Page 28 of Rebel

I glanced down at his leather vest. “Yeah, I have to wear your cut for a full weekend.”

His lighthearted expression turned into a frown. “No, you misunderstood. I said you would wear my property cut.”

My eyes went wide. “You mean the cuts the old ladies wear that say ‘Property of’ whatever biker they’re with? No way! That sounds way too ownerish for me.”

His eyes narrowed on me. “It doesn’t matter whether you think it’s ownerish or not. We made a bet, and you lost, so you’ll wear my cut.”

“Are you being serious right now?” I asked. Rebel went from playful to serious in a heartbeat. This man was as mercurial as they came.

“Hell yes, I’m being serious. If there is one thing I can’t stand, it someone who welches on their bets. It’s dishonest and deceptive.”

“Alright, give the damn thing to me and I’ll wear it.”

“Look, just forget it. Every single woman in that clubhouse would consider wearing my cut a fucking privilege. Since you consider it ownerish, you don’t deserve to wear it.”

“Wait. I’m missing something here. Why is this such a big deal to you?”

He lifted his helmet to put it on, and just before shoving it down, he said, “It’s not. Don’t worry about it, darlin’.”

His helmet came down like a wall separating us. Then he started his bike and was gone before I could get my head around what just happened. Staring after him, I got the distinct feeling that mercurial or not, I’d just offended him.

I got into my car, pulled my phone out, and called Zoe.

“Hey Lacey. What ya up to on this glorious Monday morning?”

“My office was broken into and trashed. The police seem to be on the wrong track, thinking it’s part of some spree of break-ins. And of course I can’t work at my office until they release it from being a crime scene.”

“Oh wow, I’m glad you called. I didn’t realize there was a crime spree in your area. This seems like an interesting case for my vlog. Want to meet up for breakfast and talk about it?”

“I was hoping you would say that, because I want to talk to you about Rebel too.”

“Oh, that sounds ominous. I’ll do my best to help you out, but I don’t know how much help I’ll be.”

“Thanks Zoe. How about the diner on Seventeenth Avenue? Would that work for you?”

“Yeah, of course. It’s one of my favorites. I can be there in thirty minutes.”

“Great, I’ll get there and save a table for us.”

***

As I drove to the diner, my mind kept drifting back to Rebel. I’d seen Zoe wearing her property cut and could never understand why a modern, independent woman like her would wear a piece of clothing identifying herself as some man’s property. It never made sense to me, nor did it seem polite to ask about it. Now, with the way Rebel was acting, my back was against the wall, and I needed to know more about this particular MC tradition.

I had already gotten us a table and was sipping on a cup of java when Zoe arrived. She looked refreshed and ready to solve another crime. I wished I could be more like Zoe, that is, I wished I had even half of her confidence. She wasn’t the type of person to continually get blindsided by guys like Rebel. She always stood up for herself and didn’t take any bullshit. Guys wouldn’t give up on a relationship with her quite so easily.

When she slid into the seat, we started talking about the break-in. I told her how they destroyed everything they could get their hands on and had clearly made quite an effort to break our company safe open. The server came and took our order.

After the server left, Zoe stated, “It sounds like your safe was the primary target. Do you remember what you keep in there?”

“Yeah, we keep all our important business documents in there. Things like our business license, copies of our business insurance agreement, our last fire marshal’s inspection, just things like that. We do keep a nominal amount of cash on hand to tip delivery drivers when they drop off supplies. That about it.”

“That doesn’t seem like much of an incentive to pull off a break-in with this much destruction of property. So they didn’t take anything?”

I took a mouthful of coffee as I shook my head, “Nope. My desktop PC and printer were still there. Okay, they’d wouldn’t get much by reselling them, but if it was about money then you’d think they’d have taken those.”

Zoe looked thoughtful, “Sounds personal.”

“Rebel thinks it’s a former client from when Mark was managing our office, someone who was pissed that their work wasn’t done properly, and they wouldn’t make it right.”

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