Dark Temptation (Dark Saints MC Book 2)(39)

I knew now that, when it came to The Saints, there were shades of gray. Black and white, the way I was raised, didn’t really exist.

I also knew what I wanted to try to do.

I didn’t want to be a part of any history anymore. I wanted a future. And I knew what I wanted that future to include.

If he’d have me.



“Here’s your desk. Your main job is to be sure that Detective Numb Nuts, uh, Peck, here doesn’t shoot himself in the foot.”

“Thanks, Detective Janning, uh, I mean Deputy Chief Janning.”

I had the desk across from Officer Peter Peck.

An opening had become available on the Port Azrael Police Department when Janning was promoted to deputy police chief.

I was the newest detective. I had moved back to Port Azrael, lock, stock, and newly issued police service weapon.

I was going to be doing real police work for a town that was struggling to re-invent itself. I wouldn’t be behind some state desk, waiting, hoping, and fantasizing that I’d be selected for The Rangers. I didn’t want to follow my Daddy’s path or my Great Grandfather’s. I needed to find my own.

I was through waiting and done with looking backward. My eyes were open.

I had been in town for a week and I hadn’t seen Benz yet.

I’d seen other Saints – Axle, Kade, and Zig. They would roll through town; they drank at Woody’s Lounge. All of it was without Benz.

I pulled the overnight shift.

The Deputy Chief said I’d learn the most that way. There was a lot to learn. Officer Peter Peck was my partner and thus far he’d not shot himself in the foot.

I was headed to my car after graveyard duty when I saw it.

I knew it was Benz’s bike. I’d been on the back of it enough to recognize it, parked behind the bumper of my Bug.

I walked up to it and put a hand on the seat. What did it mean?

“Careful.” I whirled around. There he was: Benz.

I took him in. He still took my breath away. The time away from him hadn’t changed that. It only intensified it.

“You’re parked illegally,” I said.

“You going to arrest me?” He took a step forward and my heart pounded. Every day since I’d left Port Azrael I had wanted to be back here. I couldn’t forget how I felt when he touched me or how he changed my world.

He had the newspaper in his hand. It had hit the news wires today:

NEW DOCUMENTS UNCOVER CHECKERED PAST OF TEXAS HERO



“You didn’t have to do this,” Benz said and waved the paper.

“I was here to find the history. Your Great Granddad and mine are a part of it.”

“Turns out they were both terrible.”

“Yeah, turns out.” I wondered if he still felt anything for me. Had Benz moved on? The idea would be hard to swallow. Bear said he hadn’t, but I didn’t know how close they were after all that had gone down.

I wanted to say something clever, but my emotions were taking over.

“I’m sorry for that shitty letter. I’m not good at letters,” Benz said and I fought the urge to ugly cry.

“It was a shitty letter. I didn’t enter that into the digital record,” I replied and he closed the last bit of distance between us.

Benz grabbed me into his arms and I gasped. He kissed me hard and I kissed him.

For six months nothing had felt right. I was torn inside out. In Benz’s arms, I was whole again.

Nothing would ever be right if I wasn’t with Benz.

“Are you allowed to date a cop?”

“Oh, you mean The Dark Saints’ code? I’m only allowed to date a cop if it’s serious.”

“Benz, with us, it’s serious as it gets.”

He kissed me again.

I had no idea what it would mean, to really be with Benz, to have him in my life, but I wanted to find out.

I may never understand what it meant to be an old lady for a biker club.

But I did understand I didn’t want to live without Benz Bass.

The history of our families might be filled with blood, crime, and violence, but Benz and I had a new path to forge.

I didn’t know what it looked like. I just knew he’d be holding my hand.





Epilogue





Jen



“Get down!” Ricardo Pilar was face first on the pavement. I held my weapon steady. My voice was firm. I was keyed up, no doubt about that, but I was sure of myself.

It had taken one year. One solid year. I’d crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘i.’

Ricardo Pilar’s stated reasons for being in Port Azrael was for investment purposes. He’d had meetings with the developer of an old hotel outside of downtown, he had meetings with a restaurant owner, and he’d had meetings with a city official. It was mostly bullshit. It was a cover for the reason he was really here.

Ricardo Pilar’s reason had nothing to do with hotels and restaurants. It had everything to do with getting a foothold for trafficking hard drugs in Port Azrael.

I’d started this investigation, and I was finishing it.

In the beginning, I had a tip from an unlikely source.

Bear Bullock set me on the path. Though no one at the PAPD knew that for sure. They might suspect where I got my intel, but no one was braving enough or maybe stupid enough to ask.