Page 29 of Eagle

Cutting her off, more irritated that I had to leave than at her, I yelled, “You got involved when you brought her here, Jeannie.” My phone buzzed again for confirmation I got the message. “Take care of her,” I barked as I took quick strides outside.

“Okay, dick!” Jeannie yelled before she slammed the door behind me. I’d never had a relationship before and was cursing myself for falling for Lacy now. This was some crazy shit. But, there was no way I could pretend anymore. I let all this shit bubble to the surface so I had to embrace it, and figure out how to get her back.

Remembering where Scotty lived, I fired up the Harley and took off that way. The whole way over, Lacy’s horrified face replayed over and over in my mind. And again, it was all my fault. All her tears, her running off to Jeannie’s, her look of disgust…all of this was because of my actions. I felt a little bad for Jeannie, since clearly she hadn’t planned to share our brief past with Lacy. But how the fuck was I supposed to know if she told her or not? I never lied to her and I wasn’t about to start, but ladies were weird about that shit. I just didn’t realize it would make her physically sick. Could I try to blame it on the drinking she had done?Sure. But I knew better.

Usually a ride helped clear my head and calm me, but every second I drove toward Scotty’s, I only got more angry. Angry at myself. I was seething so bad that I didn’t realize that I ran a redlight until I saw headlights to my side and someone laid on the horn.

I was already flying so I couldn’t stop and if I swerved I’d lay it down. Gritting my teeth as I drove, I hoped I was going fast enough that they’d miss me. My knuckles were white as I made it through the intersection unscathed and I blew out a heavy breath as my body relaxed.Shit. I had to fix this, and soon. I couldn’t keep functioning like this. If Hawk had been with me, he’d probably have it out with me. Luckily, nobodywaswith me, and nobody was hurt.

We prided ourselves on road safety for ourselves and others. Fucking around could get us hurt bad, hurts innocents, and also lends to the biker stereotypes. Maybe some parts of those stereotypes were correct, but we still don’t fuck with folks who don’t deserve it. And we’d lost plenty of brothers to accidents– some their own fault, some the fault of some dick who thought cutting a bike off was funny. Hell, that’s how Hawk was promoted to VP when his pops was still alive.

The jolt of adrenaline snapped me out of my Lacy-haze long enough to get to Scotty’s. Jackal was parked down around the corner waiting for me.

I rolled my Harley to park next to him in front of an abandoned house. The neighborhood was older and the type of place everyone minded their own business and didn’t call the cops.

“Hey, man,” Jackal said as I got off my bike.

“Hey,” I answered as I tucked my hair behind my ears. “He in there?”

He nodded so I started walking towards Scotty’s house. It was hot and humid. Several of the street lights were out along the way.

“You get things sorted out?” he asked as he got closer. Scotty wasn’t dumb enough to run again, so we weren’t in too much of a hurry or trying to be quiet.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just deal with this fucker.” I was already fuming. I needed to focus on what we came for and make sure this dipshit didn’t try anything stupid. “Is he alone?”

“No, just a woman though. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

We made it to the door and I knocked. Scotty was a dealer known to dabble in his own stash and nobody would pull a gun on you faster than a dude coked out of his mind. We’d been there before.

His house was older but he didn’t let it fall apart. It was a split level home that wasn’t in awful condition besides needing a paint job. It was a faded brown color with white shutters and an uncovered porch big enough for four men to stand on, give or take.

There was a window just off the porch and someone pulledback the curtain to peek outside. This was followed by a series of thuds and muffled voices. I knocked again. “Scotty, don’t be dumb. Just open the door.”

Finally, the door flung open and Scotty smiled as he waved us inside. “Of course. We were just in the middle of something,” he panted as he looked over at the blonde woman still adjusting her dress.

I gripped his shoulder tightly and pushed him inside, Jackal just behind me. “We’ll be out of your hair soon,” I said with a wink at her. “Just came to take a look at something.”

Scotty nodded, his shaggy blond hair bouncing. “Right over here.” He walked through the living room to a separate room that probably was meant to be a dining room since it opened to the living room and had a side door to the kitchen. Instead of a table, there was a desk with several monitors, a computer, and keyboard. “Just one sec.”

He sat down and moved the mouse, bringing the computer monitor to life. The other monitors showed infrared images on all sides of his house. Arms crossed over my chest, I looked around as he typed and noticed a bunch of wires. Keys couldn’t find anything online but if it was really closed circuit, that would make sense.

“Sorry. Takes a little longer since it’s all old school. But I don’t want all that cloud shit. That’s how they get ya.” Even though he was strung out, he wasn’t just paranoid. The FEDs aren’t the only ones with fancy hackers these days, and Scotty wouldn’t want any cops having access to his shit since he probably had a decent amount stashed away. He wasn’t the top dog, but he was a big runner and likely sitting on enough bricks to send him away for a long time.

Feeling a presence, I whipped my head around. The blondehad walked to the large entryway, leaning against it trying to see what Scotty was doing. “How long is this gonna take?”

Scotty whipped his head round. “Mind your business, bitch. Go wait where I told ya.”

I grabbed a chunk of his hair and turned his face toward the woman. “That wasn’t very nice, Scotty. What do you say?”

He squirmed but gritted out, “S-s-sorry. Please go wait on the couch.”

The woman smirked at me as I let him go then said, “I think I’ll wait here.” Her eyes scanned me and I smiled back, but then turned away. I was a bit of a flirt before, but not anymore. Never again.

Scotty huffed but didn’t say another word, instead he went back to typing. After a few minutes of watching him roll through footage, he stopped. “Here we go. That’s the night.” He looked over his shoulder then up at me. “They’ll be leaving soon. I watched this the other day after our little meeting.” He tapped a couple of times then pointed at the screen. “There.” A car drove up, and two women linked arm in arm walked to it then got inside.

I leaned in. “Can you zoom in?” It was a Trans Am, probably late 70s model, but color wasn’t clear since the video was black and white. “Did they call a friend? I thought you said it was a rideshare?”

Scotty shrugged. “They said Uber and one of them pulled up something on their phone. I figured that’s what it was.”

---