Chalk by Lily J. Adams

Chapter Seven: Stop and Start

 

Chalk

 

Angie’s presence was distracting me from the frustration of my own life, but I knew I couldn’t put off working out the co-parenting issues with Lucy. When she called on Saturday, the conversation we were supposed to have didn’t happen.

“I’m not feeling well today. Can we put this off until next week? I have to lie down for a while.” Lucy even seemed to think her excuse felt weak.

A flash of anger ran through me and my distrust built the more time went on. “Okay, but we do need to sort this out. We can’t put it off forever. I might need to bring Sarah up there to see you if that’s what it takes.” I gritted my teeth to keep my response calm. I was willing to do it. Not because I wanted to, but because this was my daughter’s mother and if I had to sacrifice, I would.

“You won’t have to do that. Things will pass over. It will be okay, promise. Just give me a couple of days.”

She was making promises she’d never keep. I raked a hand through my hair. Same old. Same old. “If you say so. I’ll talk to you when you call me, that work?” I knew I was short with her, but the well had run dry.

“That’s fine, thanks, Chalk,” she said sweetly.

A little too late for that to work. I clicked off the call, grateful that in the next few days I had the pool competition to look forward to.

 

 

Coyote and Smoke were at the bar when I arrived at Wheelz on Wednesday. I made my mind up to arrive early to talk to Angie. We’d agreed to meet earlier and she promised me by then she would have information on the mystery pool player.

I snuck up behind them, thumping each one of them in the back of the head.

“Ouch, what’s your problem?” Coyote shot back, rubbing the back of his head.

“You are,” I responded, being mischievous. “I haven’t seen you guys in a while, where have you been?”

“I’ve been working too hard, that’s where I’ve been,” Smoke mentioned with a frown as he nursed his beer. “What about you? You got this pool comp under wraps? You’re doing good out here.”

“Yep, it’s working. I am concerned about that guy who’s playing, I think his name is Rocky.”

“You’re worried about that guy? Is that because he’s a threat to you? You’re trying to get rid of him already,” Coyote snickered.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re delusional, I still beat him, no matter how good he was. I like competition. I hope that someone can beat me one day. So far, I am a bonafide champion, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” I bragged.

Both Coyote and Smoke scoffed at my mock confidence.

Ink came over to join in. A tea towel hanging over the edge of his shoulder, and he looked fresh. “If your head gets any bigger, we'll need a pin to pop it. What about this Rocky guy? I have some suspicions about him too.” His mouth twitched as it formed a grim line.

“I don’t know. Where he said he was from and a few other things didn’t sit right with me. I got Angie looking into him for me. She should be here any minute now,” I reassured him.

“The reporter…ah.” Smoke side-eyed me with a grin. “She hasn’t interviewed me yet, but I saw her talking to Bear and some of the regulars. I just hope she writes a good story.”

“I’m sure she will, it’s not like we don’t know her work,” I replied calmly to Smoke. He was trying to get more out of me about her, but I refused to budge. She was attractive but… it wouldn’t go anywhere. I already knew this.

Ink tapped the wooden benchtop. “Ok, back to this Rocky character, that sounds like a biker name, what’s up with that? He ride?”

I nodded. “Yep, he rides. He was looking around the building too hard for my liking. Angie is pretty good at getting stuff outta people, so I know we’re about to find out.”

“I wonder what she’s trying to get outta you,” Smoke quipped, smugly. “You guys looked pretty cozy the last time I saw you.”

I opened my mouth to shut his jibes down.

Angie breezed over, smelling like fresh linen. “Who’s getting cozy?” she asked, stepping right into the hot seat.

Smoke smirked into his drink and Coyote raised both of his eyebrows, taking a sip instead of responding.

“Hey Angie, how are you doing tonight?” Ink was more civilized and greeted her as if we weren’t just talking about her.

Of course, Angie was too smart for that. “Why do I get the feeling my ears should be burning right about now?” She stuffed her hands in her back pockets, rocking back and forth on her heels.

I rubbed the knots out of the back of my neck a few times. “We were talking about you. We were talking about the pool player, Rocky, and I was telling the fellas that you’re pretty good at getting information out of people.”

Angie’s emerald green eyes hit the floor. “Welp. About that.” She made a cheesy face, showing all her teeth like she knew a secret we didn’t. “You got yourself a Devil Rider right there. I had some of my sources check him out and follow him. He was hanging out with another guy named Snake. They were having breakfast together. I got a couple of pics if you want to confirm. If he ain’t a Devil Rider, then he’s in bed with them, that’s for damn sure.”

Smoke set his beer down as his jaw dropped, and Coyote almost choked and had to wipe his mouth.

Surprise didn’t register on my face because I knew when I looked at the guy that he was full of shit. “Told you. What I say?” I gloated. My redemption at the hands of Angie was directed at Smoke who’d second-guessed me.

“Shit’s crazy, he’s got balls of steel coming here to play. We gotta get Bones and Hawk in on this. He’s going to be here real soon,” Smoke replied.

“Are you looking for me?” Bones walked over from the stairs with a pensive look on his face; he must have been up in the office working.

“We have ourselves a traitor on enemy lines,” I explained to him.

Angie lifted out the incriminating photos from the brown satchel over her shoulder and handed them to Bones.

He took them slowly, then shifted through the photos, one by one. “What do these photos have to do with anything? I see Snake here, but who’s the other guy?”

“That’s Rocky, the guy that signed up to play pool. He seems to be a Devil Rider,” I dropped the bombshell.

Bones looked up sharply as his jaw locked up. “Let him play, he’s about to get burnt. Let’s keep him around and see what we can fish out about him. Feed him bullshit and send him downstream. If the Devils wanna play, then let’s rock ‘n’ roll,” he replied with a low growl.

“This is going to be a real treat. I cannot wait,” I added with terseness in my voice. “I gotta go set up, so I’m sure I’m about to see him in a minute anyway.”

“Stick to it and see what you can find out. Angie, keep digging. Good work. You mind if I keep these photos?” Bones asked her.

“Sure can, I have a copy. Let me sniff around a little. By the time we’re finished with him, we’ll have his life secrets.” Angie winked at the crew as we waved and walked over near the pool tables.

“How have you been this week?” I asked her. She seemed like she was in high spirits, and I could only hope some of that energy would rub off on me.

“Pretty good, I’ve been doing background interviews on the crew here, so I feel like things are working pretty well. I have some preliminary notes. I wanted to see if you’re free, so I can clarify a few things.” She smiled, temptingly.

I dragged my eyes to her face. “Sure, Teresa is coming to take Sarah tomorrow so if you want to come over then we can go over things. How does that sound?” I asked.

“Pretty good,” she replied.

An imposing force walking in the door distracted me.

Rocky had entered Wheelz and came straight over to me wearing a cheesy grin. “Hey, how’s it going? I’m down, I have to face the champ again,” he greeted me. His smile was chipper, eyes blackhearted and cold.

“You gotta get through the rounds first,” I responded. Now that I knew who he was, I cut him a half-hearted smile.

He belly-laughed and wrote his name down on the sheet.

Other players started to flow in around him as I pulled my pool cue off the rack.

Angie was sizing him up and making her own assessments. “You know what, I might put my hat in the ring tonight and play,” she mused. She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes at Rocky.

“Oh yeah? You play?” Rocky asked her as his eyes roamed over her body with his dark smile.

Sleazebag.

Angie greeted his gaze with contempt and a telling frown. “Yep. Sure do.” She swiftly moved over to pick up a pool stick.

I did feel grateful she was at the table, so I had another ally on board.

“Hmm, interesting. You guys are doing pretty well financially, got any other endeavors the club is involved in?” Rocky probed, not subtly.

To any other person I might have provided a straight answer, but given what I knew, I didn’t. “Like what?” I replied as I shifted the powdery pink chalk over the end of my pool stick.

“Ah, I dunno. I was in the casino the other week and I saw the same guy from the bar over there. Do you guys run that or something?” he asked.

Bingo. The casino, he was sniffing around about it.

“Nah, we just work over there,” I lied and gathered all the balls up from the pool table, racking them up.

Rocky seemed perturbed by the statement and kept probing as he stood with his pool stick in hand. “Ohm yeah? I thought I heard on the grapevine that the Rebels might be looking to buy. Maybe I heard wrong or something.”

“I think you probably did. We’re trying to move away from that place. It’s got a bit of a rep since that article and a few other dealers. We might be looking out of state.” I winked at him and moved away to talk to the other players. Let him chew on that for a little while.

 

 

“So Hawk is the sergeant in arms and Snake used to be, is that right? I just want to confirm that because it’s a good angle to go with. Is he still involved with the strip club, do you know?” Angie enquired.

Angie and I were sitting side by side on my couch discussing the internal dynamics of the Rebel Saints and how the rivalry between the Devil Riders began.

“Yes, you got it. Snake is named right. He’s a snake. All this trouble with the casino and dealers running up in our neck of the woods, him taking our former members…that’s all been orchestrated by one guy…Snake,” I explained.

Angie was scribbling on her notepad. She seemed be in her element, it was amazing to watch. She knew the right questions to ask. “This is fascinating, so juicy! Who needs the gossip columns when you have a hot motorcycle club rivalry going on?” She exclaimed, laughing.

I scoffed at her as I put my foot up on the coffee table. “Try being in it and then talk to me about it.”

“You seem like you’re doing pretty good to me with what you got going on…” Angie mused. She put her pen in her hair and looked up at me with those sparkling green eyes.

Damn, she was flirting with me again. I sure as hell, had grown tired of all this. Charming her for the club. I needed to make sure, I gave out friend vibes. I didn’t need to lead her on. “Guess we should get some work done huh?” I said.

“I guess we should,” Angie shot back with a smile.