Page 58 of Desert Heat

“Does he know you have all that?”

“He’ll figure it out when he goes to light up,” she smirked.

“What the hell, hand it over.”

We lay back on the bed, lighting up. Spill our secrets and chain smoke until the pack’s gone.

“That was cathartic as fuck,” I murmur, blowing a final smoke ring. “What are you going to do about Tank?”

Brandi, shrugs, her eyes fixated on the smoke spiraling above. “It’s

over. I thought he was a football stud. I can’t do kidnappings, almost rapes, and murder. Not even for the way he lays it down on me.”

“You’re handling this much better than me. He still thinks you are together.”

“It’s called surviving, sweetie. Something I just explained I’ve been doing for a while to. Maybe not in an MC in a dust bowl town but in a backwoods trailer park in Western North Carolina. Getting accepted to Bradbury was my ticket out of following own my mother’s footsteps of working three jobs to barely make bills while men fucked her instead of the suburban housewives; all promising a tomorrow that never came.”

“Damn,” I muttered.

“I hoped Tank was different. A college athlete… Someone who’d get a degree.”

“Instead we both got second degree burns on our hearts.”

“Major damage,” she groans.

“We need to get the fuck out of here.”

“How?” She sits up. “They locked us in and that window is bulletproof and two stories up.”

“You. You are gonna seduce the fuck outta Tanka and swipe his burner cell the same way you did the cigs.”

“I don’t… I don’t want to sleep with him again when I’m trying to extricate myself from this relationship. He’s scary as fuck to me now… not my teddy bear baller anymore.”

“Don’t sleep with him. Just act needy and scared… when he gets close feign PTSD and say you can’t bear a man’s hands on you after yesterday…,”

“I do have PTSD. This MC shit is way sexier on my streaming service then living it. What do I do when I get the phone?”

“Go to the bathroom. Lock yourself in, flush the toilet a few times… here… memorize this number…” I repeated Dean’s cell. “He’s the Prez of The Devil’s Glen MC. He spooked me a few times, showing up when River wasn’t around, letting me know his Club had my back if I ever needed anything. My father served with his for a few years in the Army when he had enlisted at eighteen.”

“Do you think he’ll come?”

“With guns blazing.”

“… you—you want them shot?” She swallowed hard.

“Maybe only River—his balls off…,”

“Seriously?”

“Dean won’t start as war with The Bastards or Devil’s Glen. He’ll scare the pledge…. We just need a window when Tank and River both leave for a bit.”

“I could send him for lattes and scones tomorrow? He’ll do it for me especially if I guilt him.”

“He fell for you hard. That part was real.”

“I think River might’ve for you, too.”

“I can’t think about that. It’s moot.”

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