Jo’s lips tightened at Aly’s sarcasm.
“Willa is a Christian. You should get off your couch sometime. You would see her working late at night, fixing lunch bags for the school children for the weekends, or—”
“Okay, I know you like Willa, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“Please, that would be great.”
“I thought you would be in a better mood after your date with Rider last night. How did it go?”
“Fine. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I think we should come up with another plan … I don’t feel comfortable doing this anymore. I didn’t want to do it in the first place, and now that I spent a little time with him, I think we’re making a big mistake.”
“We’re sticking to the plan. It’s working. Why would we change it now?”
“I’m getting a terrible feeling that Rider isn’t the man we think he is. He’s creeping me out.”
“Rider is creeping you out? What did he do?”
“He hasn’t done anything creepy.” Jo tried to think of a way to explain the vibe that Rider was more dangerous than they believed him to be. “Something isn’t right. I’m afraid Rider’s not as easygoing as he pretends to be.”
“Rider couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. He has his mind on two things: sex and food. As long as he has a steady amount of both, he’s an open book.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Jo argued.
“I’m the one who would know. I’ve been learning everything about him since I started going to the club with Moon. All I have to do is talk about shoes and my discount, and they tell me anything I want to know about him. I don’t care that you’re getting cold feet. The only way we’re going to get even with Curt is by making it personal with The Last Riders. That will get them to take care of our problems. Anyone who makes the mistake of fucking with one of The Last Riders’ women disappears or dies with a bullet between their eyes.”
“That’s gossip. If it could be proven, they would be locked away in jail.”
“Yeah.” Scorn filled her voice and face. “We know how well the judicial system has worked for us. I know Curt is responsible for my parents’ deaths. If the only justice I can get is to get The Last Riders to avenge their deaths, I’ll take it.”
“You know Curt is responsible without a doubt?”
“My parents were scared of Curt. He was trying to get them to sell their property to him. A week later, they’re both dead. The coroner didn’t find a medical reason for my father to go over that hill. I know Curt did it. Just like I know he raped you. I don’t have any proof of that either, but I believe you,” she said reasonably, as if Curt’s death shouldn’t bother her.
It did.
As much as she hated and despised him, she didn’t want him murdered because she had lured Rider into committing the crime. She might not be the one to pull the trigger, but she would be the one to put the gun in his hand, unless she could talk Aly out of the plan they had devised.
“How many people does Curt have to destroy before he’s stopped? Besides, we don’t know if Rider would be the one to do it. It could be Shade, Viper, Moon, or the one who stays in his room. That could be why he stays out of sight when I go to the club.”
“You don’t know who he is?”
“No, and when I try to get the women to talk about him, they quit talking or leave the room, which is why I quit asking. So far, I’ve been able to get out of fucking any of them by keeping the women occupied with things I bring from the store. I’ve been hiding under their radar, so I don’t want to alert the men that I’m not there to be a member. I’m on borrowed time as it is.”
“No one has become suspicious yet?”
“Jewell has. That’s why I bid on Rider. She keeps her eagle eyes on him. I knew she would be upset that Rider bid that much for you, so I didn’t set her radar off. I was right, too, from what you texted me. She didn’t tell Rider about your message. She wanted to jack up your date. Hopefully, I can mislead her that our date goes well enough that she’ll worry about me more than you.”
“If it goes well, you won’t need me anymore. I never wanted to do this anyway. I’ll pay back the money my father borrowed from your parents. I only need a little time—”
“There’s not enough time in the world to pay back the money your father borrowed. Rider will never fall for me. He hasn’t fallen for any of the women at the club. You’re the type of woman The Last Riders fall for. They just fuck women like me.”
“According to you, they haven’t.”
“That’s only because they’re trying me out to see if I can keep my mouth shut before asking me to become one of their women members. Shade gave me another foot in the door when he asked me to discount the clothes you picked and paid the difference.”
“I still don’t understand how he knew I would go in there to shop.”
“He led you there with those flyers. I bet he gave Lily the suggestion. It was like leaving scraps for a starving dog with a bear trap at the end.”
“Thanks a lot. I really don’t like being compared to a hungry dog,” Jo said before trying another tactic. “I’ll sign over my property and truck to you.”
“Shade has a lean on your truck, and that land is more of a landfill than a property. Your house needs to be bulldozed, which is why you don’t try to fix anything.” Aly gave a long-suffering sigh. “Help me, and I will tear up the note your father gave mine. I’ll even pay off your truck. You’ll be debt free.”
Jo stared back at her. Aly wasn’t going to change her mind. She had no choice other than to warn Rider or Curt about Aly. After last night, she just couldn’t bring herself to warn Curt. Plus, it would set his target on Aly. She was becoming just as afraid of Rider, but in another way.
Curt was dangerous but, deep down, she felt like she could handle him. He wouldn’t be dealing with a fifteen-year-old girl now. Rider, however, brought the fine hairs on her arms standing. When she had seen him around town, he had done nothing to raise her fears that he was as lethal as her instincts were screaming he was. Could it be a guilty conscience? Was she making more of the feelings he was invoking than they really were?
“I don’t have any other alternative. We should go to Knox and—”
“I’ve been to Knox. He told me to wait for the state police to issue their final accident report. When it came back accidental as the cause, he said his hands were tied. His might be, but mine aren’t.”
Her last resort squashed, Jo had no other suggestions that would change Aly’s plan. Truthfully, she did believe Curt had something to do with her parents’ deaths. He had made an offer to Aly for her parents’ land before their caskets could be lowered into the ground. Two other offers had been made, each with a higher amount.
The property sat alone, without any homes nearby. Aly and she had discussed why Curt would want the property so badly, yet neither of them could up with one that would get Knox to take Aly’s fears seriously.
“There’s no need to stay here talking if I’m not able to change your mind. You don’t want to keep Rider waiting.” Jo’s fingers went to the button to raise the window.
“I’ve been looking forward to it. If he gets away with killing Curt for us, I might have a change of heart about joining The Last Riders.”
“You’d seriously consider having sex for votes to belong?”
“I’ve always had a soft spot for bad boys. The hard thing would be deciding which six.”
Jo couldn’t bring herself to have sex with one, much less six.
“I know which one I would pick—the door.”
Aly’s nose crinkled. “I can tell from your expression you haven’t ever fantasized about being with two men.”
“No, and certainly not letting six different men touch me just to get voted to become a Last Rider.”
“Ember may have been giving me false information to see if I say anything to anyone in town. I’ve only been there a few times. We will see.”
“
We won’t. You will. Trying to get Rider to fall in love with me is as far as I plan to go. I’m sick at myself that I agreed to that. If I had known what you wanted when you showed up at my door, I wouldn’t have answered.”
“You’d rather let Curt get away with murder?”
“I’d rather we didn’t have to pretend that I didn’t know you were back in town. Then Knox would have figured out what we were doing, and it would take this plan out of my hands.”
“I made my mind that, if you didn’t help, I was going to take you to court to get my father’s money back. He shouldn’t have lent it to your dad in the first place. It was too easy for him to use the money for his drinking and keep that lost cause of a business going.”
Each of Aly’s harsh words was like having a stake driven into her heart.
“You’ve changed since we went to school together.”
“Having your parents murdered will do that to you.”
Jo grimaced as she pictured the scenario in her head. She hadn’t been pushed to the edge by her rape, or Curt’s breaking into her house. She didn’t know how she would react if she thought he was responsible for the death of someone she loved.
She was going to have to see how her future date with Rider played out. He could lose interest just as quickly as it had developed, giving her a way out of the mess she had found herself in. Other than the auction, she hadn’t done anything that could make herself attractive to him.
Jo felt as if a coin had been flipped into the air, and her conscience depended on where it landed. If Rider fell in love with her, she would have Curt’s death on her shoulders. If he didn’t, Aly would have to admit she had tried and it was no fault of hers, and allow her to make payments on her father’s debt.
She sat on the lonely road long after Aly had left. The road ahead enticed her to take her anywhere but Treepoint.
“Just leave.”
The empty silence offered no pearls of wisdom, leaving the choice to her.
Starting the engine, she drove up the winding road.
“Leave.” Again, Jo spoke out loud, inwardly knowing she wouldn’t. She had run once before; she wasn’t going to do it again. Whichever way the imaginary coin she had flipped landed, she would be in Treepoint. It was the only place her heart yearned to be. For all its disadvantages, it was home.
18
Rider went into Jewell’s office without knocking, shutting the door behind him.
“Why didn’t you give me Jo’s message the other day?”
“Did she leave a message? I must have forgotten.”
As excuses went, Jewell’s was lame.
Jerking herself out of her office chair, she went to the filing cabinet to put away a folder. It only took two steps into the small office for him to block her attempt at ignoring his angry presence.
“What you did wasn’t cool, and I don’t appreciate it. You were gone when I got home and didn’t come back. Where were you?”
Jewell shoved him out of her way, filing the folder then closing the drawer with a snap before going back to her chair. “I was there. I just didn’t answer my door. I wasn’t in the mood to fuck you after your date.”
“You didn’t answer your door?” Rider planted his hands on the front of her desk, leaning over it, exasperated at her actions.
“Nope. I watched Game of Thrones all weekend. I enjoyed the time to myself.”
“I wasn’t in the mood to fuck you either,” he snarled. “You’ve never had trouble telling the brothers to leave you alone when you’re not in the mood to fuck. Why stay in your room and make us worry about you?”
“Who was worried? Name one man who was worried.”
“I was, and Viper, Shade, and Moon.”
Her stiff expression fell as he called out the brothers’ names.
“You didn’t worry about me enough to miss your date with Aly.”
“You’ve never given a damn about who I dated before. Why now?”
“We spent all summer together, running after Greer’s clues, and now you can’t give me the time of day after you convinced me to let Crazy Bitch find them.”
“I wanted Gavin to have his bike back. We knew Crazy Bitch would do the right thing. I gave you the money we would have won and your choice of bikes, but you didn’t want it.”
“I didn’t want the bike. I prefer riding behind you.”
Rider straightened off her desk, going to the window to stare out at the parking lot. “I’m not in love with you. I can’t love anyone.”
“I know you’re not, but I didn’t expect you to ignore me for a new piece of tail. If you’re not able to fall in love with Jo, why did you pay so much money for a date with her?”
“You’re mad because I didn’t fuck you before I went out with Jo, and I spent too much money on a date with her?”
“You’ve never put a particular woman over your dick and stomach before.”
Rider gave a bitter laugh. “My stomach and my dick have never let me down.”
Turning, he reflected on the time he had spent with Jewell. She had fallen in love with him over the summer, while the time spent with her had increased the shallowness of his life.
“I’ve never let you down, have I?”
“No, you haven’t.” He looked up at her. “Tell me something truthfully. If you answer me honestly, I’ll never see Jo again. Can you be faithful? Never have another man or woman between your legs, never wonder what it’s like to fuck them?”
“You know I can’t.” Jewell began fidgeting with the papers on her desk.
“That’s why Jo. She’s a one-man woman.”
“Since when have you cared about that?”
“Since I’ve seen how happy Shade and the other brothers are.”
“They love their wives. You’ll never be able to love Jo the way they do their wives.”
“Maybe not, but I’d be creating a family.” Rider’s eyes went back to the parking lot. “It’s hard to watch them when they’re together. I want a piece of that pie for myself.”
“Jo isn’t going to be able to replace what you’ve lost.”
“No, she won’t, but she can give me a new start. We all have to play the cards we’ve been dealt, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fold and deal a new hand.”
“You’ll be miserable. You’re not the same man who joined the Navy. You love sharing with the other brothers. The sweet, little innocent you’re wanting will have you bored to death in a month. What happens then, Rider? You going to break Jo’s heart the way yours has been?”
Rider removed his eyes from the window to stare coldly at Jewell. “You think I would be unfaithful?”
“No, but as good at pretending as you are, a woman knows the difference between affection and love. Jo’s not stupid. She’ll know you’re not in love with her. One hour with Lily and Shade, or Viper and Winter will show her the fucking difference.”
“She’ll never know; I guarantee that.” His lips curled into a sensuous smile.
Jewell shook her head. “She’ll know, but I can see you’re determined to find that out for yourself. I’ll be waiting when she divorces your ass.”
“I’m not chasing Jo to put a ring on her finger. Marriage doesn’t keep a woman from straying or betraying you.”
“If you think you’re going to get Jo without a wedding ring, you’re delusional. Jo’s not a motorcycle you can lock away to make sure no one smudges the wax job, especially not without a commitment from you. What if she decides what you can give her isn’t enough?”
“Then I move on like I always do. Like I said, I’ll play the cards I’m dealt. What I don’t want is someone who’s not invited into the game sabotaging me.”
Jewel lifted her hands in the air. “I’m out. You want Jo, you can have her. You want Aly, you can even have her.” She dropped her hands to the desk, using them to brace her weight as she rose to confront him. “You want a woman who would rather give you a tow than give you a blowjob, you have my sympathy. When you wan
t to fuck Ember or Stori, I’m out. The other brothers will be keeping me busy, so I won’t even know you’re gone.”
“The catty side of you isn’t very attractive.”
“Get back to work. I have better things to do than listen to you tell me I need to suck it up, that you’re going to be with Jo. It hasn’t happened yet, and it probably won’t. Either way, I no longer give a fuck.”
“That’s all I wanted to hear.” Rider ignored Jewell’s furious outburst, leaving the office and closing the door behind him, giving her time to compose herself before anyone could see.
She might think her heart was broken, but it wasn’t. Jewell wasn’t in love with him. As much as he knew he was no longer capable of the emotion, it didn’t mean he couldn’t remember what it felt like. That was why he was going to make an allowance for her this time. If she interfered again, though, he wouldn’t be so understanding.
Jewell liked being his old lady. It gave her preferential treatment within the clubhouse, just like being the manager of the factory did. Jewell liked being the top dog over the other women, taking Evie’s place when she had married King.
That was what Jewell felt threatened about, not him. He had never told Jewell that she was his old lady, keeping their relationship sexual, and now he was glad he hadn’t.
If he married her, Jewell was domineering enough to create friction between the wives. He might never trust his heart to another woman, but he cared enough about the brothers to want one who would fit in harmoniously.
It was another reason he had decided to pursue Jo. She was friends with the wives, and she wouldn’t upset the balance between him and the other brothers.
Confidently, he went back to work, filling the orders. He wanted to finish early so he would have enough time to change and dress before he picked Jo up.
He had filled three more orders when Justin came into the factory, his weak jaw jutting out, making him look like a bulldog. Curt’s cousin was shorter and half his size, wearing a Stetson hat since he and his cousins had gone to the rodeo. Curt and Tanner had bought ones, too, but they had stopped wearing them after a month. Justin still hadn’t given up the ghost of pretending to be a cowboy, wearing his Stetson with a swagger that had Rider wanting to laugh at him.