Ride with the Wind [The Ghost Riders 1] (7 page)

She pulled out her driver’s license and handed it to him. He checked the two against each other and stared at her for a second then nodded and handed it back to her.

“What are you doing all the way out here from Oklahoma?”

“I’m checking the place out to see if I want to live here or not.” She clamped down on the panic that she always felt when questioned about her assumed name and past.

“Where are you staying?”

“I’m out at the Reo Garage.”

Mr. Parham’s face shut down almost immediately. Yep, he was one of those that didn’t like the gang being in the area.

“Do you need my cell number to call when the printer comes in, or do you have a card so I can call and check on it?”

His jaw flexed as he reached under the counter and retrieved a business card. “You can call Monday of next week to see if it’s here yet. You’ll have to pick it up. We don’t deliver out there.”

“No problem. I’ll check back with you, then, next week.” She gathered up her supplies and struggled to get it all out the door.

It pissed her off that he hadn’t offered to help her. He’d been just fine before he had found out where she was staying. Figured. Not many people liked bikers anyway. Most of them were good guys. She finally managed to maneuver everything into the truck before circling the front to climb back in. She wanted to stop by the grocery store for some snack food. She usually kept some around since she often missed meals.

“Well, hi there, little lady.”

Two men leaned against the truck parked next to hers. The one who’d spoken had a dark complexion and stood about five feet seven inches. The man next to him was a little bit taller and was more sunburned looking than dark. They both had close-cropped hair and enough tattoos to fill an art book.

“Hello.” She opened the door and started to step up into the truck, but the second guy grabbed her upper arm and stopped her.

“Don’t hurry off. We’d like to get acquainted.”

“Sorry, guys. I’m in sort of a hurry.” She looked pointedly at the hand on her arm.

He squeezed it a little tighter. “Doesn’t take long to be friendly. What’s your name?”

She ground her teeth together to keep from wincing. He was going to leave a bruise.

“It’s Raven. Now I’ve really got to be going.”

“You’re driving a Ghost Rider truck. That makes you one of their bitches.”

“I borrowed the truck to run some errands. If you have a problem with them, you need to talk to them about it. I didn’t get your names.” She was losing the battle not to show any tears. He was hurting her arm.

“I’m Tussler,” the shorter man said. “This is Ray. You tell your biker boinkers to keep their hands off our women.”

The taller man let go of her arm, and she resisted the urge to rub away some of the pain. Instead she nodded and climbed up in the truck. She wouldn’t be stopping by the grocery store today. She started the truck and looked over at the two men as they turned to walk up on the sidewalk. They were wearing jackets with devils on their backs and the words “Satan’s Sons” across the top.

Great. What did The Ghost Riders have going on with them? She glanced around the small town as she drove back to the garage but didn’t see any other indications that there were more of them around.

When she made it back and had parked the truck in the same parking spot, Raven breathed a sigh of relief and got out of the cab. She still had to carry everything inside, but right then, she needed to find one of the guys. She had a bad feeling that warning wasn’t really a warning but a promise.

She hurried into the office and replaced the keys where she had seen Reece grab them from. Then she walked out into the garage and looked for someone she was a little more familiar with. None of the men working suited her purpose. She continued into the kitchen and nearly ran over Jugs.

“Hey, what’s your fucking hurry?”

“Sorry. I need to find Reece or Dominic.”

“They’re in a meeting. Can’t be disturbed.” She cocked her head. “Did you wreck the truck?”

“No. It’s important. What about Turk or Butch?”

“They’re all in the same meeting. What’s got you jumpy?” She took a drag on her cigarette and blew the smoke to the side.

“Do you know anything about a gang around town called Satan’s Sons?”

“What about them?” She quickly stubbed out the cigarette in an ashtray and crossed her arms.

“I think they’re planning something. Dominic and Reece need to know.”

“What in the hell do you know about them? Did you go and do something stupid like piss one of them off?” Jugs’s voice had risen.

“I didn’t do anything. They’re looking for trouble. Where are Dominic and Reece?”

“We’re right here. What in the hell is going on?” Dominic walked into the room from the direction of the den with Reece and the others following him.

Reece zeroed in on Raven’s emerging bruise on her upper arm. He stepped from behind Dominic and stared at it.

“What happened to you?”

“I went to town to get my supplies. When I got ready to leave, two men stopped me from getting in the truck. They wanted to make sure I delivered a message to you.”

Dominic shook his head. “Satan’s Sons.”

“Yeah.”

“What did they say?”

“To tell your men to stay away from their women.”

“Fuck!” Reece turned and stared at the others. “Get Vernon and Rhodes in here. Now.”

“Are you okay, Raven?” Dominic stepped closer to her and touched the side of her face.

“I’m fine. I’d appreciate it if someone could help me get my things out of the truck, though.”

“I’ll get them.” Walker stepped forward and nodded at Reece as he headed toward the den.

“Did you get everything you needed?” Reece asked.

“They had to order my printer, and I didn’t make it to the grocery store, but I got everything else.”

“What did you need at the store?” Jugs scowled.

“I tend to miss meals, so I try to keep some nutrition bars and cereal bars around.”

She grunted and shook her head.

“We’ll go back later and get what you need, babe.” He looked up as two men walked into the kitchen. “After we take care of a problem.”

“You needed us?” the shorter of the two big men asked.

“Rhodes, are you and Vernon still screwing around with Tussler’s sister?” Reece huffed out a breath.

The two men exchanged looks before closing their eyes and nodding.

“Is this just fun and games for you two, or are you serious about her? If it’s just fun and games, it stops now. Her brother isn’t handling it very well.”

“He’s trying to pair her up with Ray. The bastard’s a sadist. He’s already hurt her once.”

“Is she someone important or not?” Dominic didn’t raise his voice.

The other man slammed his hands on his hips and looked down at his boots. When he looked back up, his face was set in stone. “She’s ours. She just doesn’t realize it yet.”

“Ah, hell, Vernon. Couldn’t you have jammed up with one of the girls here?” Reece blew out a breath.

“It is what it is.” Vernon’s scowl was enough to send a shiver over Raven.

“They’re planning on causing some trouble. Don’t know when, but we need to be prepared.” Dominic looked over at Butch. “Make sure everyone is aware of the situation. The women stay here, and someone is with them all the time.”

Walker passed them with her things in his arms. “Want to show me where to put this stuff?”

She looked at Reece. He nodded, so she followed Walker out of the kitchen. She took the lead and opened Reece’s door. He walked in and carefully set the supplies on the floor by the computer.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He didn’t say anything else. Just turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

She put everything where it needed to go and was about to walk back to the kitchen when the door opened and both Dominic and Reece stepped into the room. Dominic closed the door behind them.

“Let me see your arm.”

She turned a little so he could see the darkening bruise. It throbbed a little, but not as badly as before.

“I’m sorry it happened, Raven. If we’d thought there was any danger, we wouldn’t have let you go alone.”

“It’s no big deal. I’ve had worse. Will they come here and attack?”

Reece pulled her into his arms. “No, they’ll do something sneaky and underhanded. They’re the reason we have such a hard time around town.”

She pulled back and looked up into his face. “What are they into?”

“Drugs, guns, you name it, they’re going to have something to do with it. We try to stay aboveboard. We don’t run guns or sell drugs. The townsfolk can’t see the difference between us though.”

“When will your printer be in?” Dominic asked.

“Next week. I’m supposed to call to find out when it’s there for pickup.”

“I’ll get one of the guys to get it. I don’t want you out and about without a guard.”

“I can take care of myself…”

“I don’t care,” he interrupted. “You’re confined to the house or you take a guard with you wherever else you go.”

“We don’t want anything to happen to you, babe.” Reece squeezed her lightly around the waist. “Let’s get some lunch. It’s about that time anyway.”

Raven shrugged and nodded in agreement. She wasn’t going to argue with them. They knew the dangers far better than she did, but she didn’t have to like it. She let Reece pull her along behind him as they filed out of the bedroom and headed toward the kitchen. When they rounded the corner, it was to find the sheriff standing in the kitchen arguing with Butch. He had a pair of handcuffs out and extended toward Rhodes.

“What’s going on, Sheriff?” Dominic walked up to stand just in front of Rhodes.

“You know I don’t see you guys as a lot of trouble, usually. The thing is, I have to bring Rhodes in for questioning on a case.”

“What sort of case?” Reece asked.

“Look. I don’t want any trouble. I’m sure everything will get cleared up once we get to the bottom of it at the office.”

“He’s not going anywhere until we know what’s going on.” Dominic didn’t like the way the sheriff was avoiding their questions.

The older man sighed and dropped the hand holding the cuffs to his side. “Jessie Ledford is accusing Rhodes of rape.”

“That’s a fucking lie,” Rhodes and Vernon said at the same time.

“Like I said, I’m sure we can straighten this all out down at the office.”

“Then why the handcuffs?” Butch demanded.

“It’s standard procedure when transporting a suspect to place them in cuffs.” He looked from one person to the next with a nervous tic at the corner of his eye.

“I’ll tell you what. Rhodes will come down to the office to talk to you, but he’s not going alone, and he’s sure as hell not going in cuffs.” Dominic stared at the sheriff. He had no intentions of letting them take Rhodes like that.

“Hell, Dominic. You’re going to start a fucking war in town if you all show up.” He snapped his cuffs back in their case at his waist and scowled at him.

“You know that Satan’s Sons are going to be there waiting for you to bring Rhodes back. He’d never make it inside the office.”

“So, what? You’re going to ride into town and start a fight with them?”

“We’re not going to start anything. We will finish it if they bring it to us.”

“I knew this was a bad day to get out of bed.” The sheriff turned and walked toward the den. “Get him there within the hour, or I’ll bring a warrant for his arrest along with my deputies.”

“We’ll be there.” Dominic watched as the sheriff disappeared through the kitchen door. He nodded over at Walker. “Follow him off the property.”

Walker nodded and left. He knew his men, and Walker would do his job just like he knew that Rhodes didn’t rape Jessie. The problem was he had no idea what they were up against. He would wait to call their lawyer until things got hot. He looked over at Rhodes and nodded toward the sanctuary.

The group filed into the room. He had Butch post a couple of guards at the doors into the building just in case. He didn’t want anyone sneaking up on the women while they were busy discussing what was going on.

“Rhodes, Vernon. What in the hell happened?”

“We didn’t rape her.” Vernon all but growled his answer.

“I know that. I’m not asking if you raped her. I want to know what’s going on that she would accuse you of rape.”

“That’s just it. She wouldn’t. I think we just about have her ready to leave Satan’s Sons and move in with us.” Rhodes ran a hand through his shaggy hair.

“And you didn’t think to warn me? You knew her switching ships was going to lead to trouble, Rhodes. You should have come to me and talked about it.” Dominic slapped the table with his open hand.

“You’re right. We were too fucked up with getting her the hell away from Ray.”

“So please tell me you boys used condoms and there isn’t any little wigglies they can match to your DNA.”

“No need for condoms. We haven’t done the deed yet.”

Turk chuckled. “You mean you’re risking your balls for someone you haven’t even fucked yet?”

Vernon jumped up and leaned over the table toward Turk. “Fucking watch your mouth.”

“Ease down, guys.” Reece blew out a breath. “So no evidence. Her word against yours.”

“Only I don’t see her even claiming rape in the first place.” Rhodes shook his head. “We screwed around some, gave her some pleasure, but we didn’t go any farther, and she was happy when we left.”

“Okay. Turk, find out what you can about Jessie and her brother. Update all our information on Satan’s Sons while you’re at it.” Dominic turned to Irish. “You’re in charge of security here while we’re gone. Shut down the garage if you have to, but no one comes in the area.”

Dominic looked over at Reece. They had enough going on without a damn pissing war over pussy. If Jessie wasn’t in any danger of being hurt, he’d make the guys back off until she jumped on her own, but Rhodes was right. Ray was a sadistic bastard who liked to hurt women. He couldn’t stand by and let a woman be tortured just because she wasn’t in his group.

“The rest of you are with us. We do not start anything under any circumstances. If they throw the first punch, fine. We’ll wipe the ground with them, but we will not act first. Does everyone understand?” He looked all around the table until he’d stared each of them in the eyes.