Page 104 of Renegade

Then, without another word, she turned and walked out of my office. I didn’t go after her—I couldn’t. If I told her about the club, I’d have to admit how I got mixed up with them in the first place.

‘Hey Lauren, I know you’re upset, but it’s going to be okay. I’m in deep with an outlaw MC and they’re keeping your mom safe by locking her up. How’d I end up in bed with criminals? Well, Darlin’, I’m the son of a psychopathic biker. Oh, and by the way, I committed my first murder at eighteen and they covered it up. So, I guess I owe them. Oh, and by the way, do you wanna marry me?’

Yeah, there was no way that conversation was going to go any better than the one I just had.

So, I was left alone with a diamond ring and a shit load of guilt.

Lauren

January 2015

I sat in bed that night, wide awake and checking my cell phone every few minutes for any activity. I’d worn my nails down to nothing more than bloody quicks.

Damn you, Mike Sullivan.

He hadn’t come after me and he sure as hell hadn’t changed his mind at the last minute.Had he known how hard it was for me to approach him in the first place?Did he even care?

I’d been planning to lay around and binge watchInvestigation Discoveryon the couch before meeting Mike for dinner. And then I got the call.

An automated voice had recited,“This call will be recorded and monitored. You have a collect call from—Monica—an inmate in the Lubbock County Detention Facility. Your telephone service provider does not allow collect calls. If you would like to accept this and future calls, you must establish a pre-pay account. We accept Visa and Mastercard. If you would like to set up an account and accept this call, please press four.”

I’d grabbed my purse and handed over my emergency credit card information before it dawned on me that my mother was in jail.

“Lauren?”

I’d placed the card back in my wallet with shaking hands. “Mom? What happened?”

She’d choked up. “I got arrested for DUI and possession of heroin—I’m still clean though, I swear.”

I’d reacted much like Mike had—I was livid. Tears had stung my eyes as I took her words in. “I can’t talk to you right now, Monica.”

She’d betrayed me. Months of sobriety blown for a fix of heroin. It wasn’t meth, but maybe she’d decided to switch things up.I’d known it, hadn’t I?Surely, I hadn’t been naïve enough to think that she’d stay sober while in the middle of a biker gang.

She’d sucked a breath in. “Lauren, listen to my voice. You’ve been around me when I’m using. Do I sound fucked up right now? I think I’m being targeted.”

It was the stuff of crime thrillers, but there was something in her voice that said she was telling the truth. My own voice had cut off in a sob as I asked, “What happened?”

“I can’t say much, but I overheard something I shouldn’t have and I think this is retaliation for that. I know they’re monitoring this call,” she went quiet for a second. “Lauren, I need you to get me out of here.”

My brain had been in a thick fog. I had no idea how to get someone out of jail. “Mon—what about Torch?” I was going to call her Monica, but then felt that Mom was more appropriate. Instead, I’d ended up with some weird hybrid of her name.

She’d sighed, “I—I can’t call him. Go to Mike—tell him what’s happened. He’ll know what to do.”

Mike?

The thought of involving him in this was almost worse than finding out she was using again.

“Mom, I can’t tell him.” And then I thought about what he’d done for David. If anyone was capable of helping me clear her name, it was him.

“Lauren, I swear to you on my life that I am sober right now. I need you to tell him—hell, he can come do a blood test on me now. He is the only one who will know what to do.”

I’d thought she was putting an awful lot of faith in someone who solved crimes for a living, instead of committing them, but I agreed. “I’m going to get dressed and head down to the station now. Will they let me see you?”

She’d tried to mask her sobs by coughing. “Not unless you’re my lawyer. Listen, Lauren, I love you…okay?”

I froze. We didn’t say stuff like that to each other. “I,” I started and stopped, “I—Listen, Mom, Mike will have you out of there in no time and we’ll figure this out.”

I didn’t know how to say it.

---