Page 14 of Diamonds in the Mud

The girl pointed towards the back corner where Faye had been last. The moment the cop turned to head towards the back, I positioned myself so that she would bump solidly into me. However, she was quick enough on her feet to skirt around me.

“I don’t play games.” She tossed it over her shoulder. I barely heard it over the loud music that was pumping out of the speakers.

When had the place grown so crowded with people other than the Reapers? I suppose I’d been too preoccupied to notice the switch-out of clientele.

We were a few feet from the back when I grabbed her arm, stopping her from walking out the back door. I wasn’t positive the gang had left the premises yet. If they were hanging in the alley and she walked outside, well, I didn’t want to think of what might happen.

“You don’t want to go out there,” I warned.

She broke free of my light hold easily enough and glared at me.

“Rayne!” someone shouted from behind me. Then a mass of blonde hair flew past me and hugged the cop. Rayne. An unusual name. Was that her first name or last?

I watched as the pretty blonde woman hugged the cop. Rayne.

“I didn’t think you’d come. Tobias and Charlotte swore that you’d be here, but I reminded them that you didn’t do bars.” The blonde turned slightly towards me and stilled. Then she shocked me by holding out her hand towards me. “I’m Aria Hartwell, Rayne’s BFF. She didn’t tell me she was bringing someone tonight.”

I watched Rayne’s eyes widen a little as she tugged on her friend’s hand, no doubt to quiet the woman down. Still, this was my opportunity.

With the gang out of there, I could at least flirt. If Felix or anyone else got wind of the fact that I’d been seen with a cop, I could play dumb and tell them I hadn’t known. After all, technically, I still didn’t know for sure. But after so many years in the field, I could sniff them out. Besides, I had just made a point to tell Felix I was horny, and Rayne was just what I needed at the moment.

I smiled a full toothy grin as I took Aria’s hand in mine. The woman’s smile was oddly contagious, but I locked eyes with Rayne as I said, “Jameson Lorenzo. Rayne and I just bumped into one another.”

Chapter Four

“Just because it looks and shines like a diamond, doesn’t necessarily make it one.”

–Edmond Mbiaka

Rayne

I thought I knew every single member of the Reapers. I knew everything there was about each of the men who wreaked havoc whenever they rolled into town. Their loud motorcycles weren’t a problem, at least not in my book.

I’d had a boyfriend in high school with a Harley and had taken many wonderful summer rides with him. That was up until I caught the SOB cheating and sent him to the curb.

But the Reapers were a special kind of trouble. Somehow, they had a knack for skirting the law, which pissed me off whenever I saw them harass the townsfolks.

The members had enough money to take good care of their bikes, and they spread it around town like they somehow grew the green paper magically on trees. Anytime one of the members did end up staying in the gray-bar hotel, it was usually the drunk tank and they were released once they sobered up. Only once that I could remember had a member gotten in deep trouble and that was the sleazy little man-weasel that I’d pinned against the wall earlier. Declan O’Malley. The man was bad news. Rumors were he’d spent a full year in county lockup for beating a man half to death at a biker bar that sat just across the county line.

As for the rest of the gang, I knew their names, faces, and every single time they’d been in one of my jail cells.

Yet, somehow, Jameson Lorenzo was not on any of my lists. Was he really a member of the gang? My curiosity ate at me, caused me to want to find out more about him.

I had never even seen the man in my town before tonight. Trust me, I would have remembered if I had.

He was tall, with dark curly hair and a chiseled chin and face like a Greek god. He had the kind of lips that you just couldn’t look away from when he spoke. Not to mention that his skin was tan, toned, and, especially to my liking, tattooed.

Plus, under the black pants and T-shirt he was wearing, I just knew there was a rock-hard body to match the dark looks he was giving me.

The part of me that drove me to find all the answers to other’s secrets wanted to spend more time with the man in order to dive as deep as I could. Everyone slipped up eventually, allowing me to see the darkness or light they hid at first meeting. What was Jameson hiding?

I knew how to get answers from men like him. Flirting went a long way in getting men to let their guards down.

Besides, what else was I going to do for the night? Boredom often set in on nights like this.

Aria nudged my hip. “Invite him to sit with us for a drink,” she hissed into my ear.

Aria and I had been BFFs ever since second grade, when I’d kicked Ricky Jorge’s butt for pulling Aria’s pigtails and making her cry.