Not Constructive: Red Eyes MC Series Book #6 Page 7

  “Now you’re catching on,” I said, nodding approvingly. “That’s exactly what Ray would want you to do.”

  “So I probably want to talk to Braxton?” Grant suggested. “He’s the guy with the best connections for that sort of thing.”

  I paused, thinking that over. “I’m not sure that Braxton is the best guy for you to talk to right now.”

  “Because you don’t think he wants me to be the leader,” Grant said, his face falling a little.

  “No, because I expect he’s going to be drunk out of his mind for most of the next month,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Right, okay. So I’ll have to see what I can dig up, myself?”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding. “And I’ll see what I can do too. We’ll want to stay ahead of Lex, whatever his next move is.”

  We chatted about that for the rest of lunch, and by the end of it, I could tell that Grant was feeling at least a little more confident in his abilities. Good. Let’s just hope that those feelings carried him through the meeting the following day.

  When I got to my house, I was surprised to see Braxton sitting outside on the front porch, a beer in hand. He looked up at me as I approached, but there was a surprising lucidity in his eyes despite the presence of the drink. “Grant isn’t going to be leading the MC,” he said with no preamble.

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “Grant isn’t going to be leading the MC,” he repeated.

  I frowned at him. “But Grant was Ray’s choice,” I reminded him, wondering just what was going through his head right now. Surely Braxton wasn’t going to make a move for the presidency, was he?

  I could barely imagine Braxton as president of the MC. His heart was in the right place, sure. But he tended to think with his fists rather than his brain. If he had realized that Lex was at Ray’s funeral, he probably would have killed the guy, right then and there, regardless of who might be around as witnesses. Regardless of the consequences.

  It was too dangerous to have someone hotheaded like Braxton leading the MC.

  But maybe that wasn’t what he meant. Maybe he meant that Landon was going to come back from Sarasota and be the leader. I thought about that for a moment. Landon was a lot more even-tempered than his brother, and he also had leadership experience from his time with the Sarasota chapter as their vice president.

  There was a reason he had decided to settle in Sarasota, though, and her name was Anne. I doubted he was going to pick up and move back to Las Cruces just like that. Especially not when Ray had already appointed someone else to be the next leader of the club.

  Braxton didn’t seem to care, though. He got to his feet, narrowing his eyes at me. “You and I both know that it’s not going to work out. He’s just not cut out for this,” he said. Before I could say anything in response, he pushed past me and stalked off.

  I stared after him, unable to move with these feelings of shock coursing through me. When Ray had initially announced that Grant was going to be the next leader of the club, I expected there to be some backlash. First, I had expected Grant to protest, and then I had expected Braxton to protest. But everyone seemed like they were fine with the plan.

  Up until now. Now that Ray was gone, it seemed like everyone had different feelings on the matter. It felt as though I could see the MC falling apart, right in front of my eyes. We didn’t even need an attack from someone like Lex—we were self-destructing all on our own.

  So much for being the most powerful MC in New Mexico.

  But even though I could see the cracks forming, even though I could see where all of this was doomed to end up, I didn’t know what to do. Between helping Grant feel more like a leader, watching out for potential threats, and making sure that Braxton didn’t do something that everyone would regret, I was beginning to feel like I was stretched too thin. Like I had taken on too much responsibility.

  And I wasn’t even the president of the club.

  12

  Tara

  I should have known that promising not to see Cameron again wasn’t going to be the end of things with Maddie. Sure enough, on Wednesday, she was at it again. “I just can’t believe that you went somewhere with him. Alone,” she said. “And without even telling me what you were up to at the time. What if he’d done something to you?”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “We weren’t alone,” I said mildly. “We were in public in a coffee shop. And we didn’t even drive to get there. We walked. It was no big deal.”

  “He could have done anything though!” Maggie protested. “He could have dragged you into an alleyway and … and hurt you! Or even murdered you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “If he was going to do that, he probably would have done it here,” I pointed out, trying to joke a little to lighten the mood. I gestured toward the graveyard. “He could have killed me back there and dumped me in the nearest fresh grave. It could have been ages before I was found. Heck, he wouldn’t even have to kill me first; he could have just buried me alive.”

  “Okay, that’s morbid,” Maddie said, turning pale. She shook her head. “But seriously, Tara, do you realize how dangerous that could have been?”

  I shrugged. “He didn’t really strike me as the dangerous type. Or at least, not right then. He seemed like someone who was grieving and who needed a friend.”

  “I’m sure he already has plenty of those. You know, his brothers-in-arms, the guys in the club?” Maddie pointed out.

  “Yeah,” I said, frowning as I thought about that again. “But I don’t know. For some reason, he just seemed different from the rest of them. Like there was some gap between him and them.”

  Maddie shook her head. “You have the worst taste in guys,” she declared. Then, she clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to bring him up.”

  “You can say his name, you know,” I said. “I’m over him. That was all a long time ago now.” I paused. “Anyway, it’s not like this was about my taste in guys. It’s not like Cameron and I signed a marriage license or anything. We just had coffee. And if anything, it’s probably good to have a friend like that who could protect the business if anything ever did happen.”

  Maddie gave me an unamused look. “If anything happens, it’s going to be because of them,” she said.

  I shrugged. “Then hopefully nothing happens. Look, I promised you that I wouldn’t see him again, and unless his MC members make a habit of dying off, I don’t think we’re going to be seeing him for a very long time.”

  I left out the fact that Cameron had been worried that there would be more violence now, in the wake of Ray’s death. That other clubs might try to find some weaknesses there. Maybe there would be more deaths sooner rather than later. Maybe we hadn’t seen the last of Cameron.

  My heart did a little flip, just thinking about that. I sternly told it to calm down.

  “I’m going to go inventory some of the things out back,” I told Maddie, wanting this conversation to be over. “Come get me if you need anything.”

  Maddie rolled her eyes, and I knew she realized exactly what I was doing: avoiding talking about this anymore. But she let me go with a nod and said, “All right, just don’t go near him again.”

  I headed out back, trying not to feel frustrated. I knew that her heart was in the right place. I knew that she was just watching out for me. She was a worrywart and always had been. It was part of why I had always trusted her alone with Sam: I knew that she was going to look out for my kid probably better than I even could. But at the same time, her overprotectiveness sometimes drove me up the wall. I just wasn’t like that.

  If I had been, maybe I never would have gotten pregnant with Sam.

  When I walked out back, there was a man waiting out there. He looked vaguely familiar, and I tried to remember if he was one of our customers or not. Then I suddenly remembered him: the guy that Cameron had asked to leave Ray’s funeral. I glanced around, but he was alone. Not that that helped matters any. If he wanted to attack me or w
hatever, for whatever reason, he could easily overpower me. He was almost twice my size.

  I squared my shoulders, trying to act confident. Maddie might have filled my head with all those stories about the things that Red Eyes purportedly got up to, but other than hosting the funeral, I wasn’t involved in any of that stuff. This guy had no reason to harm me.

  “May I help you?” I asked carefully.

  The man inclined his head toward me. “You must be Tara Blalock, is that right?”

  “Yup, that’s me,” I told him warily. “You have a body you need buried or something?”

  The man laughed silkily. “Not at the moment,” he said. “I was here for Ray’s funeral.”

  “Did you lose something?” Jesus, why wouldn’t he just spit it out? At the moment, it felt like I was playing twenty questions with a psycho.

  “What’s your connection with Red Eyes?” the man asked, narrowing his gaze at me.

  I widened my eyes, but I knew that he wouldn’t believe me if I tried to feign innocence and tell him that I had no idea what he was talking about. “I just arranged the funeral for them. They needed the guy buried, and they came to us. I don’t ask questions.”

  The man narrowed his eyes even further. “But you must be one of their businesses, right?” he asked. “You pay for their protection?”

  “Protection from what?” I scoffed. “No one wants to rob a funeral home. I mean, sure, grave robbers might, but I doubt Red Eyes would protect against unknown thieves like that.” I paused. “And the fear of the dead means that most people just aren’t going to mess with me.”

  The man laughed again, and I decided I hated the sound. There was something about it that grated on my nerves.

  Or maybe it was just all those stupid stories that Maddie had told me were floating in the back of my mind again. Speaking of Maddie, I just hoped that she stayed inside for all of this. I didn’t need her in any danger either.

  “I saw you with Cameron, though. After the funeral. On a date.”

  I snorted. “Not a date,” I corrected, and that at least was true. “I was just helping someone in need. He’s not the first of my clients who’s used me almost like a psychiatrist in the wake of a funeral.”

  The man stared at me for another long moment. “I hope that’s the case,” he finally said. “Because I don’t know about the rest of the guys you’re dealing with, but I, for one, am not afraid of the dead.” He grinned at me as he turned and stalked off.

  I swallowed hard and glanced over my shoulder toward the door, grimacing when I saw that Maddie was there and that she had seen at least part of that. She gave me a look. “What exactly have you gotten us into, Tara?” she asked.

  I sighed and rubbed at my temples. “I don’t even know,” I said.

  I had Cameron’s phone number still. His instructions for Ray’s funeral were saved with the rest of our documents, as they would have been for any other funeral. I could pull out the file and look up his number. Give him a call and tell him that the guy from the funeral, the one that he had taken exception to, had shown up at the funeral home today. I could demand an explanation. I could demand Red Eyes’ protection.

  There were a few things keeping me from doing that. First and foremost was that I didn’t want this guy, whoever he was, to get the wrong idea and think that I was lying to him. That I really was in cahoots with Red Eyes after all. I didn’t like to think of what he might do to my business. But more than that, I didn’t want to call Cameron for something like that. I had been independent for a long time now, and I liked to think that I could take care of myself. I didn’t want to be the damsel in distress calling for help just because someone had come here looking for information.

  I wasn’t involved with Red Eyes. Whoever this guy was, once he realized that was true, would have no reason to come after me.

  I was just glad that Sam hadn’t been around the funeral home at all during this whole thing. They couldn’t know that he existed. There couldn’t be any danger to him. I’d rather my business burn to the ground than have anything happen to my son.

  God, Sam. What if this guy had some sort of surveillance on me, to see if I really did have some ties to Red Eyes? What if he was watching me even now, or what if he had people watching Sam? Kidnapping was one of those things that every parent was terrified of having happen to their babies. It would absolutely ruin me.

  I had to call Cameron. At least to figure out what I was dealing with. I wasn’t the one who had gotten us into this mess. It was his fault. Or at least, it was easier to blame him than it was to blame myself. I didn’t like to think that I was the reason why my poor baby might be in danger now. Or Maddie, or my business. But especially not Sam.

  How could I have been so stupid as to let this happen? To get tangled up with motorcycle club violence?

  13

  Cameron

  Even though most of our weekly meetings, including the one that we’d had on Monday after Ray’s death, tended to be pretty small, with just a few of the auxiliary members showing up, the spontaneous Thursday meeting that Grant decided to call had a great turnout. All the core members were there, plus all the new recruits we were hoping to bring in to the core group. I sat down next to one of the newer guys, Eric. He was about my age but had just joined the club a couple months ago, brought in by Ray.

  “Jesus, it’s busy in here today,” he said to me in an undertone.

  “Yeah,” I said, looking around at all the other guys. There were plenty of guys there who only did things for the club when they were specifically called upon. Guys who were sort of our backup lines of defense for when we had to deal with people like Lex. I wondered what Grant had told them all when he had called the meeting. I wondered if they all suspected that something was happening.

  A lot of the auxiliary guys were guys like Will, guys who had once been core members but who had eventually pulled away from the club to focus on careers and other external things. They had experience, and they knew how these things went. They would know what it meant to lose Ray.

  That comforted me, in a sense. They might really be able to help us out if Lex did decide to launch some sort of offensive. Grant would have the backup that he needed. Or so I hoped. He just needed to prove to them all, right here and right now, that he deserved their loyalties.

  Grant got up in front of everyone, and you would never have known him for the awkward, nervous kid that he’d been when he had first started with Red Eyes. He looked sternly around the group, clearly channeling his inner Ray.

  “Thank you, everyone, for coming to this meeting on such short notice,” he said. “And thank you to everyone who came out to the funeral.” He gave a sardonic smile to the crowd. “Let’s face it; Ray probably would have hated knowing that so many of us wasted a whole day talking about how great he was.”

  There was laughter around the group. That was it, connect with your audience. I was impressed; I had to admit it. Maybe this Grant thing wasn’t going to be as terrible as I had initially feared. I wondered if I had Holly to thank for that.

  “I know we didn’t really talk about it at Monday’s meeting. The elephant in the room. What things are going to be like now. So I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page, going forward.” He paused for emphasis. “Things aren’t going to change. I’m going to do all the things that Ray did. We’re going to think first, collect information when there’s a threat to the MC, and then fight back against it once we have a solid course of action. You guys are all like brothers to me, and I want you to know that I’m not going to risk any of you because of poorly thought-out missions.”

  He looked back at me. “Cameron, as treasurer of the club, I want you to continue to let us know where we’re at in terms of our earnings. We’re going to continue to try to bring in new members as well as new business, and we’re going to make sure that this MC continues to be one of the most powerful MCs in the country. We’re going to make sure that it thrives.”

  Braxto
n snorted loudly and got to his feet, and I closed my eyes, hoping beyond hope that when I opened them again, this wouldn’t be happening. But he was still standing there when I reopened my eyes, a sneer on his face as he looked at Grant. “You’re never going to take the place of Ray,” he said, a taunting, almost singsong note to his voice. “You honestly think that you can make this MC thrive?”

  I expected Grant to duck his head and mumble something. To revert to his nervous ways. But the kid gritted his teeth and nodded his head, and suddenly I wondered if they had both planned this. If Braxton was only pretending to stand up to Grant because it would give Grant the chance to publicly chastise the other, thereby asserting his power over the club.

  But that was wishful thinking, and Braxton was clearly too agitated for that to be what was happening right now. He took a step toward Grant. “You’re weak,” he said. “You’ve always been weak. You’re never going to be able to lead this MC. You just don’t have the balls for it.”

  Still, Grant stood his ground, just staring coldly at Braxton, letting the other get his anger out. I was kind of proud of him. He really had grown up a lot, even over the past twenty-four hours. Or at least he was doing a good job of hiding his true feelings.

  Braxton lunged toward him suddenly, and I thought the two of them were actually going to start brawling right there in the middle of the clubhouse. What the hell had Red Eyes come to these days anyway? Fighting in the clubhouse over who got to be president? Fuck.

  Before they could actually do any damage to each other, though, a couple of the guys were there, holding the two of them apart. “Come on, chill the fuck out,” Robert growled. “There’s no place for that in this club.”

  “There’s no place for a leader like him in this club,” Braxton spat, but when the two guys holding him released him, he didn’t make another move to fight. At least, not physically.

  He looked around the clubhouse, making eye contact with nearly everyone. “I’m walking out,” he declared. “Anyone who wants to be a part of a real MC, the one that my father built, you’re welcome to come with me. Our job is to protect the community, but we can’t do that if we’re even weaker than the shopkeepers who pay their dues to us.”