by K E Osborn
“That for you?”
While gazing up at him my breath catches looking at the burly man inside the semi, I grit my teeth wondering what the hell to do now.
“What does it mean for you, if I say yes?” I ask.
He smirks and rolls up the sleeve on his arm revealing a club tattoo. “Not a thing, brother.”
I smirk and nod as I let out a big breath of relieved air. I really didn’t want to have to hurt him. “Thanks, man.”
He smiles. “Had to outrun the heat a few times myself back in the day when I was riding. Stay by my cage as long as you need brother.”
I smile and nod. “Thanks, you’re a fuckin’ life saver.” Another cop car speeds by with lights flashing and sirens blaring.
“I’m always willing to help a brother out.”
“You got someone coming to help with your cage?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah, Spanner’s coming to fix her up. Shouldn’t be long, once the issue’s fixed we can escort you back to your house if you want. You can put your Hog on the truck, and I’ll drive you to the clubhouse or close enough to. Keep you undetected?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Fuckin’ awesome, mate.”
“You’re okay! Don’t worry brothers always stick together.”
I smile and nod. “Thanks, man. Steel’s the name.”
He brings his hand out of the truck and down for me to shake. “Cager, obviously.”
I chuckle. “It’s not ‘cause you crash every time you ride a bike, right? That’s why you’re relegated to trucks and cars?” He furrows his brows at me. “We have Crash, who’s our Cager for those exact reasons.”
His bellowing laugh radiates over the loud hum of the midday traffic. “Sounds like a character.”
“You have no idea.”
***
Cager and Spanner dropped me off a block away from the clubhouse. I didn’t think it was right for them to take me all the way. A rival club seeing our house felt wrong to me, even if they were helping a brother out. I thanked them and they said it was no hassle and then we parted ways. It’s interesting to know not every biker out there thinks rival clubs should be at each other’s throats.
Pulling into my parking spot, I notice all the other bikes are parked. The relief flooding over me is immense and I take in a deep breath knowing we all evaded the law. Getting off my Hog, I grab my cut and pull it on as Cassius greets me with his usual happy welcome. I pet his head and take off my lid as he rubs himself up against my leg.
“Hey boy,” I say petting his head as I walk inside the clubhouse. The music is low for once, and I take in a breath when I see Stevie is checking out Behemoth and The Penetrator. I’m glad they’re being seen to. Glancing up as I walk past still with Cassius at my side, Dad spots me and his shoulders slump as he moves over to me. He pulls me into a massive hug and holds me tightly. Opening my eyes wide, I embrace him and chuckle slightly shocked by his outpour of affection.
“Thank God! You were gone so much longer than everyone else. I was worried they’d got you,” Dad says pulling back and holding me at arm’s length.
“Nah, I lost ‘em. Just had to hide it out for a while.”
He nods and squeezes my shoulders as Techie walks over. “I’m impressed you got away from the heat, Steel. You’re lucky. The percentage of evaders getting away is only just over thirty-five percent. So the odds were not in your favour man.”
“Yeah, thanks for the facts, Techie. That was just what I needed.”
“No worries,” he says and then turns and briskly walks away.
I chuckle and shake my head thinking just how lucky I actually am.
Stevie walks up and grabs my arm. “Steel, you’re cut too. How many of you were injured in this fight?” Stevie asks and I chuckle.
“I wouldn’t call this graze an injury, Doc.”
She shakes her head lifting my shirt and assessing the wound. She slaps my arm making me flinch and grits her teeth. “You’re right, nothing to worry about. It’s just a stab wound you fucking ignoramus. Now get over here, and let me put some antiseptic on it and fix you up.”
I smirk and nod walking over to Stevie’s makeshift medical surgery by the lounges and sit down.
“A simple butterfly stitch will suffice. But please, try and limit movement of your arm for a week or so. No martial arts or boxing for a couple of weeks.”
I nod. “I can deal with that.”
Stevie finishes up just as Dad walks over.
“You done here kid?”
I nod and stand up taking a deep breath trying to calm my still heavily beating heart.
“Right, brothers who were out on the ride, emergency church… now!” Dad yells his voice booming through the clubhouse and echoing off the walls.
I thought this might happen. Walking behind Dad toward the assembly room, Techie, Behemoth, Jigsaw, Chops and Penetrator all follow in. Jigsaw closes the big double wooden doors as we take up our seats. Penetrator’s not normally in church, so he’s standing by the edge of the table waiting to be told where to sit.
“Just sit at the end, Penetrator,” Dad confirms what I was thinking and he nods, walking down to the end of the table to take a seat next to Chops.
Taking my seat to the left of Dad, I lean back in the wooden chair and interlace my fingers together at the back of my head stretching my arms out.
“So, obviously, the trip to Frankie’s didn’t go quite as planned. Our brother loves this club. He would be at this very table if he could. His place as a First 7 Original helped bring this club to where it is today. Chops, Vinnie, and the others as well. But Frankie can’t ride anymore ‘cause of his back problems. So he runs the gun shop. Our gun shop—”
What the fuck! Why is he rehashing old shit we already know?
“We know all this Mad Dog,” Chops interrupts. I glance at Dad and he puffs out his chest as he breathes in deeply through his nose.
“If you let me finish...” He glares at Chops and he rolls his eyes leaning back in his chair.
“Yeah right,” Chops says waving his hand through the air for Dad to continue.
“As I was saying… what happened in front of Frankie’s shop today was disrespectful. Now I know we didn’t start the fight, it came to us. But the way it ended, that’s what I have an issue with.”
My eyebrows raise slightly, as I begin to think that maybe Dad is going to have a go at Chops for gunning them all down. Like he fucking should!
“What are you implying, Prez?” Chops asks sitting up straighter in his chair.
Dad huffs, the air racing through his nose can be heard easily over the hushed silence in the room. “I’m implying Chops… that you racing out of the shop and gunning them all down like the arseholes they are, was not the fucking right thing to do. Yes, we needed them disabled, but not dead. This not only inflames our situation with the 5113ers if they ever find out it was us, but if any of us had gotten caught by the heat we could have lost brothers. Murder in the streets is not something we do, not in broad fucking daylight—”
“It was a backstreet in a dead-end street. No one was there, no one saw us. We didn’t have our cuts on when we left. Our plates were dirty. We’re not traceable. What’s the fucking deal?”
Dad stands up, his chair falls backward from the force of his stance. “What’s the fucking deal, Chops? What’s the fucking deal? You’re a fucking maniac. A loose cannon. You do things without thinking, without sanction, without running them by your brothers. You get something in your head and no matter what, even if the club says no, you do it anyway. You wonder why you didn’t make VP, there’s your answer arsehole. You think you’re above everything because you’re a First 7 Original? I’ll tell you now brother, you might be my best mate, but I’ll fucking kick your arse out to the curb if you put my brothers and especially my kid’s life at risk again by acting out on your own accord. You fucking got me?”
“Always playing favourites with Steel. He was fine. He got back safe. You know what makes
you a bad president? Your fucking kid. You’re so scared of losing him like you lost your others that it clouds your judgement, Mad Dog. Those 5113ers needed to be capped for thinking they could come to us on our down time and off us in the streets we run. This is bullshit! Come and talk to me when you’ve grown some balls.” Chops stands up and begins storming toward the door.
Dad jolts up and starts moving toward the door too. I stand up wondering what the hell is about to happen. Jigsaw gets to Dad first and shoves his hands in his chest stopping him from getting to Chops.
“If you walk out of here, Chops, don’t think this is settled,” Dad says glaring at Chops over Jigsaw.
Chops looks at Dad and shakes his head grabbing the handle of the door. “It’s settled, Mad Dog. I fucked up. I know that. I put everyone in danger, I’m a crazed lunatic… I get it. But you know what? That’s who I am. You started this club with me knowing what I’m like. You’ve run this club with me in it for decades and haven’t had a problem till now. I think you’re just getting old. Your time will come when you realise who really has your back around here. I’d kill to protect this club, that’s evident… Would these fuckers?”
Dad slumps his body and Chops nods as he opens the door and walks out of the assembly room. Swallowing hard, I take a deep breath after watching Dad and his best friend go at it. It’s a sight I don’t often see, not like that anyway.
Dad turns as Jigsaw lets go of him and closes the door as Dad walks back with heavy feet and sits down. I take my seat again too, looking at Dad raising my eyebrow basically asking if he’s okay. He nods and inhales puffing out his chest again.
“Okay, that kind of insubordination I will not condone. If anyone of you ever makes an attempt to back chat me the way Chops just did, I will send you to Jigsaw. What happened today was ruthless. I don’t care that they died. What I care about is the fact that it happened in the open, in the city, and in broad fucking daylight. Lucky it was a crappy backstreet with no witnesses, and lucky we all managed to out-ride the heat, but there was a chance we wouldn’t. I just want to say I’m glad you all made it back in one piece. A few of you with holes in you, but still in one piece. It’s been a tough day. Let’s go get drunk and bury ourselves in pussy,” Dad says and the guys cheer as Dad bangs his gavel and stands up adjourning church.
Shaking my head slightly at the events of the last five minutes, I wonder how quickly Dad and Chops will mend their friendship. I know it doesn’t usually take them long to fix their issues. I just hope that Chops sorts out his shit. Because this vigilante crap nearly got us all locked up.
We all walk out of the assembly room and Dad grabs my shoulder turning me around to face him. “I’m really glad you made it back, kid.”
I smile and nod. “I know Dad. I’m glad you made it back, too. And about what Chops said, don’t let that fester. Don’t spend all night thinkin’ about Byron, Tyson and Mum. I know you. I know you’re gonna wallow, but just don’t.”
He grunts and nods wrapping his arm around my shoulders walking us out of the assembly room. I know for sure he’s going to wallow anyway. Nothing I say will stop that. His hand comes down to rest on the wound on my arm making me wince remembering that it’s there. I’ll probably need to tell Willow that something went down and that I managed a little scrape but I’m fine. She’s going to see my arm anyway, so I’ll have to explain something—I don’t want to keep things from her.
“I’ll have a beer with you later, okay Dad?”
He nods, unwrapping his arm from around me. I make my way through the clubroom down to my bedroom to call Willow. Looking down on the bed we shared last night, I wish she were here right now, but I guess a phone call will have to suffice. Sitting down on the mattress, the softness swallows my body and I take a gulp of air knowing this probably won’t go down very well. But I know I need to do it anyway. Pulling out my phone, I dial her number and it rings twice before she answers.
“Hello… squuueee,” she answers and I hear Petunia squealing in the background as she’s laughing down the phone.
It makes me smile instantly. “What the fuck’s goin’ on? Are you slaughterin’ the pig?”
She laughs. “You’d think so, but no, just giving her a bath.”
I laugh and shake my head at the imagery. It’s just what I need to help me unwind from the drama of today. “You’re amazin’. Learnin’ martial arts with a biker by night, and bathin’ pigs by day.”
Her gorgeous laugh echoes down through the phone as the squealing suddenly stops. I furrow my brows as there’s a slight scuffling noise, then silence.
“Shit Flame, did you actually kill the pig or somethin’?”
She giggles. “What? No, you freak. Just took her out of the water and now she’s running around the bathroom floor with a smile on her face.”
I grin and sit back against my headboard. “Fuck me, I wish I was there.”
“Well, come over if you want. I’m not doing anything this afternoon.”
The offer is too tempting, and I might take her up on it. I just have to see how she takes the news first. “I might take you up on that, but there’s somethin’ I gotta tell you first.”
“Hmm, sounds ominous.”
“Yeah, it is a bit. So today I went out ridin’ with the boys and we came across some thugs.”
She’s quiet for a second and I hear her breathing increase slightly. “Thugs, hey?”
“Yeah, some old crew we don’t get along with.”
“Did something happen?”
I exhale and run my hand through my hair. “It’s only small, nothin’ major—”
“Steel, are you hurt?” The desperation in her voice makes my chest hurt.
“No babe, I’m fine. Just a scratch on my arm. You can barely notice it.”
She’s quiet again, and the silence is deafening as the blood pumps loudly in my ears. “Willow?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m okay, I promise.”
“And the other guys? Are they all okay?”
Now it’s my turn to not know what to say. I open my mouth to talk, but nothing comes out. I’m drawing a blank.
“Your silence says it all. Steel, I don’t know how I feel about this. I don’t like that innocent people are getting hurt—”
“Babe, they’re not innocent. They came at us first.” I don’t add anything further, it won’t ease her mind, so what’s the point?
“Still, violence isn’t the answer. Surely you guys can just sit down and talk through your problems?”
I laugh, I actually laugh out loud. “No offense babe, but this isn’t some child care centre where if someone steals your toy you can sit down and talk it out about how that was naughty and don’t do it again. It doesn’t work that way—”
“Well, why can’t it? Why can’t you change how it works?” she asks and I puff out my cheeks and push out the air through the small hole in my mouth.
“Flame, you just don’t understand—”
“No, you’re right I don’t. Were you in danger? Could you have died?”
Fuck! I don’t want to lie to her, but I can tell she’s annoyed and I don’t want to scare her away. So I decide a white lie might be for the best right now. “No, I wasn’t in danger. It was just a misunderstandin’. Like I said I’m fine, it’s just a scratch and Stevie fixed me right up.”
“If it’s just a scratch, why did you need a doctor to look at it?”
Fuck! I purse my lips and shake my head at my own ineptitude.
“I'm all right. I’ll come over now and show you, so you can see for yourself?” She exhales and is quiet for a short moment. “But if you don’t wanna see me that’s okay, too. I understand.”
“No, come over. I’m sorry. This just takes some getting used to. I went from a devoted Christian with a really tiny penis who wouldn’t even give me oral sex because it was too dirty, to a guy whose penis is bigger than anything I’ve ever seen, who’s in a motorcycle gang and thinks kids swearing is funny.�
��
I open my eyes wide with a smirk while shaking my head. “You dated a Christian?”
“Shut up! That’s all you got from that?” she asks with a giggle.
Tilting my head, my smile is wide. “Bigger than anythin’ you’ve ever seen, huh?” I ask and she cracks up laughing.
“Okay colossal cock, are you coming over or not?”
I burst out laughing and nod my head. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you say cock unprovoked. I’m changing you Flame.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.”
I pout even though she can’t see me. “Shame, it kinda turns me on when you talk all rough and dirty.”
She giggles. “Okay macho man, get off the phone and get your arse over here. Let me examine this scratch.”
She says scratch as if she’s using air quotes to mock the fact that she doesn’t think it’s a scratch at all. She’s right, it’s more of a wound, but she doesn’t need to know that until I get to her house.
“Okay, on my way, babe. See you soon.”
“I’ll be waiting.” She hangs up the phone and I groan slightly imagining her in her robe all naked underneath. Why I’m picturing that particular image is beyond me, but my cock twitches in my jeans. Jumping up off my bed I make my way out of my room to go see my girl.
