Silver and Chrome: A Bad Boy MC Romance (13 page)

“Oh,
so that’s better? Beating people up?”

Sebastian
is glaring at me now, but I don’t care. We’re talking in hushed tones, and the
cafeteria is loud enough that no one can hear us.

“I
don’t need to explain myself to you,” he says, his jaw tight.

“So
much for wanting someone to share both sides of your life with,” I spit back. “Or
was that just a line to get me to fuck you again?”

The
darkness of his eyes seem to extend for miles, at first masked by a thinly
draped veil of fury, but then that is pulled away almost as quickly as it fell.

“You’re
right,” he says with an exhale. “But I’m not ready to share that side just yet.
It’s too dangerous, still, to let anyone near it.”

“What
about you? Is it dangerous for you?” I’m looking at his eye, now. Was that
really just from a rowdy night, or something more?

Sebastian
shrugs. “Maybe it is.” His voice is barely above a whisper, and he seems to be
looking past me again. Was he answering me, or himself?

He’s
quiet for a time, and then he looks back at me. “I was serious about feeling
relief at not having to hide those sides of me. But it’s this side that I need
your help with. The other side is something I have to take care of on my own. For
now, just having you know that side exists is enough. But I need you to stay
out of it.”

I
can tell that he’s serious, so I just nod.

“I
mean it, Evelyn. I’ll talk about it when I’m ready, but don’t push me. And
don’t go back to that bar, either. Stay away from Axle’s.”

Even
before Bash walked into my life that night, I had no intention of setting foot
in that bar again. That was more Jackie’s scene that mine. The whole thing had
been her idea and as far as I knew, she was still screwing the bartender she
met there that night.

But
it’s an easy promise to make. “I will.”

That
seems to satisfy him, but he’s gone again, gazing past me—perhaps through me. His
armor is back up. And I’m left wondering one more time what I’ve gotten myself
into.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

BASH

“What the fuck is that?” I
know exactly what it is, but I’m really hoping I’m wrong.

“What?
The new exhaust? Pretty sweet, ain’t it? Snake hooked me up. He was leaving
with the parts from that heist, but as I needed a new muffler anyway, he let me
take this one to install. I’ve never seen another one like it. It’s pretty
sick.”

Yes,
that’s exactly how I would describe the way I feel about it, too. Sick.

I
take a deep breath, internally counting to ten so that I don’t lose my shit on
Sparkie. He’s a good kid, and this isn’t his fault. I’m just here to check on
the bike shop and make sure it’s all running smoothly, but putting Sparkie in
charge means this trip is likely just a formality. The kid has a good head on
his shoulders, and he’s a talented mechanic. He’s pretty new to the club,
though, and I don’t think he’s really picked sides yet. This could be an
attempt to try and put him on my bad side while at the same time endearing him
to the other factions that are vying for power around here.

But
I didn’t expect that move to come from Snake. Do I really need to worry about
my own VP? I would have expected this kind of shit from Ripper, but not Snake. I’m
losing fucking control over this club faster than I thought.

“Yeah,
it’s really great, kid.” I walk past him and into the shop before he sees me
lose my shit. It isn’t even about the muffler. Very few people at Piston would
recognize that part by sight as coming from the German batch, and the chance of
them ever seeing it on this kid’s bike are slim and none. But Snake knows that
when I said to get rid of this shit, I didn’t mean by handing pieces out to
brothers. How many other pieces am I going to see popping up around the
clubhouse parking lot? Do I need to go and take care of that now, too? So much
for me getting back to the office this afternoon.

At
least Evelyn is there. She seemed to have no problem when I suggested she come
in this weekend. I guess working for a guy like Edward made her accustomed to
working off hours, but if it wasn’t for this whole Germany shit-storm, I
wouldn’t have asked. Not after she just started two days ago, at least.

She’s
been a huge help already. I haven’t been able to work out a solution to the missing
parts issue yet, but at least I’ve had the time to actually get involved now
that she’s streamlining everything else. I think the only thing that’s going to
help is going down there and talking to them directly. It’s not time I can
afford to be away for myself, though. Not with this stupid power struggle going
on here at the club. So I have Evelyn calling a few other overseas suppliers as
a last ditch effort to find alternatives. I don’t have a lot of hope for it,
though. The timeline is too tight and the designs are too custom for anyone
else to be able to tackle it. But the German supplier already did it once. I’m
sure they can do it again. They just need the right motivation.

Inside,
the shop is pretty full. There are a couple cars and a handful of bikes all
being worked on, or waiting to be worked on, by various members of the MC, and
all of them look to actually be working. I handpicked this crew myself, filling
the shop with the guys I knew to be the hardest workers. I want this to be our
flagship, legit business that I can point to as an example of how we can all
make a lot of money doing real work instead of ripping people off, or trading
guns and drugs with the cartels of the city. But some of the guys in the club
would rather do that anyway, even if I hand them legit money on a silver
fucking platter.

The
question is: how many of each group make up the Soldiers? When I started to
move us legit, I would have guessed there were more Soldiers looking to build a
stable life. Now I’m starting to wonder. Either I have a much bigger faction of
troublemakers on my hands, or it’s a small group making a lot of noise, trying
to seem bigger by stirring up shit in as many places as they can all at once. I’ve
just been too busy lately to really sit down and figure it out. Maybe I need a
goddamn EA for my club life, too.

“I’m
gonna take a look at the books,” I say. Sparkie has been following behind me
since outside, probably sensing I was pissed off, but too afraid to ask why. Checking
the books is mainly a formality; I know I won’t find anything wrong. That’s why
I put him in charge. If I had slotted Ripper to run this joint, I’d have to be
in here every day to clean up his mess. And nights, too. I fully expect if I
put him in charge of any of the businesses, he’d have a full blown after-hours casino
or whore house running inside of a week.

Although,
Snake runs one of the businesses. I gave him a little printing shop to run, and
I’ve mostly left him alone with it over the last few weeks. But if he’s in bed
with the other side, maybe I need to get over there and check it out soon. For
all I know, he’s got the copiers running all night printing out hundred dollar
bills, or something.

I
sigh heavily, dropping into the hard, wooden seat behind the desk. I was
careful not to slam the door when I came in—I don’t want everyone knowing how
annoyed I am—but I did make a point of closing it. I’m not interested in a
conversation right now. I’m just going to check the books and leave. Maybe I’ll
skip stopping back at the clubhouse, after all. I’d rather just get back to
Piston. Evelyn is there.

That
shouldn’t be why I want to get there so quickly, but there’s no point in
denying it. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her since she started. I
hired her to help ease my distractions, but she’s quickly becoming a
replacement for all of the ones she’s removing.

Evelyn
is exactly the reason why I avoid relationships. My life is busy and
complicated enough. I have so many secrets, so many points of failure, that
introducing another one into my life would be a huge mistake. How could a
girlfriend work for a guy like me? How can I ever trust someone enough to let
them into every aspect of my life, without restriction? It’s out of the
question. I made my choice to live this way a long time ago, and I knew what
I’d be giving up in the process. I have women like Jez to take the edge off
when needed. It doesn’t have to go any deeper than that. I don’t need it to.

But
fuck, if it doesn’t feel good to not have to lie to her about the MC side of my
life. I’m just not sure it’s worth the distraction of my dick getting hard
every time she bends over at the office. Sleeping with her again was probably a
mistake. I had almost gotten her out of my head, out of both of them, but then I
had to go and invite her back in. It’s been so long since I’ve let someone get
as close to me as she already has in such a short time. As good as it feels,
it’s a mistake. And it’s a mistake because it feels so good. Feeling good will
only lead me to relaxing, and relaxing will lead to slipups. That’s why I need
to keep my distance, if she’s going to stick around. When she starts getting
too close or asking too many questions, I need to piss her off, get her to back
down. Keep her from wanting anything to do with me, other than professionally. It’s
the only way to handle this.

As
if she knows I’m thinking about her, my phone rings and it’s her office line.

“Yeah?”

“Sebastian?
It’s Evelyn. I—”

“I
know. Where are we on the replacement hunt?”

A
pause. “I’ve called all of the companies you’ve given me, although some of them
can’t be reached today, likely because it’s the weekend. But I’ve left
messages. I’ve tried a few others, as well, that I found through some research.
No luck so far, I’m afraid. But that’s not—”

“That’s
what I figured. Those ones that you can’t reach aren’t going to have any better
news for us, anyway. Someone has to go down to Germany and straighten this out,
and I can’t do it right now. I already told Hans to do it, they were his
supplier, after all, but he’s been dragging his feet. Go talk to Beverly, she’s
Hans’ assistant. Get her to book him on the next flight out. I’ll call him and
let him know he’s going. The only way we’re going to get this done is if we
apply pressure on them face to face. It’s the only chance we have to get this
resolved.”

“Okay,
but—”

“I
know it’s Saturday, but Beverly should be there. It’s all hands on deck right
now.”

“Can
you let me finish please?” Evelyn sounds pissed for some reason.

“Okay,
what?”

“I
have to… where are you? I thought you were coming in today?”

“I
am, I just got held up.”

“At
the clubhouse?”

“No,
somewhere else.” I’m not used to having to answer as to my whereabouts to
anyone, and getting into the inner workings of the changes I’m trying to make
at the MC aren’t her concern. She may be my assistant, which affords her more
access to my life than most people, but that doesn’t mean I’m an open book. “I’m
heading to the office soon, though. Why?”

“Nothing,
I mean, it’s just that I have to go. So I… I just wanted to make sure you were
coming in… in case any of these suppliers call us back.”

“Where
are you going? It’s only two.”

“It’s
Saturday, Sebastian.” Her voice sounds snippy now, probably because of the tone
I’ve been taking with her. “Something came up that I have to take care of. But
I’ll talk to Beverly before I leave.”

“Fine.”
I hang up without waiting for her to say anything else. I have no right to be
pissed that she has a life and has to leave at two on a Saturday, but I am
anyway. Although I try not to acknowledge the fact that part of the reason why
I’m annoyed was because I was looking forward to seeing her today.

Still,
if she isn’t going to be there, and she’s planning on getting Beverly to book
Hans on a flight before she leaves, then there’s no rush in me going back to
the office now after all. None of those suppliers are going to have any good
news, that was always a long shot. I’ll call Hans and let him know about his
trip. He’ll be pissed, but that’s too fucking bad.

Then
I might as well head over to the club and find out if any more of the parts got
distributed to members. All I need is half the club to be driving around town with
custom, stolen Piston parts. It’s one thing to have one muffler on a single
bike. That won’t get noticed. But it better not have gone much further than
that. Otherwise, I’ll need to crack some fucking heads. Maybe find out once and
for all who’s on what side of all of this.

It
feels like both my worlds are crumbling down around me, brick by brick, only
for the first time in my life, I genuinely can’t figure out which one is worth
saving.