Page 35 of Break Away (Riot MC Next Generation #2)

Chapter twenty-one

Those Five Words

Alexandra

When class let out on Monday, I squinted at the late-afternoon sunlight as I hurried out of the main corridor.

I paused on the sidewalk to get myself together and fight off the instant headache. Other students filed past me, and I trudged forward.

Before I made it twenty paces, a black man approached me.

He had a huge smile that almost distracted me from the thick gold chains around his neck, and the slouch of his jeans.

Something about him said he wasn’t a student, but even as alarm crept up my spine, I had the bizarre sensation that I knew him.

As he drew closer, it hit me. “Nate? What are you doing here?”

I hadn’t seen Nate since New Year’s Eve. He looked rougher around the edges, almost sinister.

In an expert move of fluidity, he had me in what felt like (and probably looked like) an affectionate hold and hustled me into his car at the curb.

My instincts said something about this was wrong.

By the time I had my fingers wrapped around the door handle to get out, Nate slid into the driver’s seat and locked the doors.

“The Sixers want to talk,” he bit out.

My world imploded on those five words.

He started the car and sped toward downtown.

I shook my head. “How do you know that? And why are you taking me to them?”

Nate’s features were hard-set and he kept his gaze on the road. “When we roll up we don’t know each other.”

My eyes slid to him three seconds before I turned my head his way. I recalled that he’d majored in criminal justice, then went to grad school to master in the field.

“You’re undercover,” I said.

“You know nothing.”

My eyes widened. “We aren’t there yet. I’m not going to blow your cover.”

“You think you won’t. Hell, everyone thinks that.”

“Fine, but why me?”

He glanced at me for a beat. “They didn’t tell me. I just got in with them two months ago. The only reason I volunteered for this was because I knew you lived in that building and I guessed that was your apartment number.”

“Raff’s going to be pissed.” Then I added, “So is Beast.”

“Yeah. Hard to say if that biker’s the reason you’re still breathing or if he made shit worse. I’m thinking it’s worse because of them wading into this situation.”

“You would,” I muttered.

The entire Russell family was cool with Mom being with Dad. Nate and Derek hadn’t given it a second thought when they were younger. Once he hit college though, Nate had a chip on his shoulder about the Riot.

He had once asked Dad, “Why are you with them?”

“We’re not criminals,” Dad had answered.

“You’re runnin’ a strip club. Nothing but crime around those places.”

“Not ours,” Dad clipped out.

Nate doubled down. “So that woman who got beaten in the parking lot. Did she just take a bad stumble and land herself in ICU?”

“We didn’t beat her,” Dad said, his voice steel.

Leon, his dad, had waded into the conversation. “Son, let it go. Running a gentleman’s club is legal.”

“What I want to know is, how did you end up in this shit?” Nate asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Believe me, I’ve been asking myself that for the last couple weeks, and if Ines were still around, I’d have gotten to the bottom of it by now.”

“What do you mean, ‘were still around’? We heard she’d been in a car wreck, but…”

I took a deep breath. “She didn’t make it.”

“Fuck,” he hissed.

He stopped the car at a red light, and I glanced at his profile. “Why do you sound torn up about it?”

“This changes things.”

I nodded once. “I know why it changes things for me, but why do you say that?”

“Can’t tell you exactly. The Sixers wanted to use you as leverage against Ines. With her out of the picture… not sure what good you’ll do them.”

“Are you saying this gang had contact with Ines?”

Nate shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. They knew she moved the product Tobias and Brantley think they stole.”

I took a moment to turn his words over in my mind. “Why would they let Tobias and Brantley steal their cocaine?”

“They haven’t told me. There are theories, but I’m not sharing those.”

We turned right on University Avenue, and even though we were motoring away from campus, the traffic still moved at a crawl.

As I watched the crowds walking along the sidewalk, part of me thought about getting out of the car at the next traffic light. But I knew Nate wouldn’t let me get away like that.

“Since Ines is dead, do you really have to take me to them?”

As though he knew my thoughts, Nate said, “Don’t give me a hard time, Alexandra. If my cover gets blown, we both pay the price.”

My lips twisted to the side. “Do they think I know anything?”

He speared me with a hard look. “This isn’t the time to try lying your way out of things. They got word about Gainesville Police having a search warrant for your address. I told them it didn’t turn out well. My guess, they think you or the bikers have their product and their money.”

Even though he was right, I asked, ‘Why would they think that?”

Nate used his thumb and forefinger to stroke down his mustache. “Someone called in an anonymous tip about your apartment.”

“Right.”

“The caller spoke to an officer the Sixers have on payroll. He was able to trace the phone number back to a punk named Parker. No, that’s wrong—”

“Porter?” I asked reflexively.

“Yes. How'd you guess that name?”

“It's my ex-boyfriend's name.”

Nate sighed. “He called into GPD and told them to search your place.”

I gave my head a quick shake. “Then why did you need to tell the gang how the search went?”

Nate glanced at me and back to the road. “Because that cop works the desk. It took time for the judge to sign off on the warrant. This officer wasn’t around for the aftermath.”

I sighed.

“I want to know why you have an ex who would set you up for a search warrant.”

Probably to set up Rafferty, but that seemed so far-fetched, I couldn’t believe it myself. I shrugged a shoulder. “Things didn’t end well.”

Nate shook his head. “Tell me something I don’t know. No man with any sense would let you get away. But sending cops to your door is extreme.”

Dad had taught me to keep my cards close to my chest, but seeing as Nate kept me from being picked up by some other member of the Sixers, I felt like I owed him something.

“My guess is that Porter wanted to set up Rafferty. The two of them got into it after Porter tried to attack me.”

The air grew heavy and Nate whipped the car onto a side street and parked.

He put his right hand on the headrest and his left hand on the center console near my knee. “Porter attacked you? And you didn’t report that shit?”

I gave him a dry look. “He’d have turned it around on me, Nate. Besides, I hit him with a rolling pin. Then Rafferty pulled Porter off me and taught him a lesson.”

“Taught him a lesson,” Nate muttered under his breath. Then he asked, “So, he witnessed it?”

I opened my mouth and closed it.

“You should have reported it, Alexandra.”

“Shoulda, coulda, woulda,” I murmured.

He put the car in gear. “Stay away from Porter.”

“That’s the plan. Hell, I thought he’d be well on his way to Missouri by now.”

We were waiting to turn back onto University. He glanced at me and back to the on-coming traffic. “What’s in Missouri?”

“His family’s business.”

“What’s his last name?”

I gave it to him, and he leaned forward, grabbed a burner phone from under his seat and tossed it to me. “Press and hold the three button. The moment it connects, put it on speaker.”

The phone rang twice before a male voice said, “Yeah?”

Nate told this man to look into Porter and his family, then ended the call.

“This is nuts. Porter doesn’t have—”

Nate spoke in a firm tone. “He fucked with you. That deserves something, and my gut says you aren’t the first, but you’ll damn sure be the last woman he jacks around like that.”

And that was what he had in common with Dad and the Riot brothers.

“Thanks, Nate.”

He chuckled. “Don’t thank me. Thank Derek. He’d kick my ass if he found out something happened to you and I didn’t handle it.”

I nodded. “Still, I appreciate it.”

“Yeah. We’re almost there. You need to look scared out of your mind.”

With two men on either side of me, each one holding an arm, I didn’t have to act scared, because I was terrified.

My fear rolled off me as though every pump of my heart created a new wave.

Nate might have gotten me here in one piece, but I had no idea how I was going to get out of here. And that scared the hell out of me.

They shoved me into a small bedroom that appeared to be converted into an office.

A stocky black man sat in a leather swivel chair.

He had tightly braided dreads peeking out from the edge of his satiny-looking black doo-rag.

His brown eyes turned sharp and he eyed me up and down. Then he focused on a point behind me.

“She didn’t give you a hard time? Why didn’t you rough her up?”

“Cornered her on campus, K.C. If I roughed her up, it would cause a scene. That wouldn’t help us,” Nate said from behind me.

K.C. - or whoever this person was - stared at Nate for a long moment, then nodded. “Yeah. Ain’t got no time for cops today.” His eyes locked on me. “You know why you’re here?”

My eyes widened, my lungs expanded with my deep breath, and I focused on K.C. Even though I was scared, when I got nervous, I didn’t talk faster. No, my words dragged out like they could buy me more time. “Um, no… Sir.”

He tipped his head back and bellowed with laughter. “No, sir! I don’t think any white girl’s ever said ‘No, sir’ to me.” He locked eyes with someone behind me, and I guessed Nate still stood there. “Eightball, without even roughing her up, you scared the hell out of her.”

I almost flinched at the use of a street name for Nate, but growing up around the Riot brothers, I recognized the name for what it was.

“Where’s Ines?” K.C. asked.

Again, I took a deep breath. “She passed away on Tuesday.”

“What the hell?” K.C. muttered.