Jerk: Delinquent Rebels MC (20 page)

“Why are you in his club if you know he’s such a bad guy?” April asked. She’d always wondered why guys like Mike bothered with an asshole like James Palmer. Again Mike shrugged.

“There aren’t any other clubs in the area,” he answered, then he took a small sip of his drink. He hissed noisily, clearly finding it too hot, and set the comically small cup back down on its plate. “I’d say seventy percent of the guys in the club are decent. We just ignore the rest. James Palmer doesn’t exactly get involved in much lately anyway. We basically run the club ourselves. However, I’m not here to talk about James.”

No, of course not.
James was never meant to be the center of her world, Van was, and yet somehow the awful old jerk had taken over. None of this was supposed to happen. If James hadn’t been such a psychopath, she might have been back in Cascade Falls now, enjoying her time with Van as they took their relationship to the next level. Daydreams about what could have been crossed her mind just as often as nightmares about what
did
happen: April had broken both of their hearts.

And now Van might die because of her—because of her cowardice. She swallowed thickly, unable to take another bite of her cake. This was all her fault. Van hadn’t done anything wrong, unless falling for her was wrong. She owed it to him to do whatever she could to help him, because he didn’t deserve the life was living. Prison—jail, whatever—was bound to be a rough ride for anyone, but she figured he’d be out next year and ready to move on with his life. Never had she thought things would spiral into such a terrible darkness.

Besides, he was technically family now. April would do anything for her family. To keep her mom safe, she let that psychopath dictate her life and let herself live in constant fear. No more. It was time to take charge of her life again. It was time to get the people she loved most to safety.

Clearing her throat, she looked Mike dead in the eye, and with an unwavering voice she said, “Tell me what I need to do.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Cascade Falls was stunning in November. The first dusting of snow had already settled across the little town, though the dark lake remained almost entirely unfrozen still, awaiting the colder weather that was sure to trickle in during the upcoming winter months. Mike had visited her in the final week of October, and once again in the second week of November to solidify their plans. April was to return to Cascade Falls for Thanksgiving to avoid arousing suspicion from anyone, and from there, they would make contact with a much sketchier character on the wrong side of the motorcycle club who might be able to help Van. It was a longshot, but they didn’t have much of a choice. Breaking out of any security facility, minimum or maximum, wasn’t exactly a cake-walk.

However, they couldn’t leave him in there anymore. April’s heart broke again and again, as she thought about all the physical trials Van had to endure while incarcerated. Recently, he’d taken a few shots to the ribs, and Mike said he was sporting a black eye the last time he went to visit. Things weren’t looking great, and they had to act fast. Mike’s ominous prediction that Van would be dead by Christmas sat heavily on her shoulders, and April thought of nothing else most of the time: she had to find a way to get him out.

Once he was back on the outside, she hoped—maybe foolishly—that they’d be able to prove his innocence and incriminate James, but she also knew they had to take things one step at a time. Nobody was going to slap Van on the back and give him a get-out-of-jail-free card for
escaping
prison, but that was exactly what she and Mike were hoping for.
Get him out. Get him safe.

Sometimes she pictured their reunion, which always involved a lot of kissing and nudity, but April tried not to dwell on it. She’d ended things with Van for a reason, and even if—and that was a big if—they were able to spring him to freedom, she wasn’t sure she ought to hop right back into the relationship.

Even if she
did
still love him.

After all, this had to be love, right?
She was willing to break a man out of jail—that
had
to be love. Only for now, it might be best for everyone if she kept those feelings to herself.

She’d only been back in Cascade Falls for two days, and she was itching to drive out to the prison to see Van. However, with James watching her like a hawk and her mom stressed about preparing her first Thanksgiving feast as a “Palmer woman”, there was no way in hell she’d get out to see Van. Again, it was probably best for everyone that way.

Thanksgiving was a few days away still, and she’d been staying in one of the guest rooms in James’s huge home under the guise of wanting to visit for the week. Her mom had been thrilled to have her there, and she felt a little guilty for deceiving her. If everything went according to plan (when they eventually made a plan, that is), she was sure her mom would understand why April had to keep so much from her. They would need to have a serious talk about everything that had happened over the last few months, specifically about James, and then they would move on from there.

If
everything worked out. Her future was heavily reliant on a huge
if
at the moment, and she tried not to focus too much on that.

Sighing, April gave herself a final look in the en-suite bathroom mirror, then switched off the light. She didn’t want to dress up just to meet Mike and whoever else he had invited to their little free-Van-from-prison session tonight, but she’d told James and her mom that she was meeting some friends for drinks after dinner. So, she’d thrown on a pair of sinfully tight jeans and a cute beige sweater, which she would eventually pair with black boots and a knit cap. A part of her hoped that word might get back to Van about how good she looked, but that was more of a selfish want than anything else.

After grabbing her purse, she slipped out of the guest bedroom and rushed for the front door. She slowed on the grand spiral staircase, however, as she saw James and her mom strolling from the kitchen to the sitting room.

“Oh, honey, you look so pretty,” her mom cooed, as she descended the few final steps. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest, as she tried to pull off a breezy casualness that didn’t come naturally to her. “Where are you meeting the girls again?”

“Just the coffee shop,” she said, as she went for her boots, which lay flopped over by the front door. As she moved, James’s eyes followed her every step, and she could practically feel his skepticism at a ten foot distance. “We might go to the bar afterward too… Not really sure what the plan is.”

“Well, don’t drive home if you do go to the bar.” Over her shoulder, she saw her mom pat James on the chest. “One of us will be happy to pick you up if you end up drinking.”

April bit back a cringe, as she stuffed her feet into her boots. “Sure. Thanks. That’d be great.”

“Who are you meeting again?” James asked. April went for her coat, which she yanked on a little more forcefully than necessary. Just the sound of his voice grated her nerves, and she could barely make eye contact with him anymore; not only was he terrifying, but she was essentially plotting against him with some of his own guys. Nothing would bode well for her if things fell through.

“Just some girls from high school,” April told him with a shrug. His eyes narrowed, and she pretended to search through her purse for something.

“Who?”

“What’s with the interrogation,” she said lightly, trying to pass it off as a joke. “I wasn’t aware I was still
in
high school. Do I have a curfew, too?”

Her mom’s shrill laughter made both James and April visibly wince.

“Honey, we’re just nosy old farts who are living vicariously through you,” her mom insisted with a slight roll of her eyes. April offered the best laugh she could, all the while thinking that if anyone ought to be living vicariously, it was April. James and her mom went to
many
social events around town, several of which had been while April was visiting. In the last two days.

“Right, right, yeah, I guess,” April babbled, as she went for the front door finally, her palms sweaty. “See you later then.”

“Say hi to the girls for me!” her mom called, as she all but ran through the doorway, and April gave her a small wave and a smile. The last thing she saw before shutting the door was James’s scowl, which stayed burned into her field of vision, as she hopped into her mom’s car and headed down the snowy driveway.

But, of course, April wasn’t headed to meet up with any of her old high school friends. In fact, none of them even knew she was in town, though she realized that she probably should have actually met up with one or two at some point. She needed someone to validate her story should James end up snooping around for her exact whereabouts—and, really, it wouldn’t kill her to touch base with a few of her old friends. She’d never been great about keeping in touch with the exception of a few close friends, and she figured she owed it to herself to try more.

Although she took the route that would get her downtown, April turned at the last possible moment and headed out of Cascade Falls. There was a little resort on the other side of the lake with a cozy Italian restaurant that Mike had made reservations at, and she was already running a little late. Small towns weren’t as efficient as bigger ones in clearing the snow off the roads, and she had to fight her way around snow drifts and ice patches to reach her destination. When she finally made it, she was a little unnerved that there was no motorcycle in the parking lot, but when she saw Mike waiting by the main doors, she figured it made sense that he wouldn’t drive that beast anywhere in this weather.

“Glad you made it,” he said as she approached, smiling at her in that kindly way he always did, the skin around his eyes crinkling. After being in contact with Mike on and off since they first met, April had a little ball of guilt sitting heavily in the pit of her stomach for assuming he was such a creep. Sure, he drove a motorcycle, but she had to stop stereotyping all bikers as assholes.

Not everyone was James Palmer.

“Ice patch on the last turn nearly took me out,” she told him, shivering as they walked for the warmth of the resort. Peter’s Inn was in direct competition with Cascade Falls’ very own historical resort on the other side of the lake, and from what April had heard, the prices here were more reasonable.

“You got snow tires on that thing?” Mike asked, as he shot one last look back at her mom’s car. She shrugged, which made him grumble. “It’s really not safe to be driving without them.”

Why couldn’t her mom have married Mike? The guy was recently widowed and worked for the town newspaper as its editor-in-chief. Motorcycle enthusiast. Dad of three. All-round nice guy, despite plotting to bust Van out of jail. At least she felt safe with him.

“Rabbit’s already here,” he told her, as they strolled through the rustic resort, making their way back to where the Italian restaurant overlooked the lake. Despite being early in the week, the place seemed packed as they approached, the volume of conversation rising more and more with every step she took.

She needed a few seconds to process exactly what he’d just said, and when she did, April stopped and gave Mike a hard look. “
Rabbit
?”

“He’s the best in the business,” Mike told her, a slight warning edge to his tone.
Right
.
Don’t insult this Rabbit guy or his name. Got it.
April nodded, as if this all made perfect sense, and then slipped a step behind him as they entered the restaurant. The hostess tried to seat them at first, but Mike waved her off with a smile, pointing across the way to a booth beside the window overlooking the lake.

“Our friend is waiting on us, but thank you.”

April too gave the woman a smile, but the hostess was already back at her little station, scrambling to get the cordless phone that had just started ringing.

As they moved through the restaurant, unease settled across her. She’d been trying to avoid James and his goons ever since she returned to Cascade Falls, but in this new setting, she had no idea just how many eyes might not be looking at her favorably. Swallowing hard, she pulled up the neck of her coat and tried to subtly hide her face in it, hoping she could lose any onlookers once she was in the booth.

Rabbit was almost Mike’s opposite—physically, anyway. Where Mike had the thickness a lot of older men had, some of it due to lack of activity, some thanks to beer, Rabbit was thin as a rod. Jet black hair sat atop his head, and he was fiddling with a sharp toothpick when they arrived. He didn’t stand to greet them. Didn’t even smile. At least he looked scrubbed up and clean. April would have thought a guy who went by the name of Rabbit might have looked like a criminal, but she was happy to see that wasn’t the case. He was clean shaven and wearing a dress shirt, though she couldn’t see what was on the lower half beneath the table.

“Rabbit,” Mike said by way of greeting as he slid into the booth. The man’s head bobbed up and down, his eyes drifting over to April as she climbed onto the bench after Mike. She realized once she’d settled that she preferred it this way. It was easier to make an escape when she wasn’t sandwiched between a thick body and a window. “This is April.”

She glanced up sharply at the mention of her name, offering Rabbit a small smile.

“April,” he said, as if trying her name out for size. “Van’s girl, right?”

“His friend,” she corrected, not wanting to be associated as some romantic interest and therefore not taken seriously. “Stepsister, actually.”

Rabbit nodded again, then he leaned back, as a waitress arrived to deliver some drinks. Both Mike and Rabbit were given beers, and April’s lips twitched into a frown when a water was placed in front of her. The newcomer shrugged apologetically when she looked his way.

“Didn’t know what you’d want,” he said, as though waiting for her to place an order was so out of the question. She shook it off, not wanting to make anything a bigger issue than it needed to be. Falling silent, April twirled her straw around inside her drink, ice clinking off the glass, as Mike and Rabbit exchanged some small chitchat. She’d almost tuned it out completely until Van’s name popped up a few times over, and by then their food had arrived. Rabbit seemed to be the take-charge kind of guy and had ordered everyone a fettuccini Alfredo with seafood, which she had no complaints about.