“Working, ma’am.”
“Go find her!” I shouted. “Right now!”
I felt someone grab me. I spun and threw my hand, not realizing what I was doing. It was Gage and he caught my wrist. He dragged me off the porch as I started to yell and break out into tears. He put me in the front yard and held my arms.
“Babe, calm down,” Gage said. “Please. Calm down. I’ll defend you against every cop in town but someone is going to end up in jail.”
“What do we do?” I asked. “She’s confused, Gage. What if she gets hit by a car? What if we don’t… it gets so cold out at night now. It’s not summer!”
Gage walked me some more into the yard. My feet crunched on the leaves on the ground, reminding me that it was fall. It was getting cooler by the second.
“I will find her,” Gage said. “I need you to stay here. Comfort Deb. She feels guilty as hell right now. Let the cops go out and do their thing. I’ll do mine.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“We’ll find her,” Gage said. “Me and the boys. Okay?”
I looked into Gage’s eyes and I trusted him. I couldn’t believe it, but I really trusted him.
I nodded and started to cry again.
He slid his arms around me and held me tight. He kissed the top of my head about ten times.
“Babe, I have to ride. Every second that goes by…”
“I know,” I said. “Go. I love you, Gage.”
He wiped a tear off my cheek. “I love you, Willow. It’s going to be okay.”
I watched Gage run to his motorcycle and get on it. He started it and took off down the street. On the porch the police were still taking notes and making calls. But Gage was already in action.
I went to Deb and hugged her again.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Stop that. Gage will find her.”
“Gage? You trust him?”
“With my life,” I said without hesitation.
And my heart.
thirty-one
(gage)
*NOW*
“Everyone do exactly what he says to do,” Sid said as we stood at our rides.
It was me, Sid, Gunner, Niko, Luka, and Diesel.
I had given the quick rundown and it was pretty clear that the club wanted to help me. That meant a lot but I also knew Sid and knew he liked things to come in two fold. Meaning if the Bitter Aces helped find a lost Alzheimer’s patient then we’d be squeaky clean for a bit.
“Gunner and Luka come with me,” I said. “Prez, you take Niko and Diesel. Split up and just ride. She’s out there. She’s walking around, confused as fuck. I can’t let her down. We have to find her.”
Sid clamped a hand to my shoulder. “We’ll find her, brother. The things we do for pussy, right?”
I forced a grin.
I got on my ride and had Gunner and Luka right on my ass. We went south, Prez took his guys north. I tried to think how far Willow’s grandmother could have gone. If she was walking… damn, she had to be slow, right?
I cruised around the blocks near her house. Maybe she had thought she was going to a friend’s. No luck. I thought maybe she was walking to the store. The grocery store was miles away. But back in the day there had been a few small stores on the corners. They were since converted into apartment houses. I rode there and checked the front, sides, and backs. No sign at all. The next place I checked was the old house. Maybe she had gotten confused and was trying to go home or something. It was almost impossible to figure out what she could have been thinking.
As I circled back through town I started to fear the worst. I couldn’t go back to the house without something for Willow. I couldn’t let her down again.
Then it hit me.
Church.
I blasted through a stop sign and cut to the right. My back tire kicked out and I saved myself from dropping my motorcycle. The church was a good two miles from the house but it was my last place to look. Maybe Willow’s grandmother thought it was Sunday morning or something.
My thinking paid off… but not in the way I wanted.
As I came around the last bend and saw the steeple sticking up into the cool autumn night sky, I saw something on the side of the road.
It was a foot.
I slammed the brakes and shook my head.
Willow’s grandmother was in a ditch…
I ran toward the ditch and fell to the ground. I realized her ankle was twisted and probably broken. I touched her face and tried to find a pulse. I grabbed my phone and threw it back to Gunner, ordering him to call an ambulance and call Willow.
“Stay with me,” I said to Willow’s grandmother.
I felt a small pulse and her eyes fluttered. She turned her head and looked at me. Her mouth started to move.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m here. Willow is on the way. So is Deb. You’re okay.”
She looked left to right. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a ditch. Off the side of the road. You were going to church, right?”
“Church… I haven’t been in a church since my daughter died.”
Daughter died. Shit. Willow’s mother.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Just don’t move. I think you banged up your ankle pretty good.”
“Gage, here,” Gunner said. He gave me my phone. “Willow is on the line.”
“Did you call an ambulance?” I asked.
Gunner nodded and I heard the faint cry of a siren. Help would be there in no time.
I stayed on my knees and kept Willow’s grandmother entertained as much as I could. The sirens got louder as they got closer. Gunner then told me a car was pulling up. I figured it had to be Willow.
The scene then sped up even more.
The paramedics went to work as Willow and Deb came rushing to their grandmother’s side. I looked around and knew somewhere out there the fucking PD was still trying to figure out what to do. It was exactly why Bishop needed the MC. I told Luka to call Prez and tell him everything was good.
Willow and Deb cried as their grandmother was loaded onto the stretcher.
As they wheeled her toward the ambulance she let go of Willow’s hand.
“I’ll be fine,” her weak voice said. “I’m just happy the plumber found me.”
Willow laughed then cried.
I felt my heart twist a little.
I’d forever be known to Willow’s grandmother as the goddamn plumber.
That was okay. It was better than being some crazed outlaw bastard.
I grabbed Willow and hugged her.
“Thank you,” Deb said to me.
I nodded. “No problem. I’m glad she’s safe. Her ankle is messed up, but if that’s the worst, I think you’re okay.”
“We have to get to the hospital,” Willow said. She looked up at me. “Can I have a ride?”
“Of course, babe,” I said. I touched her cheek. “For the rest of your life… of course…”
thirty-two
(willow)
*LATER*
Grammie escaped with a broken ankle. No surgery required. She was very lucky. But it proved to me and Deb that things were too far out of control. We sat together at the dining room table and cried as we made the decision to have Grammie live somewhere else. It was a great place to live. More like an apartment complex than a nursing home. She would have the best care possible and we could visit anytime we wanted. The place was just twenty minutes outside Bishop. The money we’d get from the sale of the house would go towards all her care.
I hated signing the papers and I hated the pain and guilt that surged through me. But at least Deb felt it too.
The house sold within a week and we had already had Grammie in her place.
Gage came with his MC buddies to help with the house. There was nothing quite like watching all these ten foot tall bikers carrying boxes and furniture out of the house. We donated anythin
g we couldn’t use. Gage had a storage unit and let me put anything I wanted there. I kept everything that had a memory to me and took up half the storage unit.
It was by far the craziest couple weeks of my life.
And when it all came to an end I realized I had no place to live and no job. I was all but homeless. It sunk in pretty bad when Deb flew back home and I was alone.
Except, I had Gage.
He told me I could crash at his place as long as I wanted. And he got me a job at the bar he took me to on our date. My first night he made it very clear who I was and that if anyone touched me, they’d be shot. And if anyone stiffed me on a bill or didn’t tip well he was going to break their hands.
It seemed to work because I made a lot of money.
I got to go home to my dream man - my wild outlaw - every night. I woke up in his hands. He ate me for breakfast, fucked me in the shower, and then disappeared to do his thing. I never asked unless he needed to talk to me.
But I did finally get him back once.
He was taking a nap in the clubhouse one day and the President of the MC, Sid, let me into his room. I chewed up some gum and stuck it to his hair. Then I lit a bunch of firecrackers and dropped them on the bed. All the guys were there to watch Gage wake up, freaking out. They took it a step further by putting a bowl of leftover food grease on the nightstand where Gage normally kept his gun. He slammed his hand into the grease. Then Sid told him about the gum. Gage reached for his hair, with the grease.
Gage was pissed, but not at me.
All was fair in love, right?
That night, he handcuffed me to the bed as punishment. But what he did to me… if that was punishment, then I planned on being bad for a very long time.
Another late night at the bar saw me getting into the apartment around two-thirty in the morning. Gage left me flowers on the table, like he always did. But there was something else. When I lifted the beautiful red roses I saw something else on the table.
I did a double take and hurried to turn on the main light in the kitchen.
The diamond ring glistened back at me.
I dropped the flowers.
“You don’t have to answer right now,” Gage said, scaring the hell out of me.
He stood in the doorway, wearing no shirt.
“What…”
He reached into his back pocket. He took out a note and put it on the table.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Something I wrote… well, tried to write a long time ago.”
“What’s it say?”
“That I like you,” Gage said. “But now I love you. And now I’m going to spend every day with you. If you’ll have me. Take your time and think about the ring.”
I played the game and skipped the table and jumped into Gage’s arms.
He took me to the bedroom, stripped me naked, and kissed everywhere I wanted to be kissed. We didn’t finally go to sleep until the sun was starting to come up. I snuck out of bed when he fell asleep and took the ring off the table. I slid it onto my left ring finger and stood there, naked, crying a little.
Then I went back to bed.
Gage would wake up to find me wearing the ring.
Then he’d have his answer.
We both would get the one thing we’ve always wanted.
A chance at forever.
thirty-three
(gage)
*THEN*
I scribbled the words on the paper. It was so stupid. Even more stupid that I was going to put the letter in Willow’s mailbox and watch her reaction. I wanted to see her blush and smile. She had been through too much shit. I wanted to tell her the truth.
My door busted open and I scrambled to hide the letter.
My old man walked into my room and grabbed the back of my neck.
“What the fuck you doing?” he asked, drunk.
“Nothing,” I said and swatted him away.
He made a fist and punched me in the side of the head. I fell off the chair.
He grabbed the letter and held it up.
He started to laugh.
Then he read it.
“I like you, Willow. I always have.” He looked down at me. “How fucking cute. The neighbor bitch over there? With the dead mother and the fucking weird grandmother? That’s what you want?”
“Please…”
“You don’t need pussy like that. Trust me, Gage. You need to just fuck it and leave it.”
My old man took out a cigarette and stuck it between his lips. He lit it up and then lit the letter on fire. He dropped it to the carpet where it burned some of the fibers, forever leaving a black mark.
He took a deep drag of his cigarette and then balanced it on the window sill.
“I’m going to set you straight,” he said. “You’ll thank me someday.”
He reached down for me and I tried to fight back. But the old man hammered on me. The more I fought back the more he went at me. Sometimes it was easier to just take the beating.
So I did.
And all I thought about was Willow… and someday… it would all work…
thirty-four
(gage)
*NOW*
I stood at the sink and held a mug of coffee.
Willow snuck up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. I looked down at the diamond ring on her finger. Yeah, I hadn’t gotten an official answer yet, but that was just part of us. When she was ready to talk about the realness of forever I’d be waiting.
There was nothing else to have in life but the moment we were living.
It was Wednesday and that meant pasta night with her grandmother. So I’d have the afternoon and night to myself. I’d go to the clubhouse, hang, shoot pool, toss some darts, drink some shots. Willow would have pasta and meatballs with her grandmother. Funny story - last time she was there, her grandmother asked her to call the sexy plumber because her bathroom faucet was leaky. Her grandmother was a sweet old lady and it was sad to see her slipping. I knew someday there would be an end to it. It was painful to imagine and it would crush Willow. But I would be the man standing next to her. I’d comfort her and hold her pain.
Willow kissed my back and whispered, “Good morning.”
“It’s afternoon, babe,” I said. “You need to shower and leave.”
“It’s morning to me. How’d you sleep?”
“Perfect,” I said. “You in my arms, drooling on my chest.”
“Stop. I don’t drool.”
“There was a wet spot on my chest,” I said. “Unless… well, you were sitting on my face last night when you came the first time.”
Willow tried tickling me but I wasn’t ticklish. I reached back with my free hand and barely touched her belly and she jumped back, yelling.
I looked over my shoulder at the most beautiful woman I’d ever met. Messy hair. Good morning eyes. Bad breath. Her cheeks red. Her skin flush from a wild night of sex. She was beautiful perfection and she was all mine.
“That’s what I thought,” I said.
Willow jumped up on the table. She was wearing one of my long sleeve flannel shirts. She opened her legs and showed me she was wearing nothing under the flannel. That wasn’t a tease to me. That was a fucking invitation.
I looked forward to put my mug in the sink. I spotted a rabbit in the yard. It reminded me of fucking Chester. That stupid rabbit I thought was my only friend. Everything lives. Everything dies. Those were the real truths.
Right then, I was alive.
I put my coffee mug down and grabbed my pants. I dropped them to my knees and turned, letting my cock swing free. I stepped toward Willow and she grabbed for me, putting me right between her legs.
The most comfortable spot in the world.
I grabbed her face and kissed her.
She stroked me until I was hard and then I thrust forward, sinking my cock deep into her sweet body.
Now that’s what I call a goo
d fucking morning.
Shit… that’s what I call a good fucking life.
THE END.
Hey darlin’
Before you go, I’m going to ask you a couple things. First off, I really hope you enjoyed RENEGADE FIRE This book was a piece of me and it’s an honor to see it published. I hope you’ll take a second and jump over to Amazon and leave a review. It means the world to me to read reviews.
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- Jaxson Kidman
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First electronic edition July 2016
Copyright © 2016 by Jaxson Kidman
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.
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