Page 83 of Biker's Property
“Ryder’s wife is a club asset under our protection. That’s all you need to know.”
“You still haven’t explained how he tricked a woman into marrying him,” Oske says.
“Agreed,” Tamiya replies, folding her arms and giving Ryder an expression of stern cross examination.
I wasn’t paying attention to anyone except Ryder, and then Juliette hitting Hunter until their exclamation. It feels like my cue to stop sitting on the damn ground. Listen, my confusion was evident from the jump and it honestly hasn’t shifted much.
“Yes,” I say once I stand up. “Sorry for not speaking up, I’m a little… shocked. My name is Joslin. And I’m Ryder’s wife.”
“Where did you find her and how did you kidnap her?” Juliette asks Ryder, who again, responds by turning an embarrassing shade of red.
“Who says he kidnapped her?” Anna says. “She’s a club asset and based on everything else we know… she witnessed what happened in the desert.”
“Joslin, don’t say anything,” Ryder growls, as if I’m standing in front of a jury and not women who are obviously wives of club members or at least club affiliated.
“Why can’t she talk?” Oske says. “Don’t let him scare you.”
That makes Ryder laugh.
“Trust me, my wife doesn’t fear a man on this earth.”
“Then why can’t she talk without your permission?”
Ryder turns even morered and apparently sees Oske’s point. But his brother steps in, and fills in the blanks.
“She sawwhat happened in the desert. That’s why the Nazis want her, but that’s not everything. Her ex-husband is where we got all those pictures and the information I sent over to Tamiya through Gideon,” Hunter says, summarizing everything that happened between me and Ryder better than I ever could.
“You witnessed a murder,” Anna asks me, wide-eyed. “You don’t look like someone who witnessed a murder.”
Ryder and I exchange glances. But we say nothing.
“Yes,” Hunter says. “Now that’s cleared up. The women should get out of here so we can deal with… the rest.”
He means the dead Nazis,the prisoners I presume they have, and… the rest. Bullet casings. DNA. Searching the perimeter for any cameras or potential evidence left behind. My interest in True Crime has definitely dwindled since I started living out my own podcast episode, but I know the basics about what it takes to get this area clean.
Ryder won’t take his eyes off me.
“I’m not leaving Joslin.”
“Yeah? You want her turning Nazi brains into fish food?” Hunter growls. “Juliette? Take her to mom’s house.”
He tosses the bike keys to the woman I accidentally shot. I keep examining her for signs of damage, but she seems eerily fine for a woman who nearly brushed with death. I look at Ryder, not because I need him to tell me what to do, but the idea of facing someone else’s mother alone fills me with almost as much dread as facing mine would.
Ryder’s face reassures me.
“Hunter’s right. You shouldn’t see this shit. The girls will take care of you.”
“I won’t!”Oske pipes up, earning a stare from everyone.
“What?”She says. “I’m going to tell Southpaw what happened, then it’s apparently my job to track down Scrap. I’m busy.”
I don’t know who Scrap is, but I’m guessing it’s another club nickname.
“The further you are from my wife, the better,” Hunter says, giving Juliette a stern look. “You are pregnant. You are a mother. No setting off on a spontaneous journey to try every Cracker Barrel in America.”
“So women can’t have cravings?”
“A black woman with Cracker Barrel cravings?” Tamiya mutters. “Those kids really are mixed…”