by Amber Burns
I took a second to pull my combat boots on before I turned back to her to give her a good long look. “If I get a key, baby, you can look forward to walking funny in the morning,” I said to her as I walked out of her room and headed out the door.
14
I hadn’t moved in with her. But, after she gave me a key to her house, I spent more time at her house then my own apartment. I would get a text here and there from her asking me to stay the night with her. I might have a night a week that I’d spend the night at my own place. I didn’t ask her to stay the night at my place, though if she were to ask I wouldn’t protest it. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her place was definitely better than mine.
That said, things at the bar was pretty much the same; though it was clear that I had rubbed Teddy raw. I made sure to give him space and paid attention to the shit I had to get done. And I kept an eye on Jimmy, though he hadn’t made himself scarce. If anything he hung out around me more, flaunting his patched cut and bringing his friend, Anthony, around more frequently. They also brought me another bike to work on, this one in better shape than the first. They over paid me for the work again, but who was I to complain?
On the second day of work on the damn thing I heard them talking lowly. “Greg’s got an order cooking. How quick do you think you can move it?”
Anthony hadn’t made the effort to lower his voice in the least. I think, maybe, he thought he could win me over in the same fashion that he did Jimmy. Thinking that I’d be another jackass to sell his shit. I made the effort to keep my face blank as I worked on putting the carburetor back into place.
Jimmy hissed low at his friend, “Just let me know when and I’ll be there.”
I watched them out of the corner of my eye, the work I was doing was so ingrained I could probably do it in my sleep. I saw Anthony nod towards me and the other shook his head. I had to wonder if Teddy had said something to him. It was probable, depending on how much I had pissed him off. But, if that were the case I probably wouldn’t be sitting here working on this bike and getting overpaid. I was determined to keep an ear on them though.
I finished up sooner than I expected and I looked back at them, they still looked like were talking shit.
“You want to come crank it for me?” I called out.
“You can’t crank it yourself?” Jimmy asked with a glare.
That patch had turned him into less like the guy eager to help and more into an ass trying to swing his dick around.
“Well, motherfucker, sitting on my ass on tore up asphalt for the last two hours has kinda got me stuck down here,” I was definitely going to need a hand up to do anything. I doubt I’d have to walk off the aches before I could get on my bike to ride home.
“Quit being a dick,” Anthony said, giving Jimmy a sour look. He came over and helped me to my feet. “You never dick over the guy that’s working on your bike. There’s not a lot separating you from the road, so you definitely don’t want to piss off the guy that knows just what bolts to loosen that will make your bike fall to pieces while you’re riding it.”
Sound advice. I hobbled around to get feeling to get back into my good foot.
“Sid’s got morals,” I heard Jimmy say like it was an insult, like morals were an STD or some shit. “He wouldn’t do anything like that.” he came to stand beside me as I was shaking out my left leg. “Would ya?”
“Sorry, dude,” I shrugged my shoulders. “Not going to implicate myself in anything.”
It wasn’t something I would do, but I wasn’t going to deny it though. I felt suspicious looks from the younger man, but I didn’t meet his gaze. Right now I didn’t really care what he thought. Jimmy shook his head at me and sat on the bike. With little effort he kicked it to life and the engine growled lowly just as it was supposed to. Anthony whistled and offered me a hand, I took it and was pulled into a one armed hug.
“You are like a magician, my friend,” he said before he stepped away. “I didn’t think that would be something that you could manage.”
“Unless it’s completely rusted out it’s not hard to get something like this purring again. I’m sure you’re smart enough to see a complete loss when you see one,” I shrugged not know what more to say.
“If you did body work we could probably make more money,” Jimmy said as he shut off the bike. “I hear there’s a lot of money that can be made in custom bikes.”
“I think you watch too much tv,” I grimaced at him. “Those shows only catered to rich assholes. I seriously doubt there’d be anyone around here that would be able to afford a custom bike, much less want one.”
“I don’t know,” Anthony said beside me. “I might.”
“I don’t do body work,” I looked between the two of them. “I spent about eight to nine years working on engines and being trained on the changes that they made to the various trucks they commissioned. Body work wasn’t something I was involved with.”
“I can respect that,” Anthony nodded. “I have a friend that dabbles in it, kind of a learning as he goes thing. So far he says it’s a pain in the ass. Remember the first bike you worked on for me? He’d trying to get that one cleaned up to the point where we could sell it. So far, it’s giving him hell.”
I nodded as I listened, “What’s the issue?”
“The frame is good as it’s not rusted like we first thought. We’re just trying to avoid replacing all the exhaust. It had a unique look to it that I liked,” he shrugged then sighed. “But it looks like I may not be getting my way with that.”
“So it’s more along the lines that you’re giving him hell about having to replace the exhaust,” Jimmy chuckled. “And not the bike.”
“Whatever,” the other man waved it off and they started to load up the bike. “I’ll see you Wednesday night. Sid, it was a pleasure doing business with you.”
I gave him a wave and went to hobble inside. My phone buzzed at me and I didn’t resist looking at it. I grinned when I saw the request from my girl about coming over for the night. That was enough to distract me. Jimmy bumped into me, my fault I was standing right in front of the door.
“Thanks for helping Tony with his bikes,” he started, nudging me as he stepped around me. “Dude seems to like you. If you want to do more business with him let me know. He’s got a couple of different ventures that he’s into.”
“I appreciate it,” though my gut told me that the other ventures were less than legal. “I think I’ll just stick to shit that I do around here though. Keep my ass out of trouble, yanno?”
“If you get tired of just getting by day to day, let me know,” he said lightly as he made his way to the bar. “You know, in case you ever want to give your girl anything nice.”
I frowned; that was low. I’d have to ignore it though, I decided I wasn’t going to start anything and I would just keep my cool. I went towards the office, giving the door a knock until I heard Wilson growl out a ‘come in.’
“I’m about to git,” I just stuck my head in. Predictably, Teddy was in there, too. Both of them usually took up the office if that weren’t obvious by now. “Do you need anything from me before you go?”
“Nah, kid,” Wilson answered, sounding pleasant which was unlike him.
“You been taking off and blowing us off quite a bit,” Teddy piped up before I could duck out.
I stood in the doorway for a second, my phone in hand before I decided how to answer to that.
“Well, I didn’t have a regular broad for the last four years,” I could only offer him a shrug, because it should be obvious. “The chick that served you seemed interested and has kept me distracted. Is that going to be a problem?”
“Cindy says he has it hard for her, too,” seeing Wilson speak up for me was something. He was a man that didn’t seem to be overly cozy with anyone. This was the first time I ever saw him stand up for anyone. “Give him a break. Just because Doris left you doesn’t mean the kid can’t find an old lady.”
“Cindy’
s a rat? Remind me not to tell her anything else private,” I grumbled.
“Why do you think I keep her around, kid?” He grinned at me and I got a mental picture of the two I would rather not have. I pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to clear the image of the two fucking from my head.
“Do you need me for anything?” I asked again, because I didn’t want to leave and have something come up while I was gone. I didn’t want my ear to be chewed on tomorrow.
Teddy grumbled, but shook his head. It was apparent that he was holding a grudge. “Fuck off for a bit, Tillman,” Wilson said before looking at me and waving me to enter the room.
Teddy rolled his eyes and stood, edging past me with a growl. I closed the door behind him and looked back at Wilson curiously. “Did you need something?”
“You got anything on Jimmy since we last talked?”
I hesitated, I remained standing in the office and I wasn’t sure where to go with it. I was prettr sure Wilson was a man to trust. He held everyone with a critical look in his eyes and didn’t take bullshit. I grimaced and nodded.
“His friend brought me another bike. He seems to think whatever they’re running I’ll get in on, too.” I shrugged and rubbed at the back of my neck, “There was something about a guy named Greg cooking something and Jimmy moving it, they’re going to meet Wednesday night.”
I watched as Wilson scratched at his beard, seeming to think on what I told him. “Can you follow him?”
“I’d be pretty obvious on my bike,” I didn’t like where this was going.
“Your old lady got a car? Take that,” he sniffed as if it were no big deal. “If Jimmy is getting into meth, like this suggests, then he isn’t the right fit for us and he needs to be taken care of.”
“I can’t mess up my chances with this girl,” I argued. “It’s still too new to be asking favors like that. I don’t want to fuck things up.”
He raised a hand as if he sensed I could keep going, waving around my worries and went back to petting the beast of a beard that hung from his chin.
“I’ll get you a car, I’ll put the key in your saddle bag and you’ll find it parked across the street. If you’re willing to back up your word with proof, I’ll handle it from there. And I’ll handle Tillman, too.”
I stared at him for a moment, trying to decide whether or not I wanted to threaten my chances with Madi. She was important to me. But if Jimmy got too careless with what he was doing it could threaten everything I held dear. I nodded.
“I’ll keep tabs on him.”
15
“I’m taking Wednesday off,” Madi said to me as we got ready for bed. It gave me pause and I looked at her. I waited for her to supply me for a reason and I stood there with my jeans hanging around my ass, just looking at her. “I have a doctor’s appointment.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but her explanation seemed to hit me like a ton of bricks.
“Is it that soon for you to suspect you’re knocked up? We’ve been careful,” I gave her a hard look at, trying figure out if she looked pregnant. She flushed at me, and I realized that I probably didn’t ask that in the nicest way, but other than that she looked normal. She was still beautiful, but I couldn’t tell if there was this mystical glow that pregnant chicks supposedly got.
“Not what I have a doctor’s appointment for,” she huffed, but didn’t look too angry. “Does the idea of having a kid scare you that much?”
“I haven’t put a ring on it, yet. So… yea,” I looked away from her as I pulled my jeans the rest of the way off and sat on her bed. “I want to do right by you and knocking you up before I made this… well… permanent kinda knocked the wind out of me.” I sat in just my boxers, looking taking her in as she pulled a t-shirt over her head, seeing the bike across her breasts made me realize she was wearing one of my shirts. “Would you let me make it permanent? Or would you throw me out on my ass if I knocked you up?”
She shrugged and came to sit next to me, “I don’t know. Kids weren’t something I was thinking about right now.” She looked nervous and glanced away.
A shot of fear went through me and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Now it wasn’t a matter of her being knocked up, but that something could be wrong.
“So, what’s wrong?” I watched her for any sign or tick that there was something going on, that I had a reason to be afraid.
“I thought maybe, I could save us a buck,” she shrugged. “I’m going to get on birth control.” I blinked, trying to process what she was saying. “I thought, maybe, we could enjoy each other without something being between us. I-it’ll take a week or so to be sure that it’s working. But maybe we could take a special night and just,” she turned and leaned against me, her lips brushing against my cheek. “Be together?”
I groaned, knowing where she was getting at, “I really need to put a ring on this girl.” I flopped back, letting the stress that had suddenly coiled up in my gut go. “I can’t let her go,” I tugged her down to me. “You thought you were stuck with me before, baby,” I tilted her chin up so I could kiss her. “You’re definitely not going to get rid of me now.”
She kissed me before I could manage, “Maybe I don’t want to be rid of you.”
She broke away from me for a beat, her eyes were dilated and the little bit of green I could see was so dark. If I ever doubted this girl wanted me before, I knew better now.
16
When Wednesday rolled around I was kept busy, Wilson had fucked up his shit on purpose it felt like and I was piecing it out like I hadn’t do so damn near a month ago. Either he didn’t give a shit about it or he was just fucking with me, sometimes I couldn’t tell. Jimmy helped me at some point before Teddy put him on some sort of errand. I couldn’t piece together if he know what Wilson was having me do. I found the key Wilson had promised in my saddle bag when I took a break from my work for lunch.
I had already taken the extra measure to let Madi know I wouldn’t be staying with her for the night. When she inquired as to why, I hesitated to answer. I didn’t want to tell her the truth. Especially after I made the effort to make her believe that the Brotherhood, the guys I rode with, were all good guys; that we didn’t do anything illegal. I opted to let her know that I had a job that was going to take me longer than I thought to finish. It wasn’t far from the truth, I told myself as I gave Wilson’s bike a hard look. This fucker usually made sure I spent the majority of my day working on his damn bike.
I managed to piece it back together before Jimmy headed out. When I heard him cry out to someone inside that he had shit to do, I booked it to the sedan that Wilson had parked in the lot across the street. Fucker had me running and I did not manage to look good running with the limp I had going. When I got in I made sure to make sure that shit had gas. Fortunately, Wilson’s sense of humor wasn’t that vicious. I waited until I saw Jimmy slide out of the lot on his bike before I cranked up.
I had to be cool with the length that I followed him. There was this awful temptation to go without lights and I did before he turned onto a well lit road. I made sure my lights were on before I pulled back behind him. He rode out into the country, seeming without noticing me behind him. I was surprised to see him take his bike down a dirt road. I avoided dirt roads simply because I didn’t want to get shit all over my bike. His always looked clean so I gathered he either cleaned it after these visits or he didn’t usually take his bike. I doubt it was that latter. He was kind of like me in the essence that his bike was the only vehicle he needed. It only made a difference when it rained. For him because he was fortunate enough to serve and get out without injury, it just meant he would get a wet if he had to get out. For me I was stuck in doors and usually in a cloud of drugs and pain.
I went straight to not draw attention to myself and I cut the headlights then did a u-turn. I swung around and went up the dirt road. Jimmy already had a good distance on me, but as far as I could tell the dirt road didn’t have any houses running along side it. I didn’t
know if it was fortunate or unfortunate that the moon was bright enough for me to see a trailer in a wooded lot. I rolled the car to a stop. It was evident people were home in the trailer, but I didn’t see anyone outside. I opened the door and didn’t bother closing it. I tried to stay low and use the darkness to hide me as much as I could.
Only, I didn’t get very far into the yard. There was a roar of engines coming from behind me. I thought for a second I was fucked and Jimmy’s friends had caught me. When I heard the sirens, I wished that had been the case. Two police cruisers tore around the car I had used to get here and thrashed the yard as they pulled closer to the trailer. Another set of cruisers pulled up behind my car and I knew I was trapped. I didn’t even bother, I put my hands on my head and waited for further instruction as I watched the cops swarm the trailer. They ran past me and at first I thought I’d gone unnoticed, but a sharp voice soon barked for me to get on the ground.
