by Flora Burgos
I noticed when I looked back at the truck that the MC logo was displayed huge and proudly on the back of the cab. The lettering and the jester skull took up all the space, but still in the top left corner, I saw that this differed from the guys’ patch because in screaming red it said, “Stainless Steel”, and in the bottom right corner in the same scrolling font and screaming color it declared, “Sex Appeal”.
I could have fainted.
Chapter Thirteen
Roxanne
The ride over had been… interesting.
Scratch saw that we were heading out and decided to come along for a ride, so he and Pops hopped into the bed at the back of the cab and sat crisscross applesauce, looking like two over-grown, extremely hairy, and dingy outlaws in their cuts.
I climbed in before Jinx, and he used a hand to brace me, incidentally touching my upper back thigh and lower butt cheek while boosting me up. His hand on my bare leg caused another flare of those goose bumps, and I hurriedly pulled myself up and slid over the seat.
With the two miscreants sitting on the only other available seat, I hesitated there awkwardly, really wishing that I had just stayed inside the office, but as soon as Jinx dropped into the seat and slammed the passenger door shut, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into his lap sideways.
I sat awkwardly across his lap as Nomad put the already idling truck into gear and pulled out of the parking lot. On the short drive over to Mama’s, three different people honked and waved, and any bike that drove past, a hand was thrown up in greeting.
When we pulled into the parking lot and the truck stopped rolling—I had no clue where park was on the insane gearshift—Jinx tapped my hip, and I took the hint and stood up to let him up.
He opened the door and swung out to climb down the cab, and instead of hitting the last step, he just leg go and jumped down and then looked up at me, grinning. “Your turn, Sweetness.”
Shaking my head at his silliness, I held on to the oh-shit handle, put my foot in the footrest right under the passenger door, and grabbed hold of one of the bars to swing over to the steps that led to the ground.
I scurried my way down, and when I hit the bottom, I looked up to see Pops laughing at me.
Whatever.
When we walked in, Jinx held the door open for me, and I walked in first, followed by the rest of the guys.
Maisie was behind the counter, and when she saw me, she smiled broadly and started to greet me, but when the rest of our crew finished filing in and she saw Nomad, she yelled, “Holy shit! The prodigal returns!”
Scratch was the only brother who didn’t seem to find that amusing. Instead, it seemed to piss him off, and he made a concentrated effort not to make eye contact with Maisie. Nomad greeted her. “Crazy Maisie. Get over here and give us a hug, girl. Last time I came through, you were off at some hippie convention or something, weren’t you?”
She laughed and said, “Fuck off, Daniel. It was South by South West, and I was in Austin. You could have swung through there to say hi.”
“Crazy Maisie, you can’t swing through Austin. That place is a zoo, and in a rig? No way in hell.”
Pops gestured at Jinx and then walked away to the restrooms.
“Lies,” she brushed him off and walked around the bar to us. “Where’s that big, handsome guy you brought to see me the other day, Roxanne?”
I laughed. “Pops? Or do you mean Zeus? He’s—”
Jinx cut me off, firmly saying, “He’s not around today, and that’s all that needs to be said right now.”
I left it alone because she seemed to understand that this fell under “club business” and as such wasn’t to be discussed.
She instead stepped around us and led us outside, where Jinx and I had sat the other day, and asked, “Beer for you, boys? What about you, Rox?”
I smiled and said, “Coke, please?”
She nodded and looked up as Nomad spoke, “Not for me, Maiz. I’ll have what she’s having. I’m headed back out tonight.”
Maisie playfully groaned and rolled her eyes, then turned and walked back inside to get our drinks.
Jinx’s phone rang, and he stood to take it from his pocket and said, “Fuck. I gotta take this. Bro, you stay with Roxanne, yeah?” He was looking his brother dead in the eyes and relaying something I couldn’t read. Whatever it was, the message was received because Nomad nodded and gave me a friendly smile.
“Little sister and I have tons to catch up on.”
Jinx got up, and Scratch followed him back into the restaurant when Nomad said, “So, how did you end up mixed up with this bunch? You look like a sweet girl, but we aren’t exactly boy scouts.”
“I may look like a sweet girl, but everything isn’t always as it seems. I grew up rough, and I’ve spent the last year or so just drifting, trying to figure out where I belong.”
“And do you belong here?”
I thought about that before I answered, “I think I could. I don’t know if I do or not yet, though.”
“My brother cares about you. How long have you known each other?”
I laughed. Oh boy. “Less than a week.”
That surprised a laugh out of him. “Well, I guess things happen for a reason, right?”
“Oh Lord, have you been hanging out with Maisie?”
He laughed again. “Not as much as I did when we were in high school hanging out beneath the bleachers, not that Scratch likes to think about that. He’s been chasing and avoiding her for as long as his dick’s been getting hard.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jinx
I stormed back out the door to snatch Roxanne out of her seat and drag her back inside. This motherfucker was already talking again, but I could hear his earlier words over and over again. The cold, slimy threat behind them. He had only spoken the words once, but I had replayed them for the five hundredth time.
“Your girl looks hot as shit sitting there playing with her hair, talking to your brother. I wonder what she’s really thinking? I could read their lips for you, if you’d like? Try to let you know if you have anything to worry about.”
Your girl looks hot as shit.
“Motherfucker.” My blood ran cold. He had eyes on us, and I needed to get her inside pronto.
She was laughing at something my brother said, but all I could think was that it would be easy for someone to put a bullet through her head right in front of me. It twisted me up in ways I wasn’t prepared to consider yet.
Nome read my face and jumped up, ready to defend. I grabbed Roxanne’s arm and dragged her up from the table. I didn’t have time to sugarcoat things for her. I had to get her to safety and explain after. Thankfully, she came with me easily and didn’t cause a scene. My intentions of getting her to safety seemed to get across.
Back inside the restaurant, I drug her to the back and deposited her in a booth, where I blocked her physically with my body. Motherfuckers would have to go through me and my brothers to get her. That was when I responded. “Man, if you force my hand, we will retaliate. She’s mine. You need to back the fuck off. This will be the last bridge you burn in Texas.”
“Do you think El Jefe is concerned with your merry band of men? This isn’t a little street gang anymore, friend. Our metamorphosis is much grander than that. We aren’t just associated with the cartel; we are them. So, if you and your brothers want to stay on MY island, a few things are going to change. Your bar and strip club? We want in. And your patrolling stops today. I find your boys off Double M property, and they will be shot on sight. No more club colors or any of this other bullshit. The days of playing dress-up are behind you.”
Every word he spoke reinforced my anger. I was drooling, desperate for a release, and yet I had to play this fucker’s game, at least for now.
“And the girl?”
“Fuck her sweet, my friend, and do it often because the minute we find her solo? She’s ours, and we won’t fuck her nice. The fucking dog will be shot on sight, but I want to play with your g
irl.”
The line went dead in my ear, and it was all I could do not to throw the fucking phone and break apart everything in my line of vision. But I breathed through it and was able to keep my cool because I could tell from my girl’s face that she was freaked way the hell out. Looking up, I realized that not only was Pops there and at attention, but my best friend and my brother as well as several of the patrons and employees of the restaurant were watching me. Waiting to see if I’d lock it down, or if I’d lose control. Looking back at Roxanne, I breathed through it and thought.
I was limited on my options, and the very last thing I wanted was for it to get back to them that I was losing my shit, or calling my brothers in. No. Fuck ‘em.
We were going to sit, inside this time, and eat our meal, and then I would just have to stay on top of Roxanne the rest of the day.
Tonight, every man wearing a cut, and every man who wanted or had the jester on his back would be sitting down because things had just hit a boiling point. It was official. This group of retired soldiers and I?
We were going to war again.
Chapter Fifteen
Roxanne
There was a tension that felt stifling and suffocating. At least two brothers stayed on me for the rest of my shift, and at the end of the day, Nomad was still there.
Jinx had called for church tonight, and every brother and prospect was expected to be there.
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but something was in the air, and it was terrifying. There was a seriousness to the boys that I hadn’t seen before. A watchfulness and a wariness that they normally hid under the good old boy exterior.
Jinx had handed me a gun when we walked back into the office after lunch and given me strict orders to shoot if I needed to defend myself.
It hit me when I was sitting with Pops and Nomad talking about some of the places I had seen, since they had both spent large amounts of time on the road and knew some of my favorite places, that I could leave. I could go get my dog, load up, get the hell off this island, and leave all of this behind.
I had nothing holding me here.
And yet, I knew that I wouldn’t. These guys had gotten to me in a way that no one else ever had before, and I couldn’t imagine leaving them. In the few short days I had been with them, they had sucked me in and made me part of their family.
That feeling was tripled when Birdie and Maisie showed up at the compound to sit with me while the boys were in church.
Zeus sat at my feet; even he seemed to pick up on the emotions and was in protection mode as I sipped on a Jack and Coke that Birdie had given me and told me to drink. “Those boys are going to be in there for a while. You drink this slowly, so you can keep your wits about you.”
I appreciated the gesture and sipped the drink to calm myself.
Maisie had brought a stack of cards with her, and she was idly shuffling them back and forth. The three of us in a holding pattern, waiting to see what would come of this meeting.
We waited another twenty minutes and tried to occupy the time with chitchat, but our minds were otherwise occupied, so it wasn’t until Birdie said, “Alright, Maisie. Hit me with a reading,” that we found something to engross ourselves in.
Maisie flipped out a card and said, “Birdie, The Hanged Man. You’re suspended and waiting for something.”
Birdie snorted out a laugh and said, “Aren’t we all?”
I nodded. So true.
Maisie turned to me and said, “Alright, your turn, sister!”
Flipping out a card, she laid it face up, and my blood went cold. “Death.”
She looked up at me with a smile on her face, and all I could think was, What the hell is funny about me dying? But she seemed to pick up on my distress and explained, “Babe, it’s not bad. Death doesn’t mean death as in you die. Death means death as in a death of your old life and birth of your new one.”
I considered that for a moment and then let out a sigh. Well, that was certainly happening.
Maisie picked the Death card up, slid it back into the deck, and said, “Now, my turn.” And after considering it for a long moment, she drew a card from the deck and sat it down, face up. And then she let out a startled laugh. “Fucking hell.”
It was The Lovers.
Chapter Sixteen
Jinx
“You all realize what this means, right?”
As one, all my brothers nodded. They did, and it was huge.
Scratch spoke up first. “I’ll start reaching out to our support clubs and getting people to come here. If this becomes a turf war, we’re going to need all the help we can get to prevent this from dragging in citizens. The only problem I see is that if a bunch of bikes start riding onto the island, we’re going to ignite this before we’re ready.”
At this, Nome lifted a hand and cut in. “Things have escalated to a point that I feel like it may be time to come home. What if we have a rally point, and I load bikes up in my trailer and carry them onto the island? We can hide them at the compound and have the brothers fly in or drive in together, maybe even have a prospect or old lady bring them over by the car load. Just make sure we don’t fly colors and draw attention to ourselves. This asshole is going to think he has the upper hand, but if we can coordinate this just right, we can cut them off at the knees and stop this war before it has a chance to escalate.”
I considered this. It would be more time consuming than just having a bunch of bikers ride onto our island, but many a battle was won with stealth.
“I like it. I called Q Ball before we came in for a sit-down and let him know. He’s cutting his mountain vacation short and headed back today. We need to be prepared, brothers. This could get ugly quick. If you have any objections, speak now.”
Nome spoke again, saying, “Not for nothing, but don’t you think it would be safer to send the new piece away?”
This surprised me and pissed me off. “Brother, I believe I already made it clear that she stays. She’s mine, and she’s family now. I don’t think this needs to be covered again.”
He put his hands up in surrender and said, “Just making sure, bro. But seriously? What if I loaded her and the dog up and took them on the road while we start transporting reinforcements to the island? She would be safe, which would allow you to focus on what’s going on here.”
I lifted an eyebrow. I could see that he was genuinely trying to work the logistics of it all out, but there was no way in hell that was happening, and he had to know that. So, I said, “Right. If anyone else has anything they need to bring to the table, now is the time. When we leave this room, we start putting our plans into motion, and there is no going back from that.”
I looked around the table. I locked eyes with my brothers, the men who were my brothers now but had also been my father’s brothers. I looked at the prospects who were doing their time so they could have that same title. I didn’t know what this was going to bring, but I did know that every single one of them was behind me one hundred and ten percent, and there was no turning back now that we had our plan laid out.
I banged the gavel onto the hand-carved table and said, “Alright, then, boys. Let’s get this show on the road. We’re pulling a Helen of fucking Troy, so let’s hope this Trojan Horse does its job.”
My brothers stood from the table and slowly made their way out of the room. I sat at the table thinking about this. It was a complex game we were playing, and if any of the moving pieces fell through, it could be game over. When I looked up, Pops, Scratch, and Nome were still sitting there watching me.
Pops broke the silence. “Shit’s gonna get bad, son.”
I nodded. What else could I say? We were going up against the big bads and could only hope and pray that we came out unscathed.
“This has been a long time coming. I just want you to know that we’re all in. This ain’t just about territory for me. That’s a good girl out there. One who has been kicked to shit and back and still smiles and laughs with a guy like me. She’s your
future. That makes her our future, too, and that means we take care of her.”
I nodded. Normally, if I needed a fix, I’d hit up one of the bitches who roamed around here but didn’t belong to anyone, but since I’d pulled over to help her on the side of the road, Roxanne’s been the only one I’ve had any interest in. She wasn’t the initial conflict between our two sides, but she had been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I leaned back and pulled a smoke out of my pocket, and drawing in and exhaling, I said, “Well, brothers. Let’s get this party started.”
Chapter Seventeen
Roxanne
Most of the guys came out of the room and headed our way, and they were jovial and kidding around. It didn’t seem like there was any major trouble going on, and yet I watched as the last one out of the room shut the door, leaving Pops, Jinx, Scratch, and Nomad inside.
Maisie watched the door carefully, for Nomad or Scratch, I wasn’t certain. I knew that Birdie was watching because she was waiting for Scratch. I didn’t understand what any of this was about, and I was being patient, but there was a limit to how far I was going to go down this path before I understood where the hell I was going.
The three of us didn’t even pretend to make conversation as we waited, watching the door. And all three of us let out a simultaneous sigh when the men walked out of the room and headed in our direction.
I broke away from the girls to meet Jinx halfway, Zeus getting up to trail behind me, and asked, “Can we talk?”
He took in my face, and whatever he saw there made him nod and turn on a heel, leading the way to the door that led to the rooms. He walked to his door and opened it, letting me and then Zeus walk in before he trailed in behind us and shut the door.
“What’s on your mind, Sweetness?”
