Alpha Fighter - Part Two

by Ava Ashley

  I walk straight up to the front desk, where Tamryn is busy flipping through what looks to be the new issue of Inked Magazine and clear my throat.

  “Hey, Tamryn,” I say. She looks up and her face goes from confusion to disbelief to anger to relief in less than five seconds.

  “Girl!” she cries, jumping up out of her swiveling office chair and running around the desk. “Girl, I have missed you! Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick! And Lucy made me walk Maxie everyday, because she said you were my recommendation and she’s in a tight spot now. Well, you know what else is tight? Those preggers jeans. The girl has turned into a walking, talking beach ball.” Tamryn is talking a mile a minute, like she has to catch up on all the words that she hasn’t been able to say since I left. “But first things first—girl, where have you been? I was worried sick when you just didn’t show up to work, day after day after day! You should have said something!”

  “I’m sorry,” I say, hugging her back. “I am really sorry. I didn’t have much of a choice. But I’m fine.”

  “I’m glad to hear it!” Tamryn exclaims. “Now we have had a sub working your station, but he has nothing on you. I will help you come up with a good excuse and I’m sure we can get Roxie to take you back. People have been asking for you pretty much every day since you left! You have a ton of clients already on the books—you’ll be on probation, no fuck-ups for a while, but you can totally do this. I am so happy you’re back!”

  I shake my head sadly. “That’s the thing,” I say. “I’m not actually back. I am...moving. It’s a, um, family emergency. I just wanted to say bye. And thanks for being my friend. You made me feel right at home here.”

  “No!” Tamryn looks crushed. “Is there anything we can do to get you to stay? Is there anything I can do? Having a friend in here was great. I was actually looking forward to work for a while there. Don’t leave me!”

  “I’m sorry, Tamryn,” I say. “I have to. I don’t have a choice.”

  Tamryn nods and sighs. “Well, thanks for saying bye,” she says, dejected. “I hope you’ll consider coming back here if you ever can. We—I—would love to have you.”

  “I will,” I say, nodding. “If I ever can, I will be back.” We give each other one more long hug goodbye, and then I turn around and walk back out the doors of The Ink Joint. I hope it isn’t my last time here. I hope I’ll be able to come back and take my station back, but I really don’t know.

  It’s game time. I get into the car and pull the door shut behind me. Cooper leans over and takes my face in his hands, giving me a long kiss goodbye. When he starts the car, I turn away, looking out the window. The silent tears—tears of loss, of love, and of fear—stream down my face.

  We are headed for the war zone.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Savannah

  “Wait!” I yell. Cooper slams the brakes.

  “Fuck, Savannah, you scared the shit out of me! What’s wrong?” he asks.

  “I recognize that car,” I say, pointing at a blue Ferrari.

  “Big whoop,” Nate grumbles from the back. “What are you trying to do, make me lose my lunch because you like a fancy car?

  “I don’t just like it,” I say, squinting to make out the license plate. “I recognize it. I was right! It’s Wolf’s!”

  “What?” Nate sits up straight so fast he bangs his head against the back seat roof light.

  “It’s Wolf’s,” I repeat, turning to Cooper to explain. “Wolf is my big brother. Why is he down here?”

  “Are you sure it’s his car?” Nate asks. “That makes no sense. It could just be the car of some other guy who really likes blue Ferraris.” Even Nate looks confused.

  “Right,” I say, not quite able to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “In this neighborhood. Because people with money just love slumming it in the rundown part of town.”

  “Well...” Nate still looks skeptical.

  “I checked the license plate,” I say. “It’s Wolf’s car. Something is up. I’m going in.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Cooper says. He cuts me off before I can protest. “He may be your big brother, but he is also one of them. And who knows if he is alone. He could just as well be there with a group of thugs. I’m not letting you go in there by yourself.

  “Fine,” I say. Secretly, I am a little glad that he is insisting on coming in with me. I haven’t been close with Wolf since before Mom died and I don’t know if his loyalty lies more with the motorcycle club or with me. Unfortunately, I suspect it is with them. I’m just his little sister, and one he hasn’t bothered to say more than a sentence or two at a time to me in years. They are his life.

  “I’m coming, too,” says Nate, jumping out of the car after us. Wolf’s car is pulled up between Bennie’s Pizza and its neighbor, and since Bennie’s Pizza is next to a struggling cupcake shop, and I can’t for the life of me imagine my big brother eating a girly little cupcake in a pink store decorated with cutesy cats with oversized eyes, we head into Bennie’s pizza. I do a quick scan of the restaurant and see the top of his spiky, black-haired, overly gelled head poking out above the back of the seats in the booth closest to the rear wall.

  I point and we walk over quietly and quickly, even our steps making barely a sound. We slide into the booth behind theirs and listen He is talking to someone.

  “How’s the tadpole?” my brother’s voice asks. But there is something weird about his voice. It isn’t the tough, cold, clipped voice that I am used to. There’s something warm, loving about it. Is he here with a girl? Wolf has a girlfriend?

  I almost slide out of my chair when I hear the voice that answers him. “Doing well,” Lily says.

  Nate’s eyes bug out of his head when he recognizes his little sister’s voice.

  “The morning sickness is normal?” Wolf sounds concerned. I can’t believe my ears. Morning sickness? Lily is pregnant.

  Before I can stop him, Nate jumps up from his chair and runs around.

  “What the fuck did you do to my sister?” Nate roars, grabbing Wolf by the front of his shirt.

  Cooper and I are up in a flash. The Wolf I know doesn’t take any disrespect sitting down and this could end badly for either of them. Wolf fought MMA for a bit before deciding to focus on his duties as the future motorcycle club head and did pretty well. Then again, Nate is an active MMA fighter with all the latest in training, so it’s a toss-up as to which of them would win in a fight.

  I would rather not take my chances.

  Wolf and Lily look shocked to see us, but Wolf quickly recovers. He puts up his hands, surprisingly choosing peace. So it is true. My big brother knocked up Nate’s little sister.

  “We are in love.” Those are the first words out of Wolf’s mouth. Could this day get any more bizarre? “We are in love and we have been for years.

  “It started slow,” Lily chimes in. “You and Wolf were hanging out a lot and becoming good friends. Wolf was always around. We would hang out when you were late coming back from the gym and Wolf was waiting to go on a run with you, or hit up the clubs, or whatever it is you guys did. And then it just happened. We fell in love.”

  “You knocked up my sister!” Nate roars. He is clearly still seeing red, but we are attracting way too much attention, so I elbow him in the side and take a pointed look at the neighboring booths. He gets the hint and sits down, sliding into the booth next to Lily and glaring across the table from Wolf. Cooper and I sit down, as well. Nate lowers his voice. “So you called yourself my friend while you were busy knocking up my little sister, so you can leave her an untouchable single mom? Ha, some friend you are.”

  “That’s our problem.” Wolf looks really upset. “I want to marry her. I love your sister and I want to be with her. She isn’t some kind of pump and dump, Nate. She is the one for me. I love her.” He gives Nate a serious look. “I love her, like you love Nikki. I want to marry her, but I can’t, because you are marrying my sister. You know the rules, man. So it’s not real incest, but t
here are no double marriages between motorcycle clubs within the same leading families. It just isn’t done.” Wolf almost looks like he is going to cry. I have never seen him like this, not even when he was a kid. He is serious.

  “We aren’t getting married,” Nate says slowly, looking at me. We are thinking the same thing.

  The families need to be joined to stop the war. Nate and I aren’t going to get married. Lily needs to get married, to save herself embarrassment. There needs to be some agreement made with the Morenos, so they don’t humiliate the Santoses for my premarital loss of my virginity.

  “This just might work,” I say.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Savannah

  We jump into the rental car and off we go, as the strangest troupe of allies in known history. At least, known to me.

  Lily and Wolf pile into the back of the car with Nate while Cooper drives, and I sit in the front passenger seat next to him. The trip is one of the longest in my life and I spend the whole time in a state of concealed panic. What if they don’t hold to the agreement? What if they gun us down the moment we enter? What if they won’t listen to us? What if they kill Cooper and make me watch? What if everything goes wrong?

  We pull up to the Harley Davidson warehouse that my father owns, where we are meeting my father and Salvador. The board will probably be present, too, but waiting in a different room in case they are needed for consultation on a decision. It looks like they will be.

  When we pull into the mostly empty parking lot of the warehouse, with just about thirty bikes parked near the front of the lot, there are already five burly thugs decked out in all black leather biking gear standing by the entrance. I recognize two of the guys as Santos motorcycle club members, multiple, decade-long employees of my dad’s, but the other three are either new recruits or, more likely, working for the Morenos. I see several loaded holsters, their handgun grips gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. Cooper sees them, too, and reaches over to squeeze my hand.

  “We will be okay, babe,” he says. “I love you. And I am not going to let them hurt you.” He kisses me, telling me everything I need to know in the way that he lovingly holds me.

  “Don’t worry,” I say, when we pull apart. “I’m fine. And I love you. More than anything.” We walk, hand in hand, to the entrance of the warehouse. Wolf and Lily follow closely behind, his arm wrapped protectively around her small shoulders, and Nate walks along next to them. We are going into a hostile area, vastly outnumbered in both body count and fire force, but I feel surprisingly calm. I think Wolf, Lily, and Cooper feel the same way. That is the power of being side by side and arm in arm with the love of your life.

  The thugs just nod to us as we approach the door, their hands immediately going to their pockets. All except one, that is, who is picking at his grubby nails with a seven inch dagger with a curved blade that hooks at the end. I don’t even want to think about what that hook is for. So instead, I think about how warm my hand feels in Cooper’s and how wonderful he smells. I can’t quite block out the fact that I’m walking into an incredibly dangerous situation, not to mention that I am about to make my only living parent incredibly disappointed in me, probably so much that he disowns me. A little distraction is better than nothing, however, and I know that stressing out will not help me. The most that it can do for me is hurt me. From a lifetime of living in the middle of the motorcycle clubs, I know that showing weakness is the best way to lose their respect and get knifed in the abdomen faster than you would have if you toughened up or at least pretended to have a little cojones.

  We walk into a large, high-roofed room with nothing in it but a long couch and two oversized arm chairs at the far end. The couch is empty and Flint and Salvador are sitting in their respective armchairs. Flint is leaning back in his chair, as calm as ever, with his fingers steepled and eyes laser-focused on us. He could be an ace poker player, if that wasn’t a significant pay cut from being a motorcycle club king, because his face never betrays his thoughts or emotions if he doesn’t want it to. He can look the same whether he is thinking about the parmesan on his meatballs or about ordering a hit on an enemy. Salvador is his physical antithesis, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, which are spread wide apart, feet planted firmly on the floor, like he is ready to jump up out of his chair and give us all a good beating on a moment’s notice.

  Wolf and Lily hang back at the entrance to the room while Cooper and I, flanked on Cooper’s side by Nate, walk up to the two motorcycle club kings. They watch us as we approach and I resist my people-pleasing nervous impulse to speed up. My time is as valuable as theirs, I remind myself. I don’t need to please them. I am here to offer them a solution to a shared problem. A solution that will benefit all of us. I stay firm, taking measured steps at an even pace, even when Salvador clears his throat in a menacing way that sounds much more like a pitbull’s growl.

  “Take a seat, my friends,” Salvador drawls in a strong, Chicagoan accent, leaning back in his chair and pulling something out of an inside pocket of his heavy, black leather jacket. From the engraved steel handgun he is casually twirling between his fingers, I know not to take that ironic ‘friends’ as any kind of good sign.

  I can hardly bear to look away from Salvador and at my father, but I finally do. He is looking at me with his usual unreadable look, but the ever so slight shake of his head betrays extreme disappointment.

  “Savannah,” he says. That one word almost makes me break down, fall to my knees before my daddy, and beg for the forgiveness that I so want. But also know that I will not receive. I swallow hard and squeeze Cooper’s hand for strength. Flint notices it and frowns harder with disapproval.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Flint barks, breaking his even tone to wave from me to Cooper and back again.

  “Father, I cannot marry Nate,” I say. “I don’t love him and I know that is of no consequence to you, but I will not marry him and that is my final decision.”

  A look of extreme anger flashes over Flint’s face and I flinch. But just as quickly as the flash of anger appeared, his face returns to its usual, calm, resting expression. “I understand,” he says. “But consequences are consequences. You know of the terms of the peace agreement with the Morenos. You realize we are going to war.”

  “And I am assuming this man is the reason why?” Salvador, not as calm as my dad, lifts his gun and points it straight at Cooper’s head. I cry out, but Cooper does not flinch. “I am going to kill you, friend,” Salvador spits, “for this grievous insult to the Moreno family name and the entire Moreno motorcycle club. Savannah belonged to my son and you are going to die for trying to steal from a Moreno.”

  “I would not do that if I was you,” Cooper says, as calmly as if he were not currently sitting on an under-stuffed couch in an empty room, across from a man who had been in jail for a number of offenses, including suspected manslaughter, and was currently pointing a loaded firearm at his forehead.

  “Oh, really?” Dad asks, amused. “What position do you think you are in to tell us what we should do?”

  Salvador is less amused. He cocks the trigger, not moving his gun’s sights from where they are trained on Cooper’s head. “Why in the world would you not off you if you were in my position, pretty boy?”

  “Because if you shoot me,” Cooper says calmly, “you will be finding yourself enjoying a visit from some of my government friends not too soon from now. Only I don’t think you will find it so enjoyable, because they will be here for both of you. You know you owe enough illegal back taxes to between the two of you to put both of your entire motorcycle clubs behind bars and off of the streets for, oh, the next hundred years, at the very minimum?”

  Salvador replaces the safety catch on his gun, lowering it slightly. If he shot now, Cooper would be missing a cheekbone, but could survive. “Oh yeah, tough guy?” Salvador says, narrowing his eyes. “How do you know anything about my tax affairs?”

  “That’s for me to know,” Cooper answers
, calmly. “But do you want to risk it? Just to kill me? Wouldn’t you rather let us all walk free, and Nikki Sanchez from your motorcycle club, and leave us alone? We are here to make a deal and I suggest you take it.”

  “Pretty boy, you know there is a war that’s about to go down because of you and the sins you have transgressed against my daughter?” Flint asks. Flint is the cold, calm counter-argument to Salvador’s hot, gun-wielding reaction, but I know the fatal motorcycle club king spirit that simmers beneath the surface. I blush at hearing my dad say what he has inferred that I have done.

  “We have a proposition for you,” I say, as I hear Wolf and Lily walking up behind us.

  “I am pregnant,” Lily blurts out, in her girly, high-pitched voice. Salvador looks angrily from Lily to Wolf and jumps up, advancing on Wolf.

  “Wait!” Nate yells, jumping up, too. He holds his father back. “Don’t you get it? Lily needs to marry before she shows, so we aren’t shamed, and if she marries Wolf, everything is okay and the clubs are joined together. There won’t need to be a war. It’s okay that Savannah and I won’t marry, and no one except us ever needs to know that Lily was impure. It is the ideal situation.”

  The air is loaded as Flint and Salvador confer. Finally, they agree and turn back to us. What will he say? Is it accepted? Or are we all dead? Salvador twirls his gun in the air and I pinch my eyes shut, preparing for the inevitable bang, followed by what I imagine must be the greatest pain in the world. A final pain.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Savannah

  The bang doesn’t come, nor does the pain. I open my eyes.

  “Fine,” Flint says. “My son will marry Salvador’s daughter. There will not be a war, and you and Savannah are free to marry other people.”

  “Oh, thank you, Daddy!” I cry out in relief, jumping up and bounding over to give him a hug.

  “Aye aye aye,” he groans, shaking his head, “You take years off of my life, my daughter.” But he smiles.