Unplugged: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance (32 page)

Maggie listened intently. Will’s words
made a deep sort of sense and she felt a calm slipping through her veins.

“
You should find your happiness and trust
your dad will
follow,
”
said Will with a gentle squeeze of her
shoulder.
“
Just
don’t tell him that I
’
m the one who suggested it.
”

When she laughed, he winked at her and
moved through the growing crowd back towards the bar. Jase and Henry had
emerged a few minutes before
and come down to join
the group and the president was handing out orders for the day and updating
them on the hunt. Maggie faded in and out of attention on the speech, until he
was speaking to her.

“
Maggie, you’ll
be here today, and you
’
re not to leave for
anything. No exceptions. Don’t even go out front with a
smoke; have Tommy take you out back. We’ll return before sundown.
”

“Wait,
Tommy?
”
said Maggie before she could stop
herself. She looked at Jase standing next to Henry, but Jase wouldn’t look at
her.

“
Tommy and Ghost will be your detail
today. They
’
re staying here at the clubhouse,
”
said Henry as he gestured to them in the
crowd.
“Let
’
s move out, boys.
”
The meeting broke in a flurry of
movement and conversation. Coffee cups clinked as they were stacked
in messy rows on the bar.

Maggie stared at Jase as she digested
her father
’
s words. Jase had been removed from her
protection. Had he requested it? Could he not stand the sight of her, after
last night? She felt a pang in her gut and suddenly wished she
hadn’t waited to speak with him about it, like a coward.
She shouldn’t have even left the den without giving him an explanation. He had
to be in so much pain.

Jase moved through the crowd following
Henry. He didn’t speak or even look at her. Maggie tried t
o think of something to say in that moment, some way to get
an answer to what was going on, but all she could think about was the pain
swirling in her chest like a building storm.

She followed to watch Jase and the rest
of the departing boys head down the hallway and out the front door. And then he
was gone, just another engine roaring down the drive.

~
TWELVE ~

The sex the night before had done
wonders for clearing Jase
’
s head
. Part of him felt like a
brand new man. The other part of him, however, felt like shit run over twice.
Even though he couldn’t bring himself to look at her, he knew Maggie was giving
him that hang-dog expression once she realized he wasn’t guarding her th
at day. He didn’t get any joy out of knowing her feelings
were hurt, but at least they were in the same boat, now.

Henry had been the one to remove him
from Maggie
’
s detail. The change in position filled
Jase with shame. He didn’t even have to wonder why
it
was happening; Henry had a roster of reasons to do it. He
’
d caught no clues on the shooting at Hot
Tamales. Maggie was attacked in broad daylight and Jase couldn’t do a damn
thing to stop it.  And, even if Henry didn’t know it, now Jase and Maggie had
…
well, compromised things.  At least,
that was how Jase felt: compromised. Vulnerable. Tied up to endure the worst of
the wind. He hadn’t argued, because part of him thought he deserved it, and the
other part of him was glad to have a day away from Maggie.

Well, away from her body, at least
, Jase thought, catching a whiff of
himself as he followed Henry, Beck, and Drake into Dot
’
s Diner. After Maggie had left him
standing literally with his dick out in the den, Jase had gotten dressed and
spent the night hu
nkered over the bar, finishing off
what was left of the whiskey they had found. His heart was a wounded lion,
bleeding out in the tall grass. For those few minutes on the pool table, in her
arms, everything had been put back the way it was supposed to be.
But after, he felt colder than he had ever been.

He must have dozed off at the bar at
some point in the night. He woke up with a start when members started showing
up for the briefing. After that, he didn’t seem to have another free moment.
Showering hadn
’t even been on the map. He could smell
his own sweat, but worse than that, he could still smell Maggie. Her perfume
hung around his shirt and cut like a delicate ghost.

Jase hung back to take a seat on the far
end of the dining table where the boys took
their
places. They ordered coffee for themselves, and offered Ned Tunstall, the man
they were there to meet with, whatever he wanted. Ned picked a giant breakfast
combo with pancakes, sausage, hash browns, the works. Henry made light chat
with him while th
ey waited for the breakfast to
arrive, knowing well that the waitress had shoved it to the front of cook
’
s line. The MC
’
s men took refills on coffee as Ned dug
into his breakfast.

After he was halfway through, Henry got
to the meat of the matter.
“
Ned, I
gotta ask you. Now, I know
this is a delicate matter
…”
Jase sipped his coffee and listened to Henry work,
“
but it
’
s a very important, very personal matter
which brings us here today. It
’
s something I need your help on.
”

Ned was a civilian. He owned a local
mechanic
’
s shop that the MC used sometimes in a
pinch. He seemed a little wary of this lop-sided meeting, which is why Henry
had insisted it be at Dot
’
s. He wanted to intimidate Ned, but had no intention of
hurting him, and a public meeting was the perfec
t way
to bridge that divide. Still, he seemed to take a good long time chewing up his
eggs before he answered.
“
Is this about Hot Tamales?
”

“We ha
ve it on good authority that you were
there the night of the shooting,
”
said Henry with a nod.

Ned nodded.
“
I
was.
”
He shoved a bite of pancakes in his
mouth, and then looked around suspiciously.
“
But Gloria don’t
know that.
”

“
And she won’t learn it from us.
”

Ned ran his tongue over his teeth and
nodded.
“
I
don’t remember a whole lot, Henry, and
what I did remembe
r I already told to Sheriff
Stewart.
”
Syrup ran down his chin in a tiny little
river.

As Jase watched Ned eating, eyeballing
the men like he thought they might rip away his breakfast, he thought of the
old line Henry used to tell him:
There are predators,
and there are sheep, Jase
.
Some people never realize which one they
are.

“
Look, we
’
re following a good lead trying to find
these assholes,
”
said Henry.
“
But we think they might be the same
fuckers who shot up that house yesterday morning.
”

“Oh, Christ…”
said Ned with genuine shock.
“
You really think?
”

“
Remember back at the roadhouse, Ned.
Now, some of the other witnesses have told us and the sheriff that the shooters
were looking for something, but they didn’t know what. No one ever asked for
money, or je
welry, or hell, even keys to the rigs
outside. Do you have any idea what they were after?
”

Ned swallowed the bite in his mouth and
pursed his brow. After a few seconds he said,
“
No, I didn’t hear them say anything. I
mean, I heard voices
—
lots of voices, ye
lling, screaming
….”
He shoveled a bite of yolk-covered hash
browns into his mouth.
“
But I didn’t hear any words, you know?
That gunfire was just so loud
…
doc says my ears
’
ll still be ringing for a month.
”

Henry nodded, disappointed.
“
Some people who were t
here said it looked like the shooters might have been
targeting bikers in cuts. Like whatever they were looking for was with the
bikers. Know anything about that?
”

“No, no…”
said Ned, the gears in his head clearly
turning. As he cut up more of his pancakes
, he said,
“
I remember seeing a few different clubs
there that night. I mean, if they were looking for bikers, that was the place
to be.
”

“
Right,
”
said Henry.
“
Had a few Black Dogs there, we know.
”

“
Yep, there was you guys, there was a few
Gladiators,
couple of Fangs
…
and, you know, come to think of it
…”
Ned shifted in his chair to sit up
straight and lean across the table towards Henry.
“
Come to think of it, Henry, there
was
something odd I noticed with the
bikers.
”

“Oh?”
said Henry.
“
What
’
s that?
”
Jas
e put down
his coffee cup and listened intently.

“
The Rebel Cross boys took off, just
disappeared.
”

Henry looked down the table at Jase, who
shrugged back at him. Beck and Drake had nothing to offer.
“
What do you mean?
”
said Henry.
“
We haven’t
heard anythi
ng
about any Crosses being there that night.
”

“
Well, they weren’t, not during the
shooting,
”
said Ned. He took a few big gulps of
coffee, and then started using his index finger like a pointer on the table
while he talked.
“
But a few of them were hanging o
ut at the table just across the way from where me and the
guys from the quarry had posted up. I remember noticing because Blake was with
us, and for a minute I was worried we were gonna need to find a new place to
sit if they decided to hassle us.
”

Henry s
aid,
“
I take it Blake is not a white man.
”

Ned gave a big shake of his head, his
expression sour.
“And
I ain’t
seen
any trouble like that at the roadhouse for a while, but you never know when
those boys get drunk. Anyway, I kept an eye on them for a good l
ittle while, as you understand. A couple of pitchers go by,
though, and I realize I’ve loosened up and stopped worrying about them for at
least a few minutes, because when I look over again, the table
’
s empty. Two half-pitchers still sittin
’
there,
untouched,
and I didn’t even notice them leave. In fact I
’
m pretty sure Johnny might have stolen
them at some point for our table.
”

The Rebel Cross was a white supremacist
MC. Their chapters had been run out of LeBeau and Howlett a while ago, but they
sti
ll held chapters on either side of the mountain
pass and made frequent stops out of both towns. The Black Dogs made it very
clear where they stood on the issue of having any Crosses in town, and most
passed through quickly and quietly, submissive to the Bl
ack Dogs. The Crosses were not popular, and the Dogs outnumbered them in
chapters and men.

“
They could have just moved tables to get
away from your friend,
”
said
Beck.

“Maybe,”
said Ned with a shrug.
“
Like I said, I didn’t see them again.
The shooting ha
ppened maybe less than an hour after
that.
”

“
Do you remember anything else
significant?
”
asked Henry.

Ned shook his head.
“
No, not really. Sorry Henry, I don’t
like this violence any more than you do. I wish I had more to give you.
”
He looked around the d
iner and then asked quietly.
“
Should- should I be worried about
becoming a target?
”