by Vera Quinn
“Well, I know what got me up so damn early on a Saturday morning but why are you two up and at the clubhouse? Shouldn’t you be at home with my nephews and doing the family thing?” I look from Devil to Callie.
“Fe gave us the night off after he came in last night so we came here for some adult time with no kids knocking on the door,” Callie says but I know what that means. Devil has a shit eating grin on his face. “Then this one inside of me seems to want bacon at this ungodly hour.”
“The perks of keeping my woman knocked up. My woman is always ready for me and then I get a great breakfast to boot.” Callie gives Devil a look but he just laughs it off. “I love my boys, not a damn thing I wouldn’t do for them, but they cock block me every time. Can’t believe we are forced to come to the club so I can fuck my ol’ lady the right way.” Callie and Devil both laugh.
“Sweet talk. That’s all your brother gives me is sweet talk.” Devil gets up and goes to refill his coffee cup and smacks Callie on the ass as he walks by. That right there is exactly what I want. I know I don’t deserve it and I probably will never find it but seeing Devil and Callie together it gives me hope. I’m glad my brother has that. Honey Girl and Hacksaw walk into the kitchen. Hacksaw sees Callie is at the stove cooking and he smiles. All the brothers love it when one of the women decides to cook. We are usually left with what the prospects bring back from some drive thru. Sometimes one of the club girls or hang arounds decide to cook something but it is usually when one of them is trying to impress a brother with their cooking skills. It’s also hit or miss on how it turns out. Hacksaw walks over to get himself a cup of coffee and Honey Girl sits down in a chair next to me. I get up and move my chair closer to Devil. Devil gives me a questioning glance but Callie gives me a knowing smile.
“You think Honey Girl is going to bite or something?” Hacksaw asks with a smirk on his face.
“No. I think I don’t want her getting any ideas. I already had to put her out of my room this morning.” Hacksaw lifts his eyebrow and then looks at the woman sitting at the table.
“Honey Girl, I thought you said that you went to get water this morning.” Hacksaw is looking at her like he is shocked at her lying to him.
“I did get water. I just stopped by Kane’s room to see if he needed anything since his light was on so early.” I am not letting that one slide.
“Is that the reason you came into my room without permission? Then you tried to come into my bathroom when I was in the shower. Again, without permission. I’ve warned you for the last time.” I lay it out straight so everyone knows, so when I kick Honey Girl out on her ass the next time she tries it, everyone knows why. Devil looks from me to Honey Girl.
“You’re a real Romeo, aren’t you? All the club girls are just waiting for a chance at you since you don’t seem interested in any of them. Hell, you could have them all at one time.” Hacksaw is teasing me but it rubs me the wrong way with the sleep than I have had.
“Fuck you, man. Don’t want any woman all my brothers have been inside of. I don’t work that way and I am not a Romeo.” Hacksaw looks like I am amusing him. Bowie walks in the room.
“Sounds like we have found Kane’s road name.” I glare at him and Hacksaw both. Bowie just laughs. “Yep, Romeo it is.” I know better than to argue, it will just make it worse.
“Romeo, it fits. No one is less like Romeo than our man Kane. I like it.” Hacksaw is trying not to laugh but does a piss poor job at it.
“Did you hear that, Callie? Kane has his road name, meet Romeo.” Well shit, Devil is jumping on it too.
“Well Romeo, since they want to gang up on you then you get to fix your plate first. They can eat our leftovers.” Callie turns to put the bowl of eggs on the table. She has the plate of bacon in the other hand and sets them on the table. Then she turns and goes to the cabinet and gets herself and me a plate. She brings them back to the table and hands me mine.
“Thank you, Callie.” She nods her head at me and smiles then turns back to the stove and brings the biscuits back. When she gets close enough to Devil he pulls her to him and kisses her. She steps back from him and hands him her plate and goes back to the cabinet. Bowie is already there and hands Callie another plate.
“Did everyone see that? I now have witnesses.” Devil says grinning. “I kissed my ol’ lady into submission.”
“Not funny, Devil. The only submission you get from me is what I want to give. Your child is demanding bacon and this is the fastest way to get it.” Callie is fixing her plate. She hands it to Devil and takes his plate and puts food on it. She moves around the table and is going to take the chair next to Devil while the rest of us fix our plates but Devil pulls her into his lap. This is nothing unusual. I don’t think that Devil knows his wife can sit on furniture. She’s always on his lap. Sometimes these two are a little hard to be around because they are so in love. Devil looks up and looks at Honey Girl. She looks a little nervous with his eyes on her.
“Honey Girl, we have rules here for a reason. Do not let me hear of you going in another brother’s room without their permission. Only warning you’ll get. Follow the rules or leave and don’t come back. Next time you won’t get the choice. Do you understand?” Devil is not yelling or being hurtful but everyone can hear exactly how serious he is.
“I understand. I won’t let it happen again.” No one in the room believes her. Devil looks back at me dismissing anything else Honey Girl might have added.
“Kane, after we eat I want you and Hacksaw to ride over to the gym we just bought. I am meeting a building inspector there to go over everything we need to do to get the place back up to the city code so we can get the doors back open. I want you two to talk to some of the old employees. I need names so Oz can check everyone out, he’ll be meeting us later. The sooner the gym is bringing in money, the better.” Devil is doing his best to bring this club back to making as much money as when it wasn’t legit. We may have to put in more hours than they are used to but none of the brothers that are left from when Steel was president complain. I wasn’t around back then but I have heard stories of some of the shit they were into and I am glad we are getting away from it.
“Don’t you mean Romeo?” Hacksaw is laughing.
“I’m not calling a brother Romeo. That’s as bad as the name Pretty Boy they tried putting on me. Rome, it is. Kane, get that patch taken care of.” Devil saves my ass the embarrassment of being called Romeo.
“It’s about damn time he got his name,” Crockett says walking into the room. This room is getting full. I finish my food off and take my plate to the sink. I walk by Devil and Callie on the way.
“I’ll order the patch for you and sew it on when it gets here,” Callie tells me.
“Thank you, Callie, that’ll help. Thanks for the breakfast too.” I tell Callie and she gives me a big smile.
“I’ll be outside waiting when you two are ready,” I tell Devil and Hacksaw and head out the back door so I can breathe again. The fresh spring air helps. Crowded spaces make me feel closed in so I take the fastest exit.
Chapter 2
Tara
I hit my snooze one more time but I know it is time to drag my backside out of this bed. I snuggle down into my pillow and shut my eyes. It seems like I just shut them for a second and the alarm is blaring again. “If that damn thing goes off again, I am going to throw it against the damn wall,” Sheila complains loudly. When is Sheila not complaining? I reach up and turn the alarm off and sit up and twist around so my feet are now touching the cold linoleum floor.
“I’m going to need a ride to the gym. I have to meet the new owner today and give them all my information so I can keep my job when it reopens.” I poke my sister in the side. I hear her growl.
My sister Shelia may be older than me but she doesn’t act it. I am the middle child at twenty-two. Shelia is four years older than me at twenty-six and our younger brother, Josiah but we call him Joey, is twenty and he is away being all he can be in the army. Joey wan
ts to make the military his career. He decided at the age of eight he was going to be a soldier and he wouldn’t let anything, namely my mom and sister, get in his way. I am very proud of Joey doing exactly what he wants with his life.
I, on the other hand, am still a work in progress. I have no idea what I want to do with my life but I know I want out of the life I have. I am a part-time student with a full-time job at a diner. Can you call a waitress job full-time? I work at least forty hours a week, usually more like fifty hours but there is no extra overtime pay, and I don’t even make minimum wage. I do make tips but they are so unpredictable. I took on a part-time job at the gym to supplement my income so maybe I would be able to take more than three classes at the community college next semester. I thought I was getting ahead but then the gym was sold and closed for repairs.
I am back to just my waitress job and I barely can afford the classes I am taking now but fortunately, they are paid, I need to get busy putting money away for next semester. After I pay my part of the rent, give gas money to my sister, and help mom with groceries, I feel like a puppy chasing his own tail. I can never get ahead.
My sister Sheila is always between jobs. Her job is finding her another man to pay her part of the bills. She is cursed, just like my mom. I call it a curse anyway. If they don’t have a man by their sides, helping pay their way, they cannot function. Which is why my sister is complaining about my alarm. She stays out half the night partying with her flavor of the month. She drags her butt into bed about the time I am getting up.
Today is my day off but I never get the chance to sleep in. The job at the gym fit into my schedule perfectly. I work Monday through Friday from 6 am to 2 pm or when my relief gets there. Bud’s daughter works the weekend shift since she is in high school and can’t work during the week. Three nights a week I attend my classes. The other two nights a week I was working at the gym, along with ten hours on Saturday and Sunday. Full and busy schedule but the money came in handy, and it’s not like it is forever.
On the positive side, all the hours I put in also kept me away from my mom’s and Sheila’s many men coming into our apartment. When Joey went off to the army we downsized from a three bedroom to a two. That means Sheila and I share a room. That can be very uncomfortable when she brings someone home. I usually end up on the couch, which means I must sleep with one eye open. More than once I have been woken up by some man trying to undress me. I learned to sleep with a knife under my pillow. I have fought them all off but it gets old, real fast. The only other choice I have is to sleep in the room while my sister has sex with some man. Not happening. Time to quit thinking about my screwed up life and get to the gym. “Did you hear me? I need a ride.”
“Just take the damn car. I am not getting out of bed until noon.” I like that idea better. It’s not often Sheila lets me drive her car. It’s not that it is anything special but it is more than what I have. The way I look at it, if I get an education then I can buy a car when I get a better paying job. I help Sheila with the up-keep of hers.
Sheila was gifted her car from one of her married boyfriends. Why any woman would date a married man is beyond me. I mean, if the man is cheating on the woman he went to all the trouble to marry, doesn’t that scream he is going to cheat on every woman he is with?
Something else Sheila learned from mom. Mom is of the mind that if a woman wants to keep a man at home she needs to keep him happy. My question has always been, isn’t that a copout? I mean, doesn’t it take two to keep a relationship together? My mom says I still believe in fairy tales. My number one reason for not dating. Trust no one. There’s a big difference between saying I love you, then actually loving someone.
I want none of any of it. I dated in high school. The boys always cheated on me. I lost my virginity to a guy I dated for six months and then the next day he broke up with me. He never really broke up with me, he just moved on and never spoke to me again. I haven’t dated since.
“Where are the keys?” I ask Sheila. She points to the nightstand and rolls over to cover her head.
I just look at her for a moment I wonder if she will ever grow up. Sheila is everything I am not. She has short bleached blonde hair that makes her blue eyes stand out. She never leaves the apartment without looking perfect. When I say perfect I mean she knows exactly how to apply her makeup to make herself gorgeous.
She has the kind of body men love. She’s tall and has long tan legs, even if she does get them from a tanning bed. She has a tiny waist and one of her married male friends paid for her double D breast. I sound jealous even to myself. I am short at my five-foot two-inch height. I like to think of myself as not short, but vertically challenged. My legs are not long but they are toned and tanned. I have never been inside a tanning bed. I do it the old fashion way. My boobs aren’t overly large but they are a C cup. My belly is a little rounded. It doesn’t matter how many sit-ups I do, it just won’t go away. My biggest drawback is all the junk in my trunk. I can run and exercise, it just isn’t going away. It doesn’t jiggle a lot but it’s there. Skinny jeans are not my friend.
I don’t beat myself about it too bad. I love to eat. It’s my cross to bear. I can accept that. I never dress up and very seldom wear make-up. Why? In the Oklahoma humidity, it will just melt off. My hair on a good day is in a messy bun but most days just pulled up in a hair tie. Mom and Sheila are always telling me I will never land a man the way I look when I go out. News flash, I’m not looking for one. I miss Joey. He loves me just the way I am. No judgement.
“Fill it up and check the tires. I am going to be leaving this afternoon so don’t be back late.” I know there is no use arguing or Sheila won’t let me borrow her car. I don’t have the time or patience to be riding the bus.
“I only have twenty dollars so it will have to be enough. I’m only going twenty minutes away.” Sheila eyes me to see if I am telling the truth. I don’t know why. I don’t ever lie to her.
“Fine, but don’t be late.”
I head to the bathroom to get this day started. I take a hot shower. Being the first one up does have it bonuses. I would love to stay in here and relax and enjoy the hot water but I don’t want to be late. I want to make a good impression because I really want to keep my job. I don’t know who bought the place but I am a hard worker, maybe Sal told them. Sal is the old manager. He decided to retire when the owners, who were never around, decided to sell out.
I don’t bother to dry my hair I just pull it up in a high ponytail. I put on some cargo jeans and a tank top and then pull on one of my comfortable hoodies because the mornings are still a little cool but by mid-afternoon it will be hot. Early springtime in Oklahoma. I grab a pair of socks and my work boots. These boots have caused more than one argument with my mom. She says they are the ugliest things she has ever seen. I am more into comfort than fashion.
I make my way into the kitchen and pull a chair out to sit in while I put my boots on. I must admit the combat boots have seen better days but I refuse to let them go. It’s hard to find boots in a size four. I will get every mile out of them that I can. I open the refrigerator to see if we have milk for cereal but no such luck. I open the cabinet to look for bread and strike out again. Looks like it will be water for breakfast. I run a glass and reach for my vitamins in the cabinet. They are empty too. I guess it is time to do some shopping. My last twenty is going in the gas tank. I guess I will need to go by the diner and see if I can work a few hours today to get enough money to eat. I don’t even have a phone to be able to call. When I go to the gas station I will stop in. Today is going to hell real fast.
Chapter 3
Kane/Rome
I look around at the gym and I can tell there is not a lot of work that is going to be needed. If the roof isn’t leaking, the plumbing, and wiring are okay, then we should be able to open back up in a short period of time. The building is old, but it was built to last. Whoever built it invested their money in quality. It also looks like it has been maintained with care.
“Security cameras inside are a good idea, too. The locker rooms could use some attention.” I agree with him about the exterior needing cameras. “In all, it doesn’t look like that bad of a project.”
“As soon as Devil is done with the inspector we’ll know about the electrical and plumbing. Devil has the roofing contractor coming this afternoon so we’ll have that answer.” Hacksaw sees the same potential that I do. We both hear the door open and the old manager is walking in. Too bad he chose to retire, it would have been better if he had been able to stick around until we had all the kinks worked out. I notice the young woman walking in with him. Devil walks out of the office with the inspector and shakes his hand. The inspector walks towards the door that Sal just came into. Sal approaches us while talking to the woman.