Dart grins widely. “Niran’s sister’s going to be staying a while at the club. If all it involves is answering phones and shit, why not give her a try?” As I stand open mouthed, he adds to me, “Gives her something to do so you don’t need to be here to entertain her.”
Well fuck. I grin at him. “Sounds fuckin’ good, Brother. She’d get bored as hell sitting around here doing nothing.”
“Suits me,” Salem agrees.
And while Cyn might object to doing a good day’s work, Salem won’t let her get away with shit. As enforcer, he’ll lay down those rules she’s not keen on. Might be a sure-fire way to get her heading back out.
“Niran?” I swing round, and my heart rate speeds up.
“Toke, you got something for me?”
“Not that you’ll like,” he warns. “Did a search on Saffie Jones. Her background is solid and uninteresting. Parents dead, clean record. Got her GED but didn’t go to college. Has worked several low-skilled jobs and moved to San Diego from Los Angeles a few months back. Never been married and no associations with any MCs that I could find. No reports about abuse or any attack made to the police. In summary, I found zilch.”
I tap my fingers against my chin. Of course, being scared of bikers and MCs could mean she was raped by a man wearing a cut. Devastating enough, but I’d suspected with her severe reaction she’d had it would go deeper. She was downright terrified to find out what I was. I can think of nothing else to explain it.
What is it, Saffie? What am I missing? Why did you suddenly become so scared of me?
That Token has found no police reports means shit. If she’d been raped, she might not have reported it. She could have been embarrassed or didn’t want to make a victim of herself, especially if the rapist was backed up by his club. She’d been spooked enough to move to a different city.
“You’re staying away from her, yes?” Token asks, looking concerned. “Just because I found nothing, doesn’t mean there’s not something there. If she’s spooked about clubs, she could bring trouble down on us.”
Of course I’ve thought about going back to see her, but what right have I got? I’m not her man. “Don’t see what choice I’ve got. I don’t want to distress her further. She’s got my number if she comes around.”
“From her extreme reaction, I think that’s right, Brother.” Token slaps me on the back, and then starts to walk off.
“Toke?” When he turns around, I ask. “Keep an eye on the hospital appointments for me. Let me know if she books herself in for an operation.”
He gives me a thumbs up and walks off.
That’s as much as I can do for now. Standing, I brush my hands over my head, thinking about the results of Token’s research. Saffie seems to have an unremarkable past, nothing out of the ordinary. So why is my gut telling me that Token’s not dug deep enough?
“Why not?” comes a shrill shout, breaking into my thoughts. “You’re younger than me.”
I swing around, hearing Cyn’s voice, seeing her at the bar confronting Kid, who for once is on this side and not serving.
“What’s going on?” I snap, stepping up.
“He’s drinking,” she glares at Kid, “and he,” she turns that death stare on Connor, “won’t serve me.”
“Kid’s twenty-two,” I explain, sending a look of apology toward the prospect. “You’re only twenty and too young to drink.”
“In an MC?” she asks, incredulously.
She’s right, here in our home, we couldn’t give a shit about citizen rules, but a drunk Cyn is something I don’t have a yearning to see.
“In an MC,” I confirm, my eyes conveying my message to Connor. “Make sure everyone knows it.”
“Sure.” Connor grins and mock-salutes.
“Huh!” Cyn states angrily. “I should have stayed home.”
“You can fly out tomorrow if you want.” Please say yes. I’ve too much on my plate. There’s another woman I’d prefer to worry about.
For an answer, she pouts, then seeing I’m not going to be moved, flicks her hair over her shoulder, looks around, and goes to watch Pennywise and Salem playing pool. I don’t fail to notice the exaggerated swing of her hips as she crosses the room.
Give me strength.
The next couple of days I give her time to settle in, two days in which I start to learn about my sister. She’s overly confident, talks to anyone, and is so oblivious to nuances going on around her, I reckon I’d have to remind her to look both ways before crossing a street.
She seems thrilled to be living with an MC, something that apparently she’ll get street cred for. Too happy, it seems to me, as if she’s been dropped into a fantasy.
She’s airheaded and tends to think only of herself. Too often, I’m following her and apologising when she asks pointedly about the meaning of road names, if she can see brothers’ weapons—yeah, double entendre intended—and begs for rides on the back of their bikes.
Alex, luckily, she seems to respect, as well as Patsy and Mary, being polite and minding her language. The club girls? Well, she seems to side with them. I grow worried she’d like to become one of their number.
When I’d seen Cindy, Tits and Pearl gathered in a group around her, I’d rushed up, but stopped dead and hid my grin when I heard them handing her ass to her, metaphorically, of course. Seems like she was looking for sympathy at having had her boyfriend chased away and was told in no uncertain terms not one of them would have put up with abuse. I’d backed off, thinking there was something she could learn from them, as long as she didn’t emulate their style of clothes or express a yearning to join their ranks.
To top all joy of joys, she takes to being a receptionist like a fucking duck to water. It’s all because of the hot bikers, she informs me.
After that particular conversation, I’d approached Salem, and stated in a hiss, “I thought you were going to make her life hell.”
He chuckles and shrugs. “What can I say? She’s actually good on the phone. Customers seem to like her.”
“Only because she’s an outright flirt,” I retort. “Can’t you stick her with boring paperwork?”
He slaps my back. “Tried that, Brother. Actually, she’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s been ordering parts and keeping records in order. Came up with a new filing system to boot.”
She’s never going to fucking leave at this rate.
If I were a man who liked to get my dick wet on the regular, I’d be severely compromised by her presence, as every evening she monopolises my time when the others have gotten fed up with her, wanting me to play pool or stand at the games machine while she plies it with tokens.
Wishing I was elsewhere, I try to enjoy getting to know my little sister, but it’s hard. The schools she went to aren’t the same as those I remember, and her friends aren’t mine. Having money courtesy of Grover, she’d grown up in a different lifestyle. While at her age I was in the hell of the sand pit facing enemy gunfire, she was choosing which series to binge next on Netflix.
Truth is, we share nothing in common except for a mother. My main issue is that she’s already showing signs of getting too comfortable here.
I don’t mind my style being cramped for a while, but long-term? Hell no. My life is more than being a big brother.
Though Cyn occupies far too much of my time, my thoughts keep returning to Saffie, wondering how she is and what she’s doing, and whether she’s come to a decision. I hate thinking about her in that apartment block, even if she didn’t have the problems she has.
She doesn’t call, and as the days pass, I realise it’s been longer since she chased me away than the time I’d actually spent with her.
When it’s been a week, I tell myself to stop thinking about her. All I’m doing is driving myself crazy. When I weaken and want to say to hell with it, and go visit, all I have to do is remember her sheer terror when she found out I belonged to a club.
I’ve gone from friend to someone who scares her. It should be
no surprise she doesn’t make contact.
The ball is in her court and there’s no sense me trying to retrieve it. She knows how to get in touch.
I’ll just have to deal with the fact that me being a biker is too big an obstacle for her to get over.
Chapter Thirteen
Niran
“You persuaded her then?” Pennywise yells out.
Shaking my head despairingly, I walk toward the group of my brothers waiting by their bikes. “Eventually. With Alex’s help.”
For the past week, Cyn’s taken more of my time than I’d expected, playing the little sister card far too often for my liking.
She doesn’t need me as much as she thinks. She’s fine to be left alone in the clubhouse. The old ladies are happy to take her under their wings, and even the club girls make time for her though the jury’s still out on what I think about that. My brothers treat her with the respect she deserves, sometimes taking the time to entertain her so I can have a moment to myself. I mean, a man’s got to take a piss sometimes. But even then, she seeks my attention.
“Niran, did you see that shot?”
“Niran, come look, see what I’ve done.”
“Niran, what card would you play?”
She’s no closer to leaving than she was a week back, and not having expected her to make an appearance in my life, I’m starting to feel suffocated.
It’s got to the extent my brothers are feeling sorry for me. Last night, Salem suggested we head out and see where the road takes us as we had a week or so back—just us boys and our bikes out on the road for a while. The problem being Cyn expected to come with us.
It had been when I told her she couldn’t I’d gotten an inkling of what my mom had meant when she’d described her as ‘difficult’, and that word was an understatement. Gone was the simpering girl idolising her big brother when she’d thrown a tantrum, including tears and much stomping of feet, and then pulling out the nobody loves me card.
I’d tried to reason with her, in the end resorting to pointing out in no uncertain terms, what I’d tried to tell her more gently before—I never wanted a woman on the back of my motorcycle and sister or not she wasn’t going. Adding that, fuck it, while I was her brother, I needed some time to myself.
It wasn’t my argument that ended her tirade, it was when Alex had suggested they have a girls’ outing and that she’d take her shopping and to get manicures or some shit. I’ll be owing Dart my marker for that.
Alex’s suggestion had Cyn preening as if she’d gotten one over on me. She hadn’t, of course, she’d simply made me resolve to call Mom again and see how quickly we could persuade her to go home.
It’s not that I never want to be a family man, I just want one of my own making. Is it wrong to say that Cyn might carry fifty percent of the same blood, but the jury’s still out on whether I like her, let alone feel any type of sibling love? She’s hard work, and definitely an acquired flavour.
Instead of taking my mind off Saffie, Cyn makes me think of her more. Before she’d known I was a biker, Saffie had accepted my help, albeit reluctantly, as if the world owed her no favours. Her, I want to support and help. Cyn who demands it as a due, I do not.
The day is sunny and warm with a gentle breeze blowing. I shake my head again, clearing my head. I’m determined for the next few hours to think of nothing but the pavement beneath my wheels and the wind in my hair, where the only decision I have to make is whether to change gears up or down.
It works to some extent. The day stays fine, the company’s good, and the food when we stop off may not be the most satisfying, but critiquing it occupies our minds, as does the overt advances of one of the waitstaff who simpers and seems overly entranced with our quintet of bikers.
“She’s looking at you.” Salem nudges Pennywise. “Reckon you’ve got a chance to tap that.”
“Nah, it’s you,” Pennywise informs Dusty. “If you want to take her up on it, we’ll wait.” He pauses, winks, then adds, “We’ve got time. I mean, what’s your average? A couple of minutes tops? Oomph!”
The last is in response to Dusty’s sharp jab to his ribs.
“You’re wrong,” Snips informs us, gumming the soft pasta he’d ordered. “Clear as fuck it’s me she wants.”
“Keep on dreaming,” Salem retorts.
“Maybe it’s Black meat she’s after?” Dusty suggests with a grin in my direction.
I know it’s cruel, but I can’t stop myself pointing out, “It would help us work out who if both her eyes looked in the same direction.”
Pennywise collapses over the table, dropping his head into his hand. His shoulders are shaking.
What? I just voiced what everyone else must have thought.
When she comes back to suggest she’s due a break about the time we’d be finished with our meals, we’re still no nearer to discerning exactly who she wants, or maybe it’s us all?
She can count me out. A quick fuck in a roadside stop is certainly not something I have on my bucket list.
When she leaves again, I point my fork at the blond biker seated opposite. “You should take one for the team. We might have to wait the two minutes but at least it won’t keep us off the road for too long.”
Dusty, quick as a flash, retorts, “See, now you’re just projecting your problems onto me, Niran. A real man takes longer than that.”
Yeah, I probably walked straight into that. I shrug.
“No fuckin’ work ethic.” Salem gets in on the act. “If you do a job, you should do it properly.”
I can’t let them have it all their own way. “Yeah, but if you have a Black dick, the bitches can’t take it for long.”
Now it’s Salem who snorts so loud, his exhaled air pushes food off his fork.
“Oh fuck, she’s coming back,” Pennywise hisses.
“So, boys, what can I do for you?”
“The check, please, ma’am,” Snips requests with a wide grin that shows all his missing teeth. “Then I’ll meet you outside if you like.” He waggles his tongue in emphasis.
Her eyes widen and she runs off like a scalded cat.
Having paid the waitress who refused to meet any of our eyes, we exit the restaurant laughing and with arms slapping each other’s backs.
I return to the clubhouse renewed and refreshed, pleased to find Cyn smiling. When she drags me up to her room to show me the clothes she’d bought, my only concern is how she could afford them.
Her answer comes fast. “I’ve still got some money left from my college fund. And Dad gives me an allowance on top.”
Of course he does. I had to make my own way, but then I wasn’t of his blood, just a kid he had to adopt. Believing I’m a better man for it, I admire them, glad to see Alex has contained her excessive tendencies, and that she hadn’t gone shopping with the club girls. Her clothes, unlike those she arrived in, are fashionable and well suited to her age without being overly revealing. Not that I subscribe to the notion that women are responsible for encouraging the excesses of men, women should be able to wear whatever they want without having to face repercussions. But I do firmly believe there are some parts of the human body that should be reserved for the eyes of a partner, and not anyone else.
Her good mood continues through dinner and into the evening, leaving me in one too. I’m enjoying a drink and a chat with Scribe, relishing for once not having an eavesdropper sitting beside me, until suddenly I spin around to find the reason for the burst of childish giggles which reaches my ears.
Fuck my life.
Cyn’s with the club girls, cavorting on the pole. When they see I notice, my brothers quickly avert their eyes.
“Cyn! Get down here, now!” I roar, noticing, like the whores, she’s stripped down to her bra and panties. Girl’s got no fucking sense. While I trust my brothers to look but not touch, more than one I notice is adjusting themselves.
I make my way across, only to be told, “I’m having fun.”
“Put your fuckin’ clothes
on,” I snarl, trying to shield her body. Her bra’s so sheer I get a glimpse of nipples before I avert my eyes.
She comes off the stage, approaching me with her middle finger pointed my way and stabs it into my chest. “You sound like Dad.”
That’s one insult too many. Taking her elbow, and with the other hand catching the clothes Kink has retrieved and thrown at me, I lead her away, taking her to the far corner of the room where we can speak undisturbed. When I let her go, she rubs her arm ruefully. I roll my eyes. My grip was firm, but it wouldn’t have hurt. Thrusting her clothes into her hands, I wait with arms folded while she puts them on.
“Cyn,” I start, choosing my words carefully. “Have some fuckin’ self-respect. You’ve got every man here eye-fucking you. Is that what you want?”
“I was having fun,” she repeats, sticking out her lower lip. “I was doing it for me, not them. And they…” she jerks her head to where Cindy, Pearl and Tits are standing, staring across the room, looking slightly anxious as if I’ll berate them next. I won’t. They might have encouraged her to dance, but I doubt they’d have been behind her stripping.
“Cyn, it’s not the cavorting around the pole I object to, it’s the time and the place. Alex will gladly give you lessons if you ask.” During the day, when Dart’s chased everyone else away. “You know why Cindy, Tits and Pearl dance on the pole?”
“Well, duh. It’s exercise. They enjoy it.”
Is she that naïve?
“Cyn, they’re not dancing for themselves. It’s for the benefit of the men. Men who get off watching, or, who use it to choose who to go with that night. You get my meaning?”
“I wasn’t doing it for that!”
“I know you weren’t.” Or I fucking hope I do. Nothing would surprise me. But while I might not trust her, I trust my brothers. “But that’s the effect you were having. As for stripping off—”
Avenging Devil Part 1: Satan’s Devils MC - San Diego Chapter #3 Page 14