Chapter Five
Rune
Her name was Carmen Torres.
Twenty-nine.
Five-foot-seven.
Organ donor.
She lived in one of those towns close to the Jersey/New York border where the houses were smushed together and the yards were small. Though, from what Junior told me, she lived in one of the crummier areas.
“Might wanna be out of there by nightfall,” he’d warned when we’d finished the call.
I didn’t really give much thought to what I was going to do when I got there. I just told my brother that I was going to be scarce for the day. He went ahead and assumed I was going to get laid. It was easier not to correct that assumption.
Then I grabbed my bike (and her gun) and drove from Navesink Bank up to her neck of the woods.
Not wanting to give myself up, I parked in the lot of a busy grocery store a few blocks away and walked over.
It seemed Carmen lived in a small, two-level duplex.
The house itself looked rundown, but there’d been a lot of care in the yard, gardens, and front porch.
Bright yellow, pink, and purple blooms filled the beds, hanging baskets, and window boxes.
A wind chime sat in a corner, still in the summer humidity.
It was easy to see which side a woman lived on. To the right, there was a single ancient rocking chair and an old milk crate used as a table. To the left, there were two lounging chairs with cushions and pillows, brightly colored drink tables, and someone’s forgotten book and coffee sitting on one.
The logical part of me knew I should case the joint for a bit, see who might come and go in case this Carmen woman was involved with a larger crew.
But my legs were already carrying me up the front path and porch steps.
I pressed a finger into the doorbell and listened to a jingle move through the house.
Somewhere in the backyard, a lawnmower roared to life.
Behind the door, there were several deep, threatening barks, then a soft, feminine voice. “Yes, that’s a good Hamster. Yes, so scary!”
The door swung open.
And it was not Carmen.
There were some similarities: same gorgeous skin, same dark hair (though this woman’s was curly), the same colored eyes. But where Carmen was tall and athletic, this woman looked like a moderate breeze could blow her over. Maybe breaking some bones in the process.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
It didn’t escape me that while she did open the door, the screen one was still in place. It wasn’t a flimsy screen either; it was a hard metal bar screen door. And her hand? Holding her dog’s collar, like she could command it to lunge at any moment.
“You’re not Carmen,” I said, shooting her half a smile.
“I am not. I’m her sister.”
“I see that. Are you twins? Did she steal all the nutrients in the womb?” I teased.
A little laugh escaped her. “No, she’s my older sister. We’re not sure what happened to me. I’m like a runt in a litter. Why are you looking for Carmen?”
“I was hoping to run into her. I’m Rune.”
It was the magic word, apparently.
“Rune!”
She released the dog’s collar so she could work at the locks, then push the door open.
“I heard about you,” she said, stepping back to let me in. Which was entirely too trusting. Unless she, like her sister, was packing.
“Did you? What’d you hear?”
“Well, honestly, not much. Carmen is not the best communicator. But I caught her trying to sneak in after spending the night with you last night.”
So, no, this little sister wasn’t in on the killing scheme. She thought her sister and I were banging. Which meant when she was confronted, she’d tossed my name out for some reason.
Interesting.
More proof to back up my belief that she was a complete amateur.
“Carmie isn’t here,” the sister said. “But she shouldn’t be long. I’m Sofia, by the way.” She stuck out her hand.
I took it carefully, feeling like I might break a bone if I squeezed at all. “Rune.”
“Such an interesting name.”
“I’ve got some interesting parents.” Two former arms dealers. Couldn’t get more interesting than that.
“Sometimes I wish mine had been slightly more interesting in the baby-naming department. Every time I go to an audition, I swear there are ten other Sofias there.”
“Audition. Actress?” I asked.
“That’s me. The new face of Montview car insurance. You should be seeing me on your TV in a few weeks.”
“Good for you. Seems like a big deal.”
“Thanks. We’re happy about it. Well, come in. Have a seat.”
I could tell from the outside that the house was on the small side. I wasn’t wrong. Because it was split into a duplex, it was a narrow, railroad-type setup with the front living room leading back into the dining room, then the kitchen with the back door.
I figured upstairs was just two beds and maybe a bath if they were lucky enough to have one other than the one I assumed was off the back of the living room.
They hadn’t gone minimalistic, though, to try to make it appear larger. They’d leaned more into the already cozy feel of it, adding lots of color and texture on the walls, couch, chair, art, and an overflowing media center full of books, vinyl, and DVDs.
The coffee table was lined with what looked like scripts for, I figured, auditions.
The couch Sofia waved me to was a bright, sunny yellow with a light pink blanket draped over the back and several different patterned pillows.
I took a seat and the big-headed dog sniffed at me, sat, and looked expectantly.
“She needs to be invited up.”
“Up,” I said, patting the space to my side.
The dog wasted no time.
“Did I hear you calling her Hamster?”
“Yep. That’s her name. Hamster.”
“Why?”
“They called her Ham at the shelter. We couldn’t come up with something longer that worked with that. Carmen always jokes that I always wanted a hamster growing up, and now I have one. Do you drink coffee? Tea? Kombucha?”
“Coffee sounds good.”
“Cream? Sugar? Caramel syrup?”
“Just a little cream is good. Thanks.”
“Be right back. Be polite, Hammy,” she warned the dog.
Alone, I let my gaze scan around without the sister watching me, trying to find any clues as to why Carmen would want to murder me.
As personal as the space was, though, there weren’t any pictures around that weren’t of the dog.
“You’re pretty popular around here, huh?” I asked Hamster, who thumped her tail, knowing she was the star in this household. “And why wouldn’t you be?” I asked, rubbing her chest. “What’s up with Carmen, huh?” I whispered to the dog, whose brows raised.
The scent of coffee filled the house as the coffee brewed. “I hope you don’t suffer with fragile masculinity,” Sofia called. “All our mugs are girly.”
“I got a little sister who used to make me and my brother play tea parties well into our teens. Pinkies up.”
That got a little laugh out of Sofia.
“Sweet big brothers are the best.”
“Do you have one?” I asked.
“You and Carmie didn’t do a whole lot of talking, I take it,” she called back. “Nope, it was just us. I think we both would have loved a nice, protective older brother.”
“What’d you need protecting from?”
“The boys at school used to pick me up and carry me around because I was so small.”
“Woulda kicked their asses for that.”
“Exactly. But Carmie was kind of like my big protective brother. She kicked the biggest one in the balls and the rest of them left me alone.”
Kicking the balls of a bully wasn’t exactly criminal activity, but it did show that she thought sometimes violence was necessary. Which made me think she definitely had a personal reason for coming at me.
But before I could get any more information out of the open book that was Sofia, the front door opened and Carmen’s voice carried through the house, excited for a moment, then falling off as she noticed me.
I’d wanted to surprise her, sure. But I didn’t take any pleasure in the way the color fell from her face, how her eyes went round, and her lower lip trembled.
I was raised to take care of and protect women.
It felt shitty to put that look on a girl’s face.
Even if she did try to kill me.
Sofia, seemingly oblivious to her sister’s distress, flitted around until, finally, we were alone.
I hadn’t been planning to grab her and force her to sit with me, and I damn sure hadn’t been prepared for the jolt of desire that moved through me as soon as she dropped down half on my lap.
She was clearly worried about her life.
She was also much more worried about her sister becoming collateral damage.
Maybe I should have been a better man and admitted that I wasn’t in the business of hurting, let alone killing, women. Keeping her a little on edge, though, might help me get the answers I needed. So I had to play my part for the time being.
“I wanted to kill you a lot longer than that.”
“Okay. Why?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Seeing as you had a gun aimed at me over it, I feel like it does.”
“Just kill me if that’s what you’re here to do. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Why doesn’t little sis know what you were up to last night?”
“This doesn’t involve her. Leave her out of this.”
“Won’t need to, if you’ll cooperate.”
“Why does the why matter? I did it.”
“Because I need to know if you’re involved with anyone else.”
“I’m not. I was working on my own.”
“And I’m just supposed to trust you?”
“What do I have to gain from lying about that?”
“Protecting someone else. You’ve already made it clear you want to protect people you care about.”
“I have no one left to care about other than my sister,” she countered. The words were just sharp enough to ring true. “Why didn’t you let your club kill me last night?”
“I wanted answers. Wasn’t gonna get ‘em if you were bleeding out on the floor.” I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth when her whole body tightened.
Making sure I took any bite out of my voice, I asked, “Did you really think you were going to walk into an outlaw biker clubhouse, shoot one of us dead, and walk away?”
She said nothing to that, just shifted in her seat, making my fingers move from her rib area to tease under her breast, the touch making her breath catch before I could move it away again.
“You could have shot me while I was running the beach in the early morning. No one would have seen. You’d probably have gotten away with it.”
“I didn’t even know what you looked like,” she admitted.
“Then how’d you find me?”
“There’s not a lot of men named Rune in the United States. Six hundred twenty-three, actually.”
The way she said that made it sound like she’d tracked down every last one of us until she found the one she was looking for.
That took dedication, commitment, motivation.
“Did you know it was a biker clubhouse when you showed up?”
“I saw the bikes. I assumed.”
“But you didn’t know who we are and what we do?”
“What do you mean ‘what you do’?”
“Christ, baby,” I sighed, shaking my head. “You had time to research over six hundred names, but didn’t think looking into a one-percenters club was worth your time?”
“One-percenters?”
Reasonably sure this was not some threat against the club, if she didn’t even know who we were, I slid my arm away from her and raked that hand down my face instead.
“Carmen, what the fuck did you get yourself into?”
She hadn’t moved right away. But at those words, she lurched to the other side of the couch, turning to face me fully.
“I didn’t get myself into anything. This is all on you and your—”
“Can you get Hammy some cold water?” Sofia called from the back of the house. “It’s too hot out here for her.”
“Yep! On it!” Carmen injected some false cheeriness into her voice as she shot her sister a smile before she disappeared again.
Then, turning back to me, she shot me a look she probably thought was threatening, but I could see the fear around the edges.
“If you’re not here to kill me, get the fuck out of my house. ”