by S. C. Adams
“I don’t care what you make.” I laugh. “Why do you want to know what I make? Tell me. If you have a good reason, maybe I’ll tell you.”
He takes a long sip of water before answering. “I want to know because I’ll pay you more if you leave Ultra-Cycle to come work for me.”
At first, I feel sure that he is kidding. I laugh.
“What’s so funny?” asks Dustin.
“Wait, are you serious?” I wonder. “Do you really own your own business or something?”
“I’ve got my hands in a lot of pies,” he repeats.
“Why do you want me to work for you?” I ask, humoring him.
“Well, I have my own bike shop,” he tells me. “I’m always looking to make my team bigger and better.”
“You—you own a motorcycle shop?” I ask, dumbfounded.
“Yes ma’am,” he confirms. “Dual Wheel Duo on Barbour Street.”
“So… why did you get your bike done at Ultra-Cycle, then?” I ask, perplexed. “Couldn’t, you know, you have just fixed the problem yourself? You know, since you own a motorcycle shop.”
“Ultra-Cycle has been outdoing my shop for months,” he says. “Your boss sure sells his services for cheap. We had to check out the competition, Cody and me. I was wondering what Jacob’s secret was, and I think I’ve found the key to his success: You.”
I laugh him off, blushing and rolling my eyes. “Whatever.”
“I think you’re the most beautiful woman in Reno,” says Dustin. “I’m trying to prove it to you right now by hiring you as the face of Dual Wheel Duo.”
“If you hired me, wouldn’t that make it ‘Dual Wheel Trio’?” I wonder.
“Nah, Cody and I are the duo that own the shop,” says Dustin. “We’ve got a couple of employees on the payroll. I’d like you to be one of them.”
“Thank you, but no thank you,” I say firmly. “Tell me about your shop, though. I’d love to hear about it.”
While Dustin spends the rest of the evening telling me about Dual Wheel Duo, I can’t get over how he is essentially doing recon work to learn about his rival bike shop in Reno. I wonder if maybe Dustin has some weird game in mind that he intends to play with me, like I’m a pawn in one of his business schemes or something. Dustin is a real charmer, and I like believing he is flirting with me because he actually likes me and not because he is trying to get info on where I work.
Then, at certain angles, I can see Dustin has some tattoos going up his arms, and there is one on his shoulders, although I can’t see it well. I recognize some of his tattoos because I’ve seen tattoos similar to those on other bikers that I’ve seen around Reno. I suspect that maybe Dustin and Jacob are in a pissing war of some kind, but I have no idea what I am getting myself into.
If I knew the kind of danger that comes with Dustin Walker, I might not have had such a laidback night with him. It is nice. I like our conversations, and I love the mood.
After dinner, I don’t know what to think of him. He still seems like quite a gentleman. He kisses my hand, we hug, and we leave it at that. He doesn’t try anything inappropriate, although he doesn’t stop staring, but I don’t mind.
If I knew what kind of danger came with Dustin Walker, I wouldn’t have underestimated him at all. He is the real deal. Somehow, I know he is a real man.
43
Dustin
After a full, fun day with the kids on Sunday, I consider going to Dual Wheel Duo the following Monday, but since I don’t have any specific duties I have to attend to and I’m just on-call, I choose to stay in with Mason and Austin again.
We aren’t doing anything special, but even those days mean so much to me. Just spending time together, lounging on the couch, and relaxing is enough for me. Sometimes we play video games, but most of the time we watch movies since Austin is still a little too young for the video games we like to play. We sometimes like to play board games together or card games like Uno or Go Fish, but our game time is Sunday.
I hold my boys close, savoring every second that I hold them. Despite my lusting for Megan, it doesn’t change that I miss their mom.
I can’t help but feel a little upset. I love Mason and Austin so much, but that doesn’t prevent me from feeling lonely. I can never communicate that to them—they’re my sons and they didn’t cause the void at all. I don’t like complaining to anyone, really. So, no one truly understands how I feel.
Not even Cody knows about how alone I feel on a regular basis. I don’t expect to hear from him all day, and of course, I hear from him right when the boys and I are about to pass out for a nap.
I see I’m getting a call from Cody, and I consider not answering it, but I figure he’ll just keep calling or texting until I answer.
“Yo,” I say upon answering the phone.
“Dustin, you and the boys are in Reno, right?” Cody asks.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t we be?” I wonder.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t sure if maybe y’all were up to something or not. You need to get here to the clubhouse as soon as possible.”
“Why, what’s up?” I ask.
“We found out some information,” says Cody. “We’re having a club meeting in twenty minutes. You need to be here.”
“Okay,” I say, shuffling myself up off the couch to continue talking away from the boys. “Can you give me a hint of what’s going on, Cody?”
“It’s a major Hell-Snake development,” he answers.
I wait for more, but I know that is all I’m getting. “I see.”
“Twenty minutes, club meeting,” Cody repeats. “See you soon.”
I don’t hang the phone up immediately. I dread having to tell those boys we are going to be apart again, but I am Vice-President of the Crimson Wheels, and I can sense some urgency in Cody’s voice when he said “information” has been found. I can’t fathom what it is exactly, but I suspect that it involves our new friends at Ultra-Cycle.
“Dad?” Mason calls out from the living room. “You okay?”
I take the boys to daycare and head straight for the clubhouse. I don’t know how long our meeting is going to last, but I am determined not to be there a second longer than I have to be.
If I’d known what awaited me at the meeting, I would have stopped and pre-gamed at the bar first. But, as it is, I pull up to my usual spot out in front of the clubhouse, sober and unprepared for the news.
When I get inside, I am surprised to see a full house. Everyone showed up. Every Crimson Wheel is in the house, poised and ready for action.
“Howdy, gentlemen,” I say to the group.
I get a variety of acknowledgements on my way to the front of the room. Cody is there waiting for me, looking flustered and antsy.
“What’s the matter with you?” I ask him.
“Well, Dustin, there isn’t an easy way to get to it, so I’m just going to come out and say it,” says Cody. “We discovered that Jacob Evans, the owner of Ultra-Cycle here in Reno, is the President of the Hell-Snakes.”
I am speechless. At first, I think he is joking or speaking from paranoia, but his face never lies to me. Jacob Evans is our guy and our number-one enemy now.
I feel cold. Suddenly, it all fully processes for me and hits me. Jacob Evans is the one responsible for my wife’s death.
Cody pats my back, giving me a look of brotherly affection. I still can’t find the words.
“We also suspect their prices are so low because of their extracurricular activities,” Cody continues for the club. “It’s run by Hell-Snake money. They’re sitting on a small fortune over there from all the shady, criminal shit they’re up to. So, Jacob’s bike shop can afford to steal my business until they’ve taken every last customer from us and empty our registers for good.”
“Fuck ‘em!” someone in the crowd yells. “Let’s burn their fucking shop down!”
There is a consensus among the crowd, but I’m not among them. I’m still processing what I was just told. Rebecca’s killer has a face,
a name, an occupation, a voice. My vengeance is near.
“We’re going to destroy Jacob Evans and his band of shitheads, the Hell-Snakes,” declares Cody. “We’ve already had a life taken from us, from one of our own. I’m normally a much calmer guy than this, but we’ve never gotten resolution for Becca Walker’s death. I’m angry.”
“I’m angry too, make no mistake,” I say as clearly as I can.
“Maybe it’s time to send a message,” Cody proposes. “Like, ‘an eye for an eye.’ Let’s go and torture Jacob in his own shop and then torch the place.”
The place goes crazy. Still, I’m the only one in the room that remains uncharacteristically stoic. I am afraid, and I don’t know why.
Cody can be a real unforgiving, ruthless bastard, but sometimes I can’t tell when he is “putting it on” for the guys. I suspect that his rough persona is the image he wants to project and uphold as leader of the Crimson Wheels. He also understands that it is his responsibility to protect the gang, and he can’t appear soft or weak on a woman-killer. We don’t kill women, and we revile any group that does.
“If any of Jacob’s thugs try to stop us from desecrating this son of a bitch, we’ll kill them the moment we see them. Don’t give them a chance to fire their weapons. End them, like you would a coyote or raccoon. Jacob belongs to Dustin, and he will have as much time with him as he wants.”
Cody is showing me he is my go-to guy and will always look out for me. He is painting an enticing picture in my head. I’m imagining torturing him in his own store, cutting off his vile, perverted hands and stuffing them down his throat until he suffocates, or maybe I’ll just keep cutting him until there is nothing else left of him to cut. I can’t make up my mind.
“What do you say, VP?” Cody asks me. “Is that how we’re going to destroy Jacob and the Hell-Snakes?”
I am still unable to form coherent sentences, let alone dictate a rousing speech to the gang. I nod, and the room roars with cheer.
After our meeting concludes, I leave the clubhouse and call Megan right away. I am more determined than ever before to take her away from that awful bike shop. I want her to be gone from that place before shit goes down.
“Hello?” Megan says upon answering my call.
“Megan, hi,” I say. “What are you up to?”
“You caught me on my break at work actually,” she answers. “What are you up to, mister?”
“I was wondering if maybe you’d like to have dinner again with me tonight,” I offer. “Let’s get some drinks and some tacos. I know tomorrow’s Tuesday, but I think we can cheat and have tacos a day early. What do you say?”
“Do you promise not to ask me about money anymore?” she asks.
“Fine.” I chuckle. “We don’t have to talk about money.”
“Okay, and you’re not going to ask me to come work for you again?”
“I can’t promise I won’t do that,” I admit. “But I’ll be nice. You have my word.”
“I don’t know how good your word is,” says Megan.
“Then, have dinner with me a few more times, and get to know me,” I retort. “Then you’ll start to learn just how good my word really is.”
There is a pause on the other end of the line, but when she returns, she comes bearing the words I need to hear:
“Yes, I’ll have dinner with you again tomorrow,” she says, like an angel.
44
Megan
The place I am meeting Dustin at tonight is a restaurant called Kimble’s, a place that serves all kinds of food that I’ve heard is good for years but never tried. I decide to dress slightly more conservatively for the occasion. I wear jeans with boots and a low-cut blouse. I still want to tease him somewhat.
When we get to Kimble’s later that night, we just happen to find each other when we are both by the bar. We give our quick hellos and he orders us a tray full of drinks.
When I say tray full, I mean he has to carry it with both his hands to make sure all the drinks he is holding stay steady. My intention when I suggested we get drinks was that we would be loosened up a bit more and not as nervous. With the amount of alcohol Dustin intends for us to consume, I’m worried about what we might get into tonight.
We shoot past “loosening up” after our second shot of tequila. We have fun small talk with each other while we wait for our food to arrive. We discuss what live shows we’ve been to in the past. I focus primarily on my experiences at a particular Phoenix concert (the band, not the city), and he talks about some of his favorite metal shows he’s been to here in Nevada. We both admit that we have lifelong dreams of going to Coachella one year.
By the time we are polishing off our fourth drinks, our meals have arrived, and we resume the conversation that I know is coming.
“So,” he says before his fork even hits his plate. “Have you given any more thought about you switching teams and coming to work for me?”
“Yes, I have thought more about it,” I tell him. “And, no. I still don’t want to come work for you. I’m sorry.”
“Megan, I’m eventually going to have to insist—”
“All right then, Dustin,” I say, annoyed. “Insist that I quit my job and come work for another guy that wants to get in my pants.”
He definitely looks hurt by what I say, and I feel bad the moment I say it. That isn’t him—Dustin is different than Jacob.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize. “It is stressful, I’ll admit. Clearly. Despite the part-time hours and the unwanted flirting from my boss, I really do like my job. Really, I do. How can I prove it to you?”
“I believe you,” says Dustin. “Just… I want you to think about it.”
“There isn’t anything to think about,” I say. “Why do you want me to work for you so badly?”
“Your boss isn’t who you think he is,” he says abruptly.
This catches me off-guard. “What? Who… do I think he really is?”
“He’s dangerous,” says Dustin.
“What does that make you?” I respond.
“I can hold my own, but I wouldn’t consider myself dangerous,” he says. “He’s done terrible things. You can’t trust him.”
I’m not sure where this is coming from, but he speaks with such certainty that it makes me wonder what he knows that I don’t.
“Besides,” Dustin continues. “That guy is a disgusting dick that’s sexually harassing you right there in front of people. And he’s probably fucked with a lot of girls that have worked for him.”
“You’re probably right about that,” I concur. “And, I’ll admit, the way he behaves with me does make me rather uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, no fucking kidding!” Dustin concur. “I’d say it should be doing a bit more than just making you uncomfortable.”
“It doesn’t really matter how it makes me feel,” I say with hopelessness. “Even if I wanted to leave, I can’t. I’ve made a really good friend where I work, Kelsey. I can’t just leave her at Ultra-Cycle to fend for herself while Jacob and his horny pals come sniffing around. She’s been great to me. I won’t do that to her.”
“I’ll hire your friend, too,” says Dustin.
“What?” I say, flabbergasted.
“I’ll take you both,” Dustin offers. “I’ll hire you and Kelsey right now if you’re interested.”
“Could you really afford to hire two new people on your staff?” I ask, trying to be kind. “I mean, Jacob has been stealing a lot of your business.”
“I don’t think I’ll have to worry about Jacob stealing anything else from me here in the next week or so,” says Dustin cryptically.
“What do you mean?” I wonder.
“Like I said, I’ll hire you both right now, and I’ll give you a quarter raise on top of whatever Jacob’s paying you both now.”
“Shut up,” I say in shock. “Are you serious?”
“You have my word,” he says with his hand extended.
I shake Dustin’s hand, still skeptical ab
out what he is offering, but I can’t hide how enticing it sounds to me.
“I’m not agreeing to work for you,” I say firmly. “Keep that in mind. That handshake is you promising your word as law. If I come and work for you, if Kelsey came with me, you’d really pay me more than what Jacob pays me?”
“Cross my heart,” says Dustin.
“Well, I still need to think about it a little while longer,” I tell him. “Jacob hired me, you know? I just need to think about it.”
“That’s fine,” says Dustin. “Think about it. Remember that I’d pay you more, and make your decision soon.”
“How much time do I have?”
“Two days,” he says with a smile. “Is that not reasonable?”
“That’s fair, I guess,” I say after I take a sip of water. “Why are you so insistent that I leave the ‘dangerous’ Ultra-Cycle, anyways? Even if Jacob is into some shady shit, why does that concern me? He’s never involved me.”
“Yet,” he stresses. “Look, the less you know, the better. You’re too sweet; you shouldn’t be involved with him. You should get out now.”
“You’re being so mysterious and vague,” I say in frustration. “Is there something I should know about where I work?”
He takes a breadstick from the middle of the table and dips it in the olive oil we have in the center of the table.
“When I know more things for sure, I’ll tell you as soon as I know,” says Dustin. “There’s a lot going on. It’s hard to explain. I swear. When I can explain, I will.”
“Okay…”
We eae for a couple of minutes in silence, enjoying our entrees. I have lasagna and grilled vegetables. Once I feel satiated enough, I return to him.
“So, tell me about the kind of girl you usually date,” I say.
He chuckles and pounds a shot of whiskey. “I don’t usually date.”
“What do you mean?” I wonder.
“I haven’t been in a serious relationship. I haven’t been with anyone for a couple of years. I haven’t thought about dating all that much, to be honest. You’re different. I like you, Megan.”
