by Amber Burns
“We’ll handle it when it comes to that, you worry about what you’re setting out to do today,” he offered me the pistol. I took it and shoved it down the back of my pants. “This is just a ride through to Suzy and Tony’s. Take the backroads, keep an eye out for any tails. I don’t want you leading anyone to their doorstep. I can trust the two of you,” he shot Van Cleave a look. “As soon as you return I expect a full debrief of what happened.”
“If we’re confronted with violence?” I asked because I expected it.
“Then, you answer violence with violence. If you need back up we will have it ready,” Tillman spoke lightly.
Van Cleave was shrugging back into his cut with his vest already on and shot me a look, “Let’s make shit real, my friend.”
It was what I wanted, wasn’t it? I wanted shit to get real. I shook off the dust with busting up Billings, and I wanted to do this run. I wanted to clear the way, but here I was arming up and putting my cut back on with uncertainty eating up my gut.
“We’ll call if it’s needed,” I picked up the full face helmet that I would be wearing for the ride.
Extra measures would be taken for our safety where it could be. It seemed moot because it’s very likely we were going to be shot at. We’d see.
Van Cleave led the way back out to the front of the lot to our bikes. I took the time to screw in an extra set of mirrors and adjust them. To make sure that all points were covered. I put the helmet on and started arming my bike, too. I shoved a Glock into the holster I had fashioned between the seat and the gas tank. There was one in each saddlebag then I mounted my bike and looked to my partner, the guy that had my back. Then, I had to be honest.
“I can’t get her out of my head,” I looked down at the gas tank in front of me. “I fucked her, to the point we both passed out. And I woke up with her still in my head. I have no idea how to get her out of my head,” I swallowed, my throat feeling tight and I adjusted the helmet. “I have no idea what to do from here.”
“Yea,” Van Cleave was still loading up his bike. He didn’t look up from his work he was still too intent on it. “I called you on it because it was pretty fucking obvious.”
“Tell me… what the fuck do I do?”
He only shrugged at me, like he didn’t really have an answer. I felt like I was going to drown in all of this if I didn’t know what it was.
“Depends on what it is you’re wanting to do. Do you want to keep it fucking or not?”
“I don’t know,” I looked at the black tank and noticed imperfections in the glossy finish. “I don’t know what I want.” Hearing myself being indecisive was frustrating. I sounded like a bitch.
“What does she want?”
I shrugged because I didn’t want to answer. He didn’t need to know that Dylan wanted more than just sex. She wanted to be loved. The fact that I remembered what she wanted gave me pause. I cared what she wanted. Van Cleave was staring at me. I couldn’t see his eyes through his glasses, but I knew he was.
“If she decides to go get herself a new daddy, how do you handle it?”
“Motherfucker gets fucked up,” I said, and I felt the conviction as I said it.
If I saw her hanging on another man or another man even sniffing around her, there would be hell to pay. I felt possessive and without thinking I had my phone out in my hand, sending her a text.
‘Hey,’ was sent her way.
“You got it bad, and you don’t even know it.”
I looked up from the touchscreen to him, my eyes wide, “What?”
“This is why your head isn’t in the game. You’re hung up on your girl,” he pulled his helmet on and sat onto his bike. “In love and you don’t even realize it.”
“I barely know this girl,” I snapped and then struggled to think of some way to shoot down his idea.
“If the idea of her with another man makes you sick and want to commit acts of violence,” he shook a finger at me like he was scolding me. “You’re in love. Doesn’t matter if you don’t know her or not. You got your dick wet, and you loved the way it felt. I’d tell you to think about it, try to find a way to prove me wrong. But we got shit to do, and we don’t have time to have heartfelt shit like this. Accept it, you’re hot for the girl. Now, get your head in the game so you can have my back.”
I growled and shoved my phone back into my pocket, not bothering to see if she responded.
“I got your back, fucker,” I growled as I closed the visor and cranked my bike up.
He had a point, as much as I didn’t want to admit it. Regardless as to how I felt. I needed my head out of my ass and on the game.
13
It was a three-hour ride from the clubhouse to Suzy and Tony’s along a stretch of highway that was pretty empty. The road was in terrible condition, reason enough to not be used by anyone on a motorcycle. Skilled enough riders can easily weave around the potholes without damaging their bike or ending up on the road. One of the reasons we took this route is because it wasn’t used often. There were few businesses that lined it, though the majority of it was buildings that were dark when we started our breeze through.
For the most part, we rode side by side, though there was some shifting when the road was rough. I let Van Cleave lead, and I kept my eyes open for any signs of a tail, or that we got anyone’s attention at all. It’s probable that we would be ignored. On the back patch of our cuts was the symbol of the club. A skull with wings, three stars above it and a banner below it displaying our name. One of the founding members designed it, a guy that had a majority of his work on ships that were rusting up in graveyards off the coasts. As was the way of things as technology made its leaps and bounds. I think they finally retired the last non-nuclear powered carrier before I got out of the Marines. I still wasn’t clear what happened to it, though I didn’t really care. History lessons held my interest briefly, only because there was some lesson in them. I’d rather learn from other people’s mistakes than make my own, if I could help it.
But here I was speeding down a deserted back road towards trouble with a girl I barely knew fucking up my head. His words before we set out was also choking me. Was what I feeling love? I didn’t know, I’d been with women before just never on the regular. Dylan and I had only had sex twice. I didn’t really have any stake to claim here, but the idea of her being with anyone else was like piss in my cheerios. I didn’t want it to happen. What did I do from here?
Well, right now the only thing I could do was do this ride through and wait to see if anything would come of it. We passed what looked like a bar, something that wasn’t there the last time I’d made this trip. It was the only building that still seemed to be open on this stretch of mile, and I could see motorcycles lined up in front of it. I heard Van Cleave’s engine roar, he was purposely kicking up noise as we passed. He wanted us noticed, I grimaced, shooting a look over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming to follow.
I spotted figured, dark shapes that came to the roadside. No one seemed to be in a hurry to follow, though. I kept an eye out, just in case. I wouldn’t be able to hear anything over the roar of my bike or Van Cleave’s. I didn’t want anyone sneaking up on us, so I trusted him to lead the way without running us into trouble.
If business hadn’t been involved, it would have been a good ride. It’d been too long since I just got on my motorcycle for the sake of going on a ride. If I wasn’t looking over my shoulder and constantly checking my mirrors, I might have been able to let the sound of the road and the roar of my bike take away my anxieties. I might’ve been able to make sense of everything, but I didn’t need to let my mind wander right now. There was too much risk going on in this ride. Just the two of us cutting through another group’s territory would draw attention to us even if we weren’t confronted. If they were able to spot our cuts, they could come to us with a little research.
The Boneyard Brotherhood was a motorcycle club that’s made a name for itself in a few of the local papers. Of course, it was a front
, the stories were based on the fact that we were a group that worked to help those transitioning out of the military and into civilian life. It made us look like a club that wasn’t criminal, the biker look that the majority of the men in the club wore was something that just came from riding a motorcycle. Now, whether the gang that claimed this territory would take offense to our presence would be something that we would find out the hard way.
First, though, Van Cleave pulled us off the highway onto a dirt road. We would have to work on business first. The dirt road that led to Suzy’s and Tony’s was overgrown and hazardous to go down on a bike. We had to slow down and switch gears so that the motorcycle’s engines went from loud growls to a soft purr. When the road was too thick to keep going on our bikes we had to finish the path on foot.
It was a pain in the ass, but I understood the reason for all of this. I spotted a camera mounted on a tree, hidden in the branches. I wouldn’t have spotted it if I hadn’t known it was there. I could remember helping Tony mount it. I waved at the camera as we walked past it. It was half a mile before we came out the break in the woods. The clearing that the compound sat on was broad enough to support over an acre of pot plants as well as the little trailer Suzy and Tony lived in.
As soon as we broke the line of trees, an angry cry came out of nowhere, “Hold it! Hands where I can see them or I’m pumping you both full of led.”
“Tony,” Van Cleave cried out, sounding ecstatic. He threw his arms out like he was offering the man a hug. “It’s been a long year, man. Don’t tell me you forgot my pretty face!”
“Oh! Is that Eddie?” Suzy came out of the trailer and without even waiting for an ‘all's clear’ from her spouse. She launched herself at Van Cleave with a squeal that shouldn’t be coming from a woman her age. I watched as she fawned over him, pinching his cheeks like he was a grandson she hadn’t seen in awhile. “You look so good,” she said before she set her sights on me. Here I was smirking at the other man, but when this little slip of a woman came to me, I knew I was trapped. “Jeremiah,” I grimaced at hearing my first name. “Look at you,” her wrinkled hands cupped my face. “You working on a beard here?” She rubbed my cheeks, “You trying to rope a girl with this look?”
“Naw,” I didn’t correct her with my name. With Suzy, it would have gone in one ear and out the other. Why she didn’t have a problem calling Van Cleave by a nickname I didn’t know. “I just hadn’t gotten around to shaving. Had a lot of things going on.”
“You look good with some hair on your face,” she patted my cheek. “You could find yourself a good woman looking like this.”
“He’s got his sights set on a woman,” Van Cleave smirked at me. “He’s had his head in the clouds the entire ride over here. Thinking about his lady and how he’s going to get her to stick with him.” He met my grimace with a grin. “Probably won’t be long before she makes an honest man out of him.”
“Oh you stop,” Suzy saved me before I could speak up. Though I would be sure to shove my boot up his ass for all that shit. “Do you have a regular lady?”
“Nothing official,” I said trying to shrug it off. “We’ve only seen each other twice. He’s exaggerating.”
“That’s okay,” she released me and started to lead the way back to the trailer. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you two I almost didn’t recognize you.” She paused to open the door, “Tony it’s the boys you can put the gun down, you know who it is.”
“Yea well,” an elderly man in a wife beater and gray trousers. His white hair stood out from his olive skin, and he had a gruffer attitude verse the welcoming attitude of his wife. “You can never be too careful.” I offered him a hand that he took, shaking it firmly. “I sure as hell hope you’re not here for a pickup.”
“Not today,” I said. “Mostly we were here to clear the way. Van Cleave mentioned that there was another crew that you guys had some run-ins with.”
Tony snorted, “We do runs into town for things. One of the water systems is down, and the tarp we use for cover was ripped. Had to patch the hole. Some yahoos started to hassle Suzy,” he nodded in her direction. “She likes to hang out in the truck when I do supply runs. She thinks it’ll make me take less time in the store if I know she’s out there. You’d think after fifty years she would’ve learned by now.”
“Don’t you bad mouth me,” she snipped as she stepped inside the trailer. She was gone for a beat before she came out with two glasses of water. Van Cleave got one, and she brought me the other. “He survived fifty years because I didn’t think I could off him and get away with it. He doesn’t realize he’s old now, people will believe he had a heart attack. I could get away with it.” She gave him a narrow-eyed look, though I knew that their back and forth was just for show.
“Tell me what you know about these people,” I said to Tony, folding my arms over my chest. “What happened?”
“They were a small group from what I gathered that just started bolstering their ranks,” Tony came closer to me as he spoke. “They hadn’t really made much of a nuisance of themselves until this past year. I figured they were probably dealing and committing the obvious gang crimes, graffiti marking up a few buildings. Things that didn’t affect us. Honestly, I was watching them as a means to move our crop. When Boneyard went quiet we lost a good chunk of our income,” he pinned me with a look.
“Better to go legit when the cops are sniffing around than to end up in jail, pretty sure they would have followed the trail back to you two,” I shrugged because really didn’t care either way. I had been sore about the need to behave, but I knew the reason. Just like Tony did.
“Touche,” he sniffed irritably. “Anyway, after about a month they opened up the bar. We use that route when we have to make runs into town. It gives me the chance to make sure the route is clear for you boys, to the house, but not too clear.” He waved his hand like he didn’t expect me to understand, but I nodded. “We were followed as soon as we passed the bar or clubhouse, whatever you kids call it. I didn’t think anything of it with as often as motorcycles cut around us and our dealings with Wilson and Ted. She was being difficult with me that day,” he shot Suzy a look. “So, I left her in the truck, so I could pick up the things I needed. When I came out, there were two fellas at her side trying to get in. I might have jumped the gun, but you don’t mess with another man’s wife.”
“You don’t,” Van Cleave agreed.
“I stepped up and got more than I could handle,” he shrugged like it was no big deal and I glanced as his arms to see if there were any apparent wounds on his arms. There was some discoloration on one, but I couldn’t be sure if it was from the incident or not. “They broke my arm,” he shrugged. “Threatened to kick my ass and show Suzy a good time that they thought I couldn’t.”
“Like breaking the arm of a sixty-eight-year-old is impressive,” Suzy huffed lightly. “If I had my gun on I would have shown them what’s what.”
“You carry guns now whenever you go into town, now, right?” Van Cleave asked, his expression was sober.
“I only need once to learn my lesson,” Tony grunted. “What do you intend to do about these yahoos?” Both of them looked to me, “You guys aren’t dirty as far as I could tell. How do you expect to get your route back?”
“That’s up to Wilson and Ted,” Van Cleave answered for me. “What we’re doing is just coming through to see exactly what we’re up against, so we know how to handle it. We have to find out how big they are and whether we have the numbers to handle a confrontation with them.”
“You mean to tell me,” he turned to glower at Van Cleave. “That with all your military training you can go out there and just take out the lot of them?”
“Probably,” I admitted. “But it’s not a good idea to go and level a building even if it would get a lot of attention. Not to mention it would take some time and planning. There’s not a chance that we could kill every since member without the group knowing it was us or being able to find out who it
was. Not to mention the that you have a club full of military folks that were trained in shit like this,” I rolled a shoulder. “It would be awful incriminating, and we’ve already been looked at.”
“Don’t put up a stink,” Suzy stepped forward. “If they start up again it’ll be obvious who is more dangerous. They’ve never done us wrong,” she put a hand on my arm and gave me a light squeeze.
“Fine,” Tony huffed, and we were led out of the trailer. “Get back home and let us know when we can start getting you a shipment ready again.”
“Be careful,” Suzy said, and she looked genuinely worried.
I nodded and began walking out the way we came, it was dark, so I pulled a small flashlight out to lead the way through the woods.
“What can we do to help them out?” Van Cleave called up since he was behind me, letting me lead the way. “Do you think we could systematically pick them off by one?”
