Love Ties (29 page)

Something dark passed behind his eyes, a story she didn’t know. After a few drags on his cigarette, he nodded. “Her name was Juanita. A friend of my family. A true beauty.”

She nodded but remained silent.

“She captured every guy around with a single look. She definitely had my heart.”

Ever smiled. “People said my mother was like that.”

“I think her daughter is too.” Barbosa stubbed out his cigarette in the glass ashtray and waved at the pile of cards when she asked for a nine. She tucked a two into her hand.

“What happened to Juanita?”

He swallowed hard and lit another cigarette. “Ran off when I was seventeen. Never saw her again.”

“Loss like that is hard, especially when the person holds your heart. It’s a good thing my dad was dead before Mom died. I don’t think he would have been the same.”

Barbosa stared at a spot above her head. “It’s awful pain, that’s for sure.”

“I’m sorry, Barbosa.”

He nodded. The game went on. Ever made three more matches. Finally, she said, “When I lost my mom, I lost my whole world.”

Barbosa sighed. “I remember it well, chica.”

“You must have been what…twenty?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Yeah. When Blacky told me, I thought he was lying.”

“Anyone would want to believe that to escape the pain.”

“Blacky and I…we’ve never had a good relationship. He doesn’t like me.”

Barbosa stared at her. “What makes you think that?”

Ever shrugged. “Just a feeling. The other guys in the club, they took care of me, but he…”

Barbosa asked for a card and she gave it to him. “Blacky is a hard man, Ever. Don’t take it personally. He probably cared for you the best way he knew how.”

“Maybe. What’s he into lately here? In the club. Is it still pussy?”

Barbosa smiled. “Hearing a girl say ‘pussy’ always gets my blood pumping.”

She laughed.

“Actually, a couple of the other guys are working the pussy division. Blacky’s into something else.”

She arched a brow. “Drugs?”

He leaned back. “How did you know?”

“What else is there besides pussy and drugs?”

Barbosa lit another cigarette. Ever’s lungs were starting to burn from the secondhand smoke, but she didn’t say anything. She needed to keep Barbosa talking. They exchanged more cards, did more fishing.

“What kind of drugs?” she asked nonchalantly.

He leveled his gaze at her. “Nothing for you.”

“Hmm. I suppose you’re right. Getting them from up north?”

The drug trade ran north to south. If they were farther west, they’d get them over the border.

Barbosa bobbed his head and laid down another match.

“How’s he distribute without getting caught?”

Barbosa shrugged. “How should I know? I’m not in the loop. I’m guns division.”

“Ah, yes.”

“I’ve heard of him using people to distribute, though.”

Using—as in blackmail.

“How? Do you have a king?”

“Go fish. He finds people he can hold something over, and he uses it. Gets people who the law will never suspect. Innocent girls, businessmen.”

“Wow. And he’s never had it blow up in his face?”

“Not in four years. I guess he’s good at what he does. Brings good money into this club.”

“I can see that.” She tapped her boot on the new floor. “Is he running the operation out of a building here at the club?”

“Nah, too close to home. We keep that shit far away from us in case the cops get wind of it. I think it’s on the east side, close to the border.”

Her heart rate spiked. “What border? The one between here and Mayville?”

He laughed. “Hell no. Mayville might as well be Mayberry from the old TV show. Not many would do drugs in Mayville. I’m talking about Heller’s Gap.”

She processed this information that was along the lines of what she was looking for. A building near the border. Strother would be able to find that easily enough. Of course, she would have to get ahold of a cell and call in this information in secret.

“Barbosa,” she said slowly, eyeing him, “do you have a queen?”

His white teeth flashed with his grin. “Go fish.”

She fingered the cards and selected one. Her lips quirked up with victory as she laid down her last card beside her queen.

He chuckled. “You hit the lottery, chica.”

“I guess I did.”

Now she only needed to find the person who knew about her mother.

•●•

“Where’s Strother?” Jamison strode through the club, past his brothers, who were already hard into the liquor.

“No idea.”

“In church,” someone called.

“Jamison,” Ace yelled from behind him, but he kept going. Bursting through the doors of their sanctuary, he met Strother’s grief-ravaged face. Right now he didn’t give a fuck who the man had lost. Using women to his personal end was a scumbag move.

He slapped the file on the table in front of his prez. “Did you know about this?”

“What is it?” He straightened and flipped through the pages of Ever’s file. “No, brother, I didn’t.”

“You took a guess that she would be safe among them, without knowing for sure!” Jamison slammed his fist on the table.

“That’s right. You’d do the same for your family.”

“She is my family!” he screamed, ears pounding. “She is mine, she is my woman.”

“Until a little while ago, you didn’t even know her last name. And what a wonderful last name it is too,” Strother drawled.

Jamison saw red. He launched himself at the prez. Ace’s arm locked around him, and he jerked him back just before Jamison’s fist connected with Strother’s face.

“She isn’t one of them,” he ground out.

“No? Well, right now she is. Maybe she’ll come back to you after this thing is finished, maybe not.”

Jamison struggled until Ace freed him. He balled his fists but controlled himself. Panting hard, he said, “I want men and guns. We’re going into that club after her.”

“We did that once, brother. You lost your best friend because of it.”

“No,” he barked. “We go in there and get my woman.”

“Not until she gets me the information I need.”

“You’re using her so you can have revenge. Other people are doing your dirty work. Ace and I took out Middleton, but it wasn’t enough for you.”

“Nope. I won’t stop until the scum who is feeding drugs into Heller’s Gap dies. If you’d found your son dead with a needle hanging out of his arm, you would do this too.”

“You’re wrong. I’d go looking for the answers myself. I wouldn’t let a vulnerable woman do it for me.” His throat closed on the need to roar.

Strother’s face was more lined, his shoulders more hunched as he met Jamison’s gaze. “Maybe I took the easy road, but that’s what we do in this club. We get what we want the smart way, not with guns and blood. Think about that before you go storming after the Raiders, Jamison.”

He bit the inside of his lips to keep from spouting all the accusations and hatred he felt at that minute. After counting to fifty, he said, “You’re right. I’ll go in there alone.”

“Not alone, brother. I’m your right hand now, aren’t I?” Ace asked.

Jamison glared at Strother, dying to add a few bruises to the lines on the man’s face. Deep down he knew what drove their prez to use Ever, but he couldn’t condone it. “Yeah, you are. I’ll get Ever, and then we’re getting out.” He latched onto the edge of his vice prez patch and yanked.

Threads popped, and the patch came free. He slapped it on the table. “When I get her, I’m done. We’re leaving Heller’s Gap.”

The next ten minutes were a whirlwind. His mind jumped from task to task as he gathered weapons and checked his ammo. Ace was with him every step of the way, but was he really? He’d planted a fucking microchip in Ever’s arm and sent her behind enemy lines, backing Strother.

After this was over and he could think straight again, Jamison was calling a vote to remove Strother from his position.

When Ace followed him outside, Jamison spun on him, finger on the trigger of his automatic. Ace’s eyes flared wide, his face going paler under the ring of white-blue light from the garage.

“Shit, man!” he cried.

Jamison stiffened his muscles, prepared to shoot. “Are you with me, man?”

“Yes, I’m with you!”

“Are you Strother’s guy? Do you believe Ever should have been sent in there?”

“Yes. No. Fuck, Jamison. Get your finger off that trigger.”

“Not until you give me an answer I believe. You talked pretty after I knocked out your tooth, but I need more convincing. If you’re with Strother, fine. I’ll let you walk away. Go back into the club and crawl into Daddy’s pocket. Because you’re not going to back me if you aren’t a hundred percent in my corner.”

He thought of what Ever had been up against with these two. Strother and Ace would have been no match for her. Of course she’d agreed to the microchip and mission.

He twitched the gun, and Ace groaned. “Look, man, I’m sorry about Ever. Really sorry. But she seemed confident, and you have to admit her lies weren’t looking good. She might have been a traitor, spying for them.”

“She wasn’t. She faked her own death to get away from them.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know that at the time. And she still might—”

Jamison shot over Ace’s head. The garage light exploded, raining glass and plunging them into shadow. Ace jerked his hands higher in the air. “Either you’re with me, or you’re not. Pick your corner, Ace. I can do this alone if I must, but I’m getting her back.”

Ace cowered. When he straightened, he squared his shoulders. “I wasn’t keen on being her bodyguard at first. But I’ve started to like her.”

Jamison stared at him, chest hot with anger. “If you’re with me, come on.” With that he pivoted, boots crunching on the gravel, and strode to his bike.

When he heard Ace start his engine two bikes down the row, he smiled grimly and roared off into the night.

•●•

The place the Hell’s Sons called their church, the Raiders referred to as the pit. The room was painted black, the table was a heavy slab of brushed steel, and the chairs hard metal stools. This was the place where fates were decided.

Maybe even Ever’s mother’s fate.

Ever crept into the room and left the door ajar. Everyone in the club was either passed out or under the influence of pussy or drugs. Stone had taken a blonde to bed, and they were intertwined in the place where Ever had slept with him the past few nights.