by Dex, Trace
“My world ain’t safe for you, cutie pie. Plus, I’ve already put your life at risk so many times, I don’t think I can let that happen again.”
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault. I kind of like it anyways, it’s fun.” she said, her words a bit slurred. “Plus, what if they come back and you’re not here and they see me? They must have seen me riding with you?”
She had a point. Those two could come back here. But as much as I knew I’d protect her if anything went wrong, would she really be safer with me?
“How else would they know to check this building? They must have followed us,” she said. “That’s why I need to go with you!”
“You should stay with Mandy and Mochi,” I said. “It’s too dangerous out there for you.”
“If I stay, then they’ll be in danger, too,” she said while nudging Mandy. I looked at Mandy, who seemed confused for a moment, but eventually agreed. Did they just use teamwork to get Candace to stay with me?
“Are you sure?” I said.
“Yes!” said Candace. “Right Mandy? Right?”
It was a cute mess watching these two, drunk as they tried to communicate silently with each other.
“You should take her with your, Rainer,” said Mandy. “But can I get a hug at least before you go.”
I smiled and hugged Mandy, who held on longer than I expected, then I began to pet Mochi. I took Candace’s hand before heading out the door.
“Thank you so much for the hospitality, Mandy. Don’t want to trouble you no more, we gotta get going,” I said.
I kept my gun close and peaked outside to make sure they weren’t there.
“Be careful out there,” slurred Mandy. “Candace, call me later and tell me how he is in bed.”
Candace’s face was brighter than a stoplight, but the message to her was the same.
“Let’s go,” I whispered. She held my hand tight and we raced to the staircase, running down all five flights of stairs with our fingers locked. I was sober now, the margaritas barely hit me. Mandy was definitely drunk and Candace seemed okay, but the fear of those two barging in probably sobered her up.
We passed the front desk and Candace let go of my hand and began walking back towards the workers. “Snitches get stitches, bitches,” she said.
They looked shocked and I had to drag Candace away, “Come on, we have to go.”
I pull her out the door and when we got to my motorcycle, we saw two motorcycles parked by mine.
Without hesitation, Candace tried kicking both of the motorcycles but couldn’t knock it down. I’m not sure what she was thinking, these things are usually really heavy.
I gave each motorcycle a little push at the same time she kicked it, knocking them down one by one. I guess she was still feeling the alcohol because she wouldn’t stop telling me how strong she was while asking if I saw what she did.
“Proud of you, woman. You got a hell of a kick there,” I said. She smiled and I never seen anything more adorable in my life.
“Now let’s get the hell out of here before the rest of their crew finds us.”
“Wait, isn’t that them?” said Candace.
I looked over to see them walking out the door headed our direction. I grabbed Candace’s wrist and pulled her behind a nearby wall. “I’m going to need you to sober up. Can you do that?”
Candace smiles and nods. “Don’t make a sound.”
I listen to them as they head towards their bikes.
“I told you you should have fucking stayed out here with his bike,” said the bald one. “President’s not going to be happy when we come empty handed.”
“It’s right there you fuck, I see it,” said the other guy. “But where the fuck are ours?”
I watch as they started rushing towards our area. Just then, Candace pushed my hand away and walked over to their bikes.
“Candace!” I whisper. “What the fuck are you doing?” I pull my gun out.
The guys look pissed when they see their motorcycles on the floor. “What the fuck, who did this?”
“Me!” yelled Candace.
“Who the fuck are you?” said the Bald one.
Candace walks around their motorcycles until both of them have their backs against me. That’s when I slowly walked up and pistol-whipped one of the guys in the head, making him fall to the floor while his sunglasses fly off his face. Then I place the barrel of my gun behind the bald guys head.
“Hands up. You move, you die,” I said as I checked his waist. Once I found his gun, I aimed it at the guy on the floor.
“Don’t even think about it,” I said to the other guy. Just then, Candace kicks the bald guy in the nuts and he drops to the ground and holds his groin in pain. I aimed both guns at each of them and motioned Candace to get behind me.
“You like that?” she said as she walked over him.
“You,” I said to the guy I hit, “Lay on your stomach and kiss the ground if you want to live.”
The guy does it right away and I search him for his gun. I find his gun and put it in my pocket then I take his phone and drop it in front of him. Then I walked up to the bald guy who was still writhing in pain and used his neck as a footstool while staring into his eyes as he tried to breath. His eyes were red and his hands were still holding his balls.
I cocked my gun and aimed it at the other guy. “How many more of your are here?”
“It’s just us,” he said.
“Call your boss, and put it on speaker phone.”
I watch him close as the phone rings.
“This better be good. Did you find him? Hello?”
“Who is this?” I said.
“What the fuck do you mean who is this… who is this?”
“Sent your boys to do the dirty work, huh?” I said.
“You mother fucker. Where are you?”
I step even harder on the bald guys neck who squirms. I look back at the other guy who seemed to be crying.
“Do you hear that? You sent two boys to do a man’s job? You’re dumber than I thought.”
“Oh you fucking asshole I’m going to kill you!”
I moved my foot off the bald guy’s neck and kicked him hard in the ribs, then walked over to the other guy and stood above him.
“Turn around,” I said to Candace, who hesitated at first but eventually turned.
“Where the fuck are you, you piece of shit?” screamed the guy on the phone.
I stomped my foot on top of the guy’s back and watched as blood leaked from his head from the hit he took earlier.
“Listen closely,” I said. I aim my gun at the bald guy and shot him right in the head. Candace screamed after the loud gunshot and I turned around to make sure she was okay. She had her hands against her ears and was still turned around. “Zella’s husband is dead.”
“What?“
“Oh,” I said. “And so is she.”
“You son of a—“
I stomped on the phone, and shattered it. Then I kicked the other guy’s ribs and watched him for a moment as he tried to catch his breath. I squatted down and looked him in his teary eyes. “If you live, tell your boys they’re next.”
I got up, aimed my gun at the guys kneecap and pulled the trigger. He screamed in pain over and over.
I put my arm around Candace and gave her a smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
* * *
CHAPTER EIGHT
Candace
My hair blew in the cold wind as we rode towards Rainer’s clubhouse. The place wasn’t far but I wished the distance was longer so that I could hold onto him more.
I heard the two gunshots but I couldn’t look at the bodies, it was too much and I was too drunk. I think I would have been a lot more scared if I weren’t so intoxicated. I closed my eyes as Rainer picked me up and placed me on his bike, then we drove off. I’m not sure if he killed them, I think he did but I’ll pretend he didn’t. I do know that he beat their asses. I still can’t believe I kicked that bald guy in the ball
s. It felt better than I thought it would and I don’t feel bad about it at all. That man totally deserved it after he kicked Mochi, so fuck him!
Rainer warned me on the drive over that his club might not be too happy with me being there. That I should brace myself because it’s not going to feel great, at least at the beginning. I told him that we could stay at my place or maybe hide out in another hotel. Things I know for sure I’d never say if I were completely sober.
He assured me that this would be the safest place for the both of us since everyone was there to watch our backs. I hoped he meant the both of us, but I wasn’t too worried, Rainer had my back.
Was I being too obvious with the flirting? I haven’t flirted in years so I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. Did Rainer even know that I had feelings for him? I wondered how he felt about me, I wanted him to like me but it was hard to tell. Was I a nuisance or was he actually interested in me? He didn’t have to take me with him, but he did. I should probably stop assuming, maybe he’s like this with everyone.
After we parked, my vision was still a little blurry from the alcohol but I couldn’t help but notice all the angry eyes staring in my direction.
“What you did back there was stupid, and you should never ever do that again. But it was also fucking brilliant, just, please don’t do that again. You never know with these guys, they could shoot you without hesitating.”
“Okay, but did you see that kick I gave him?”
“Yeah, I told you you were strong,” he smiled.
“Damn right I am!”
“But don’t do it again, okay?”
“Okay, fine,” I said as he wrapped his arm around me.
We walked past over 50 motorcycles parked outside before we made our way in.
The clubhouse looked more like a dilapidated tavern, loud music and chatter with a bunch of half empty glasses of alcohol in random areas. It was huge and the floor was sticky but a lot of the furniture looked clean. The lights dangling from the ceiling were yellow, with a few neon signs illuminating some of the walls. It smelled of old beer, cigarettes, and marijuana. There were actually a lot of girls in there but none of them wore vests like the guys.
Rainer held my hand tightly as we moved through the crowd.
Sid came from nowhere and stopped in front of us, “What the fuck is she doing here, man?”
Rainer let go of my hand and moved inches away from Sid’s face. “Let me make this clear, you got a problem with her, you got a problem with me.” They stared down one another as I hid behind Rainer. I was really excited that he stuck up for me, especially since I felt incredibly unwelcomed. Eventually Sid backed away and Rocket showed up from behind him.
I listened as Rocket told Rainer about how their uncle wasn’t very happy with what went down, but he was glad the Zella girl was dead. He also mentioned the war and how they needed to be extra alert from now on.
I felt a little more relaxed when he said that their uncle was okay with me pulling the trigger because it was easier to convince the cops to throw it under the rug. This whole war thing was much bigger than I could have imagined. I felt really bad for pulling the trigger, but not for myself. I felt bad that Rainer or Rocket didn’t get to do it instead since they wanted to avenge their father.
None of his close friends really acknowledged me except for Lanvin who gave me a nod.
Rainer’s eyes looked angry as we walked through the crowd. Sid, Lanvin, and Rocket follow us for a while. The three of them moved towards the corner to join some girl and guy I’d never seen before. I noticed them all look in my direction at the same time, uncertain what they were thinking or saying.
Rainer and me continued past the crowd of large men, everyone saying hello to Rainer while glaring at me. Some had beards, some had goatees, some were bald, and some had bandanas. Some of them were wearing sunglasses indoors and all of them had on a leather vest the same patch as Rainers.
Rainer didn’t seem to acknowledge them as they said hello, he looked pissed off but I couldn’t really tell why.
There were plenty of women in there with barely any clothes on. I saw at least three blowjobs going on in the corner of my eye, and a few people were actually having sex with a crowd surrounding them.
I noticed some of the younger looking guys without any drinks in their hands and their heads down. The girls and those guys were the only ones that weren’t glaring at me.
I saw a lot of drugs being done: snorting mysterious white powders, smoking out of different pipes, some of it didn’t seem like weed, and lots of beers and brown drinks that I assumed to be whiskey neat. Unfortunately, there were no margaritas in sight.
My buzz was started to ware off, probably because of the way people kept looking at me. It was sobering and frightening to say the last.
“What’ll you have to drink?” said Rainer.
“Do you have anything fruity?”
“Aside from Sid, there ain’t nothing fruity in this place,” he said with the first smile I’d seen since we got in.
“Hey that’s not nice!”
“What you mean? You see that guy standing by him over there?” he said pointing without making it too obvious. “That’s his boyfriend.”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah. Best keep that one to yourself, only Lanvin, Rocket, and a few others know that about him.”
“I really wouldn’t have guessed if you hadn’t told me!”
What shocked me the most was how Rainer seemed so nonchalant about it. For some reason, I didn’t think a person as masculine and dangerous as him would be okay with being best friends with a gay man. And I didn’t think someone as mean and ruthless could be gay.
“You know, I did research a little about these motorcycle clubs and I had the impression that most of the members were racist and homophobic,” I said.
Rainer put his arm around me and looked around at all of his members. “A lot of those guys still exist, which is why it’s still a secret,” he said. “But to me, if Sid wants to go suck on some guys dick and take it in the ass, that ain’t my business. He can do what he wants, it doesn’t affect me. It’s a shame some of the other guys can’t see it that way, though.”
I knew Rainer was a great guy, but with all the killing and kidnapping and crime stuff he’s involved with, I didn’t think he’d be like this. A pleasant surprise that made me like him even more.
“So not everyone here feels the way you feel, right?”
“Yeah, not everyone here’s got a level head on their shoulders. It’s sad that Sid has to hide his true self, and it can be really fucking annoying when he tries too hard to seem macho and all that shit, but he worries how the others will see him if he came out. So some things are best left secret. We all have our insecurities,” he said. “In the end, we’re all just human.”
“So what’s your insecurity?”
“Me? Nothin’,” he said with a smile as he held me closer.
Rainer grabbed two beers and somehow managed to break the cap off by using another beer. “Here you go,” he said. “This one has an orange on the cap, you see?”