Chapter One
Cue Ball
“How?”
“Who?”
“What?”
“Holy fuck!” Smoke spat. “There used to be a fucking door here.”
“Hell, the whole back half of the building is gone,” I sighed.
Dice, Fade, Smoke, and I were gathered at the back of the gym, watching the smoldering smoke while the firefighters stayed at bay to make sure the fire didn’t reignite.
Fade ran his fingers through his hair. “This is fucking insane.”
“Brother, this is beyond insane.” He nodded toward the right. “There is a fucking dumbbell through that car’s windshield.”
“Yeah, that’s not supposed to be there,” I laughed.
Dice snickered and bumped me with his shoulder. “Pretty sure the weight bench isn’t supposed to be across the street either.”
“Cue,” Yarder called.
“Any chance you think I can ignore him and he won’t get pissed off?” I drawled.
Yarder raised his voice, “All of you idiots.”
“I’m gonna say no,” Fade laughed.
We ambled over to Yarder and Compass, who was at the side of the gym, away from the firefighters.
“What’s up?” Smoke asked.
“Olive is on the way to the hospital. I need Cue to go there to keep an eye on her and the rest of you to head out to Faye,” Yarder instructed.
“Why do I need to keep an eye on her?” I asked. I didn’t even know the chick or what she looked like.
“Because that is what I fucking asked you to do. We don’t know why the hell the gym was blown up, and until we figure it out, Faye and Olive are our responsibility. They work for the club, so they are the responsibility of the club,” Yarder growled. “I don’t need you questioning me.”
“You think they might be the reason why this happened?” Fade asked. “You guys were the ones who found these two.”
I cringed and ran my fingers through my hair. To say we were all a little bitter about Yarder and Compass making moves and decisions without the club was an understatement.
Compass flattened his lips and glared at Fade. “We checked both of them out.”
I nodded toward the building. “Just a coincidence, the gym gets blown up after you hire those two, then.”
“Why do we need to head out to Faye?” Dice asked.
“Olive was going to clean the gym and then go pick up Faye. Her car broke down about an hour away,” Yarder explained.
“So we’re a taxi service now, too,” Smoke snickered.
“Why the hell are guys fighting me so much on this? We’re more than likely the reason why the gym blew up, and we need to protect everyone connected to us because that is what we fucking do.” Yarder nodded to me. “Find Olive Benson and stick by her.”
“What do you want us to do once we help Faye?” Smoke asked.
Yarder shrugged. “You guys can figure out between the three of you which one is going to be her shadow.”
“Not it!” Dice and Smoke called in unison.
“God dammit,” Fade grumbled. “This is some bullshit. Why can’t we just put both of the girls up in a hotel and just make them stay there until we know what the hell is going on?” he suggested.
“Have you ever met a woman before?” Dice laughed. “Ain’t no way in hell either of them would be okay with just sitting in a hotel room for days.”
“Not without demanding to know why,” Smoke snickered.
Yarder nodded to me. “Stay with Olive no matter what.” He turned to Smoke, Dice, and Fade. “You three help Faye, and then Fade sticks to her like glue. We’ll try to figure out what the hell is going on.”
“Too bad the show isn’t shooting yet. This shit would make some great TV.” Smoke nodded to Yarder. “You should give the production crew a call.”
Yarder shook his head. “I am thankful as fuck the show isn’t shooting yet. There wouldn’t be a way for us to figure out what was going on without a camera in our faces. We’ve got three and a half weeks until the crew shows up. We figure this out before then, and this will just be a story we can tell when they’re interviewing us.”
“Three weeks to figure out why the gym blew up. I think we can do that,” Compass replied. “Besides, I’m sure the cops will be trying to figure it out, too.”
“That a good or bad thing?” I asked.
The Iron Fiends were pretty much on the up and up. We didn’t deal in drugs or pussy. We were just a local motorcycle club that ran a local garage, and we loved to ride.
Yarder shrugged. “Neither from where I’m standing. If we were dealing in dirty shit, I would be worried, but we’re clean.”
I guess that was one good thing in all of this.
There was obviously someone pissed off at us or the new girls, but it wasn’t looking like we would get busted for past shit.
“You want me to bring Faye back to the clubhouse?” Fade asked.
“Yeah, same with Olive?”
Yarder shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. If they want to, sure. But they might put up a fuss about leaving their places. Just do whatever you can to keep them happy but also safe. I’ll let you know if it becomes a need to have them at the clubhouse.”
I nodded and headed over to my bike.
Tonight was not at all what I had planned to be doing, but that was life.
One minute you’re trying to get used to the idea of being on a reality show, and the next minute you’re watching a gym burn down while being tasked with keeping an eye on some chick you didn’t know.
Fucking crazy.
*
Chapter Two
Olive
“I need to go home.”
Nurse Gene shook his head and fiddled with the machine connected to me. “That isn’t going to happen yet. We need to run a few more tests to make sure you’re okay.”
“I just have a headache, and my leg is sore,” I insisted. “I’ll take a few Tylenol, and I’ll be fine.” I had a few scrapes and bruises, too, but I wasn’t at all concerned about those. I was just thankful I was still breathing.
When that bomb exploded, I was sure I was a goner. I had been knocked a good twenty feet back and had landed hard on my butt. I must have smacked my head at some point to explain my throbbing head. “I need to call my mom. She has my son,” I explained. “Someone needs to tell her what is going on.”
“We were able to pull up your emergency contact. We let who you have on file know.”
I tipped my head to the side. Who I had on file? It had been years since I had been in the hospital myself.
Not since Rocky was born.
Oh no.
“Uh, are you able to tell me who it is you called?” When I had given birth, my mom and I weren’t speaking.
“I’ll have to take a look when I get back to the nurse’s station.” Gene finished doing whatever the hell it was he was doing and logged out of the computer. “Next up is a CAT Scan to check out your head. They should be in here soon.”
The only thing I was worried about was who they had called to tell them I had been in an accident.