AJ

by Jessie Cooke

  AJ stood outside the little restaurant in Phoenix with his hands in his pockets, looking through the window. He’d been forced to say goodbye to Jolene only hours after they made love in the cave. Once she was gone, he was tempted to drive straight over to the bar he sometimes went to with the brothers from the MC, but he was determined to start wrapping up his business in Arizona ASAP, so maybe there would be a chance for him and Jolene in the future. He’d parked his bike in the lot and headed up to the door, stopping in his tracks when he saw Yanaha through the window. He hadn’t seen her in over two years and just looking at her brought a smile to his face and a rush of bittersweet memories to his brain. He and Yanaha had always been close growing up. She was only a year older than him and when they were small, she was his favorite playmate. Yanaha was tiny, thanks to the way she came into the world, but she was as brave as her Diné name would imply. She taught herself how to swim in a creek that ran behind their house. She’d jump off the little bridge that ran across it, into the current, which would push her toward the shallow waters. She did that over and over until she had the arm motions down and she could swim from one side of the creek to the other, without the current. When it came time to teach Atsa, she would wait in the water each time he jumped, to make sure he made it. He both appreciated and resented that, at the time.

  As Yanaha got older, she wanted to try everything. She went to Oregon right after high school and learned how to ski. That was where she met her husband. They did the long-distance thing for a while and after a year, he moved to Phoenix. He was fourteen years older than her and he had owned a small business in Bend, Oregon. He sold that and bought the restaurant before he even asked her to marry him. Yanaha wasn’t ready then, so she said no. She finished two years of college and then decided she was going to Europe. She was in love with Sam then, but she didn’t put her dreams on hold for a ring on her finger, and AJ had always thought that was a sign of her bravery as well. With nothing more than a backpack and a few hundred dollars, she spent several months exploring the ruins of castles and kingdoms. She camped out, alone, or stayed in hostels where she made friends she’ll probably have for a lifetime. While she was gone she had emailed AJ almost daily and sent him pictures of her adventures. She always told him that he should go exploring or adventuring before he settled down. Most days now, he wished he had listened to her.

  He watched now as she smiled at the customers in the booth she was standing next to, and flipped her long, thick braid back over her shoulder. Her smile had always been the kind that brightened a room and made anyone in its path smile back. Her light brown hair, hazel eyes, and light skin made her look more Caucasian than Navajo, but her high cheekbones said it all.

  “You going in?” The familiar voice brought AJ out of his thoughts and back to the present, but for a second AJ couldn’t process where he knew it from. He turned toward it and came face to face with his brother-in-law, Sam. AJ had liked his sister’s husband since the first time he met him and when Yanaha and AJ first stopped speaking to each other, Sam reached out to him several times, trying to get them to reconcile. AJ had been much too stubborn, however, and apparently so had his sister.

  “Sam,” AJ said with a smile. “How the hell are you?” The two men shook hands and AJ took stock of the older man. Yanaha was only thirty-six, but her husband had just turned fifty. He looked good for his age, healthy and fit. The only real giveaway that he was so much older than Yanaha were the touches of gray at his temples and a few fine lines around his blue eyes.

  Sam smiled back at him as he shook AJ’s hand. “I’m doing great, Atsa. How are you?”

  “Good,” AJ lied. He was torn up over Jolene’s leaving and a nervous wreck about this meeting with his sister, but he would be fine...soon.

  “What are you doing here?”

  AJ looked back toward the window, Yanaha was gone. “I was hoping she’d talk to me,” he said. “I’m not sure she will, since she didn’t respond to the note I left a few weeks ago.”

  Sam frowned. “Where did you leave the note?”

  “Here,” he said, “with the hostess.”

  “We were on vacation for two weeks. We were in Oregon and just got back last week. I don’t think she got your message. I’m sure she would have told me if she had.”

  That made AJ feel better and worse at the same time. He was glad Yanaha hadn’t ignored his virtual olive branch, but now he felt like shit for waiting so long to go back to see her, again, out of stubbornness. “So...do you think she’ll talk to me?” The last time they did speak, Yanaha had told him she was ashamed of him. She said that he was a “traitor” to their heritage and that their parents would be ashamed of him as well. That had been at a party she and Sam attended in Tempe with him and Pamela. Yanaha had called him Atsa in front of one of Pamela’s snobby friends and he’d asked her not to do it again. That had only pissed her off and she’d gone out of her way the rest of the evening to mention to everyone she came into contact with that AJ was Navajo and not Italian. Pam was mortified and tried to insist he throw her out. Instead, he’d tried to talk to her and they’d both ended up saying things that caused the rift that had now spanned two years. It seemed ridiculous to him now...but he couldn’t go back.

  “Of course she’ll talk to you, Atsa. The only reason she hasn’t spoken to you all this time is because she thought you didn’t want to talk to her. Come on inside.” AJ had butterflies in his stomach as he followed his brother-in-law into the restaurant. Yanaha was at the front, behind the hostess desk and he saw her eyes widen when she saw him. She looked at Sam questioningly when they approached the desk and Sam said, “Look who I found loitering out front.” Yanaha finally looked directly at her brother. She wasn’t smiling, but she didn’t look altogether unhappy to see him either. Mostly, she looked surprised.

  “Hi,” AJ said, smiling at her first. That was when her beautiful face brightened and she smiled back at him.

  “Hi.”

  “Babe, why don’t you take your brother to the office where you can talk? I’ll take over here until you get back.” Yanaha kissed Sam on the cheek and then AJ followed her through the small, nicely decorated restaurant and to a little office in back, near the kitchen where a variety of delicious smells wafted out through the pickup window. AJ’s stomach growled loudly and Yanaha stopped and said:

  “Do you want something to eat?” That simple question almost brought tears to his eyes and proved that no distance or silly argument could unbind the ties that held families together.

  “Thank you, but not now. I’d like to talk first.” Yanaha smiled and they went into the office. She sat behind the desk and AJ took the little office chair in front of it.

  “I’m surprised to see you,” she said. “Did Pam come with you?” AJ smiled at the way his sister said “Pam.” It was like a bad taste she was trying to get out of her mouth.

  “No. Pamela and I broke up two months ago. We’re over.”

  Yanaha actually took a deep breath and breathed it out as she said, “Thank God. You didn’t marry her, did you?”

  He chuckled. “No, sis, I got out before the wedding happened.”

  “Thank God,” she said, again. She was quiet for a few seconds and then she said, “It’s good to see you, Atsa. You look good.”

  “It’s good to see you too. I missed you and I should have come a long time ago.”

  She smiled sadly and said, “I should have gone to you. I guess we both got Daddy’s stubborn streak, huh?”

  AJ nodded. “I think it’s safe to say we did. I’m sorry, Yanaha, for everything. I was wrong to pretend I was something I wasn’t, just to impress a bunch of people I didn’t even really like. I was also wrong to let Pamela treat you and Sam as poorly as she did.”

  “I didn’t handle any of it well either. I can’t believe we went two years without talking. I have so much to tell you...” Yanaha started talking and Atsa listened, happily. He realized as she talked just how much he’d missed out on, both in h
er life and in his own, all because of stubbornness, as well as living his life according to someone else’s standards and not his own. When he finally left, hours later, his belly was full of good food, his heart full of the kind of joy that could only come from family...and he had something new to look forward to. His sister and brother-in-law had adopted a child, a little Navajo girl who was five years old. Yanaha found out she couldn’t have children before she ever met Sam. She’d never talked about adopting, but now when she talked about her daughter, AJ could see how much she loved the child and how happy she was. Life was good, and he resolved, as he got on his bike that day, that it was only going to get better.

  16

  Phoenix, Arizona

  After AJ visited his sister, he went back out to the club to talk to Jace. He wanted to let him know that he had to go back to Tempe, but if Jace still needed help, AJ knew a lot of guys that would be more than happy to take a trip to Phoenix. As soon as he drove up in front of the new clubhouse, he knew something was up. The shop next door had the door rolled up, but although AJ couldn’t see anyone inside working in there, all the bikes were still parked out front and there was one parked near the shop that he didn’t recognize, and it had Massachusetts plates. They had company. He got off his bike and went inside. Most of the guys were there, sitting around a new table that AJ had just helped Finn and Bubba set up the day before, sharing a pitcher of beer. He noted that Jace, Finn and Bubba were absent and he didn’t see anyone he didn’t recognize.

  “Hey, AJ! Come have a beer,” Toad said, as soon as he saw him. AJ went over and took a seat at the chair. Toad poured him a mug of beer and slid it across the table to him.

  AJ took a sip of it and said, “Thanks. I’m surprised to find you all here, before dinner.” Normally they were all working until dinner showed up, all except for the two that were always following the girl they were watching. Those guys and the girl usually showed up about dinnertime and unless Jace and Beck were joining the guys for dinner, she disappeared until morning. AJ didn’t know what the deal was with her. When she first got there, she seemed sullen and angry. She was a brunette when she got there and within a few days her hair was platinum blonde and six inches shorter. AJ wasn’t positive but he didn’t think she’d had such blue eyes when she arrived either. He could tell by the way someone followed her everywhere she went that they were protecting her from something or someone, but no one said anything specific in front of him. All he really knew was that her name was Madison and after a week or so, when she started working for Tommy at the museum, she seemed happier and more relaxed. He had even spotted her and Beck having coffee together on Beck’s front porch a few days earlier when Beck’s mother and grandmother were visiting.

  “We had church,” Toad said. “Jace said we could take the rest of the day off.”

  “Nice. Is Jace around? I need to talk to him.”

  “He’s still in there,” Toad said, tossing his head toward the meeting room. “He’s got company.”

  “Okay, I guess I can wait and talk to him tomorrow.”

  “Sounds like Barney is here,” Vic said when the sounds of a loud Hog approaching broke the silence outside. Barney had just been patched in, along with Gaston, a few weeks earlier. Jace had invited AJ to the patching ceremony, which was about five minutes of the all-night party. It had been a lot of fun and Barney and Gaston had both been on cloud nine. The bar where they had the party closed that night to everyone except for the club and whomever they invited. The men had been free to invite whomever they wanted and not surprisingly, the place had been filled with women. Gaston and Barney got a lot more than their patches that night.

  When Barney came through the door, Madison was with him. The men all fell silent as soon as she walked in, and they watched Barney lead her to the office and leave her inside. He came over to the table and Toad poured him a beer. Before saying a word, Barney downed half of it and then said, “Maybe she shouldn’t spend so much time with Beck.” The room erupted with laughter. When it calmed down Toad said:

  “I take it you told her about the trip?”

  “Yeah, Jace called and told me to tell her so she could tell Tommy...she was pissed. I almost didn’t convince her to get on the bike and come home with me.” Toad held up his hand and AJ could see signs of a wound there that was still healing.

  “You’re lucky,” Toad said. “This is what I got for my trouble the night at the bar.” Barney started to say something else and then his eyes landed on AJ. Suddenly, as they all realized maybe they’d already said too much in front of him, the conversation changed. Ultimately it ended up being about five different conversations and they were loud...until the sounds of yelling in the office penetrated the door. The men fell silent and as soon as they did AJ heard Madison’s voice:

  “Fuck Garibaldi! Fuck them all! I’m sick of this and I’m not going to hide in fucking Boston! I like my job.”

  Toad looked at AJ then and before he said anything AJ said, “Maybe I should come back and talk to Jace later.”

  “Thanks, man.” AJ nodded and walked outside. Vic was out there, lighting a joint. He took a drag and then held it out in AJ’s direction.

  “Nah, I’m good, thanks.”

  “You taking off?”

  “Yeah, it sounds like Jace has his hands full tonight. What I have to tell him can wait until tomorrow.” Vic nodded and took another hit off the joint. AJ was about to get on his bike when he thought of something and said, “Hey, Vic, you know I don’t pay any attention to things around here that don’t involve me...but just now I heard Madison say something about the Garibaldis. Is that Angelo she’s talking about? From Vegas?”

  Vic stopped mid-drag and looked at AJ. “You know him?” AJ was used to the guys answering a question with a question. He nodded and said:

  “Yeah. I mean, we’re not friends or anything. I did some consulting for him on a house he built in Vegas last year. He put me and my fiancée up at his resort for a few weeks and we had dinner with him and his son Eugene a few times.”

  “What about Anthony?”

  “I didn’t meet him. I heard he’d gotten into some trouble and I had the impression he was in jail or something.”

  “This house, you built it for him?”

  “No. He already had plans drawn up and a construction company hired. But he wanted to make some structural changes so his contractor, who is a friend of mine, asked me to come out and consult. Like I said, we were there for a few weeks, I did the consultation, and I left.”

  “Where’s the house?” Vic asked.

  “It’s up in the MacDonald Highlands, in Henderson. It sits on a private plot of land at the foot of the Black Mountains. The place is huge...ridiculously so.” AJ had taken Pam to see it one day and instantly regretted it. He could almost see her salivating and plotting to live in a comparable place someday.

  “You’re sure it’s his?”

  AJ thought that was a strange question. “Well, like I said, I wasn’t primary on the job so I never saw any mortgage or title documents. I didn’t do any physical changes to the house, just made suggestions.”

  “I need you to come with me and tell Jace this.” AJ was about to ask why when suddenly the door next to Vic was thrown open and little Madison stormed out. There was fire in her eyes. She didn’t acknowledge either man, she simply stomped toward the house. With an exasperated look on his face, Barney followed her. “Come on,” Vic said.

  Still confused, AJ followed Vic into the clubhouse. The other men watched curiously as he knocked on the office door and led AJ inside once Jace barked out a “Come in.” Finn, Bubba, Gaston, and a hairy, bearded biker that AJ didn’t recognize were huddled at a table in one corner, looking at maps. Jace was sitting at his desk, looking like he might have a headache. “Boss, AJ knows Garibaldi,” Vic said.

  Jace frowned and looked at AJ. “I don’t really know him...”

  “Tell him what you told me,” Vic said, taking a seat.

  “Sit
down, AJ,” Jace said. He gave Vic a hard look then and Vic held up his palms and said:

  “He heard Madison hollering and he mentioned knowing Garibaldi, boss. I didn’t say a word.” Jace looked slightly relieved and then looked back at AJ and said:

  “If you don’t mind, AJ, how do you know him?”

  AJ launched into the same conversation he’d just had with Vic. Jace wanted more details, and AJ told him about the “special rooms” Garibaldi had built into the house. It was like a safe room, but much bigger, like a small safe house within a large mansion. AJ hadn’t thought that was too odd at the time, considering how much money his friend told him Garibaldi was worth. Suddenly, however, it was of great interest to the Skulls and after two hours and Jace’s making multiple phone calls, AJ found himself agreeing to go on a road trip...to Las Vegas.

  Madison tried to make it to her room before Beck saw her, but she’d just stepped into the hallway when she heard the other woman say, “Hey, you okay?” She and Beck weren’t close by any means, but over the past few weeks they’d learned to coexist. Madison knew having someone in her house, especially while she was pregnant, and grounded, had to be an imposition. She’d done her best to stay out of the way and help out when she could. She turned toward Beck now and said:

  “I’m pissed.”

  Beck smiled and said, “I was just going to open the last tub of Ben and Jerry’s. Want to join me?” Beck was wearing a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt. Madison marveled at how gorgeous the woman could look in such a simple outfit and without a stitch of makeup on her face. From what she’d heard about Beck since she’d been here, and from what she’d seen herself, Beck was one badass woman. To look at her in that moment, however, one might guess she was simply the sweet little pregnant old lady of the club president. She was even barefoot. Of course, Madison had learned the hard way in her young adult life that looks were more often than not deceiving.