“Good deal. Wish I could go with you.”
“If you’re well enough when the time comes, you can. Until then . . .”
“You’ll take Jessie.” Spence gave him a stern look. “Don’t do this alone.”
Diaz nodded. “I’ll take Jessie. But I still don’t think she’s ready for all this.”
Jessie slipped in and closed the door behind her, shooting Diaz a scathing look. “How typical. You deciding what I can or can’t handle. Are you sure you’re not my father?”
Spence smothered a laugh. Diaz wasn’t at all amused. “I think you of all people would know for a fact I’m not a blood relative, Jess.”
“Touché, Diaz,” Spence said.
Jessie sat next to Spencer’s bed and shot him a glare. “What are you, the scorekeeper?”
Spence shrugged. “If the two of you keep going at it like scrapping yard dogs, somebody has to score the rounds.”
“There’s no scorekeeping required. We’re finished,” Jessie said, leaning back in the chair and crossing her arms.
“Awww, a lover’s spat?” Spence asked, his gaze flitting between both of them.
“Don’t fuck with me right now, Spence. I can and will hurt you,” Jessie said.
Spence looked at Diaz, who shook his head.
“I put GPS tracking devices on Rex’s bike and a few of the others who went out last night,” Diaz explained to Jessie. “That way, if they go out again, we can follow at a discreet distance, hopefully not noticeable, and see where they’re going. It’ll be safer that way.”
Jessie gave a curt nod. “Just let me know when we need to ride and I’ll be armed and ready to go.”
“Will do.”
“What about Rex?” Spence asked. “We know anything about him?”
“I noted the tag number off his bike. Gave it to Grange to run a check on his registration, so we should hear something back today.”
“Okay. Good.”
“I need to go and . . . do a few things,” Jess said, rising again. She turned to Spence. “You need anything?”
“Shot of whiskey and a hot woman.”
Jessie laughed. “Can’t help you with either, but I’ll be back with lunch in a little while. In the meantime, try and get some rest.”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s all I’ve been doing. I’m already tired of resting.”
“It’s good for you.”
She left without looking at Diaz.
“You hurt her,” Spence said, casting accusing eyes at him.
“Yeah. But trust me, it’s better this way. She’ll get over it.”
Spence shook his head. “You are one dumb son of a bitch, Diaz.”
Diaz narrowed his gaze at Spence. “Don’t get in the middle of this.”
“It’s obvious what’s going on. She cares about you. You care about her. You’re being noble, saving her from big, bad you.”
Spence sounded a lot like Jessie. “You don’t know anything.”
“I know more than you think.”
“Yeah? And what would you do if it was you and not me?”
“It isn’t me, so it’s not the same thing. You and I aren’t the same, and you know that.”
Diaz shrugged.
“Jessie’s in love with you, man. And you’re blowing it.”
“I don’t want to have this conversation with you, Spence.” He didn’t want to have it with anyone. “Stay out of it.”
He started to walk to the door.
“I never figured you for a coward, Diaz.”
That was the same thing Jessie said to him last night.
“I’m getting damn tired of hearing that.”
“Maybe you should start listening.”
Diaz clenched his fists, paused for a second, then opened the door and walked out.
His temper soared, his entire body heating with rage as he stepped out of the lodge into the crisp morning air. Even the cold outside didn’t cool him down.
He needed a ride. Alone. He hopped on his bike, turned the engine over and let the vibration race through his bones. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, feeling the bike, losing himself in the sensation, before peeling away, spitting gravel in his wake. He rode away from the lodge, down the road until he hit blacktop, then really cranked it, letting the cold air seep into his pores, clear his head.
He didn’t even know where he was going, just needed the solitude of the ride and the bike humming underneath him.
Spence was right. He was a coward. It still didn’t change anything. What he was doing wasn’t admirable. But it was the only thing he could do. He knew what he was, his background, his own temper. He might have control over it now. So had his father, at one time.
Diaz was a ticking time bomb. And he was never going to explode on Jessie. Not on someone he loved.
Not ever.
So they could all go on thinking he was an asshole. That was fine.
Jess would be safe.
He rode out of town, found a bar catering to bikers that sat on a hill overlooking the river. He spent the day there, alone, content with a seat by the window, loud music to drown out the noise of his own thoughts, and a couple of beers to quench his occasional thirst. When he got tired of beer he switched to bottled water, figuring by the time the sun sank he’d need a clear head. He kept an eye on the time, wanting to get back to the lodge by dark, just in case Rex, or Crush, decided to take a little night ride. It was late afternoon when he hopped back on his bike to make the trek back to the lodge. When he got there, they were serving dinner and everyone was piled into the dining room. Jessie was seated next to Spence, who had managed to make it out of bed and sat at a corner spot, his bandaged leg propped up on a chair. Stephanie fussed over him on one side, Jessie on the other.
Lucky guy.
Diaz walked in and Spence waved him over.
“Hey, where’ve you been?”
Diaz took the empty seat across from Spence. Jess, as usual, avoided eye contact.
“I took a long ride.”
“Nice day for it. Sun’s out.”
“Yeah. Found a bar a couple of towns over. Just hung out and listened to music, watched the scenery.”
“Good.”
“Anything going on around here today?”
Spence shook his head. “Not a damn thing. Few of the guys went fishing down at the creek. Crush took a bunch of guys for a long ride, too. Some went ATVing.”
Diaz nodded, then went to the buffet for food. The rest of the meal was mostly spent in silence, with him and Spence occasionally talking. Jessie spoke to Spence, not to him. Stephanie noticed, too, because she continually inched her chair closer to Spence’s, no doubt thinking Jess was trying to muscle in on her guy. If Stephanie got any closer to Spencer, she’d be in his lap. In fact, she kept bumping Spence’s leg, causing him to wince.
Jessie wasn’t doing anything to clarify the situation to Stephanie, either. Then again, Jessie had made it clear she didn’t think much of Stephanie.
His cell phone buzzed, interrupting the show. Diaz stood, saw the number as one of Grange’s, so he stepped outside the lodge to take the call.
“Yeah.”
“That tag number you gave me for Rex came back,” Grange said.
“And?”
“Comes back as registered to Landon Mitchell.”
“Who the hell is Landon Mitchell? He’s not one of the guys in Crush’s gang.”
“No clue on this end. Name has no priors, so it doesn’t show up in any of the crime databases.”
“So the registration is stolen or fake?”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Grange said.
“Okay. So we’ll have to find another way to ID Rex. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Keep me posted.”
Diaz hung up and pondered the situation. He’d have to talk to Jessie and Spence, figure out a strategy. He headed back inside, finished dinner, and waited for the crowd to thin out. Once it had, he told Spence he needed to talk to him. Alone.
Stephanie pouted, told Spence she’d wait for him. There was a dance in the lodge hall tonight. Right, like Spence was going to dance? Diaz rolled his eyes as he helped Spence into his room. He gave Jessie a look that he hoped made her understand he wanted to see her, too. She just had to get away from Stephanie’s curious gaze.
Once he got Spence back into his room, they waited for Jessie to make an appearance. She did, shutting the door behind her.
“It was all I could do to get away from nosy Stephanie. She thinks I’m after you, Spence.” She giggled and sat on the love seat.
“Good. Maybe she’ll leave me the hell alone, then. The woman is starting to annoy me.”
Jessie snorted.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” Diaz said, trying to bring the focus on the mission. “Grange ran Rex’s bike registration and it came up bogus. That means we need to ID him another way. So I’m open to suggestions.”
“That’s easy,” Jessie said with a shrug. “Pickpocket his wallet, check for his driver’s license or any other identification he has on him.”
“Easier said than done, cupcake,” Spence said.
She propped her feet on the coffee table. “I don’t know about that. I used to do it all the time. Bet I could get in his pants.”
Spence choked on a laugh. Diaz frowned and said, “Not a good idea.”
Jessie met his glare. “Why not?”
“Too dangerous.”
She rolled her eyes. “Please. I can lift a wallet in my sleep. We’re thieves, remember? I haven’t forgotten something as elemental as that.”
“And how are you going to manage it?”
“Easy,” she said. “All I have to do is get his attention—get close to him.”
“There is a dance tonight,” Spence said. “Dark room, lots of bodies pressed in together.”
“There you go,” Jessie said, turning her gaze to Diaz. “It’s perfect. A couple of dances, me rubbing up against him, I’ll have him so distracted he won’t know what’s up.”
“His dick will be what’s up, darlin’,” Spence said with a laugh.
Jessie laughed, too.
Diaz, however, didn’t.
“Well?” she asked.
He couldn’t tell her not to do it. There was no valid reason, other than he was already jealous as hell. Which had nothing to do with the mission, and everything to do with how he felt about Jessie.
If he told Jessie the real reason he didn’t want her to do it, it would blow everything. He’d just told her he didn’t care about her. Acting like a jealous lover wouldn’t convince her of that, would it? And it wasn’t like he could be the one sliding his hand in Rex’s pocket. It had to be Jessie.
Fuck.
“Yeah, go ahead. If you get into trouble, give me some kind of signal.”
“I won’t have any trouble. It’ll be like taking candy from a baby.”
That’s what he was afraid of.
BY THE TIME THE BAND HAD SET UP IN THE HALL, THERE WAS a thick crowd of people who had already made good use of the bar. Alcohol was flowing, it was noisy, and Diaz and Jessie had a tough time finding a table. Fortunately, Spence insisted on coming with them, so people cleared a spot for him to sit—a good table in front of the dance floor, with extra chairs so he could prop up his leg. You had to love bikers—they always took care of their own.
Diaz and Jessie pulled up chairs at the same table. Stephanie wriggled her way through the crowd, disappointed to find Diaz on one side of Spence and Jessie on the other. Her heavily painted lips formed a pout.
Tough shit. If they were lucky, maybe she’d get pissed and go away.
The band started up, kicking into a rousing rock and roll oldies set. Nearly everyone got out on the dance floor. Stephanie looked over at Spence and cast a hopeful look.