Page 88 of Beyond the Cut
As with any biker party, the old ladies and sweet butts were expected to serve, except, of course, Arianne, who had taken up her usual station behind the bar.
With Gunner’s mix of hard-rock tracks blasting through the speakers, and the Sinners working hard to charm the Brethren, the bar had a good vibe going. Only Cade’s absence and Jimmy’s presence kept Dawn from enjoying the evening.
She could feel Jimmy’s eyes on her as she circulated the bar, and just once she’d made the mistake of meeting his cold, dark gaze. She knew that look. The hard menacing stare, the leering, supercilious expression, and the way he flipped the bottle cap into the air, catching it without a glance. He only flipped bottle caps when something bad was going to happen, usually to her.
Dawn curled her hand around the edge of her cut. Aside from the look that always filled her with dread, something was off with Jimmy tonight. Unusually confident, overly cocky, he sat like a king with his supporters huddled around him, as if he fully expected to win the upcoming election, and he was here just putting in time.
Sweat trickled down her back. If he won the election, she would have to take the girls and leave town despite the risk of the police tracking her down. He’d come for her, and nobody, police or Sinners, would be able to stop him.
No. Dawn put the brakes on the fear train and rallied herself. She was a Sinner. She wasn’t alone. She had a plan to deal with the video tape of the fake drug deal and regain custody of her children. No more running away.
By contrast, Shelly-Ann was doing a lot of running away. Dawn didn’t know which of the Brethren bikers had invited her ex sister-in-law, but for the first time ever she was delighted to see her. Unfortunately, Shelly-Ann clearly wasn’t feeling the love, or maybe she sensed Dawn wanted to speak to her. Whatever the reason, whenever Dawn tried to corner her, she managed to slip away.
“You still worried about Cade?” Arianne opened six beers in rapid succession and placed them on Dawn’s tray.
Dawn shook off her morbid thoughts. “He hasn’t returned my messages, and when I asked Jagger if he knew where he was, he said it was Sinner business. I know this isn’t real, but I’m wearing a cut, and Cade is…”
“Your old man.” Arianne gave her a soft smile. “Yes, he is. And you deserve to know. I’ll talk to Jagger as soon as he’s done talking to Wolf.”
Dawn finished serving the drinks on her tray, casting the odd surreptitious glance at Jagger’s table. For the most part, Sinners and Brethren sat with their own, but here and there Sinners and Brethren mixed, and so far no one had been shot, stabbed, or hit over the head with a bottle.
After dropping off her tray with Arianne, she headed to the restroom. Pushing open the door, she was so distracted by memories of her heated encounter with Cade by the sink, that she almost walked past Shelly-Ann drying her hands.
“Shelly-Ann. I’ve been wanting to speak to you all night.”
“This isn’t a good time. Jimmy’s waiting for me. Maybe later.”
Dawn stepped in front of the door and turned the lock. “How about now? We never really get a chance to talk and we might get distracted outside.”
“Really, I gotta go.” Shelly-Ann gestured to the door.
“Not until I say my piece.” Dawn folded her arms and leaned against the door. “All this time, I’ve been trying to find a way to get my girls back, and you held the key.”
Shelly-Ann gave her a puzzled frown. “What are you talking about?”
“You took the video of the setup. You gave the drugs to the investigator. My girls were taken away because of you. I would never have known but you’re still using the same stickers on your quarters.” At least she thought the bags held about twenty-five dollars worth of coke. She’d never made it close enough to the box in Shelly-Ann’s living room to tell.
Relief flickered across Shelly-Ann’s face so quickly Dawn wondered if she’d seen it. And then Shelly-Ann’s face twisted in a sneer. “So what? Who’s gonna know? You think I’m gonna testify that I helped Jimmy set you up? You saw what happened to that PI. Jimmy doesn’t give a damn that I’m his sister. He’ll kill me. He almost killed me when he found out his money was—”
She cut herself off with a sharp breath and leaned right up in Dawn’s face. “Give it up. Stop fighting, ’cause you’re not gonna win. Now get the hell out of my way.”
But Dawn wasn’t about to move. Not until she had the whole story. “Is that the money he’s after? Why does he think I have it?”
“Because Itoldhim you had it.” Shelly-Ann’s voice rose in pitch. “I had to do something. I didn’t know that money he left with me wasn’t all his, so I started dipping into it. Once I started, it was hard to stop. I never thought he’d hurt me. He never hurt me before. And there was so much. Bags and bags of the stuff. I didn’t think he’d miss a few thousand here or there. But then I decided to treat my friends to a weekend in Vegas, and we had some bad luck at the tables.”
“You gambled with Jimmy’s money? Are you insane?” She would have felt sorry for Shelly-Ann if she hadn’t fingered Dawn as the thief.
“I made a mistake, okay? And I needed to make it good so I leaned on you, and I expanded my drug distribution, got a line into some political big wigs. I figured it wouldn’t take too long to make it up, but then the Sinners started putting heat on the Jacks, and Jimmy came for his money. Viper’s money. He said Viper had helped him sell a few crates of guns he’d stolen from the Brethren and they’d split the proceeds.”
“Oh God, Shelly-Ann. Viper’s money.” Now, she did feel sorry for her ex sister-in-law. Once Viper found out what had happened—and he would—he would show her no mercy.
“Jimmy went fucking crazy.” Shelly-Ann dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her fancy jacket. “He beat me in front of the girls. He was gonna kill me. I had to tell him something. So I showed him my busted door and told him how you and the Sinners came and took it.”
“How could you?” Dawn’s voice echoed in the small room. “You took my children away. You put us at risk. You set Jimmy on me. He destroyed my house and almost killed me.”
“How could I?” Shelly-Ann shouted. “This is the world we live in. It’s not nice. It’s not safe. It’s not all flowers and sunshine. There are no happy families. The world breaks you when you’re a kid and then you gotta deal with it the rest of your fucking life. You think Jimmy and I had it good? Our mom died of a fucking overdose and our dad drank himself to death after using us as punching bags and sex toys for a couple of years. We were bounced around from foster home to foster home because Jimmy wasn’t right in the head and he’d do scary shit like kill the family pets or try to suffocate babies. We were beaten, starved, and abused. No one gave a damn. So we learned to do what it took to survive. And that’s what I did when Jimmy came for the money. I survived. And if you don’t know how to do the same, then you deserve whatever Jimmy’s got coming for you.” She grabbed Dawn by the shoulders and shoved her to the side. “Now get out my damn way.”
“Don’t touch me.” Dawn’s hand curled into a fist and she punched Shelly-Ann. Not a tentative blow, like she’d given Stan, but a real-honest-to-goodness-wind-up-and-swing-full-force punch that sent Shelly-Ann to the floor. “That’s for me and my girls. And youwilltestify about the setup, because if you don’t, whatever Jimmy was going to do to you will benothingcompared to what I will do. No one fucks with me or my girls.”
