Dark Temptation (Dark Saints MC Book 2)(36)
I kept my head on a swivel as I drove back to the hotel. Even more so when I walked into my hotel room. I looked around it just as Benz had before.
No one was there.
My stomach was in knots after meeting with Detective Janning. For the first time, I had real worry that Benz was the one in danger now. Not me.
I sat down on the bed and that’s when I saw it. A piece paper with my name on it.
Jen,
You’re all clear. I won the vote.
But you need to leave Port Az as soon as you can. Finish your library job and go.
I loved our time, but it’s done. It has to be this way.
I can’t have the MC and a cop for an old lady, and you’re a cop. Or will be.
It’s not something you can change or should. And I’m nothing without the club.
I hope you get all that you want in life.
Love, Benz
Seven lines. Seven shitty lines. It was practically a form letter. I reread it.
He won the vote. That was something. The Dark Saints didn’t have my name on some list of people to kill. Awesome.
But I’d lost Benz. I wondered if I’d ever even had him.
I walked over to the window and looked out at the motel parking lot. When did he leave this? Did I just miss him?
I wanted to talk to Benz. That was it.
I was going to talk to Benz.
As much as I had thought I was going to have to run away from him or The Saints, I didn’t want to now. It was clearer than ever that he had changed me. He was my future. And it was a future that I hadn’t charted. It was thrilling and exciting and scary as hell, but it was a future with Benz. And these seven shitty lines weren’t enough to change that.
I drove to his apartment.
I had no idea if he was there, but banged on the door anyway. I called for him. I got no answer.
I thought about driving to the MC. I was that desperate. But I chickened out on that.
Bear had ordered me killed. Vote or no vote, Benz or not, I wasn’t suicidal. Going into their turf after what had just gone down wasn’t an option.
In the end, I drove around Port Az looking for signs of Benz.
I didn’t find any.
I wound up at the library.
Where I’d started. I climbed the steps and there she was.
Inez.
“You been gone a couple of days. I wondered if you were done. I hoped you weren’t ‘cause it’s a mess over there.”
“Good to see you, Inez.”
I walked over to my little area of the Port Azrael Library. All the papers and files were there. Just as I had left them.
Time had run out on whatever Benz and I had. Time had almost run out on this job. I’d been given four weeks for this project.
I could barely believe all that had happened in that time. I was a different person than the one who’d walked in here.
Tears started to flow.
I didn’t think they would stop. I quietly came apart.
“Hey.” Inez was standing at my desk and she had a tissue.
“Thanks. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just don’t get anything wet. Bad for historical preservation.” Inez turned and left me to my heartbreak.
It was time to leave Port Az. I had to accept Benz’s seven shitty lines.
I took his letter out again and looked at it. I crumpled it in my hand and threw it in the trash.
Benz’s letter was one document I wouldn’t be saving.
22
Benz
It had taken six months. But we were set up.
The two idiots that Officer Peck had arrested were quickly replaced and the rats were sniffing around the docks to get a flow of New Jack Swing into Port Az.
Each time we’d let it in and then contained the damage. Finally, after the six months, we were going to see the next step in the chain.
I was tailing the mid-level guys. They’d been supplying the low-level assholes that Bear allowed to operate in Port Az.
But they had to get their shit from someone, somewhere.
I wasn’t on my bike, but in a nondescript minivan. Not my favorite look, but it worked. No one noticed a family vehicle driving here and there.
I was parked and ready to watch. My job was to see who met the middle man. We were slowly working up.
I wasn’t going to interfere with their deal either. That would be the guys set up in Port Az today, later.
I was here to watch and take a few photos and bring them back to Bear. We’d figure out who was pulling the strings and decide from there.
I was expecting Tico Dawes, Prez of the Hawks in Loredo. We knew the Hawks were trying to get into Port Az. This would be the proof.
My two middle-men walked into the restaurant and sat. I still had a good view. A good half hour later their lunch date arrived.
It sure as hell wasn’t a Hawk. I was surprised. I was also more concerned than I’d have been if it were a Hawk trying to encroach.
Something way bigger was looming over our town.
I took a few photos and watched. Part of me wanted to go in there and beat the shit out of all three.
I wanted to tell them to drive out of Port Az and keep going.
But I knew my job.
This was going to be harder than we thought. The meeting busted up. The two middle-men drove off in the other dude’s car. They had switched. That was one way to get shit into Port Az. Trade vehicles. Simple.