too early for this bullshit.”
The biker pulled out a chair and plopped right down like he owned the house.
There was a knife block only a few feet away. I could just grab a couple knives and throw them. Distract these guys enough to get outside.
I felt my left hand twitch, really tempted to do just that.
Before I could make a move though, the second biker reached out and grabbed the entire knife block. He pulled it away from me and then winked.
“I’ll keep this safe here,” he said.
“Where’s that coffee?” the first biker asked. Then he looked at me. “I’m waiting for Jim. He’s getting me all my paperwork.”
“Duke is here,” I blurted out. “He’ll kill you. He won’t let you hurt me. Or Jim. I swear I’ll scream. You don’t want to see what he can do.”
At the exact same time both bikers started to laugh.
The one pouring the coffees turned completely around and pointed to his leather cut. There I was in such a panic I didn’t even take a second to realize who was here.
They were guys from Back Down Devil MC.
That should have given me some sense of relief but it honestly didn’t. They were the ones pissed off at Jim, right?
“What about you?” the guy pouring coffee asked. “Would you like some coffee?”
“Sure,” I whispered.
The guy at the table pointed to the patch on his chest. “Name’s Trev.”
President.
“I’m Trent,” the other one said as he handed me a mug of coffee.
“I’m Belle,” I said.
“Oh, we know,” Trent said. “Duke put up a big stink about you. Threw a fit like a little baby looking for a tit to suck for milk.”
Trev laughed. “That’s one way to put it.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“Look,” Trev said, “I go by what I see and hear. Right now it appears that you and your brother are helping out people that want us hurt. And a friend of my enemy is my enemy.”
“It’s not like that,” I said. “Jim and Duke talked. Things are…”
Jim walked into the kitchen. He had the folder of paperwork and looked disheveled. Stuck between sleepy and hungover, his eyes were bloodshot when he looked at me. I think Jim finally realized what he had gotten himself into, whether he meant it or not.
“I already told you I talked to Duke about this,” Jim said.
“That’s fine,” Trev said. “We just needed to see it all for ourselves.”
“So it was all done through back door channels, huh?” Trent asked.
“Yes. I was drunk when I did all of it. Just trying…” Jim looked at me. “Just trying to take care of myself.”
Trev flipped open the folder.
Outside the chainsaw engine stopped. That’s when I felt a little relieved, hoping Duke would come inside and make sense of what the hell was happening in my kitchen.
“There were some hang-ups with the deal,” Jim said. “So I don’t know how far along it actually is.”
“You don’t even know what’s going on with your own land and money?” Trent asked. “That’s not good, man.”
“I’m in a tough position,” Jim said.
“We all are,” Trev said. He sipped his coffee and read the papers.
The backdoor opened and Duke entered the kitchen.
His body shined with sweat. He looked at me. Then he looked at the kitchen table.
“No shirt,” Trent said. “She pay you extra to do that?”
“Fuck yourself,” Duke said. “What the hell is going on here?”
“We decided to take a ride this morning,” Trev said. “See all this for ourselves. Talk to your buddy Jim here.”
“I fucking called you to let you know what was happening,” Duke said.
“You called them?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Trev is our Prez. Trent is the enforcer. We need to figure out what to do next with this situation.”
I was almost in shock. I felt like Duke had ratted Jim out. There was a sense of betrayal in the air.
Duke got a glass of water and pounded it down. Then he grabbed himself a cup of coffee. He pointed it right at Jim. “Think you can chop that up into firewood?”
“Yeah, sure,” Jim said. “Nobody told you to do that.”
“That’s okay,” Duke said. “It needed to be done. Your old man wouldn’t have let it sit that long.”
“My old man had two functioning legs,” Jim said.
“You’re standing,” Trev said. “What’s the problem?”
Jim lifted his jean leg to show the President of Back Down Devil MC his prosthetic leg.
“Nice,” Trev said. “I bet you get a lot of pussy with that. A good war story. A bum leg. Fuck… to be single