Chapter One: Old Habits Die Hard
Ink
The club was just starting to kick off. I was about to get sucked into a game of darts with Bones when she came hurtling in like a bullet train. This tiny person who had bum-rushed the crowd, looked as if she was about to be a serious problem.
“Can we help you?” I asked the petite woman.
With her blonde bedhead hair flying around her face, she cast her scattered eyes around the Wheelz club.
At these early evening hours, the night was young. The place seemed reasonably packed for a Friday night, and it felt like we had a little relief from the crappiness we’d gone through of late as a club. We were cleaning house. The regulars were sitting up at the bar and throwing their drinks back. The women were in their little groups and talking amongst themselves. Low chatter filled the room along with the rock tunes flowing through the speakers. The porcelain balls on the pool tables clacked together as Chalk lined them up against another unworthy opponent and knocked them into his chosen pockets.
“Uh?I mean, yeah,” she replied. “You can help. I need to speak to the prez. I gotta tell him something.” She tried to run her fingers through her unruly bird’s nest, but her fingers couldn’t pry their way out of the balled up mess. Her movements were jittery and she seemed to be distressed. Her eyes were large, blue, and red-rimmed. Her lips looked cracked.
I didn’t want to go ahead and judge her, but to me it looked like she had a drug issue. Either that or someone was after her. I guessed we were about to find out which.
Bones and I shared a telepathic look.
His mouth formed into a thin line before he answered her, “That’d be me,” Bones replied as he sipped his beer. He watched her closely while probably wondering if this was going to be a repeat of the man who’d overdosed in the bathroom. He put his beer glass down on the edge of the pool table slowly. “What can I do for you? Let’s step over here away from the darts and we can talk.” His brow was knitted together in concern as he lightly took her arm and pulled her off to the side.
Harper watched on in curiosity.
“Look I’m not trying to cause any trouble. I’m really not.” The woman touched her hair again subconsciously and stepped in alignment with Bones.
I joined him to hear what she had to say.
Bones said nothing, but his arms were crossed defensively, poised and ready for anything.
“It’s Samantha.” The small woman looked up at Bones through her long lashes, searching for signs of shock on his face.
Bones didn’t display any, but I sure as hell did.
I felt my jaw lock up as I remembered being knocked out by her, and the fire… I still had nasty flashbacks from the incident. She was lucky I was in a coma and couldn’t go after her. I felt a furnace burning inside my stomach as I felt myself get ready to reach out, grab the woman’s arm and shake her.
Bones grasped my wrist in time to stop me. “Stop for a minute. Let her finish,” he insisted. When he was satisfied I wouldn’t do anything, he dropped my wrist. He turned his attention back to the slight creature in front of us. “Go on.”
I stood still next to Bones.
The woman stole a few weird looks at me before she continued, “She runs with a guy named Snake. She’s joined forces with him because of Naomi kicking her out and now she’s real bitter about it. She’s trying to get her cash up,” the words rushed from her mouth as if she had no time to say them.
She was whippet-thin, but oddly attractive even with the crazy hair. Not that I was interested. I was hyper-focused on the fact she mentioned Samantha’s name.
“Are you sure it was Samantha?” I asked, having a hard time comprehending what she was saying.
“That’s what I said,” she snapped, her words stinging as she cut her big doe eyes at me.
“Might want to make it a little clearer next time,” I grumbled.
She looked at Bones for confirmation.
Bones tapped me on the chest to calm down.
I gave him a look. Samantha was nuts and I wanted nothing to do with her. The bitch tried to kill me. I had the scar on the back of my skull to prove it.
“Okay, so all of this is going on, but I’m struggling to figure out what that has to do with the Rebel Saints,” Bones enquired, rubbing his chin.
“It has everything to do with the Rebel Saints!” she shouted.
Both Bones and I were taken aback. The volume of her voice made the old ladies look over to see if we had a handle on things. I was too intrigued by the little scrawny lady in front of me to care about them staring in the background.