Chapter 4

"I'm fucked," she said out loud. No one was there to hear her or to see her break down, but for the first time since this had started, she sobbed. Really sobbed. It was full body and it was ugly.

Denise sat on her couch, her head in her hands. The last year and a half had taught her many things about herself and about life. She had come to some grim realizations and some new revelations.

She wasn't as strong as she had once believed. When she had been a teenager having twins, she had taken the world by the balls and dared it to talk back to her. This time, when the economy had tanked and she had lost her job, she had cowered. For months she had sat on her living room couch, just knowing the factory would call her and tell her to come to work on Monday morning. When that hadn't happened, it had taken her a few weeks, but she dove headlong into looking for something else. It had taken months for her to find the minimum wage job she now worked at. Gone were most of their DVD's and any jewelry she'd had. Lately she'd taken to switching coins out of the cash registers at work, getting the oldest coins she could in order to take them downtown and sell them to the local coin store. That wasn't getting her very far now that her hours at work had been cut.

In the middle of her complete freak out, she heard a knock at her door and she tensed. The last three times someone had knocked on her door, it had been a disaster. She wondered if she should act like she wasn't home. Maybe the person on the other side would leave.

"Denise, I know you're in there."

It was her neighbor from up the street. Meredith Rager, the local television reporter. They had become acquaintances, perhaps friends lately, and Denise really didn't want to be alone anymore.

"Coming," she coughed, struggling to disguise the pinched tone of her voice. Mopping up her cheeks, she opened the door.

"Hey, I saw Liam Walker leaving here," Meredith started before getting a good look at Denise's face. "Did he hurt you?" she asked, sharply.

"He didn't hurt me."

"Are you sure?" Meredith asked, walking into the house. "I've dealt with these guys a couple of times when I interviewed them in front of the jail. They aren't nice people. I'm pretty sure they all have a little bit of blood on their hands."

"I'm sure. He really didn't hurt me. He was actually nicer than he probably needed to be."

Immediately, Meredith's radar was buzzing. What else had Liam Walker been doing at Denise Cunningham's house? "You're not getting involved with them are you?"

Denise didn't want to get into this. Meredith was very astute, and Denise was an open book. Calling upon those feelings that had made her so emotional earlier, Denise scrunched her face up and let a sob break through her chest.

"What's happened?" the other woman asked, worried about the single mother.

Reaching under the couch cushion, she pulled out the foreclosure paperwork. "I got served with these yesterday, and I just don't know what to do anymore."

Grabbing the papers from Denise's hand, Meredith looked over it, her eyebrows drawing together in concentration. "Shit," she breathed. "This amount isn't going to be easy to come up with."

"I know," Denise cried. Usually she wouldn't be putting her business out there for just anyone to know, but besides Roni, Meredith was the only friend Denise had. "I just don't know what I'm going to do. This is the only home my children have ever known, and now they're going to lose it."

Meredith's heart ached. She had grown up in a family where money wasn't an issue. It wasn't like they were extravagantly wealthy, but there had never been a week where they had to order off the dollar menu because they weren't able to afford food. This was not her reality, and she wasn't familiar with it, but she could at least be sympathetic.

"Do you want me to give you money?" Meredith asked. She didn't have the amount that Denise needed, but maybe she had enough to keep the wolves at bay.

That caused tears to come faster and sobs to wrack Denise's body harder. She had never had anyone she could count on or ask for money when she needed it. This was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her.

"I truly appreciate it, but I can't take your money. I'm serious when I say I probably will never be able to pay you back, and that just makes me uncomfortable."

Meredith's eyebrows drew together. "That's why Liam was here, right?" This time her tone didn't carry the question that it had earlier. This time she knew. Desperate people did desperate things, and Denise was the epitome of desperate.

"I'd really rather not talk about it."

"Okay, let's head over to my duplex and have some lunch before I have to go to work. You need to get out of this house. If you sit here, you're just going to think of things you can't control."

Denise knew she was right. She was hungry, and she had next to no food in the house. "That sounds great."

* * *

"Did you convince her to help us?" William asked his son as Liam pulled his bike up in front of Walker's Wheels and shut it off.

The shop provided legitimate income for the club, and everyone was expected to put time in there. They did everything from oil changes to repos and towing.

Before he took his helmet off, Liam looked around at the activity bustling around them. It was at moments like this when he wished he was exactly what he looked like. A son helping out his father at the family business. Business was booming, and every extra hand they had was busy – either changing oil or doing bodywork.

"What do I need to do today?" Liam asked, ignoring his dad's question.

"You need to tell me if Denise is goin' to help us or not."

"That's not what I'm talkin' about, and you know it. If Denise is going to work with us, she's going to work under me. You'll know what the fuck's goin' on – on a need to know basis. Now what the fuck do I need to do to help out here today?" His tone said there would be no arguing.

William cut his eyes to Liam, not happy with the way this conversation was going. "There's two bikes that need oil changes, and then I need you to check the car that we're sending with Denise tomorrow."

"Will do, Dad."

Liam sauntered off, grabbing Tyler away from the job he was working on to go under the hood of a late model avocado green Cutlass Supreme.

"Whose car is this?" Tyler asked. He hadn't seen it on the work order for the day.

Throwing a glare at William, Liam answered. "This is the car that we need to take to Denise's tonight."

"She agreed to it? I thought she was smarter than that."

"I did too, but she's desperate. You and I both know that desperation can make you do stupid shit. We count on that to get the things we want in this club. It sucks a big one when that's used against people it shouldn't be."

It was on the tip of Tyler's tongue to say that desperation really shouldn't ever be used against anyone – no matter who they were. But the club was the club, and they did things the way they had to in order to get what they wanted. He could understand where Liam was coming from though. This woman wasn't a hardened criminal, she didn't even want to do this to get in good with any of the Brothers. On top of that, she had absolutely zero experience. This would either be the best plan they had ever had, or it would blow completely up in their faces. He hoped no one got hurt.

* * *

"Thanks for lunch, Meredith. You were right, I really did need to get out of that house," Denise said as she walked to the front door of Meredith's duplex.

"Glad I could be of help," she smiled. "I hate to kick you out, but I have to get ready to do the news in a few hours. I still haven't gotten the script going yet either."

Meredith was the usual anchor at 6 o'clock, but she really wanted the 10 o'clock or early morning job. Those were the most prestigious in this small town. Tonight she'd had to switch in order to cover the later shift, and she planned on making it count.

"Good luck." Denise told her as she walked out onto Meredith's porch and then the short distance up the street to where her house sat.

There on the front door was a yellow tag. Not sure what it was, she grabbed it and flipped it over. It told her to call the Sherriff's Office. It didn't take a scientist to figure out that everything she had been running from was catching up to her at warp speed. She had to do this job, and it had to be now. For her survival and the survival of her children, this had to happen.