Heart of Steel (Demon Riders MC Book 2) (7 page)

CHAPTER NINE

It seemed a little like overkill, driving to a remote location by the lake to meet with Rick and Suzi.  But Elyse knew enough about the Demons to know that they weren’t exactly the extra-precautious type.  If Dane and Rick thought that all this cloak and dagger stuff was necessary, then there was a good reason for it.

As Elyse and Dane walk up to the picnic bench where Rick and Suzi are waiting, Suzi gives them an appraising look, peering at them through the gloom.

“Well, at least one good thing has come out of all of this.”  She takes in Elyse’s crumpled shirt with the buttons missing and raises an eyebrow, making her blush.

“Glad to see you didn’t run screaming for the hills, Elyse, after Dane’s little performance last night.”  Rick claps a friendly hand on her shoulder, and she leans into his comforting touch.

“He’s pretty hard to run away from.”  Elyse shrugs shyly, looking up at Dane and seeing the corner of his mouth quirk up into a pleased smile before his expression changes back to business.

“Thanks for getting here so quickly.”  Dane looks between Rick and Suzi, taking charge of the meeting.

Rick just shrugs, as if there was no need for thanks.  “You said it was important.”

“It is.”  Dane nods, looking down at Elyse.  “Do you want to tell them?”

They’d spoken about this when Dane had parked the bike.  Elyse nods, gathering herself together.  “Lance, the new mechanic, he’s not who you think he is.”  She looks between Suzi and Rick, their faces expressionless.  “He’s a reporter for The Gazette.”

“Goddammit, I knew there was something that wasn’t right about him!”  Rick’s voice is more of a bark, and he looks up at the sky, trying to gather himself together.  When he’s recovered, he motions for Elyse to continue.

She tells them about the conversation she had with Lance the night before, about how ambitious he is and how much he craves the validation and the fame that an article on the Demons would no doubt bring.  They listen to her, cursing occasionally, but hanging on her every word.

“I needed to be sure before I came to see you.  I didn’t want to rat him out to you if he was just bluffing.”  She looks between the three of them, shivering in the cold despite Dane’s leather jacket that he’s draped around her shoulders.  “But I checked with the editor’s secretary…she’s an old friend of my mom’s.  She told me that Lance had been assigned to the article about the same time as I had.  Seems like my editor didn’t really believe that I could get the job done.”  She shakes her head to get rid of the self-pity that knowledge seems to inspire.  “She told me Lance is scheduled to deliver a first draft the middle of next week.  She doesn’t much like Lance, so she didn’t have any qualms about handing over the information.”  Elyse shrugs, as Rick gives her an impressed look.

“And I’m guessing we’re all still in agreement that we don’t mention this to the rest of the club?”  Suzi looks between the two men who nod solemnly.  They all know what kind of a reaction the bikers would have if they knew that Elyse had been sent by the enemy.  It was something she had been actively trying not to think about.

“You did good, kid.”  Rick gives her an approving nod.

Elyse smiles weakly under his praise.  She’s secretly pleased that she’s made Rick proud, but she also knows that what she’s doing is something that she can never go back from.  Telling them about the article and Lance’s intention is crossing a line that she can never uncross.  She has aligned herself with the Demon Riders, with an outlaw motorcycle gang, with criminals.  What did that mean for her life, for her future?  She couldn’t dwell on those questions right now though; there were more pressing matters to deal with.  There would be plenty of time to figure out her place in this new world—once the Lance issue has been resolved.

“We still don’t know how much Lance knows about the Riders, how much proof he’ll have.”  Elyse looks between them.  “The Gazette won’t let him print something unless he has either hard evidence or word from more than one source.”

“None of the Riders would agree to speak to a reporter.”  Dane almost spits the last word out.

“Agreed.  But if he’s spent any time at all around Shooters, he’ll have seen plenty.  He could try to blackmail one of the guys into being a source for him in exchange for not mentioning his name in an article.”  Suzi shrugs, as if it were a no-brainer and Elyse is struck again by how sharp she is.  When she’d first met Suzi, she’d judged her as a bimbo; she was anything but.

“How can you say that, Suze?”  Dane looks at her as if she’s committed sacrilege.  “The guys would die for the club. You know that.”

Rick makes a calming gesture with his hands.  “She’s not wrong, Dane.”

Dane looks at him as if he’d gone mad.  “What are you saying?”  His voice is cold and hard as steel.

“I’m saying that not all the Riders are necessarily as dedicated as you.”  Rick shrugs his shoulders, his voice and body language deceptively casual, and Elyse wonders if this little act is just to keep Dane from going all ‘black cloud’ on them.  “There are a couple that we’ve been keeping an eye on. If Lance has figured out how to separate the sheep from the lions, then we could have a problem.”

Dane shakes his head, like he can’t believe what Rick is telling him.  He drops Elyse’s hand, raking his fingers through his hair.  Elyse settles a hand on his arm, longing to comfort him, knowing that she’s never seen him look so lost.  The Demons were his family—to find out that perhaps they weren’t the perfect brotherhood that he had thought they were—was clearly a blow.

“If that article goes to print, the Feds will have probable cause, enough for a warrant.  It won’t take them long to go through the books, credit check the bar, The Shop, the other businesses the Riders are running.”  Rick doesn’t need to finish his thought.  They all know where this is headed.  Anything that Lance printed would be devastating for the motorcycle club; it could mean the end of it altogether.  It made Elyse even madder at the man that she’d thought she could count on as a friend.

“So what are we waiting for?”  Dane plants his hands on his hips, determination radiating out of him.  “We go get Lance, and we make him disappear.”

He says the words so simply that it takes Elyse’s breath away.  She knew that Dane wasn’t a boy scout, but she hadn’t been prepared for the fact that he could talk so naturally about killing someone. 

“You can’t be serious!”  She stares at him, open-mouthed.

“Calm down, Dane.  We can’t just go in there all guns blazing.”  Rick’s voice is calm, but he shows no hint of being surprised at Dane’s reaction.

“Why the hell not?  He’s the one who started all of this.  He should be the one to face the consequences.”  Dane zeroes in his attention on Rick, as if he’s forgotten that Elyse is even there.

“By facing the consequences, you mean that he deserves to die?”  Elyse fights to keep the panic out of her voice.

“If he wants to destroy the club, then he has to go.  That’s how this works, Elyse.  You’re not naïve enough to think that I carry a gun to shoot deer.”  He gives her a look that cuts her down to her core, but she refuses to show how hurt she is.  She knows that Dane is talking out of anger and hurt; they would talk about his angry words to her later.

“No, I’m not naïve enough to believe that.  But I’d also like to think that I know you well enough to know that you won’t just shoot someone for doing their job!”  Elyse meets his fury with her own, refusing to back down.

“Their job?  Is that how you see this?  He’s going to
destroy
the club, Elyse.  For fun.  Don’t you get that?”  He looks at her in confusion, as if she’s completely missing the point.

Elyse takes a deep breath, calming herself, knowing that the two of them shouting at each other isn’t exactly conducive to finding a workable solution.  “I do get it, Dane.  Why would I have come to you with this information if I didn’t?”  She touches him gently on the shoulder, and his eyes soften slightly at the contact.  “But I can’t let you hurt him.  No matter what he’s planning on doing, I can’t let you do that.”

Dane gives her a shocked look.  “
Let
me?” 

“First, Dane in karate, you think you can take me?”  Elyse raises an eyebrow at him, only half-joking.  She had been trying to break the tension, but her lame tease doesn’t seem to have done anything helpful.

“Why do you care about what happens to him?”  Dane’s question tells her that he’s only really listened to part of what she’s said.

Elyse sighs deeply, wondering how she ended up in the middle of the woods, in the dark, explaining to an angry biker why it was wrong to kill people just because you don’t like them.

“Because he may not be my favorite person in the world, but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with something terrible and permanent happening to him.”  Elyse crosses her arms over her chest, staring Dane down.  “If anything happened to him because of me, I would never be able to forgive myself.  That’s just how I’m wired.”  Elyse sighs deeply, suddenly feeling exhausted.  “Even if I didn’t have scruples, Lance’s family is basically made of money.  His family is all over the society pages; they’re Portland royalty.  If anything were to happen to him, nothing would stop the police, the Feds, and God knows who else from crashing down on the club with the full force of the law.  Besides, even if Lance was…out of the picture,” Elyse winces at the euphemism and the fact that she was even talking about it, “MacIntyre would just send someone else to cover the story.”

“So now that the smashing heads option is off of the table, what are we left with?”  Suzi smoothly takes the floor, putting a stop to the angry back and forth between Elyse and Dane that doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

“I didn’t think we had agreed that it wasn’t an option.”  Dane plants his feet firmly in the dirt, looking at them with a challenge burning in his eyes.

“Well, unless you want me to turn around and walk away right now, then I suggest you think of something else.”  Elyse mutters the words under her breath, but the way that Dane clenches and unclenches his fists tells her that he’s heard.

CHAPTER TEN

Rick looks uneasily between them, as if he thinks he might have to intervene.  “Settle down the two of you, just settle down.”  He makes a calming gesture and waits until Elyse and Dane relax slightly before he continues.  “We don’t have to make a decision right now, tonight.”  He holds up his hand, as Dane goes to interrupt him.  “I know we can’t just wait around for something to happen.  But whatever we do, we have to think about it.  We’re not talking about some gangbanger that no one gives a shit about, Dane.  We’re talking about a guy who will be missed, a guy with a powerful family and the ability to bury us if we make one wrong step.”  He locks eyes with Dane—who nods slightly. It’s barely a fraction of an inch, but it’s enough to tell them that he is still willing to listen to reason.

Rick’s shoulders sag in relief, and the sigh he lets out is audible.  He has clearly seen Dane mad and knows what he is capable of.  It makes Elyse a little uneasy.  She knew that he had a temper on him, but she’d only seen glimpses of the aggression that he keeps buried deep.  The violence that he’s capable of unleashing has made him the best prospect the Riders have ever had, but what does it say about him as a man?

“I’m with Rick. We don’t have to make any decisions right now.”  Suzi yawns expansively, stretching like a cat.  “And as no one has any ideas that don’t involve a cement block and a deep lake…”

Elyse holds up her hand, not quite ready to joke about that yet.  She takes a deep breath, knowing that what she’s going to say is going to set off some fireworks that she’s not sure she’ll be able to handle.  But since her conversation with Lance the night before, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.

With the right incentive, anything is possible, Elyse.

The memory of his words and the lascivious way he had looked at her as he’d said them makes her shiver. It was a short-term solution to the problem, and it might not even work, but then again, it just might.  She clears her throat, steeling herself for the reaction of the others.

“I have an idea.”  Elyse tries not to flinch, as three pairs of eyes focus on her, a question in all of them.  “Lance still kind of has a…a thing for me.”

“Hell, no.”  Dane grabs hold of her wrist and pulls her towards him, looking at her like she’s gone mad.

“How much of a thing?”  Suzi ignores the look that Dane gives her, instead focusing on Elyse who gently disengages herself from her position against Dane’s chest.

“Flowers, chocolates, you know, the usual stalking behavior.”  She shrugs and smiles humorlessly.

Rick lets out a low whistle.  “He sounds like a peach.”  His voice drips with sarcasm.

“Why are we even talking about this?  It’s not an option.”  Dane shakes his head, looking at the people around him as if they’ve missed an important point.

“It might be our
only
option.”  Elyse’s voice is gentle, but Dane flinches as if she had shouted at him.

“Not to offend you or anything, Elyse. You know I think you’re real pretty, but what makes you think that it’s enough for Lance to give up this article?  You said it was really important to him.”  Rick shifts uncomfortably, purposefully ignoring the look that Dane is giving him.

“I can’t believe we’re still talking about this.  It’s not happening.”  Dane keeps a tight hold on Elyse’s hand, as if he can squeeze her into submission.

“Because he said so last night.”  Elyse concentrates on answering Rick’s question instead of on the hurt that she knows she’ll see in Dane’s face.  “When I saw him at the bar and confronted him about what he was doing, he said that there’s someone he cares about more than anything else.”  Her voice quivers a little at the thought of it.

“You.”  Suzi’s voice is quiet, and she nods in understanding.  “There are some people that you would do anything for them to want you.” 

Elyse looks at her, knowing that Suzi is talking about Dane, but she remains silent.

“You’re talking about pimping yourself out to that piece of crap?”  Dane looks at Elyse like he doesn’t even know her.

“I’m talking about saving the club.”  She stands tall under his scrutiny, unflinching.

“She has a point, Dane.”  Rick uses that calming tone of his again, but this time it doesn’t have any effect at all on the man he looks at like a son.  “Elyse knows this guy better than any of us.  If she’s saying this is something that could work, then we have to think about it.”

Dane is rendered momentarily speechless by Rick’s words, but he recovers quickly.  He turns to his side and grabs the first thing that he can, which happens to be the picnic bench.  He lifts it and hurls it over, as if it weighed nothing.  The others just watch him—in shock at the outburst—as he breathes hard, looking like he wants to grab something else to throw or punch.

“Dane, calm down!”  Elyse’s voice seems to pierce through the fog that has covered his eyes, and she sees the moment he returns to them.

But he doesn’t look at her, doesn’t even acknowledge her existence.  “I’m done talking about this.”  He turns on his heel and walks back towards the bike, taking long purposeful strides.

“Dane, wait!”  Rick takes a step towards the younger man, but Elyse holds up her hand.

“It’s alright, I’ll go.”  She rubs at her temples, as she stares after him.  “I’m the one he’s mad at for even suggesting it.”

“It’s not just that, Elyse.”  Rick settles a hand on her shoulder, pulling her attention back onto him.  “He knows that you might be right, and that’s more than he wants to deal with right now.”

Elyse meets his eyes and sees how much Dane’s pain affects the older man.  “Don’t worry, Rick.  I’ve got this.”  She pats him reassuringly on a tattooed arm, bulky with muscle.

“Elyse.”  The warning in Suzi’s voice stops Elyse in her tracks.  “Sometimes it’s better just to let him cool off when he’s like this.”

“This happens a lot?”  Elyse looks between the two of them, gauging their reactions. 

“He has a temper; he’s had a lot to deal with in his life.”  Rick shrugs his shoulders as if that said it all.  “Sometimes, when he feels like things are out of his control, he just reacts.”  Rick gestures vaguely towards the overturned picnic table.

“The black cloud?”  Elyse looks between them, and they both nod slowly.

“And sometimes, when that happens, it’s best to stay out of his way and let him work through whatever it is on his own.”  Suzi gives her a pointed look, as if she already knows that Elyse is going to ignore her.

Elyse weighs their words and looks after Dane, his tall form rapidly disappearing in the dim light.  “He’s not on his own anymore.” 

Rick gives her his second approving look of the night, and Suzi squeezes her shoulder reassuringly. Elyse can’t help but wonder if she’d just passed some sort of test.

She sets off after Dane at a jog, knowing that if he reaches the bike before she reaches him that he’ll ride away without her, torturing himself with the fact that this isn’t something he can solve on his own.

“Dane, wait up!”  She speeds up, almost breaking into a full-on sprint before he eventually stops, just a few paces away from the parked bike.   However, he doesn’t turn around to look at her; he remains resolutely staring straight ahead.  “Can we talk about this?”  She reaches out to touch him and tries not to feel upset at the way he flinches away from her.

“I’m not really in the mood to talk, Elyse.”  His words come out as if he’s saying them through clenched teeth.  “You should go.  I’m not someone you want to be around right now.”

Elyse can hear the pain in his voice, and she feels her heart turn over.  “I always want to be around you, Dane.  There’s nothing you can do to change that.”  She keeps her voice soft, the way you would talk to a spooked horse.

“You don’t know what you’re getting into.”  He shakes his head and looks at his feet, like he’s ashamed of something, afraid of what she’s going to see.

“Then show me.”  She waits, shivering in the cold wind, but he just stands there, unmoving as a statue.  “But could you hurry up about it; I’m sort of freezing out here.”  She huffs a quiet chuckle and watches as it seems to wake Dane from his trance.

He steps towards the bike and grabs up the helmet that she uses, thrusting it towards her without turning around.  He doesn’t wait for her to put it on before he straddles the bike and kick starts the engine.  Elyse figures that she’s not going to get any more of an invitation and pulls the helmet on, taking up her position behind him on the bike, wrapping her arms around his waist.  He tenses under her touch, as if he’s holding himself in check, trying to keep the fire he’s feeling inside under wraps.

“Remember, you asked for this.”  His voice is so quiet she almost misses the words. He doesn’t say anything else for entire ride back, and Elyse has to remind herself that he’s right, that she’d asked to see him at his worst.  She’d refused to walk away.  What that means she isn’t sure, all she knows is that no matter what, the only place she wants to be is right there, with him.