Ride Me Away by Jamie Fuchs

trust in the group, so I couldn’t rush anything, but I knew Jackson would be disappointed with no results.
    He used to be one of the top agents back in his day, which meant he expected the same from everyone else. Sometimes the constant threat of being pulled from a job was hard on a person. But more often than not, it got him what he wanted.
    The only information I had on the club was about the shootout the other night. The cops had been interviewing all of the members, but none of them disclosed anything about any deaths and no bodies had turned up yet. As far as the law was concerned, it was a bloodless fight.
    That information had to be kept a secret—at least for now. I knew Jackson would take immediate action against them if he found out. My emotions were getting in the way of a federal investigation, and I knew it. I just wasn’t ready to see Jag behind bars. I needed more time to think.
    I hopped on my bike nice and early, heading out to the same abandoned yard that we had met at before. I noticed him behind me shortly after I left my apartment in that same junker of a car.
    Stopping my bike against the wall of the old house, I turned myself to sit side-saddle on it. Jackson pulled up behind me and got out to sit on the hood of his car.
    “So, what have you got on the Saviors?” he said as took off his sunglasses and folded them.
    “Nothing other than what you already know. I’m still working on gaining their trust.”
    “Anna, it’s already two months in, and you’re telling me you have nothing yet?”
    “There was hardly any intel on them when I started. What do you expect?”
    “I expect results from my top agent, Anna.” He crossed his arms. “Next month, there better be something.”
    “Well, I’m not ready to disappoint you yet. I have something else. It’s not on the Saviors, but I happened to be in the right place at the right time and came across a drug operation. They’re selling coke out of Club X.”
    “And…?”
    “They’re using the bar as a cover to deal it. The owner had five bags in his desk, clearly for resale. He has everything documented in his office.”
    “Documented?”
    “Yeah, everything. ”
    “Well that’s convenient,” he said, standing back up. “Good work, agent. I’ll look into their finances and see if we can get a warrant. We’ll clean that guy out ASAP.”
    Jackson walked back around to the car door and opened it.
    “Next time, I expect something on the Saviors.”
    He pulled out of the yard, leaving me stuck between a rock and a hard place. At least Club X would buy me some time.

Things between Jag and I were still confusing. He wouldn’t contact me at all for long stretches of time, only to just show up out of the blue and haul me away. This was one of those long stretches between contacts.
    I expected to see him again soon, unless I’d scared him off somehow. My thoughts were on him as I drove his club’s motorcycle to work.
    Things just never seemed to change at Club X, and I’d seriously started to wonder if these three men had any kind of life outside drinking beer and laughing.
    The only thing that was new around here was Ryan’s attitude toward me. He hardly talked to me anymore since Jag showed up to drag me away. His voice no longer had any emotion or excitement in it, and he was cold toward any conversation I tried to initiate.
    “Hey, Ryan,” I said as I walked up to the bar.
    “Hey.”
    “All right, man. I gotta ask. What’s your beef?”
    “My beef? If you really gotta know, it’s you hanging around with that biker guy. Those guys are dangerous. You shouldn’t be around them.”
    “That’s what this is about? The biker gang that you told me was harmless?”
    “Yeah. I thought we had something going on, then all of a sudden Mr. Badass Biker Boy shows up here and drags you away.”
    “Ryan, what we had was nothing. It was just for fun.”
    “Maybe you should have told me that. I felt something more…”
    He set his towel