” I snapped at him, and he laughed.
“Yeah, whatever, darlin’. Look, ticket me and sod off, I’ve got places to be.”
Evers groaned behind me, because he saw me tense up at the dismissive tone from this asshole.
“Get off the bike, NOW. Evers, I think he needs to be breathalysed.”
The biker huffed at me, as he rested his bike and climbed off it.
“You’re having a laugh, darlin’. I swear, I don’t need alcohol to be this charming. It’s all me.”
“What’s your name, wise-ass?”
He looked down at me, since he was probably six foot plus, and almost looked tempted to pat me on the head or something.
“Aw you wanna flirt with me, little copper? I thought you were Grease’s girl?”
Fuck. This is exactly what I’d hoped to avoid!
“I’m nobody’s girl. Give me your name, unless you’re considering resisting arrest?”
“I’m getting arrested now? I just thought you wanted me to dance like a fucking monkey to prove I’m sober.”
“Evers? I think we need to take him in. He’s resisting.”
The biker let out a frustrated growl.
“For fuck’s sake, you dumb bitch, I’m trying to fucking cooperate, but you’re not hearing me. Typical fucking woman, that is. Blah blah blah, and no effort to listen!”
I wanted to push him. I wanted him to cross the line so I could arrest him, even though it risked putting me in contact with Grease, or maybe because of it.
“Say something worth listening to, and maybe I’ll consider it, dipshit.”
He advanced threateningly, glowering down at me, and not scaring me even a bit.
“You looking for trouble, bitch? I’m pissed off enough now that I’ll bite. This how you treat Grease? I knew he was a kinky fucker, but I didn’t know he was the one bending over and taking it.”
“Okay, okay, there’s no need for any trouble here, sir. Let’s just ticket you for the speeding, and you can be on your way,” Evers interjected firmly, trying to nudge me away from the biker.
He turned to me next. “Why don’t you radio it in and wait in the car?”
“You’re sidelining me?”
“Yeah, go and do as you’re told, little girl. Let the men deal with this.”
“Fuck you!”
He shoved past Evers to get to me, knocking me on my ass in the process.
“Bitch!”
“And that’s you under arrest, mate,” Evers said from behind him, as I swallowed hard and pushed up from the concrete, my butt and hip throbbing from the hard landing.
“Grease might take your shit, but we’re not all as tolerant as him. You might wanna think about giving so much attitude to men much bigger than you!” He snapped, as Evers led him past me and put him in the back of the car.
My god, what did I just do? I had no idea which member of Grease’s club he was, but I knew it’d get back to Grease. Would he be pissed off at me for starting trouble with one of his club brothers? Would he think I’m doing it for his attention?
“What the hell was that? You know we’ll have trouble making charges stick, Jay. You were getting in his face and egging him on.”
I brushed dust and grit from my legs, and ass, with a grimace.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“You’re already being monitored for your conduct in uniform, dammit. You could end up suspended again!”
“You think I don’t know that? Dammit! Why did he have to be such a prick?”
I followed him and got back in the car, tucking the biker’s helmet in the boot first, because we wouldn’t want to be taking responsibility for that getting damaged.
“I need to make a call if that’s alright with little miss cunty over here,” the biker said, doing himself no favours.
“You can do that at the station house.”
“If something happens to my motorcycle-”
I swivelled in my seat to glare at him. “You’ll what? Make more empty threats?”
He leaned closer, snarling at me, “You thinking my threats are empty is gonna be your biggest mistake, cop!”
Tesio aka Grease
Micro put down the phone and cursed, just as I stepped into his office, to update him on the camera upgrades I’d been sorting. The improvements and rebuild were going fairly well, which just added to the stress piling up on me, because that meant my return to hell was imminent now.
“Whassup?”
He cursed, scrolling through his phone for something.
“Rocket got himself arrested. Fuck’s sake. Why can’t anyone around here just stay the fuck away from those cops?”
He tapped away at his phone and dropped it on his desk, and when he looked at me, he realised what he’d said.
“Sorry, man. That wasn’t a dig at you. I’m just pissed that half the guys around here seem to live to make my day worse.”
I dumped my tablet on his desk and tapped my fingers idly on top of it. What were the chances that my little pain was involved in this situation? Would she keep on at the club despite our little parting conversation, or was she leaving us alone, and this was simply a coincidence?
“What did he do this time?”
Micro cursed, dropping heavily into his seat and resting his elbows on the desk.
“It was your bird, by the way. He says she’s got some kind of beef with the club, and she was at him from the second they pulled him over.”
“And they pulled him over for?”
“Speeding. I know, I know. He’s not denying that, just saying things escalated, hence the arrest. He’s so volatile lately, I just don’t know what the fuck to do with him.
He came here for a change of scenery, after the woman he was seeing faked a pregnancy and fucked him about.
I get that he’s had it rough, but haven’t we all at this point? ”
I dropped down in the seat and propped my feet up on the desk, earning a glare from Micro, which I chose to ignore.
“He wasn’t drinking again, right? Every time I see him lately, he’s rat-arsed.”
Micro leaned over and shoved my boots, knocking my feet off his desk and making me grin, because I loved winding the fucker up sometimes.
“I’ll talk to him when he’s back, but I think if he’d been drinking, he’d have said.
I’ve sent the lawyer to sort it out.” The lawyer, as in the one Rossi had allowed to assist the club.
Call the guy what you will, but he’s useful to have around.
I just wished I was a biker benefiting from it, rather than one of Rossi’s own men.
“In the meantime, I have those updates for you on the cameras. The new feeds are up and running, and the quality upgrade is fucking sweet.” I opened up the app on the tablet, and showed him, letting him take it from me, and swipe through the menus.
“Those blind spots that were taken advantage of at Halloween are now protected by the new rotation pattern.”
“Noice. And what about the gate cameras?”
I leaned over and swiped the screen, and panned through them.
“Fully adjustable to suit whether they’re open or closed, although, for fuck’s sake, keep them closed as much as possible.”
“Gee, really? I never thought of that.”
I flipped him off, and took the tablet as he handed it back.
“Your office is almost ready, you wanna check it out?”
“Already did. It’s getting there. Wish the fire hadn’t fucked up my chair though, it was just how I like it.”
“So, have you seen her?” The fucker completely ignored my very legitimate beef about my chair. It was a fucking expensive one I’d brought with me, and I was pissed that it was destroyed in the fire.
“No.”
“Just no?”
“Um… very no?”
“Prick. No texts or anything? Just nothing?”
I grabbed the tablet and got up, because this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to be having right now.
“The Don spoke and I listened. No more PC Pain. I just have to fucking keep my head down, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
“Sorry, man.”