Repo
Repo was called back downto the courthouse by the same officer who arrested Catrina Linz earlier that day. The officer’s shift was ending and he had found Cat sleeping on a park bench across the street from the courthouse. The guy was nice enough to say that he didn’t want Repo to lose his bail bond when she ran. He thanked the guy and jumped back into his pick-up truck to head over to the little park. He needed to figure out what the hell he was going to do with Cat because the last thing he wanted to do was lose another bail bond. If Cat ran, she’d be the third to take off on him that month and at that rate, he’d be out of money and out of business in no time.
All Repo wanted to do was get on his bike and ride over to his club, Savage Hell, drink the night away and find a biker fly to spend his night with. But, with each passing hour, he was beginning to realize that wasn’t going to happen tonight. Still, he needed to call Savage to let him know that he wasn’t going to make it to church tonight which was a shame since they had some new probates coming in and he always loved to give them some shit.
Savage answered on the first ring, “Lo,” he said.
“Hey man,” Repo said. Savage grunted into the other end of the cell and Repo knew he was catching his club’s Prez at a bad time. “Shit, sorry,” Repo said. He heard some rustling on the other end of the line and Dallas’ giggle. Yeah, he had interrupted something, if he was guessing correctly, Savage wasn’t going to be very happy with his intrusion. “Tell Bowie and Dallas I’m sorry,” Repo offered.
“What can I do for you, Repo?” Savage asked, sighing into the phone.
“Nothing really,” Repo said. “I just wanted to let you know that it looks like I’ll be working tonight and won’t be able to make it to church. Can you manage without me?” As one of the older members, Savage counted on him to keep the guys patching into Savage Hell in check. The younger guys like to bend the rules sometimes to see how much Savage and the rest of the club would be willing to let them get away with. Savage would lose his fucking mind if it wasn’t for some of the other guys, like Repo, stepping up as enforcers to keep the probies in line.
“We’ll manage,” Savage said. “You do what you have to and stay safe out there, man.”
“Will do,” Repo agreed. “I’ll be in tomorrow night if all goes as planned. I’m not sure how much trouble this case is going to give me but if she runs, I’m out money and I can’t let that happen.”
“Understood,” Savage said. “See you on the flip side.” Savage ended the call and Repo tossed his cell on the seat next to him. He pulled into the parking lot across from the courthouse and spotted Cat as soon as he got out of his truck. Sure enough, the cop had given him good intel—she was asleep on one of the benches, clutching a cardboard box to her chest. If he was guessing correctly that box looked to contain all her worldly possessions and God if that didn’t tug at his fucking heart.
Cat Linz seemed to be doing a lot of that today—making him feel things he usually didn’t. Things like pity and compassion and hell, maybe even a little lust. “Hey,” he shouted, carefully poking her sleeping form with his boot-clad foot. “Wake up, Cat,” he ordered. She stirred and moaned, trying to roll over to get comfortable on the hard bench again only to flip onto the ground. She sat up and looked around as if trying to figure out how she ended up there. Cat looked up at Repo and squinted her eyes at him.
“You,” she spat. “You pushed me onto the ground,” she accused.
“No,” he said. “You did that all by yourself. I was just trying to wake your ass up. Why the fuck are you sleeping on a park bench across the street from the courthouse?” Repo questioned.
Cat stood up and brushed herself off, picking up her box and belongings, tossing them onto the bench. “Well, the Ritz has no vacancies, so here I am.” She held her arms wide and spun around slowly giving Repo a good look at her curvy, sexy body. Yeah, she was fucking hot but Repo needed to remember that Cat Linz was a job—a paycheck and he never fucked with his money.
“Yeah,” she breathed. “Take a good look, fucker. The first look’s free but the next one will cost you,” Cat sassed.
“Thanks, Honey. I’m good with just one look though,” Repo taunted. Cat dropped her arms to her sides and blew out her breath. “How about you tell me what you’re really doing here on this bench?”
“I already told you earlier,” she spat, “I was evicted. My landlord has this crazy thing where he likes to get paid his rent to let me live in my apartment.”
“Yeah,” Repo said. “I hear that’s the way things are usually done. I take it you didn’t have the money to pay him then?”
Cat slumped to the bench and shrugged. “Things have been slow lately.”
“Ah, a decline in business or unhappy customers?” Repo teased. He knew he was egging her on and probably going to catch hell from her for doing it but he didn’t give a fuck—she was fun to spar with.
Cat stood and put both hands on her hips, “I do not have unhappy customers,” she insisted. “I don’t have a pimp, so having to go this alone makes things a little harder. Other girls have no problem getting called but I don’t have someone helping to find—um well, work,” she squeaked. “So, yeah—things are tight right now and my scumbag landlord kicked me out.”
“What about all your stuff?” Repo asked, eyeing the lone cardboard box sitting next to her on the park bench.
Cat looked down at her box and back up at him. “This is about it,” she whispered. “I had one other box but had to leave it behind.”
“Too heavy?” Repo asked. He hated that he cared. He hated that she was sucking him into her story and her life. This wasn’t who he was. Repo wasn’t the type of guy who gave a fuck about anyone’s sad story. He learned at a young age that helping others usually cost him something so he usually steered clear of getting involved in other people’s messy lives. It just made things easier that way.
“No,” Cat said. “I couldn’t go back for it without giving that slimeball a chance to get his hands on me.”
“Your landlord?” Repo asked, trying to keep up.
“Yeah,” she said. “Let’s just say he had a few ideas of how I could work off my back rent with him and I wasn’t willing to suck his dirty cock.” Cat stared Repo down as if daring him to say something.
He held up his hands, as if in defense. “I’m not judging you, Cat. That’s not what’s happening here.”
“All right,” she said. “Then why are you here, Repo, was it?” she asked. She knew damn good and well what his name was.
Repo smirked and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “But, you already knew that. As for why I’m here, Cat, I told you that if you run—I’ll find you.”