The Price On My Name
980 Words
Kane's grip on my wrist didn't tighten. It didn't need to.
The whole bar had gone cemetery quiet. Even the jukebox seemed to hold its breath. The stranger in the doorway took a long drag of his cigarette and let the smoke out slow, like he had all night and nothing to lose.
I recognized the vest. Red Hollow Riders. A smaller club than whatever the Iron Choir belonged to. Meaner, according to the rumors I'd picked up on the bus through three different states. The kind of club that did jobs for people who needed things handled quietly.
My stomach turned to ice.
"Name's Corbin," the stranger said, walking in like he'd been invited. "I've got no business with your club tonight, Voss. Just came for the girl."
Kane didn't move. Didn't even look at me. "The girl has a name."
"I know exactly what her name is." Corbin stopped six feet from the bar, eyes fixed on me with the kind of patience that made my skin crawl. "Wren Sutton. Twenty four. Wanted for wire fraud, conspiracy, and accessory to embezzlement. There's a private bounty on top of the warrant. Whoever finds her first gets paid twice."
The word bounty hit me like a fist to the chest.
Donovan's family had moved faster than I thought. I'd expected cops. Maybe a private investigator. Not a bounty pushed out to MC networks across three states before I'd even found somewhere to sleep.
"I didn't do any of that," I said, and hated how thin my voice sounded.
Corbin smiled like I'd told a good joke. "They all say that."
Jasper shifted beside me, the easy smile gone from his face entirely. Ryker hadn't moved from my left but his hand had dropped below the bar where I couldn't see it. Asher had crossed the room without me noticing and now stood slightly behind Corbin, quiet as smoke.
I hadn't even seen him move.
Kane finally stood up.
He didn't raise his voice. He didn't touch his jacket where I now noticed the outline of something holstered. He just stood at his full height and the temperature in the room dropped.
"She's sitting in my bar," Kane said. "Eating food I paid for. That makes her a guest of the Iron Saints MC." He tilted his head slightly. "You want to walk out of here, Corbin. Trust me on that."
Corbin's smile flickered. Just barely. "The bounty is sixty thousand, Voss."
"Leave."
One word. No heat in it at all, which somehow made it worse. Corbin looked around the bar, took a slow count of how many Iron Saints were now standing versus sitting, and made the only smart decision he'd probably made all year. He dropped his cigarette on the floor, crushed it under his boot, and walked back out the door.
Nobody moved until the sound of his bike faded down the road.
Then Kane turned to me and I felt every ounce of that pale eyed attention land on my face like a searchlight.
"Sixty thousand," he said.
"I didn't do it," I said again, stronger this time. "My ex fiancé did. He needed someone to blame before the feds closed in. I was convenient."
Kane studied me for a long moment. I didn't look away. I'd learned that looking away was what guilty people did and I was done letting Donovan's family write the story of who I was.
"What's the fiancé's name," Asher said from behind me.
I turned. He'd moved again without a sound and was now leaning against the wall three feet to my right, arms still crossed, eyes still doing that quiet dissecting thing that made me feel like he was reading my medical records.
"Donovan Hale," I said.
Something moved across Asher's face. So fast I almost missed it. A tightening around his eyes. A jaw muscle jumping once before he locked it down.
"You know that name," I said.
"No," he said.
He was lying.
I didn't push it. Not yet. Not with Kane still watching me like he was deciding something important and Ryker a solid wall of silence on my left and Jasper doing something with his phone that he was being very careful not to let me see.
"You can't stay wherever you were planning to stay tonight," Kane said. "Corbin will have people watching every motel in town before midnight."
"I'll figure something out."
"You'll stay at the compound." Again, not a question. "We've got a spare room. You'll be safe inside the gates."
Part of me wanted to laugh. Safe. Inside a biker compound. Running from one dangerous situation straight into the arms of four men I'd met forty minutes ago.
But Donovan's family had found me in less than seventy two hours. They'd pushed a bounty into MC networks across multiple states. That wasn't just covering tracks. That was a message. They didn't want me arrested. They wanted me silenced.
The kind of silent you didn't wake up from.
"Why would you do that?" I asked Kane. "You don't know me."
He picked up his glass, finished what was left in it, set it back down with a quiet click.
"Corbin came into my bar and tried to take something that was on my property." His eyes met mine. "I don't let things that belong to me walk out the door with other people."
My breath caught. "I don't belong to you."
The corner of his mouth moved. Almost a smile. Almost something darker.
"Not yet," he said.
Jasper appeared at my elbow holding a helmet. "Car's out back. Let's go before his boys circle the block."
I stood up. Grabbed my bag. Followed four strangers out into the dark.
And somewhere behind us, in the shadows across the street, a black SUV with no plates sat watching the bar with its engine running.
- Writer
