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Their lobby was a far cry from my depressing cubicle at the DEA with its light wood floors, dark gray walls, and comfortable looking leather chairs. There wasn’t even a mat underneath the desk to get my chair caught on. As Slipknot’s “The Dying Song” ended and Five Finger Death Punch’s “Wash It All Away” began, I had the crazy thought all I was missing was a latte and this would be my idea of work heaven.
Shaking my head at myself, I started down the hallway lined with pictures of bikes and cars. About halfway down, a petite blonde pushed open one of the gray industrial double doors at the end of the hall.
She stood there with the door hanging open and shouted, “If you came down here to ask me to go with you to the nail salon again, the answer is still no. What would be the point? I’d just get paint or oil on them and then be pissed that I wasted the money.”
This wouldn’t be the first time someone mixed us up. When we were younger, we used to trade places all the time. Cherry had trouble in math, so I’d take both our tests while she covered for me in gym class. Which was a win, win, if you asked me because Cherry hated math and I hated gym. It was doubtful, though, that this girl even knew Cherry had a twin sister.
“You must have me confused with Cherry.” I walked over to her and held out my hand. “I’m Brandy.”
She tilted her head to the side, studying me, tendrils escaping from her messy bun to fall down her shoulders. Her hazel eyes were a rich honey color, whereas Cherry and I had more flecks of green along the fringe of our irises. Odd. Only 5 percent of the world’s population had hazel eyes, yet there were three in this building.
“I’d think you were Cherry fucking with me by straightening her hair, but yours is slightly longer, and you have a birthmark on your collarbone.” She wiped her hands on a cloth she took out of the pocket of her gray coveralls and shook my hand. “I’m Stella, by the way.”
Cherry was the social butterfly, not me, and making friends didn’t exactly come naturally to me. But, at the very least, I needed this girl not to hate me. I was in enough danger without making more enemies.
Even though I already knew the answer from snooping, I turned around and pointed at the pictures lining the hallway as I asked, “Is this some of your handiwork?”
Her face lit up. “It is. Nobody ever thinks to ask, they always assume it was Tweak or…”
She let the last part hang in the air between us, her face falling. Balls. Now I’d gone and upset her, though I wasn’t sure exactly how. Even for me, this was a record. Usually, it took me a little longer to offend someone, because like her, I was frank. Uncomfortably so. At least that was what I’d been told.
She shook her head. “Never mind. How long are you going to be visiting for?”
“I’m not sure yet. Cherry doesn’t know that I’m coming.” I resisted the urge to cringe and quickly added, “It was sort of last-minute.”
“Then let’s go surprise her,” Stella said, turning on her heel and walking into a three-bay garage.
A Beamer missing its front end was on one lift while a Jeep with its door folded in occupied the other. Tools were strewn about on the concrete floor, and I had to pick my way around them, the wheel of my luggage catching on a wrench. Her stride was as no nonsense as the rest of her, and by the time I finally made it through the tool maze and caught up with her, Stella was almost to the wooden door at the end.
I followed her into a second, much smaller garage that didn’t have any lifts or tools. This must be the side the club came and went from. Only, where were all the bikes? She started up the steel staircase on our right, and I groaned internally, cursing my luck. Stairs gave me enough trouble in broad daylight, and these didn’t even have a railing!
Balls. How in the hell was I supposed to navigate these in the dark? I was going to break a bone, get caught, and then die an agonizing death. No. It was bad juju to think that way. Be positive. Maybe I’d break something that could be hidden from the club, like a toe. Yeah, limping wasn’t suspicious at all.
“Brandy, are you coming?” Stella called from the top of the stairs.
Shit. Was this girl a mountain goat? How did she get up there so fast?
“Yeah,” I grumbled, clutching my luggage to my chest, my ass touching the whitewashed brick as I made my way up the stairs. “Must have spaced out there for a minute.”
By the time I joined Stella on the landing, I felt like I’d climbed Mount Everest, and with a suitcase no less. She never once told me to hurry, seemed impatient, or teased me about how long I was taking. If I hadn’t instantly liked her based on her taste in music and frank mannerisms, that act of kindness would have definitely tipped the scales.
She gave me a nod of encouragement and opened the door. The brick, metal, wood, and leather accents filling the room made it feel like a trendy downtown bar and a hole in the wall Irish pub had a baby. Not even going to lie, when I looked over and saw the array of gaming controllers strewn across the large wooden coffee table, a little drool fell from my lip.
Stella left me in the doorway, wistfully eyeballing the big screen TV and gaming consoles, while she walked over to the metal bar and sat down. If life were as simple as a video game, then at least I’d be able to shut down my feelings whenever I felt like it. The sight of my sister’s mouth hanging open as she stood behind the bar made my chest uncomfortably tight. Not that I blamed her. This town had been my version of hell, and if it weren’t for her, I’d never have returned.
“Surprise,” I said with a lame shoulder shrug.
Her brows drew together, her perfectly pink bow lips tipped down at the corners as her eyes came to rest on the rolling luggage next to my leg. It looked as unnatural on her face now as it had on the day she’d walked in and almost destroyed everything. Flashes of memory were like foreign invaders attacking my body and stealing my breath. My feet felt like lead as I concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other. Like that day, nothing was as it seemed.
“Why are you here?”
You’d think after all these years of keeping my sister in the dark that it would come as naturally to me as breathing. Wrong. Each time I lied, even by omission, felt like it blackened another piece of my already tarnished soul.
“You’re the only person I could turn to.”
Cherry would get around to asking me more questions later, she always did, but by that time hopefully this fiasco would be over. At the very least, this would give me the reprieve I needed to gather my bearings before I had to come up with a believable backstory.
“I’ll have to ask Ryder if it’s OK.” She fisted the towel in her hand but maintained eye contact as she said, “But Brandy, this is a bike club. None of the guys around here are going to want help with their computers for a place to stay, if you catch my drift.”
