“Then find them.”
Adamo didn’t wait for a reply and walked towards the door, stopping only to say one last thing. “Then bring them to me.”
Vic looked at Aero.
“Nine a.m. – call the Hogs. Get them on it – asap. And you,” he looked at Taz, “Ben and Wes are waiting in the van. Bike’s loaded in. Let’s get you back to the club.”
Taz shook his head.
“No.”
“Your ma don’t know……”
“Karen’s.”
Vic raised a brow.
“Sure you wanna dump this kinda reality on the little lady?”
Taz looked his president square in the eye.
“Gotta start somewhere. May as well start at the top of the shit pile.”
~~~***~~~
The text was cryptic, but direct.
‘On my way over. Be ready.’
Ready?
Ready for what? Karen thought that, after the ‘ding’ caused her to bolt up out of a sound sleep around seven a.m. It was Monday, and she didn’t have to be at the bank until two. Wherever Taz was coming from, it was mostly likely from whatever club business he’d had to attend last night. He had a key, so he knew he could let himself in, but probably didn’t want to scare her – especially with the culprit of that break-in still on the loose. She’d gotten up and made a pot of coffee when she heard wheels pulling up the tiny driveway which didn’t belong to the ear-splitting sound of Taz’s motorcycle. She heard them walk towards the back entrance – yes, them – meaning Taz wasn’t alone. She opened the door to see Taz, shirtless with his leather draped over his shoulders, his right arm in a sling. The Skulls president – Vic – walked him in as she saw Ben and Aero unload a motorcycle out of the van. “What……what happened?”
Taz nodded towards the door.
“Inside, Karen.”
She did as told
, as he broke away from Vic and walked in behind her. Pulling his leather off, he tossed it on the back of the couch then looked at Vic. “Thanks, Pres. I’ll get a couple hours, then be down later.”
“You stay put, Taz.
I mean it. You ain’t accelerating with that arm for at least a few days.”
Karen stood back, between the two men who spoke to each other as if she was invisible.
“Can someone tell me what’s going on?”
Vic gave Taz a look before he left.
“It’s all yours, brother.”
Alone, Karen went over to him. “Taz?”
She touched his bandaged shoulder, where several specks of blood had seeped through. “Did you fall off your bike?”
With his left hand, he reached up and stroke
d her hair before drawing his hand down to cup her face. “Remember that talk I promised we’d have?” He went to gingerly sit down on the couch. “We’re having it now, sweetheart. Come.”
Karen felt her heart thump in her chest.
“Okay. Coffee?”
“No.
” He pulled a pill bottle out of his jeans pocket, popped off the cap with his thumb and swallowed one dry. “You go ahead.”
This wasn’t the flirtatious Taz she
’d met at the gas station or the sharp-talker who’d shown up at the Super 8, or even the sexy devil who promised all kinds of pleasure and delivered. No, what sat on her couch right now was the outlaw biker, the man under that dark exterior. He was about to lay out something she most likely didn’t want to hear, as desperate for answers as she was. After making her coffee, she sat back down and lightly touched his right shoulder. “How?”
“I got shot.”
She swallowed that lump in her throat along with her first sip of coffee. “When?”
“About three
-thirty this morning. On Interstate 70.”
His answers were as cryptic as the text
he’d sent. “Were you at the hospital all this time?”
He shook his head.
“Outlaws don’t show up in ERs with mysterious gunshot wounds. That brings the cops, which brings questions we can’t answer.”
Karen wasn’t stupid
, even with what little she knew about motorcycle clubs. “I’m guessing this ‘club business’ you were on last night was something illegal.”
“Yes and no.
We provide straight-up security for a venture which ain’t. Part of it is escortin’ the funds. We were hit. Think they were tryin’ to rob us, but it went bust. I took a bullet. Didn’t hit bone, but I bled like a mother.”
She thumbed the bandage.
“How often does this happen?”
He shrugged his injured shoulder.
“This? Never. Not to me, at least.”
Karen remembered what Eva had told her about the Skulls:
be respectful, polite, give them space and don’t ask questions.
She wasn’t in the mood to take that advice right now. She needed answers. “And what other not-straight-up things do you do?”
Those black brows
narrowed. Karen removed her hand and inched back on the couch. He looked like the very devil he was named for, but she held strong. “Your club just plopped you in my house at seven-thirty in the morning with a gunshot wound. You can’t expect me to be okay with that, then go on with my day as if this were normal. Maybe for you it is, but………”
“I can’t tell you more than I just did.
It was more than enough for you to grasp what I’m about. When I said you were
with
me it’s because you ain’t my ol’ lady. I got no official claim to you. But I needed…..somethin’, because somethin’
is
goin’ on here between you and me. Got no fuckin’ clue what happened, Karen. I go from wakin’ up between two chicks on a regular basis to wanting to be here. With you. It’s like some fuckin’ switch went on in my head. Maybe it’s seein’ my brothers wantin’ to get settled. Maybe you just came along at the right time. Or maybe I’m just flyin’ blind here.”
He picked up her hand
; a rough thumb with a bit of black under its nail rubbed the tops of her knuckles. “I’m tellin’ you this shit because of that. Because there
is
somethin’ there. Not because
you
need to know, but because
I
do. You already left a fiancé in jail for embezzlement. I’ve done time for worse and with the life I lead, what happened last night, it could very well happen again. We do this, we stick this out, I need to know you ain’t the type to go squirrelin’ off before I’m booked and printed. That’s as up-front as I can be right now. If you’re okay with it, tell me – and mean it. But if you want me outta here, just say the word and I’m gone.”
Taz
had just hit the nail on the proverbial head. She hadn’t stood by the man she’d been engaged to marry, who’d turned out to be a thief. How did she expect herself to stand by this one, who admitted to be involved in illegal activity? Again, Eva’s words came back to her:
They’re part of something different.
Club comes first – always. I knew that going in. But I also knew that Ben would love and protect me till his dying breath.
There was the difference – Eva and Ben
loved each other. She didn’t know what she felt for Taz right now. She hadn’t known what to make of him that first day she saw him. But then she’d run into him at Eva’s house, then he’d shown up at the motel that night. Since then, she’d been smack in the middle of his radar, and he in her home and bed. She found him……different, especially from where she came from, where there was a preconceived idea of what type of man she was supposed to align herself with.
But
squirreling out
on Preston had been easy. All she’d cared about was her safety, reputation and family name. She hadn’t given a whit about the man she’d pledged herself to. She’d put distance between them, never once going to see him in jail or court. Why? Why was she just questioning it now?
“I wasn’t in love with him.”
She said it as soon as it came to her.
“No kiddin’, sweetheart.”
Taz didn’t sound surprised. “Even the worst crooks, dirty politicians, whatever – you always see ‘em in the paper with their woman by their side like glue. You scampered away. If you ask me, I think Preston’s arrest was the excuse you needed to escape your life.”
Her mouth gaped open as her hand itched to slap his face.
How
dare
he? She didn’t know what she was pissed at more – his bold opinion about her life or the fact that maybe……maybe he was right. No, no, no. She shook her head. “You’re wrong.”
“I’m not.
You’re here, Karen. In Tippitt. Not for a spell or until it’s safe for you to crawl back to your family. You’re here for the long haul. You signed a lease. You’re workin’ two jobs. I watched you yesterday at Ben’s. Fuck, did I watch you, girl. The way you pitched right in, talked to my mom, laughed. You looked at ease. Comfortable. Home. Not stuck under some umbrella of society rules.”
He was right.
Damn him, he was right. She did feel comfortable here, rather than providing fodder for social gossip. She’d been welcomed since day one. She’d landed two jobs, a home and stuff to fill it with because of her determination and the kindness of strangers in less than a month. Her sister Shelia would probably be holed up in some five star hotel with twenty-four-hour room service rather than trudging around a strange town in a beater car in the sweltering heat and living in a place the size of her sunroom. Coming here was no longer about laying low or starting over. It was about being someone she couldn’t be back home – someone who asserted her independence and took guff for it. It saved her. It enabled her to not lean on Preston to survive. It was that separation which had allowed her to stay out of the picture better once he was arrested. And it was that separation which had probably kept her from falling in love with him. Her job and home was what made her. Marrying Preston would’ve undone that.
But what would being with Taz do?
“Maybe I am. Maybe I will stay. But this choice you’re giving me, I can’t make it unless…….”
“Unless, what?”
“How do you feel about me? Yeah, I know, guys don’t like to be hit with that question, but if you want me….
us
….to continue in this, I need to know where you stand.”
“You want to k
now if I love you?”
“I,
” she hesitated, “I know you don’t. We’ve known each other less than a month and sleeping together three times isn’t enough.”
Taz cracked a smile.
“Actually, it was four, you know….countin’ the lip service you gave me yesterday morning.” He then got serious. “I don’t know what love feels like, so I can’t say. But if you wanna know where I stand, here it is. I see a lot of what my ma went through in you. Parents kicked her pregnant ass out when she was eighteen. Now she owns a successful business in town. But at least she had my aunt to take her in. You had shit comin’ here, Karen. You didn’t sit on the curb and cry when your radiator started smokin’. You got out of the car, dressed the way you were, sweat stickin’ to you and lookin’ hot as hell, and lifted the hood. You make deposits and cash paychecks. You sling boxes around in Eva’s stockroom. You’re stickin’ it out and not crawlin’ back to your rich parents with your tail between your legs.” With his good hand he cupped the back of her neck. “You’re a tough bitch, sweetheart. I admire that. I respect the fuck out of that. And, yeah, I love it. It tells me what you’re made of. It tells me you were able to handle me being dumped here this morning with a bullet hole in my shoulder and how it happened. You’re gettin’ under my skin, Karen. You’re floodin’ my brain and twistin’ my shit around. It’s driving me out of my head, but here I am.
That’s
where
I
stand. Question is – where do
you
?”
Karen couldn’t ask for any more honesty.
He was direct, bold and pulled no punches. And now he wanted the same from her. She was raised to know what she was supposed to have rather than what she wanted. She’d never thought an outlaw biker would be in consideration. On the outside he was all wrong. Inside, she saw a man who fiercely loved and respected a woman who’d survived being ostracized by her family in order to raise him. She saw loyalty to his club, no matter the cost. And, yeah, she’d felt how his eyes were on her all day yesterday, watching her in a protective manner.
“
But I also knew that Ben would love and protect me till his dying breath.”
Would Taz eventually feel that way about her?
She’d been about to marry the ‘right’ man who’d turned out to be wrong. Could the wrong one be right? It was still too soon to tell – or to at least drop the ‘L’ word – but she owed him the same honesty he’d given her. “You’re right. Maybe this was my chance to escape. You’re the exact opposite of what I’ve known. You’re scaring the shit out of me, but you make no excuse for it. The Karen Hanson from Cincinnati should be showing your ass the door right now. But this,” she touched her chest, “me,
this
Karen who wound up here, wants you to stay, and she’s out of her damn mind for it. Just…..one question.”
“Shoot.”
“Am I…..is this dangerous – for me?”
His eyelids began to droop as his
pain meds were kicking in. “I can’t guarantee that, Karen. But like I said, shit like this ain’t happened in a long time. Things have been even keel for a while. But what happened last night, has to get settled.”