High Voltage (12 page)

~ Minka ~

Make Me Believe

W
e arrive early at the biker bar in Hickory Creek
called Salt Peanuts. Dino climbs out of the SUV and gestures for me to follow
him. I remain in the car instead. My confidence is a mess since the conference
call. I overanalyze his every smile and word until I’m a ball of tension.

“I can’t go in there yet,” I say when he opens my
door and tugs me out.

“Afraid of redneck stink?”

“No. I’m afraid of you.”

Dino frowns, clearly unsure what to say. I press
him against the SUV and grip his slick black shirt.

“I need you to give me something that proves you
and I aren’t playing.”

“What do you want?”

“Tell me why you retired. I asked before, and you
blew me off. I want to know.”

“Why?”

“I want to see you vulnerable like I feel.”

Dino slides his hands down my hair. “Chicks never
cease to shock me with their weird emotion shit.”

“Do it or don’t, but save the insults.”

“Hey, don’t get so sensitive,” he says, digging his
fingers into my hair and caressing my cheek with his thumbs. “I just don’t know
where this is coming from.”

“You mean too much to me, and I’m feeling insecure.
Think of this as a test. If you fail it, I’ll run away screaming like a
dumbass. Did I make it clear enough?”

“You sure are sexy when you scream.”

“Is that your answer?”

Dino studies me, and I feel on display. I don’t
know what he’s thinking, but he finally smiles.

“No, but you gotta give me some emotional shit
later tonight to make us even. We have a deal, Miss Apples?”

“Deal,” I say, still tugging at his shirt. “This is
your fault for making me fall for you.”

“Yeah, I didn’t plan that out well enough.”

“Tell me why you quit,” I whisper, resting my head
against his chest.

Music blasts from overhead speakers around the
packed parking lot. All of the noise disappears except for his heartbeat and
voice.

“I was a big fucking deal back in Jersey. You know
how that works with these organizations. Everyone knows who you are and gets
out of the way. You get free shit from people. Women throw themselves at you.
Even if you want to fuck the wife of a normal schmo, he lets you. Fear was our
currency more than cash. That’s the life I knew since I was eighteen. If I
wanted something, I got it.”

The sound of departing Harleys forces us to turn to
watch the men roar from the parking lot. Once they disappear around a corner, I
look back at Dino.

“My father was hit by a car over a year ago. I
loved my dad. When he died, I demanded revenge. That’s what we do. Someone
fucks with us, and we fuck with them twice as hard. My father was killed by a
hit and run driver, and I planned to kill the asshole. Not quickly either.
Those next few weeks after the funeral, I thought of a lot of ways to torture
the asshole to death. I finally decided I would break every bone in his body
and then bury him alive. I wanted the fucker to know every bit of pain.”

Wrapping him tighter in my arms, I ask, “Did your
dad suffer?”

“No. He was walking across the street after work.
When the car hit him, Dad bounced off the hood and hit his head on the curb.
Probably died instantly, but that didn’t matter. He was my father, and I’m a
made man. I don’t fucking let that shit slide.”

I kiss him gently. His dark gaze is angry, yet I
know he’s still hurting about his dad. Everything he’s ever told me about his
family screams tight-knit parents who frigging adored their kids.

“I found the guy after a few months of tracking
leads. I picked a night to break into his house. I was going to fuck him up,
you know?”

“Did you fuck him up?”

“He was an old guy,” Dino says in a rough voice.
“Like my dad. When I broke in, the guy was sleeping. I stood in his living room
where every wall was covered with pictures of him with his family. I saw
pictures of him at his wife’s grave. I saw his grandkids holding balloons at a
party. I saw them all together at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The guy’s entire
fucking life was on the walls in those pictures. I looked at them, and I saw
the guy as a real person, and I still wanted to torture and kill him.”

“Did you kill him?” I push when he doesn’t
continue.

“I was gonna. I walked into his bedroom where he
slept, and I had it all planned out. Then I saw him and…” Dino studies my face.
“Don’t laugh.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“I might if I was someone else listening.”

“Well, I’m not someone else. I’m Minka Mauve
Appleby.”

“Mauve?”

“Don’t try to distract me.”

Dino smiles slightly, but he’s tense. “Well, Mauve,
I see that old man curled up alone in that big bed, and I freeze up. He looks
like my dad. I can imagine my father driving too fast one night and not seeing
someone until it was too late. I think my dad would have stopped, but this old
man probably panicked. Maybe he thought he hit one of the made men from around
the area. I didn’t know why he kept going, but he was just an old man living
alone.”

Dino caresses my hair. “This feeling came over me
that night. Guilt or shame, I guess. It was a cold, ugly feeling that I
couldn’t shake even after I left his house. I ended up calling in an anonymous
tip to the cops. They arrested the old man. He claimed he thought he hit a dog.
I don’t know if that’s true. It doesn’t matter. They gave him a deal, so he did
community service and lost his license. They also made him write a letter of
apology to my mother. I guess for an old man in his circumstances, that’s what
he deserved. Ever after all of that, I still had that ugly feeling inside me.”

“You showed mercy. That’s not so weird really,
Dino. You were a hitman, not a serial killer. Bad guys paid you to kill other
bad guys.”

“I know, but I was gonna kill that old man,” he
says, staring into my eyes. “I saw him smiling with his grandkids, and I knew
he was old as shit, and I still planned to kill him. I felt I
deserved
to kill him. Most of the men I knew would have killed him and never gave it a
second thought. I figured I was that kind of man too. Knowing I wasn’t fucked
me up, and I lost my stomach for the job.”

“So, you just left?”

“I told my boss I was retiring. He wasn’t happy, so
I told him that if something happened to me or my mom that I had a bunch of
info he wouldn’t want getting out. Where the bodies were buried and the money
was hidden. The names of the cops and law-types they had on the payroll. I told
him I wasn’t a rat, and the info wouldn’t go to the cops. All that evidence
would be handed over to his enemies. See what they’d do with it. He still
wasn’t happy, but what can he do? He wasn’t going to call my bluff. Not after
Frankie fucked over another family. I guess he figured our family was full of
bad seeds.”

“I want to know more about Frankie one day,” I say
when I notice again how Dino flinches whenever he says his brother’s name.
“Until then, thank you for telling me why you quit.”

“You feel better?”

Staring up at him, I know I’m completely screwed. I
love this guy, and I’m not letting go. His story calms my panic, leaving me
resigned to my fate. I love Dino, and he better as hell really love me.

~ Dino ~

Bikers Butting Heads

M
inka remains in a weird mood as we sit again in the
SUV and wait for Johansson’s men. I don’t push her because I’m feeling off too.
Talking about my dad always makes me tense. He was a good man, and his death
taught me ugly lessons about myself. I might be my father’s son, but I don’t
have his good heart.

Three arriving Harleys belong to Johansson’s guys.
I’m not in the mood to see them or play nice with the other biker assholes. I
want to sulk or get Minka naked under the sheets.

“Let me do the talking,” Minka says.

“Because I’m an ape?”

“Because you’re distracting when you start the dick
measuring contests. I don’t care how big their dicks are and neither should
you. We’re here to convince these assholes to stay out of Common Bend, not that
you’ll kill them for looking at my tits.”

“They’re great tits, though.”

“Yeah, they are,” she says, giving me a wink. “Now,
let my bitchiness run the show inside, okay?”

“No skin off my ass either way. I only took this
job to hang out with you.”

Minka gives me a look that makes my poor overused
dick twitch.

“Behave yourself,” I warn while opening my door.

After checking our weapons, Minka and I join the
Reapers at the front door. They frown at us.

“I thought we were meeting before coming here.”

“We changed our minds,” Minka says. “Save your
pouting for those wives back in Ellsberg.”

Vaughn grunts. “You just better not let yourselves
get dazzled by the pretty twins.”

Minka gives the bikers the once-over and shakes her
head. “I like my men a bit more cleaned up.”

“They’re pouting,” I say, smiling at Minka, who
checks her gun just for show.

“Whatever I say inside is between Rafael and me,”
she tells the bikers. “If you have issues with my bullshit, take it up with
your boss after we finish here.”

Judd and Vaughn share a look. I think maybe they
get how Minka will likely bluff. Tucker not only doesn’t get it, but he doesn’t
get how he’s supposed to get anything. He’s large and intimidating, and I’m
sure he’ll come in handy as a human shield.

Judd opens the bar’s front door, and Minka hurries
inside before him. The dark-haired biker gives me a look.

“Save the death stares for the other bikers,” I
say, walking inside.

Salt Peanuts is oppressively hot and crowded.
Country music plays so loudly I doubt anyone can hear themselves think, let
alone keep up a conversation. Despite the bar’s flaws, the location makes sense.
The Serrated Brotherhood was smart to organize a meeting with two paid killers
and three club enforcers at a public place.

In a back booth, we meet Viking twins Dayton and
Camden Rutgers. They shoo away their female companions before putting on big
smiles for us.

“Tuck the Fuck,” one of them says, shaking Tucker’s
hand.

“Dayton,” Tucker says and then shakes the other
twin’s hand. “Camden.”

The lumberjack-looking men are identical except for
one has his blond hair pulled back into a ponytail while the other has his hair
loose. They both look smelly and crappy in bed. I feel like sharing these facts
with Minka.

She shows no reaction to either man. Of course, she
showed no reaction to me either when we first met, and I had that chick hooked
day one.

Vaughn gestures at us. “This is Jane and Anthony.”

“Who do you work for again?” Camden asks.

“Our boss is connected to Memphis,” Minka says,
picking her words carefully.

Dayton and Camden share a look. I catch Judd and
Vaughn doing the same. Rather than two warring sides, Minka has created a
third. I’m wondering if we’ll both fit behind Tucker when the bullets start
flying.

“You helped Ruby,” Dayton says like it’s a
question.

Minka gives a slight nod. I only stare at the men,
waiting for a sign of trouble.

“She’s a family friend, so I guess that means we
owe you.”

Ruby’s unwillingness to ask for help from these
family friends makes me wonder what bullshit they’re pulling. Minka is thinking
the same thing. I know that because I know her. Expression-wise, she’s unreadable.

“We don’t want anything from you.”

Dayton scratches his blond beard. “I thought you
were here to tell us that Common Bend still belongs to the Reapers even though
they haven’t controlled it in months.”

“We came here to tell you that Common Bend’s current
leadership will be removed in seventy-two hours.”

“Why seventy-two?” Camden pushes. “We could do it
now.”

“Yes, you could. The person coming to remove the
new leadership of Common Bend will remove whoever is in charge when he arrives.
Either way, he won’t be here for seventy-two hours. Until then, we’re supposed
to sit tight and play nice.”

“Is this mystery man possibly named Saint?” Dayton
asks, mentioning Rafael’s old assassin code name.

“Saint’s retired,” she says, waving over the
waitress. “Kingman isn’t.”

The men tense immediately. They know that name.
I’ve heard it too over the years. Kingman works for the Arizona Moving Company,
which is the Southwest’s version of Murder, Inc. The assassin agency uses
Arizona cities for their code names. Kingman has been around for over a decade
and reportedly killed three judges in California. Now Minka’s bluffing about
the bastard heading to Common Bend.

Minka orders two shots of Cactus Juice Liqueur
while the men have intense silent conversations. Ignoring them, Minka hands me
a shot and says, “To our Arizona friends.”

She downs her shot and shudders at the flavor. I do
the same except without the reaction. The liqueur takes like shit, but I have a
tough guy rep to protect.

“Seems like a lot of effort,” Camden finally says,
“for one little town.”

“Cops are a tricky target. I assume that’s why you
haven’t removed the threat yourself.”

“It’s one reason, yeah.”

“I’m assuming our club is the other reason,” Vaughn
adds, looking grumpy for the first time since arriving. “If shit gets messy,
it’ll be in your backyard, not ours.”

“Nothing is getting messy,” I announce. “The status
quo makes everyone happy, and why shouldn’t we want to be happy?”

Minka glances at me, and I see a hint of relief in
her dark eyes. “In a little over seventy-two hours, our problem will be solved,
and happiness will break out like a fucking rash. Now can we go?”

Minka doesn’t wait for their answer. She hands the
waitress cash for the drinks plus a tip. Nodding at the twins, she walks past
their big burly henchmen and out of the bar.

“I look forward to a time when we can text these
things and save on gas,” I say before leaving.

Outside, Minka and I wait while the bikers do their
bravado handshake bullshit. I miss that kind of showmanship of armed people
trying to impress and frighten each other. I wonder if Minka misses her old
life as a contract killer.

“Why did you retire?” I ask while we wait.

“Since leaving my mom’s house, I never stopped
moving. Eventually, I got tired of traveling. I wanted to find a place and put
down roots, so I convinced Troy to give Rafael’s setup a shot.”

“Good thing you did,” I murmur, giving her ass a
quick slap.

“Don’t spank me in public. It’s not professional.”

I’m laughing when the Reapers leave the bar. They
aren’t happy about my good mood, but their anger focuses mainly at Minka. She
sees Vaughn about to complain and waves him off. Walking to the SUV, she
glances around, and I also wonder if we’re being watched.

“You called in the Arizona Moving Company?” Vaughn
demands before lowering his voice when Minka glances around again. “Are you
nuts?”

“No. What are you so fucking worked up about?”

“His old club was out of Arizona,” Judd explains.

“The Devils?” I ask. “They’re dead, you know? I
read about it in the papers during a stopover in Chicago. What’s the problem?”

“Cooper doesn’t want Arizona involved.”

Minka steps up to Vaughn, ready to throw down with
the giant man. I’m ready to shoot anyone who so much as looks at her wrong.

“We don’t answer to you or Cooper,” Minka says in a
hard, quiet voice. “I would also remind you that the Arizona Moving Company has
nothing to do with your old crew. Finally, I think you need to keep in mind
that you’re standing in Serrated Brotherhood territory. You might want to keep
from pissing yourself until you’re somewhere a little more neutral.”

Judd pats Vaughn's back. I never truly worry the
confrontation will turn violent. These guys aren’t stupid. Even Tucker keeps
his head on straight.

“You better know what you’re doing,” Vaughn says, stepping
away.

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

Minka slides into the car and shuts the door. I
don’t acknowledge the men before joining her in the SUV. They only have eyes
for Minka anyway. She’s pushed their buttons. Now they’ll want to run everything
past Cooper before acting. No doubt the bikers inside the bar are also having a
little meeting.

“Why seventy-two hours?” I ask while pulling the
car out of the parking lot.

“I figure that’ll give us enough time to kill
Black.”

Grinning, I stop at a light. “The cactus juice was
a nice touch.”

Minka shares my smile. “Thanks, but I think I might
puke now. Man, that was gross.”

“I could stick my tongue in your mouth if you think
that would help.”

“Later, Dino,” she says, patting my cheek. “I’d
like to stop by Ruby’s place and check on her first.”

“Because you’re a sweetheart worried over her or
because you want info?”

“Can’t it be both?”

My smile says what I can’t. Minka is too fucking
fascinating to ever let go. Even if she smacks me upside the head every day for
the rest of our lives, I’ve found my Missus Dino.