Broken & Burned (24 page)

“He’s twice your size!” she exclaimed.

“I’d cheat.” I told her.

“I believe you Ev.” She said laughing.

“I know you’d do it for me too.” I told her and she smiled impishly.

“Heard me last night?” she asked.

“Yup.” I said, popping the ‘p’.

“Meh, I love you. Don’t go getting all emo and shit over it.” she said and we both laughed. When it was just me and her and no one else, Mandy lost a lot of her shyness.

A half hour later I was in my school’s office raising ever loving hell about their shitty bedside manner flanked by Loyal and Squick, Mandy and Zander. Ashton had stayed at the clubhouse to clean up the breakfast mess. I got my school work and assignments for the rest of the semester, an assurance that my absence the day before wouldn’t be a mark on my otherwise perfect attendance record and the okay from my professors to have either Mandy, Shelly or Squick come and turn in my work until I was able to get around better. In short, I gave the college Hell and then some for me having to drag my ass out to it the day after being shot in the leg!

Afterwards I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was go home… home being the clubhouse for the time being, I suppose. Loyal and Zander helped me into Mandy’s car, a cute little blue Ford Focus that had been a gift from her parents on graduation day. Squick had ridden with us and folded himself into the back seat. Zander and Loyal had ridden, both in front of us. It was strange having a biker escort but I was simply too damned tired to really ruminate on it too much.

I went straight for the recliner the moment we returned to the club house. I needed clothes. Real clothes and not skimpy nightgowns… all though the satiny material
had
felt really nice on my skin. It had made me feel both beautiful and cherished when Dray had told me he’d bought it for me. Shelly was at the club when we got there and she dropped into a chair beside me.

“I suppose now is as good a time as any to catch you and Red here up on statistics seeing as you can’t run screaming from it.” She joked. I glowered at her.

“What? Too soon?” she asked with a grin. I opened my mouth and Mandy covered it with her hand with a laugh.

“Watching you do math on drugs. Sounds like fun times!” my best friend said looking down into my face from her standing position. She took her hand away from my mouth and I frowned at her. I frowned harder when she handed me my glasses. Ashton floated over with a glass of water and another half of a pain pill. I debated for a moment.

“Don’t we have just like Tylenol?” I asked meekly. Ashton smiled serenely.

“I’ll find some.” She said but left the pain pill nearby in case I changed my mind.

“Thanks.” I sighed out in relief. I needed a break from the effects of the pain killers. Oxycodone was so not my idea of a good time. Shelly and Mandy broke out the text books and calculator and I felt mutinous. Ashton returned with the Tylenol and I took it but finding a way to comfortably sit and do math homework was almost as futile as trying to understand the math homework its self.

Reaver came out of the back and raised an eyebrow at his cousin who was enthusiastically untangling the mess that was statistics for me and Mandy. I think I fell a little in love with Shelly. When she explained things they
made sense.
At least one thing other than Dray was going well for me in recent history. I sighed. I missed him and I was beginning to worry the more that time dragged on. I hoped he was okay.

Dray…

This time of year, the middle of the week, the campground was deserted, making it pretty ideal for our little meet and greet. Trigger was set up somewhere in the hills. I’m pretty sure that knowledge alone is what caused the itching between my shoulder blades. I wondered vaguely to myself, how many times now I’d been in his scope? How many times could he have ended me with a twitch of his trigger finger? How many times had he wanted to but refrained?

It was a morbid line of thinking. Once upon a time I wouldn’t have cared. He could’ve put a bullet in every major organ in alphabetical order and I wouldn’t have given two shits about it. Now there was Everett... Em, who loved me with everything she had. Me. Broken twisted fuck that I am, she loved me and wanted to be with me and I’d almost lost her before I’d ever really had her because of one of the brotherhood that was walking across the expanse of pine needles towards us.

“Easy boy.” My father said in that low and controlled way of his. It was like slipping a leash on my anger, immediately bringing it to heel. I’d seen him use it on more men than just me and I wondered briefly if it was a trick I would ever learn. The thought was fleeting, because the men of the hour, Sparks, the president of the Suicide Kings and his VP were drawing up within feet of me and my father.

Sparks was a lanky bald guy that had been around a block or two in his lifetime.  His jacket was worn but I noted that his cut looked relatively new. His president’s patch wasn’t even worn. My dad and me, our cuts looked ancient in comparison and they probably were. I don’t think Sparks had been in his even a year yet. He had blue eyes that weren’t anything to write home about, not the steely blue like my girl’s. He
did
have a wicked looking scar that ran from the corner of his right eye back over his ear to disappear around back of his shaven head. Whatever it was had taken off the top of his ear and it gave him this feral alley cat look.

His VP was a big bear of a man. No joke the dude looked to be close to three hundred pounds. It was fat, sure, but you could tell there was a shit ton of hard muscle underneath the padding. He had a yellow bandana wrapped around his forehead sweatband style in a wide swath and his hair hung long down his back in a curling salt and pepper pony tail. His beard hung full and rounded at the bottom to his mid chest and the name patch on his denim cut declared his road name to be Grizzly. He looked like a Grizzly bear. Like his president, his patches looked new but the denim they rode on was hardly fresh off the rack. It was dirty and as road worn as the leather jacket underneath. His chaps and boots spoke of a hard life on the back of the bike and I caught myself wondering what the fuck he was doing following the younger bald man.

“
These two fucking kidding?”
it was a rhetorical question that growled low in my ear and came from Trigger. My Bluetooth was on an open call to him and hidden up under my hair. He was waiting for a signal from me or my pops in case something happened down here that he didn’t see. Which, truth be told, wasn’t fucking likely. Trig had eagle eyes. We squared off across from the Suicide Kings men and spent a minute getting each other’s measures.

“Your girl the one Spaz shot?” he asked me. I inclined my head and gave him my hardest withering look.

“Dray.” My father warned.

“Now I don’t mind him bein’ hostile with the looks, so long as that’s as far as it goes. Not sure I’d be so understanding if it were me in his place.” Sparks said.

“I ’preciate the understanding.” I said and managed to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Grizzly chuckled.

“Look, the shit Spaz pulled wasn’t sanctioned by me or mine.” Sparks said and put up his hands.

“Your girl lose the leg?” Grizzly asked.

“No. The dipshit shot her with a .22 long rifle round, must have been packing a Derringer or something. Doc says she’ll be okay in a couple of months with some intensive physical therapy, but she’s a dancer. Not sure if she’ll be able to do that again.” I lied about the last part but I wanted my girl’s terms met.

“Which club?” the big man asked.

“Jesus Griz does it matter?” Sparks asked with a scoff.

“Not that kind of dancer friend.” Dragon growled, and it was when he growled like that he was Dragon my Prez, not my pops.

“Mind me askin’?” he asked.

“My girl’s Irish, she does that Riverdance shit. She was good at it too.” I sniffed and crossed my arms. Sparks grimaced.

“We don’t want any trouble with your crew,” Sparks said, “You got a rep and it’s a rep we don’t want no part of. We just set up shop outside your territory and were hoping to meet you and yours when the time was right…” my dad interrupted him.

“That was your first mistake then. Never should have ‘set up shop’ so close without contacting us first. You know the first thing about runnin’ a club son?” My dad pinned the younger man with a stare, though the dude wasn’t that much younger… maybe forty something to my dad’s fifty something.

“Told yah Sparks.” Griz grunted under his breath.

“
What the fuck over?
” Trigger muttered in my ear. He had that right.

“Fair enough. I deserved that,” Sparks said taking the insult in stride though you could see by his sour expression he didn’t much like it. My pops was the master at this shit. Knowing just how many licks he could get in before a dude would blow his stack. It was a skill we shared. Sparks wasn’t at his limit by half, still my old man took it down a notch. “What can we do to make this right?” the King’s President asked.

“Heh, don’t ask me, ask the boy. It’s his girl you shot!” my pops crossed his arms and Sparks looked at me. I think he was expecting something unreasonable here’s to hoping my demands weren’t what he’d consider out of pocket.

“I want him dead, but!” I stopped him when he opened his mouth, “My girl is a lot more lenient and the slug was dug out of her leg, so I asked her what she wanted.” Griz laughed under his breath. Probably thought I was whipped. I didn’t give two shits what he thought. “She wants him to go to jail, which, let’s face it… That part is out of all of our hands.” Sparks looked at me shrewdly.

“That all she wants?” he asked suspiciously.

“She wants him Out Bad with your crew.” Sparks and Griz exchanged looks. I’d talked it over with my pops… Telling another crew how to conduct their business was pretty much the height of rude and enough to start a war over but seeing as why we were here… it was a fair trade.  My dad spoke up.

“Way I sees it, your boy, Spaz you call him?” Sparks and Griz nodded carefully, “What he done is a pretty hard betrayal of your brotherhood. Now I don’t pretend to know your business but if what you say is true and you don’t want a war… I’d consider it a pretty reasonable trade. Seein’ as our reputation precedes us an’ all.” The two men exchanged shrewd looks.

“We do this and we’re square?” Griz asked.

“And then some. We might be able to even call you ‘friend’ for reals.” My pops grinned.

“A moment.” Sparks said and they retreated towards their bikes, heads bent. They talked it over, a minute then two going by before finally coming to some sort of agreement. They stepped back towards us.

“You got yourself a deal on one minor condition.” Sparks said and sniffed.

“Oh? What’s that?” my pops asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I wanna meet your girl. See with my own eyes what kind of shape she’s in. If she’s as you say she is then Spaz’ll be Out Bad like she wants.” He crossed his arms. It was well played, we insulted him, told him how to run his club in not so many words and he comes back calling us liars in not so many words. My pops looked to me. She was
my
girl.

Everett probably wasn’t going to be too happy with this, that and it gives these yahoo’s a chance to scope us out, see what our numbers look like unless…

“Fine. You can accompany us out to our club house. Has to be now or never.” My pops eyebrows went up but I had this in the bag. Sparks mouth turned down at the corners. It was the middle of the week, if he came now, we’d have a few MC members at the club house but people gotta work for a living, I was betting most of
his
club was at their nine to five’s now too.

“Deal. We ride together under a banner of truce.” He put out his arm. My pops looked at it for a moment then clasped it.

“Follow us.” He said simply and we went for our bikes.

Sparks and my pops rode even, I fell in beside Griz… About a mile up the road Trigger fell in behind us as our tail gunner. Griz shot a surprised look into his side view and I gave him a feral grin.

“The fuck he come from!?” he shouted over the wind.

“There’s a reason why we have the rep we do!” I shouted back, and it was true. We were the boy scouts of the outlaw biker world. Always fucking prepared come Hell or high water. Griz shot me a look of solid respect and I counted it as a small victory.

The gate was open when we got back to the club house and we pulled up the steep drive. Trig, my pops and myself backed into our customary spots while Sparks and Griz backed into some vacant places left by some of the Sacred Hearts brothers.

Zander’s chopper and Squicks Beemer were absent as was Ashton’s Jeep. I saw Reaver, Doc’s and Loyal’s bikes but my girl’s BFF’s ride was gone. Shelly’s car was parked in the far reaches of the lot and Data’s bike was missing. I know Gypsy was at the garage… somebody needed to keep us going on
that
front. That pretty much accounted for everybody.
Shit
we were in a sorry state membership wise.

Sparks and Griz wandered over and unabashedly eye fucked Matilda. She was beautiful, I’d worked my ass off to make her that way.

“Who’s Tilly?” Griz asked softly.

“My wife.”

“My mother.” My pops and I simultaneously answered. Sparks and Griz exchanged looks.

“Sorry for your loss.” Sparks said.

“Did a damned fine memorial to her son.” Griz said. I nodded.

“Thanks man.”

My dad led the two men into the club house, I followed and Trigger followed me, his soft case containing his disassembled rifle slung over his shoulder. Shelly sat at a table with text books and notebook paper scattered in front of her, pencil moving across the page. Loyal sat across from her, a semi-automatic pistol in pieces in front of him as he cleaned it. Sparks let his eyes linger on Shelly a little too long and my pops grunted.

“Shells c’mere an’ give yer old man some sugar.” He called. She looked up sharply and smiled. Her cool blue eyes, so much like Reaver’s skated over our guests and she smiled brightly. Loyal tried very hard not to watch her sashay across the common room and into my father’s arms. It was for her own good. She kissed my father long and slow and deep and put on an amazing show of it. Sparks and Griz looked both impressed and a little jealous, as well they should be. We had some damned fine women associated with this club.

“Hey Prospect, where’s my girl?” I asked.

“Pain was getting’ to her. She’s in your room layin’ down. We couldn’t get her to take any more of the strong stuff, she’s tryin’ to cope on Tylenol.” He slid the barrel back into the gun and let his eyes rove our guests. They were mostly curious with an undertone of hostility but he earned himself some serious points by not commenting.

“Cool, thanks.” I jerked my head at Sparks to follow me and led him back into the private quarters.

I took a deep breath outside my door and motioned for him to wait a sec and opened it. Everett was laying on her back in the night gown I’d bought her. Her hair was clean and dry and brushed out in a silky wash over the pillows behind her head. The girls must have helped her clean up some. She stared sightless at the ceiling, tears tracking down to damp the hair at her temples. She didn’t look over right away. I think she was ashamed I caught her crying. Her eyes slipped shut and she took in one of those hitching breaths and my heart broke for her. I went to her, not even giving two shits that the President of what could turn out to be a rival club looked on.

“Hey Baby, what’s this?” I asked her. I sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up her hand between both of my own, laying a kiss on the backs of her knuckles.

“I know Doc said I would dance again but I’m scared. I don’t know what kind of person I would be if I couldn’t dance anymore.” She said and the brutal honesty, the face of her fear made me want to rip the little douche nozzle’s guts out. I scowled and it was a fierce one.

“Baby try not to think about that right now.” I pleaded.

“It’s all I can think about Dray, I close my eyes and all I can see is
that man
. All I hear is that God awful sound and my leg it
hurts
and I’m swallowed by the fear and the pain and the noise and the blood all over again!” I pulled her tight against me and rubbed her back as she sobbed into the shoulder of my cut.

“I don’t want to be this weak paralyzed thing Dray! My father didn’t raise a weak daughter! I don’t come from a weak people!” she cried and I pulled back and speared her with my gaze.

“You’re not weak Baby, you’ve had a lot of really horrible shit happen in a real short amount of time. You’re tired, you’re hurt and you’re in pain, meltdown was imminent. It doesn’t make you weak. Just makes you human.” I kissed her forehead and held her tight, strands of her silky smooth hair tangling in my fingers. Sparks cleared his throat from the doorway and I looked over.

“You got your wish Sweetheart. Spaz is Out Bad as soon as he makes bail or gets out of jail, whichever comes first.” He looked murderous and my respect went up for him a notch or two. Everett drew back from me and looked over at him confused.

“Who’re you?” she asked.

“Baby this is Sparks, he’s President of the Suicide Kings MC.” I told her and her steel blue eyes roved his cut, she shuddered in my grasp and I held my breath. A war was going on all over her face and finally it fell.

“I wish I could say I was pleased to meet you and mean it… but honestly I don’t really know how I feel.” She said and it was probably the most graceful and perfect thing she could have said under the circumstances.