by CM Genovese
“Keep your head up, brother. I already called Nugget and Beezus. They’re on their way over here to help clean up that back room for Carol.”
“Carla,” I corrected him.
“Sure. Her. She’ll have a nice space. I don’t think that’s what you should be most worried about though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, brother, you’re gonna have to be the one to tell Tayla you got your ex-girlfriend living here at the clubhouse.”
Fucking hell. That’s right.
Tayla was an adult. So was Carla. They were both mature women. But I wasn’t sure either would like to see the other around.
It seemed I’d gotten myself into a pickle.
16
Carla refused to stay home from work that evening and since a few of the guys were still hanging around the pub in the evenings, helping get it ready for its grand reopening, there wasn’t much I could do to stop her. She was going to go where she wanted to. As long as she was escorted over there, watched the entire time she was at the pub, and then brought back to the MC, she should be safe.
While she was at the pub, we worked hard at cleaning up her new room. It was packed with guns, ammunition, radio equipment, cold weather gear, extra clothing, toys that were supposed to be taken to a Salvation Army and never had been… the list went on and on. By the time we emptied it out, Carla ended up having the largest damn room in the apartment complex side of the MC.
The carpet wasn’t pretty, and we’d have to slap a new coat of paint on the wall, but overall, it wasn’t a bad place to spend time temporarily.
Nugget and Beezus did me a solid by going out to get her a few pieces of furniture. I would have gone myself, but I got a text from Tayla asking if I was free for the night. It turned out the kids were at their aunt’s house again. There wasn’t a person on the planet I would have rather spent the evening with. I made a phone call to an old friend and set up a pretty decent date night. Or what I hoped would be one anyway.
It was a little after eight o’clock in the evening and the sun was still shining when I pulled up in front of Tayla’s house. I revved my engine to let her know I was outside. After the last time I’d been inside her house, I figured it was a good idea to stay out by the curb. God forbid that asshole came home and decided to put a few bullets in my chest, he could always claim I’d broken in and he was only acting in self-defense.
No thank you. I’ve got enough drama in my life right now.
When Tayla stepped out her front door, I was blown away. Her blonde hair hung down in waves over her shoulders. It was a crisp night, but not yet cold, so she had on a red long-sleeve shirt and a matching jacket thrown over her shoulder. Her blue jeans had a few rips along the thighs. Her pale flesh below was exposed, and I worried she’d freeze her ass off tonight. At least where I planned on taking her wouldn’t be that cold.
“You look unbelievably beautiful,” I said as she walked down the sidewalk and met me at the curb.
She leaned down and wrapped her arms around me. “You look pretty damn handsome yourself.”
I took a long whiff of her perfume and exaggerated a shiver. “And you smell… damn, you drive me wild.”
She climbed onto the back of my bike and wrapped her hands around my waist.
“So, you’ve got me to yourself all night long,” she said. “What are you planning to do with me?”
“If you’re up for it,” I told her, “I’m thinking this could be a night of total honesty.”
“Total honesty?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “This will be the night you decide whether you really want to be on this ride with me or if you’d like to get off before it starts.”
“I want to get off,” she whispered into my ear, letting her tongue touch my earlobe. My cock reacted instantly, shifting in my boxers. “I need to get off, Pipe,” she added. Then she giggled in my ear and it was the sexiest damn sound in the world. “But I’m not getting off this ride,” she finished.
“Good,” I said. “Let’s go then.”
When I pulled into the parking lot of my old high school, East Anchorage High, Tayla said into my ear, “We have all of Anchorage as our playground and this is where you want to take me?”
“You said you love me,” I said.
She giggled. “Um… I do.”
“I thought it would be cool to take you back to my old school and show you around while I tell you some things.”
I took her by the hand and led her into my school. The door would usually be locked at this hour, especially when the kids were on summer vacation, but it clicked open with ease.
“How did you pull this off?” Tayla asked.
“I know the groundskeeper. His name’s Buddy and he’s a—”
“Buddy of yours?”
I laughed. “Good one. Yeah. Kind of. He owes me a few favors.”
Buddy had turned off the alarm for me, unlocked the door, and had the heater running.
Inside the entrance, we were greeted by a large, glass trophy case. Framed photos of graduating classes from the day the school opened its doors until this past year decorated the wall to both sides of the case.
“Oh, my God. You have to be in one of these,” Tayla said.
I walked her over to my graduating class and showed her what I looked like at eighteen. My hair was shorter than it was now and was slightly spiked. Of course, I was wearing a shirt I wouldn’t be caught dead in now. It had stripes on it and a collar.
“Cute,” she said.
“You wouldn’t have dated me,” I said. “I’m sure you were one of those popular cheerleader types.”
She kissed the fingertips of her right hand and touched the photo over my face. She turned back to me. “I was. I was a cheerleader for a little while, mostly to prove I could make the team, but I didn’t really fit in with the rest of those girls. I was in Nashville at that time, and I thought I could be a singer. That was my real passion back then.”
I wrapped her up in my arms. “Let me hear you sing.”
“Nope.”
“Come on.”
“Nope.”
I tickled her sides. “For me.”
She rolled her eyes and quickly belted out the beginning of ‘When You Say Nothing at All’ by Alison Krauss & Union Station, finishing after the first chorus. I was mesmerized by her voice. It echoed in the empty corridor and I was left slow clapping when she finished.
“You’re ridiculous,” I said.
“Ridiculous? Jeez.”
“In a good way.”
“I hope so.”
“Come on, let me show you around.”
We walked hand-in-hand down the same corridors I walked so many times alone as a high school student. Until I met Holly. She changed everything. She was the first woman I ever loved, and I felt like it was time for Tayla to know something about her. I’d tell her the truth about it all.
“I didn’t grow up in this biker world like you did,” I told her as we passed the empty library with its multicolored book spines decorating the shelves. We stopped and stood outside the window, looking in as if we were watching a row of babies at a hospital nursery. “I spent a lot of time in there. It was my hiding place from the world. Before I knew anything at all really. Back when I thought I’d probably end up working the Alaska pipeline.”
“It’s hard to imagine you hanging out in a library.”
Tayla’s face reflected off the window, and I could see her smiling at me.
“I know, right? Well, back then I had no outlaw motorcycle club ambitions. I was a junior when I met a senior and kind of fell in love with her. We were high school sweethearts, you know? I didn’t take it nearly as seriously as she did. She died when I was nineteen, right after graduating. She was already in college at the time.”
“My God,” Tayla said. “Baby, I’m sorry.”
“She was murdered. Some Samoans did it. Killed her for delivering a pizza at the wrong time. She wasn’t the target, but she was there. I
was downstairs in the car.”
Tayla wrapped her arms around me.
“I found her body. It was so bad.” My voice cracked a few times as I spoke. “And I found the guys who did it. I killed them. With a hammer.”
“Holy shit.” She was looking up at my face now, her eyebrows lifted in shock.
“Yeah. BP found me hiding after. He took care of me from then on. Brought me into the club.”
“Why are you telling me all this, Pipe?”
“Because if we’re going to be together, I feel like you need to know my secrets. I don’t tell things to many people. You were one of my secrets for the past six years. Now you know this one too. Are you sure you want to be with me?”
She was quiet for a second and I thought she was reconsidering, but then she hugged me tightly and said, “If anyone hurts me, Caleb, or Myra, I hope you go after them with a hammer.”
“If anyone hurts any of you, God help them. There are worse things to beat someone with than a hammer, and I have access to all of ‘em.”
She kissed me, and this moment that shouldn’t have been romantic at all suddenly was.
For the next half hour, I walked her all around the school and showed her so many places. I pointed out where my friends and I snuck out to share cigarettes for the brief time that I smoked. I showed her the spot under the gym bleachers where I had my first kiss. A girl named Susan Winans. She tasted funny, but at least I got that first kiss over with.
I showed her the principal’s office where I spent quite a bit of time in tenth grade, my rebellious stage. We visited the drama room where I once had to put on tights and play the part of Romeo, the science lab where my best friend threw up on my arm after making the first slice into his frog, and finally the cafeteria where I’d paid Beezus to drop off a fried chicken dinner from one of the local fast food joints.
There in the center of the huge cafeteria was a lit candle, two paper plates, two plastic cups, a gallon of sweet tea, a box of chicken, and a few canisters full of side dishes. Mashed potatoes with gravy, macaroni and cheese, and green beans.
“What is this?” she asked.
“I told you I was taking you on a special date. I mean we could have gone to a restaurant and to a movie, but that’s what everyone does. I wanted this to mean more. You asked about me the other night, so I figured this was my chance to show you all about me.”
“This is better than any restaurant,” she said as she left my side and bounded over to the table, taking her seat at one side, and immediately serving food onto our plates.
After pouring us both some sweet tea, I took a big gulp of mine and decided to finish being honest. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”
“Pipe, are you sure?” she asked. “You don’t have to hit me all at once, you know.”
“I don’t think this one’s that big a deal, but I could be wrong. Lord knows I have been before.”
“What is it?”
“Remember I told you a while back, at the park, about an older woman I was kind of into?”
She scooped mashed potatoes onto our plates. “Yes?”
“OK, so before you and I were even close to getting back together, I kind of hooked up with her.”
“Kind of hooked up with her? You mean you fucked her?”
“Yes.”
She was quiet as she scooped macaroni and cheese onto our plates. “OK. I’m married, so I guess I can’t judge. Plus, you’ve fucked lots of women, Pipe. You’ve told me about quite a few of them. Why should this one be any different?”
“She’s not,” I said. “We called everything off right away. She had her dead husband on her mind and, well, I couldn’t stop thinking of you.”
She looked up at me and smiled. “Is that supposed to make me feel good?”
“I was kind of hoping it would.”
“I guess it kind of does. So, what are you so nervous about? If it’s over between you two.”
“Because she’s kind of living at the clubhouse right now.”
She stopped serving and glared at me. “I’m going to finish serving this food and hope you have a damn good explanation, Pipeline, because you were telling me recently how you hoped I’d come stay with you and now you’ve got some other chick there? And you better not fucking tell me she’s in your bed.”
“No,” I said with a laugh. “She’s not in my bed. She has her own room. She runs Paddy’s, the pub, and we’ve been protecting her. She’s been attacked a couple of times. She’s only staying at the clubhouse for safety. I’m supposed to fight some Samoan gangster on Thursday, you know, at the Thursday night fights, so hopefully that’ll put an end to all this.”
“You’re fighting? In the ring?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story. But, yeah.”
“Pipe.”
“I have to. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry? I love you, Pipe. I’ve loved you since our time together, before Caleb was born, I just felt trapped and didn’t know what to do. I was afraid. I thought you’d leave me. If I divorced John and went with you, I kept thinking somehow you’d leave me. Just like my dad left my mom. It’s what bikers do. They’re loyal only to their brothers and… and… you’d be just like Cubby.”
I stood from my seat and made my way around to her side of the table where I crouched down next to her. “Shh. You don’t owe me an explanation. Not anymore. I’ve heard what you have to say. It ain’t gonna be like that. I’m not leaving you. You tell John you want a divorce and—”
“I already did,” she said, looking at me with tears welled up in her eyes.
“You did?”
“I told him today. I told him I loved him once, but he broke that the moment he started abusing me and cheating on me and neglecting his children. I told him I was in love with you and needed a man who would take care of me and the kids.”
“That’s right. What did he say?”
“He told me to go fuck myself and stormed out of the house.”
“Sounds about right.”
“Don’t it?” She laughed and tears ran down her face. “Sounds like him.”
“Want me to kick his ass again?”
“Nah,” she said. “Just hold me.”
I sat down on the seat next to her and wrapped her up tightly in my arms.
“I’ve loved you since before our first night together. Since the first time I saw you visit Cubby at the VFW. I knew that first moment I saw you that you’d be my woman.”
Tayla cried into my shoulder. “Speaking of. You said you wanted this night to be all-honesty.”
“Yeah.”
“Then we should go visit Cubby.”
People didn’t generally make me nervous, but the thought of telling Cubby about us did.
“I guess if we’re gonna go all out,” I finally replied. “When are you thinking of doing that?”
“Right now.”
17
The VFW was crowded with its usual clientele. Maggie, Tayla’s stepsister, was wiping a spilled drink off the bar when we entered. She smiled and waved at us. Then she scrunched up her face in a look of confusion. She wasn’t expecting to see us together. Tayla approached her and hugged her over the bar.
“Baby sister,” Tayla said.
“Tay, what are you doing here?” Maggie asked. “And Pipe… what are you doing with her?”
“Oh, you know,” I replied, not knowing how much more to reveal.
Tayla didn’t visit the bar often and when she did, her husband was never with her. From what I’d heard, Cubby wasn’t a big fan of the asshole. He liked his daughter being taken care of and he didn’t start any shit with the captain because he wanted to be able to see his grandkids, but he knew the truth. She was miserable. That didn’t mean he’d be okay with her dating a biker. He knew the lifestyle, and I was a hundred-percent sure this was a bad idea.
“I know…” Maggie replied, letting it linger so I’d fill in the blank.
Luckily, one of the old military r
etirees stepped up to the bar and said, “Fill ‘er up!”
Maggie rolled her eyes and turned to the man. “Please, Maggie? Didn’t we already go over this, Scotty? We say please here.”
Scotty winked at her. “Whatever you want, doll. Please, Maggie, will you fill up my glass?”
“Heineken?” she asked.
“You know it.”
Everyone loved Maggie. She was a smart ass, cute to look at behind the bar, and she didn’t take shit from anyone. She may have been Cubby’s stepdaughter, but she was more like Cubby than Tayla was. His temper might have rubbed off on them both, but they’d definitely gotten their looks from their mamas. Cubby was a big, mean looking bastard with a grey handlebar mustache. His eyes squinted up when he laughed, forced closed by chubby cheeks. His arms were covered in old ink, making his tan skin look like decorated leather.
“Dad around?” Tayla asked Maggie, not taking any time to get this underway.
I would have been satisfied with pulling up a chair and having a few drinks first. Shots because beer wasn’t going to do it. Liquid courage some people called it. I referred to it as liquid balls. I needed bigger balls for this one.
“Yeah,” Maggie replied. “He’s in the back working on the bills. His favorite time of the month.”
Tayla winced. “So he’s not in the best of moods.”
Maggie poured Scotty’s Heineken and smiled. “Are you when you’re paying bills?”
“Maybe we should come back another time,” I suggested.
“No point in procrastinating,” Tayla said.
“There’s plenty of points in procrastinating,” I argued.
At that moment, the stars aligned, the planet shifted on its axis, and everything seemed to come together to completely fuck me in the ass. Cubby stepped through the door from his back office and saw us standing there together.
“Tay!” he said happily, walking over to give his daughter a hug.
His smile made the big ex-biker look like a warm and fuzzy teddy bear, but then his eyes shifted left and he saw that she was seated next to me. His head tilted to the side. He looked back at Tayla and then at me. His eyes scanned the rest of the crowd in the bar, undoubtedly looking to see if any of the other Royal Bastards were around. He was hoping I was here with my brothers and had wandered up to the bar, only coincidentally standing next to his daughter.