“Where?”
She names the hotel. From behind her, Salem nods, either to show he’s heard of it, or has just noted it.
“He was amazing, Grumbler. He’d laid out stuff to eat, all my favourite food—buffalo wings, fries. He had beer, I had soda. There were flowers too. Flowers for his special girl. For my first time, it couldn’t have been better.”
“But you changed your mind? Said no and he ignored you?”
She adamantly shakes her head. “No. He couldn’t have been more considerate. He… took his time. He made sure I enjoyed it. It wasn’t like being with a fumbling boy my age. He knew what to do.” She bites her lip.
“Sweetheart. I don’t understand.” I open my palms, shrugging my hands in confusion. Then it dawns on me. “He dumped you and said goodbye?”
“Huh,” she scoffs. “I wish he had. That would have been better.”
“Alicia. Help me out here, please? What did he do? Or didn’t. Did he use a condom?”
Her eyes go wide, and she flushes red. “Of course. But Grumbler…” She throws herself forward and into my arms. “I didn’t know.” Her voice weakens and trails off. “I didn’t know.” The tone of her voice again becomes stronger and rises. “This morning he told me. He filmed it. He filmed everything, Grumbler. He called it Deflowering of a Virgin. He said if I led you to him, then he’d show it to my mom. He’d make sure everyone at school saw it. I was to give you a message. Leave him and Devon alone.”
“Motherfucker!” Niran roars.
“How did he film it? On his phone?” Salem fires the question at her while I just hold the girl who’s sobbing again.
“He had proper cameras set up, but I hadn’t seen them. He’d disguised them.”
“He showed you?”
“Yes, to prove he could carry out his threat.”
Salem’s jaw clenches.
I struggle, barely able to suppress my rage. “But you came to me, anyway, sweetheart?”
“He also said, he’d kill you if he saw you again, and I couldn’t have him do that.”
An idle threat, that kid couldn’t better me. But she’d come straight to warn me. I didn’t realise I meant anything to Alicia. “Why do you care about me, Alicia? And you shouldn’t worry, I’m more than capable of looking after myself.”
“I don’t have a dad. Mom’s dated, I know that, but she’s only brought one person home to meet me, and he was horrible. Now you’re coming to the house, and I thought…”
“Hey, sweetheart. There’s nothing between me and your mom. I’m no father figure. I’m old enough to be your grandfather. You can knock that idea on the head. Your mom’s much too young for me.”
“Mom? Young? She’s old. She was thirty when she had me.”
My head shouldn’t automatically start doing the arithmetic. I shouldn’t be working out whether a surprisingly short, as it turns out, ten-year age difference was too much. Women, I decide, must grow old far more gracefully than men do. I’d never have taken her for that old. Still, I’ve got ten extra years of living under my belt, an extra one hundred and twenty months. Nope, can’t consider it. I’m still too old and too jaded.
“Alicia, there’s nothing between your mom and me, other than we’ve hit it off as friends. I’m ten years older.”
“So? Owen’s seven years older than me.”
I still. “Owen’s twenty-one.”
“That’s what he told me at first, but then he told me his real age. He just looks young.”
“And fuckin’ plays on it.” Salem is incensed.
“Hey, Grumbler. You need me?” A female voice sounds by my shoulder. Glancing up, I see Eva.
“Yeah.” Once again, I have to peel Alicia away from me. “Alicia, this is Eva. Eva, this is Alicia. Alicia’s had a hard time of it. Could you take her under your wing for a while? You hungry, sweetheart?” I say the last to the girl in my arms, hopeful, but not optimistic.
“You going to help me, Grumbler? I’m so scared. What if he shows that video to everyone?”
That’s an easy question to answer. “Yes.”
“And not tell my mom?” This one is far harder.
That I can’t promise. Mary’s got to know everything. “She has to be told, Alicia. But one thing I promise you, she won’t be angry, okay? I’ll be there when you speak to her.”
“I’ve ruined my life,” she wails. “Just like she told me.”
“Listen to me, Alicia. I know you feel fuckin’ bad right now, and there’s not much I can say to help you, but I promise you this—Owen won’t be sharing that video with anyone. I’ll make sure of it.”
Alicia stares at me for a moment, and I wonder what she’s seeing. I’m a rough around the edges biker, yet she’s come to me. That means something. Now I’ll do all that I can to protect her, and I wonder how she knows that.
“I’m hungry,” she admits, finally. “I didn’t want breakfast, but I could eat now.” My reassurance that I’ll help her seems to have taken some of the burden from her. She eyes up Eva, seeing not the club girl we’re used to, but the proficient nurse who gives patients confidence all the time. She starts to stand, then looks back down toward me. “I wish you’d reconsider dating Mom.”
With one eyebrow arched in my direction, Eva puts a friendly arm around Alicia and leads her away in the direction of the kitchen.
I’m still crouched on the ground. Niran, friend that he is, comes around the sofa and reaches down a hand, helping me to my feet. I nod my thanks at him.
Salem jerks his head toward a table in the corner of the clubhouse. He, Niran and I make our way over.
Chapter Sixteen
Grumbler
“Leaving aside you’ve been seeing a woman and not told us,” Salem starts, “this fucker is dead.”
“Token might be able to find out details about him from the database at the hotel. It’s not a cheap
