Sledge

by Jessie Cooke

  “So, what did they say?”

  “They’re sending a tow truck. I’m sorry to hold you up. You’re welcome to take off now—the truck driver will give me a ride to my hotel, I’m sure.” Sledge didn’t say anything, but he walked past her and went over to his bike. A tickle of anxiety filled her belly when he did, but if he wanted to leave, she wasn’t going to try and stop him. She had no right to expect him to be her knight in shining armor. But when Sledge got to his bike, he didn’t get on the back of it. Instead, he reached into his saddlebag, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and propped himself against the hog as he lit one. He held the pack in her direction and she made a face. He rolled his eyes as he took a long drag and then he said:

  “Kind of still a little princess, aren’t you?”

  “Because I don’t want to inhale toxins into my lungs?”

  “Nope, because you still look at people like you think you’re better than them.”

  “I don’t think I’m better than you.” He snorted, and she said, “Really, Steve…Sledge, I’m sorry. I really don’t. I’m not like that. I know you don’t believe this, but I’ve never been like that. I was a mixed-up, stupid kid in high school, just like you. I made some bad decisions and I’m sorry that some of them hurt you. If I could build a time machine and go back and fix things, I would.” He stared at her, smoking his cigarette, but not saying a word until she was overwhelmed by the silence again and she said, “I don’t blame you for not believing me. You don’t know me, you never did…really. All you have to go on is what a bitch I was to you.” He still didn’t speak. It was making her nervous…like psychological torture. She looked at her phone and the text the rental car company had sent her. The tow truck was only a few blocks away already. “He’s almost here, you can go.”

  “Nope. I’ll take you to your hotel.”

  She looked at the bike and felt her eyes go wide. “I don’t think so.” She heard the words when they came out of her mouth and she realized that she sounded like exactly what he was accusing her of being…a snotty bitch. “I mean, it’s just been a long time since I’ve been on a Harley…any bike…”

  “But you have been on one?”

  “Yes.” He raised an eyebrow. “Is that hard to believe?”

  “Yep,” he said, taking one last drag of the cigarette and flicking it on the ground.

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “I just didn’t think women like you…”

  “Wait,” she said, holding her hand up. “You tell me that I act like I’m better than everyone else…but that sounds awfully judgmental on your part. What does that even mean…women like me?”

  “Rich, spoiled, privileged…”

  “Excuse me! You don’t know me. You don’t know if I’m spoiled and honestly, you don’t know how much money I have.”

  “Okay, I’ll drop the rich if you want me to, but I’m sticking with the spoiled and privileged.”

  “You’re kind of an asshole, you know that?”

  Sledge chuckled. “Big talk from a woman who has been rescued by me twice in as many days.”

  She laughed. “Rescued? You rescued me?”

  “I kept you from slamming your head on the floor last night, and who is sitting on the side of the road with you right now?”

  “I didn’t ask you to do either of those things, but I’m not sure I’d call either a ‘rescue.’ I wasn’t going to die either way.”

  “Rich, spoiled, privileged, and ungrateful.”

  Suddenly she felt angry. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because she’d been trying so hard to make amends and he seemed to be trying hard to make her feel like a fool. She put her hands on her hips and said, “Ungrateful? I thanked you for last night and I was going to do the same for tonight before you turned this all around and started to act like a punk.”

  He chuckled again. “First I’m an asshole and now a punk…you sure know how to show your gratitude.”

  Taking a step close enough to him that she had to look up at him, and poking him in the chest with her finger she said, “What the hell do you expect other than a thank you? This isn’t a damned porno flick. I’m not going to drop my drawers and tell you to fuck me out here in the middle of…” Her words were cut off when he put his big arm around her waist and pulled her up so that her feet were dangling off the ground and his mouth was crushed against hers. She thought about fighting it…for half a second…but this was what she’d wanted, for so long. It wasn’t the ideal situation, of course, but he was kissing her.

  Instead of pulling away, she put her arms around his neck and sank into him. His tongue slid into her mouth and it was like getting a massage from the inside out. It slid over her tongue, her teeth, her lips; and her body warmed and tingled all over. His one arm was under her bottom holding her up off the ground and the other rested against her back. She could feel the heat from his hand through her clothes—it was almost hot enough to burn her. He kissed her so long that she was dizzy from lack of oxygen by the time he set her down on her feet. She kept her eyes closed for a second, trying to get her balance back…and then she reached out and put her hands against his chest and looked up at him.

  The sound of a truck and bright lights suddenly flooded the night, but even as the tow truck pulled off the road behind her rental car, Sledge didn’t take his eyes off her face. She heard the door of the truck slam, and that was when Sledge took her wrists in his hands and moved them off his chest, gently, but with a strange look in his eyes. He looked over at the tow truck driver and said, “Wait here for a sec.” She was still working on catching her breath and getting her balance, and she leaned into his bike as he walked away. Her heart was racing and her vivid imagination was filled with the possibilities of what the night before them might bring. She was actually smiling when he came back over. Again, though, he had that odd look on his face when he looked down at her.

  “I know this guy, he’s cool. He’ll drop you back at your hotel and get the car to the lot.”

  Confused, she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. Did he just say he was sending her with the driver? Wasn’t he the one insisting he was going to take her on his bike just a few minutes ago? “I’m sorry?” she said.

  “What part didn’t you hear?”

  “You’re leaving me with this guy?”

  “Like I said, he’s cool.”

  He used one hand to sort of move her back from the bike. It wasn’t a push, but more like a gentle nudge. She still felt confused. What just happened? She watched him climb on his bike and tie a bandanna on his head. He had put his helmet back on even before she found words again. “I don’t understand.”

  “What don’t you understand?” he said, almost annoyed, it seemed, at that point.

  “You kissed me.”

  “Yeah, and I’m pretty sure you kissed me back.”

  “I did…but now you’re just going to leave?”

  “I remember a time when you kissed me…and then you set about doing your best to make my life miserable at every turn. I guess the moral of the story is that kisses don’t really mean shit, do they?”

  A sharp pain started in the center of her chest and began to radiate outward. “So, this…the kiss…that was what? Revenge?”

  He shrugged. “Nah, it was just a kiss. Made me kind of horny too. It’s kind of why I want to get going. All the girls at the club might be picked over before I get there. Have a nice life, Daria.” If she had been able to think of anything to say to that, it would have been pointless. He started the bike and the loud chrome pipes filled the night. He reached up and slid the little shield on his helmet down over his eyes and as he drove away, he gave the tow truck driver a little wave. Daria was too shocked to know what she was feeling. Was she angry? Sad? She really had no idea. Part of her knew she deserved it, and he deserved to have his revenge. But the other part of her couldn’t believe that after ten years, he was still that angry with her. She had apologized, but obviously what he wanted was not an apology
, but to see her as humiliated as he had been. She wanted to be angry with him for that…but honestly, she was just sad, for them both. Her mind returned to the kiss. She’d never felt a kiss the way she had felt that one…throughout her entire body. She thought he was feeling it too…but he was just setting her up, to get even with her. Suddenly she realized that hitting that pothole tonight really had been karma…and just like everyone said, she really was a bitch.

  11

  “I’ve got you covering Freddie today,” Wolf told Sledge, “but it’ll be easy since Jacob’s planning on having him in the gym all day training. Mostly you just have to be available, and the front desk will call on you to check up on anyone new coming into the gym. Make sure the reporters stay away from him. Jacob’s trying to keep him out of the spotlight…let people forget the ass-whooping he got Saturday night.”

  It was Tuesday morning, three days since the fight that Freddie lost…and three days since Sledge had seen Daria, although if anyone asked, he wasn’t counting. “Is Jake pissed at him for losing?”

  “Nah, but he did say it was a sloppy fight. The kid’s new to all of this, though. Jacob knows he has talent, he just has to learn how to focus it. More than anything I think he wore himself out too early…but I’m no trainer, so what the fuck do I know?” Wolf said. “Bruf and some of the guys are riding up to the warehouse today; we’ve got a new buyer. Just so you know, if you need any backup for any reason you’ll need to call me. I’ll send Ransom over there with you just in case you need a runner or anything.”

  Sledge nodded. He wasn’t looking forward to sitting around the gym all day. The run with Bruf would have been a lot more preferable. They had a new piece of land out near the bluffs and they were almost ready to start building on it. The club was moving north. The main garage where they did legitimate work on bikes and cars would stay on the west side of town but the clubhouse and those that lived there would have new digs within a year or less. They would have a lot more room…and it was mostly thanks to Ash, who had donated his money to buy the land. His sister Charlie was taking classes at Fresno State and at the same time working with her corporate officers, one of them being Mack, to open a new branch of the family business on the West Coast, and she’d donated some money as well.

  The Bennett family business wouldn’t be something the club would be directly involved with, but Charlie had made a lot of good friends and contacts within the club and she was talking with her HR department about finding jobs for some of them. It would only help the club grow and become more respectable in the community, so it was a good thing. The warehouse, however, was one of their last “illegitimate” ventures. It contained hundreds of thousands of dollars in weapons. Wolf was picky about who he’d sell them to. In the past, the club sold guns to the local gangs…and then either had to sit back and watch as they killed each other with them, or sometimes ended up on the receiving end of one of those fights themselves. Wolf wasn’t looking for war, not with anyone. As long as the gangs stayed off Skulls turf, he ignored them and let them be local law enforcement’s problem. He refused to supply them any longer and only entertained buyers from out of state, or even out of the country. Sledge was curious about who these buyers were, but he knew better than to ask questions. Wolf told his men what they needed to know, when they needed to know it. If he wasn’t saying anything, that meant it wasn’t something Sledge needed to be concerned about.

  If he weren’t going to get to be part of the ride, he wouldn’t even mind a day in the shop, working on the bikes and cars. But Wolf was the boss, so he didn’t argue. He finished his breakfast and when Wolf became engaged with one of the old timers, he went back over to his place to grab his things and head out for the gym. By the time he got there, Freddie was already in one of the cages, sparring with one of Jacob’s assistant trainers. There were a few other people in the gym working out too. Sledge said hello to Brandy, one of the club girls that Wolf had hired to run the front desk, and reminded her to check IDs and holler at him if there was anything suspicious. He started to head over to where Freddy was when he saw Freddie’s girl Yvette, talking to another fighter, Tensee. What stopped him in his tracks was the other woman there as well. It was Daria. What the fuck is she doing, stalking me? He’d fought through the guilt that leaving her on the side of the road had stirred up in him, and he was finally feeling better about himself this morning…and here she was again. Maybe she was a glutton for punishment.

  With a sigh and a silent grumble, he made his way across the gym. When he was close, Daria glanced up and their eyes met for a second. He watched as the color rose in her cheeks and then she looked away. Yvette smiled at him. “Hey, Sledge, you know Daria?”

  Sledge nodded. “How are you, Yvette?”

  “I’m good. My old man in there is not doing as well, I’m afraid.” Tensee laughed.

  “That’s because he got his ass kicked Saturday night,” the other young fighter said.

  Yvette narrowed her eyes at the blonde, good-looking young man. “He did not get his ‘ass kicked.’ He barely lost, and it was a judge’s decision and that’s very subjective—you know that.”

  Tensee laughed again. “Yep, those are the same excuses I make for myself when I lose.”

  “Oh, shut up. I thought you said your brother was waiting for you.” Tensee was a twin. His brother’s name was Texas. He went by Tex. Tensee was short for Tennessee. Their parents were big on travel, and fans of the south.

  “How is Tex?” Sledge asked. Tex got beat up by a bunch of guys working for a rogue member of another club. He’d had a head injury and his rehab was slow but steady so far.

  “He’s doing great,” Tensee said. “He’s been up walking on his own for about three weeks now and his speech is getting a lot better. But yeah, I should get going. Our parents are in town and I’m supposed to be meeting them all for lunch.” He clapped Sledge on the shoulder and said, “Have fun, big guy.” Sledge looked back at Daria and doubted that, but to Tensee he smiled and said:

  “You too, man.” Once he was gone, Yvette looked at her watch and said:

  “I have a class in forty minutes. Will you tell Freddie I’ll call him later?”

  “Sure,” Sledge told her…doing the math. Once she left, he’d be alone with Daria…it was a place he didn’t want to be. He’d been thinking about that kiss for three days when he wasn’t feeling bad for leaving her like he did. Humiliating her had felt good for about five seconds and since then, that part of it had made him feel like shit. But fuck…that kiss…

  Yvette said goodbye to Daria, waved at Freddie, who was on the ground, under the two-hundred-pound trainer, and left. Daria and Sledge both sat silently for a few minutes before he finally said, “Thought you were shooting a movie or something.”

  “I am. They shut filming down for today because the orchard we needed to use was flooded or something. So, instead of wasting the day, I thought I’d come down and do some more research. I cleared it with Wolf first.” Sledge wondered why Wolf hadn’t told him. He supposed it was because he’d told his boss that he didn’t have a problem with her being around. Truth was, he did, he just wasn’t sure what the problem was…exactly. “Can I ask you a question?” she said.

  “What?” She flinched, slightly, at his tone, but went on:

  “How’d you get your name…Sledge?”

  “Long story.”

  “Oh…well, if you want to tell it, I have time. Jacob Wright was going to talk to me, but he got held up and he’s not here yet.”

  Sledge groaned inwardly. He didn’t really want to tell her the story, but she wasn’t going away, and Freddie didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. The silence was almost as anxiety-provoking as conversation was. “This ain’t going into that book of yours, right?”

  She smiled. Damn, she’s pretty. It made his stomach flutter when she smiled at him like that. It also pissed him off, at himself. “Absolutely not. My research is all about the MMA fighters. I was just curious how
you guys get your names. I mean, looking at Wolf, it’s easy to see how he got his…and Asher doesn’t really have one, so again, curiosity just got the better of me. I understand, though, if you don’t want to tell me.”

  Sledge started talking and she looked surprised, and then intrigued. “I was a prospect and didn’t have a road name yet. Mostly I never went on rides. I worked around the club and in the garage. But the local sheriff was trying to get reelected at the time and he had this whole campaign going against ‘gangs,’ and that was what we were considered. So almost every time we left the club in our kuttes, we’d get stopped and hassled by the deputies for one thing or another. So, Coyote…that was Wolf’s old man and the former president of this club…he came up with this idea to have the prospects do runs for him, dressed in street clothes, no vest and no patches that advertised our affiliation. But the cops weren’t that stupid. They were watching us and one day when I went on a run for him…carrying some shit I could have gotten locked up for…I realized a few miles from the club that they were following me.” She didn’t ask what kind of “shit” he’d been carrying, and he didn’t offer it. Coyote was a little more into the whole “outlaw” side of the MC than his son. “So, there were three of us on the run, and we split up. One of the other guys took them on a wild goose chase, but I figured it wouldn’t be long before they either caught up to or gave up on him. I drove a few miles until I came to a construction site. They were demolishing this building. I was hiding the bike behind a pile of rubble when I heard the sirens. The demolition crew were all busy and none of them paid any attention to me. I picked up the first thing I saw, which was a helmet. The next thing I saw was a sledgehammer. I picked that up too, and started swinging it at what was left of that building. The police drove around a bit and even talked to the foreman. I saw the guy look my way—by that time I’d pulled off my shirt and was working up a sweat. I was sure he was going to point a finger at me and tell them I wasn’t one of his, but I kept working. After a few minutes I saw them leaving out of the corner of my eye. The foreman still didn’t come over, so I kept working. I stayed another full hour and when I finally put the hammer down and took off the helmet I heard him holler, ‘Hey Sledge!’ I froze, looked over my shoulder, and he said, ‘You looking for a job?’ I grinned at him and told him no, but if I needed one, I’d look him up. When I told that story to Coyote and the rest of the guys, they started calling me Sledge, and it stuck.”