by K. D Clark
“This is what Hugo gave me.”
As Jen got closer, Cam realized why she never saw the clubhouse before even though it was huge. The long, sheet metal building stretched across a couple of acres of land. The building wasn’t one color. It looked like pieces of the building had been added on over the years. It was in a valley, so Jen had to turn off the main road and drive down a steep hill to get there. As soon as they pulled up, Cam could hear the music from inside. The same kind of rock music they played out of her jukebox. The front door to what must have been the bar part was wide open, allowing the music to spill out. The entire area was surrounded by tall stadium lights, which probably kept the coyotes and other wild animals away. It would have been impossible to find the place without the stadium lights on. Everything around the clubhouse was pure wilderness.
“Damn, this place is huge,” Jen said as she turned off the car.
“Like a cult,” Cam grumbled.
Jen laughed. “I heard that. It’s not a cult; it’s a club.”
“Tomayto. Tomahto.”
They got out of the car, and she followed behind Jen into the clubhouse. Cam’s short cowboy boots thudded against the wooden porch. As they walked inside, she noticed the whole place was wood. It looked like an actual cabin. She imagined it would be a beautiful place to sit by the fire in the winter. The bar was double the size of Cam’s, and she wondered again why they would come all the way out to her bar to drink.
“Let’s get a drink,” Jen said, looping her arm through Cam’s and steered her to the bar. She was surprised to see that not only were there other women in the bar, but also, they were all half-naked. Most of them wore short halter tops and denim skirts with flip-flops. Their makeup was heavily applied. A blonde haired woman gave them a dirty look as she and Jen sat down at a stool.
“What can I get for you, ladies?” the guy behind the bar asked. He looked like he was barely eighteen. Not old enough to be bartending.
“Can I get a gin and tonic?” Jen asked.
“Coming up, and for you?” the boy asked.
“Just a Coke,” she said.
“Got it. One gin and tonic and one rum and Coke."
“Oh no, I--”
He walked to the other end of the bar before she could correct him. Whatever, she probably needed a drink anyway to get through the next hour or so since she was going to be stuck at this place.
“It’s crazy how big this place is,” Jen said.
“Yeah, it’s so far out too.” The location of the clubhouse made her suspicious. As if maybe the motorcycle gang wanted to keep themselves hidden. As she looked around the bar area, she started to wonder what they did. Were they really just a group of guys who liked to ride motorcycles together? The way Kit called them his brothers the first night she met him made her think it was more than that.
“Hugo said they all have bedrooms here, and there is a car repair shop on the corner that Kit owns.”
Two drinks were placed in front of them. Cam took a sip, feeling the burn as it went down her throat. There was way more rum than Coke in the drink, and she made a mental note not to order a second one.
“Oh, there’s Hugo. I’ll be right back,” Jen said before hopping off from the stool and taking her drink with her.
Cam sighed and took another sip of her drink.
“You don’t look too happy to be here,” the young bartender said. He placed both hands on the bar top and leaned against them. He was a cute kid with chubby cheeks and messy brown hair.
“Between you and me, my friend dragged me here.”
“Ah.”
“How old are you?” she asked him. Her curiosity was getting the best of her.
He smiled, showing off a dimple on the left side of his face. “Depends, are you a cop?”
“Nope, but if I were, I probably wouldn’t tell you.” She took another sip of her drink.
He laughed. “Fair enough. I’m seventeen.”
She coughed, nearly choking on her drink. “What the hell are you doing bartending?”
“I’m prospecting.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Um, what?”
“You’re new to this whole motorcycle thing, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t call it that. I’m just here with a friend.”
He nodded. “Well, a prospect is someone who wants to be patched. Like, be a member of the Savage Spades. Basically, you have to do a lot of shitty jobs and put up with a bunch of bullshit until Gunner and everyone else thinks you’re ready to be an official member.”
“Wow, you guys take this thing seriously.”
“Well, yeah, it’s a lot of work to be a part of the Savage Spades. The club is much bigger than just here in North Carolina. There are chapters everywhere.”
She tilted her head to the side. “And why do you want to be a part of the motorcycle gang again?”
He grabbed a towel and started to wipe down the bar. “It’s not a gang; it’s a club. A lot of members don’t have a real family. The Savage Spades is the only family they know. We take care of each other. Even if I’m stuck doing the dirty work, I know it’ll pay off when I get patched.”
She took a sip of her drink as she processed the information. It still didn’t make sense to her. Why would a seventeen-year-old kid want to do a bunch of shit for a group of grown men just so they would accept him into a club?
“Aren’t you in high school?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Dropped out last semester. That’s when I found the Savage Spades. According to Gunner, I need to re-enroll by the end of this month if I want to think about getting patched.”
At least they were making him go back to school. Does that cancel out the fact that they also had him bartending at seventeen?
“I’m Oscar, by the way.” He stuck out his hand for her to shake.
“Cam,” she said, placing her hand in his.
A man at the end of the bar said something to the kid. She couldn’t make out his words.
“I’ll see you around, Cam,” he said before dropping the towel and heading towards the end of the bar.
Cam sipped her rum and Coke and turned on the stool to look out on the small dance floor. Jen swayed back and forth with Hugo even though it was a fast-paced song. Although Cam was annoyed that Jen had dragged her here, at least she was happy.
After spending the next hour playing on her phone and talking on and off with Oscar as he worked, she got up to find Jen. The bar was starting to quiet down. She’d watched a few of the guys leave with a barely-clothed woman on their arm. She found Jen in a corner booth snuggled up next to Hugo.
“Cam!” Jen exclaimed.
Oh shit.
“I was looking everywhere for you!” Jen shouted.
Cam turned to Hugo. “How much did she drink?”
Hugo was the biggest of all the guys she’d seen at the clubhouse so far. He also had a tattoos on his neck, which made him intimating, but his face was that of a big teddy bear.
“A lot,” he admitted.
“Fuck, she was supposed to drive me home.”
“I heard Kit say he was about to head out. I’m sure he’d give you a ride,” Hugo suggested.
“Oh no--”
“Hey, Kit,” Hugo yelled across the room.
Heat traveled up her neck to her cheeks as embarrassment took hold. She hadn’t seen Kit since leaving her bar. She turned around to see him coming out of a room.
“What’s up?” he asked Hugo as he approached the table. His eyes flickered to hers briefly. He was probably wondering what the hell she was doing there.
“You leaving? Jen can’t drive, and Cam rode with her,” Hugo explained.
Kit looked at her, a smug grin on his face.
“She told me we’d be here for an hour or so. She was supposed to drive me home,” Cam said.
“Mmm, so you couldn't get enough of us.”
“You know what, forget this,” she said. She turned on her heels and walked to th
e exit. She’d find some other way to get home. Fresh air hit her face as she walked out onto the porch.
“Come on, I was just messing with you,” Kit said from behind her.
She turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t know why she was so embarrassed by being stranded in Savage Spade territory, but she was.
“Come on. My truck is parked on the other side of the clubhouse. Unless you wanna get on the back of my Harley?”
The thought of pressing her tits into Kit’s back as they drove through these dirt roads had her clenching her thighs together. He walked past her, giving her no choice but to follow behind him. They rounded the big building to a darker part of the clubhouse.
“So really, why did you agree to come out here?” he asked her.
“Jen begged me to go with her because she wanted to see Hugo. She didn’t want to come alone.”
“Ah, I’m a little disappointed. I thought you missed me so much you couldn’t stay away.”
She snorted. “In your dreams.”
But as she looked over at him, she couldn’t help being impressed. He wasn’t wearing his leather cut like usual. Instead, he was in a pair of gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt. He was the only guy besides Jason Momoa that could pull off a man-bun like that. When they got to his truck, she opened the passenger door and realized the truck sat a lot higher than Big Blue. It took her two tries to get inside all while Kit sat in the driver’s seat and laughed.
She flipped him the bird once she was finally in the seat.
“I was going to help you, but you got it.”
“Yeah right.”
“Give me your phone,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m putting my number in it. In case something like this happens again.”
“It won’t.” There was no way she was coming out here with Jen again. Jen owed her for this one.
“Would you just give me your phone?”
Reluctantly, she handed over her shitty, out-of-date iPhone. He typed in his information and then handed it back.
“I can give you a ride if you ever need one. I own the car shop, so I work when I want.”
She nodded and tucked the phone back into her pocket. “Thanks. So why do you guys come to my bar to drink if you have a bar right here?”
“Most of us are at the compound too often. It’s nice to get out and take a short ride sometimes.” He shot her a half-smile. “Besides, maybe we just like to bother the towns people every once in awhile.”
He started the engine and drove back towards town.
Chapter Ten
Kit
“Where are you going this late at night anyway?” she asked him from the passenger seat.
“Work.”
She raised an eyebrow and scrunched up her nose. “Work where?”
He didn’t answer. He had a couple of fights tonight that he needed to get to. He usually gave himself more of a break between matches, but Tony had called him and said that a lot of people were taking an interest in him. There was a lot of money on the table. If he could get enough, he could help Megan get back on her feet. Maybe send some to his piece-of-shit dad so that he could buy candy or whatever shit they buy in prison.
“Okay…”
“I can’t tell you,” he said. It wasn’t only the fact that the fighting ring was illegal, but also, he didn’t trust Cam yet. Especially not with that kind of information. She had a stick up her ass, and he got the feeling she’d turn her nose up at the thought of someone using their fists for money. Which didn’t make sense considering her hands were just as dirty since she was involved with a drug lord.
“Okay, whatever, it was just a question.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence until they got to her bar, where her blue truck sat out front.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said.
He waited until she got in the truck and drove away before turning around and going to the fighting ring.
Gravel crunched under his tires as he pulled up to the driveway. Tony’s family owed acres of land where the fights took place. Kit had been going to the same spot for years. The cops knew about it, but they chose to turn their heads. Whenever the ambulance was called because someone took too hard of a hit, there was never any follow up. If he had to guess, Tony gave the cops a nice cut of each fight so he could keep the thing going.
Kit got out of the truck and walked on to the grassy area. People stood around, holding beers and watching the fight. Inside a spray-painted, red circle were two shirtless men throwing punches. A set of bleachers and some lawn chairs surrounded the property. He spotted Tony sitting on the bleachers, a red baseball hat on his head.
“You got some fights for me?” he asked, taking a seat beside Tony. Tony bounced his leg, and his hands were tucked into his pants pocket as if he was cold, even though it was eighty degrees outside.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re up against Carl and Jax,” Tony said.
“Fuck.” He’d take down Carl with no problem, but Jax was a big motherfucker. Kit reached into his pocket and handed a roll of dollar bills to Tony. He always betted on himself, no matter what.
Gasps sounded from the crowd, and he turned to see that one of the guys had fallen to the ground. Tony stood up and waved his hands.
“Jeremy wins!”
The man named Jeremy flexed his muscles and let out a roar even as blood dripped from a cut on his forehead.
Tony slapped Kit on the back. “You’re next.”
*****
“Kit?” Megan’s voice echoed through the garage and into the waiting area where he was flipping through paperwork that didn’t make any sense to him.
“In here,” he shouted.
Megan rounded the corner with a massive smile on her face, but it slipped as she caught sight of him.
“Oh my god, what happened?” she asked, coming around the desk to get a closer look at his face. He’d won the first fight, but he hadn’t been as lucky with the second one. He should have let his body recover more before agreeing to two fights in one night. By the second fight, his muscles were exhausted, and he hadn’t moved fast enough to dodge the guy’s fists.
“I’m fine.”
“Fine?” She put her hands on her hips. “Who the fuck did you get in a fight with?”
He didn’t answer. Understanding dawned on her.
“Are you fighting still?” she whispered.
“Just when I need some extra money,” he said, not feeling like getting into it with her.
“And what the hell do you need extra money for? You don’t even stay at the apartment you rent.”
“That seems to be working out in your favor now,” he said.
Her face twisted with hurt.
“Megan, that’s not what--"
“You know what? You won’t have to worry about me for long. I got a job today. So have fun getting a concussion. God forbid someone tries to care about you.”
She walked away, and he rubbed a hand over his face. He’d apologize when she calmed down. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel like she was an inconvenience. She came back to Goldbeach for a support system, and he needed to be that for her. That might be harder than he thought.
The phone on the desk rang. “Kit,” he answered.
“Hey, are you on your way?” Zeke asked.
He raked his brain, trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“To Cam’s bar. I have to go to Iris’ dance recital, remember?” Zeke said.
“Oh shit, I completely forgot. I’m on my way.” He hung up and grabbed the keys to his motorcycle. As he drove down the dirt road, he realized he needed to get his head straight. Maybe he had been hit too hard last night if he forgot that he had to be at Cam’s. This babysitting thing was a pain in the ass. He needed to be at the shop, working on some of the cars. Between Megan, his fights, and Cam, he was falling behind. Customers were starting to notice.
He parked his bike out front a
nd walked into the empty bar. The same two people as always sat in the stools. Zeke was at a table in the middle of the room. Kit slapped hands with him.
“My bad, brother, I completely forgot.”
Zeke waved him off. “It’s cool. The recital hasn’t started yet, but I wanted to get there early. She was nervous about it yesterday.”
“Anyone else going?” Kit asked.
“Gunner and Lily.”
Kit nodded and watched as Zeke left. When he turned around, he was disappointed to see Jen behind the bar instead of Cam. Cam, at least, made this babysitting thing a little bit enjoyable. When he wasn’t talking to her, he could at least stare at her ass. He had to admit it had been a long time since he was so fascinated with one girl. He hadn’t even slept with anyone else since meeting Cam. Usually, no one was able to hold his attention, but he found himself wanting to talk to her. She was the opposite of all the girls who hung around the clubhouse. She wanted nothing to do with the Savage Spades. It was refreshing. He walked to the bar and took a seat on the stool.
“Oh, hey, Kit,” Jen greeted. She was definitely more friendly than Cam.
“Hey, where’s the boss lady?” he asked.
“She’s at home working on some homework. I think she’ll be in later.”
“She’s in school?” he asked. It seemed like she lived at the bar; it was crazy to think she was taking classes too.
“Yeah, she goes part-time up at the college. You want something to drink? Maybe help with all that bruising on your face?”
He smiled. “No, I’m okay, thank you.”
She nodded and went back to cleaning up. Kit scrolled through his phone for the next hour as he waited. He sent a quick text to Megan:I’m sorry about earlier. I’m happy you’re back in town.
The door opened, and Cam walked in, dressed in a tight shirt that dipped low enough that if she bent over the bar, he’d probably get a good look at her rack. Her face was red as if she’d been running around. She didn’t even notice him sitting there.
