“Like I said”—Bandit brushed past Arianne on his way out—“no fun.”
Over the next few days, Arianne worked on her Ninja and helped Sparky with the repairs to the members’ bikes. She was drawn into more than one relationship discussion with the Sinners and quickly got to know them. Right away, she’d recognized that T-Rex, the club’s senior prospect, was definitely full-patch material, but she still wasn’t sure about Wheels. Although he was always pleasant enough, he was very careful when he spoke and self-aware to the point where she wondered if he was hiding something.
On her fourth day at the safe house, her phone buzzed in her pocket. Assuming it was Dawn, who had been calling to check up on her at least five times a day, she excused herself to go to the washroom and then took the call after she closed the door.
“Ari. You okay? I heard the Sinners got you.”
She sucked in a sharp breath at the sound of Jeff’s voice, and then choked on the cloying fetid scent. The first time she’d asked about the ladies’ room, Sparky had laughed and pointed to the dingy door at the end of the hall. Apparently ladies rarely visited the shop, so no point wasting space for a separate bathroom. And he’d given her fair warning; it was only ever cleaned when the sweet butts came to visit, which was almost never.
Still, she was relieved to know Jeff was okay. She’d called in every favor and asked every friend she knew to check out Jeff’s regular haunts for her. Maybe someone had flushed him out.
“No. It’s okay. I’m good.” She explained about Axle and how Jagger felt duty-bound to keep her safe until he had hunted Axle down.
“So you can leave?”
She gritted her teeth. Jagger’s edict that she was not allowed to leave the safe house without guards still grated on her, but except for that one afternoon when he stopped by to make sure she’d made it to the shop, she hadn’t seen him. She spent her days in the shop and her nights in the small one-bedroom apartment upstairs. Basic, functional, and decorated in stark white and blue, it was cold and lonely, and she often found herself back downstairs chatting with the bikers Jagger had posted as guards for the night.
“Not alone.”
“Fuck.” Jeff grunted, and she heard the thud of his fist against the wall. Oh God. Was he high? He was violent only when he was high or tweaking on crank.
“I need the rest of those guns, Ari. If I show up at the Black Jacks clubhouse without them, Viper’s gonna kill me. And it’s all your fault. If you hadn’t shown up that night, I would have had time to take them all.”
Arianne bristled. “If you’d just come with me when I showed up, you wouldn’t need the guns. We’d be in Canada starting a new life, where we wouldn’t be worried about Viper. You could have gone to rehab. It’s what we always wanted, and—”
“It’s what you always wanted.” He cut her off abruptly. “And I went with you every time, not because I really wanted to leave, but because I love you and I wanted to keep you safe. I didn’t want you going to a strange city or country alone. But Viper finally offered me what I always wanted the night of the fire. He said he’d patch me into the Jacks if I did a good job. I could have made him proud. I was going to bring you the passport when I was done. I thought you’d understand, but you messed it up.”
A sudden coldness hit at her core. But really, was she surprised? If she was honest with herself, she’d sensed his lack of commitment from the start, but she just couldn’t bring herself to believe he wanted to stay with Viper. Endure Viper’s abuse. Join the biker gang that had been the cause of such heartache in their lives.
“I know you want the passport,” he said. “And I need those guns. So here’s the deal: You find out where they are and how to get in. Provide a distraction. I’ll be in and out before those damn Sinners know what hit them. You do that, I’ll leave the passport with Dawn and you can go have your happy Canadian life. I’m sorry I can’t go with you, but I’ll be a Black Jack, Ari. A full-patch. I’ll be the son Viper always wanted.”
Arianne sagged against the door of the filthy bathroom. How could she betray the Sinners after all Jagger had done for her? “Don’t ask me to do this.”
“Please help me,” he pleaded. “You know what Viper will do to me if I show up without the weapons. I just want to make him proud. It’s all I ever wanted, and he finally gave me a chance. Once I have that patch, I know I’ll be able to kick the drugs because I’ll know I’m not a failure.”