by Jamie Begley
2
Stump brought his motorcycle to a stop, gravel shooting out from his wheels. The three brothers standing by the entrance of the Predators’ clubhouse stopped talking.
Throwing his helmet down onto the rocky parking lot, he kicked it out of his way, sending a plume of dust rising into the air. Storming toward the door, the new recruits moved quickly, ditching any idea to talk to him.
Blinking rapidly to get his bearings in the gloomy clubhouse, he saw the room was already full, despite it being daylight and many of the brothers having spent most of the night partying. Glaring at the brothers to move, he made his way to the bar.
At his angry expression, Crush hurried over to wait on him.
“Give me a fucking beer,” he ordered the woman before rudely shoving KC over to make room for himself. “All you fuckers have nothing better to do than stand around and drink first thing in the morning?”
“It’s twelve o’clock. What’s it to you what we do?” Lizard mouthed off.
Stump rose his fist to smack the smirk off the fucker’s face but Jackal grabbed his fist before he could land a punch.
“You already have to buy a new helmet. Don’t spend more money you don’t have by wrecking the club. Ice said the next one who starts a fight inside is going to be the one paying for it.”
“Then tell the brothers to stay the fuck away from me until I cool down,” he snarled, jerking his hand from Jackal’s grip.
“Why would them standing around, drinking, piss you off? I can understand the helmet irritating you—it wasn’t big enough for your big head.”
“You trying to pick a fight with me?”
“I’m trying to keep the peace around here, at least until Penni comes and goes. She texted me that she needed to talk to me, so chill until she leaves. Cool?”
“I’m cool.” He swung back to pick up the beer that Crush placed on the bar.
“I’ll take one, too, Crush.” Jackal moved to stand next to him. “That is unless it’s going to piss you off that I’m standing around, drinking one, too.”
“Suit yourself.” He took a long pull from his drink before slamming it back down on the bar.
“You just said you were cool.” Jackal slid the beer Crush had set down closer to him.
“I am.”
“If you need to get something off your chest, do so. If not, lose the attitude before I lose it for you.”
“What’s wrong with Stump?” Ice asked, coming to stand on his other side and asking the question as if he wasn’t fucking there.
“Don’t know. He hasn’t said.”
“Stump?”
He started to ignore the question, then decided it was in his best interest to answer. He didn’t need to make the shitty day worse by nursing a broken jaw.
“I spent the night with Tilda. This morning, she broke up with me because Hannibal pissed on her purse that she left sitting on the floor. You know what it’s like for a bitch to wake you from a dead sleep screaming at you?”
“Yes,” both Ice and Jackal answered, grimacing.
“Then, before I could put the leash on Hannibal, she opened the door and let him out. When I asked her to help me look for him, she threw my jeans and boots out in the rain.”
“You should know by now when a bitch is on a rampage to put your jeans and boots on before your shirt,” Jackal advised unsympathetically.
“You find the dog?” Ice asked, drawing his attention before Stump could tell him where to shove his advice.
“No, I spent all morning looking for him, but he disappeared.”
“You call the shelters?” Ice asked, frowning.
“Yes, I left my number, so if he shows up, they’ll call me.”
“Grace is going to give me hell that you lost the dog. She makes me take pictures of it every day to make sure you’re taking care of it.”
“No shit! You think I don’t know that?” Downing the last of his beer, he was tempted to throw the bottle at the wall in frustration. “I was late for the job that Max set up for me because I was looking for the damn thing, and when I called in, Leroy fired me. Fucker never cared if I was late before. And to put the cherry on top of this clusterfuck sundae, some weirdo nearly rear-ended my bike and started yelling at me when I was stopped at a red light.”
“Why were they yelling at you?”
“Beats the fuck out of me. I would have gotten off my bike if the light hadn’t turned green and I wasn’t trying to find that mutt.”
Ice’s frown grew darker. “Don’t call it a mutt in front of Grace—”
“She here?”
“No.”
“Then I can call Hannibal anything I fucking want to.”
Despite his words, he spoiled the dog rotten. He even let him sleep in his bed, which was more than he could say about most of the bitches he had fucked.
“Shut up. Penni’s coming through the door.” Jackal elbowed him when he would have kept ranting.
“Crush, give me another beer,” Stump ordered to keep from elbowing the enforcer back harder.
Taking the beer that Crush gave him, he was about to move away from the bar and find a table, but Jackal’s wife blocked him with an angry glint in her eyes.
“Did you have fun splashing Zoey?”
“Who in the fuck is Zoey?” Confused at the woman’s anger, he took a step back, coming up against the bar top when the blonde woman bristled.
“This is Zoey!” Penni raised her cell phone up to his face.
Startled, it took a second for him focus on it and realize what he was staring at.
The picture on her phone showed a woman’s brightly colored blouse and skirt drenched, and him driving away.
“It was an accident. I never even noticed her. The bitch tweeted it?”
“Yes. And believe me, you don’t want Zoey tweeting about something you’ve done to her. She has over fifty thousand followers.”
“I don’t care how many followers she has, unless she wants to tweet about how big my dick is.”
His laughter died when Penni put the phone closer to his face. “You should look at those comments. You need to leave town. I’ll call Shade and ask if you can stay with The Last Riders until it dies down.”
Stump tilted his head to the side to gape at Penni. “You’re joking, right?”
“Does it look like I’m joking? You’re a marked man. Run.”
“Let me see that phone.” Taking the phone away from her, he scrolled down to read the caption beneath the photo.
“When a motorcyclist drenches you, you can always look on the bright side. At least it wasn’t a car. Lol.”
Several happy faces and rainbow emojis followed the end of the sentence.
“Is she supposed to be Mary fucking Poppins? Or is she being sarcastic?” Lowering the phone, he gave it back to Penni.
“She was being nice, which is more than I can say about you. The least you could have done was pull over and apologize.”
He hadn’t been scolded since he was twelve years old. He didn’t like it then, and he didn’t like it now. Since Penni was a brother’s old lady, he had to show her some respect, but he didn’t have to lay down and take it either.
“I didn’t see her.” Stump softened his tone at Jackal’s scowl.
“I’ll give you her number. You can call her and apologize.” Penni turned her phone toward her and began scrolling down her contact list.
“I’m not calling the bitch—”
If his back wasn’t already against the bar top, he would have taken another step back at the fury on Penni’s face.
“Don’t call her a bitch. Zoey isn’t a bitch. She looks for the best in everyone. And that includes you, despite you drenching her.”
“I didn’t mean to drench the woman!”
“Fix it, or you’re going to be sorry.”
Jackal’s wife’s ominous threat had him determined not to apologize for something he hadn’t intended.
“You threatening me?” He
was astonished that the woman who only came up to his shoulder was warning him. He was three times her size. “Who’s going to make me sorry? You going to make Jackal whip my ass? You going to call that big brother of yours?” He scoffed at the thought that either man would take him to task for unintentionally spraying a woman who neither knew.
She looked at him like he was an ant that she could crush beneath her foot. “I won’t have to. You’ll see,” Penni answered cryptically.
“What in the fuck does that mean?” He looked at Jackal and Ice, as if they knew something he didn’t.
“You’ll see.” Veiling her eyes, she turned toward Jackal. “You going to take me out to lunch?”
“You going to threaten me, too, if I don’t?” Grinning, Jackal placed his arm around his wife’s shoulders and tugged her to his side.
Stump noticed it only took a second for Jackal’s touch to have her sinking into him.
“I’m thinking about it.”
“Let’s take your car. Stump lost his dog this morning. We can look for it on the way.”
Penni pulled away from Jackal. “He lost the puppy Grace gave him?”
“Hannibal isn’t a puppy anymore. He’s twice that size now.”
“He’s still a dot,” Ice joked. “When he takes a shit, you can’t tell which is which.”
“You insulting my dog?”
“You’re too attached to that dog. You know that, right?”
“That’s funny coming from you. I see you carrying your dog out to take a piss when it’s raining outside.”
“At least he’s not pissing in Grace’s purse.”
“He was just marking his territory. That’s what male dogs do.”
“Yeah, well, you better curtail the marking or crate him while you’re at work.”
“You called a puppy Hannibal?” Penni’s exasperation had all three men turning back to her.
“He likes to chew,” Stump explained, not understanding why the fuck it mattered to her what he named his dog.
“Do you have a picture of him?”
“No.” He shifted his gaze away from the others. “But Ice does. Grace makes him take a picture of Hannibal every day.” There was no way he was going to show the numerous pictures of Hannibal in front of the brothers.
“I can see why she didn’t have any confidence in you,” she said scornfully when he didn’t produce any pictures.
If any man had said that to him, they would be in the ER. Even Jackal tensed at the snide comment.
“I take good care of that dog, and you know how he repays me? By pissing on my ex-girlfriend’s purse and running away to leave me searching for him in the pouring rain.”
“Male dogs mark; that’s what they do.” She didn’t bat an eyelash at repeating the same excuse he just gave Ice.
“Yeah? Well, he marked a three-thousand-dollar Louis Vuitton purse that I’m now expected to pay for. There’s a big difference on taking a wiz on a bar stool and me having to fork out cold hard cash for something that I think is ugly as fuck anyway.”
“Tilda bought a three-thousand-dollar purse?” KC spoke out from the other end of the bar. “Give her a couple of hundreds. It was probably a knock-off. Last month, she was bugging me for three hundred to help with her rent.”
“Why did Tilda ask you for money?” Stump narrowed his eyes at the brother who went pale at his question, burying his face in his beer.
“Ask her.”
Stump was about to climb over the bar when Penni asking Ice to see a picture of his dog distracted him.
“Have you seen him?” he asked hopefully when Ice pulled the picture up to show her.
“That dog doesn’t look like a Hannibal.”
“Looks are deceiving. Try to pet that fucker, and he’ll take your hand off. And I have three pairs of boots in my closet to prove it. The only other name I could come up with was Sir Pissalot.”
“If you don’t want the dog, why don’t you give it back to Grace?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want him, just that he’s a pain in the ass sometimes. Did you happen to see him on your way here?”
Penni took another look at his dog’s picture then innocently stared up at him. “No, I’ve never seen this dog before.”
3
MOM,
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!!
Xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo.
LOVE,
Zoey
Zoey stretched out on her bed, basking in the morning sunshine coming through her window. Grinning, she ruffled the fur on the dog that had woken her up.
“You need to go out?” she asked him, sliding out of bed and moving to her dresser for a pair of leggings, a sports bra, and a loose, red tank top.
After putting on her tennis shoes, she teased Buster with the fake dinosaur bone she bought him at the pet store the day before.
“You ready to get some exercise?” she asked as if he could answer while hooking a leash to the collar that she had also purchased. “The weather is supposed to be sunny and warm today. Much better than yesterday, isn’t it, boy?”
When the dog barked, she ruffled his head in approval.
“Felix texted me last night that he wants to look for a house so he can have a dog just like you. He even said he would take you if I didn’t want you.”
Limited pools of blue stared back at her.
“You’re such a handsome boy. Everyone wants you.” Slipping on her purple, plastic wrist coil with her house key attached, she opened her door, waiting for Hannibal to go first. “Ready, boy? I’ll take it easy on you. I don’t want to tire you out.”
Locking the door behind her, she took off on a slow jog so Buster would be able to run alongside her.
Zoey waved at one of her neighbors as she jogged past but didn’t stop, not wanting to be drawn into a lengthy conversation with him. At the end of the block, she extended the leash to allow Buster to relieve himself. Then she almost groaned out loud at the sight of the man who was about to jog past the grassy dog park.
“Morning, Zoey. New dog?”
“Good morning, Kent. Settled in yet?”
“Still trying to get unpacked. If you have any time, I would appreciate a woman’s advice on how to place my pictures.”
Kent had moved directly beside her two months ago, and she’d been avoiding his interest in her since the day he moved in. She tried to keep a neutral distance from the good-looking man since he joined the small community, other than waving and short greetings. Kent, on the other hand, kept trying to broach the remoteness she used to keep him at bay.
“I have a friend whom I recommend to my clients. I’ll leave the business card in your mailbox. That’ll be more helpful than I will be.” She couldn’t bring herself to coldly snub him, but neither did she want to further her acquaintance.
The vibes he gave off scared her. She didn’t know why, but she had learned to follow her instincts, and they were screaming at her to keep her distance.
“Okay… I appreciate it. Thanks.”
“No problem. I wish I could help more. I stopped trying my hand at decorating when I thought blue and yellow would be stylish. It looked like a smurf had thrown up in my living room.”
The tall, lanky man laughed. “Consider me asking for help withdrawn.”
Zoey tightened the slack on Buster’s leash when he returned to her side. “It was good seeing you. Have a great day.”
“You, too.”
Zoey left Kent at the dog park, and jogged off with Buster. The small dog easily kept up.
She only did one turn around the block before returning to her house to get dressed.
Making sure that Buster was occupied with his dinosaur bone before taking a shower, she then checked him again when she got out.
She ran a towel through her hair as she went to her bedroom, where she picked up her phone to make sure no one called when
she’d been in the shower. Zoey saw she had a voice message.
Playing the message, she then played it three times to make sure she heard it correctly.
She was still sitting on the side of her bed when Buster padded into her bedroom. She gently rubbed his head as a lump formed in her throat, then cleared it so she would be able to get the words out, though she didn’t want to utter them.
“Good news, Buster. The vet found your owner, so you’ll be home before lunch. Isn’t that great?” Zoey tried to sound upbeat for the dog, despite it breaking her heart.
Buster whined, laying his head down on her knee.
“We are not going to be sad, are we? This is good news. I’ll get dressed, and then I’ll call the vet back and get the address. The vet said I could drop you off at his office, but I want to meet your owner. Hopefully, he or she will let me see you again.” Getting off the bed, she playfully picked up the bone Buster dropped when he had come into the room. “Come on; I’ll feed you before getting dressed.”
Picking out a brightly colored gauze skirt and a turquoise tank, she dressed before brushing her hair that fell to her shoulders in loose curls. She then wound several tendrils, using flower hair clips intermittently on the tendrils. Doing her hair always calmed her. The more intricate the design, the better.
“I’ve put it off as long as I can, Buster.”
Calling the vet, she spoke to the receptionist and asked for the address of Buster’s owner. When the receptionist gave her the name, Zoey thought she had misheard at first.
“Can you repeat that name again?” She wasn’t familiar with the address, but she was with the name.
“It’s Mrs. Grace Brown.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Mrs. Grace Brown.”
“Thank you.” She cheerfully disconnected the call, in a much better mood than when she first called.
“Buster, you sneaky dog, you weren’t lost; you were trying to get home to Mama.” She was relieved and fairly sure she could work out an arrangement to keep Buster occasionally. “Let’s go. Mama won’t know what to think when I show up with you. Let’s go make her day!”
Zoey heard the raised voices when she got off the elevator.
