by Eden Rose
I’m practically running back to my apartment. “What happened? You’re scaring me.”
“Vitali just had someone burn your house down. Everything inside of it is gone.”
My heart hammers in my chest. “What do you mean? When did this happen?”
“Just now. We got to your house and the whole thing is burned down.”
I start to panic. “Has Vitali been making any phone calls?” I question. I don’t know what kind of protection they have for him at the county jail or if they are monitoring him. If they aren’t monitoring him, he could be doing whatever the fuck he wants.
Howie lets out a deep breath. “We don’t know much. The jail isn’t being that forthcoming with information. Sorry to be the one to tell you this, Maci.”
“Everything’s gone?” I ask again to clarify.
After everything that has happened, I’m surprised I’m not crying. My house is gone, my career is gone and much more than that- my daughter and I are being threatened.
There isn’t much more he can take from us.
“The whole house is burned down.”
“All right, I’m going to get some sleep. Let me know what you find out.”
Howie hangs up without saying bye or anything. That’s nothing new. The man doesn’t have a lot of manners.
My house. I can’t believe my house is gone. Everything I had in there… all gone. Luckily for me and Riley, we packed and brought everything we thought we wanted or needed with us when we moved to the other side of the country.
Without realizing it, I made it inside of the apartment with the door closed. How did I do that?
Riley is looking at me with scared eyes and shows me her tablet. Sure enough, our house is on there.
Fuck!
I hear the bikes start up and I rush outside to stop Hawk from leaving. I owe him an apology for leaving him like that.
The guys are on their bikes with my neighbor watching them intently. The way she is watching them makes me wonder how well she knows them.
Hawk turns to meet my eyes and I give him an awkward smile in hopes of him stopping his bike to come and talk to me. He doesn’t. He looks at me once more and then takes off.
“How do you know the guys?” The woman asks me and tightens her robe.
“I just met them. I’m a waitress at one of the places they own.”
The woman smiles. “Do you take your clothes off or are you on the other side?”
My eyes widen. I can’t believe a woman I just met is asking me if I’m a stripper. Are you serious? “I’m on the other side.”
She giggles. “I take my clothes off. You should try it. You look like you could be good at it.”
“Uh, thanks?” What is she trying to say here? Is she trying to say I’m cute enough to be a stripper? I don’t get it.
“Looks like Hawk has his eye on you,” she chirps.
I can’t believe she said that. Who is this woman?
“I’m sorry, but what is your name?” I blurt out.
“I’m Gina. And you are?”
Standing in the middle of the sidewalk, two women are trying to gauge the other to see if there is going to be competition.
The way she keeps looking me up and down, I don’t think she’s going to be my competition.
“I’m Maci. I just moved in.”
She smiles. “Yeah, you have the teenager, huh?”
I roll my eyes. “Yep. That pretty girl is my daughter.”
With one more smile, she waves at me and starts walking back into the building. I guess the pleasantries are over with.
I follow behind her. Right before we both get to our apartment doors she turns to look at me one last time. “Hawk is one of my best friends. Don’t go fucking around him. I don’t know you, but I want to make that clear.”
12
Hawk
Gear growls at us when we get back to the clubhouse. I know how he feels about drugs and I know how he feels about bailing chicks out. However, he has to understand we take care of our own.
“So, this is what we do now?” He grunts the second we park our bikes and walk into the clubhouse.
“We take care of our own, dude. You know that and I know that. Why you fightin’ me on this?” I question and block his way from getting into the clubhouse.
The last thing I need is for him to get into the clubhouse with his bad attitude.
He looks at me but his eyes are looking other places. He’s not really seeing me and he doesn’t care about my reasons for doing what I did. It was only a couple of grand we paid the asshole, but it did more than he realizes.
It shows the girls at the club that we care about them and want them to get off that shit. Also, it shows that they are able to trust us.
“You wanna get into it right now, prez?” Gear flippantly throws out.
I stretch my neck out. “Nah, what I need is somethin’ to swing at. You game?”
“Fuck yeah! Get ‘em, Gear!” One of the brothers calls out from inside of the clubhouse. I guess that means they are listening to the conversation.
Sneaky assholes.
“Yeah, let’s do it!” Gear chants and makes a fist.
I’m a strong dude, don’t get me wrong. I’ve lifted weights my whole life. I’ve done my time in the gym and I’ve done my time fighting. Gear, on the other hand, is a fuckin’ monster.
One thing for sure is I’m not going to let this asshole kick my ass in front of my brothers. Fuck no.
The brothers and I have always had an open relationship and I believe they respect me for that. I’ve listened to what they are expecting and all of that shit, but I can’t keep having people undermine me.
Gear is already in the make-shift ring we have in the back of the clubhouse. We constructed it a few years ago as a safe place to let our aggression out. We’re men, and we have aggression!
I’m climbing through the ropes as Maucho appears with a smug look on his face.
“Do I want to know?” I ask him.
He shrugs.
Fuck it. I’ll deal with it after this fight.
Gear is the first one to come charging at me. He pushes his shoulder into my chest to get me to fall down but I sidestep him. I do it so quickly that he falls down onto the ground.
I’m not a pussy so I don’t get down on the ground and go to work on the fucker. Nah, that’s child’s play. I wait for him to limb up and charge at me again. This time he hits me in the jaw with his fist.
Ah, so that’s how he wants to play.
For the next couple of minutes, we take turns swinging at each other. Each jab I make that connects with his face or torso, has me feeling a little better about trying to get to know a woman who’s got a man.
Every fist that hits my body, is another reminder that something’s bothering Gear.
A bell is rung in the background of the haze of brothers yelling at us to continue or to stop. Some of the brothers love the fights while others think they’re stupid.
I’m not one to think either way on the situation. Sometimes you just need to take a swing at something.
Bull steps up at the corner of the ring and yells at us. “That’s enough beatin’ the shit outta each other. If you can still fight, you should look into doin’ something else!”
Bull’s been around since the club started in 1994. The man is older than fuck, but he’s a good brother who cares. He never wanted to be president and makes it well known. Whenever someone asks him if he will become president one day, he says no.
I wipe the blood on my lip with my thumb.
Gear barrels over and places his hands on his knees. He’s fighting something big and I wanna know what it is.
“Gear, meet me in my office,” I call out to him. I’m not looking for him to disobey me.
Nah. We got shit we need to discuss.
I pull out my phone from my pocket as I walk through the brothers who are clapping me on the back and all that shit. It’s after one in the morning and I’m feeling every bit of it.<
br />
I get to my office and sit in my chair. Next to my desk, is a mini-fridge filled with bottled waters and bottles of beer. Just how I like it!
Gear strolls into my office and snags the water I have pushed across the desk.
“Care to tell me what the fuck that was out there?” I bark out.
“Sorry, prez. I just found out some shit and I’m struggling.”
“What’s up?”
He plops down in the chair in front of me and places one of his ankles on the other leg’s knee. “My sister just overdosed on some shit and now everywhere I turn, someone else is doin’ so shit. I don’t know, prez. I know why we gotta help people and shit, but who helped her?”
I nod and drain the rest of my water. “Gear, I know that shit sucks. Gina’s not a regular druggie who needed to be bailed out. She’s a young woman who bought Adderall. That’s it,” I explain. “I’m not sayin’ that shit can’t be abused, but she’s takin’ it to study. If she keeps fuckin’ up, I won’t help her again.”
Gear shrugs. “Shit just can get so complicated and I hate it.”
“Yeah, well, we gotta do what we gotta do.”
It’s not until I’m crawling into my bed at the clubhouse that I remember I was supposed to track down Maucho. Fuck!
13
Maci
“Riles,” I call out to my daughter the next morning. She loves to sleep in, and I can’t blame her. If my mind wasn’t full of all this bull shit and wondering how I’m going to tell my kid that our house burned down, I might be able to sleep, too.
“What?”
My eye rolls. Damn, sassy child!
“How about you come out and have breakfast with your mom?”
“Do I have to?” She hisses back.
“Yes!”
Not before long, we’re in the car and on our way to the diner I’m going to be working at starting tonight. There isn’t many places to eat in this town, and I’m thinking this is the only breakfast joint.
My sweet tooth is demanding for pancakes and extra syrup. Yeah, like I said, I have a sweet tooth.
I pull in the car into the parking lot and notice a couple of bikes out in the front. Great! I wasn’t expecting all of this, but it is what it is.
And on top of everything else, Hawk probably thinks I’m sort of psycho bitch who doesn’t have her shit together.
“Two?” A tired waitress asks.
I nod.
I’m in a pair of jeans and Riley is still in her pajamas but at least she brushed her hair. That’s always a fight in the morning to get her to brush her damn hair. The girl has long curly hair that takes forever to brush out.
I keep my head down as I don’t want to attract any attention to us. I’m already being risky by being out and about today. I’m thinking it might be easier to discuss what is happening to us out in public instead of the apartment. At the apartment, she’s able to run from me a little more.
“What can I getcha to drink?” An older woman asks as she chomps away at her gum. Could she be anymore stereotypical right now? Jesus.
“Coffee, black. Riles, what do you want to drink?”
“Chocolate milk. Large, please,” she mumbles and looks over the menu.
The waitress looks at me over her thick rimmed glasses to make sure that’s okay. I nod. I don’t really care what Riley drinks or eats while we’re out, as long as she’s eating.
Last year, my daughter started to show me signs of an eating disorder. The school I had her enrolled in, had a bunch of superficial girls who used to pick on her for being a little chubby. She wasn’t fat, by any means. She just a little extra baby fat. Anyways, she stopped eating as much as she normally did and only drank water. She lost about thirty pounds in two months and started working out harder than needed. When confronted about it, she admitted she felt fat.
Needless to say, after all of that, I just want her to eat.
“I’m getting chocolate chip pancakes and bacon,” I inform her.
Riley shrugs and looks at the menu with too much concentration. “I guess I’ll get the same?”
The waitress comes back with our drinks and we order our food. She smiles and scurries off to put it in the computer.
From the corner of my eye, I can see Capone and someone else who looks like they are friends with Hawk off to the corner. Capone is nudging his friend and they are looking over at our table. I burrow my head a little more to just stay out of the way.
I don’t need them to know about my daughter. Hell, I don’t need them to know anything about us.
“So, why did you drag me out of bed?” Riley asks and chugs half of her chocolate milk. I don’t bother telling her to slow down. Those moments are long over.
“It’s noon,” I inform her flippantly. Teenagers!
“Whatever.”
Our breakfast is delivered quickly and I start to spread the butter on top of my pancakes like she does. We’re quiet for a couple of seconds to get our breakfast ready to eat.
I take a bite and look at my daughter. Her eyes are boring into me, begging me to tell her what’s going on. I know there’s no way out of this.
“Our house got burned down back at home,” I murmurer.
“Yeah, I know!” She cries out.
When I got my first good paycheck, we picked out that house together. I know this is going to be hard for her, but she wants to be treated like an adult.
“Yes. Howie called me last night when I got back inside from my walk. No one knows who did it exactly, but I think we know who is responsible.”
I’m cutting a piece of my pancake and plopping it in my mouth when she drops her fork on the plate. “Why is this happening? Why did we have to leave in the first place?”
Her voice is raising higher and higher. I can tell how angry she is, but she knows the gist of why we had to leave. I never kept it from her. She understood the second I got assigned as prosecutor to Vitali’s case, things were going to change.
“Riley, you knew what my new job meant. We had to leave because something like this could have happened while we were in the house!” I exclaim.
She shakes her head and stuffs a piece of pancake in her mouth. I can tell this conversation is lost on her and she doesn’t care anymore. I can see she’s shutting down on me which could mean only one thing.
She’s going to run from me.
“Why? Why though? I don’t understand what he did that was so bad he would want to kill you or me.”
I never told her the full story about the case. Mainly because no kid needs that image in their mind.
“Are you sure you want to know?” I ask her and drain the rest of my coffee.
She pushes her plate aside and looks at me dead on. “Yes. If it means our lives are in danger, yes.”
“A man killed a whole family. Parents and their kids. I was in charge of convicting him and the jury agreed with me. After the trial, he threatened us. He threatened to kill everyone I love and I know he would do it.”
I probably should have sugar coated it a little more, but she wanted the truth.
“Holy shit,” she mumbles.
“Holy shit, indeed.”
We have finished our breakfast and the waitress is coming back to clear our plates. She has a funny smile on her face as if she’s keeping a secret.
“How was everything?” She asks.
“Really good. Thank you. Do you have our bill?”
“It’s already been paid,” she whispers.
14
Hawk
Maucho is not a hard man to find in the morning. He’s escorting one of the girls that love being around bikers out the back door. He swats her on the ass and she hisses at him with a fake growl.
“I’ll see you later,” he croons.
Amanda’s eyes light up. She’s always had it bad for Maucho. Something about him that makes her keep coming back. But then again, she has something special with all of the men in my club. Just not me.
“Hey, prez,” he
grumbles sleepily.
“Up all night?” I question and light the blunt in my hand.
“You know Amanda’s one of my favorites. Anyways, I’m glad you found me. I have that info.”
In the distant background of our clubhouse, birds are chirping and all of that bull shit morning shit that happens. It’s too early for me to be awake, but I’m eager to get some info on Maci.
“What did you find?” I take a walk farther from the clubhouse. I’m not wanting all my men to know I’m hung up on a girl I met last night. I also don’t want them knowing anything about her until I figure out why I want her.
“Nothing. Not a thing. Prez, she’s a ghost.”
“What the fuck?”
“That’s what I was thinkin’, too. Nothing came up with the info you had on her. The only thing I can think of, is she’s runnin’ from somethin’.”
I take a long puff off of my blunt. My phone vibrates in my pocket.
CAPONE: your girl is at the diner with another girl
ME: what does the girl look like?
CAPONE: could be her younger sister. Idk
ME: cover their bill. Thanks
CAPONE: you got it bad
He doesn’t know how bad I have it.
“Who’s on watch of the diner and the club tonight?” I ask Maucho.
“Who do you want it to be?” He rubs his hand down his face and rolls his neck to stretch it out.
“Me.”
“You got it, then.”
“Show me everything you searched on Maci.”
*
At ten o’clock, I’m hopping on my bike and I’m ready to go to the club. Even after Dingo’s been paid off, I’m still enforcing the guard.
What is she hiding?
Like Maucho said, the girl’s a ghost. Not one thing pulled up under any of her information besides her name and a birthday. She has no debt, no bills… Everything is clear as a whistle. What the fuck is up with that?
I’m bringing in a lot of money and I even have a credit card.
One thing about her birthday that made me look side ways at: there’s no way in fuckin’ hell she’s thirty-five.
From behind me, I hear the rumble of another bike. I look to the left and see Capone and Gear already up in position.
