by Ethan Egorov
“You okay?” the woman I’ve been chatting with, Penny, asks me. She has this fiery red head thing going on, cute smile.
“Yeah. You want to get out of here?” I stand from the couch and she does too as she grins.
“Yeah, let me just tell Amy.” She says. Amy is Kit’s sister.
I nod. Kit comes by and I tell him that I’m out, his response is an I told you so and that he’ll see me tomorrow. Penny, like anyone else, is enthused about riding on the back of a motorcycle. I go to her place, so I can just leave after.
She’s everything I expected she would be, fun, hot, lasts long enough that I forget I was cheated on and now have to figure shit out again. What’s better is she doesn’t expect a call back, doesn’t even give me her number. I feel a little better until the morning, when I have to go through remembering and shit. It’s rough.
I just wish I knew for how long.
4
Kit
I come back to the club, from a long drive that ended with me standing off with a member of the Devil’s Princes. I hate them, I grew up hating them, so when they make trouble it’s easy for me to go after them. When anyone makes trouble, it’s easy for me to get angry and take care of it because I’m always angry, right at the surface.
I’ve been that way since Dad died, being in the club saved me from what might have happened if I didn’t have this. It’s all I have left of him, he started it with Tank and no one knows that but him.
“How did it go?” he is sitting in the black swivel chair behind his desk and swings forward to look at me. I walk in and shut the door. His office is small, he has pictures of his family up on the wall and ones with guys at the club.
“As expected, they said it’s a misunderstanding but you know how that goes.” I shake my head.
He grins under his beard as his eyes harden. “So we might have a problem on our hands.”
“Might.” I stuff my hands in my pockets and pace the office. I’ve been sitting for hours, it’s the last thing I want to do. I go to where the small window is, tinted yellow because no one ever cleans it and look out onto the compound. I see the garage from here, Rafe is out there working on a beat-up truck and Spencer is with him.
He’s been around for a few months now, our new prospect. Everyone seems to like him and I don’t have any issues. Him and Rafe actually remind me of my sister and I, if she didn’t hate the MC. She knows what it means to me but didn’t really approve of it at first. Amy is a straight forward, rule follower. Makes sense that she is a nurse.
“I don’t want to start a war between us. We don’t need that. And we haven’t had one so far. But I swear, if they keep crossing into our territory…” He trails off and I get the gist. He looks angry and nothing has even happened yet.
The guy was making threats in the shirt shop, no one knew who he was at first until he revealed he was in our rival club. When shit like that happens, it makes us look bad. It makes us look like we don’t have control and we do, we don’t need the cops on our asses because of some gang fight. So I handle things under the radar, defend the club without being out in the open. I scared the guy shitless but even I know that there will still be some fall back.
“What do you want to do here?” I ask him, turning to face him.
He shrugs his heavy shoulders from where he sits.
“Take a vote. Decide whether or not we should retaliate. I don’t want to get us into something we don’t need to be in.” He says.
I bounce back off that and we go back and forth. It reminds me of the many times he asked why I didn’t want to be voted in as president. But no one knows my dad started the club with him or how he died and I like it that way. I don’t want to be looked at or up to like some founding father, I don’t have the space for it. I like to live a simple life. I fuck shit up when I have to, enjoy being at the club and with my family, with women, anything else is spent watching football. I’m a regular warm-blooded male, no surprise there unless I am doing something dangerous with the club. Running a kilo or artillery.
“I gotta get home, eat something. You need anything else?” I am halfway to the door.
“Nah, you go relax. We’ll all meet tomorrow.”
I nod and then leave. On the way out, I catch Logan wiping down the bar. I feel bad for him, it’s been about six months since he broke up with his cheating girlfriend and I can’t help but wonder how I am supposed to help him. I tried the whole one-night stand thing, turns out I’m better at it that him. And that’s all I know in terms of feel better tactics.
“Come by for a drink or something.” I lean over the bar and grin.
He shakes his head at me, “No way. I’m not letting Chelsea turn me into an alcoholic.”
“Food then. You know how to cook.” I laugh and he joins in.
“Fuck off. We can hit the gym tomorrow.”
“Yeah okay, see ya man.” I laugh and walk off outside.
The sun is half set, leaving that orange glow over the compound. I wave to Spencer and Rafe in the garage before I get on my bike. It’s uncomfortable, I’ve been on it all day, but I don’t live far and once I get to my building, I practically race up the stairs.
I was only gone two days but I have a dog, Jax, and he does okay indoors but two days is his max. I have a pooch, and plenty of people have said their peace about me having trained him to use the bathroom out there. But I’ve lived here for years, and they’ve gotten used to it.
“Hey bud,” I scratch behind his ears, bend and check that he is all in order. He’s a black lab and has huge black eyes, I’ve had him since he was a puppy and I found him in an alley behind a bar four years ago.
“Let’s eat.” I left him three bowls of food, I leave a lot and he is trained to know when to eat and such, he is pretty self-sufficient.
I make him a bowl of hot dog food for a change, and then heat up my own frozen dinner. I should have better dinner habits but time gets away from me. I think protein shakes and the gym gave me my physique, doing manual labor at the bar.
After that I shower, lounge in my bedroom and watch television with Jax circling the floor by the bed. I’m out soon after that, trying not to let a war start between us and the Devil’s Princes.
Logan and I make do on our workout, the gym in town is one of those chain gyms and one of my places to pick up women. It’s been almost a week, long time for me.
“I know that look. At least wait until I’m gone.” Logan stands from the weight bench.
We have both finished, sweaty in our shorts and tee shirts, but I’m staring in the mirror at the woman behind me stretching on the floor area. I know it’s bad to stare, makes them uncomfortable, so I look away, but glance back sometimes.
“I didn’t do anything. You going to that meeting?”
“Course I am.” He wipes his forehead with a towel as we walk on to the locker room to get our stuff.
I’m the only one that knows what happened for now, so I have to keep things under wraps. Sometimes I’m worried that Rafe will know I do a lot of things behind the scenes with Tank and be pissed about it, but I don’t think that’s his style. I don’t want to be given too much responsibility though, because that isn’t my style either.
“Hope it’s not a bad one though.” He walks off to the showers and I skip out to see where the girl I spotted was.
I find her by the water fountain.
“Hey, I’m Kit.” It’s usually all I have to say. She turns around, her long blonde hair in a hair tie swings and she widens her blue eyes at me before they narrow.
“I know who you are…” she makes a face at me and I grin, I’m using most of my charm and it doesn’t seem to be doing anything to her.
“Wow, you’re sick.” She slams the cap of her water bottle shut and I stare at her in confusion, quickly going up from her lithe frame and ass to her face contorted up in anger at me.
“Hold on, what’s that supposed to mean?” I know I have tattoos all over my arms and have been told I h
ave a mean look, but they usually like that to be honest. Or maybe just the women at the clubs that like that, I don’t know.
“It means you’ve already hit on me before. And we’ve already slept together.” She laughs in a way that it isn’t funny and I have to really look at her before I remember.
Yikes.
I apologize and walk away, back to the locker room where Logan is putting on his jeans, and I’m still half laughing.
“You won’t believe what I just did.”
“I bet I would.”
I start getting changed, Logan just has a thing about showering after the gym. I mean I don’t smell or anything, so I don’t feel like I need to. Plus my method of transport is being exposed to the air so it doesn’t make much sense unless I am going home.
“I tried to hit on a girl I already fucked.”
He stares at me blankly and laughs, I do the same.
“Yeah, I totally believe that. You’re lucky she didn’t punch you in the face or something man.” He shakes his head at me. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“I do, and it requires not asking myself that.” I comb my hair back with my hands and then zip my bag.
“Let’s head to this meeting and get it over with.”
The execs meet once or twice a month unless there is an emergency. This is one of those, because we shouldn’t have had to meet until next week. We arrive and take our seats at the table. A big huge wooden table with the club seal plastered on the center, it seats the four of us comfortably, and we don’t have to take a vote today so no one else is present.
“Thanks for coming on short notice,” Tank starts. He clears his throat and leans back in his chair like he always does, commanding the space. I glance at Rafe sitting next to him and he doesn’t seem to have an idea of what is going on, so I try to keep my face neutral too.
“We got a problem with the Devil’s Princes.”
“Again?” Rafe growls, I see his face contort in anger, Logan sitting across from me does the same.
Darrius shifts next to me, he is our secretary of sorts, basically manages the books and all our less than legal affairs. Everyone has their own response to the statement and I would look odd if I didn’t say anything.
“What happened?” I fake.
Tank glances at me but not for too long. “One of their own came into town, started harassing people at the shop. I think he wanted to make a scene.”
“I didn’t hear anything about it so he must not have.” Logan says. He is the most involved with the store, it’s his little project. One that helps keep our money hidden which hides us from the feds.
“Well, he left after we sent someone over, one of the enforcers. But this means something else might be coming. And I want to be prepared for it.” Tank says.
“You don’t know if we need to retaliate.” Rafe finishes for him.
“Exactly.” Tank breathes in deep and huffs it out, then scratches down his beard as he thinks.
“Kit maybe you should head over there… see what it is they want.” Logan suggests. I glance at Tank before I nod.
“Yeah,” I clear my throat, no one knows that I was just there. I said I was spending time with Amy if anyone had asked. Everyone in this room did, because we look out for each other.
“Good enough. Then we can figure out how serious this is.” Darrius says, and we all agree.
Except Rafe, he doesn’t agree at all.
5
Darrius
“No way. We can’t send one of our guys in, their pres is a fucking nutjob, he’ll think that it means war.” I tell them.
The four of us sit around the table and go back and forth about how to handle the Devil’s Princes coming back into town and rearing their heads. I wasn’t around for the last war with them, but it was bad. Lucky for us, it happened on their territory. So over there, the cops are heavy around their club and the feds are already on them but we got to separate in peace. I’m not prepared to upset that balance now, because we don’t need our club to be under scrutiny.
“We can’t let them think that they can come around whenever they want though. We have to take a stance.” Logan interjects. I glance at him from where I sit across the table and he narrows his eyes.
“I get that. But I don’t want to end up in a fight I could have avoided. The last time I went against the Devil’s Princes I almost lost everything with the club, and I made an agreement with their pres that we wouldn’t come on each other’s territories. They violated that, so I won’t just stand by.” Tank says to me, and I stare back at him but try to see another way.
“I’m just saying that maybe this could be solved in a way that doesn’t involve doing the same thing to them.” I say.
They all stay silent for a long while.
“Well when you put it that way, I understand,” Rafe says. “And I agree. We shouldn’t go there. If they come back, then we have a problem. It’s not about winning the game of who is going to violate the agreement first, they already did. But we would be better prepared if we pulled back.”
“We should let them be belly up before we try and get in bed with them. At least for a while.” I add.
Tank nods slowly and scratches at his beard as he thinks. I thrum my fingers on the table and wait. I didn’t mind being the one that disagreed with everyone and I didn’t need to be right, but we would be better off if we actually thought about it and made the right choice.
I have been on the exec of the club for five years now. I know my place and we all respect each other here; this room is the safest place for us to get into a disagreement. But we all know how to talk to each other, how to work through our issues. It always comes to a vote and Tank rarely ever overrides that.
“Okay, so maybe we hold off on going over to their territory.” Tank sighs.
I nod with relief.
“Yeah. And then we can make a level decision about what to do, if they even do anything. It could have been a rogue member anyway. Darrius is right to take a minute.” Rafe adds.
“Thanks.” We all chuckle and Tank shakes his head.
“Okay, let’s vote, all for not retaliating yet—” we all raise our hands, say I, and then its done.
“Alright. So ordered.” Tank stands and then breathes out like he forgot something. “Oh, so a new prospect is gonna be initiated soon.” We all chuckle and glance at Rafe, he holds his hands up like he had nothing to do with it.
In most ways he didn’t, since this is a decision, we all made together, but Spencer is his brother, and he brought him here to help him. But that’s not the only reason he got it. He kept his head down like he was supposed to, worked the bar and the shop and has been helping us out a lot. I like him at least, he reminds me of Rafe in the way that he doesn’t really bother anyone.
“And uh, Jeannine is coming back into town for a bit next week so uh, keep an eye out for her but you know how she is. Don’t let her notice. I just want to keep her out of trouble or else her mom will kill me, you know how she is too.”
We all chuckle. His old lady left town about ten years ago, only comes by for holidays. It was pretty messy and I have only known them while they were seperated, Logan can attest to how they were before that but she left because she didn’t agree with the club getting involved in drugs and guns. They fought about it, Tank chose the club, so she took Jeannine practically across the country to live with her sister. She is young though, I don’t think she is any older than twenty-one last time I checked.
“Got it.” We all agree.
When I leave the meeting, I have high hope for the club not getting involved in any more drama.
I work with Rafe in the garage for a bit, even though I’m not that good at it.
“You don’t seem that pumped about Spencer being in the club for good.” I lean against the hood of the car he was changing oil on.
He wipes his hands on a rag and smirks, “I am. It’s just also one of those moments where I can’t really have anything to mysel
f. Being a big brother kind of blows in that regards.”
“But you wanted him to join.” I make a face. Rafe and I get along the best, I mean I get along with everyone at the club but we have always vibed with each other. He is kind of a simple guy like me, but we have our own tendencies that meshed well. He is easy to talk to, and we give each other advice all the time.
“Well yeah, I do. And I hope he doesn’t go back to his old ways but there is always the possibility. There always is with him.” He shrugs and I nod in response.
I don’t know about the whole big brother thing, I don’t have siblings at all. All I have are the guys at the club and I get the same feeling from them, sometimes it is irritating to have someone’s back when you don’t want to but we do it because we joined the club together and made that promise.
“He won’t. We’ll all help keep him in line.” I tell him.
He nods in thanks and finishes up the car. I rarely do anything in the garage, it isn’t my style. I help in the bar sometimes but I hate that, they all know that I do. The shirt shop, I also do next to nothing. But I am good for anything else and they know that.
“I didn’t want to go against everyone with the Devil’s Princes thing.”
“You didn’t. It was true anyway.” He shouts across the garage when he goes to the fridge.
He walks back over with two beers and I happily take it, even though the sun is up.
It has been a long day already.
“Yeah but Tank obviously wanted to show face.”
“Yeah, old age will do that to you.” He chuckles and I laugh too.
“He’s still pretty level headed. What’s this about Jeannine coming though?” I have only met her a few times, when I was twenty, about thirteen years ago when I joined the club, she was just a kid.
