Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Rage
Between the new baby and all of us pitching in to pick up the slack for Daniil and Courtney, I haven’t had much time to think about Luna and everything we talked about. Much to my frustration, I’m not thinking about it much today either, because a group of us just left the beach.
Metal had Layla’s remains cremated and he said she loved the beach, so he spread her ashes there. It was hard to know what to say or do, because Metal is devastated on multiple levels. She lied to him about the baby being his, broke things off, and then apparently killed herself.
Then he told us that he doesn’t believe she killed herself.
We’ve been talking about it amongst ourselves but it’s hard to know what was going on with her.
Allora knew her best and even she says it doesn’t make sense, because Metal told her he didn’t care that the baby wasn’t his.
He knew it was possible but they were hopeful.
Then she admitted she’d lied about how far along she was, that she was nearly a month more pregnant than she told him.
“He told her it was okay,” Allora says when we get back to headquarters. “He said he didn’t mind because the baby is what got them together.”
“If we take everything we know as fact,” Grim says cautiously. “Then suicide doesn’t make sense.”
“Except she was an addict,” I interject quietly. “And we all know how strong the pull of addiction is.”
“She was clean,” Allora says firmly. “And she said it was the first time in her life she didn’t feel the need to get high. That Metal and the baby were more important than anything else.”
“Okay, so going back to the idea that all of this is factual, what does it mean? Did someone kill her? Force her to shoot up? The tox screen they did showed a heroin overdose. So, how could that have happened?”
No one says anything because it’s impossible to know what happened and conjecture isn’t productive at this point. Deep down, I think we all know the truth but Metal is looking for answers where there may not be any. The only thing that gives me pause is Allora’s take.
She and Layla were friends. Allora was planning a baby shower for her. They talked all the time. It doesn’t make sense that she would go from excitedly planning her future to suicide.
I watch as Silver, Metal, and a group of leather-clad bikers pull up to the building.
Jesus, Metal looks rough. Like he hasn’t eaten or showered in days.
I guess I can’t blame him.
Death is never easy.
Suicide is even worse.
Believing that someone may have killed the woman he loved has to be devastating.
Allora and Metal have known each other since middle school, and he’s one of the only members of the club she has a relationship with, other than her father. She doesn’t want anything to do with that lifestyle, and I don’t blame her, but today she seems oblivious to everything but her friend’s pain.
“I don’t know what to say to him,” Luna says, coming to stand beside me as we wait for everyone to come in. Silver said he and his officers wanted to talk to us about something.
“I don’t think it’s about what we say—it’s more about just being present. Supportive. In whatever way he needs.”
“Death makes me uncomfortable.”
“I think it makes us all uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I’ve seen enough to where I just do my best to grieve in private while offering support to whomever needs it.”
She nods. “I guess so. I mean, I don’t really know him, and I only met her a few times. She was just so young…”
“Yeah.” I stare out at the water, thinking about the men I lost in combat. The men I killed in combat. So many of both. Sometimes I wonder how I managed to get out of there physically unscathed.
“Do you ever think about dying?” she asks quietly.
“I used to,” I admit. “When I was in the Middle East. Now, I just put one foot in front of the other. No point in thinking about that kind of thing.”
“I went through a dark time in my life when I thought about death a lot. For a while, I think I wanted to die because I couldn’t deal with the stress.”
“But you got through it.”
“I did.”
Our eyes meet, and I feel that same pull to touch her, hold her, let her and the rest of the world know she belongs to me. Because she does. She just doesn’t know it yet.
“Guys, we’re gonna get started.” Daniil motions to us and we all make our way into the conference room.
“What’s going on?” I ask once we’re settled.
“It’s not good.” Silver is quiet for a beat. “Another one of our girls was found dead this morning.”
“Another one?” Allora breathes, her face tightening with worry. “Who?”
“Desi.”
“She’s been around forever,” Allora says, frowning. “She’s about a decade older than me. I didn’t know her well, but she was a club bunny for a long time and then started turning tricks.”
“Preliminary info I got from my contact at the police department is that it was another overdose,” Silver adds, his jaw tightening.
“What?” Allora shakes her head. “Desi never did drugs. She barely drank. Everyone used to tease her about it.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said too.” Silver rests his forearms on the table. “This doesn’t feel right. I’m not the paranoid type but two of our girls, less than a week apart.”
“So two sex workers, both affiliated with the club, overdosing under mysterious circumstances,” I say thoughtfully. “This looks like a pattern. With just Layla, it could have gone either way, but this is problematic.”
“Why would anyone be targeting your girls?” Daniil asks pointedly.
“The club has a lot of enemies,” Silver says quietly.
“It’s one of many reasons I keep my distance,” Allora says. “If they’ve pissed someone off, this could be retaliatory.”
“It’s awful,” Luna interjects. “I mean, those women already have such hard lives. And if someone did that to Layla…”
“They did do it,” Metal growls, hands balled into fists as they rest on the table. “And now we have to do something to find out who.”
“Get me Desi’s full name,” Luna says, opening her laptop. “Date of birth. Anything you know.”
“Desdemona Blume,” Allora says. “I think she was thirty-eight or thirty-nine.”
Luna types into her laptop, frowning slightly.
“Okay, she was actually thirty-seven, turning thirty-eight in December.” Luna studies her screen. “It says here she was arrested about ten years ago, did three months in county jail for shoplifting, and seems to have been on the straight and narrow since then. Besides the sex work stuff, I guess.”
“Desi was a good girl,” Silver says solemnly. “She never caused trouble. Always helped out at the clubhouse if we needed something done, loved all the kids…this isn’t right.”
“What can we do?” Daniil asks after a beat.
“I need help on the street.” He hesitates.
“I know from the outside looking in, we’re a motorcycle club with no ethics, no rules.
But that’s not true. Yeah, we live by our own code, but we also don’t get involved with outsiders unless we have to.
The idea to start playing pimps to a bunch of hookers came from them.
They approached us—Desi was the one leading the pack because she was a club bunny back then.
She said it had gotten dangerous out there.
“Pimps took half their money and they got robbed, beat up, and occasionally worse. They offered us ten percent for protection. Nothing else. We didn’t have to find them johns or provide a place for them to do their thing—they just needed the appearance of protection from guys no one wants to fuck with.
For us, it was easy money and doing something that might border on the right thing.
” He glances at his daughter and holds up a hand when she opens her mouth.
“The thing is, those specific girls would be turning tricks regardless. We just eliminated some of the danger. But the truth is, I don’t have the manpower to physically watch every one of them, every night they work.
I send out two guys every Saturday because it’s the busiest night.
They know they can call us at any time, day or night, if they get into a situation.
Mostly, we take care of them by reputation.
Those are our girls, don’t fuck with them.
To lose two girls, both by overdose, in the span of a week…
something is off.” He puts an envelope of money on the table.
Daniil doesn’t look at the money and instead meets Silver’s eyes.
“What do you need?” he asks quietly. “If it’s illegal, I can’t put my men in that position.
However, if you want me to put a couple of guys on the street to start asking around, seeing if there’s talk about someone targeting club girls, I can do that.
They can also be available if the girls get into trouble. ”
He looks away. “Honestly, I don’t know exactly what I need. I just need help. The girls are self-sufficient. Anyone hassles them, they mention my name and it goes away. This is…new. Different. I don’t know how to handle it.”
“I’m happy to be on call,” I say quietly. “If they get into trouble, anyone starts hassling them, I don’t live far. Give them my number.”
“Same,” Chaos says, since he joined us for the meeting.
“Me too,” Grim adds.
“The guys travel quite a bit,” Daniil says, “but if you give the girls the emergency number, that phone is answered twenty-four-seven and we can always reach someone.”
“I appreciate that.” Silver nods as he slowly gets to his feet. “Let me know what you find.”
“Will do.” Daniil walks out with Silver and his men but the rest of us stay seated.
“I didn’t have pimp-for-an-MC on this year’s bingo card,” Chaos says with a smirk. “Think it’ll look good on my resume?”
Everyone chuckles but underneath there’s worry.
Because if someone is targeting club girls—and that’s essentially what they are—there could be something more sinister at play.
Something none of us counted on when Daniil decided to settle and build his company here in Sage Canyon.