Crotch Rocket: A Bad Boy Motorcycle Club Romance (6 page)

If the club wasn’t going to let me ride with them, then I saw no point in waiting.  I knew the sooner I got Lauren back, the better chance she had for coming away unscathed.  It pained me to consider what those fuckin’ Diablo’s might be doing to her while I sat around waiting for the Mischief Makers to come up with some sort of a plan – a plan that they wouldn’t even include me in.  No, I was done waiting.  Lauren was out there and I needed to get her back.  Hell would turn into a barren frozen landscape of ice and glaciers before I would sit around while everyone else went to confront the Diablo’s.

Besides my injuries, I did have another problem, no bike.  I looked around and considered hotwiring one of the other guy’s bikes.  Hogs seemed the most likely and I knew it fairly well since I’ve ridden it plenty of times before, but it didn’t seem right.  The club would never forgive me if I stole one of their bikes, even if it was for a good cause.  Hell, they’ll probably never forgive me for going against James’ ruling.  As ridiculous as it was.  I may not have it in me to steal one of the club’s bikes, but I did have to figure something out, I couldn’t run to the Diablo clubhouse, some sort of transportation was going to be essential.

I briefly reconsidered the Harley’s that surrounded me and then looked out to the neighborhood that surrounded the Mischief Makers clubhouse.  Someone out there was bound to have a motorcycle of some sort.  Harley’s were pretty much par for the course within the club, and if you didn’t have one then you simply didn’t ride, but outside the world of the club, most were happy to have any bike that would run.  There was bound to be one nearby, I just had to find it. 

I did a quick glance around to make sure none of the other guys were keeping tabs on me.  There were a couple of new recruits hanging out at one of the picnic tables but they seemed lost in their own world and weren’t paying me any attention.  I pushed the front gate open just enough to slide through and then quickly pulled it back closed.  I headed down the sidewalk and began my search.  I didn’t need anything fancy, just something that would run long enough to get me to the Diablo’s and back with Lauren.

I went about four blocks before I spotted the first bike.  It was towards the back of a metal carport and I could get to it easy enough, the problem was that it was covered in dust and looked as if it had been completely forgotten for at least five years.  Chances of getting that thing started were slim so I left it to continue looking.  Each step pained my ribs and I had to squint my one good eye against the brightness of the sun, but I knew it was a small sacrifice to endure if it meant I could rescue Lauren.  I thought of her smile, her feisty attitude, and the fact that she had tried to help me with the men at the store.  I wished I could have done better for her.  She deserved to be safe and not holed up with a bunch of Mexican assholes.

A few blocks further and I found what I was looking for.  A bright red and white crotch rocket.  Definitely not my preferred type of bike but it would get the job done and it would be fast.  You could tell the owner took care of it and would miss it while it was gone – if they were around to notice.  It looked to be recently washed and waxed and was just waiting for me to steal it.  No keys, no problem.  I looked around to make sure I was in the clear and then I approached the bike.  I climbed on and leaned forward.  The position made me wince and I ground my teeth as I worked the wires.  I was fast, but not quite quick enough.  The owner came running out the front door of the house.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he yelled as he charged at me, a bat hoisted over his head.

“Wait, wait,” I responded as I held my hand out, the one with my splinted fingers.

The man came to a standstill and looked me over.  “Did you already try and steal someone else’s shit today or what?  Didn’t learn anything from your first beating did you?”

“It’s a long fuckin’ story.  I wasn’t stealing anything, I was protecting someone…and I’m not really stealing your bike.  I need to borrow it.”

“That isn’t gonna happen man.  You look like shit and I don’t know you.  I mean…I recognize you, you’re always with those club assholes, but that just gives me even more of a reason not to let you take my bike.”

“Alright, listen.  You ever been to that little market down the way?” I asked with a nod of my head.

“Yeah…” he answered skeptically.  “All the time.  Why?”

“Do you know the young woman that works there?  Lauren?”

“Of course.  She’s always there.  She’s a nice girl.  Always very friendly and willing to help if you can’t seem to find what you’re looking for.”

“She’s the one I was protecting.  It’s a long story but some asshole that were threatening the store happened to show up.  I tried to take them out, to keep her safe, but I wasn’t very successful.  I got some good hits in but it was two on one with an extra in the bylines.  They took Lauren.  I need your bike to go get her back.  I swear to you I will do everything I can to keep your bike safe and to return it to you in this same condition, but I have to take it man.  I can’t just leave her out there with them.  I don’t have any way of knowing what they’re doing to her…might have already done to her, but I have to go and get her back.  You’ve gotta understand that right?  I failed her.”

“I don’t know…” the homeowner said as he scrubbed his hand through his short sandy blonde hair.  “I know you need to get her, I get that, but does it have to be on my bike?  Why can’t you get something from the dudes at the shop?”

“Jesus, ok.  I don’t have all day to go over all of this.  Long story short, I can’t get one from them because I’m going against their wishes.  They want to make some huge plan but it’s taking too long.  I need to go get Lauren now!  Not after those guys have had her all night doing who the hell knows what.”

“Hmm…god I’d be such an asshole if I told you no.”

“Plus, I’d do it anyway,” I said with a slight smile.  The only smile I could manage with my torn up face.

“Ok.  Alright.  Let me get the keys, and you gotta promise me that you’ll be good to her.”

“To the bike?”

“Yes the bike!”

“Hey, cut me a break, I thought you might have been referring to Lauren.”

“Well, her too, but right now I’m talking about the motorcycle.”

“I’ll treat her as if she were my own,” I said as I ran a hand down her tank.  “But I really do have to get going,” I continued trying to get him to hurry on his way to get the keys.

“You better fix the goddamn wires,” he said as he ran back through the front door, his voice sounding muffled and far away.

“Will do!”

He returned a few seconds later, the keys in his outstretched hand.  “So you’re going alone then?”

“I have to.”

“You already look like shit.”

“Believe me, I know.”

“Good luck,” he said with a wave.  “I better see my bike again.”

“Thanks,” I called out as I pulled away from his house.  I gunned the engine and skidded onto the main road.  I had one more stop before I could be on my way.  I couldn’t go into the Diablo’s clubhouse unarmed.  I had a gun at my house and I figured I could swing by and grab it and it would only take an extra five minutes.  While I hated the extra time, I knew that having a gun might be the difference between success and failure.  Certainly the Diablo’s would be armed and I couldn’t chance going in empty handed.

I pulled up to my place, a tiny studio apartment in the bad part of town.  I left the engine running and hoped that no one would steal it in the few seconds I was inside.  I had been living in the studio for the last few years.  It was the best that I could afford.  My youthful misbehavior had kept me ineligible for most regular work so I’d had to support myself off of random jobs.  I wasn’t proud and would take almost anything so long as it paid.  In the last year I’d helped a few landscaping companies when men called in sick and did mechanic work when friends and acquaintances needed it.  The apartment might be small but it was all that I needed.  For years my mind had been set on booze and easy women, but now I could feel that all changing.  Talking to Lauren earlier had done something to me.  It had changed my perspective.  I glanced around my apartment and I imagined it how Lauren would view it.  It was small, messy, and no place for a girlfriend.  Sure, a quick lay was fine but this wasn’t the place you brought someone that you wanted to stick around.  My mind turned to Lauren on my bed.  I imagined her there, naked, sprawled out and waiting for me – begging for me to return to her, to fill her, to satiate her every desire.  Then reality struck hard, none of that could ever happen if I couldn’t get her back safely.  I rammed the gun down into my waistband and stormed back out to the crotch rocket.  I slammed the front door behind me and was back on its vibrating body within seconds.  It was time to go and get my girl.

James walked into the main hall.  “Alright everyone, plan has changed,” he said as he clapped his hands together.  “Get your shit together now.  Get on your phones and call the guys that have left and tell them to get their asses back her pronto.  If they can’t get here within the next ten minutes they’re getting left behind.”

Turning and looking around the yard he counted ten.  Ten men might be enough if they could catch the Diablo’s unprepared.  “Chris, you get the weapons and ammo?”

“Yeah boss.  Got it all over here in the back of the van.”

James nodded his head.  “Get it onto the table here.  Men, come around, help him unload and then gear up!” he called out loudly.  “Take plenty, we’re gonna fuck these assholes up,” he finished as he grabbed a couple of guns and slid them into the holsters on his chest.  Stepping up onto the seat of the table he grabbed a smaller gun and snapped it into his ankle holster.  He waited the ten minutes he had promised the men and then told them to line up their bikes.

“Alright guys, time to prepare to head out.  Put your bikes in formation.”  All of the men hopped onto their Harley’s and lined them up.  James climbed onto his own bike at the head of the pack, lifted his arm and called out, “Let’s ride!”  The gate was pulled open and he slowly rode out of the lot.  Behind him followed eight other men, and then the other two once they closed and locked the gate.  They rode with James out in front and then two by two in a single lane.  The drove quickly and it didn’t take long to get to the empty lot they had already planned to park in.  The men pulled into the corner where the motorcycles were less likely to be noticed.  Each dismounted and stood waiting for instruction.  James waved with his hand for the men to gather around.  He spoke quietly.  “Listen up.  Jacob is here somewhere.  That ugly ass crotch rocket over there must have been his ride.  We need to find him before heading in.  If we can’t find him outside, and he’s already in there, then we’ll need to regroup and consider our options.  The time-frame indicates that if he has any brains he’ll still be outside, but given that there’s a woman involved, he may have been a total fuckwit and gone charging in…but let’s see if we can’t find him outside before we go charging in after him.”

“A fuckin’ crotch rocket…” one of the men sniggered.  “Guess some guys will ride anything.”

Hogarth spoke up.  “If you ask me, it looks like he did what he had to.  We weren’t letting him get involved so he wasn’t going to be using one of our bikes now was he.”

“Listen ladies, can we gossip about the bike a bit later?  We’ve got some business to take care of right now,” James said as he stepped off towards the cover of the forest surrounding the Diablo clubhouse.  “Step lightly and stay covered,” he said to the men as they began to follow him.  

He crouched down and ducked behind the trees as they moved forward.  Every now and then a man would step on a twig eliciting a loud breaking or crunching sound.  James would shoot a look back at whomever had mis-stepped and they would stop dead in their tracks with a cringe plastered across their face.  The men topped a small hill and he laid down flat on the ground.  The other men followed suit.  Each was busy looking for Jacob.

“Psst,” one of the men said as he pointed to the right.  There, on the other side of the hill, crouched down on his heel was Jacob looking towards the Diablo clubhouse.  He clutched his ribs with one hand and held a gun in the other.

“Stay here,” James said as he started to move towards Jacob’s location.  He kept low and moved slowly so that he wouldn’t catch the eye of any of the Diablo’s that might be keeping an eye out.  When he was five feet away from his son, Jacob suddenly jerked his head to the side.  The two men starred at each other for a long moment before James moved in to hunker down beside him.

“What are you doing here?” Jacob asked as he lowered his gun to his side.

“We’d heard you’d gone on your own.  I couldn’t just leave you out here, so we came to help.”

“You came to help?” Jacob whispered.  “You didn’t even want me coming at all.”

“Did anyway, didn’t you?”

“Fuck yes!  I wasn’t going to leave her here while the club argued over logistics and you did everything you could to keep me uninvolved.”  Jacob felt furious.  The help of the club would be nice but not if he was going to be treated like a child.  He was done with that, not anymore.  Never again.

“Look, I know I was wrong,” James began.  He wiped the sweat from the back of his neck and continued.  “I had a talk with Hog before we came out.  If we make it through tonight, I’m going to give the ok to let you into the club.  You’re older than I was when I was admitted and it hasn’t been right for me to keep you out.  You’re your own man and I shouldn’t have stood in your way,” he said as he clapped a hand on Jacobs back.  “I thought I was protecting you, that’s all.”

“I know dad.  I appreciate that, but I’m not some little kid that needs your protection any longer.  At some point you have to allow me to live my life.  Sometimes shit happens, but you know I’m not out there asking for it.  I don’t want to be a casualty any more than you want me to be.  I’ve wanted to be in this club since I was old enough to understand what the leather vests meant, but right now, right this second, I’m more focused on the woman that’s holed up with those assholes.”

“Have you noticed anything useful since you’ve been watching?” James asked as he looked towards the building.

“Not much.  There’s a couple guys at either side of the front door but I think they’re fairly shorthanded.  I haven’t seen anyone coming and going so everyone else they have is inside.”

“The men and I had planned to go in the back.  That seem like an alright plan to you?”

“Sure, yeah, I think that’s looking like our best bet.  Sneak in and take them by surprise.  If we move quietly we might be able to get fairly deep before they even realize we’re there.  I want to make this clear though.  You guys can do whatever you want, but my mission is to get Lauren out of there unharmed.  You and your men can sneak in and then slowly take them out and keep them distracted while I find her.  This is on me; I want to be the one to rescue her.”

“I get it.  I know that deep desire to save your woman.  I had the same feeling for your mother…I wish every single day that I’d been successful,” James said, a sadness crossing over his features to wrinkle his forehead.  He coughed and cleared his throat, “…but don’t worry.  We’re gonna get it right this time.  Those fuckers are going to pay.”

“Not my woman yet,” Jacob said as an aside.

“What?” his father asked.

“She’s not my woman yet.”

“You’re doing all this for someone you haven’t even banged?” James asked with a small chuckle.

“No, I haven’t banged her yet, but I’m going to make her mine.  I’ve never wanted anything so bad in my life.  It’s that feeling, ya know?  It’s just in here,” Jacob said as he motioned towards his chest.  “But I can’t be with her if I can’t get her out of there,” He said nodding towards the clubhouse.

“Yeah, alright.  We’ll go get your girl Crotch Rocket.”

“Uh…what?” Jacob said, his forehead creasing in confusion.

“Oh yeah, we all saw your pretty little girly bike back there.  Don’t even think you’re ever going to live that down.”

“You’re fucking kidding me…Crotch Rocket…that’s what you’re all going to call me now?”

“Hey, if the name fits,” James said with a smile, the first smile that Jacob had seen in years.

“Shit…I just want you to know, I didn’t have any other options.”

“That don’t matter.  Ok, enough talking, let’s get busy CR.”

“Fuck you,” Jacob whispered as he watched James motion to the other men to move in closer.  They explained to the others that the plan had remained the same and that they were all going to circle around to the back.  For now, they would leave the two men guarding the front because taking them out would create unnecessary noise and would give them away.  Jacob clarified that he would be going in solely for Lauren and that the others were to take care of the rest of the Diablo’s.  They all nodded their agreement and began to move.

They moved deliberately, each man carefully plotting their next step, a gun in their hands, prepared for what was coming next.  These men weren’t new to club disputes.  Every single one of them had proven themselves before.  All of them carried scars and memories of past fights and every single one of them would have laid their life down for another member.  That was part of the deal of becoming a Mischief Maker, absolute devotion.  All the wives and the girlfriends knew they would always come second to the club.  It wasn’t that they didn’t matter, these men loved their women, but being in the club meant giving it your everything, and sometimes that meant risking injury and even your life. 

Together they moved as a unit, like soldiers until they were all staring at the back of the metal warehouse that the El Diablo Rojas called their clubhouse.  It seems shabby in comparison to the Mischief Makers own clubhouse but it worked and was better than nothing. 

“Ready?” James asked the group.

Each man nodded their head and Jacob answered, “Yeah, let’s go get em.”

Chris laid his hand on the door knob and carefully turned it to see if it would open on its own.  As predicted the door was firmly locked.  James nodded his consent as Hogarth stepped forward and kicked the door in. Every single one of them winced at the noise but hoped it had gone unnoticed.  From inside they could hear the loud booming of some Hispanic rap so it was possible that the music had drowned out the sound of the metal door buckling and then clamoring to the floor.  One of the men stepped around the corner and glanced inside before making a gesture to indicate that it was all clear.  The men filed in one by one and then stood silently as they waited to see if the door had given away their entrance.  No one came running and by all appearances it seemed that they were in the clear.