Page 86 of Fatal Attraction

“Since your partner couldn’t make it tonight,” he continued, outright ignoring my question. “You’ll be riding alongside Toothpick. Everyone has their orders and knows where they need to be. Toothpick will explain the rest once you’re in position.”

With a backward glare at his crew and with a raise of his large hand, they one by one slid their masks in place before speeding off into the night. When they were gone, Crow straddled his Harley and fired up the ignition. He gave Toothpick a wink and then offered me a cruel smirk.

“You remember how to do this, right?” Toothpick nudged his head hard to the right, at two bikes I hadn’t noticed were parked in front of the shed, covered by a blue tarp. I followed him there, and Toothpick grinned at my hanging mouth when he removed the tarp, revealing my old bike and the one that used to belong to Crow’s late father.

“No fucking way,” I whispered.

Toothpick just continued to grin. “It’s good to have you back, Bonecrusher, even if it is just for tonight.”

I felt so free. It had been years, just over twenty years since I’d been on a bike, and the feeling was unreal. My old bike—The Black Pearl, was her name—still purred like a kitten, and Toothpick was beside me, throwing his head back in a boisterous laugh as I raised my hands high and howled like a wolf at the top of my goddamn lungs, embracing the wind as it grazed across my naked cheeks.

I’d missed this—the rush, the thrill—only I didn’t realize exactly how much until now.

“Careful,” he shouted, which had me grasping the bars so I wouldn’t wreck. “Don’t get too lost in the rush.”

I knew exactly what he meant, but his words did nothing to ease the adrenaline pounding in my chest. I wanted to go faster, maneuver around the cars on the road and see if I still had the skills I’d acquired back when I was a teenager. I was more reckless then, a cocky little fuck who liked to show off and had embraced the call of the wild. I may not have been that same kid anymore, but I couldn’t deny that being back on the bike felt good—so fucking good. Maybe when Charlotte was better, I’d buy one and take her out for a ride, tell her about my time as a Rolling Rebel and the person I used to be before I’d grown into the man I was now.

“How far?” I shouted over the roar of our engines.

We’d been on the road for a while now. We were on the backroads, about a solid hour away from the hospital. I had no idea where the Ravens’ territory began, but we had to be close.

“Just up this hill,” Toothpick replied, his smile unwavering. “Follow me.”

Toothpick sped up then, and I merged carefully behind him, following until we’d breached the hill and started drifting downhill. When wereached the bottom, we were surrounded by woods on either side and there wasn’t a streetlamp in sight.

Toothpick eased off the gas and pulled off the side of the road, gently hopping off his bike. I did the same and then moved the bike off road, just between a small opening in the woods on the right, waiting beside him.

“So, what exactly is the plan here?” I asked him. He grunted, then fished a flask out of his jacket pocket before taking a huge swig from it, offering it to me. “Where’s the rest of the crew?”

“They’re not far,” he replied, taking the flask after I’d ingested a small swallow. “Barely half a mile up the road. Crow should be nearby too.”

“The plan?” I asked again.

“According to Leo, the truck should be coming in from the way we came, leaving us the first to ambush it from behind.”

“And if we fail?”

“Then Crow and the rest of the crew will step in.”

“Are you sure you can trust Leo? I mean, he did betray you. After what Crow made me do to him, he has to know there’s no guarantee Leo will—”

“We could say the same about you. How doweknow that you won’t betray us? After all, you are a cop.”

I couldn’t really argue with that, so I bobbed my head and said, “I’m not going to betray you, but I will admit that something doesn’t feel right about this. Why does Crow want this shipment so badly?”

Toothpick took another drink. “Crow wasn’t bullshitting when he said he wanted to go legit. He’d gotten in some trouble a while back and was awfully close to facing years in prison, but the Narcs made a deal with him.”

“Narcs?” I repeated, head cocked and brows crumpling. “What do you mean?”

My eyes widened when he said, “Detective Gibbs and Hammett. Before they got involved, we’d been trying to track where all these nasty streetdrugs were coming from. Crow caught wind that there was this thug working with this popular street dealer.”

“And let me guess,” I said as the pieces began coming together. “His name was Rio Sanchez.”

Toothpick nodded. “Crow got lucky and found him, tried to purchase some of the drugs Rio had so he could deliver it to Kendall. It was a long shot given their…problems…but he wanted to see if she’d be willing to test the drugs and see exactly what we were dealing with. We’d helped a ton of homeless kids who were dealing. We managed to get them off the streets and in shelters so they could get clean, but then the next thing we knew, they were back on the streets all doped up, selling again. Anyway, Crow got busted by Gibbs and Hammett, and for a while there they were trying to pin everything on him. It took some time and a lot of vouching, but finally they agreed not to press charges against Crow, but onlyifhe and our crew could discover who was really behind the drugs and where they were coming from.”

My breath caught. “Are you telling me Crow is a CI for Gibbs and Hammett?”

“Yes. Technically, I guess you can say we all are.”

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