Seven Sunsets (Asphalt Gods MC Book 2)

by Morgan Jane Mitchell

  Cowboy introduced himself, tilting his head and bowing a little, “Hello, Darlin’.” If he hadn’t been on his bike just a minute ago, he’d have on his goddamned cowboy hat.

  Emery said she’d like to lay down for a while. Bones said I could take her upstairs. “I’ll be right back down. Give me about ten.” I wanted to talk to them about our trip before Skitter got here. Plus, I needed to make a call to Serpentine and a call to the General.

  Emery laid down in the apartment upstairs and closed her eyes. I watched her for a moment until she seemed to be sleeping. I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door. I tried to call the General only to get his voicemail again. I left him a message to call me this time. He’d told Mad Dog I should come to Arizona. Well, actually he’d said Bones and Cowboy would take me there. I was sure as hell he knew what was going on.

  Next, I dialed the devil’s number for the second time in my life. The man had killed my parents. I didn’t want to even hear his slick voice, but he had to know I would make it on time. Our deal was still on.

  “Heard you killed the Banshee. Sure you want to go home to papa after that?”

  Word sure got around quick, but I couldn’t think about that right now. “I didn’t call to shoot the shit, asshole. Yeah, I killed her, and you and yours are next unless you keep our deal.”

  “Got the money, son? You do, and I’ll hand over your sister long as you get here before her special day. Deals a deal.”

  “Yes, I’ve got your money, all one hundred grand. I’ll be there before Halley’s birthday.” I hesitated thinking about Emery. She was my money with that big price on her head. Shit, I didn’t even know if Halley was truly alive. “I want proof she’s okay.”

  Serpentine laughed, an evil bellow, telling me to hold on. After a few minutes he said, “Halley, come to the phone. Tell your brother how you’re enjoying the basement.”

  “Edmond?” Halley’s voice sounded so timid, weak.

  Her saying my name was proof enough it was her. I slid down the wall to sit in the floor. Tears forming in my eyes, I managed, “Halley… Are you okay?”

  “No, I’m not.” It was all I heard her say before Serpentine got on the phone.

  “You’ve got a week.” He hung up.

  Fuck, I wiped my eyes. Halley was alive, I was certain of it now. And I was certain, for some reason, Serpentine needed some extra cash or wanted to lure me in bad.

  Walking out of the bedroom, I saw Emery’s blonde hair surrounding her and thought of her lying on the bathroom floor of Shark Baits, bleeding out. Would’ve it been better if I’d just left her there? Then I wouldn’t have had to make this choice.

  I went down the stairs confused. The General obviously wasn’t taking my calls. He wanted Cowboy and Bones to bring me to Arizona. He didn’t want it getting around, but I was sure he was livid I went behind his back to make a deal with the devil. There was no doubt he’d have some feelings about the Banshee’s death too. He knew I could trust Cowboy but Bones not so much.

  Mud, I think I could convince him to help me. Regardless of the other two, I’d have to give it a try. It was California or bust for me. I didn’t want to have to fight my brothers. Damn it! I punched the wall, breaking my skin on my knuckles open again. Wiping off the blood, I thought of my mother and father, of Halley and now of Emery. Fuck! I wouldn’t give Emery to that son of a bitch whether she was dirty or not. I was going to kill the bastard.

  Skitter was still on his way, so I sat down with Mud before Bones and Cowboy came to the back. “Can I trust Bones?”

  “I trust him.”

  It had to be enough.

  Mud went on, “He’s PMSing pretty bad though. Used to being Road Captain, ya know. I hear that now he’s VP, Skitter has him holding down the fort while he runs around.”

  It meant parked motorcycle syndrome, and I knew the feeling. I’d had it before becoming a Nomad. Bones and Cowboy showed up to our informal meeting. Raunchy being only probate was out getting lunch.

  “Hear the Heelz are after you. I’m not worried about them, but the Mutherfukers and the mob, shit man, whose dick did you bite off?” Bones lit a cigarette.

  I followed suit, inhaling before I said, “I’m not going to Arizona.” Spilling it all, I told my brothers about my so-called selfish plan to save my sister from the SOS, the Banshee’s betrayal and the Mutherfukers involvement but with one twist. I’d told them I never planned to give Serpentine the money, which they would see as a coward’s way. Instead, I told them I planned to kill him. “The General has been pissing on my bike for ten damn years telling me it’s raining.” I was tired of the General pussyfooting around, taking it up the ass from the SOS. It was worth a shot. “I have no intentions of heading to Arizona. I’m getting my sister back come hell or high water. I’m filling that bastard full of lead. Are you in or out?”

  Bones stood. “I have my orders, Scar. I can’t go starting a war for one woman.”

  “Fuck that!” Mud told him. “You’d be starting a war for your brother.” He hit his chest with his fist.

  Cowboy agreed, adding, “The General told us to bring him to Arizona, but he didn’t say when. I say we take a side trip. Besides, fucking SOS wants Louisiana, been seen in New Orleans while we’ve been up here in the sticks.”

  “Are we outlaws or not?” I said, goading them my way.

  “You two’d go against your president for him and go against the General?” Bones was thinking.

  Cowboy told Bones, “Just like I went against Skitter for you.”

  I heard the threat and apparently Bones did too. He agreed to help get me to California, saying, “Only because I’m bored shitless, and I hate Skitter. Plus, I want a bone.”

  Mud and Cowboy said they’d get their hands dirty too.

  “What about Texas? We’re supposed to meet up with Polecat there in a few days. He’s the one gonna take you in.” Bones looked serious and a little sorry, telling me something he hadn’t before. “We don’t show up, the General will have a mandatory ride your ass down before you cross the California border.”

  “We’ll go to Texas early, meet Polecat when he least expects it and take care of him. Ride on to California before anyone can tell the General anything is up.” Not only was I planning to kill our enemy, but one of our own. I didn’t know if they’d go for it. Polecat was the goddamn reaper, the General’s whipping boy too.

  “Take care of Polecat? I like the sound of that.” Mud slammed down his drink, making a motion of slitting a throat.

  We all laughed, but we’re dead serious, joining hands in agreement. They hadn’t batted an eye at offing Polecat. I looked around at my brothers, hoping they didn’t feel the same about me.

  “Besides, when the General’s gone, I want Scar not Hannibal,” Mud announced, surprising the shit out of me.

  “Fuck yeah, and not Skitter either, or Polecat, or Mad Dog. Definitely not Tremor or Battleax. Fuck, Scar, you’re our only hope.” Cowboy seemed enthusiastic, but he was my buddy.

  I chuckled, a little flattered. The idea was stupider than a soup sandwich. “I’m too young to be thinking about that.” Also, I didn’t plan to be around after I got Halley.

  “General, what is he, seventy now? Everyone’s thinking about who’s next.”

  I snorted. The general was sixty something and still going strong.

  “Your name’s floated through the clubs. You need to watch your back,” Bones warned me.

  “That’s what you fuckers are for. We need to leave right away to get to Texas early enough.”

  Walking out of the back, Cowboy put his arm around me. “Man, I just have one question for you. Why does the Mob want your woman?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “That’s fucked up man.”

  Yeah, it was. It was even more fucked up that I’d even entertained the thought of handing Emery over to Serpentine. I shook my head and took a long drink.

  “Sorry ‘bout Shirley. I know you loved her, deep down in t
oo many ways to count… that would never really count.”

  I nodded, trying to ignore the truth in his words. Shirley was gone. She had no time to make up for what she did to me. Life was for the living, and all that shit. Thinking of Emery, I couldn’t wait to tell her, really tell her, about what’s going on.

  Hearing the door creak, I turned to see Skitter was back. He’d brought a hoard of people ready to party, brothers, mamas and the contractors from New Orleans.

  “We’re heading out soon,” I said to Skitter, after I hugged about twenty folks.

  “No, you’ll stay the night. You’re not needed in Texas for a couple more days.” Skitter walked on, ordering a round of drinks from one of the mama’s who’d come with him.

  I slid into a booth across from Bones, thinking about what Skitter had said. “What are we going to do about this shit?” I was keeping my voice quiet.

  “I hate that motherfucker. Little fucking mosquito,” he told me, mimicking pinching Skitter’s head from afar. “He’s got a fucking tiny head for his fucking tiny brain.”

  “So what you want to do about it?”

  “Are we outlaws or not? I’ll start a fight. Get your woman and get to your bike.”

  I started toward the stairs while Bones turned up the music to ear bleed level. Black Betty was blasting when Bones took the first punch, striking one of the biggest of our brothers. The fight grew like a fire and caught up with me before I made it to the stairs. A man I didn’t know jumped on my back and knocked me to the floor. Some whore busted him in the head with a beer bottle, spraying me with bud light. He went down, and I ran up the stairs to get Emery. Fuck, the room laid empty. She was gone again. I ran down stairs and dodged my way through the mess, pissed that she was always vanishing. I found her outside, staring at the fucking sunset. Even in my haste, I noticed florescent orange splattered across the sky. I’d also noticed Emery had been crying, but I had no time to ask what was wrong with her.

  “What the hell are you doing, always disappearing on me?”

  “Why the fuck do you care? You changed on me as soon as you put that vest on.”

  Oh, we were finally going there, right when I didn’t have the time. “You killed Kym and Shirley like it was nothin’. For someone who wanted to die, you seem to wanna save yourself awful bad.”

  “I killed that whore and the Banshee to save you.”

  We didn’t have time for this shit. “We’re leaving.” I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder.

  Mud, Bones and Cowboy seemed to make it out the front just as we did. I ran to my bike, watching Raunchy coming with our food strapped on the back. He was waving his arms, and I waved to try to let him know to follow us on. But he drove on past. Behind him were ten motorcycles.

  “He’s led them to us. Fuck,” I said to no one as we all tore out of the lot after Raunchy. I sped to get ahead of him. “Fuck,” I said again. Emery clung to my back. Soon they’d be close enough to take a shot.

  Sure my brothers would take my lead, I went toward the freeway. Lane splitting, I swerved into the oncoming traffic to cross to the other side to the exit. I was a one trick pony, realizing I’d already used it on the Heelz days ago. Pulling into a gas station, I took off my lid. “Fuck,” I said to Raunchy.

  “Fuck yourself. It’s not like they followed me from Florida. They’ve been following you.”

  It was true. If they were this far after me, Raunchy had nothing to do with it.

  “We lost them,” Cowboy hollered as he pulled in, but he was wrong. Coming from the other direction was a pink Harley. Fuck, it was Rage and Dixie. The others wouldn’t be too far behind.

  Dixie got off her bike before Rage but both of them had their weapons drawn in an instant. I drew my weapon as quick as lightening, putting us in a standoff. Sugar Hips squealed in behind us, two guns out. Dixie came straight to me while Sugar Hips inched closer in behind, training his gun on Cowboy too, who also had his weapon out. I glanced behind me to see Emery must’ve pulled her gun when Sugar Hips pulled in. While we all had our guns pointed at someone, Raunchy had both hands up. Fucking useless. It had also gotten dark, but we were under the bright lights of the gas station. This had to end soon or we’d spending the night in the slammer. Mud and Bones weren’t here yet but that was a good thing. Maybe they’d catch them off guard and we could be on our way.

  “Get off your sweet ass off your scooter, Scar. I want your back warmer, not you.”

  “I killed the Banshee, Dixie.”

  “Bullshit,” Rage stayed on her bike. “Legs done told us you can’t kill a woman.”

  “Yeah, you fuckin’ pussy. Give me the girl. Blood for Blood.” Dixie took a step closer.

  “Mutherfukers want her too, alive,” Sugar Hips added, talking to the Heelz not me.

  “But, they ain’t here, are they?” Dixie said, suddenly shooting in the air. The bystanders started to panic. I glanced around carefully to see a woman and child hunched down by the door to the gas station.

  “Just hold up.” I held up my free hand. “Don’t get crazy.”

  I heard the engines roaring up the road, getting closer. Unfortunately, it was two Mutherfukers, their white cuts giving them away right away. Fucking me, Emery and Cowboy against five. If Bones and Mud got here, it’d even it up some.

  I didn’t know these Mutherfukers. They both got off their bikes at the same time and started shooting, first the people at the pumps then the woman with the child hunched by the door took a shot in the leg. The kid was screaming. While Dixie looked distracted, I went to the little girl on instinct. When I got to the girl, someone opened the door and took the child, probably afraid I was going to hurt her myself. Another shot rang out, and when I turned my head, Emery had her gun pointed at Dixie instead of Sugar Hips. I hoped she’d get off another perfect shot, right between the bitch’s eyes, but she didn’t shoot. Dixie fired, and Emery was down, bleeding.

  The world stopped as I ran for Emery, afraid she was dead. Her head was bleeding. Falling hard on my knees, I frantically searched her body for a wound.

  Cowboy, well he went Cowboy on their asses. Unlike the Mutherfukers who’d been setting up a negotiation by maiming the innocent people around us, Cowboy shot the two Mutherfukers dead without hesitation and had Dixie by the throat. Mud and Bones pulled in just as Rage and Sugar Hips took off.

  “I’m after them. You all go on ahead to Texas. I’ll catch up,” Mud announced. “I’ll make sure they don’t follow you.”

  “Alone?” Bones asked.

  “What kind of man am I if I can’t take care of a queer and a woman?”

  I didn’t have time to worry about Mud underestimating either of them. I noticed Emery was alive, her eyes fluttering. I fought the urge to hug her to me and celebrate. Instead, Dixie got my attention. Cowboy held her tight, his gun under her chin as I jumped to my feet.

  “I don’t have a quarrel with the Gods. We want the woman dead,” she said through clinched teeth as Cowboy ‘bout snapped her arms off. Hearing sirens in the distance, I took my blade and slit her shirt open, pushing my blade against her soft skin just as Serpentine had mine.

  “Scar, hurry up. We’ve gotta go. Do you need me to kill the bitch?” Bones asked, helping Emery up behind me. “Raunchy’s dead,” he added.

  “The woman is mine,” I told Dixie, looking deep in her eyes. I’d seen the evil that laid in her eyes before. She wouldn’t rest until Emery was cold. “The Heelz want blood, they can come get mine.” It took so little effort, pushing the sharp metal into her flesh. I ran it down, slicing her open, spilling her guts. Cowboy dropped her, and I watched her bleed as I mounted my bike, fighting the memories of my own mother’s death that threatened to surface.

  Chapter 6

  My mind was racing the whole ride. I’d never killed a woman before and something about that invisible line had kept me sane. Now, I was going crazy inside as I pushed my cruiser to its limits to get away before the heat caught up to us. Trying not to think of the
first time I’d cut someone like Serpentine had me was no good.

  I was only fifteen, tired of people saying how lucky I was to be living. Life was shit without the ones you love. I missed my daddy telling me about his work at dinner and mama kissing me at bedtime. I missed my annoying little sister too. Then I wondered if all those were childish thoughts and my mama had been right all along. I wasn’t a man at all. My sadness turned to anger like souring milk. It’s like when Serpentine cut me, his evil slinked in, and Legs had sewed it up in me. The boy she saved hadn’t woken up the same. Looking at my scar in the mirror, I’d imagine it bubbled up because the evil was trying to get out. One day, I took it out on a kid who’d done me wrong. Slit him like a frog on dissection day. Until that moment, I’d thought I could grow up and leave the Asphalt Gods MC, but the General cleaned up my mess and gave me a back patch that week, celebrating my first kill.

  With nothing but the field of stars ahead of me, my thoughts thankfully turned to my mission. It hadn’t gone as planned, but it would end on my terms. I could leave this outlaw life and give Halley the life she deserves. Thinking of her growing up with the SOS made me sick. I’d turned out to be a bad man, an evil man under the wing of a club who was a hundred times better than the Sons of Satan. Would Halley be a hard woman? Would she even want to change? Of course she will, I told myself. I’d help her. I’d cross the stars for her.

  We rode to the mountains. Emery had been well enough to ride all night, straight through to about an hour outside of San Antonio where we made camp. Trying to avoid our brothers in Texas, Bones knew a little secluded place near a state park we could rest for the day. We’d ride again at dusk.

  Emery hadn’t been shot. She must’ve fallen off my motorcycle, avoiding it and hit her head, because she had a nasty gash across her pretty forehead. Her leather had protected the rest of her. Not sure if she had a concussion or not, I let her go to sleep as soon as I laid out my old plaid blanket on the ground. The boys and I napped then shot the shit until Cowboy and Bones left to rustle up some dinner. Bones had loaded his gun, so I wasn’t sure if they meant take out or they were hunting rabbits. I built a fire waiting for them to return. With them gone, I noticed we were camped amongst the fall colors, I smiled thinking Emery would probably enjoy the view. Her face would light up like it did when she saw the sunset. It’d been a long time since I’d appreciated the view, the sky… even the sight of a pretty woman like I did with Emery. She’d woken up something inside me, a different man who wanted her to be happy.