by Kylie Walker
They were all big men and wore leather vests and jeans. A couple of them had on black leather riding chaps. There were five of them, but one stood out right away. He was sitting down but still towered over the others that all had to be at least six feet tall. His shoulders were as broad as a football player and he had these sexy full lips that made her mouth water. She could see that he had dark hair but she wasn’t close enough to see the color of his eyes only that they were big and he had long, inky black lashes that surrounded them.
“Hey, I thought you were getting the lighter. My break’s almost over.” Levi had been brought out of her reverie by Dylan, the bus boy. They had gone out back for a smoke and neither one of them had a lighter. Her purse was underneath the counter in front, but one look at the hot, inked flesh in the corner and she’d forgotten all about it.
“Oh yeah, I’m getting it. Sorry.” She saw Dylan glance over at the men in the corner and roll his eyes. She grabbed the lighter and with one last look at the leather clad hottie, she turned and followed Dylan back out the back. They took a seat in one of the lawn chairs that Neil set up in a make-shift smoking area and she lit her Marlboro and handed the lighter to Dylan. While he lit his she looked over and saw where the men had parked their Harley’s. They were all different colors and decked out in shiny chrome. Levi had dreamt of riding on the back of one more than once, with her arms wrapped around a burly, muscular guy in a leather vest.
“Hey, are you sure that’s a cigarette and not a blunt?”
Levi looked at Dylan, confused. “What?”
“You’re acting weird.”
Levi laughed. “Sorry. Just thinking.”
“Well if you’re thinking about those guys inside, don’t. They’re not good guys Levi. You’re better than that.” Dylan was three years younger than Levi but he had a hopeless crush on her. She’d already had to let him down gently and she knew that at least in part it was jealousy talking.
With a chuckle she said, “I’m sitting out here with you and Belinda is serving them. Do you think I held up my number on a flash card before you came in?”
His face colored and he said, “I’m just telling you, in case. I saw you looking at that big guy. He’s been in here before with different women. He treats them like shit. All I’m saying is you deserve a guy that treats you like a queen and those bikers aren’t it.”
In hindsight Levi wished that she had heeded either Dylan or Cami’s later warnings, but she didn’t. Before she finished her smoke the guys spilled out of the side door. They were all clumped together but the dark haired hottie stood at least five or six inches above the taller one. She didn’t realize that she was openly staring at him until he turned and met her gaze. She felt her face go hot as a slow, knowing smile spread across his face. He had to be used to women looking at him. He was one of those guys that oozed sex out his pores. His body was hard and colorful tattoos snaked out of the sleeves of the t-shirt he wore and down his arms to his wrists. She had to actually push her thighs together to contain the sudden heat she felt between them. The big guy tipped his chin at her and she smiled. She heard Dylan snort but she ignored him.
The moment Frankie’s intense eyes connected with hers, Levi became acutely aware of just how long it had been since she’d had sex. When the rest of the guys got on their bikes, Frankie walked over to where Levi was and when Dylan saw him coming he got up and whispered, “Remember what I said.” He went inside and left her there and before the night was over she’d seen the inside of the clubhouse and every hot inch of Frankie’s body. They were a hot item for a few months after that, unable to keep their hands, mouths and tongues off of each other…and then she really got to know him and everything slowly began to unravel.
It was late evening when Levi pulled her car into the parking stall her dad had told her to park in. She turned off the car and sat there trying to gather her thoughts before she went in. Before that happened there was a knock on the passenger window. Levi looked up to see the anxious face of her mother. Even in the dark Levi could see how much she’d aged. It made her heart hurt to think that it was partly her fault. She forced a smile and turned to step out of the car only to be nearly surprised into a heart attack by the sight of her father standing there. He pulled open her door and before she knew it he had her in his arms.
He was hugging her so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. Just about the time she started to push back, her mother was hugging her from behind. “Oh Levi! My baby!”
With her face smashed into her father’s chest she said, “Hi Mom, Dad.”
“Are you okay baby?” Her dad finally held her back at arm’s length. Her mother let go of her with one arm but kept her hand on the small of her back as she stepped forward to look at her face.
“You’re so thin baby! Have you been eating?”
Levi smiled. “I eat Mom. I work in a restaurant…or I did. The owners fed me a lot. I think they thought I was too skinny too.”
She nodded, “Good. That’s good.”
“Why don’t we go inside and talk?” Her father said. “Do you want me to get your bags?”
“Not right now, Daddy.” Her father had obviously not accepted the fact that she wasn’t staying just yet. “Let’s talk first.”
He nodded stiffly and both of her parents kept their hands on her back as they steered her toward their cozy little condo. Once inside Levi took the tour with her mother and accepted a cup of coffee from her dad. Her mother insisted on making her a plate and finally half an hour after walking through the door she had to say, “Mom, Dad, please sit down. Please…”
Her parents seemed reluctant to hear what she had to say, but they finally both sat down. Her mom wrung her hands and her dad looked like he was constipated…Levi started talking. She talked about feeling suffocated after Will died. Her mother still winced at the sound of Will’s name. As much as it hurt Levi to think of him, she couldn’t even imagine what her parents had gone through for the past eight years. She had so much guilt for making it harder on them. Her leaving now…disappearing to make sure none of the Warlock’s could find her…it was going to break their hearts once again.
She told them everything, but she kept it G-rated. She admitted to ‘trying drugs,’ but didn’t tell them that weed was a daily thing up until two weeks ago. She told them she drank too much, but not that some days when she wasn’t working she had stayed drunk all day long, just looking for an escape. She told them about Frankie’s abuse but not quite how bad it was. She didn’t repeat the names he had called her or tell them that he had broken several of her bones over the past two years. The whole time she talked her mother had tears rolling slowly down her face. Her father went from looking constipated to looking like he was in pain. Neither of them spoke until she got to the part about what happened to Frankie, and Tig chasing her out to the highway with a gun.
“We need to call the police,” her mother said. She was practically sobbing at this point.
“No!” Levi and her father both said at the same time.
Her mother didn’t seem shocked by her refusal, but her father’s refusal seemed to blow her away completely. “Mike! These people committed murder practically in front of her. It’s a crime for her to not tell anyone. Do you want our daughter to go to jail for that?”
“Mom, there won’t be a body. No one will report him missing. As far as anyone other than the club and me know, no murder happened. If I go to the police, they won’t ever find anything but I’ll be putting my own life in more jeopardy that it already is.”
Her mother was holding her stomach and rocking back and forth. It was killing Levi. It reminded her of the day Will died, how her mother had rolled into a fetal position and howled like a wounded animal. Her father reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. She tried to move away but he didn’t let her. He scooted up next to her and took her in his arms and said, “Listen to me baby. Levi is right. I know guys like this…maybe not quite as scary, but you know that I know them.” Lev
i didn’t know what her dad was talking about but she could tell that her mother did.
“It was a long time ago Mike. Maybe things have changed…”
“If they’ve changed, they’ve only gotten worse.”
“Mike no…” Her mother was giving her father a pleading look. “Don’t do this.”
“If this is what it takes to save our little girl’s life, then this is what we have to do.”
“But…” Her father silenced her mother with a look. Now Levi was really confused.
“Dad…what do you mean by “knowing” these guys?”
Her dad sighed and said, “When I met your mother I was a prospect for the Black Skulls.”
What the fuck? That was not what Levi expected to hear. Her father was an accountant for crying out loud. College educated. Mike McGarden was as straight laced and middle class as they came…or so his daughter had thought. “A prospect for the Skulls? I…shit…sorry, I’m just having a hard time digesting that.”
“Your father hasn’t always been forty-eight years old,” her mother said, almost sadly. The look on her face wasn’t sad, it was anxious. She looked like she was about to combust. What the hell is going on? He started talking and he told Levi things about his past that she would have never even suspected. When he finished Levi was stunned and her mother looked almost sick. She’d obviously never wanted her kids to know about their father’s past, but in this case Levi thought that past might just save her future.
Chapter 3
At noon the next day Levi was packed into her car with three times what she came with. Her mother had pulled her old clothes out of storage and packed her two more bags. She’d lamented all morning that she hadn’t had time to go shopping and get her new stuff. She’d also loaded Levi down with food. Everything that she could cook or thaw out between midnight the night before and noon, she’d cooked or thawed and put into plastic containers with lids. She’d also packed her an ice chest full of water and soda and juice. Levi let her do it. It made her mother feel better and Levi felt like it was the least she could do.
Her father checked her oil and whatever other fluids her car had in it. He gave her three thousand dollar’s cash and an American Express card…and a handwritten, sealed letter addressed to the President of the Black Skulls. He asked her more than once not to open the letter. She was to deliver it to Rodney Boone, unopened and untampered with. That was almost enough to make her want to open it as soon as she drove away, but she gave her father her word that she wouldn’t, so it would stay sealed.
After a heart wrenching good-bye that took way too long, Levi finally got on the road, back in the same direction she came from. She drove straight through again but the time passed quickly with everything her father had confessed to her on her mind. He told her that he left home at seventeen. She had known that, heard it somewhere along the way growing up. What he hadn’t told them was that he left Las Vegas and went to Death Falls. Even in those days the Skulls were legendary and he thought it would be exciting to meet them. He’d formulated a plan to show up at the bike shop and apply for a job. His father had been a mechanic so he genuinely knew what he was doing when it came to engines. Levi suspected that like her, he’d taken his story from and ‘X’ rating or at the very least a ‘Hard R’ down to a ‘G’ to reduce the shock value. But what he told her was that he’d been turned down for a job but invited by a young prospect to have a beer. They hung out and became good friends and within a month he was working at the shop and hanging out at the club. Rodney taught him how to ride and once Rodney became a full-fledged member of the club he invited Mike to prospect. Mike was almost nineteen at the time, having a great time with the club and he was thrilled about becoming a skull. He wore the prospect patch and in his words, “Did all the shit they told me to do whenever they told me to do it.” At that point her mother had quietly made some reference to “all the partying and loose women.” Her dad ignored the remark and went on. He said that about a year into being a prospect Rodney had gone out of town on a job. At that time Rodney and his son’s mother had just gotten together. Mike told Levi, Rodney Boone was like a different man when he was with her and everyone knew he was in love with her and not only planned to make her his old lady…but his wife.
Rodney had been out of town for two days when Mike got a frantic phone call from him. “I need you to get over to Harmony Trailer Park. Nichole is in space seven. I don’t know what’s going on exactly but she called me hysterical and before I could calm her down enough to get her to tell me exactly what was going on, the line went dead. Take the gun out of my bottom drawer in the back room.” Rodney had taught Mike how to shoot, but the only thing he’d ever shot were tin cans. He was shaking inside, but there was no way he’d tell Rodney no. “I’m still about an hour and a half out but I’m on my way.”
“I’ll take care of her,” Mike assured him. He hung up and rode out to the trailer park. When he got to space seven and turned off the bike he could hear screaming inside. He was shocked when he found the door unlocked. He was even more shocked when he found one of the Blue Spades raping Rodney’s girl on the couch. Nichole’s eyes widened when she saw Mike and that alerted the Spade who pulled out his gun before he turned around. As soon as he did Nichole kicked him and knocked him into Mike…and the gun went off. Before Rodney got there Mike was arrested and taken into county jail. He was charged with second degree murder in spite of what he and Mike both told the D.A. Rodney was sure it was because of his association with the club. The D.A. had a personal vendetta and if Mike was the only one he could get, he’d take it. With a public defender that was working about twenty-five other cases, Mike didn’t have much of a shot. He was looking at close to twenty years behind bars. That was until Rodney convinced the club to let Mike use their attorney. They paid him to keep the Skulls out of jail and prison as much as possible and they paid him well. He refused every offer the D.A. came up with and told Mike to plead innocent to all charges. He presented a brilliant case for self-defense. The rapist had prior convictions for sexual offenses and violent crimes. In the end Mike was convicted of manslaughter and only served five years. He met Levi’s mother there. She worked as a counselor and when Mike got out of prison Rodney Boone was the VP of the Black Skulls. He was still with his woman and they were expecting a child. He was so grateful to Mike he told him he could have whatever he wanted. What Mike wanted was out. He got a job dealing cards in a casino in Vegas, married Levi’s mom and the rest of the story, Levi knew.
It was almost surreal as she drove into Death Falls and tried to picture her father as a biker. It was late afternoon/early evening and the sun was just beginning to go down. She parked her car in front of a bar with a weathered sign that said, ‘Poison’ next to a big garage that said, ‘Boone and Boone’ out front. She took a few deep breaths and picked up the sealed letter that her father sent with her for Rodney and got out of the car. The setting, a bar with Harley Davidson’s surrounding it and loud, thumping music coming from inside, was all too familiar. She had worn a pair of jeans, black leather boots with a small heel that zipped up to just above her knee and a black Metal Mulisha t-shirt. Her dark hair was pulled back and braided down her back. She wanted to look like she fit in, but not sexy enough to attract any unwanted attention.
When Levi pushed the door open to the bar she realized what she wore didn’t matter. They must not see too many strangers, at least women alone here. Everything seemed to stop save for the deafening music and thirty pairs of eyes seemed to be on her as she walked from the door, up to the bar where a young bartender in a jean vest with no sleeves was standing. One of his arms had a tribal band tattoo around it and the other was covered in a full sleeve of what looked like roses and skulls. Levi smiled and said, “Hi, I’m Levi McGarden. I’m here to see Rodney Boone.”
The bartender stared at the roots of her dark hair and his eyes slowly ran down the curve of her jaw, and her neck, across her slim shoulders and down to the curve of her waist. He almo
st subconsciously ran his tongue across his bottom lip as his eyes made it to her hips and the long legs tucked into a pair of leather boots. He finally brought his brown eyes back up to her green ones and smiled. “He expecting you?”
“No. But tell him it’s Mike McGarden’s daughter. I think he’ll want to see me. Can I have a beer too, while I wait?”
The young guy smiled again like he was amused by something. He picked up a mug and filled it with draft beer and sat it down in front of her. She took out a twenty and tried to lay it on the table. Before she could lay it down a deeply masculine voice to her right said, “I’ve got this.” She glanced sideways and her vision was suddenly full of man. He was only one man but he was built like a mountain with a chest and forearms that looked as hard as steel. He wore a black leather vest, also sleeveless and a pair of jeans that he filled out quite nicely. His light hair was cut into a short crew cut and as imposing as he looked Levi thought that she could see warmth in his light blue eyes. She wasn’t looking to make new MC friends however, except for Rodney Boone. So she smiled and said, “Thanks, but I prefer to pay my own way.” She held the money out to the bartender again. She was looking at the younger guy but he was looking at the giant biker as if for permission or direction. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the big guy nod and the bartender took her money and turned to make her change. She saw the prospect patch on his jacket. That explained the way his demeanor had changed when the big guy sat down. When he laid the change in front of her she left a five for his tip and then held out the envelope. “Give this to Rodney please?” He took the envelope and went over and lifted a hinged part of the counter. He went over to a door along the side of the room and knocked. She watched him until he disappeared inside.