Gentle Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 4) (9 page)

"Me too. I never forgot you."

"No?"

"No." She smiled and traced the tattoo on the side of her neck. "I had you inked in to my skin."

Startled, he peered more closely at the blue flowers. "That's for me?"

"Yeah. They're forget-me-nots."

"Oh, babe." Mac never cried, not ever, but the second intense wave of emotion that smashed through his chest was a damn close thing. "I love that. I love
you
."

She kissed him again, her lips lingering gently. "So now you know for sure, Shane: I carried you with me every second of every day, even when I thought that I'd never see you again."

Chapter Nine

The next morning, Spider glanced up to see Mirrie and Mac walking in to The Web Café hand-in-hand. Right away, a huge smile broke out across his face.

“So!” Spider set down the tray of brownies. “What’s going on
here
, kids?”

They smiled back at him and Spider was thrilled to see how relaxed Mirrie looked. God, she looked better and happier than he’d seen her in a long time – about four years, actually.

“Oh, nothing much,” Mac said, his deep voice rumbling out of that to-die-for chest. “Just bringing my girl to work.”

“Then you’re out of here?” Spider said, itching to get Mirrie alone so he could get the scoop and all the dirty details.

“Nope. I’m staying for a coffee and some of your diet-busting goodies.” Mac looked at the display counter. “Oh, man… are those brownies?”

“You know it.”

“I have zero resistance to brownies. I’ll need two.” Mac considered. “Three.”

“No problem.” Spider moved behind the counter to pour the coffee. “Coffee for you, Mirrie?”

“Uh, yes, please,” Mirrie said. “And then Spider? We need to talk to you.”

Spider tilted his dark head. “Lemme guess… you need some time off, right? Mac’s taking you away for a nice vacation and all I hope is that it’s someplace where you guys will be in bathing suits most of the time. Especially
you
.” His dark eyes ran over Mac’s large, muscular body teasingly. “I can’t
wait
to see the pictures.”

They stared at him, looking tense. He paused.

“What?” Spider asked. “What’s going on?”

“Can we talk alone?” Mac said.

A bit alarmed now, Spider nodded at Vera who was watering the plants. “Handle things out here, alright?”

“Sure,” she said. “I got it.”

Spider handed over their coffees and then waved them in to his office. Mirrie and Spider sat, but Mac stayed standing.

“OK,” Spider said. “Something wrong?”

Mirrie and Mac looked at each other; they seemed very hesitant to actually start a conversation that they’d initiated.

“Guys?” Spider was starting to get worried now. “Did the Fallen Angels find out about you? Maybe pay you a visit?”

“No,” Mirrie said quickly. “Nothing like that – but this
is
about them.”

“OK.” Spider was puzzled. “I’m listening.”

“The thing is…” Mac sighed a bit. “This is about them… and you.”

Spider froze. “Me?”

“Yeah. You and Ace, to be specific.”

“Oh, fuck,” Spider whispered. “How did you – you guys know about me and Ace?”

“Yeah.” Mac looked apologetic. “We do.”

“How – who –” The terror in Spider’s voice was clear. “Oh, God…”

“It’s OK, Spider,” Mirrie said quickly. “The only people who know are Shane’s friends.”

A bit of color returned to Spider’s face. “Does Ace know that the secret’s out?”

“He does,” Mac said quietly. “We’ve already held it over his head once to get him to cooperate. He’s scared to death.”

“Well, of course he is!” Spider said. “If those fucking animals in the MC knew the truth about him? God, he wouldn’t last three minutes and I’d
maybe
last five.”

“Hey,” Mac said calmly. “That’s all under control, OK? I promise, nobody has the slightest bit of interest in seeing you get hurt.” His eyes glinted. “I can’t say the same for Ace, though.”

Spider looked away, torn about what was going on here. Yeah, he knew that getting involved with Ace Cuddy had been a big mistake; he’d known that from the moment they’d started things up. But it wasn’t meant to have
meant
anything. Ace was sexy and dangerous and Spider had just seen a good time. A hot-as-hell fuck and that was it.

But from the word go, Ace had been a surprise – a good one. He was gay, clearly and no doubt, but he’d never been with a man before. Spider had been amazed to find out that he was Ace’s first male partner… amazed and honored. The fact that Ace had been unable to fight his attraction to another man for the first time in his life had shocked both of them.

No, the truth was that Ace had given himself over to Spider completely and in a way that had made him soft and vulnerable. Spider understood that nobody saw that side of Ace – showing that side would get Ace killed, he was sure – but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t there.
That
was the person that Spider had fallen in love with. The person that he loved still, though he wasn’t sure that person existed anymore. But that didn’t mean that he wanted to see Ace get hurt, though maybe he deserved to be hurt. Maybe he deserved worse.

Fuck, the man confuses me
.

“It’s so pathetic, you know,” Spider said at last. “Ace being what he is – what we
both
are – is such a fucking horrible, disgusting thing that it can be used against him to blackmail him. To control him and beat him down and scare him in to doing what you want.”

“It’s only horrible and wrong in some worlds, man,” Mac said quietly. “And one of them is the world that Ace has chosen to inhabit.”

“It
was
his choice, you know,” Spider said. “I
begged
him to walk away from the Fallen Angels when it became clear that Trigger was going to tap him for the VP spot. I knew that if he took the position, it’d have to end between us. There was no way that we could carry on the way that we had been – Ace wouldn’t have the freedom that he’d had as just a patched-in member and there would be way more eyes on his every move. I knew it’d be too dangerous to continue things.”

“And he refused?” Mirrie asked.

“Totally. Said that the club was his family and besides, he was sure that Trigger would never let him leave. And even if by some miracle he
did
manage to extricate himself, he was sure they’d be watching him like a hawk, so we couldn’t be together, anyway.”

“I’m sorry,” Mirrie said. “I know how much that must have hurt.”

Spider flashed them both a brief smile. “Yeah, I figure if anybody knows what it’s like to have those MC assholes get between you and the person you love, it’s you two.”

“So – you loved him?” Mac said, disbelieving. His experiences with Ace had done nothing but convince him that the man was a violent, heartless monster. He tried to imagine Ace being loving and affectionate with Spider and failed miserably. “
Really
loved him?”

“Oh, yeah.” Spider spoke softly. “He was The One, for me.”

“Oh.” Mac was stunned in to an uncharacteristic silence. “I – I just can’t see that.”

“I’m sure.” Spider shook his head. “I’m not an idiot and I’m not blind: I know what he’s done to people. I know he’s hurt people.” He hesitated. “Killed them.”

“But you got together with him anyway?” Mirrie said.

“Well, I’ve kinda always had a thing for bad boys,” Spider said sheepishly. “And when we first met, he was some lowly MC member and anyway, it was just a fling. I mean, we
had
to sneak around and the whole thing was so hot
because
it was top-secret and risky. You know? It added to the thrill.”

“I can see that,” Mac said and Mirrie shot him a look.

“
Can
you, honey?” she said sweetly.

“Well, a bit,” Mac said hastily. “So… ummm… so what happened?”

Spider shrugged. “What always happens in these situations? The more time we spent together, the more I got to know him. We talked and we started to like each other. He told me things about his life, things that showed me his heart and who he was, deep down inside, under all that MC bullshit. And that was it… we fell in love.”

“You miss him?” Mac asked.

“Oh, yeah. Like crazy.” Spider looked away. “But I also thank God every day that he’s out of my life. When I hear what the Fallen Angels get up to and the things that they do now, I
know
Ace is involved… and I’m happy that I’m nowhere close to a man who can do things like that.”

“And when they threatened Shane?” Mirrie said. “Told me to leave Denver?”

“Yeah, that was the end for me,” Spider said. “I was fucking
furious
that the MC had crossed that line – that they wouldn’t leave you in peace after everything you’d been through with them. I went to Ace and I laid it all out for him. Told him to leave you the hell alone or else I’d spill what I had on him.”

“This is the part that confuses me.” Mac’s eyes were watchful; he was sure that there had to be more to Spider’s side of the story than they knew or even suspected. “How could you share Ace’s secret without putting yourself at risk too?”

“Because,” Spider said. “What I have on him has nothing to do with Ace being gay.”

Mirrie and Mac stared at him.

“It doesn’t?” Mirrie said. “So – what’s it about?”

“I have evidence that links Ace to an unsolved crime. A murder.”

“You do?” Mac was stunned. “Hard evidence?”

“The hardest.” Spider’s smile had no humor in it whatsoever. “I have the murder weapon.”

They stared some more.

“What is it?” Mac said.

“A gun.”

“And Ace’s fingerprints are on it?” Mirrie asked.

“Yep. And it was well-known among law-enforcement circles at the time that it was Ace’s preferred weapon. It was very – distinctive.”

They nodded at that: the Fallen Angels all had signature weapons that they flaunted and flashed around. Naturally, the cops were never able to link any ballistics evidence from those weapons to open cases or unsolved crimes. The general consensus was that any dead bodies riddled with bullets or sporting stab marks from the MC’s weapons-of-choice simply never turned up. No body, no crime… and no evidence.

“How did you get it?” Mac said.

“I stole it when he was drunk,” Spider said. “I’d made an extra copy of his apartment key and he never even knew I’d been there. I heard that he thought that he’d lost the gun while wandering the streets on a bender.”

“It was insurance?” Mac said. “To keep you safe?”

“Yeah. I was never sure what he might get in to his head to do or say about me or to me. I was pretty confident that I was safe because no way he’ll ever reveal that he’s gay… but a second layer of protection is never a bad idea.”

“Wow,” Mirrie said softly. “And he knows you have the gun?”

“Yep.” Spider grinned. “I explained to him that if anything remotely suspicious ever happens to me, my lawyer had a letter with my will. That letter blows the lid off every single dirty little secret that I have on Ace. So if I turn up dead, it goes to the press and the cops
and
the Fallen Angels clubhouse. If anything happens to me, then Ace is in effect signing his own death certificate.”

“Where’s the gun now?”

“In a safe deposit box in another city.”

“And Ace knows that?” Mac asked.

“He knows it’s hidden and that it’ll be sent to the police if I disappear or die under suspicious circumstances.” He met Mirrie’s eyes. “Or if
you
or Shane do.”

“Me?” she gasped. “Us?”

“Yeah. That’s what I told him that day you showed up here and I left for a few hours. I didn’t threaten to expose his sexual orientation or tell anyone about us – I told him about the gun. I told him that you got to stay in Denver and live your life… and that he and his psycho brothers were to stay the hell away from you. I told him that you’d be working for me and I’d be keeping an eye on you and if I heard one word from you about the MC sniffing around you – or even just showing their ugly faces – it was game over. If anything happened to either one of you, that weapon was going to end up in police hands and Ace would end up on a twenty-five-year stretch. If he was lucky.”

“Holy shit,” Mac said. “You hamstrung the Fallen Angels VP. You paralyzed the whole goddamn MC.”

“I did.”

Mac and Mirrie gazed at Spider some more, at a bit of a loss about what to say now. Finally, Mirrie cleared her throat.

“And the victim? The person that Ace killed? Who was it?”

Spider snorted. “The President of the Road Devils.”

That
electrified them. The rivalry between the Fallen Angels and the Road Devils was legendary in the state. If word got out that Ace had killed the other MC’s President, then that would have been a rallying call to go to war. It would have been nothing less than a full-on bloodbath; it would have spilled in to the streets of Denver and innocent people would have been caught in the crossfire. The collateral damage would have been unimaginable.

“What?” Mac breathed. “You mean Wheels Jordan?”

“Yeah,” Spider said. “Ace killed Wheels last year. He died under kinda shady circumstances. Remember?”

Speechless, they just nodded.

“Now Wolf Connor’s in charge and under his Presidency, it looks like those boys are calming down – going straight and legit. But I’m sure that Wolf would abandon his above-board ways in a heartbeat if he knew what Ace had done.”

“So keeping the gun hidden isn’t just about insurance for you and Mirrie,” Mac said slowly. “It’s about the bigger picture… it’s about avoiding a biker war.”

“You’re damn right it is.” Spider’s eyes were very dark. “I have no desire whatsoever to see those two MC’s go at it head-to-head on the city streets. Do you?”

They shook their heads, horrified at the very thought.

“So.” Spider exhaled, hard. “As long as that gun is hidden away safe and sound, we’re all OK, guys.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Mirrie said, suddenly angry. “God, Spider! If I’d known this, I could have been with Shane this whole time… why didn’t you
say
something?”

Spider wavered now, looked a bit uncertain. He glanced at Mac. “Well, to be honest, I didn’t think that you were all that broken up about Mirrie leaving you.”

“You – you thought
what
?” Mac almost shouted. “How the fuck did you reach
that
conclusion, man?”

“OK, whoa.” Spider held up his hands. “Don’t yell at me, alright? I’ll explain everything, but keep your big, ass-kicking body over there.”

“Fine,” Mac hissed. “I’m staying over here.
For now
.”

“OK, well…” He looked at Mirrie cautiously. “Does he know what you were doing after you left him?”