Love's Hope (The Unknowns Motorcycle Club Book 2) (3 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Alex stayed at Amanda’s house until she had gotten squared away behind her computer and started working for the day. They shared a long kiss at her computer desk before he headed out to start his own day off. He walked out to his motorcycle and looked back to Amanda’s house, studying like a man in a dream.

Was he in love with her? No. Was he ready to say that he was in the middle of something that made him want to re-evaluate the rest of his life? Maybe. One thing was certain: looking at her house and trying to imagine coming home to it every day to meet her inside formed an anxious knot of hope in his stomach that made him more than uncomfortable.

On top of that, he knew that if there was a relationship brewing between them, it was not the best idea to kick it off with a fairly big lie, but that’s where he found himself as he finally kicked his bike to life and started down the street towards the busier parts of the city. He was unfamiliar with the city, so he had to follow the signs, eventually coming to a small strip mall that was only modestly busy as noon came around.

Alex parked his bike at the far end of the lot and took his cellphone out of his jacket pocket. He looked at it for a moment with one word swirling around in his head.
Tulsa, Tulsa, Tulsa…

Nerves on edge, Alex pulled up the only number he could think of while his heart slammed in his chest, hoping this was all some really messed up coincidence. He just hoped Slim would be awake and not sleeping off a massive drinking binge from the night before. Thinking of Slim, Alex felt the first true pangs of regret for the decision he made to turn tail on the Unknowns.

God,
he thought.
I wonder how pissed Jameson is.

He found that he didn’t even want to think about that just yet. So before he could change his mind, he sent a call through to Slim. He listened to the phone ring several times on the other end, and then he was surprisingly delighted to hear his friend’s voice.

“Alex,” he said. “Good to hear from you, man.”

“How’s it going?”

“Crazy, man. I’m not going to lie to you… you leaving the way you did is kicking up a massive shit storm.”

“How so?” Alex asked, nearly afraid to hear the answer.

“Jameson wasn’t pleased when he found out that Marco O’Brien hadn’t been beaten to within an inch of his life, and when he found out that you had bailed, you’d think someone had told him that he’d had a son he knew nothing about his whole life and then that son had decided he wanted nothing to do with him.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. It ain’t pretty.”

“You didn’t tell him your suspicions, did you?”

“About the girl, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“No. He asked if I knew any details, but I just told him that you told me that you thought there might be something more for you out there. The sad thing is he bought it right away. He thinks a lot of you. If there was someone in the club that might wonder if there was something waiting for them outside of the club, he knows it would be you, and he respects the hell out of you for that.”

“How are things in Chicago?” Alex asked, purposefully delaying the real reason he had called.

“Marco is already out of the hospital from what we know. He’s going to cause some trouble – which is why Jameson is pissed that you didn’t pulverize the shit out of him – but outside of that, things are going, I guess. Jameson got here early after I had to tell him that you were gone. He’s pissed at you, but he does seem excited about what’s coming. He’s anxious to get started, you know?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Alex said.

“Look man,” Slim said. “You’re a hell of a good friend and all, but if you’re not coming back to the club, I probably shouldn’t be talking to you. You get that, right? Maybe after some time has passed, but—”

“Yeah, I get that,” Alex said. “But before you go, I had a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“You were with the Unknowns for that Tulsa job, right?”

“The bank thing?”

“Yeah,” Alex said, already knowing that this might be a mistake. But he was too far in now, and there was no turning back.

“Yes, I was in the club, but wasn’t involved in the job. That was for those crazy assholes looking for a death wish.”

“But you know how it went down, right?”

“Yeah,” Slim said. He hesitated and then added, “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’ve only ever heard the bare bones of it. I was wondering if you had ever heard the name Stephen Randall come up in the stories about it.”

“It doesn’t sound familiar,” Slim said. “But that doesn’t mean anything. The only names I know from those stories are the guys that did the job.”

“I understand,” Alex said.

“Now do you want to tell me what you’re asking about it?”

“Just one of those things,” Alex lied. “I’m trying to figure out what to do – to come back or just stay away. Things like that are deal breakers. Like… these guys killed people in that bank, right?”

“Yeah,” Slim said, clearly not pleased. “A few security guards and some computer guy.”

Instantly, Alex felt as if he had swallowed a cup of hot rocks. His grip on the phone intensified, and he wanted to crush it.

“But look,” Slim went on. “That was almost ten years ago. Things have changed since then. Jameson… well, he’s a different man now. He wouldn’t ever pull off some gruesome shit like that anymore.”

“No,” Alex said, “he just sends people like me to beat the hell out of people he’s hired to do his dirty work.”

“I’d watch what you say,” Slim said. “Like I said, I consider you a close friend and all, but Jameson can be unpredictable. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he came looking for you.”

“I thought about that,” Alex said. “But unless you tell him where I went, I should be okay.”

“Look,” Slim said. “I don’t plan on snitching, but you know that Jameson has some pretty impressive and shady resources. If he wants to find you, he probably will. The only question for you is how pissed he’s going to be when he finally catches up to you.”

Alex knew that this was true, so he only replied with a “Yeah.”

“Maybe think really hard about coming back,” Slim said. “Bring a sincere apology with you, and this might all blow over.”

“I’ll think about it,” Alex said.

“Alright. You take care, Alex.”

“You, too.”

Alex killed the call and looked around the parking lot. He saw people coming and going and the flow of traffic thinning, as most people were at work.

Work,
he thought.
If I stay away from the club, how will my work change? It’s going to be harder to sell hot cars without the shield that Jameson and the Unknowns built up around me.

He hadn’t even thought of that since coming out to Amanda’s. He’d been too preoccupied in her bedroom, learning her curves and hot spots.

“Damn,” he said, kicking starting up his bike. He sat there for a moment, letting it idle. He had no idea what to do now. He hadn’t gotten absolute confirmation that it had been Amada’s husband involved in that Tulsa job, but he had gotten a pretty solid nod in that direction.

Go,
a deeper part of his mind told him.
Get out of this city and go to Chicago. Apologize to Jameson. If you stay here with this secret, Amada will not be able to handle it…not if you tell her now or wait a few days, weeks, or months. You’re screwed either way. The only safe bet is to head back to the Unknowns.

He looked to the street and knew that the decision was his to make.

A thought then occurred to him—another avenue to go down in order to get some more information about the Tulsa job. He killed the engine again and pulled his phone back out. He scrolled through his contacts and came to a name that he hadn’t thought of it a very long time. He knew that if he called this number and Jameson were to ever find out, he could be in some very big trouble.

But before that thought could sink in, Alex pressed CALL. And as the phone started to ring on the other end, he could practically feel any hope he had of patching things up with Jameson being torn away from him.

CHAPTER SIX

The bar had the dead sort of feeling that most bars have in that span between the end of lunch and the start of the after-work rush, but Slim preferred it that way. He did his best thinking in these environments with a beer in his hand and the quiet of a place that was usually rowdy and filled with laughter and, on occasion, tears and blood.

He took a seat at the bar, ordered a beer from the bartender, and waited. He was meeting Jameson, and that alone made him a little nervous. The timing of it all couldn’t have been worse. Jameson had called him less than an hour after he had spoken with Alex, almost as if he had known about the call.

While Jameson did have connections, Slim was certain he didn’t have people tracing the phones of his club members. That made the prospect of speaking to Jameson so soon after having spoken to Alex no less unnerving.

Jameson strolled into the bar two minutes later and took the stool directly next to Slim. Neither man said anything for a while, except for Jameson as he ordered a drink. Around them, the bar was basically empty. There were two older men sitting in the far corner and a business-type sitting by himself in a booth, pecking away on a laptop. Other than that and the bartender, the place was dead.

After a few minutes of silence, Jameson finally spoke up. His voice was soft and pleasant, which Slim knew meant that he was taking an extra effort to contain his emotions.

“I hate to put you in this sort of position,” Jameson said. “But I want you to think long and hard about where Alex might have gone. This thing with Marco has the potential to get bad. And while it might seem petty, I have to make sure that Alex gets what’s coming to him. Had he taken care of Marco O’Brien, this whole set-up in Chicago would have gone down without a hitch. But as it stands, Marco is already spreading the word that the Unknowns are headed to town. It could get ugly.”

“I wish I could help you, boss,” Slim said.

“You have
no
ideas?”

Slim pretended to think for a moment and shook his head. “I really don’t,” he said. “He seemed fine on the ride up here. I don’t know what happened.”

Jameson nodded and sipped from his beer. “Well, here’s the thing. I know you two stopped in a town just outside of Omaha on your way here. I know this because I had someone on the payroll look into your credit card account…you know, the one you were approved for
because of me
. The one you use for getting bike parts and cash advances for that secret little heroin habit you have. I know you stopped there. And I also know that on the very next morning, when I spoke to Alex on the phone about going after Marco, he sounded off. I don’t know how to explain it… he just sounded weird. Like he was almost offended that I was asking him to go for Marco.

“So that leads me to believe that
something
happened that night. Now I want you to tell me what it was, or you can consider yourself just as ousted from the Unknowns as Alex is.”

“Boss, I really don’t—”

Jameson moved so fast that it was like watching a ghost pass through a wall. He picked up his glass of beer and smashed it against the side of Slim’s head. Slim let out a grunt and fell from his barstool in a spray of beer and glass. When he hit the floor, there was blood pouring from a gash just above his ear.

He tried to get up, but Jameson was already there, sending a series of kicks into his gut and ribs. The steel toed boots were like bullets striking him. He grunted against each one, curling himself into a ball to prevent them. All that did was result in a searing and exploding pain that shot up from his elbow, spiraling into his wrist in a jolt of electric pain.

From behind the bar, the bartender started shouting. “Cut that shit out or I’m going to call the cops.”

Jameson only sent him a fleeting glance before sending three more kicks into Slim’s side. Slim shuddered and coughed, certain that at least a few ribs had been broken. It felt like a small grenade had gone off inside of him. When Jameson stopped kicking and knelt down beside him, it was a small mercy.

“Tell me
right
now what happened or you’re out. You can go back to begging for change on the streets of Reno to score another hit. Remember that, you sack of shit? Remember the cesspool I pulled you out of? You want to go back to that?”

Slim felt tears coming on, but he be damned if he would cry in front of Jameson. He simply nodded, each move of his head sending a flare of pain through his body.

“So do you know where I might find him?” Jameson asked. “You tell me right now and this whole thing can be forgotten.”

Slim nodded, hating to betray Alex but also not wanting to go back to the way his life was before Jameson had taken him in to the Unknowns. He then held up his pointer finger in a
wait a minute
gesture as he tried to draw his breath in.

Jameson smiled and nodded. “There we go.” He then turned to the bartender, who looked terrified out of his mind, and said, “Another round for me and my friend here.”

“Bullshit,” the bartender said. “Get your ass out of here.”

Jameson reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet. He took two hundred dollar bills out and tossed them on the bar. “That’s for the four beers, the broken glass, and your inconvenience of mopping the blood out of the floor. Now get our fucking beers, or you can join him on the floor.”

The bartender stared at Jameson for a moment, clearly out of his element. He then gave a solemn nod and went about filling up two glasses at the tap.

Jameson sat back on his stool as if everything was normal… just another day at the office. He looked down to Slim and said, “Whenever you’re ready.”

It took a while, but Slim was finally able to get into a semi-sitting position. Every breath he drew in was agony, but he managed to tell Jameson what he knew. He silently prayed that Alex would forgive him as he told Jameson all that he knew, but it did nothing to stave off the sense of betrayal that mingled with the pain in his body.

When he was done, Jameson reached down and handed Slim the newly filled beer. “A toast,” he said with a smile. “Glad you made the right decision to stay with the Unknowns. As for Alex… well, he’s pretty much fucked. So here’s a toast to him enjoying the last few days of his life.”

Slim could only clink his glass to Jameson’s and then take a sip of beer that burned like fire as it went down into his aching belly.