Chapter 25
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
Nova
Present day
“So, what happened?” I ask as I clutch the mug of coffee in my hands.
Sawyer and I are sitting at the back of Muso having lunch, and he is only just now telling me about Regi and the dry cleaners lead.
“I had to check it out before we stormed the place and ruined any chance we would’ve had of cornerin’ him,” Sawyer says.
“One man we kept alive has been in contact with Forest, so Forest doesn’t realize one of his pawns is tied to a chair and we’re lettin’ him use the phone.
” Though, the raid on the apartment will shake them. The cover was a gas leak.
It’s supposed to be club business, but he tells me everything.
Instead of telling him to be careful and please don’t do anything rash, I nod sympathetically and say, “Lucky you kept that one alive.”
He smirks, cupping one side of my face. “And this is why I love you. You’re just as unhinged as me when it comes to dealing with assholes like Regi and his regime.”
I lean in closer, poised for more information. “So, what did you find out in the last couple of days?”
“That Regi is nowhere to be found, but Forest is due to check in tomorrow.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah, and if we can nab Forest, then we can locate Regi’s apartment. The dry cleaners are just a front for a money laundering operation. Everyone who works there is as much an asshole as the guy we have tied up.”
“Shit, you’ve got your work cut out for you then.”
He smirks. “I can handle it.”
“So, speaking of which, how are you gonna handle it?”
“Well, we’re gonna wait for Forest and then do to him what we did to Barry and his not so fortunate friend.”
“Well, you could go with a softer approach? According to your friend Barry, Forest is a man who has an eye for a prospective female who looks like she can’t defend herself and would be an easy target,” I suggest.
Sawyer narrows his eyes. “What are you sayin’?”
I shrug innocently. “Nothing.”
“Spit it out.”
I huff. “I could go in there, undercover, do some digging.”
He snorts. “Not gonna happen.”
“Why not? I can take some fake dry cleaning and get some intel, or just say we met Barry at Big Papa’s and he told us to come by?”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “And what intel do you plan on getting exactly?”
“I don’t know. I could just say Barry propositioned me the other night at Big Papa’s and I’m desperate for work.”
He blinks. I know he knows it’s a good idea. “Not gonna happen.”
“Don’t be a spoilsport. I’ll go to Cash.”
“No,” he says, leaning forward, one fist bangs on the table, making me jump. “You won’t put yourself in harm’s way, and you won’t go over my head to Cash.”
We stare at one another.
“It isn’t in harm’s way if half the club is waiting outside watching, dummy.” I roll my eyes. “But geez, Saw, I think I like this overprotective, alpha side of you, damn. It’s a pity I only have another half an hour for lunch—”
“Don’t try to be cute and distract me from what you just said. These people are evil.” He lowers his voice. “They traffic people, babe, he wouldn’t think twice about nabbin’ you right there and then, you’re probably a wet dream to someone like him.”
“Yeah, but it would help. Barry never gets the address, and they don’t decide it until the day of the next cattle call, but if I flirt with Forest or one of his cronies enough, he might just tell me and then we’ll know beforehand where to lie in wait.” Yes, I did my homework.
“I hate how you’ve thought this through.”
I tap my head. “What can I say, I’m just a wealth of knowledge, not just a pretty face.”
Sawyer sighs, running a hand over his face. “I can’t let you do that.”
“Babe, don’t fight me on this. I want to help.
What are the chances that this Forest guy, or Barry’s associates, won’t realize soon when he doesn’t meet up with him and the dead guy?
” I say. “He’ll be expecting them at some stage.
When Barry and co don’t show up soon, he’ll know they’ve been infiltrated. ”
“I wish you weren’t so smart.”
I poke my tongue out. “It’s a great idea. He’ll think I’m just some dumb idiot and probably won’t think twice about spilling his guts for the location. It’s practically risk free. If he tries anything, you’ll be right out front with the cavalry.”
“Nova—”
“You know it’s a good plan.”
The silence is deafening, but I see the cogs turning in his head. “I’d never put you in harm’s way. Never.”
I set my cup back on the table, reaching for his hands instead.
“I know that, Saw. But this is critical. This Regi guy is a phantom. You’ve barely found anything on him since you found he was in New Orleans and you’re the best hacker I know.
That means he knows how to skate around the system, he’s slippery, and we have to be one step ahead of him. ”
“I’d never forgive myself if it went south.” He shakes his head. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I won’t—”
“Sawyer, don’t make me get mad at you.”
He frowns. “Would you really go over my head?”
“Yes,” I say, folding my arms over my chest. “I would, and it’s because I love you I will do anything. I want these assholes caught. He could’ve been the one who hurt you in the very beginning. Like you said, this is much bigger than any of us.”
“Clearly I told you too much the other night,” he gripes.
“We don’t have secrets,” I remind him.
“I don’t know, Princess. I don’t like it.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say, trying to sound reassuring. “Please let me do this, or at least volunteer. I’m part of the club by association, and I want to do what I can to help.”
“What if…”
I pique a brow. “I’m listening?”
“What if I could get someone else to come with you, so both of you could play the part? Stella? Or Luna maybe, she’d be up for it. I know Deanna would be willing, but there’s a chance she could be easily recognized as Cash’s ol’ lady.”
I brighten. “That’s a great idea. I’m sure Luna would be up for it, or Payden. Stella would be too recognizable because of Cale.”
Cale Callaghan, once a cop who worked with Willow and a thorn in the MC’s side, is now the mayor and an ally. He’s also Stella’s man, and Cash’s son.
“Let’s run it by Cash first, but note that I’m not happy with it, and I can change my mind at any time.” He really looks conflicted, and I try to hold back my glee.
I want to help. I don’t want to just sit here while the boys get their hands dirty. This is the only way I know how.
I clap my hands together. “I’m in.”
“I said I’ll run it by Cash first, and then there are your cousins to deal with. That’s gonna be fun. Imagine what they’re gonna think of me.”
“So we’ll go together and I’ll tell them it’s my idea,” I say.
He gives me a pointed look. “I don’t need you to vouch for me, but that is cute.”
“I don’t want to be cute, I want to be sassy. I want to do whatever I can, Saw, this whole thing is killing me inside.”
He sobers, his fingers lacing through mine. “I know that, which is why I don’t want you anywhere near it, but I also know how stubborn you are. You shouldn’t be volunteerin’ to put yourself in the firin’ line.”
“I won’t be, not with you and the brothers there.”
“You really think Logan, Brew and Haze are gonna agree to this?” he laughs. “Good luck with that. They’re not.”
“Well, you’re all a bunch of stupid asses. I’ll go over all your heads if I have to.”
He looks up at me again, his laughter subsiding. “What kind of ol’ lady are you gonna make? Not agreeing with my wishes?”
I open my mouth, but no sound comes out. “Ol’ lady?”
“You know when you hang at the clubhouse you’re fair game, the only reason nobody hits on you is because of your cousins.”
My eyebrows feel like they just hit the sky. “What in the actual fuck?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know. It’s like the bro code. You’re a club sister, for all intents and purposes, so they leave you alone, even when they don’t want to.”
I ignore that last comment. I know some of the guys look at me, but they’d never dare try their luck. “Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know. Is that what you want?” he repeats.
I hug myself without even realizing I’m doing it. “We just went from zero to a hundred.”
“You know I want to be with you, and this way it’ll show the brothers we’re serious. I don’t give a fuck what they think, or if they fire me. I’ll do my thing if I have to. But I can’t be without you. If you’re my ol’ lady at the clubhouse, it sends a message: that you belong to me.”
I listen to his words and repeat them in my head: you belong to me.
And I do.
“Ooh, so I won’t have JJ and that new prospect eyeing me up?” I laugh.
“They did that?”
I reach for him. “Relax, I’m kidding. Nobody dares say boo to me, thanks to all of you. But I think I’d like that. Does it mean I get to wear a cut that says: “Property of Sawyer?”
He blanches, blinking a couple of times. “You’d wear that?”
“If it’s good enough for Deanna, then yeah.”
Some of the women wear them, some don’t. I get the misogyny behind it, truly I do. But nobody is making anyone do anything by force. I want everyone to know who I belong to.
“You’d wear my cut?”
Smiling, I lean farther toward him. “I love you, I don’t care who knows it.” I press a kiss against his lips and he kisses me back. It’s quick; we are at a cafe owned by a club member, after all.
You never know who’s watching. I half expect Manny to pop up out of nowhere, clapping and saying, ‘Took you long enough!’
“I love you too, so say you’ll be my ol’ lady.” He looks so earnest that it makes tears well in my eyes.
It prompts me to ask, “Sawyer, what’s wrong?”
He shakes his head. “Nothin’.”
“Don’t lie to me. You always look down when you can’t speak the truth.”
“I’m not lyin’,” he says, his eyes finally meeting mine. “But I have my insecurities.”
“Like what?” I’m trying to be as gentle as I can, knowing how vulnerable he can be. I love we can be like this and talk to each other, which is why I value our friendship so much.
“I-I’m afraid of people leaving.”
His words sting me like I’ve been hit by surprise. I’m so stupid! I should’ve known this was one of his hang-ups, and here I am, making it all about me.
“Sawyer, I’m sorry, I didn’t think.”
He waves me off. “You didn’t do anythin’, Princess, it’s me. It’s always me.”
“No, that isn’t true,” I say, annoyed. “I made this about me and I didn’t think about how you could be feeling after everything that happened.”
He clears his throat. “My family left town. They didn’t want to, but when my mom met Chris, he got a good job. The cops basically told her it was a matter of finding my remains. They assumed I’d either run away or come to some grizzly demise. It was bleak.”
“Sawyer, that’s awful.”
“Mom didn’t want to leave, this was almost a decade later, I might add.
But she couldn’t do it anymore in the same house, and I get that.
She always thought I’d just turn up one day.
My dad was still alive then, and he convinced her to go.
I wasn’t dumb enough to think they’d forgotten about me.
I knew the pain I’d put them through. They thought I was dead, not Joel, though.
” Joel is Pipes, his brother. He smiles.
“And you know the story about Ryder bein’ Chris’s son. ”
I sigh. Yep, I’ve heard. “That goddamn mafia has a lot to answer for. All they did was ruin everyone’s lives.”
“A big feud wiped out most of them some time ago. Regi got kicked out before it all went down, so I guess that’s why he’s still breathin’.”
“I can barely keep up,” I admit. “But if you’ll talk to Cash, that would make me feel like I’m really helping.”
I’ve never asked permission for anything. I’m my own person. But it’s different with Sawyer. I know he just wants to protect me, not own me. Me wearing the Property of Sawyer cut was my idea. And I’ll wear it with pride. He’s just as much mine as I am his.
“I’ll talk to Cash and the brothers, then go from there, okay?” He reaches over and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. “And you also gotta remember you know nothin’.”
I pretend to zip my lips. “Okay.”
“Not that they’ll believe a word of that, and I know it’s hard because you’re so smart, but if you can—”
“Play dumb?” I wink at him. “Oh, babe, you’ve no idea how easy it is to wrap those cousins around my little finger. I’ve been doing it since I was five.”
He grins, leaning over to kiss me chastely. “You really will be the death of me, woman.”