We stepped back, watching as she climbed into her car, backing it carelessly out of the parking lot before tearing off in a spray of gravel.
“Damn, she handles that stick like a pro,” I murmured.
“Eat shit, Levi,” Gage said. “Play nice or I’ll give you to Talia. She asked about you last night—guess one of her girls is into you.”
“Yeah, not interested. I’d just as soon my dick not fall off. Never seen such a diseased-looking pack of bitches.”
“Now, that’s not very nice,” he said, throwing an arm over my shoulder. “Especially since you’re a bigger slut than all of them combined.”
I fucking hated it when he was right.
“Was there a reason you made me drive all the way across the state?” I asked. “I was in the middle of something.”
“Fucking some skank? We have skanks here, too. You’ll get over it.”
“Actually, I was with Melanie,” I confessed. “I spent the night at her place.”
Gage raised a brow.
“I thought she was your new princess,” he said. “Since when do you touch those?”
“Since last night, apparently,” I admitted. “She was good, Gage. Really good. I think this might be the real thing.”
“Give it a week and you’ll be over her. C’mon inside. I need to fill you in on some shit.”
He was all business now, and I followed him into the room, wondering what’d happened.
“Beer?” he asked. I shook my head, flopping back on one of the sagging full-size beds, propping my hands behind my neck. Hadn’t gotten much sleep last night—might as well relax while I could. From the look on Gage’s face, we’d have a shit storm to deal with soon enough.
“We’re going to a party out at the Nighthawks’ clubhouse in a few hours,” he said, sitting down across from me. “Talia was at the bar again last night. We danced for a while and I bought her a few drinks. Then her brother showed up with his crew and I finally got an introduction. We started talking and I fed him my line about being an independent rider. Bought a couple rounds and the next thing I know, I’m taking Talia to the party tonight. She wants you along for her girl.”
“I’m not gonna fuck her,” I told him without a second thought. Huh.
“Pussy-whipped?” he asked, his voice serious. “Club needs you on this, Painter. You think I wanna screw that bitch Talia? Fuck no, not with a sweet piece like Tinker around. We all gotta do our part, bro.”
I shook my head, frowning.
“I’m serious about Mel.”
“She doesn’t need to know.”
“How ’bout this—I’ll take it one step at a time, see how it plays out.”
Gage cocked his head. “You’ll do what needs to be done?”
“Don’t I always?”
“Always have before. There’s more.”
“What?”
“This morning I saw someone I recognized,” he said, his tone grim. “Someone who will recognize me.”
“That’s no good. Passing through?”
“It’s possible,” he said. “He was by himself. Could be a coincidence.”
“Who was it? Anyone I know?”
“Unlikely—this shit went down before your time. Few years back, we had a hangaround whose girlfriend worked at The Line. Turned out he was a snitch, and it’s ’cause of him and that bitch of his that Bolt served time. She set him up—they were working with the Feds. The snitch pulled a runner. Called himself Hands, no idea what his real name is.”
“You don’t think it’s a coincidence he turned up here?”
“I got a bad feeling about it,” he admitted. “Can’t think of a good reason for him to be in Hallies Falls. If he’s still workin’ with the cops, he may be targeting Marsh and his boys now. Much as I hate the fucker, last thing we need is LEO sniffing out the cross-border trade and shutting it down. Throw in the fact that he could blow my cover and we got a big problem.”
No shit.