Heart of Steel (Demon Riders MC Book 2) (4 page)

She takes a deep breath, prepared to re-hash the same conversation she’s had with him any number of times.  “They were very pretty, Lance.”

“White roses, your favorite.”  He seems so sure of himself that Elyse doesn’t bother to correct him.  They were Lance’s favorite flowers, not hers. He’d just decided that they should be what she liked.  His controlling nature had even stretched to believing that her preferences always fell into line with his.

“They were pretty, Lance.  But we’ve talked about this before.  You can’t keep sending me gifts.  We’re not together anymore.”  Her tone is soft but firm, she had learned the hard way that she had to be straight with him.  He would cling on to anyone branch of hope that she gave him, so she’d stopped giving him any at all.

“Things change, Elyse.  We’re so right for each other; you can’t deny that.”  He leans forward, covering her hand with his and tightening his grip so she would have to yank hers away hard to get away from him.  “I would never treat you like Fletcher, with such little respect.  I know you like no one else, Elyse.”

She feels her stomach roll at his contact.  No matter how much she tries to forget the way he had touched her that night when he had tried to…  Anyway, it was useless, it always brought her back to that moment in her house, when panic had set in as she had realized what was about to happen.  From the outside, Lance would seem like a catch to most women, tall, attractive, rich, smart, but Elyse knew him too well.  She’d seen the dark side of his nature, and now he just made her feel sick.

“Whatever happened between Dane and me is between us.  It doesn’t concern you, Lance.”  She pulls her hand out from under his, clasping her hands underneath the table and striving to keep her voice from shaking.

“He’s not right for you, Elyse. Surely you can see that?  He’s dangerous.  Do you know about the things he does?  The things they all do?”  Lance lowers his voice, looking around to check that no one is within eavesdropping distance.

The hairs on the back of Elyse’s neck shoot up.  “What do you know about that, Lance?”  The wheels in her head start turning as Lance’s eyes flick down to the notes by his hand.

CHAPTER FIVE

“I know enough, and the more I learn, the more I know that these aren’t people you should be around, Elyse.  They’re dangerous criminals who need to be put away for a long time.”  Lance’s voice is still quiet, but the self-righteousness burning in his eyes is enough to drive home his words.

“What are you up to, Lance?”  Elyse swallows hard, connecting the dots in her mind even as he opens his mouth.

“You didn’t really think you were the only person MacIntyre would put on this story, did you?”  He gives her that indulgent look that makes her want to slap him.

Elyse’s mind races back to that morning in her editor’s office when he had dangled the exposé in front of her. 

“Do you want the job or not, Powell?  If you don’t, there are other ways to get into the Demons that don’t involve you.  I’m not really the type to put all my eggs in one basket.” 

He clearly hadn’t been bluffing; he’d covered his bases, bringing Lance in to infiltrate the Demons through The Shop—in case she couldn’t deliver the goods and vice versa.  Elyse knows that she should feel vaguely offended that MacIntyre hadn’t trusted her enough to do the job, but any hurt in her pride is outweighed by the larger problem at hand. 

“You’re writing the story.”  She looks between Lance and his notes, wondering how she could have been so stupid to think that his job at The Shop could possibly have just been a coincidence.  “I didn’t even know that you were working at
The Gazette
.”

“No reason for you to know.”  Lance shrugs, clearly enjoying having one up on her.  “It’s not like you’ve been all that interested in what I do with my time recently.”  His tone is accusatory, and Elyse spares a thought for how loose his grasp is on reality.

“Besides, you’re not the only one that can get a job at the local newspaper. It’s not exactly
The Wall Street Journal
.”  He snorts dismissively.

“If you think so little of it, then why even bother working there?  With your family’s influence, I’m sure you could get an internship at one of the nationals without any problem.”  Elyse watches as he goes red under his tan.  She’s hit a nerve—just as she had intended to.

“I don’t need them to help me, Elyse.  I can do it on my own.  They never thought that I could, but I’ll show them, and I’ll show you, too.”  His expression is heated, and Elyse watches as his breathing gets shallower.  “When the story about the Demon Riders breaks with my byline, I’ll be able to walk onto any national newspaper that I want.  It’s my ticket to the big time.” 

The intensity in Lance’s gaze is stifling.  And although Elyse knows that she had seen the exposé in the same way, as her gateway to something bigger, Lance is purely focused on himself, on making the point that he can get ahead without using his family name or their money.  Gaining a position on a national newspaper seems almost like an aside to him.  All he wants is to prove a point.

“You can’t write it, Lance.  It’s not right.”  Elyse shakes her head, leaning closer to him to make sure that they’re not overheard.  Having this conversation in the middle of the bar, in full view of the majority of the Demon Riders MC, is potentially the worst idea she’s had in a long time. However, there’s no way around it now.  “If you expose their secrets, the Feds are going to come down so hard on them they won’t have a chance.  It’ll destroy the club.”

Lance just shrugs, looking like he could care less.  “It’s a big story, the more fallout the better—the bigger the splash it’ll make.”

“This isn’t a game, Lance.  They’ll go to prison!”  Elyse has to work to keep her volume under control.

“After the way he just treated you, Elyse, why do you even care?”  Lance looks at her as if she were mad.

“This isn’t just about, Dane.”  Elyse grinds her teeth knowing that what she’s saying isn’t completely true.  She’d started to have second thoughts about writing the article when she’d gotten to know Dane, but he hadn’t been the only reason.  “They’re a family, Lance, a brotherhood.  These are good people.”

“Good people who just happen to be gun runners?”  Lance frowns at her, as if she’s completely missing the point.  “The people of Portland have a right to know about what’s going on in their back yard!”

Elyse doesn’t bother to hide the skepticism on her face.  “Since when are you worried about the ‘people of Portland’?  You hate this city; you think it’s small town; you’ve told me that any number of times.  You don’t care about the people here; all you care about is getting your name on a big story and to hell with everyone else.”

Lance regards her quietly, looking at her approvingly, as if she’s just passed some sort of test.  “Not
everyone
else, Elyse.  There’s one person that I care about very deeply.”

Elyse feels her skin crawl, as if spiders were running up and down underneath it.  “If you care about me then tell MacIntyre you won’t write the article.”  Even as she says it, she knows how pathetic her words sound.

“I can’t do that, Elyse.”  Lance shrugs as if it were completely out of his hands.  “I gave him my word that I would deliver him the scoop that he’s asked me for.  The Gazette needs this piece, without it the paper will probably fold…all those people whose jobs depend on it.  What happens to them if I don’t write this, Elyse?”

“Bullshit, Lance.”  She shakes her head at his lie.  “Stop acting like you’re some kind of hero.  You couldn’t give a damn about the paper or the staff there!  I bet you don’t even know the names of any of them because you’re too high and mighty to even bother to get to know them.  All you care about is yourself and what this story is going to give you.  Don’t try to turn it into anything nobler than that!”  Elyse slides out of the booth, looking down at Lance with what she knows is nothing short of disgust.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Elyse.  But that doesn’t change what I have to do.”  He spreads his hands out in front of him, looking all wide-eyed and innocent.

“And what’s stopping me from telling the club exactly what you’re up to?”  She crosses her arms, frowning at this glaring flaw in his plan.

Lance smiles up at her in a way that tells her that she’s missed something.  “Well, first of all, why would they believe you over me?  You’ve had a by-line in the Gazette, and I haven’t yet, not under my real name anyway.”  Elyse’s eyes widen at the implication of his words.  If she rats him out, then he’ll throw her under the bus without a second thought.  “Besides, don’t you think that if you blow my cover with the Demons and by some miracle they actually believe you, then MacIntyre will just get his story another way?  What are you going to do, stick around forever to defend these guys?”

Elyse clenches her fists to stop her hands from shaking, partly from anger, but partly from frustration.  She knows that what Lance is saying is true, and there’s nothing worse than feeling completely useless.  “What will it take for you to drop the story and walk away, Lance?

He looks up at her, considering her question.  “I think you know the answer to that, Elyse.”

“That’s never going to happen, Lance.”  She shakes her head at him in disbelief.

“Never is a long time, Elyse.”  He doesn’t seem in the least affected by her attitude towards him.  If anything, he seems completely sanguine about it, as if Elyse’s feelings for him are totally secondary.

“Not long enough.”  She mutters the words under her breath, abandoning all vestiges of politeness.  

“With the right incentive, anything is possible, Elyse.”  Lance gives her a pointed look, before he takes his notes and starts working on them again, as if she weren’t even there anymore.  “You better get back to your friends.”

Elyse’s mouth works silently, trying to come up with some parting jab, something that will make Lance think twice about the story he’s writing.  But nothing comes; her brain is too full with everything she’s just learned in the past twenty minutes in his company.  So she turns on her heel and walks back towards Jen, just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

“What was that all about?”  Jen’s hand reaches out to steady her friend as Elyse makes it to the bar.  “And what the hell is creepazoid doing here?”

Elyse swallows hard, knowing that there are too many bikers around them for her to answer Jen truthfully without anyone overhearing.  “Where’d Suzi go?”

Jen nods towards the pool table where Elyse notices that Suzi is in an animated conversation with Dane.  She’s making calming gestures while he stands in front of her, his hands bunched into fists by his side and his eyes flashing with anger.

“What’s going on?”  Elyse frowns at the scene playing out on the other side of the room, wishing she could hear what they were saying.

“When Dane saw you with the creep, he got all hot and bothered.  Suzi went over to calm him down. It doesn’t look like it’s going so well.”  Jen raises an eyebrow at Dane’s evident lack of restraint.

“He saw me talking to Lance?”  Elyse flicks her eyes over towards the booth where Lance was sitting.  From Dane’s position by the pool table he would have had to be searching for her to see her there, she wouldn’t have been in his line of sight.

“You know he hasn’t stopped looking at you since you walked in, right?”  Jen gives her a surprised look, like she can’t believe that Elyse hadn’t seen that.

“I thought he was ignoring me.”  Elyse’s voice is quiet; she’s not quite ready to take on board that Jen’s observation might mean that perhaps Dane did still care, at least a little.

“If that’s what ignoring looks like, then I clearly know nothing about men!”  Jen throws her hands up dramatically.  “Speaking of which, what
is
Lance doing here?  It’s not exactly his scene.”  Jen wrinkles her nose in distaste at Lance’s mere presence in the bar.  To say that she wasn’t his greatest fan would be more than just an understatement.

“I’ll fill you in on the way home.  We should go.”  Elyse grabs Jen’s hand, leading her towards the exit before her friend can say anything.

“Hey, slow down there, Powell.  Shouldn’t we tell Suzi we’re leaving?  And by the way, why are we leaving?  Did Lance say something to upset you?”  The threatening tone in Jen’s voice is clear; she’s ready to pull Lance out by his curly hair and show him exactly what she thinks of him.

“Suzi has her hands full with Dane right now, and I don’t have any plans to get in the middle of that again.”  Elyse gestures vaguely towards the pool table where the conversation is looking more heated by the minute, with Rick now weighing in.  “And Lance…that’s not something we can talk about here.”  She turns to face Jen, her expression grim.  “But I think I’m going to need your help.”