Page 34 of Legacy of Smoke
A rumble from more bikes sounded in the distance, and soon the entire subdivision filled with motorcycles.
Austin dismounted and took a spot at my side. “Are you okay?”
“Yup.”
He eyed the dents in Andrew’s SUV. “Those aren’t going to buff out.”
“Nope.” I tapped the bat on the cement, deciding if I wanted to make another dent or not.
“Any witnesses?”
“Hell no. Right boys?” Jackson checked with his men. Each one of them shook their heads.
Murmurs of “Didn’t see a thing,” to “He did it himself,” were the most common phrases. There were a couple of “Poppy is a bad ass,” in there as well.
Austin walked over to my truck, where the hood was propped open. He picked up the disconnected wire and tightened the ends, then re-attached it to the battery. As he did that, I got a good look at them both.
Andrew was thinner in the shoulders, broader in the middle. He was also an inch shorter. Maybe that could be attributed to the difference in shoes. Austin wore heavy work boots, and Andrew had fancy tennis shoes on. But I also noticed that the whorl of hair on Austin’s head swung high and to the left, while Andrew’s was flatter, and curled to the right. Austin’s chin was more defined, not as soft.
In the dark, under a split-second decision, I might not be able to tell them apart, but under my garage’s flood light, it was easy.
“Here’s how it’s going to go, brother. You go home.” Austin sounded resigned.
“I can’t. Someone sent photos from the motel camera to my wife.”
“That’s a damn shame, ain’t it, boys.” Jackson chuckled.
Austin’s fist clenched. I had to jump in before he did something that would hurt his freedom. “While you’re looking for a new place to live, you might consider doing that elsewhere. See, I’m visiting Daddy tomorrow to let him know how Lily is doing, and I might just mention your name.”
Andrew paled. “You wouldn’t.”
“You might want to mention the bit about pretending to be a Destroyer, too. Least that’s the story Jewel’s claiming. Ain’t that right, Andrew?” Jackson glared at him like he was a bug. “Or are you going to say one of our hookers lied? See, like it or not, Jewel is ours, too, and either way, you’re in deep shit right now. Which is it? Were you pretending to be one of us or are you calling one of ours a liar?”
There was a gleam of maniacal joy in Jackson’s eyes.
“I never said I was a Destroyer.”
I handed Jackson my bat handle first. “For the women.” It’s a damn shame Jackson was too busy being president of the MC, his batting form was much better than mine.
When the mess was cleaned up and the bikes gone, one lingered. Austin double-checked all the windows and locks before settling next to me on my couch. His arm stretched out to drape over me. Only when it landed on my shoulder did he let out a sigh of relief. “You scared me.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
He eyed the bat sitting in the corner. The aluminum gleamed in the low light of the kitchen nightlight. “When are you planning to build?”
I turned to check him for a head wound or something that would explain the sudden shift in conversation. “Maybe a year.I don’t know. I haven’t found the right plan yet. And how would you know about that?”
“Sprout pointed out your lot from his back porch.”
I smiled. It would be so peaceful on the lake. No nosy neighbors or street lights. And a gated driveway to deter assholes from sneaking onto someone’s property. But the way things were going, it was so far away it seemed like a fantasy. “Maybe more than a year from now. I don’t know. I can’t seem to afford a place big enough. I want one big enough for family.” My family, bikers and all.
“What if you had two incomes?”
I snorted. Even in my wildest dreams, I never included Lily in the equation. “You mean Lily? Now who’s fooling themselves?”
“I mean me. I like Sprout’s, but it would be nice to have a place that isn’t his.”
I replayed the conversations over sandwiches. “You were fishing.”
