Chrome and Roses!

CHAPTERS TWO: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD

The problem with Rafe Santos was that he kept showing up.

Three days after the Devil's Spoke job, Ellie was setting up for a farmers market on the Hollow Creek town square when a motorcycle pulled into the lot. Black, low, the kind of bike that sounded like a controlled rumble even at idle. She recognized the rider before he took off the helmet.

She kept arranging her display of mini tarts and told herself that the Iron Saints MC president did not come to the farmers market. He was probably meeting someone. This had nothing to do with her.

He stopped at her table.

"The food was good. He said it like it had been a verdict he'd had to deliberate on."

"I know. She handed him a sample of the salted honey tart without being asked. That'll be two dollars."

He blinked. Then he reached into his pocket and put two dollars on the table. She got the impression he hadn't paid for a sample in a long time, possibly ever, and the novelty of it had caught him off guard.

He ate the tart. She watched him without appearing to, which was a skill she had developed over years of reading a room — knowing where to look without looking like you were looking.

"Salted honey."

"It's the contrast. She straightened a row of jars. Sweet on its own gets boring. It needs something to push against."

He looked at her then, and she felt it — the weight of being genuinely looked at, not assessed or dismissed or catalogued, but actually seen. It lasted only a second before he pulled back into whatever composed, unreadable thing he usually wore on his face.

"You know who I am. What club I run. What that means in this county."

"I know."

"And you charged me two dollars for a sample."

"The sign says two dollars. She met his eyes. I don't do different prices for different people."

He was quiet for a moment. Around them, the market hummed — kids, dogs, a bluegrass duo setting up near the fountain. He looked like a different species in this environment and seemed to know it, and Ellie got the sense that this was not somewhere Rafe Santos came often. Which made the fact that he was here more interesting than she wanted it to be.

"The Hollow Creek Harvest Festival. End of the month. The Saints sponsor the east-side stage. We need catering."

"I'm already booked for the festival."

"Who with?"

She hesitated one beat too long.

"The Road Kings."

The temperature around him dropped about five degrees. The Road Kings were the Iron Saints' rivals — had been for fifteen years, ever since a territorial dispute over the Route 9 corridor split the county's MC world into two armed camps. Everyone knew it. You did not mention one name in the presence of the other.

"Cancel it. Quiet. Controlled."

"I don't cancel contracts. I signed two weeks ago. It stands."

"You're making a mistake."

"Maybe. But it's my mistake to make."

He held her gaze for a long moment. She didn't look away. She didn't know quite where she found the nerve — some combination of stubbornness and the fact that she had worked too hard to be pushed around, even by someone who looked like he had never once been told no and meant it.

He picked up a second tart, put another two dollars on the table, and walked back to his bike.

Ellie let out a breath she hadn't fully realized she'd been holding.