Page 67 of Biker's Tribute: Property of Bear

But I don’t want to lose Amanda. I can’t.

* * *

A few days later…

Magnum Sinclair shows up at Mulligan’s with a young Hollingsworth boy named Reed who initiated last summer but is still pretty green. He’s good with a gun, like most Hollingsworth boys, and unlike the rest of his family, he made some sort of career for himself at twenty-four other than being a rich man’s son.

Like Deacon, he has an entrepreneurial spirit. Unlike Deacon, he lacks morals of any kind. At least from what Wyatt told me about him.

Magnum and Reed arrive together, approaching me and Darragh Murray at Mulligan's bar. I cleared through two pints of a mysteriously woody IPA calledRabbit Rabbitthey had on tap. Not enough to make me drunk, but enough that I can easily sway my mind away from gambling.

“Those are your boys,” Darragh says, pointing to them and finishing up his beer.

He’s always one drink away from calling us what he truly thinks of us – dirty rednecks. Doesn’t bother me as long as he’s honest and we can work together.

“Could you bastards be any more obvious?”

“I didn’t think we were hiding,” Magnum says, as if we haven’t already drawn stares from all the patrons in the bar.

“Most people here are wise to the situation,” Darragh says. “Magnum. We’ve met. And the red-head?”

“Reed,” he says, grinning and flashing three gold teeth that replace the ones he got knocked out of his head during a college hockey game.

“Right,” Darragh says. “Our job tonight is simple. My brother Rian tracked the biker cell to a motel in Somerville that normally gets a lot of Hispanics, so they notice when a bunch of drunken bikers crash. After the situation in Cambridge, they fled, but the girl at the front desk caught the name of where they went.”

“You got a good network going here then,” Magnum says before ordering a shot of tequila for himself and a pint of beer for Reed.

“They split off,” Darragh says. “And we only tracked two of them down. We’ll most likely need to… take them for a swim.”

Reed laughs. “I’d like a chance.”

Magnum gives him a disapproving look, but the drinks come out and I keep my attention on Reed Hollingsworth. He’ll be useful tonight.

“There’s a new possibility I want to put forward,” I venture after Magnum takes his shot of tequila and Reed starts throwing back that beer like he’s in a hurry to get it down.

“What’s that?” Magnum asks. “I heard Deacon’s wife might have something here.”

“Yancey,” Darragh says knowingly. Reed doesn’t know what we’re talking about, but the kid has good instincts and he just listens.

“Amanda’s last name too,” I say, not offering any explanation about who she is. “But it made me wonder… what if the biker thing is just a coincidence and they were after her business partner.”

“Then why’d they have her name on the paper?” Darragh asks in a frustrated tone that reminds me of the ones Owen would use to get me away from a good blackjack game.

“They’re not just business partners. They’re best friends. Close. If someone wanted to hurt Mallory, they might go after Amanda. Just a thought.”

“Sounds kinda dumb,” Magnum says.

“What’s her last name?” Darragh asks. He clearly doesn’t think it’s so dumb anymore.

“Don’t know. But… that doesn’t mean anything. She’s a white girl from Chicago. She could be part of a mob family.”

“Paranoid,” Magnum says. “All the Shaw boys are paranoid as fuck.”

“Only one way to find out,” Darragh says. “We can drop her name and see if there’s a reaction. Pretend it’s an accident.”

“Can’t hurt, I s’pose,” Magnum relents, but I can tell he isn’t convinced. Reed says nothing, he just sips on his beer, but he seems downright delighted about tonight. The only thing that excites me about tonight is getting back home to Amanda and drawing her body on top of mine…

For the first time in my life, I don’t want to put gambling or the club first. And it’s for a woman who doesn’t return my feelings in the slightest. Maybe Magnum’s right. I’m paranoid because I want her all to myself and the longer we stay here, the more I feel Amanda slipping away from me.

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