Extreme Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 7) (2 page)

“Sure you do,” Tex replied. “We’re not gonna throw you in the trunk, and if you really want to take your chances, that’s your look-out. You’re a grown man. Your life, your call.”

“Oh.” Spider was a bit stumped. “Oh, right. Well… hang on a minute, OK?”

Honey sighed heavily and rolled her blue eyes. “One minute, and we’re out of here.”

Spider nodded, then walked across the room to the door. Tex just stared down at him, still leaning against it, arms still crossed.

“Um. Excuse me,” Spider said. “I need to go out there.”

“You think you’re heading on out there without me looking first, huh?” Tex said, sounding almost amused. “You really just don’t
get
it, do you?”

“Get what?” Spider asked.

“That you’re a fuckin’ dead man walking,” Tex said succinctly. “That me and Honey and King aren’t aiming to inconvenience you, or mess up your life, or cramp your trendy barista style. We’re trying to keep you in one goddamn piece – and all’s you’ve done thus far is tell us how unhappy you are about that.”

“I –” Spider stopped. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Honey said. “Just do what we say.”

“OK.” Spider took a deep breath. “Tex, could you please make sure that the café is clear? I need to get Mirrie in here.”

“Mirrie?” Tex said.

“Yeah. One of my staff.”

“What’s she look like?”

“Blonde hair. Nose ring. Neck tattoo.”

“The one wearing the purple skirt and red sweater and knee-high green boots?” Tex said.

Spider cocked his head. “You noticed her?”

“Hell, man,” Tex drawled. “We notice everybody. I can tell you what every single person in that room is wearing and what they look like… but let’s face it. Mirrie is memorable, no matter if you’re trained in personal security or not.”

“True.” Spider smiled for the first time in what felt like hours. “You guys know who she is?”

“Should we?” Honey rejoined, playing along though she knew
exactly
who she’d been looking at when she’d spotted Mirrie in her wild ensemble across the café. “Who is she?”

“She goes by the name Miranda Campbell now,” Spider says. “But her real name is Miranda Kane.”

“Kane?” Tex repeated softly. “Like… Sands and Joker Kane?”

“Yeah. Mirrie is Sands’ kid and Joker’s younger sister.”

“So… that makes her Shane MacIntyre’s girlfriend,” Tex said slowly, as puzzle pieces began to click into place.

“How’d you know that?” Spider said, startled. “How do you know Mac and Mirrie?”

“Never you mind,” Tex said roughly. “Lots of people are on our radars, man.”

Honey was silent, since she wasn’t able to talk about King’s Men ops with anyone except her fellow Men. The truth was that although Tex had been briefed on Mirrie Kane in a team meeting, Honey had actually
been
there the night that Shane ‘Mac’ MacIntyre had been taken by the Fallen Angels, and then a couple of King’s Men had been on a secret protective detail outside Mirrie’s apartment. It had all been an elaborate set-up, of course, with the end-goal being King shooting and killing Trigger MacGee, the Angels’ former President, and the man that Ace had taken over from.

The entire point of
that
op, of course, had been to blackmail Ace Cuddy. He’d been VP of the Fallen Angels then, and King had used Ace’s own gun – which he’d used to murder the President of the Road Devils, a rival MC, and which Spider himself had taken and hidden years before, as a sort of insurance policy – to kill Trigger. Ace’s fingerprints were all over it, and it was well-known whose distinctive weapon it was.

Essentially, King had given Ace a choice: take over as MC President and turn informant for King’s Men about Kirk Jensen’s dirty little deals – or King would make sure that Ace’s MC brothers not only knew that Ace had ‘killed’ Trigger with his gun, but that he was
also
gay.

Ace had crumbled, naturally, and that was how he’d ended up firmly in King’s pocket. He’d ratted Kirk Jensen and his own MC out, again and again, over and over, and King’s Men and the cops and feds had methodically smashed Jensen’s drug channels, his kidnapping rings, his sex-trafficking circles. People had died – mostly Ace’s own MC brothers, and Kirk’s favorite lieutenants. Kirk had known that someone close to him had betrayed him, of course, and he’d figured out soon enough that it had been Ace.

That
was how Ace and Kirk had ended up in that lonely cabin in the mountains that very afternoon, and why Ace had been forced into a corner. He’d pulled the trigger and shot Kirk – but that act had actually been determined the second that Ace had agreed to King’s terms and had turned traitor. It had been inevitable, and now it was like karma and fate and justice and hell had all come knocking at the door at the exact same damn time… and if King and his people didn’t move fast, lives were going to be laid to waste.

Starting with Ace and Spider’s.

“What do you want Mirrie for?” Honey asked Spider now.

“She’ll have to run the café while I’m gone,” Spider said. “I mean,
someone
has to.”

Honey was quiet again, since she knew that, actually, King wanted Mirrie to go into hiding, too. Oh, her need to disappear was less-urgent than Spider’s, of course, but it was still there. After all, she and Mac were actively disliked by the Fallen Angels, and her father and brother had
never
forgiven her for leaving the MC family as a young woman. Yes, she’d paid for that freedom, first in blood, then in losing Mac for years to keep him safe, but a debt to an MC could never be repaid, and it could never be walked away from.

But Mirrie wasn’t Honey’s job. She was Mac’s – and Mac was King’s. Besides, the truth was that the MC wouldn’t make harming Mirrie a priority… not when word got out that Ace had killed Kirk Jensen, and when they found the hidden pictures of their President with another man. Their heads were – quite literally – going to detonate with rage, and they’d be unable to think about
anything
except finding and killing Ace and Spider. Mirrie had some breathing room, for sure, so for now, Honey just nodded amiably.

“Let Tex take a look around then,” she said. “Then you can go get Mirrie. You bring her in here and talk to her in this office.”

“In front of you?” Spider faltered. “What do I – how much do I tell her?”

“Nothing,” Tex grated out. “
Nothing
, man. Not until King gives the all-clear on sharing intel.”

“So what am I supposed to say to explain you guys showing up, and me just disappearing? You think she isn’t going to figure out that something’s going on? Especially since she knows about me and Ace and all the ways that my life intersects with the Fallen Angels’ crap? She’s going to jump to the score, no doubt about it.”

“Let her.” Tex shrugged. “Let her think whatever she wants right now.”

“But… but that’s cruel!” Spider protested.

“No.” Honey’s voice was as hard as it ever got. “It’s practical and it’s not our concern. We have our orders, and they don’t involve Miranda Kane. So move it, Spider, because we need to have you at the safe house in forty-nine minutes, and Tex and I
never
miss an op deadline. You get me?”

“I get you.” Spider sighed. “I’ll do as you say.”

“Stay back, man.” Tex opened the office door, stuck his head out and gave the café a quick, searching glance. “OK, go. No messin’ around, now.”

“Yes, sir,” Spider muttered under his breath as he passed Tex, earning him a baleful glare from those astonishing green eyes. “No messin’ around, that’s a promise, over and out, officer.”

“Shut your smart mouth,” Tex snapped. “Haul ass, son.”

“So
bossy
,” Spider said, lowering his own voice to a playful, teasing level. “Though I
do
like that, on occasion.”

As he’d hoped, Tex just glowered harder, which made his drop-dead-sexy face
nothing
but hotter. Spider didn’t usually go for blonds, but he’d be more than happy to make an exception for
this
drawling, smoldering cowboy. He was delicious, with his orders and demands and growls about the time passing and standing there with those large arms crossed.

All of this was, of course, just a gigantic distraction, and not at all the point. Spider sighed, then stuck his head out of the office.

“Mirrie?” he called.

“Yeah, boss?” she called back from behind the counter.

“Come in here for a minute, OK?”

“Sure thing.”

She crossed the café floor, her dark-blonde hair shining and bouncing, her amazing violet eyes warm as she returned the customers’ greetings. As Tex and Honey had quite accurately pointed out, her clothing was a triumph of enthusiastic color and fearless combinations over anything even remotely practical, conservative or – some might say – tasteful or fashionable. But Mirrie didn’t give a damn about any of those things, and she dressed like she lived: brightly and proudly and vibrantly.

She came into the office, then stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Tex and Honey. Right away, she spun to pin Spider with a look.

“Who’s dead?” she demanded.

“Uh.” Spider grappled to look calm. “Nobody.”

“Don’t lie,” Mirrie said with an enviable eye-roll. “
Also
don’t treat me like a moron.”

Spider looked at Tex and Honey, his pleading desperation so huge that it was almost physical.

“Mirrie,” Tex said, his low voice rumbling out of his chest. “You know we can’t tell you anything, hon.”

“Don’t ‘
hon
’ me, Slick,” she shot back, making Honey grin. “And either you give me a clue what’s going on, or I’ll call King myself.”

“How’d you –” Spider caught himself. “Of course you know KIng’s involved.”

Mirrie rolled her eyes again, even harder, if that was at all possible. “Duh.”

“Mirrie,” Honey said, going for reasonable. “Mac will tell you everything soon.”

“Oh,
will
he?” Mirrie said, feigning delight. “So my big strong boyfriend knows what’s going on, does he?”

“Not yet.” Honey cocked her head at the other woman. “It’s a time-sensitive matter, Mirrie, and we need to haul ass out of here, and I mean
yesterday
. No time for histrionics or drama or hurt feelings. We need to get Spider out and away, and you need to cope with things here for him. Can you handle that?”

“With my eyes closed,” Mirrie said. “But I get no info before you all just waltz out the door?”

“None.” Tex was firm. “I know that’ll make you worry –”

“No.” Mirrie cut him off. “It’ll make me
angry
. I don’t like being told that nobody is dead, when it’s pretty obvious that
someone
is. Or, if nobody’s dead, then something close to the goddamn apocalypse has just gone down – ‘cause your types
never
show up like this unless the news is bad. Unless it’s the worst news, actually.”

“OK, look.” Honey sighed. “A bad guy is dead, alright? A
big
bad guy, and there’s going to be blow-back…”

“My brother?” Mirrie asked, her voice tiny. “Is Donovan dead?’

“Joker Kane’s real name is Donovan?” Tex said, a bit surprised. “Huh.”

“Yeah,” Mirrie said sharply, not at all shocked that this strapping, scowling guy knew exactly who she was related to. “And as you most certainly know, my brother is now head Enforcer of the Fallen Angels, under the command of President Ace Cuddy and Veep Nails Paxton.” She gave Spider another searching look, since she was well-aware of all
that
history between Ace and Spider. “So…
is
it Donovan?”

“Nah,” Tex said gently. “Joker’s OK. So’s your Dad.”

Mirrie nodded stiffly, taken aback – as always – at her relief. Yes, sure, she despised her father and brother, and everything that they stood for and believed in… and most of all for the fact that they’d participated in the group beating on her all those years ago. She’d had to voluntarily go through it to be permitted to leave the repulsive clutches of the Fallen Angels MC. Mirrie had been born into the nightmare of motorcycle club life, of course, and as a woman, she’d been considered club property. That beating had been her only way out… and she’d taken it. She’d also barely survived it.

Almost as bad – maybe even worse in some ways – was that the MC had taken Mac away from her for years and years. They’d told Mirrie that if she didn’t dump Mac without a warning or a word, they’d kill him right in front of her. Terrified and knowing full well that the Fallen Angels
never
fucking bluffed, Mirrie had left Mac alone and wondering where the hell she was. She’d walked away from him to save his life, and they’d only just gotten back together again. Ace had been strongly instructed by King to leave Mac and Mirrie alone, and so far, the shaky agreement had held. But if something big and bad had happened, and if that big, bad thing directly involved Ace, then the paper-thin protection may have been torn. The tentative truce may be over.

It may well be all-out war. Again.

And as Mirrie knew damn good and well, the Fallen Angels didn’t mess around. When they went to war, they laid waste to their entire world. They went after their enemies, without mercy or restraint, and they didn’t rest until those enemies were pulverized to dust, until they were literally blown off the face of the planet. Their capacity for rage knew no bounds; their thirst for revenge was never quenched; their lust for blood was never slaked.

They were human monsters. They were living nightmares. They were hell on earth.

Despite all of this, whenever she thought about Donovan being dead, or anything happening to her father, she felt something tighten up a bit in her chest. She’d loved her brother once, she’d adored her father once, and God knows, she still worried about her alcoholic, drug-addicted Mom and how she’d handle being left all alone and vacantly stuck in the MC life.

Her parents had never married, since her father hadn’t wanted that chain around his ankle, but he’d at least claimed Heather, Mirrie’s mother, by telling his MC brothers that she was totally off-limits to their dicks. But her status was shaky, and if anything happened to Mirrie’s father or brother, Heather would be fair game to the MC members – or maybe they’d just throw her out. Mirrie wasn’t sure which her mother would consider worse, to be honest.