Force: Blacktop Sinners MC (10 page)

“No, I mean it. Get the fuck out of my home. You’re not welcome here anymore. I don’t need you, and I certainly don’t need your help,” she finished, gesturing to her naked throat. “I think you’ve helped more than enough already. They clearly only found me because they were watching
your
house, tailed you well enough to see you drop me off. If I didn’t know you, those barbarians wouldn’t have found me!”

He scrambled to her feet and tried to scoop her up in a hug. She side stepped him again and shook her head. “Tess, please, just listen.”

“Not anymore and not ever again,” she said, tapping her foot until he took the hint and rushed out the door. “Don’t come back, Derek. There’s nothing left for you here.”

After she heard his truck peel off, she shut the door and then dead bolted it in place. She was shaking so hard that she felt like her bones might rattle completely apart. Reaching into her pockets, she breathed a sigh of relief when she found her cell. Tess dialed her number one on speed dial.

“Lizzy? It’s Tess. Don’t ask questions and don’t wait. I need you to get the brown paper bag out of my locker and get it to my Mom’s house.” She hesitated as Lizzy started into a barrage of questions on the other end. “No, it’s okay. I just need you to get that bag to my house. I’ll cover for any hassle Dr. Malek gives you. I…well I’ll see you soon.”

She clicked off, confident her friend would deliver in the clutch. After all, Lizzy always had before.

Right now?

Right now, Tess needed a minute to get herself under control before she went home. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do with that blade, but she needed time to think.

After she cried.

Because, sitting on the cold, unyielding floor of her apartment, Tess curled into a ball and cried, cried for her lost necklace and her dead brother, cried out of fear of her safety, but mostly she cried because she was still in love with Derek Allanson, and he wasn’t the man she thought he was.

Not by a long shot.

Chapter Fifteen

Tess cried for longer than she should have. Hell, it was the most she’d cried since Jason’s accident and death. She hated feeling weak like that; she was usually an expert in a crisis. It was a required skill as an E.R. nurse after all. The last few days—God, had it been that little time—had done a number on her. She’d fallen hard for the charming and incredibly hot Derek Allanson, who had initially claimed he was in “security.” She’d assumed maybe a campus guard for App State here in Boone, NC. That was far from the truth. It turned out the man who’d charmed her, made her actually
feel
for the first time since her brother’s death, was nothing more than a hitman for the biggest meth gang in the city, The Blacktop Sinners. He’d only been coming onto her so hard in order to get her to help him get his paws on evidence of his latest murder, a bloody knife.

She’d tested it herself when he’d left it at the hospital.

It was covered in human blood, and he had no way to deny that. The knife, paired with her friend, Lt. Ricardo Jimenez’s, talk of a deadly warehouse shootout, led her to assume that Derek was nothing more than a lousy criminal who was trying to hide the evidence of a gang meet-up gone horribly, horribly wrong.

But the worst part was that his own gang had hunted her down first, tired of games over the knife. She’d had a huge biker slap her across the face and had been terrified they’d do
worse
. Tess was lucky to be alive. Okay. Not luck. Derek had shown up like a knight in leather to save her. She’d thrown him out right after. She didn’t need him or his damn games. He’d gotten her into this underworld mess, and turning the switch blade over to Ricardo and letting the Boone P.D. deal with it might be the only thing that would get her back out of it.

Getting to her feet, Tess hurried to her bathroom and then recoiled at the sight. Her shirt was torn at the collar, her mascara was splotchy, and her left cheek was red and had a clear palm print beginning to well up. Splashing cold water on her face, Tess had to think of what to do and where to go from here. The blade was easy to get, and she was going to arrange a meet-up with her friend Lizzy, and Ricardo’s girlfriend, in order to figure out what else to do with it.

“Okay, you can do this, Tess. Just get the blade and get it to Mom and Dad’s; that’s all.”

She shivered a bit at the cold water on her cheeks and hurried to her room. Tess would change double time and high tail it to Asheville. If they asked her about her nascent bruise, she’d lie. It was, unfortunately, not too hard to do. Sometimes they had psychotics or people coming off of PCP and bath salts come in. There were definitely times when she’d tried to restrain someone only to be smacked for her efforts.

Sighing, she reached up to grab the simple silver chain of the St. Christopher medal. It had been her brother’s, and she’d worn it every day of the five years since he’d died. Tess wanted to scream when she remembered it was gone. The biker gang---those awful Blacktop Sinners---had manhandled her so badly that she’d lost it somewhere being dragged out of her car.

Just another loss that came to her because of Derek Allanson.

It felt almost like what was one more?

***

“Tess? What on Earth happened?” Her mom asked as she stepped into the front hall of her parents’ home a few towns over.

She smiled back as best she could at her mom. Ella Everhart had adopted Tess and her brother, Jason, out of the foster system when she’d only been eight. Her mom had never treated her like anything other than her daughter and never showed favoritism to her biological daughter, Tess’s older sister Sarah. There were fewer sights more comforting than her mom looking back at her with concern, the streaks of white in her strawberry blonde hair the only sign that time had passed so thoroughly since Tess was a kid. She wished terribly that this was a time when her mother could just throw her arms around her, get her some tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, and rock her until all her problems went away.

That wasn’t possible. She was in far bigger trouble than that.

Still, there was no way she was going to tell her parents that she’d been inadvertently dragged into a crazy gang war. That was something that would scare her parents terribly and wasn’t fair to anyone. So, she was forcing that brave face forward, and smiling so hard that she felt like her cheeks would freeze like that.

“It’s nothing, Mom,” she said passing directly by her mom and heading to the kitchen. Like usual, her mom had some baked goods lying around. Tess grabbed some soft-baked chocolate chip cookies and tried to comfort herself with a sugar overload. Again, some things never changed even if she was in her twenties and not eight. “We had a psychotic come in, and he got a shot in before they could fully get the Haldol shot in him.”

“My God. I know you love your job, Tess, but if it’s that dangerous, can’t you switch to the maternity floor or pediatrics? Some place where you won’t get hit?”

Tess frowned a little even as she chewed her cookie. She’d always maintained with Lizzy that she was boring, always studying to get ahead in her classes for higher certification when not actually on the clock. God, after Jason had died in a horribly bloody motorcycle crash, she’d never done so much as jay walk. It really never occurred to her that the emergency department could be considered dangerous. It was just a day in the life for her, just the world she thrived in. Mostly, they had guards, and the patients were usually grateful and manageable. It wasn’t some war zone.

No, that was what her life had erupted into because she’d been foolish enough to trust one Derek Allanson, liar extraordinaire.

“Mom, it’s the first time this has happened.”

Actually, it had never happened to her. Once Lizzy had gotten a black eye from a tweaker, but Tess just needed better taste in dates actually.

“Still, after everything…” her mom trailed off and looked away.

She hadn’t heard her mom say Jason’s name out loud since the funeral. She’d given the eulogy, but after that, she would only say “your brother” at most or trail off like she had then. Tess figured they all dealt with grief in their own ways. She was one to talk; after all, it was impossible to even walk into her brother’s bedroom all the way. However, the reminder of everything they’d lost bit fresh into her heart.

Tess couldn’t wait for Lizzy to get here. The sooner they got the switchblade out of here, as if it were the world’s worst hot potato, the better.

“I know,” she said, taking pity on her mom and patting her hand. “I get it, but the job really is safe, and this isn’t going to happen again; I’ll see to it.”

“As long as you complain to Boone General and get the security and staff you need, dear.”

“I will, and I’m sorry to show up here for some rest looking like Rocky.”

“I was going to ask? Did they give you time off after the incident?”

“Uh, yeah,” she lied. “I had to get workman’s comp stuff started, and they said to take the next week off. I assume trying to sweeten the pot so I won’t sue.” To be honest, she had a ton of vacation time saved up that she never seemed to use. That was one advantage of being stalwart and boring. Until she had the Blacktop Sinners off her case, Tess figured now was the time to cash in those hours.

“That’s good, sweetie. You can stay in your old room, and I’ll make some roast chicken for dinner, just like you love.”

“Great,” she said, trying to play the dutiful daughter role as best as she could. “Alright, Lizzy is coming over soon too. Is that okay?”

“Of course, you know we love a full house. Your sister is visiting too, so it’s just everyone.”

Tess nodded and tried to stay smiling. Sarah and she rarely got along so she was far from looking forward to seeing her, still, she was the one dropping in last minute. “Perfect. I need to get a nap. I think all the adrenaline from earlier is leeching out of my system.”

“Understandable,” her mom said, her eyes twinkling as she grinned. “Please take care of yourself. This family… it’s been through too much already.”

“Trust me,” she replied. “I plan on it.”

Chapter Sixteen

“Holy shit, chica, you look like you got the shit kicked out of you,” Lizzy said as she made her way into Tess’s childhood bedroom. In spite of the dire situation, her rubenesque friend chuckled at the
Backstreet Boys
posters on her wall. “Really? You couldn’t be more middle America if you tried.”

Tess rolled her eyes and accepted the beyond valuable paper bag from her friend. She’d hidden the blade in her locker and had Lizzy get it from work to bring here. It was for the best as she was sure the Blacktop Sinners had been stalking her since she left Derek’s house after their first date. If she’d tried the same thing, she’d be splattered on a parking lot’s pavement by now.

“We can’t all have the street cred of sneaking into dive bars for indie bands in high school.”

“Sure, you say that, but then can you explain the obsession with pink? Looks like Pepto Bismal got loose all over here.”

“Mom thought it was girly, and Sarah always had a soccer theme, and never mind. My room is awesome; it all goes to making up me.”

“It’s cute you think that,” Lizzy chirped, sitting cross-legged on the bed in front of her. “Now spill. I had to lie my ass off and roll with whatever weird ass cover story you’ve been giving out that you had a ‘patient’ slap the crap out of you on the floor. That’s on top of you having me go all cloak and dagger to sneak a bag out of your damn locker, as if you couldn’t do it. So what the hell is going on?”

She sighed and opened the bag’s lip and then dumped it out in front of her friend. “It’s nothing I could explain just on a cell.”

Lizzy’s eyes got so wide that, for a moment, Tess was scared that they’d roll right out of her head. “What is that?”

She sighed and gestured to the blade. “It’s what you think it is---a switchblade with dried human blood on it. I did the test myself from a small flake sample to see what proteins it had. I didn’t trust the knife’s owner to tell me the truth. I was afraid of being fed some story filled with bull like that it was from hunting deer.”

“You don’t do that with this. That’s for Bowie knives, things made to skin,” Lizzy said and then threw her hands up when Tess gaped back at her. “What? Like only anglos hunt? My dad and brother do deer and rabbits both. This wouldn’t be a good animal knife at all, not really. So who the fuck gave you this?”

“Well, now that you mention it, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Sexy did.”

“Wait? Allanson the hot biker who I called for you.”

Tess gritted her teeth and nodded. “Don’t remind me. Bastard told me he was in ‘security,’ but that’s code for he roughs people up and way, way worse for the Blacktop Sinners biker gang.”

“Shit, chica, they’re the worst of the worst. You know what Ricardo says about them!”

“I do, and I have no doubt this was a key piece of evidence from the warehouse stuff he was involved in, too. I think that the reason Derek wiped out at all was because he was fleeing and trying not to go to jail for murder. I mean, Jesus, how could I have been so stupid?”

Lizzy sighed and gave her a tight hug. Tess relaxed into the gesture; she needed all the comfort she could get currently. “I was bowled over too. He was so cute, and it had been so long since you’d smiled like that. I never should have pushed anything or made the stupid phone call. I guess there’s a reason the hospital has the policies it does. I didn’t think criminals would be part of that, but damn.”

Tess pulled back and swiped at her eyes. God, she’d blame allergies later if Lizzy called her out on it. “I was weak too. I should have stuck to my guns but, yeah, it was very dumb for you to do that.”

Lizzy’s eyes narrowed, and her tone changed to Arctic levels of chilly. “Excuse me?”

“Well, I think that if you’d just let it lie, I never would have called him period. I’m not really blaming you though,” Tess added hastily.

“Sounds like it.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“No it is. I overstepped, I got that, but you
never
do anything. I watch you waste away a little more each year since your brother died. It’s like the funny, smart girl I knew in nursing school died on the same day. That’s
not
what Jason would have wanted for you at all.”

“You don’t know what he would have wanted, and it’s impossible to be happy.”

“You looked like it when we were getting you ready to see Derek. I hadn’t seen you laugh or get excited like that in half a damn decade.”

“Well he turned out to be a crazy murdering thug. Clearly, you were wrong, Lizzy.”

“Then” she said, leaning back against the headboard. “I see that I’m not needed. I can go. Except, what are you going to do with that. It’s a goddamn murder weapon. Why didn’t you just text me or something and have me take it directly to Ricardo, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars?”

“Because,” Tess countered. “I still don’t know what I’m going to do with it.”

“You did hear the part where I told you it’s a murder weapon. This is basically catching Derek red handed, even down to the red crusted blood on its hilt. What’s there to hesitate on?”

Tess bit her lip, confused about everything. Her blood was boiling but only part of that was rage. Most of it, granted, was anger but a large part of her was still attracted to Derek. He’d been so kind and gentle with her when they’d made love---it had been too sweet to be just fucking---under the stars. She didn’t think his own sorrows in the foster care system had been a ruse either. It was too authentic. Before the Everharts, she’d known the pain of peanut butter and jelly and being dismissed or forgotten too.

But he’s a murderer, Tess, and a damn drug dealer. You have to let him go.

Beyond that, though, she was scared to relinquish the weapon to Ricardo. Boone P.D. wasn’t exactly the FBI. Even with Lizzy as a go between, well, there was no guarantee the facts about the blade wouldn’t leak to the Sinners. Besides, when they had enough to take in Derek or the whole damn club, they’d know exactly who had turned in the blade because Tess was the
only
person who knew where it was.

There would be retaliation.

She had no doubt of that.

Scared, she rubbed her cheek and winced at how swollen and painful it had already grown. They could go after her family and Lizzy and Ricardo both. Besides, if they were such extensive meth dealers in this town, didn’t it follow they had people in the police department and mayor’s office under their thumbs?

If she or Lizzy or both of them turned the blade over, she’d be signing the death warrant for everyone she loved.

“How well could the Boone P.D. even protect us? Once it’s in evidence and they start busting up the clubhouse, the Sinners will know. I can’t explain to my parents why their house was burned to the ground. God, what if they came after you and put a bullet in your head?”

“They wouldn’t. Ricardo’s great, and the cops are competent.”

“Do you want to bet your life on the fact everyone in the Boone P.D. is on the level?”

“Do you want to hide a murder weapon and never force Derek and his gang to face justice?”

Tess brushed a hand through her long, pale gold hair. “I promised Mom not an hour ago that I’d always play it safe from now on. We’ve been through too much for one stupid one night stand to get us all roughed up or killed.”

Despite everything, Lizzy grinned. “So you guys did?”

“God, Lizzy, yes, but it was a huge mistake. He’s a monster. I just need a few days to figure this out, a way to get it anonymously to the station. The Blacktop Sinners won’t get away with anything, but I’m not going to get you or my family hurt by doing it the sloppy way, okay?”

“As long as you’re not backing out of the right thing because of blue eyes and a six pack.”

“Oh it’s an eight pack,” she said, blushing even at the thought of Derek’s amazing abs.

Lizzy glared back at her. “Do the right thing. I agree we can’t be too fast about it or be obviously traced, but we have to do the right thing. I…you have a week and then I have to tell Ricardo. I love him, and I can’t lie to him. That’s not right.”

“Alright, deal,” Tess said, biting her lower lip and already trying to run through whatever options she might have. “So Mom said she’d make extra chicken for tonight. Do you want to stay? Get some more fuel before an hour ride home?”

“No, not this time. Not when I’m your scapegoat,” Lizzy said, stomping out of the room.

***

“I noticed that Lizzy left in quite a hurry,” her mom said, as she finished slicing a huge piece of apple pie for her.

Tess sighed and started stabbing half-heartedly at the crust with her fork. “She actually has work coming up tomorrow. She was just tired and needed the rest.”

“She peeled out so fast that she left graveling flying around all over everywhere,” Sarah said.

“Sarah, Dan, maybe it’d be best if you left,” her mother said.

“I understand dear,” her father replied, standing and helping to usher Sarah to the living room.

Tess frowned and pushed her plate away completely. If there was going to be a serious conversation, then she had no energy to eat. “It’s complicated. Lizzy’s been setting me up on bad blind dates and pressuring me to get out there more.”

“That’s not a terrible idea.”

“Trust me, this time it was. Derek was a complete freaking disaster.”

“Maybe, but you must be hung up on him even now.”

“Why?”

“Because,” her mom said, smirking back at her. “You mentioned his name. I don’t think you’ve done that since the accident.”

“Mom---”

“Sweetie, I know you loved your brother. I understand how much you two meant to each other since it was originally you two against the world.”

“He was my only biological relative left,” she said, her tone brittle. She rarely said things like that because it hurt her mom and dad’s feelings, but she still had felt closer to Jason than anyone in the world. Him being snuffed out like that was the harshest pain she’d ever known, although the sting of betrayal from Derek was a close second. Tess hated being treated like a fool.

“I’m so sorry, but if Lizzy was encouraging you to get back into life, then I think I’m on her side.”

“And I’m trying.”

She sighed and stroked Tess’s hair from across the table. “I wish you were. Sweetie, it’s like both of you died, and I hate that for you.”

Tess stood quickly and shoved the chair hard under the table. “I can’t do this right now. Everything with Derek is way too complicated. I have to go.”

Her mom reached out for her hand but Tess pulled away. “You can’t run away from pain forever. Honey, you just have to stop running.”

“Maybe I feel like I’ll never stop,” she said as she rushed out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Tess stopped at the threshold to Jason’s room and eased open the door. Unbidden, she turned the knob and let it swing open. It was impossible to go in, or at least she’d always felt that way. It was like the perfect tomb or shrine, nothing changed from before, even his fun fossil kit she’d bought him frozen half finished. If she tried hard enough and built up her denial fiercely, Tess could imagine him rushing in late and coming into his room to finish everything. It was a fantasy she’d indulged in for so long.

It was something that kept her sane, even if denial wasn’t healthy long term.

It was all she had.

Biting her lip, Tess tried to force back an idea, one she wished she hadn’t had. Something deep inside of her was whispering that she had the perfect place to hide the switchblade until it was time. She’d be staying with her parents this week and Mom had used “just doing laundry” in the past as a way to snoop through things. The last thing Tess needed was to explain a bloody weapon in her damn underwear drawer.