Sly (2 page)

“Shit,” Colt said. He ran a thumb over his thick, dark brow and peered at me through his fingers. “Is it too much to ask for us to have like five damn minutes of peace and quiet around here?”
 

“Like I said. Let’s not get jumpy until we know what’s what.”
 

He nodded. “Got it. But you don’t go anywhere by yourself for the rest of the week. This club doesn’t need to lose anyone else.”
 

“Agreed,” I said, though I wasn’t thrilled with his tone. Colt needed to follow orders, not give them. “Believe me. I don’t have some kind of death wish.”
 

Colt rose from the table at the same time as I stepped around my desk. Sawyer came forward.
 

“So how was it?” Sawyer asked and I couldn’t help but smirk. I knew what he meant. He slid one palm against the other and raised his hand high in the air, arcing it down to simulate my bike going over the cliff.
 

“Shitty,” I answered and we had an uneasy laugh about the whole thing. Every club member at one time or another talked about how they’d like to meet their maker on the back of their bike sailing over that cliff into the river. Now that I had so far come the closest to actually doing it, I had a lot of bubbles to burst.
 

“Damn,” Sawyer said, slapping me on the back again. “Guess I’ll have to stick to my second best way to go out.”
 

He thrust his pelvis back and forth and Colt shook his head. “Sawyer, if that’s really your
second
best way to go out, you need your fucking head examined.”
 

Chapter Two

Benny Hurley’s Bike Shop was located on the edge of town and out in the middle of nowhere. Benny operated a small showroom connected to a large warehouse in the back. Behind that was a junkyard where Benny farmed for spare parts. It looked a little like a Harley graveyard but Benny could spot hidden gems in other people’s junk. The lot was bordered on all sides by open pastures and grazing cattle belonging to nearby ranchers.
 

Benny had been expecting us. He paced in front of the neon welcome sign above the shop entrance, his bald head gleaming in the sun. Seventy if he was a day, Benny chewed on an ever-present toothpick, the last vestige of a two-pack-a-day smoking habit he’d finally quit when he ushered in Y2K.
 

He stopped and faced us as Sawyer, Colt and I rode up and parked. Benny put his hands on his hips and twirled the toothpick between his teeth. For now, I rode Tiny’s bike. He was more spooked about what happened last night than I was.  I’d need a replacement of my own but for now, we had other shit to deal with.
 

“Sly.” Benny came forward and put a hand on my arm. He was jumpy as hell with sweaty palms. His eyes darted over my face. I think if I would have faked a punch Benny might have keeled over from a heart attack.
 

“It’s okay, Benny,” I said, reassuring him with a pat on his shoulder. His face went slack with relief. I think the old guy really thought I was going to off him then and there.
 

He teared up then and pulled me into a hug. Benny was about a foot shorter than me with a slight build. People underestimated him all the time, but Benny had been a badass Green Beret in his prime—covert ops. He was one of the last of his unit out of Vietnam before the fall. For as small as he was, he could be lethal. “I’m just sick about what happened,” Benny said as he stepped back and resumed his pacing. “Fucking sick. Are you sure there’s no chance you can bring that bike in so I can figure out what happened?”
 

I shrugged. “It went into the river, Benny. What didn’t get pulverized in the drop has probably gone over the rapids by now.”
 

I explained to Benny what happened in the few minutes before the brakes went dead as we walked into his showroom. He twitched and nodded, closing his eyes as he tried to envision what happened with the machine as I described it. Then he shrugged and shook his head again.
 

“Brake line, probably,” he said. “No way to be sure. Dammit, you were lucky. You know I’ll fix you up, Sly. You can have anything in the shop. Gratis. You want something custom?”
 

I smiled and patted him on the back again. “I haven’t even thought about that yet. I’m not worried. You don’t owe me a free bike, man. But, Benny, is there any chance somebody could have gotten into the shop when the bike was here? Have you hired anyone new lately?”
 

He shook his head as he thought. Meanwhile, I gave a look to Sawyer and Colt. I wanted them to snoop around the shop without being fucking obvious about it. I trusted Benny. But if someone else had put the squeeze on him, I needed to know that too.  The guy idled at hyper and
twitchy so his current behavior didn’t tell me a whole lot. Sawyer and Colt walked out back to the garage. If there was anyone new back there or anything out of order, they’d report back.
 

“Don’t beat yourself up, Benny,” I said. “I’m out a bike, nothing else. I’m counting my blessings.”
 

“You know I’ll keep an ear out,” he said. “Anyone else comes snooping around or asking questions, new faces. You’ll be the first I call.”
 

Benny put an arm around me and gave me a fatherly squeeze. He didn’t seem to notice Sawyer and Colt going AWOL. Frankly, he probably wouldn’t have cared. Most of us spent our teenage summers working on bikes in Benny’s shop. A few of us had even hid out or bunked in the loft over his showroom. That memory caused another piece of unease in me. It also meant there were members of my own chapter who had access to Benny’s shop 24/7 if they’d wanted it. I shook off the thought. I wasn’t ready to deal with the possibility that I had another traitor in my own club. I’d already plucked out that cancer. Those that remained were brothers to me in every sense of the word. I’d keep my eyes open, but my gut said if this wasn’t a random accident, the threat was outside, not in.
 

The bell over Benny’s showroom door jingled. I turned and walked away so Benny could deal with his potential sale. I headed out back to see where Colt and Sawyer had got off too. They were just coming back in. Colt gave me a nod.
 

“Nobody back there who shouldn’t be,” he said. I gave a quick look over my shoulder to Benny. He was in the throes of a sales pitch with whoever had walked in the door. They’d gone to the far end of the showroom and I couldn’t see who it was.
 

“There is a problem though,” Sawyer said. He turned and pointed to the warehouse rafters. Benny had two cameras mounted on either side of the shop. “Benny’s security cameras are out of commission. They aren’t getting any power and the battery lights are dim. We need to ask him if that’s a recent development.”
 

My heart sank a little. The whole thing was too much of a coincidence to be one. “Well, shit,” I said. As much as I’d prayed my little accident last night was just that, none of this added up. I didn’t think Benny himself had anything to do with it, but his shop was a problem.
 

“Let’s not say anything to him just yet,” I said. Benny would be a wreck if he thought some failing of his might have caused my near catastrophe. Better to keep my suspicions quiet until I had a better handle on who might be to blame.
 

The three of us walked back into the showroom. Benny leaned against the counter on the far end. He had a huge grin on his face as his female customer squatted near a custom Street Glide painted in fire red. The angle presented Benny, and now me, with a glorious view of her round, perfect ass barely covered in cut-off jean shorts. Then she straightened, revealing a pair of the longest legs I’d ever seen.
 

Colt cleared his throat next to me and Benny’s luscious customer turned around. God. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sawyer’s jaw drop before he quickly recovered his composure. She was a stunner.  High cheekbones, round tits so perfect I’d wager they were fake. Tan, toned
arms and a long, slender neck. She had a thick mane of chocolate brown hair that hung almost to her waist. She tucked a strand behind her ear and directed her wide brown eyes straight at me. My cock clenched as she smiled.
 

“You three look like you might be able to add your opinion to Mr. Hurley’s here about a good ride for the money.” Her voice had a sultry, smoky quality to it that set my heart racing.
 

Colt choked on something and Sawyer thumped him on the back. The girl smiled wider. She knew exactly the effect she was having on the men in the room.
 

“Something tells me you probably know how to take care of yourself in that department,” I said, leaning against the counter. Sawyer shuffled his feet and hit Colt on the arm. They both knew the tone in my voice. Being club president came with a hell of a lot of responsibility but a few choice perks as well. First dibs in this situation being one of them. They took their cues to back the hell off. Colt cleared his throat and the two of them headed out into the parking lot.
 

“You looking for yourself?” I said. Benny shot me a wink over the girl’s shoulder and headed to the other end of the show room, leaving me and Miss Legs to talk amongst ourselves.
 

She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes, glowering at me through thick lashes. “That you pissing a circle?” she laughed, looking in the direction the others took in their less-than-subtle exodus.
 

“That’s me asking a question. Are you a virgin?”
 

She had the sexiest deep laugh and I knew right then and there I wanted to hear it again and often. “I assume you mean a motorcycle virgin. My brother had a Harley. He used to take me around on it when we were kids. But, no, I’ve never had one of my own but I do know how to ride.”
 

“Well,” I said. “For a start you’ll hear a lot of people advise you to go with something Japanese.”
 

“Not you though?”
 

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t touch ’em. You can’t go wrong with a SuperLow. Benny can set you up. Don’t bother haggling. He’ll give you a fair price. I guarantee it.”
 

She was bold. She took a few steps forward and put her hands on her hips. She stood straight, with her shoulders back, her red t-shirt pulled over her ample tits revealing the hint of a taut stomach. She wasn’t even trying to be coy and I liked that. This was a woman in front of me, not some giggly twenty-something. I pushed myself off the counter and stood in front of her, rising to my full six foot two. She stood nearly flat footed in a pair of flip flops and bright red-painted toenails. Even so, she was only four inches shorter than me at most. In a pair of stripper heels, she’d have met me eye to eye. She reached out and ran a hand down the front of my leather cut, letting her fingers trail over the president patch over my left pec. I inhaled her scent, an intoxicating mix of sweet perfume and suntan oil. I clenched my fists at my side to keep from pulling her to me. I wanted to kiss her senseless.
 

“And how do I know I can trust you?” she said.
 

“Ask around,” I said. “That is, if you’re planning on staying in Green Bluff for a while. Or are you just passing through?”
 

She smiled again. “Haven’t decided yet.”
 

“You sure you know how to ride?”
 

“You offering to teach me?” She dropped her hand to her side and took a step back. She licked her lips in blatant invitation. It was all I could do not to bend her over the counter then and there and drag down those denim shorts. With the twinkle in her eye and the blush that crept into her cheeks, I knew she was thinking about it too. Oh yeah, she was all woman. Someone whose secrets I wouldn’t mind knowing beyond just a quick, mindless fuck. Although I’d take the mindless fuck too if that’s all she ended up offering.
 

But I couldn’t forget why I was here. And the guys were just outside. I reached into the pocket of my leather vest and pulled out a Wolf Den matchbook. I tossed it to her. She caught it deftly between two fingers and put it into her own back pocket without even looking at it.
 

“So you know where to find me,” I said.
 

She smiled and looked skyward before fixing her beautiful eyes back on mine. “Oh, I don’t think that would have been too difficult anyway.”
 

I arched a brow at her and gave her a wide smile. I have a deep dimple in my left cheek and I didn’t miss it when her eyes flicked to it. It’s a gift. Girls always went for it. “What if I want to find you? What’s your name?”
 

She turned and ran her hand over the leather seat of the Cruiser behind her. Then she turned back to me. “Maybe I’ll see you around, Mr. President,” she said instead of answering. As she walked by me, she reached out and trailed her fingers over my president patch again. I let her make her exit. God, she was working it for sure. Her ass swayed and she held her head high. She stopped in the shop room doorway, a breeze rifling through her long hair just like in a damn shampoo commercial as she looked back at me. She flashed me a killer smile then gave me a salute before she turned and walked out.
 

I heard Colt and Sawyer clear their throats and one of them gurgled something unintelligible as Miss Long Legs sashayed by them too. I went to the window. She had her car parked at an angle in the middle of the lot. A red Mustang convertible, this year’s model. She slid into the driver’s seat and didn’t look back as she peeled out.
 

My fingers twitched at my side. I wanted to follow her. Whoever she was, whatever her angle, I wanted to see a hell of a lot more of her before she left Green Bluff.
 

Chapter Three

Scarlett
 

My fingers shook as I gripped the steering wheel and pulled out of Benny Hurley’s bike shop. I suppressed the urge to look back just before I made the turn out of the driveway. There was no need. I knew Sly Cullinan had watched every step I took as I walked away. My phone vibrated on the passenger seat and I hit the Bluetooth button on the dash, regretting it the second I did it. I didn’t even have a chance to answer before the caller spoke.