“Invincible”—AdelitasWay
Earlier…
After I’d packed up all of Grams’s shit that morning, I stopped to see Snow before I needed to leave. I’d convinced myself to stay away from Loralei. I’d decided it was better to let Snow and the boys check on her for me.
I’d been procrastinating leaving as I sat at DS Customs having a beer with Snow, Hollywood, and Reaper. Then Joker stopped by, and we started talking about ink. Next thing I knew, Hacker, Blue, and DJ came in.
We were chilling and laughing when Soap came into the shop. “Hey, Snow. Some chick is here to see you. Want me to tell her you’re busy?”
“Nah, let me see what she needs,” he replied before saying to me, “Do you need to go, or will you be okay to wait a few minutes?”
I glanced at the time. “I’m good if you’re not gonna be too long. I’d like to get on the road before it gets too late, but I’m not afraid of a little snow.”
He chuckled. “Maybe you should be.”
We both laughed, knowing he was referencing himself. “Man, get the fuck out of here.”
He got up and went up front while the boys and I shot the shit.
When Snow came back, he had a weird look on his face. “Everything okay?”
Turned out “the chick” was Loralei and it was me she wanted to talk to. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted her to know you were here. Then she said it was personal and a ‘delicate situation,’ and it put me on alert.”
Standing up, I dropped the bottle in the trash. “Let me go see what she needs.”
“I sent her on her way.” As he walked with me toward the door, he appeared to consider his next words. “Bro, I don’t mean to tell you your business, but what if she’s batshit crazy? Why don’t you call her first? See what she has to say, then maybe head over. Or not.”
Knowing he was right, I forced myself to breathe slowly and deeply. “You have a good point.”
He fidgeted briefly, and I wondered what was up. Finally, he sighed. “Look, I need you to know I looked into her after I remembered she’d worked for us.”
My hackles rose a bit, but I bit my tongue. “Why?”
“Well, when you had us help her out with her vehicle and her house, I thought she looked familiar. I remembered she’d been a waitress with us.”
“Yeah, you said that.”
“Well, there’s more. She did time down in Texas,” he reluctantly admitted.
“What? You must have her mixed up with someone else. There’s no way that girl is an ex-con. What could she possibly have done to get locked up? It’s people like us that do time, not sweet little things like her. She’d never survive in the pen,” I said, but it got me wondering. How the hell did I really know what she was?
“I assure you, it’s her. We do background checks on everyone that works for us.”
“You still have that file?”
“Yeah, but it’s archived since she quit. I didn’t print it out, just looked at it. Why?”
“Can you get me a copy of it?”
He cocked his head and lowered his brows in confusion. “Another favor? This is very unlike you. I’m also surprised that you didn’t already have Facet do that for you, since she was close with your grandmother.”
In frustration, I scrubbed a hand over my mouth before I tugged on my lip piercings with my teeth. I debated what to say and what not to say. Finally, I decided I was talking to him as my childhood best friend, not an MC president.
“Because this is personal, not club. I don’t want to involve them in this. I just want to make sure she’s not conning my grandmother or me.”
He raised a brow. “Yet you had me sell her the Yoda.”
I shrugged uncomfortably. “I felt bad for her.”