Chapter Eight
The days passed, turning into weeks. Those weeks turned into months. George returned home, and Petal had her first full family dinner, and it was what she had always imagined as a kid. She got to talk to George, and even he said it was time for them both to forgive and to forget.
Her parents were trying. They paid her another check, and she was now looking at taking some college classes. Working as many hours as she did and helping her parents out, paying for food, helping with the rent, there really hadn’t been enough for her to even consider going to college. But now, all of that had changed, and she’d been looking into courses. Working at the diner, she couldn’t help but pull toward business as she felt it would help her understand how to run any business. She hadn’t committed to a class yet, though the money was put aside. She didn’t want to make the wrong choices.
After the whole fiasco with Dirty telling the club everything, she was tempted to take the money and just leave. She and Rosalie had always had the dream of getting away from town, living their lives elsewhere, away from all the bullshit. Gabrielle stopped Rosalie from leaving, and seeing as it was their dream, Petal didn’t want to do it without her friend.
Now Rosalie was showing with her pregnancy, and she looked so gorgeous. Pregnancy suited her.
Leaving Rosalie behind was not an option. She didn’t want to leave town without her bestie. Also, there was no way she would miss her best friend giving birth. Colt didn’t seem to mind her hanging around. He probably felt a little guilt seeing as he pushed Dirty in her direction. Either way, she didn’t hold it against him—only because Rosalie said she loved him. If her best friend hated him, then he would be on the enemy list, simple as that.
Speaking of friends, she and Myth were getting close. He still hadn’t revealed the woman he had feelings for. She was starting to believe he had feelings for Kim, which was just disaster waiting to happen. Warden would not allow him to breathe if he even suspected it. It kind of made her worried for her friend. She didn’t want him to die.
Winter turned into spring, and now they were getting close to summer. The days were getting warmer. They had to change the menu, and Burto was loving the experiments he was serving the customers.
She and Rosalie had done a spring clean of the place, to show the customers that changes would be made, and so far everything was going well.
They had also started to offer the diner space to hold birthday parties. It was just a small corner, for a few kids, a couple of parents, food, and of course a birthday cake, which were Burto’s specialty. He liked to book the kids in advance, find out what they liked, and then he baked an elaborate cake. She and Rosalie had to make him reign in the cost, because it all had to come into the final price, and so far it had worked.
Now, she was at the counter, filling up the salt jars, while a birthday party was happening in the corner. There was other customers, and they had the choice to stay or leave. Most of them stayed, as seeing kids have fun was fun in itself. She glanced over to see the kids giggling as they were coloring, eating cake, and having fun.
Myth had arrived twenty minutes ago, and he was sitting at the counter. Something was different about him. He had his usual lunchtime order—a large mug of coffee and a cheeseburger. She saw that his cheeseburger was left, and he was busy looking across the room at the kids party.
Tanya Evans, the woman who organized the party, held her child on her hip and was dancing around with the little girl. Petal always thought there was something strange about Tanya’s pregnancy, mainly because she didn’t recall the other woman being pregnant. She was a couple of years older than her, twenty-five, she didn’t have any family, and worked at the local DIY store. She did believe the woman was also a qualified electrician or mechanic, or something. No one really knew. She was her own woman.
Petal looked at Myth, then over toward the group. His gaze hadn’t wandered from the woman, and his burger wasn’t eaten and she gasped. She couldn’t help it. It wasn’t a loud sound, but it was loud enough for Myth to hear it.
“Oh my God, it’s Tanya, isn’t it?”
Myth glared at her. “Stop.”
“Oh, wow, it is, isn’t it?”
He shook his head.
Petal couldn’t believe it. The woman Myth had a crush on was none other than Tanya Evans, single mother, and someone who Petal didn’t have a single clue about. She knew she was a good mother and doted on her little girl.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I didn’t know you knew her.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t really know her, but come on, I mean, you could have told me. Other than this party, I think I’ve said a couple of sentences to her my whole life.”
Myth shook his head.
“Why don’t you go and speak to her?”
“At her kid’s party? Not a chance.”
Petal frowned. “How do you know her?”
“The club needed some work done. She was the one who arrived, fixed the plumbing.”
He shrugged. “She didn’t take any shit from the guys and told Warden he needed to teach his men some respect.”
This didn’t surprise Petal.
“Do you know if the dad is in the picture?”
Myth asked.
“I don’t even know who the dad is. I don’t know if anyone knows who the dad is.”
She was being honest. She didn’t have a clue.
Myth nodded.
“It doesn’t stop you from going and asking her out.”
“Not at her kid’s party.”
She frowned. “Are you nervous?”
“I don’t get nervous.”
“You and I have been hanging out and you haven’t asked a woman who appears very single out on a date. I don’t know what that means to you, but to me, that tends to mean nerves.”
Myth shook his head.
“You’re not going to ask her.”
“It’s none of your business.”
“What if I ask her on your behalf? Would that work?”
Petal asked.
“Don’t. We’re not in high school.”
Petal laughed. She held her hands up. “You should do it. At the end of the day, what is the worst that could happen?”
“I get rejected.”
“Or, she says ‘hell yes!’”
Petal smiled at Myth.
She liked him. They were not as close as her and Rosalie. She wouldn’t dream of changing her clothes in front of him or having a sleepover, but she did consider him her friend. They had their own kind of friendship.
Myth checked the time. “I’ve got to go. Don’t interfere.”
He handed her some money, which she took. She paid his bill and handed him the change.
“I don’t interfere. You should know that by now, even though I really, really, really want to.”
He shook his head but didn’t say another word.
Petal wouldn’t meddle. That was not who she was, at least not with Myth. If he didn’t want her talking with Tanya, she wouldn’t.
The party ended, the parents thanked Tanya, and slowly the kids left. Petal made her way over to the corner. Tanya’s little girl was sitting at the table, coloring.
“Thank you,”
Tanya said, already helping to clean the mess.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re our customer, and I can clean this up.”
“I can’t let you do all of that.”
“Trust me, we make sure to charge a clean-up fee in the price,”
she said, smiling.
Tanya chuckled but still she helped. Petal had a feeling she didn’t like to be sitting around while other people worked. It made sense, she was the same. She didn’t like not working. Being in a big family there was always something needing to be done, and people that needed to do it. She glanced over at the little girl.
“Did Leanna enjoy her birthday?”
Petal asked.
“I did, thank you,”
Leanna said, looking up and smiling. The little girl was only five years old, but she looked so grown-up.
She turned to Tanya, to see the woman smiling. “I’m glad, Pumpkin.”
Tanya went to her daughter and kissed her on top of her head.
“Do you guys want anything else? Tea? A milkshake? Milk?”
Tanya and Leanna shared a look. “Chocolate milkshake.”
Petal chuckled and promised to have them right out.
They were in their lull, just before the dinner rush. Rosalie would help later. They really needed to hire someone.
So far, they had gone through four women, all of them club women, and none were ideal. All four had been caught with customers. She and Rosalie didn’t want to deal with angry wives or girlfriends. Also, they didn’t want to risk their diner getting a bad reputation.
Warden had allowed them to send out an advertisement, and so far, the only people to respond had been students who were not interested. They had come to their job interview stoned or playing on their cell phone. Not ideal candidates. It was like the job wasn’t taken seriously because it was a diner.
Petal remembered when she got this job. She had considered it a great opportunity. Sure, Al had been handsy, but he wasn’t a bad boss. He wasn’t a great boss, but the pay was okay. He just liked to see his waitresses in tight uniforms, and he liked to touch.
Of course, she didn’t realize what an asshole he was going to be, and a coward. Siding with the Evil Fuckers MC and getting Rosalie hurt had been the end of him.
Pushing those thoughts aside, she finished the milkshakes and carried them over.
Tanya smiled. “Thanks, uh, I was wondering, is the position open for a new waitress?”
Petal was taken aback at first, the question didn’t seem to register with her, and then when she realized what had been asked, she nodded her head and smiled.
“Uh, sorry, yeah, it is still open.”
“I was wondering if I would be able to apply?”
“Of course. I mean, don’t you have the DIY store?”
Petal asked.
“I do, and I still work there, but Harry is cutting back the hours the store is open, for his health, but also because the foot traffic is not happening. I’ve told him he needs to get online, but he doesn’t listen. I need to make up the extra hours.”
“Have you waitressed before?”
Petal asked.
“I did it before I got the job with Harry. I worked for Al when he owned the place.”
“I didn’t realize that.”
“I was actually one of the first women to give him a black eye for putting his hands on me.”
Petal laughed. “Wow, I had no idea. I mean, I heard the tale of someone giving Al a black eye, but I didn’t realize it was you. Can I have your autograph?”
Tanya began to laugh.
This would be awesome. Tanya working for them, and Myth coming in for his burger. She never considered herself much of a matchmaker, but she had a feeling this could work. Her best friend finally got the woman of his dreams, and she got to see true love spark.
“How about you write down the hours you’re working for Harry, and I’ll talk to Rosalie, and we come to some arrangement?”
“That sounds great to me.”
Tanya took one of the pictures that hadn’t been colored in, wrote down the hours, and handed it back to her. She looked over at Leanna, offered her a quick smile, and then made her way back behind the counter.
Just before the dinner rush, Tanya and Leanna finished their milkshakes and then headed out. Petal watched them go. It had been a long time since she felt that slight pinch in her chest.
She watched mother and daughter, hand in hand, walk back to the car. In that moment, she missed what she didn’t have. She knew that in raising children there would be good moments and bad. Kids were a combination of angels and devils.
One day, she would know what it was like to be a mother, it just wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
****
Dirty pulled up against the side of the truck.
This was a second truck that had been intercepted. The club knew what this meant, and now their suspicions were confirmed. The drivers were not seen. They didn’t work the club, but as development on the old Evil Fuckers MC land had commenced, there had been trouble along the way.
First, a notice to cease building, which required them to get a lawyer involved, and that began to raise suspicion. Then, workers started to quit. The building materials started to go missing, or in this case didn’t turn up.
He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Warden. It took a couple of rings for his Prez to accept the call.
“We’ve got another one,” he said.
“Fuck!”
Warden screamed.
In the background, he heard something smash. It sounded like a picture of an ornament, and knowing Warden, it could be both.
“Evil Fuckers MC are back,”
Warden said.
They all knew the day would come, and like cowardly bastards, they were doing it in secret, hiding away, and that was pissing them all off. The club had the money to complete the project, but there would come a time when that money would run short if these problems kept happening.
Their enemies were easier to hunt when they knew how to find them. Whoever was leading them, they didn’t mind not making an entrance. Daemon liked everyone to know who the Evil Fuckers MC were and who was leading them. He was no coward. Deamon had looked death in the face and laughed.
Dirty didn’t like this. They could be anywhere, anyone, and anything. He glanced around, his hand poised on his gun, waiting. He didn’t even know if he was being watched right now.
“The driver?”
“Not here,”
Dirty said.
“They’re going to turn up.”
“Yeah, and we all know they’ll be in body bags.”
“I’m on my way. Don’t touch anything,”
Warden said.
Dirty hung up his cell phone and walked around the truck. There was nothing there. The driver’s door had been opened, and even the radio and the mechanics inside had been stolen.
It was like an innocent car theft, but Dirty’s gut was saying it was anything but. Keeping close to the truck, he looked out, trying to see if there was any place for anyone to hide, and it was a stretch of road, open for the eye to see. No one was around.
He kept his gun in his hand and didn’t have to wait long for Colt, Warden, and Crow to arrive. All three joined him as they looked over the truck. Warden didn’t touch anything. None of them did, just in case the Evil Fuckers MC were playing a game.
“What do you want to do?”
Colt asked.
“I’m going to talk to the supplier. Ask if their drivers have been in touch, and while we wait, I want you and three others to go and ride them out to the job. I want every single—”
He was interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone.
Dirty looked toward Colt.
Warden frowned. They all knew it was the ringtone for his wife, Kim. There was one occasion, years ago, where Kim had been trying to get in touch with him. Anyway, Warden had ignored the call, and it had awakened a mean streak in Kim.
Dirty hadn’t been there for the falling out, but his bike was trashed as she took a baseball bat to it. To make sure it didn’t happen again, Warden put her number with a different ringtone. He never missed her call again.
“Babe, I’m busy right—”
Warden paused. “What? When? Fine, I’ll be right there.”
He hung up his cell phone.
“What is it?”
Colt asked.
“The Evil Fuckers MC land has just been taken by the cops. Two dead bodies have been found on that land.”
“Shit,”
Colt said.
“Let me guess, the two drivers who are supposed to be delivering our stuff?”
Dirty asked.
“Yeah.”
“We’ve got security footage on that land,”
Crow said. “Do they even know that?”
Warden clicked his fingers. “You and Colt, go check the security footage in the past twenty-four hours. Crow, you’re with me.”
Dirty made his way back to his bike. The security detail for the Evil Fuckers MC land was not at the clubhouse, but at their warehouses, manned by one of their best computer experts. Fritz was a red-haired, very skinny, twenty-nine-year-old, who had been trying to get into the clubhouse for the past eleven years. It didn’t matter how much food the kid ate, or the weights he tried to pull, he couldn’t put on any weight nor any muscle. The truth was, the kid was a bit of a disaster. He couldn’t fight, and sparring with him was deadly. The man was a klutz. He also couldn’t shoot.
When he was handed a gun for fun and target practice, Dirty didn’t know how it happened, but he somehow managed to shoot Rooster in the ass.
For Fritz’s own safety, he wasn’t given a gun. He was a disaster in all fields, but he was loyal. Even when pressured by the cops, or even one of their own, he didn’t cave, and for that, Warden and the club were impressed. Where some of the hardest men had buckled under pressure, Fritz hadn’t.
Warden tested them all. The club needed to guarantee the loyalty of every brother, so there was no doubt who had their back and who didn’t.
Fritz was starved, humiliated, and beaten. All he had to do was recite the small secret on the piece of paper, and he would have been saved. There would have been no club, and he would have been tossed on his ass, but he didn’t cave.
It was Warden’s final test. The piece of paper simply had an insult about one of the club brothers that had pissed Warden off at the time. With Fritz, it had been his own son saying Colt had a little dick. As far as Dirty was aware, even now Fritz hadn’t uttered that single word.
Heading out to the warehouse, they each had a code. Again, the protection detail that Fritz had set up. The gates opened, and he and Colt parked their bikes.
Dirty didn’t like the feeling he was getting and as he climbed off his bike, he reached for his gun.
“You’ve got that feeling as well?”
Colt asked.
“It hasn’t stopped.”
“I’m the same.”
They looked around, and there was nothing out of place.
“It’s because we know they’re close.”
“That has to be it,”
Dirty said.
Neither of them stopped holding their gun as they made their way inside to where Fritz was in front of multiple computer screens. They had the clubhouse set up, the diner, and he was even hacked into the town’s main security feed. Ever since the Evil Fuckers MC had disappeared, Warden wanted sight of everything.
He couldn’t blame the man. Dirty had no doubt whoever was left would blame them for the death of their club. Technically, that was correct. Colt did kill Daemon, but it was Daemon that was already on a warpath with his own club for accidentally killing Gabrielle. There was no way this shit could even be written, yet that was the life he lived.
“Hey, guys,”
Fritz said, spinning around to look at them. “What’s going on?”
It was rare for any of them to come to the warehouse, unless they had instructions from Warden.
“Warden sent us. We need you to access all the security footage for the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours,”
Colt said.
“Any specific place?”
“Evil Fuckers MC compound.”
Fritz spun back around and began typing away at the computer. Within a matter of seconds of his mad typing, the screens in front of them began to change footage. Once he accessed the areas, he began to rewind the footage.
Dirty took a step closer. “Would you know if you were under surveillance?”
“What? Like this warehouse being watched?”
“Yeah.”
“I wouldn’t know unless they came into view. I’ve got security and shit, but nothing that can tell me if anyone is outside the perimeter lurking. I just have to look for something suspicious.”
“Have you seen anything suspicious?”
“Not recently. The only people who know about this place are the club. Even Kim doesn’t visit here.”
Fritz began to hum and this was one of his methods of working. Humming as he worked.
Dirty didn’t know exactly what he was doing but then Fritz stopped humming and simply said, “Huh.”
“Huh?”
Colt asked. “What is huh?”
“For one hour the cameras were covered. Look.”
He pointed at the screen. They were not able to see who it was, but something black covered the camera. “Clearly they didn’t want us to see what they were doing.”
“No, but they were also watching us when we began to install the security cameras,”
Dirty said.
Colt cursed and began to pace. “It’s them.”
“Go back,”
Dirty said.
“What do you mean?”
“Just go back, slowly, so if there are shadows or reflections in stuff, check all the angles,”
Dirty said.
He stared at the screens and tried to look in any reflective surface. Anything the Evil Fuckers MC hadn’t thought about that would give away their identity. They all knew who they were fighting, but now he wanted to know which members, if he could even see them.
Fritz moved the counter back, and they changed the angle.
Dirty’s eyes were getting tired from staring at the screen, and that was when he saw it.
“Stop,” he said.
A single car, but clear enough to see the group of men, and he noticed the delivery driver.
“There.”
Colt came to stand beside him. “Shit, how did you spot that?”
“They knew,”
Dirty said. “They knew exactly where the cameras were, so they tried to evade them, but they didn’t know the direction they were staring at.”
“What does this have to do with anything?”
Colt asked.
“Simple, we’ve got a dead body on our land. We’ve got proof that the body was dumped.”
“Uh, guys, I don’t think you’re going to like this,”
Fritz said. He zoomed in on the picture, and Dirty hated the Evil Fuckers MC more in that moment.
They were not wearing their leather cuts with their patch. No, somehow the Evil Fuckers MC were wearing the Satan’s Death Riders MC patch.
“How the fuck is that possible?”
Colt asked.
“You need to call Warden,”
Dirty said. “Ask him if there are any members he sent out on a job, or left, or did something in the past month. Whoever we have missing, they’re dead, and their cut was stolen and used to make replicas.”
“Fucking disgusting pieces of shit,”
Colt said.
Dirty knew exactly what he meant and what he was feeling, because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. This was a new low even for the Evil Fuckers MC. They had so many members.
“Guys, does this mean they could have been at the parties?”
Fritz asked.
This meant a whole load of details. Dirty didn’t even want to think about it. He was concerned with them hiding in the shadows, lurking, waiting for the perfect time to escape. He didn’t even consider that they might have hidden in plain sight.
“We’d have noticed them,”
Dirty said.
“Would we?”
Fritz asked. “I mean, seriously?”
Dirty ran a hand over his face, because the truth was, all the Evil Fuckers MC blurred into one. They all had an enemy within Daemon, but that man was gone. Then there was Bug, the man’s son who was also gone.
He frowned. “He never brought the same person,”
Dirty said.
“Warden’s on the way,”
Colt said.
Dirty looked toward Colt. “He didn’t, did he?”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Think about it, when Daemon brought Rosalie around, he never brought the same people around. Even at the club, when we went to party with them, it was always dark.”
Dirty rubbed his temples. “This was part of Daemon’s plan, it had to be.”
“Okay, I must have gotten dumb in the last few minutes, because I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
Dirty looked toward Fritz who seemed equally confused.
“Think about it, even on that grainy piece of shit video, or in a lineup, how many of the Evil Fuckers MC could you identify?”
“Loads.”
“Yeah, you could pick these men in this picture right fucking now, if they were standing in front of you?”
Dirty asked. “What about the first day they brought Rosalie? How about at the wedding? Huh? Anyone?”
Colt frowned and he turned to look at Dirty. “Are you trying to tell me that part of Daemon’s elaborate plan was to, what, get his daughter married and killed? Daemon is dead.”
“Or maybe Daemon’s plan started out like that, and he planned to move swiftly. Our guys at his place, taking one of the leather cuts, only whoever is in charge of the Evil Fuckers MC changed the plan. I don’t fucking know, but think about it, it makes sense.”
Colt shook his head. “I hope for all of our sakes, you’re fucking wrong.”