by Erin Osborne
“I’m Callie,” I respond, following the stranger to his bike as I look at the vest, he’s wearing. It looks like a goat head with the curled horns in a triangle and all that’s in a circle. It is really cool and scary at the same time. “Um, that’s a different kind of vest.”
I hear the rumble of him laughing from a few feet away. “It’s a cut, babe,” he tells me, grabbing his phone and sitting on his bike.
“Oh, um, sorry,” I answer, looking down at the ground instead of him.
“Nothin’ to be sorry about,” he answers, standing up and walking to me. “If you ain’t never been around a club, then you don’t know that kind of thing.”
I nod my head and remain quiet as I hear him talking to someone. While he’s busy, I listen to the rich sound of his voice as he speaks quietly so I can’t quite hear the words he’s saying. At the same time, I also look around at my surroundings. There’s not much too look at in all honesty. On one side of me there’s a vacant lot that’s overgrown and I can see trash littering the area closest to the road. Turning around, the sight before me takes my breath away. The lot is a field of wildflowers and in the distance I can see an outcrop of rocks that look to be in some sort of formation. I’m too far away to make out what the formation is, but it looks amazing from here. My first thought is that I want to be here when the sun begins to set. The colors that grace the sky as the sun sets against the purple, blue, and reds of the flowers along with the rocks in the background will be a beautiful sight for sure.
“It’s gonna be about a half hour or so before the truck gets here,” Grave tells me, walking over to the edge of the road to stand next to me. I jump at the sound of his voice because I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear him walking over to me.
“Oh, um, thank you. I appreciate you stopping to help me,” I tell him, expecting him to get back on his motorcycle and ride away.
“It’s not a big deal. So, where are ya headed?” he asks, squatting down next to me and tightening the laces on his boots.
“To Shadowville. My new home is there,” I answer, shifting from foot to foot as the small, jagged rocks on the side of the road dig into the bottom of my flip flops. I’m not used to wearing them because it was another thing that I was never allowed to wear.
“Really? I don’t know about any houses that have been sold recently,” he says, peering up at me before standing up.
“Oh, I didn’t buy a house. My grandma passed away a few years ago and I’m just now getting a chance to make it to her house,” I answer him, starting to walk back over to my car. Since my back is turned, I miss the flare of recognition in his eyes at the mention of my grandma’s house. “I’m sure that you have things to get back to, so thank you again.”
“Nope. Not leavin’ you out here alone,” he says, like it’s the most normal thing in the world as he follows me over to my car.
I open the driver’s door and take a seat as he stands next to me. Sliding my flip flops off, I sit Indian style in the seat as I turn toward Grave, the man that has rescued me. “Are you like my knight in shining armor? And why do you have cell phone service when I don’t?” I ask, wondering how he was able to make a call when I can’t even use an app on my phone.
“Well, I have a phone through a company here. Didn’t think of that when you left, did you?” he asks, leaning against the side of my car. “And, I’m no one’s savior. If you knew what I was really like, you’d be lockin’ yourself in that car and leavin’ me be. Besides, if you’re not careful out here, you’re gonna get hurt.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, suddenly nervous being alone in a desolate stretch of highway with Grave the only one here with me.
“Well, you’re a gorgeous girl that’s alone with car trouble. You have no phone and you’re walkin’ around in the clothes you are. Not everyone would be makin’ sure you’re okay,” he says, nonchalantly as he reaches into his cut. I watch as he brings a pack of cigarettes out and offers me one. Shaking my head, he shrugs his shoulders before taking one out and lighting it up.
“What do you mean about my clothes?” I ask, wondering what’s wrong with my outfit.
“Nothin’ much except for the lack of your body bein’ covered,” Grave says, looking up and down me once more. “If I were a bettin’ man, I’d say that you’re rebellin’ against somethin’ and this is the first time you’ve dressed like this.”
“Well, I think your right about that. Maybe I should cover up some,” I respond, getting ready to stand up and make my way back to the trunk of my car as I look down at the outfit I put on once my mom and sister were out the door. I’m wearing a pair of jean shorts that come just below my ass cheeks and a dark red tank top that’s loose on me. You can definitely see my bra sticking out the side of the tank top. But, I didn’t think I’d be doing anything other than driving to my house so it didn’t really matter what I was wearing. Breaking down along the side of the road never factored into choosing my outfit.
“Didn’t say you had to change or cover up. Just statin’ facts babe. If I were a different man, I’d be doin’ more than lookin’ at you right now,” he says, taking another drag of his cigarette as I settle back into my seat.
“What kind of man are you?” I ask Grave, suddenly curious about who he is.
“I’m the kind of man that you don’t bring home to your mama and daddy. The kind that will protect what’s mine no matter the cost, and the type of man that will send you to your grave with a smile on my fuckin’ face. Babe, I’m the man of your nightmares that makes you run the other way,” he answers me, staring me in the face the entire time that he’s speaking. I know he’s trying to intimidate me and it’s working. A little bit at least.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that as of a few hours ago, I have nothing to do with my family,” I answer, sitting up straight in my seat as I hear another vehicle coming down the road.
Before Grave can answer, I poke my head out of the car and see a tow truck coming at us. He takes that as his cue and walks toward his bike after throwing his cigarette down and stomping it out with his boot. I watch on as the tow truck pulls in front of my car. As the guy gets out of the cab of the truck, I stand up from my seat. My breath catches and I can’t take my eyes off of him. Especially once he turns his eyes to me. They are the most stunning eyes I’ve ever seen in my life; a brilliant blue that immediately captures your attention and doesn’t let you look away. He flashes a smile as he continues to walk over toward me at my car.
“You must be Callie. I’m Damon but everyone calls me Bear. Grave here says you got a flat and no spare?” he asks, just as he reaches me, never once taking his eyes from me.
“Um, uh, yeah. I didn’t wait for the new tire to come in,” I answer, internally shaking my head at how stupid I sound right now.
“Not a problem. I’ll get it on the flatbed and we’ll have it fixed soon enough for ya,” he says, walking around to the other side of my car so he can inspect the damage before getting to work.
Grave
The second that I laid eyes on Callie parked on the side of the road, I knew that we were right in suspecting that she would be here eventually. Silvia, her grandma, used to tell us all about her whenever we stopped by to check on her. Guys from my club, Satans Anarchy, were treated like her grandchildren. It started out simple enough, helping her one day get her groceries loaded up in her car. From there on out, she would stop by the clubhouse and make sure that we were all fed and taken care of. In return, we would run by her house and make sure that everything was maintained. We’ve been doing it still since we all lost her a few years ago.
The only thing that we had to do in return was stay away when Callie was in town. It wasn’t often that she was allowed to visit her grandma, so we had no problem staying out of the way when she was around. Silvia would usually give us a few days’ notice when she was expecting her granddaughter, so we would make sure anything we had to do around the house was completed before she arrived. I’
m not sure why she wanted to make sure Callie didn’t know about us, but I can guess it has to do with the innocence of her. Silvia wouldn’t have wanted to have a bunch of bikers sniffing around her granddaughter until she was truly ready to leave home.
Callie is so small and fragile looking. You can see the pureness and innocence radiating from her as she sits in the car and tries to talk to me. Trust me, if I didn’t have the respect for Silvia that I did, I’d be taking full advantage of her innocence. Instead, I make a silent vow that I’ll do whatever I can to ensure that no one takes that away from her.
The second that I hear Bear’s truck roaring down the road, I know that my time with her is just about up. I’ll have to get back to the clubhouse and inform everyone that Callie is here. We’ll make our presence known to her soon and let her in on the fact that we’ve been watching over her grandma’s house for her. Even when people arrived to try to sell it out from under her. Her parents are some sneaky fucks that I’m glad we haven’t had the privilege of running into yet. One day we will and they’ll know that no one fucks with anyone that falls under the protection of Satans Anarchy Motorcycle Club.
Anyway, turning my attention back to the scene unfolding before me, I watch as Callie and Bear interact for the first time. Silvia made some off-handed remarks about the two of them making a good match. I never saw it until this moment. Where Bear is big and rugged, Callie is like a tiny fairy compared to him. He’s tan from working outside most days while she’s pale in comparison.
Standing back, I watch as they don’t seem able to be to pull their eyes from one another for more than a few seconds at a time. Neither one of them say a word to the other as they stare with unbridled interest. Callie doesn’t seem to know what to say to him, even though she didn’t seem to have any problem talking to me. She let her curiosity get the best of her when it comes to me. Bear seems to be tongue tied around the young girl. He’s never shy around anyone, especially girls. This is an interesting development for sure.
I decide to put a bug in his ear since he wouldn’t listen while we were on the phone and I didn’t want to give away the club’s secret just yet. Leaving my bike, I walk over to Bear as he straps down the car so they can take off. I may have forgotten to mention that Callie will be riding with him to the garage while he fixes her tire.
“Bear, thanks for gettin’ here so fast,” I say, clapping my hand on his shoulder as he uses the controls to move the car up onto the flatbed. “Um, you should know that this girl isn’t just any girl. It’s Silvia’s grandbaby. This is Callie that she’s always been talkin’ about.”
Bear doesn’t say a word for a few minutes. He continues to do his job as he thinks over the news that I just dropped on him. “You shittin’ me right now?” he suddenly asks before jumping up to finish securing the car.
“Nope. Didn’t know until she said that she was goin’ to a house that was left to her by her grandma. Coupled with the fact that her name is Callie and there’s no chance that it’s anyone other than Silvia’s granddaughter,” I tell him, watching as his face falls with the fact that he feels she’s untouchable now. “That untouchable thing don’t apply to you, Bear. Silvia wanted you with her Callie.”
“Not goin’ there,” he mutters as he jumps down from the bed of the truck before turning to walk over to Callie on the side of the road. “You ready to go?”
“Um, well, yeah. How am I getting to my car?” she asks, letting her naivety shine with the words coming from her mouth and the way she’s running her hands up and down her toned legs. The movement draws our eyes to them and it takes a minute to pull it away from her skin. I wonder if it’s as soft as it looks from here.
“You’re ridin’ with Bear,” I tell her, shaking the thoughts running through my head of having her legs wrapped around me while I drive into her body over and over again. “See ya ‘round Callie.”
“Um, bye Grave. Thank you for everything,” she tells me, before turning back to Bear who’s still staring at the girl in front of him.
By the time I throw my leg over my bike and pull my helmet on, I see Bear leading Callie to the truck. He opens the door for her and makes sure she doesn’t get tripped up while getting inside the cab. His eyes immediately zone in on her ass as she’s climbing up in front of him and I can’t help but think what a lucky bastard he is. But, I would never go there with Callie. Not with who she is and what family she belongs to. She’ll be nothing but a little sister to me and the guys in the club. My bike roars to life as Bear climbs in his side of the truck and I follow them as far as the town line before splitting off and making my way to the clubhouse. Renegade is going to want to know she’s here.
Chapter Two
Bear
I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT THE ANGEL SITTING NEXT TO ME is Callie. The one girl that we’ve heard so much about for years from her grandma. I’ve sat and listened for hours and hours of stories about the girl sitting in the cab of my truck. It’s my dumb luck that she’s gorgeous and the one person alive that I can’t touch. My respect for her grandma outweighs the pull I feel toward this girl.
“So, um, do you think you’ll be able to fix my car today?” Callie asks suddenly.
I look over to see a blush creeping up her face. It looks adorable on her and in a way I want to see how far down it goes as I see it moving lower on her body and disappearing underneath her shirt that’s way too revealing. “I should be able to. Got a few tires at the shop that will fit the car if I can’t patch it. I’ll show ya to the local hotel when we get there,” I tell her, not wanting her to hang around the shop while I work on her car.
The guys working for me didn’t know Silvia the way that I did. They won’t understand that Callie is untouchable to us. She’s way to pure for the likes of them. And me. I’ll do what I can to make sure she’s left untouched, but it will take longer for me to do my job if she’s sitting there waiting for me. Fuck! I really want to spend time with her and get to know her beyond the words that came from her grandma. This is bad; very bad.
“Well, I don’t need somewhere to stay. As soon as my car’s ready, I’m going to my house,” she says, peering at me from under her lashes before quickly turning her face out the window.
Before I can respond, the short drive is over and I’m pulling into the parking lot of my garage. Jones’s Garage has been in my family for years and years. My grandfather started it once he was home. He didn’t have many skills and almost ran the shop into the ground more times than I can count. But, put him in front of any vehicle out there and he could figure out what was wrong with it and get it fixed quicker than anyone else around. Back in the day it was nothing for him to have a car, truck, motorcycle, and a dirt track car in his parking lot waiting to get fixed at the same time. When my dad took over the shop, he tended to stick to the cars and trucks of locals. Once in a while he’d make sure that a visitor had their car fixed, but he tended to direct them to another shop. As far as my dad was concerned, if you weren’t local, then you weren’t worth his time. I didn’t agree with his point of view, but he was in charge back then and I really couldn’t say anything about it.
Now, I run the shop and I tend to take after my granddad. I’ll help anyone that needs it and I don’t care what comes through my shop. There’re three other guys working here with me. Bishop is a Prospect with Satans Anarchy and he’s a whizz when he gets a bike in his hands. He can tear it down and put it back together quicker than anyone else I’ve ever seen. Sam started working here when my dad owned it and he typically works on local individual’s cars. He has the same opinion my dad did and it’s caused some tension in the shop. Carson is the newest guy to join the shop and he’s still learning. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a genius when you put a dirt track car in front of him, but we’re all trying to teach him the ropes of everything else. Personally, I’ll work on anything that pulls in or we have to pick up. I love working on bikes and make sure that the guys from Satans Anarchy get spaced out between Bishop and myself. Depending o
n the workload, I try to take on as many bikes as I can.
I went out and bought my first bike a few years ago. I’ve been working on rebuilding my dad’s old bike, but it’s nowhere ready to ride yet. So, I’ve decided to buy one in the meantime. Renegade and Grave went with me to help pick it out and make sure that I got what I truly wanted. And, they used that time to make sure that I heard their running spiel about joining Satans Anarchy. Getting the bike was the last thing I needed to do in order to become a Prospect as far as they were concerned. Doesn’t mean that I’m ready for their brand of chaos in my life though. I like to live a simple life that I control and can do as I please when I please.
“Well, if you’re not gonna leave the shop, how about you sit in the office while I work?” I ask Callie as I turn the truck around and back as close to my bay as I can.
“Um, yeah, that sounds good,” she answers, looking at me again while trying to take in as much about the garage and surrounding yard as she can. She’s a curious little thing it appears. Especially when her eyes land on my house that sits behind the garage. It’s far enough away that I can’t hear anything going on here, but close enough that my commute is short as hell.
As soon as the truck is stopped, I shut it off and get out. Callie is already out and waiting for me when I make it around to her side. So, I lead her into the office and brush the magazines and other debris off the chair behind the desk so that she can sit down. We don’t really use the office much unless we need to get on the computer to place an order or something like that. So, it’s not exactly organized. In fact, it could use a good cleaning if I’m being honest. The guys and I don’t really have a knack for cleaning, we’d rather be getting our hands dirty than dusting and sorting all the shit piled high on every available space in here.
“Sorry ‘bout the mess,” I tell Callie, wiping the seat down before she takes a seat. “I’m sorry there’s not much for you to do right now. If you want to look out in the shop, that window over there looks out over the bays.”
