Tip of the Spear: Devil Chasers (Lima Six Motorcycle Club Book 3) (8 page)

He collapsed against her, weak and out of breath. As she lay panting, he felt her relax beneath him. With a supreme effort he pulled himself from her, and flopped over into the bed. They were backwards, his feet resting on the pillows, but he didn’t care. Not at the moment.

The moment he was still beside her, she crawled into his waiting arms. She didn’t know why, and unable to stop them, the tears began to flow as she began to sob quietly.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly. “Why are you crying? Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she gasped, the tears coming hard. “I don’t know,” she whimpered. “I don’t know why I’m crying. Please, just hold me.”

He pulled her in closer, tucking her in tighter against him. He wrapped her in a tight embrace, caressing her back with one hand as he held her head with the other, using his free leg to set up a gentle rocking motion.

“Shhh…” he murmured, holding her tight. “It’s going to be okay.”

He held her, rocking her gently as she wept quietly, until the tears stopped, and she slid softly into sleep.

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was slow at
He’s Not Here,
and Leo was behind the bar cleaning the mirror when he saw the door open in the reflection. It was Matt, and as he entered, Leo pivoted and dropped his hand to his sidearm. Matt didn’t appear to be armed or agitated, but he was taking no chances.

Matt spotted Leo behind the bar and approached. “Leo.”

“Matt. What can I do for you?”

Mat leaned on the bar as Jamie approached. “I’ve been thinking over what you said. It’s so hard to believe Ron would do this to the club. At least not without a vote.”

“Yeah, I know. I had a hard time believing it myself. But it all fits. What I don’t know is why. Why the sudden change.”

“Yeah. Me either,” Matt said.

“What changed your mind? When you left last night I was sure you were going straight to Ron with this.”

“To be honest, I was. But Exotic and I had a long talk. Actually, it was fight if you want to know the truth. Jesus, it was awful, with us screaming at each other. But… she was right. I was just being pig headed and didn’t want to listen.”

Leo reached across the bar. “Welcome aboard.”

“Who else is in on this? Or is it just you and me?” Matt asked as he shook Leo’s hand.

“There are a couple of others as well, but I’m the only one that knows all the players, and I intended to keep it that way for a while. For everyone’s protection.”

“Okay, that makes sense. But, Leo, let me make this perfectly clear. If I find out you are playing me, if you are trying to turn me against the club for your own purposes, I will gut you myself.”

Leo smiled at him. “Let me buy you a drink. What’ll you have?”

“Make it a Scotch and soda.”

Jamie sets three glasses on the counter, and filled each with drink of choice, pouring a shot of
Southern Comfort
for herself and
Jack Daniels Black
for Leo. They three clink the glasses together and sip.

“Don’t worry, Matt. I have been straight up with you on this. No games. You know what I know. I may be wrong in some of the minor details, but it had to be an inside job to take out the cleaning crew, and only Ron could have pulled that off. Tuck and Two-Tone, I’m not as sure about, but after the second hit, I have little doubt he was responsible for them as well.”

“But how are you going to prove it? I have been unhappy in the club since you left. Even before. Something was going on. I could feel it. But some of the other guys, I’m not so sure are ready to commit. I hate drugs. But some of the others? You’re going to need proof of the hit to sway them.”

“I know. I’m still working on that part. But I have to know what I have to work with before I can plan.”

“So you don’t have a plan?” Matt asked as his eyebrows inched up.

“Only to see how many members we can turn,” Jamie said. “You make four, but there may be others we can turn. Others that are not happy with the direction the club is going.”

“Maybe,” Matt allowed. “But how are you going to find them. And more importantly, how are you going to turn them without them going to Ron. You are taking a big risk here, you know.”

“We know,” Jamie confirmed. “We have a plan we are working to find out who we can trust and who we can’t, so let Leo and I worry about that. But the members of Lima 6 that died trying to take the club back, they don’t deserve to die in vain. Lima 6 was like, I don’t know, the knights that used to slay dragons and rescue damsels in distress. You protected Vallecito from the drugs and violence. You’ve been around longer than Leo, so you remember how it was, right?”

“Yeah. We were just beginning to turn the tide when I showed up. Those were the good old days, when I was sure we were doing the right thing. Now, I’m not sure. Or maybe a better way to put it is, I’m sure we’re
not
doing the right thing.”

“Wouldn’t you like to feel like that again? Like you are on the right team and doing good?”

“Yes. Yes I would. I’m tired of being shunned and stared out.”

“Then you are doing the right thing. You, and Leo, and all the others, you’re going to take back Lima 6 and return it to its place of honor. You’re going to become our knight savior once again.”

Matt looked at Jamie a moment and then turned to Leo and smiled. “She really good, isn’t she?”

“The best.”

“But what makes you think the town will want us back after what has happened?” Matt asked her.

“I think people will understand that once you purge the bad apples, and return to what you were doing, that it wasn’t Lima 6, just a few bad people. You won the town over once. I should be easier the second time.”

Matt sipped at his drink. “I hope you’re right. I miss being the good guy. It made me feel good about myself.”

Jamie giggled. “Go home Matt. Chase Exotic around the house and make wild passionate love to her. You’re a good guy again. Now you’re part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

Matt tossed back the rest of his drink and grimaced as he sat the glass on the bar. “Okay. On the going home part anyway.”

Jamie patted Matt on the hand. “Does she know you’re here?”

“No. I haven’t told her yet. We went to bed pissed off last night and I left without saying goodbye this morning. I was a real asshole.”

“Tell her,” she advised. “Tell her what you have done. Tell her that you are committing to cleaning up the town again. Trust me, you will like the results.”

Matt stared at her a moment. “Why do I think you know more than you should?”

Jamie smiled. “I’m a bartender… always the wisest person in the room.”

Matt looked at her a moment longer and then turned. “Okay. I will.”

“Next time I see you, I expect you to tell me if I was right.”

Matt gave her a lopsided grin. “Will do. You’ll contact me when you have a plan?”

“Count on it. And Matt… thanks,” Leo said as he extended his hand again.

Matt took it in a firm grip but said nothing, giving Leo a slight nod before releasing his hand and walking out.

As the door swung shut behind him, Leo turned to Jamie. “What was that all about?”

“What?”

“The whole knights in shining armor and the damsel in distress bit. And the thing about telling Elaine about him joining up with us. And when the hell did she change her name?”

Jamie smiled and began to polish the bar with her rag as she composed her thoughts. “Men want to believe certain things. They want to be thought of as good and strong and brave. Most men anyway. Good men. Lima 6 is full of good men. I was just appealing to his better nature, reminding him how he was seen once. A group of knight seems to be a good way to describe how Lima 6 was. You even ride horses, in a manner of speaking.”

“And Elaine? Or Exotic.”

“She is missing the status that came from being associated with the good guys. I’m thinking other women used to be a little jealous of her, and she is missing that. But that’s just a guess on my part.”

“And you know this how?”

“I told you, I’m a bartender. People tell me things.” Leo stared at her, unmoving until she began to giggle. “Okay, Exotic told me when she came to see me that some of her friends were shunning her and she didn’t like it.”

“Did she tell you when and why she changed her name?”

“No. I didn’t know her. You knew her as Elaine?”

“That’s her name, so yeah.”

Jamie shrugged. “Maybe that is what she uses around Matt. Or maybe that is what he calls her. I don’t know.”

Leo scratched his face. “And the other part? The part about him telling her and chasing her around the house?”

“Let’s just say Matt isn’t the only one that felt something was missing in their marriage. I take it, before all this started, they had an… exciting… sex life.”

“And you think that this will make it better?”

“I think Matt feeling like the good guy again will make it better, yes.”

“You seem to have a keen insight into the male personality. I’ve seen you do this before.”

“What?”

“Steer a guy in the direction you want him to go. Makes me wonder how much of what I do is me… and how much is you.”

Jamie gave him her best mysterious smile. “Well, you did take me to bed after all.” She stared into his eyes a moment, reading the doubt there, before turning to straighten bottles on the rack behind her so she could hide her grin.

***

Leo was sweeping the floor and putting up chairs as she loaded mugs into the freezer when her phone chimed with the arrival of a text. She finished loading the freezer before checking the phone, but when she read the message she grinned. The text was short and to the point. Exotic was gushing in gratitude over the change in Matt. He had arrived home and told her about his joining up with Leo and he had seemed more alive than he had in weeks. Reading between the lines, it appeared that Exotic had liked the results of him joining up as well.

“Leo! You need to see this,” she said as she waved the phone at him.

He took the phone and quickly scanned the text before handing the phone back to her. “You scare me a little sometimes,” he said with a grin.

“Poor baby. Maybe I can make you feel better when I get you home,” she pouted.

“Will you hold my hand?” he teased.

“Your hand, yes. And maybe, if you’re a good boy, I’ll hold something else too.”

Leo stared at her, trying desperately to hold a straight face longer than Jamie, but finally began to splutter into chuckles. “I guess I had better hurry up with the sweeping, huh?” he snickered as she began to giggle with him.

“I guess so.”

***

Less than ten minutes later, Leo opened the passenger door on the 1950, and shut it behind Jamie. He trotted around the front of the truck, anxious to get home and have his hand held. He hopped into the truck, turned on the ignition and then stomped on the starter button. As the old truck ground to life, he leaned over and met Jamie halfway for a quick smooch.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Home, James,” she replied as she waved her hand forward like royalty. With a brief grind and a bump, Leo puts the truck in gear and backed out of the parking place.

Several minutes later, as they trundled toward home, Leo glanced once more at the single headlight following them.

“What is it?” she asks as she watched him stare into the review again.

“I think we’re being tailed.” Leo cocked himself onto his hip so he could free his sidearm and lay it on the seat between them. Jamie watched him a moment then pulled her own weapon from her purse and laid it on top so she could reach it.

“Trouble?” she asked.

“Don’t know. Maybe.”

Jamie twisted around in the seat so she could see. As they eased to a stop at a cross street, the light stopped well back, but now she could hear the distinctive idle of a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

“Lima 6?”

“Probably,” he said as he eased the clutch out and started the truck moving again. The 1950 wasn’t the fastest, or most maneuverable, thing on the road, so attempting to outrun the bike would be a waste of time.