by Jamie Begley
Despite her words, Mag stared up mistily at Mick.
“You look younger every time I see—”
“Cut the bullshit and fix me a hamburger. I want a beer, too. Make sure you put extra onions and mustard on it for me.”
“I’ll take the same.” Jo moved a chair from one of the tables.
As Rider started to roll Mag to the table, Mag stopped the wheels from moving.
“I want to sit at the bar.” She obstinately swiveled the wheelchair backward.
“Okay.” Rider patiently pushed the chair toward the bar, where most of the stools had already been taken.
Maneuvering it between two stools that were empty, he stopped, looking down to see what Mag would do next.
“What are you waiting for? Help me,” she brashly demanded.
“Mag, maybe you would be more comfortable at the table,” Jo tried to divert Mag from sitting at the bar, staring uneasily at the high stool.
“If you want to go sit at a table, go ahead, but I want to sit here.”
“I don’t blame her. I like sitting at the bar, too.” Lifting the fragile woman from her chair, Rider placed her on the stool. Folding the chair, he then guided it between two stools. “You take the stool next to her,” he said to Jo.
“Where are you going to sit?”
“Carter doesn’t mind giving up his seat, do you?” Rider laid his hand on Carter’s shoulder, staring down at him with the threatening gleam in his eyes that he had perfected in the military.
“No problem.” The middle-aged school janitor immediately got off his stool, took his mug of beer, and moved to the table Mag had snubbed.
“That wasn’t nice.” Jo turned from checking on Mag to him, then gave Carter a sympathetic glance.
“Mick, put Carter’s tab on my bill. I’ll take the same as Mag and Jo to eat.” Assessing if she was still irritated at him for asking Carter to move, Rider waited for her to give him another reprimand.
Instead, Jo slid the bar nuts toward Mag, saying, “Thanks, Mick.”
“I’ll get them on the grill.” Mick gave them each a beer before heading back to start the grill.
Rider took a drink of his beer, listening to the blaring music. The beer was still poised at his lips when he spotted Curt Dawkins at a large table on the other side of the bar. Curt caught his eyes, too. Using his beer bottle, Rider acknowledged the wave Curt gave him as his friends turned to see who Curt was waving to.
Fucking hell. Rider hoped Curt wouldn’t make a move to approach them. That was all he needed for his first date with Jo to become the dumpster fire that Jewell had stoked by not relaying the message Jo had given him.
When Curt remained seated, Rider gave silent thanks to the man upstairs.
“How’s it going with your car being redone?”
“Carl’s not really saying. His texts are few and far between. I’d be worried, but Train said that was the way he acted when he re-did Killyama’s car.”
“Has Train given it to her yet?”
“No, he’s waiting for Christmas.”
“It’s a nice gift. I’m sure she’ll love it.” Jo tried to take a few of the bar nuts from the bowl. Receiving a glare from Mag, she pulled her hand back.
“She should have joined the military,” Rider joked, reaching for a bowl near him and moving it within her grasp.
“Thanks.”
Taking a few nuts for himself and popping them into his mouth, he chewed them thoughtfully as they waited for their burgers.
“When’s your date with Aly?”
Her question had him wishing he hadn’t eaten the nuts when they clogged his throat.
“Sunday.”
“You and Aly will make a good match. Neither of you let any grass grow under your feet.”
“That’s about the only thing we have in common. Every time I see her, she’s talking about clothes or shoes.”
“When has she talked to you about clothes and shoes? Aly’s been gone from Treepoint so long I didn’t realize she had resumed her old friendships.”
Rider felt like he had just strayed into a hidden minefield.
“Some of the women from the club shop at the store she works at.”
“Is that how she met you?”
Rider took a long swallow of his beer, wishing Mick would hurry up with the food. However, when he saw Mick flip the burgers over on the grill, he knew he wouldn’t be able to use that as an excuse to keep from answering the question.
“Moon introduced me to her when she came to the club.”
Rider held the bowl steady when she almost flipped it over.
“Aly’s partied with The Last Riders?”
“I wouldn’t say she’s partied with us, but she has been there.” He was breaking a rule about not discussing the comings and goings of those who entered the club’s doors. Then again, one thing he had learned from the relationships of the other brothers was secrets inevitably came out. He was already starting behind the eight ball of Jo’s opinion of him. If they did develop a relationship in the future, Rider wanted all his bases covered.
“What are you two whispering about?” Mag bellowed from Jo’s other side.
“We’re talking about if we should let you eat that burger with all those onions on it.” Jo smiled at Mick as he set their basket of food down in front of them.
Mag snorted, reaching for the mustard. “That’s not what it sounded like to me.”
“Were you eavesdropping?” Rider left out the “old bitch” he wanted to add to his sentence.
“Everyone thinks I’m deaf or senile. I have a perfectly good pair of ears on my head. You were talking about The Last Riders’ parties. I tried to get Cash and Rachel to take me a couple of times, but they said it would be too strenuous for me. Like it takes any energy to sit my ass down in my wheelchair.”
Rider lost his appetite when she snorted into her beer. His date was going from bad to worse. He had to keep reminding himself how Jo had looked and smelled the night before without the battleax sitting next to her.
“The next time they tell me no, I’m going to call you, Rider,” the battleax demanded with a domineering glare.
“You do that.” Rider wouldn’t be answering any calls coming from Mag on a Friday night, or any other night of the week.
He had to give Cash props for not giving the Grim Reaper a helping hand in the old bitch’s demise.
“Where are our burgers, Mick? We ordered ours before them.”
The voice behind them had his date going from a dumpster fire to a raging inferno as Jo dropped her burger into the plastic basket.
Curt settled his arms companionably over both his and Jo’s shoulders as he squeezed between their stools. “Do I need to come over and sit with them to get waited on?”
His disparaging tone had Mag twisting on her stool. She waved her veined, purplish hand in his face as her eyes snapped out at him. “Be gone, Satan’s helper, before I get Mick to give me that shotgun he keeps under the counter and I give you a return ticket to where you were spawned from.”
15
“You old crow, you aren’t strong enough to pick up that burger, let alone that shotgun.” Curt eyed the woman as if he didn’t take Mag seriously.
“Try me, you little pissant. I’ll wrap that barrel around your motherfu—”
“Calm down, Mag. Remember your blood pressure.” Jo jerked out from under Curt’s arm, using her elbow to jab him in his ribs.
“Go sit back down.” Mick reached over the bar to catch Mag’s arm when her hand came dangerously close to hitting Curt. “You ordered your burgers well-done. They’ll be done in a minute.”
“If I knew it was going to take this long, I would have ordered it rare.”
“Like the taste of burned food, huh? You’re going to get a lot of it when you get to hell, you son of Satan!”
“You keep running that trap of yours, when you finally die, I’m going to be the first one to piss on your grave.”
“I don�
��t have to worry about that; you won’t be able to find my tombstone. You’d have to be able to read to do that.”
Jo used her elbow to jab Curt again. “Just go, Curt.”
Curt wasn’t about to be interrupted from arguing with Mag.
“You self-righteous hag, I can read better than you! What grade did you get to before dropping out? Fifth? I’m college educated, and I’m smart enough to know how you bought that house you’re living in by selling liquor and that stank-ass pussy of yours.”
Jo was reaching for her beer bottle to brain the man she hated more than anyone else in the world, but before she could, Rider stood, and Mick came around the counter.
“Curt, Cash isn’t going to be happy you’re bad-mouthing his grandmother. I would watch your step before you can’t remove your foot out of your ass, where Cash is going to shove it when he finds out.”
The menacing bully hiked his jeans up his sagging belly. “Me and Cash are friends.”
“Cash and I are friends, and I know better than bad-mouthing Mag.”
“You and I are two different kettles of fish. I didn’t have to pay for Jo’s company. She gave it to me for free.”
Fury blinded her. Rage she had never believed herself capable of had her nail’s coming out to scratch the smug smile off his ugly face. Her nails only found air, though, as Rider had already used Curt’s T-shirt to jerk him toward him.
As he heaved him over the counter, Jo was watched in amazement as Curt landed on the other side.
“Rider, I’ll handle this.” Mick tried to stop a coldly furious Rider she had never seen before. The sexy Rider from last night, and the charming one who had been casually flirting with her like a schoolboy, was replaced by a vengeful biker who didn’t need the club’s jacket to instill fear.
Jo stood on her tiptoes to look over the bar, seeing Curt staring up at the ceiling in a daze. Justin and Tanner came running over to look, too.
Mag’s laughter only made the situation worse.
Rachel and Cash would kill her if anything happened to the woman while she had promised to take care of her. There was no way Rider would be able to fight off three men.
Her hand went to her radio to get Knox to come to the bar, but before she could press the button, Rider and Mick went behind the counter.
Rider callously yanked Curt to his feet, pinning his arm behind his back and almost planting his ruddy face against the hot grill.
When Justin and Tanner tried to come around the counter, Mick lifted his shotgun out from its hiding spot. The sound of cocking the rifle stopped Curt’s cousins in their tracks.
“Hold on, boys. This is between Rider and Curt. He doesn’t need your help.”
“Shh …” Jo unsuccessfully tried to get Mag to stop laughing.
“That boy has more balls than I gave him credit for,” she heckled.
“Mag, please … you’re just making it worse.” Jo tried again to shush the woman.
“How am I making it worse?” Mag gave her a gleeful smirk. “Go ahead and fry that son of a bitch, Rider. I like my meat with a little pink showing.”
“Go sit back down, Tanner and Justin. Curt doesn’t need your help, do you?” Rider coldheartedly held his captive over the burgers that were sizzling under his nose, lowering Curt’s face another centimeter toward the grill as loose tendrils of his hair curled at the heat.
“Go sit down!” Curt screamed out when Rider twisted his arm behind him higher.
The two men reluctantly returned to their table. The rest of the bar watched, but made no move to stop or interfere.
They weren’t the only ones afraid to interfere. She was, too. Other than flipping Curt over the counter and holding the man over the grill, Rider didn’t exhibit any anger. She had heard of stone-cold killers, but she had never expected to meet one.
The handsome-faced, laidback man who she had seen driving around town with women, cutting up, often acting like a clown when his friends were near, wasn’t the man she was fearfully staring at now, about to maim a man without getting grease splatter on his shirt.
“Mick is going to fix your food to go, which I’m going to pay for you and your family. You are then going to leave without another word to either of those women. Do you understand me?” Rider unemotionally waited for his answer.
“Yes,” Curt choked out.
Rider released Curt’s arm, allowing him to rise.
Jo read the hatred on Curt’s face at his humiliation, and Rider’s inflexible expression. While Rider might not have any visible expression, his body was taut and ready for any move Curt might make.
Curt was the first to move his gaze away. “I lost my temper. I’m sorry.”
Jo didn’t believe his apology for a second, and neither did Rider.
“That’s not the only thing you lost. Send Tanner to get your paycheck on Monday. You’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me. Jewell’s the manager. What I do on my off time isn’t reason to fire me. I’m a good worker. I’ll sue.”
“Jewell may be the manager, but I’m one of the owners, and I say you’re fired. You want to sue, go ahead. You won’t win. Look over your contract. In the fine print, you’ll see that The Last Riders have the right to end your employment at any time. I’ll clean out your locker and give the contents to Tanner when he picks up your paycheck.”
Shoving Rider aside to go around the counter, Curt threatened, “You’ll be calling me Tuesday to apologize, and I’ll be back at work by Wednesday. No one treats me this way and gets away with it—no one.” With the counter safely between them, Curt’s bravado had returned.
“Mick, pack their food to go. They’ll be leaving.”
“I don’t want the fucking food. It’s slop anyway. Tanner, Justin, let’s go. We’ll eat at the diner. You’ll be calling me, Rider; you’ll see.”
“I won’t.”
Jo shakily sat back down on her stool as Rider took his, and Curt’s minions flanked each side of his back as they moved toward the door.
“Let the door hit your ass on the way out!” Mag cackled.
“You prune-faced bitch, you’re going to get what’s coming to you, too!” Curt snarled, ducking when a beer bottle came sailing through the air, breaking on the wall an inch from his head.
Jo grabbed her beer bottle when Mag would have thrown hers, too.
The three cousins took off at a run when Rider stood up at Curt’s insult. Jo grabbed the back of his belt, yanking his ass back down while also shoving Mag’s burger closer to her.
“Both of you eat. Forget about them.” Her fingers trembled as she forced herself to take a bite of the cold burger.
Mick took the burgers off the grill, throwing the charred meat into the trash before coming to stand in front of them. “He means it, Rider. Curt is a vindictive son of a bitch.”
“I’m not worried about Curt.”
“You should be,” Jo seconded Mick’s opinion at Rider’s unconcern. “When I didn’t give him a tow the other day, he had his cousins egg my house.”
Rider turned his head sharply to look at her. “Why didn’t you file a report with Knox?”
“Believing it and proving it are two different things.”
“Next time something like that happens, I want to know. That’s how Curt is getting off scot-free, because no one files a police report.”
Jo opened the bag of chips that came with her burger. “Really?” She raised a sardonic eyebrow at him. “I reported that he and his friends raped me when I came back to town. Nothing was done. I reported when he ran me off the road and totaled my car. Nothing was done. I reported my house being broken into three times and that Curt had a pair of my panties hanging from his rearview mirror. You want to know what was done about that?” Jo asked rhetorically, not giving him time to answer. “Nothing. Every time I try to bring charges against Curt, one of his cousins working for the state police or one working at the courthouse stops the investigation.”
“Give me another beer, M
ick.” Mag’s appetite hadn’t been affected by Curt’s behavior or Jo’s angry outburst. “I told you to borrow my handgun. One bullet is all it would take. That dumpling is filled with so much hard air it would take a week for the stench to clear.”
“I don’t want to kill him. I want him behind bars where he deserves to be.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that your house has been broken into three times?”
Jo could tell that Mick’s feeling had been hurt because she hadn’t confided in him.
“You worry about me enough as it is. I just installed cameras. If they do it again, I’ll have a tape to prove it.”
“You don’t have a tape of them egging your house?” Rider shoved his food away.
“No, I only had enough money to buy cameras for the inside. They hadn’t done anything to the outside before. I think they were worried a customer would drive onto the lot and see them. Curt must have been so mad when I refused the tow that his anger got the best of him, and he didn’t care if his cousins were caught.”
“He’s escalating, thinking he’s untouchable. In the morning, Train and I will come by to install a new security system.”
“No, thanks. I’ll buy the cameras when I get paid.” Jo quickly refused his offer.
“I wasn’t offering,” Rider stated firmly. “You want Curt behind bars, this is the way to do it. I’ll wire it so that Knox can see and dispatch a car before you’d have to call.”
Jo bit her bottom lip. She really didn’t want Knox capable of seeing the comings and goings at her junkyard, but it would make it easier to catch Curt and his cousins.
“If it happens again, I’ll let you know, and then you can install your security system. I may be blowing it out of proportion. It could have been teenagers out for a good time.”
Rider wasn’t happy with her decision. She could tell he was going to keep arguing unless she distracted him.
“Are you going to ask me to dance, or are we going to sit here all night?” Getting off her stool, Jo cautiously offered her hand.
She hadn’t willing offered her hand to a man since she had been raped, too worried they would misunderstand and take it as an overture she didn’t mean. She was smart enough to know that not all men were like Curt. She just hadn’t been willing to take the chance they were.
