I don’t question it. Sam has balanced me. Having her beside me hasn’t made me soft, but has made me more protective, more aware of what I had to lose, and possibly, more cautious.
“Huh. That was the time we had twenty bodies to get rid of.”
I smile. “It was you, wasn’t it, Peg, who came up with the answer?”
His shoulders rise and drop. “Maybe it was. But Road got a practice race track out of it up in the forest.”
“And had it extended from time to time.” Over the years there may have been a few other bodies.
“I wonder how Road’s doing now? Have you heard from him recently?”
“Nah.” Road had transferred out years back. “Last I heard he’d given up trial-bike racing, he was getting too old.”
“Couldn’t keep up with the youngsters, I suspect.”
“Years pass, take their toll, Peg.”
“That they do, Prez. That they do.”
Chapter Eleven
Truck…
The Uber drops me off at the gates of the compound, then does one of the quickest three point turns I’ve ever seen, before tearing back down the track with dust billowing after it. He’s got extra in his pocket for his bravery in bringing me right to the front of the lion’s den.
Watching, I shake my head. What did he expect? Bikers to swarm out and rob him? Probably.
The gate is opened by a man wearing a prospect cut. For a second I can’t place whether he’s Hound or Roadkill. Doesn’t matter, Prospect will do in any event.
I feel eyes on me as I drag my way up the incline to the clubhouse. It reminds me I don’t do enough walking, and even the short stretch has made my ankle ache.
As I approach I see all the bikes parked outside and recognise every one, even noticing Beef’s Fat Bob is missing. I wonder why he’s not at church.
I’m slightly apprehensive as I draw closer. Allie will have told them I’m returning today. Please God don’t let them have arranged a celebration. I’m not a returning triumphant hero, I’m a broken man who can no longer use the moniker, biker.
I’m also late. The Uber took longer turning up than I hoped, so I’m not surprised to find the clubroom empty. I do hear female voices from the kitchen, so quicken my step, hoping my luck continues and I’ll see no one before I’m in the meeting room. I’d prepared to meet my brothers for the first time since I was injured in the fire, but somehow had overlooked I’d see women and children too. Fuck, I hope my face doesn’t scar them for life.
I hesitate at the meeting room door. For almost a year I worked my butt off, my only aim to sit around this table. I never expected my first time would be when it came to say goodbye. I swallow down the lump that’s risen to my throat, harden my resolve, and push down on the handle.
“So do we need to increase the dues this year?” Prez asks Dollar, not pausing when I step inside the door.
With only a brief look to see who’s interrupted, Dollar replies, “No, I propose we leave them as they are.”
“Seconded,” Rock shouts.
Slick points to an empty seat by his side. I may not have been in church much before, but when I have, I’m certain that was Beef’s. Where is he? As well as the absence, I notice additions. Fergus had been patched in the same night that I had, and it seems Matt has as well now. I lift my chin toward the men I best remember as prospects.
“Truck,” Drum asks me directly as I move around brothers to get to the chair, “you okay with keeping the dues at the same level?”
“As if anyone would object,” Joker scoffs.
This is my first and last time at church. I just wave my hand to show I agree, then get my left leg comfortable under the table.
“Viper. You had something to say about progress at the mall.”
I raise my hand. I don’t want to sit here and pretend, I want to get this over with.
“Truck, we’ll come to you later.” Prez nods at Viper who starts giving his report.
I let his words float over my head. What do I care how their businesses are doing, or anything else? I stare down at my fingers, or to be accurate, where I’m missing two on my left hand. Part of me itches to hide it, but I force myself to leave my ruined appendage in sight. So it won’t come as any surprise when I make the confession that’s so hard to voice. I can’t ride anymore.
“Prez, I want to ask. What are we going to do about Allie? You said we’d revisit it once Truck takes up his seat around the table.”
“I did,” Prez responds to Marvel.
I’m just about to refute that I’ve returned to the club, when Prez stares so hard, I slam shut my mouth.
“You thinking of claimin’ her, Truck?”
What? “What the fuck, Drummer?” What on earth have they been reading into the fact she’s been visiting me? “I don’t know what the fuck she’s been saying, Prez. But no, I won’t be claiming her. She’s a whore.”
Another hard stare from Drummer, then he sighs. “Then, we have something to discuss.”
Peg leans forward. “I’m concerned about sending her away, Prez. She’s got a lot of info in that head of hers, even if she doesn’t think she does. If she falls into the wrong hands, she could bring us down.”
Blade spins his knife. “I like Allie. Known her a long time.”
“Think all of us know her, Brother,” quips Rock.
The enforcer glares at Rock. “As I was saying, I’ve known her a long time. I like the bitch. But the only option that I see if we don’t trust her to keep her mouth shut, is to take her out.”
What the fuck is he saying?
The conversation gets my thoughts away from my own predicament and onto hers. “What the hell are you lot talking about? What’s Allie done?” What could be so serious they’re talking about sending her away or heaven forbid, ending her life?
“It’s more what she hasn’t done, I think you’ll find,” Lady quips, seeming less concerned about the conversation than I’d have thought.
“She doesn’t fuck anymore,” Road puts in helpfully. “Can’t keep a sweet butt who keeps her legs closed.”
She doesn’t? I frown. “Since when?” She opened her legs for me, just as I had instructed.
“A good few months,” Wraith supplies.
“At first she made half-hearted attempts,” Marvel takes over, “but she wasn’t feeling it. Then she made every excuse under the sun to get out of it.”
“Coincided with you leaving for California.” It’s Drummer who gives it to me straight.
I’m faced with raised eyebrows as my brain tries to process the information it’s just heard.
“She’s a whore,” I repeat. “Once one, always one. Even if I had those thoughts about her, I wouldn’t claim her.”
“Fuckin’ lucky Sophie didn’t think the same thing about me,” Wraith snarls. “Only difference there is that I didn’t get paid.”
Drummer’s eyebrows are raised, making me remember his name. He got his handle by banging everything in sight.
“You a fuckin’ virgin?” Lady asks.
“Of course I’m fuckin’ not.”
“How many women have you had?” Shooter asks as if he genuinely wants to know.
“Two, three?” Rock helpfully supplies.
Hey, before I was a biker I was a firefighter. “I’ve had my fair share.”
“More than, I suspect,” remarks Drummer.
I shrug. “It’s different for women. And especially for her. Like it’s been mentioned, everyone here has been in her cunt.”
“Not me,” snarls Peg.
Mouse too is shaking his head.
“Certainly not us,” Joker raises his eyebrow at Lady who gives a sharp nod of agreement.
“Well, most,” I amend.
“Which will make me jealous as fuck of the man who gets her heart.” Road’s eyes narrow. “Allie’s a good woman.”
Remembering that one night I had with her, I can certainly see why. The thought that they’d be envious is somethi
ng I hadn’t expected. But even if I looked at her that way, she wouldn’t want to be claimed. Not now.
“Allie doesn’t want me,” I tell them, my head moving from side to side. “Maybe the man I was before…”
“Who you still fuckin’ are, Brother,” Rock snarls.
This seems as good a time as any. I take a deep breath. “No easy way to tell you this, but I shouldn’t be sitting around this table.” My voice breaks. “I can’t ride. Won’t ever be able to. Only thing I can do is leave the club.”
“Could get fuckin’ painful,” Joker warns.
Painful?
“I can attest to that.” Heart shudders.
“Hey, we pulled our punches with you because you were fucked in the head.” Blade spins his knife and stops it pointing at Heart.
“He’s still fucked in the head. He’s repopulating the club all by himself.”
For that, Mouse gets a punch in the arm from the man sitting beside him.
Showing no animosity, Heart explains, “With Marcia’s help.” He adds in my direction, “She’s pregnant again.”
Prez has been focused on me, ignoring the banal conversation. Suddenly he pushes back his chair and half stands, then leans forward with his weight on his hands and spits out, “That what you want, Truck? For your brothers to give you the beating you’ll remember for the rest of your fuckin’ life? ‘Cause that’s the only way you’re walking out on this club.”
“I’m not walking out. I haven’t got a fuckin’ choice,” I shout, all my emotions rising to the fore. “I’ve got a bike sitting here somewhere which I’d give all that I have to ride again. I can’t!”
Drummer sits back down, shaking his head. “Never took you for a fuckin’ coward.”
Now I see red. “I’m no fuckin’ coward.” I’ve medals on my wall to prove that.
“Coward from where I’m sitting,” observes Peg.
The VP joins in too. “From my seat as well.”
I bang my left arm down on the table, palms up, showing my withered wrist and ruined hand. “This says you’re wrong. My leg’s fucked as well, I’ve got so many pins in my ankle it won’t flex properly. I can’t see as well as I used to. I can’t use a clutch or kick through the gears…”
“So we build a custom bike. Electric shift with take care of the gear changes, we can modify the clutch.”
“Sam will help, she’s got some ideas,” Drummer offers to Blade.
“Get you into the gym, build your strength up. I know your leg’s been shattered, your arm too, but your muscles will be able to compensate, as long as you put the work in.” My mouth drops open as Peg seems to make it sound easy.
Prez glances at me, but I keep my mouth shut. My immediate impulse to reject help swallowed back down. They’re thinking of workarounds, searching for ways to make the most of what I’ve got left. Is there really a possibility I’ll ride with the club? A dream I’d worked so hard for and thought had disappeared, now seems to be a glimmer of hope once again.
“So there’s your choices,” Drummer sums up. “You choose which one you want. A beatdown—which won’t be gentle as you’ll have pissed all of us off—or you work with Peg to get fit, and with Blade to get a bike you can fuckin’ ride.”
Choice? I choke up, and just about manage to get out the words. “I don’t think I’ll choose the beatdown.”
Joker snorts. Heart nods as though I’ve made the right choice. A slow raise and lower of his chin from Prez. A hand clap from Wraith. Words of relief from around the table. Then Drummer stands, reaches behind him, and comes down the table toward me with something held behind his back.
“I’ve given you one pass today, Brother. The next time you appear underdressed around this table, it’s the beatdown for certain.” He hands me my cut.
Immediately I slip it on, feeling the weight I’d carried for those twelve hard prospecting months settling comfortably on my shoulders. Knowing it no longer carries the prospect patch, but the Tucson rocker.
I sob, then lean my head into my hands, trying to pull myself together.
They give me a moment, but no more before Road states from the other side of the table, “I can’t tell which is the fake one.”
“Yeah, they move together. Matched the colour well.”
“Truck, look at me.”
Turning my head, I look at Rock who’s leaning across the table.
“Fuckin’ good job, close up, if you’re looking for it, you can see.”
“Can you take it out whenever you want? Great fuckin’ party trick at Halloween if you can.”
Joker bangs his hand down on the table. “Can you imagine tricking the kids?”
Drummer’s eyes open wide then he starts shaking his head. “For fuck’s sake don’t give Eli ideas. He’ll have Truck popping it out on purpose to scare his friends.”
He needn’t worry. I won’t be popping it out, as they put it, for anyone. But as the comments keep coming, I start to chuckle. An alien sound I haven’t heard from myself for seven months. Then my shoulders start shaking and laughter comes out, and tears are running down my face.
“Fuckin’ assholes,” I tell them, noting not one has commented on my scarring, or treated me any differently than before. My disability? Something to cope with and work around. Why did I stay away from the club? I have no fucking idea.
“Move here. Live on the compound,” Peg says suddenly. “You’ve been on your own too fuckin’ long, Brother. Stay here. It will be easier to get to the gym.”
“Spare suite now that Beef’s gone,” Viper offers.
Beef’s gone? “Beef, he’s not…” A chill goes through me.
“Nah, he’s not dead. He’s got himself the VP spot up in Colorado.”
“Got a blind bitch for an ol’ lady, too.”
“Yeah, she’s hot. Lucky that she can’t see what an ugly fucker her ol’ man is.”
Information is being fired at me from all sides. Beef gone? I hadn’t expected that. But good on him for making VP. Seems there’s been a few changes since I’d been gone.
Running my hands down my face, I come to a decision. “I’ll consider moving here. You’re right, it does make sense. Only kept the apartment in town as it was close to the station.” A station I’m going to have to visit soon. I’ve been a fool keeping my distance from people who love me. I’ve neglected my firefighting team as well as the club. “But I’ve got a condition.”
“What?” Drummer’s face hardens, and I know I’m in no position to make threats.
“Nothing happens to Allie.”
“Think that brings us back around to the question I originally posed.” Drummer tugs at his beard. “She’s not a sweet butt anymore, but do we still let her keep a roof over her head?”
“Never had a woman like that here before, or not one that we haven’t offered our protection too.”
“She makes a good fuckin’ bartender.” Road, who seems to be on Allie’s side, puts in. Makes me wonder whether he’d like to claim her for himself.
“Not saying there’s anything wrong with it,” Prez says. “Just that we could be starting a precedent. What if Pussy begins to have ideas in her head? Wants to shut up shop, but stay?”
“Can’t see that,” says Rock. “They enjoy providing their services too much. Anyway, if, for example, Pussy did, she’d have to offer something else instead, like Allie’s already doing.”
Peg clears his throat. “They’re all going to get old. We going to throw them out then, after years of service?”
Viper, quiet up to now, speaks up. “I say, let Allie stay on her terms. We’ll play it by ear if the others follow suit. As Rock says, those girls are as hungry for sex as we are.”
He’s right. Which is what I thought about Allie. Which is what has me wondering about why she stopped.
Our one night together? That’s all we had. Apparently it had been enough to get her to rethink her lifestyle.
What the fuck is going on in her head? Does she have ideas a
bout becoming my old lady? Only one way to find out. I’m going to have to ask her.
But what will I do with her answer?
“Okay. We happy to vote? Make it official?”
They vote. Heart records it.
Chapter Twelve
Allie…
Knowing Truck was coming to the compound today, I made myself scarce.
Leaving by the gate at the rear, I walk across the firebreak that’s now well maintained, and carry on up into the forest. It’s not long before I come to the dirt track that Road uses to practice his off-road riding. I smile to myself. They think I don’t know, but I do. Where else would they have buried twenty bodies? It’s disguised well, no one would guess our enemies lie beneath. The area should feel haunted by ghosts, but it doesn’t, not to me. No one lies dead here who doesn’t deserve it.
There’s a tree trunk, and I sit, worrying at my fingernails. I look up as I hear a sound. That’s not particularly concerning, there’s unlikely to be someone straying so far off the beaten track and so close to an outlaw biker compound. So it’s with curiosity that I wait to see who appears, more annoyed that my solitude will be interrupted.
“Hey, Allie. You okay?”
It’s Sam. It could have been worse.
“I’m fine, Sam.”
“No you’re not. Shift your ass along. Let me sit down.”
I do. She takes a backpack off her shoulder. “Saw you head out so grabbed some provisions and followed you. Thought you’d be off by yourself.”
Drummer and her house, like that of the sweet butts’, is at the top of the compound. She must have seen me pass by out of the window.
She rummages inside her pack, and brings out two glasses, and a bottle of margarita.
I was going to tell her I wanted some alone time, but suddenly what she’s brought looks damn attractive. She pours two glasses, hands me one, then, when she holds up hers in invitation, I automatically clink mine against it in a toast.
Truck Stopped: Satan's Devils MC #11 Page 11
