Ride Everlasting (Demon Riders MC Book 3) (3 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

The tension in The Shop is clear as soon as Elyse walks through the door.  It’s as if the air itself is charged with all the things that aren’t being said.  Her gaze flicks to Dane, who is crouched over the hood of a car and doing his best to ignore Lance—who seems to be doing his best to ingratiate himself to Dane.  Rick, standing at a distance, looks on at the two of them, and the expression on his face tells her that Dane isn’t the only one who seems to want to do some permanent damage to Lance.

“And man, she was so fine; you should’ve seen her.”  Lance is practically bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, trying to engage Dane in a story that he clearly has no interest in.  Lance had never been particularly good at reading body language, and time didn’t seem to have changed that.

Dane grunts something noncommittal, but it’s enough encouragement for Lance to carry on.  “The girl was stacked, you know, man, curves in all the right places, and she was nasty, really nasty.”  He smiles lasciviously, and Elyse feels her stomach roll.  He keeps rubbing his nose, as if there’s an itch that he can’t get rid of, and his eyes can’t seem to concentrate on just one thing.  “So I turned her round and she was all like, ‘No, Lance, no’ but I knew that she wanted it. You know what I’m saying?  So I pushed her over the chair and—”

“Elyse!”  Rick’s voice rings out loudly from across the shop.  Dane stands up abruptly, banging the back of his head on the bonnet of the car and cursing loudly, rubbing at the sensitive spot, as he moves from glaring at Lance to smiling broadly at her. Elyse watches as Lance’s gaze swings towards her, panic in his eyes before he smoothes his features into something more neutral.  “Good to see you, doll.”  Rick is by her side in the matter of a few seconds, guiding her away from the two men and towards the office, closing the door behind her.

“Am I in trouble?”  Elyse looks around the office, the space where she’s used to seeing Rick agonizing over accounts. In all the times that she’s been to The Shop, she’s never seen the door closed. This was a first.

“No, but I will be if I don’t do something about that boy in there.”  Rick jerks his head outside, and it’s clear who he’s talking about.  “It makes me sick that he’s still working here, shooting the shit as if nothing has happened.  But I can’t just fire him; he’ll know something’s up.  He might not be the sharpest tool in the box, but he’s not an idiot!”

“We’re working on it, Rick.  It’s just going to take a little time to get Lance out of here.”  Elyse makes a calming gesture with her hands, something she’s been doing almost as much as she’s been keeping secrets recently.

“We don’t have time, Elyse.”  Rick gives her a meaningful stare before looking away.

Elyse’s internal alarm system goes from orange to red.  “What do you mean?”

Rick sighs deeply, clearly about to tell her something that he doesn’t relish in the least.  “There’s a deal that’s going down soon.  I don’t know exactly when, but it’s going to be soon.”

Elyse’s eyes widen, understanding the significance immediately.  If a drug deal happens and Lance is there to witness it, then they’re just giving him more fodder for his article—and not only that, it’ll be cold, hard evidence of illegal activity.  It’ll be all that he needs to bury the Riders.

“You have to tell them that they can’t do it now. They’ll have to wait until we’ve figured something out with Lance.”  Elyse does her best to be practical, but Rick is already shaking his head and her voice trails off.

“I can’t, Elyse.  It’s not as easy as that.”  Rick rubs his graying temples, looking more tired than Elyse has ever seen him.  “All I know is that the deal is either happening here or at the bar, because that’s all I need to know.  That’s why things have worked so well for the Riders for so long; everyone only knows their part in all of this.  If no one knows the whole plan, then no one person can rat out the club.” 

Elyse nods in understanding. It’s an elegant system and makes perfect sense for the club to have a self-preservation tactic. 

“So what’s your part in all this?”  Elyse realizes that she probably doesn’t really want to know how deep Rick is in with the less kosher aspects of the club, but the time for skirting around things has long since passed.

“I just have to be ready to take the delivery when it arrives, if it arrives.”  Rick shrugs, telling Elyse that’s all he’s willing to tell her, probably partly for her own safety.  As Dane had repeatedly told her, the less she knows the better.  But is that how she can live, she wonders, never knowing what dangerous mission Dane is on, always worrying about him, speaking in code, and never being able to ask, ‘How was your day, honey?’ and get an honest answer. 

“Elyse.”  Rick interrupts her thoughts that are stretching too far into the future.

“I’ll talk to Lance.”  The words are out of her mouth before she realizes that she’s actually made that decision.  Rick raises an eyebrow, clearly thinking about exactly what Dane would have to say about that.  Elyse waves away his worry.  “Dane and I have talked about it; he told me that I could help.”  She chooses not to explain exactly what that ‘talk’ had consisted of.  “We need to find out how much Lance knows about the club, about its secrets.  Until we do that, we won’t know how to deal with him, or how to get him out of The Shop and out of your hair.”

Rick considers her words, rubbing his temples again, weighing up the truth that she’s speaking alongside the anger that he knows he’ll have to deal with from Dane.  Reading his thoughts, Elyse settles a comforting hand on his shoulder.  “Let me deal with Dane.  I’m not going to throw myself at Lance. Just have a little talk.”

Rick nods abruptly, as if he doesn’t want any more time to change his mind.  As Elyse moves to the door, his voice stops her.  “He cares about you, you know.  He might be crappy at showing it sometimes, but that’s just the way we’re built, doll.”  Rick shrugs helplessly.  “We ride hard, and we love harder.”

Elyse feels herself blush, the twinkle in Rick’s eyes telling her that he’s witnessed her embarrassment.  She nods, quickly scampering out of the office, not trusting her voice enough to speak, and not knowing what she would say even if she did.  The ‘L’ word.  It definitely deserves a capital.  It was way too soon to use it for her and Dane, wasn’t it?  They’d only known each other for a couple of weeks, and they hadn’t exactly been the standard getting-to-know-you weeks that most relationships go through.  They’d been thrown right into the deep end, all high intensity and passion.  It wasn’t a standard start to a relationship, so why should she feel like any other part of it should be standard?

“Hey.”  The object of her thoughts interrupts them, as she walks back onto the shop floor.  Dane stands in front of her, throwing a wrench back and forth between his hands. 

“Hey.”  Elyse stands awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, unsure of where their conversation the night before had left them.

“What was all that about?”  He nods behind her towards the office where Rick had led her so unceremoniously. 

Elyse’s eyes flick behind Dane to see Lance standing close by, trying his best to look casual and failing miserably.  She shakes her head very slightly at Dane to signal that it isn’t something she can talk about now.  “Nothing special, just about my car.”  She shrugs, exuding a nonchalance that she hopes is at least a little more convincing than Lance.

She and Dane stand there, a little awkwardly, neither sure of what to say or even what they can say when Lance is looking over their shoulders, a presence that neither of them can ignore.

“I wanted to talk to you.”  Dane gives her a meaningful look, as if to say that what he has to tell her can’t wait.

But Elyse still has his words from the night before burned into her brain.  It’s bad enough being so close to him, knowing that he won’t touch her.  But it’s worse knowing that she’s the one who has done this to herself, and now she is too damn stubborn to backtrack. 

“Later?”  She smiles at him to take the sting out of her brush-off, but it doesn’t seem to do the trick.  She watches as Dane’s features turn stony.  “I actually wanted to have a chat with Lance.” 

Dane’s expression changes from stony to downright hostile, and Elyse is suddenly glad that his back is towards Lance so his anger at her words can’t be seen.  Elyse stands her ground, looking straight back at him as if nothing were amiss.  The last thing they need is for Lance to think that something is going on.  She had come to speak to him to find out what he knows, what secrets he’s witnessed, not to tip him off that his cover has been blown.  That would just send him running back to
The Gazette
even faster with everything that he knows, and it could only spell disaster for the Riders.

Dane makes a noncommittal sound and turns back to the car that he was working on when Elyse arrived, signaling an end to the conversation.  Elyse has to resist the urge to reach out and touch him, to share what Rick had told her, and to ask him why he hadn’t told her anything about the fact that he was about to get patched.  But now isn’t the time for that; now is the time for doing whatever she can to save the Riders.

CHAPTER FIVE

Elyse tries to shake off the cold shoulder that Dane has just given her and walks purposefully towards Lance—who is still trying to pretend that he hasn’t been trying to eavesdrop on their conversation while fiddling needlessly with tools in the toolbox.  Lance throws her a slightly panicked look, as she approaches him, probably wondering if she’s about to call his bluff.

“Easy, Lance. I just want to talk.”  Elyse keeps her voice low and her expression as calming as she can make it.  She wants to put him at ease, not get his back up even more than it already is.

“What about?”  His voice is barely above a whisper, and his gaze skirts around her to focus on Dane, checking that he’s not paying attention to their little tête à tête.

“I just thought I’d see how you were holding up.”  Elyse shrugs casually, leaning against the worktop next to Lance, invading his space. 

He looks at her differently, as she edges towards him, as if he’s not trusting what it is that he’s seeing.  “The other night at the bar, you didn’t seem to much care about how I was doing.  What’s changed?  What’s the catch?”  He frowns at her, making sure he keeps his voice low so as not to attract unwanted attention.

Elyse shrugs, struggling to remain the look of indifference that she’s working and not grab Lance by his grease-stained overalls to shake some damn sense into him.  “No catch.  I just had some time to think about what you’d said.  And I realized that you were right.”  The words taste bitter in her mouth, but she knows they’re a necessity to gain his trust.  Elyse leans even further towards him, just enough so that her loose hair falls between them, brushing against his arm.  It’s pure manipulation, but Elyse has no intention of feeling bad about it.  “I want to help you.”  She hopes that her blue eyes don’t show the lie that she’s telling,

Lance gives her a long look, like he’s sizing her up or at least weighing up whether he should believe her or not.  Elyse keeps her eyes trained on his, raising a teasing eyebrow.  She has to swallow hard, as the expression on his face changes from suspicious to lascivious in one fell swoop.

“Nothing like a little trouble in paradise to make you question your life choices.”  Lance gives a meaningful look behind her to where Dane is buried under the hood of the car. 

Elyse doesn’t bother to correct him.  If he wants to believe that she and Dane are on the outs and that’s the reason she wants to get back at the club, then let him.  It’s as good a reason as any that she could come up with.  But she can’t say that she doesn’t want to slap the self-satisfied smirk off of his face.

She smiles, hoping that it will go some way to cover the bitterness of the taste in her mouth.  “I thought that we could compare notes.  I’m sure I have a few things that might be…interesting to you.”  She arches an eyebrow at him suggestively and is rewarded by Lance puffing his chest out like a proud peacock, before his expression turns guarded again.

“How do I know you wouldn’t just steal my notes and try to write your own article with all my hard work?”  Lance crosses his arms over his chest and assesses her, as if he could tell just by looking at her.

Elyse struggles not to roll her eyes at Lance’s sense of completely overinflated sense of self-importance.  Of course, he would think that she would try to profit from his work.  It was exactly the kind of thing that he would do, never mind that Elyse would never dream of behaving like that. 

“I don’t know, Lance.  I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”  She flutters her eyelashes at him, something that under any other circumstances would give her the heebie jeebies.

His grin spreads across his face, before he remembers where he is and looks around to check that there’s no one within hearing distance.  “Alright, I’ll see you at the bar tomorrow night.”

Elyse gulps, remembering Rick’s words.  She had to keep Lance away from the shop and away from the bar as best she could.  At least in the body shop, Dane and Rick were around to head off any potential problems at the pass, but the bar was open season.  The rest of the Riders didn’t know that there was a reporter they had to worry about, which made everything far more complicated.

“I was thinking somewhere a little more private. How about my place?”  Elyse bites her lip, trying not to dwell on how she would explain this to Dane.

Lance shuffles a little closer to her, his eyes heated, and Elyse has to stop herself from stepping away from him.  “That sounds good, Elyse, really good.”  He smiles in a way that makes her toes curl.  “But I think we should meet at the bar.”  He reads the disappointment in her face as disappointment that there won’t be an opportunity for them to re-live old times.  “Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for some fun after.”  He winks at her, and Elyse swallows hard, knowing exactly what Lance’s idea of fun comprises.

“After what?”  She pouts prettily, figuring that flirting with him and playing to his ego is the best way to get the information she needs.

Lance leans in again, even closer to her this time, and his look turns serious.  “I’ve heard there’s a deal going down.  Drugs.”

Elyse licks her lips, wishing that she’d paid more attention in drama class.  “Oh?  Do you know when?”

She just manages to stop herself from breathing a sigh of relief, as he shakes his head.  “All I know is that it’s happening soon.  And when it does, I intend to be ready.”

“You have a source?”  Elyse tries to come off casual, as if it were just a throwaway question, but she needn’t have bothered; Lance is already too busy enjoying the fact that he’s back in the position he loves, imparting his intelligence to the less fortunate. 

“No.  None of the Riders will turn on their club. You know that, Elyse.”  He shakes his head at her as if she were an idiot. She bites down on the retort that’s on the tip of her tongue.  “But I’ve overheard a few things here and there.  It’s nothing concrete, but it’s enough to go on, and then when I have photographic proof of the deal, I won’t need any sources.” 

Elyse blinks at him in shock.  “You’re planning to take pictures?  How are you going to get away with that?  Don’t you think someone will notice?”

Lance shrugs, as if that were merely a minor hiccup in the plan.  “If someone does, then I’ll deal with it.”

Elyse doesn’t bother to point out that Lance is about as capable of dealing with an angry group of Demon Riders as he is of wrestling a crocodile.  Besides, she has seen that determined expression on his face before, when he’d told her that he was going to show his family that he didn’t need them and could make something of himself on his own.  There was no way that he was going to back out of this, even if it meant hurting everyone around him and potentially even himself.

“Alright, well then, I guess I’ll be your wingman.”  Elyse smiles winningly.  The only thing that she can do at this point is make the best of a bad situation.  At least if she’s with Lance at the bar, then she can go some way towards helping the situation.  Having him either at the shop or at the bar on his own are just not viable options.

Lance reaches out to touch her shoulder, but she moves away before he can make contact.  He frowns at her and seems about to say something before she shakes her head and nods towards where Dane is.  Understanding slowly dawns on him.  “Good thinking, Elyse.  We don’t want to arouse any suspicion that we’re an item.”  The thought makes Elyse shudder; she struggles to maintain her smiling façade.  “You know, Fletcher is still sweet on you.  I’m sure you could work your charms on him, and he’d tell you everything we need to know for this story.  Hell, I bet he knows more about this deal than anyone.  The other riders seem to trust him, even though he’s not really one of them.”  The jealousy on Lance’s face is clear for anyone to see, and it turns his handsome face bitter. 

Of course
, Elyse thinks,
it makes sense.  Lance is jealous of Dane.  He represents everything that Lance isn’t. He’s a self-made man; he’s liked and respected by everyone around him; he’s tough but fair.  He’s the man that every other man wants to be and the man that women want. 

“You want me to seduce him to make him talk?”  Elyse raises an eyebrow at Lance, thinking just how different he is to Dane.  Whereas Dane wanted to do everything in his power to stop her from using herself to save the Riders, Lance wanted her to do that very thing just for the sake of his story, to see his name in print. 

Lance shrugs, as if what he were asking her were no big deal.  “Is that a problem?” 
Of course he wouldn’t think it was
, Elyse thinks to herself. 
Lance treats people like commodities. To him I’m just a trophy that he can pass around to whomever he pleases
.

Elyse stops short of explaining to him exactly how and why it was a problem.  He needs to believe that she’s on his side, and anything she can do to make him believe that will only strengthen her case.  In the long run, she’s doing this for the Demons, and she’s doing this for Dane.  She repeats the mantra to herself as she forces a smile at Lance and flicks her hair, a move she’s learned from Jen.  “I’ll go see what I can do.” 

She catches Lance’s look of appreciation before she turns around, fully intending to debrief Dane on what just went down between her and her ex, but she stops short when she sees Suzi where Dane should be.  Suzi shrugs as if she can read the expression on Elyse’s face. 

“Where’d he go?”  Elyse keeps her voice low, conscious that Lance’s eyes might as well be laser beams boring into her back.

“He said he couldn’t watch the two of you, that he had some stuff to do.”  Suzi’s voice is full of concern for her friend.

Elyse winces at the knowledge that her talking to Lance must have hurt him, even if it was something that they both knew was just a means to an end.  If the situation were reversed, she couldn’t honestly say that she would act any differently.

“I’ll go talk to him.”  Elyse moves as if to head towards the stairs, but Suzi’s hand on her arm stops her.

“He’s not here, Elyse.  He grabbed the bike and took off.”  She makes a gesture as if to say ‘Don’t shoot the messenger.’

“I don’t understand him, Suze.”  Elyse puts her head in her hands.  “He blows hot and cold like there’s no tomorrow.  Why would he run off without even waiting to hear what I have to say?”

Suzi gives her a pointed look.  “I don’t know, Elyse, who would possibly do that?”  She rolls her eyes.

Elyse cringes at the knowledge that Dane has told Suzi what happened between them the night before.  It makes her wonder just how much Suzi knows about what’s going on between them.

“Well, I guess I need to call a taxi.”  Elyse doesn’t even bother to entertain the idea of driving away in her own car, not after the warning that Dane had given her in the early hours of that morning.

Suzi waves away the cell phone that Elyse pulls out.  “I’ll drive you; it’s on my way.”

“To where?”  Elyse gives her a suspicious look.

“Somewhere.”  Suzi shrugs, closing the door on Elyse’s enquiring mind. 

Elyse glances back as she leaves The Shop to see Lance trying to butter Rick up and Rick doing his best not to punch Lance in the face.  She would laugh if it weren’t all so serious.