Tanked: TANKED

by Cheri Lewis

  “Hey honey!” Flame calls waving to the man.

  “Shh… don’t call him over here,” I hiss.

  She giggles, “That’s my old man.”

  He’s wearing a black sleeveless shirt and has muscles that never stop. I usually find facial hair unattractive but his horseshoe mustache accentuates his bad boy appearance. The top part of his hair is pulled back into a long braided ponytail and it hangs way down his back and the bottom half is shaven clean. He wears his holey blue jeans very well and his motorcycle boots are badass. When he arrives to our table he doesn’t have a clue who we are and it’s obvious he’s trying to get a read on Jessie and me. He leans over and kisses her, and it isn’t a normal peck— nice and slow— he takes his time and it’s so hot I quit breathing as I watch in awe. When he pulls away he says in his husky voice, “Watermelon,” as he licks his lips then grins at her.

  Jessie starts patting my arm with his hand as he says, “Sunshine, that’s the hottest thing I’ve seen since Thor.”

  I don’t respond. I can’t take my eyes off of them. All I can do is nod my head when she introduces us. “This is Jessie and McKinsey. They saved me from being bored out of my mind.”

  “Thanks for looking out for her,” he says as he looks between Jessie and me.

  “We had a blast,” Jessie pipes up.

  Flame grabs her purse and begins searching through it. She finds a piece of scratch paper and a pen, “Here write you numbers down and I’ll give you mine.”

  “I’ll be right back,” says the big beefy man.

  We exchange numbers and I can’t believe how she manages to do anything with those long nails but she doesn’t seem to have any trouble. We begin to say our goodbyes when Flame’s husband makes it back to us “I’ll give you a ride home, you’ve all had too much to drink. You can pick your car up tomorrow.”

  How does he know we had too much to drink? And I’m not riding with a complete stranger. “We can call a taxi or something, I live across town so it’s no big deal,” I say waving his offer away.

  “No, no ride with us it will give us more time to talk,” she begs then looks at her husband, “Did they pick up my jeep?”

  “Yeah, that’s why I’m late. You won’t ever be stranded again.” His words were a promise and, I won’t lie, that made him even more sexy. He shakes his head and I can tell he’s annoyed with her. “This is why you don’t ride alone.”

  She doesn’t even seem to notice him being annoyed. She leans up and kisses his lips and says “I needed a pedicure and you all were busy.”

  She looks back to us, “Come on, we’ll give you a ride.”

  I try to think of an excuse to give Jessie and me a minute to talk. “We need to pay our bill real quick then we’ll be right out.”

  “It’s already been paid.”

  “Oh, well, let us give you some money.” I’m totally caught off guard, I pull up my purse to see how much cash I have.

  “No need.” he says as he takes Flame's hand and they start walking to the door.

  We scoot out of the booth and follow behind them, I bump Jessie’s arm and mouth, “What are we doing?”

  He shrugs and throws up his arms as he silently replies, “I don’t know!”

  When we walk out front, it isn’t hard to guess which vehicle is his. There sits a new shiny black F-350 crew cab truck that stands taller than an ordinary truck. The rims are chrome and the windows are tinted to match the paint job. When I walk around to the other side I notice his tail lights look odd. I stop and it takes me a few seconds to figure out that they’re molded into the shape of a skull. I hurry up and walk on around to the backdoor and open it. Jessie has already climbed inside. I have to step up and pull myself in the truck. When he cranks the truck the whole thing is loud and rattles, and not in a hunk of junk way, in a powerful way. Flame’s husband— who I’m too scared to ask his name—asks where I live and I give him directions.

  Flame turns sideways in her seat and begins chatting away and it’s like we are right back in Sweetie’s. Before I know it we’re parked out front of my house. Jessie and I climb down from the truck and Flame yells out the driver’s side window, “I’ll call or text you guys soon.”

  We wait until we get inside to talk, partly because they wait until we make it safely inside. I stop in the foyer and grab Jessie, “What the crap?” I squeal.

  He starts laughing in disbelief. “That was something out of a movie, right?”

  “Did you see how built he was?”

  Jessie nods then says, “Did you see how he treated her?”

  “Yeah, like she was breakable.”

  “And what about him paying our bill.”

  “I know, those drinks are like 8 bucks a piece. I wonder if we should’ve left a tip.”

  “I wasn’t going to ask him.”

  We both start giggling then get quiet and lost in our own thoughts while Prima weaves in and out of my legs. I bend down, pick her up and start rubbing her head. “I liked her.”

  “I did too.” Jessie immediately replies then his phone rings. He looks at the phone strange, and says “it’s a three, three, thee, number.” I shrug and he answers it “Hello? Oh hey…” His eyebrows shoot up, “Okay hold on a second.”

  “What?” I ask being nosey.

  He presses a button on his phone, “Okay Flame, I’ve got you on speaker phone.”

  “I’ve got great news! Please say you’ll come! Please,” she excitedly begs.

  “Come where?” we both ask.

  “Oh...” she giggles “Okay, I talked to Jagger and he said I can invite you guys to Weasel’s with me. You said you wanted to go earlier so let’s go.”

  My heart hits my stomach with excitement and a hint of fear. “Umm, Well...” I say slowly trying to think out the pros and cons of going.

  “Don’t worry, I have it all taken care of and we’ll come pick you up. Say… around 7:30 and we’ll take you home to. That way we can drink and not have to worry about anything.”

  “Flame, we can drive.”

  She gets quiet and says “It has to be this way since you’re my guests, okay?” I’m not sure I like the "it has to be this way” part. I feel like that’s the only way we’re allowed to come. She continues talking, “I’ll see you guys at 7:30. Dress casual, jeans and whatever.”

  “Okay,” Jessie answers for us. The phone beeps indicating she has hung up.

  “I feel like this is the hundredth time I have asked this today, but what in the world?”

  “Let’s go!” Jessie dances excitedly

  “I don’t know, did you hear how she said it has to be this way? Like, why can’t we drive?”

  He takes Prima from my arms. “You said there are cops that go out there so we should be safe, right? Oh gosh we got a little over an hour to get ready. Come on sunshine, you’ve said yourself you’ve been cooped up too long sitting home watching movies.”

  “Fine, but if this turns out to be a disaster, it’s all your fault,” I fuss.

  “Let’s get our showers then we’ll figure out what to wear,” Jessie says as he sits Prima down. I turn to go to my bathroom and stop and turn back toward him when he says, “How hot is that name Jagger?”

  “Oh, it fits him well doesn’t it?”

  Jessie nods, “Perfectly.”

  After I get out of the shower I wrap in a towel and walk into my bedroom. Jessie is standing in my closet digging way to the back. “You should totally wear these pants.”

  “I’m not wearing those. They were from Halloween, remember? She said to wear jeans.”

  “I know but these would look hot and you paid like a hundred dollars for them and wore them once. Where else can you wear black leather lace up pants?”

  I huff, “I don’t have a top that will match.”

  “Yes you do. Wear that red top that you normally wear with leggings. It’ll look great.”

  “I don’t know.” I pick up my phone and see I have three missed calls, two from Tank and
one from Hunter??? “Tank and Hunter called me,” I tell Jessie a little alarmed, I haven’t talked to Hunter since night before the disco.

  “Call them back, but don’t say anything about tonight.”

  I hit the button to call Tank back. “McKinsey?” Tank asks.

  I can’t help myself I smartly reply, “Well who else would be calling from my—”

  “What the fuck is going on?!” he asks obviously upset.

  Jessie spins around as Tank is so loud he hears him and my phone isn’t on speaker, Jessie makes a face and says, “Well, that was rude.”

  “What do you mean what’s going on? Why are you so upset?”

  “Your car is at Sweetie’s, your phone is at your house and Hunter calls me to let me know that you and Jessie are being looked into by somebody at Weasel’s.”

  “Oh… well, wait a minute how do you know where my car and my phone are?”

  “McKinsey stay focused, please.”

  “Oh no he didn’t,” Jessie interjects and I agree whole-heartedly. Tank has just pissed me off.

  “You know I don’t think I like your tone,” I say back to Tank in a calm tone but a little snarky.

  “I left three hours ago. I’m in the middle of work and I get a phone call that you're on Weasel’s radar. What is going on?”

  Jessie pouts and rolls his eyes when I tell Tank, “That’s because we’re going to Weasel's tonight.”

  Tank laughs and states in a very firm tone, “You’re not going to Weasel's.”

  “Uhh, yes I am.”

  “Look, first off you can’t go to Weasel's without an invite and second of all that’s not a place you need to be going by yourself, and third that’s a place you never need to go in the first place.”

  “I’ll have you know I am going and I did get an invite so I won’t be going by myself. You do your job, honey cakes, and we’ll talk tomorrow about this but I’m telling you now if you think you’re going to tell me what I can and can’t do, that isn’t going to fly.” I hit the button and disconnect the call. “The nerve,” I yell.

  “I agree.”

  “Did you hear him tell me I can’t go to Weasel's?”

  “I did.”

  My phone rings again and I think it will be Tank calling me back but it isn’t, it’s Hunter, I hit the button and answer, “What?”

  “Well, hello to you too,” Hunter says.

  “Did you call Tank and tell him that I was going to Weasel's tonight?”

  “McKinsey—”

  “Answer my question.”

  “No, I called Tank after you didn’t answer your phone to ask why somebody out at Weasel's would be looking into you and Jessie.”

  “Next time you have a question like that, you ask me don’t hang up and call somebody else.”

  “Look I was just looking out for you I’ve told you before that you have to know somebody and be invited so I was worried you were trying to go out there by yourself.”

  “I was invited!” I scream and hang up on him.

  This time I turn my phone off and stick it back in my purse, I look at Jessie and ask, “Can he track my phone with it being turned off?”

  “I have no idea, sunshine.”

  “The nerve,” I say as I pace back and forth.

  “I agree.” Jessie repeats. “Let’s get dressed. She’ll be here soon.”

  I close my eyes and suck in a big breath and slowly blow it out. “Why are we doing this again?”

  “Sunshine, if you don’t want to go we won’t. But I like her and so do you. I think it will be fun and besides, it was you who suggested it first but now Tank knows we're going because you told him very loudly. So what’s the problem?”

  “I think I would feel better if we could drive.”

  “I know that is a little weird, isn’t it.

  Jessie’s phone rings and he says, “It’s Tank. What do you want me to do?”

  I hold out my hand and he hands it to me, I hit the green button and answer, “What Tank?”

  His voice is very calm and serious, “I shouldn’t have started the conversation the way I did I was upset and I’m sorry. Now who invited you to go to Weasel's?”

  “Thank you for your apology. Do you have a minute for me to tell you the story because you made it sound like I was bothering you while you were working earlier?”

  “You have my undivided attention for as long as you need it.” At first I think he’s being sarcastic but it turns out he isn’t.

  “Well I got off early today because we landed a major account, then Jessie and I went to Hands and Hooves. Well, while we—” The doorbell rings I spin around and look at my alarm clock, “Crap they’re here.”

  “Who’s here?” Tank asks annoyed.

  Jessie walks out of the bedroom to answer the front door. “Look, I really don’t want to fight with you. Can we please talk about this tomorrow? It’s a long story and if I tell you any part of it you will only have more questions. I’m standing here naked in a towel and I really need to get dressed.”

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He says hurriedly and hangs up without even a simple goodbye and that really hurt my feelings.

  I sit on the side of my bed, Jessie and Flame walk into my room. “Hey honey, I’m early.” She’s still wearing the same clothes except her hair is hanging down in long wavy curls. I smile when I see the bottom tips of her hair have been dyed a flaming red color. “What’s wrong with you?” she asks.

  “She and her boyfriend are having a lovers’ spat,” Jessie informs Flame.

  “He mad he can’t come or something?”

  I don’t tell her the whole truth because I don’t want to hurt her feelings, “No he just doesn’t like me going places by myself. I had a little trouble a while back with somebody messing with me. Look, why don’t you and Jessie go, I’m just going to stay home.”

  I can see the hurt in her eyes. I can tell she thinks I’m rejecting her friendship, that maybe my boyfriend doesn’t want me hanging out with her “it’s okay I understand,” she says quietly.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to come, I do. I really, really do. It’s just that well, can I be honest with you?”

  “Brutally.”

  Her reply catches me off guard but I can tell she’s being sincere, so I go with it, “Why can’t we drive out there?”

  “My husband doesn’t know either of you and I just met you. He looks at it like he’s protecting me but I look at it that we can drink and not have to worry about driving home.”

  “Okay and please don’t get Hunter into any trouble but I know your husband or somebody was looking into him and me.” I point between Jessie and myself.

  She looks down and plays with her hands. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. He does that with everybody. So don’t take it personal.”

  “Can you tell me why?”

  She shrugs. “We used to live in Arizona and my brother was Jagger’s best friend. I was a naive kid who thought she wanted to be in the biker club because it looked so cool from the outside in. So I used to follow my brother around and he didn’t mind it much. Well some boys from out west came through and wanted to buy me.”

  “Buy you?” Jessie and I both ask in disbelief.

  She nods. “Well of course they wouldn’t sell me and my brother had a bad temper and felt insulted and disrespected that they’d even ask…” she pauses a few minutes, then gives a sad smile and continues, “Sorry, most everybody I’m around knows my story so I don’t have to tell it often.”

  I have my own story I don’t want to talk about, why should I ask her about hers. “You know what don’t worry about it, I’ll go. We were just a little freaked out about going out there with no way to get home and then finding out we were looked into. It’s just not normal for us.”

  “I get that. It’s probably best you know anyway. My brother shot the guy who wanted to buy me and they retaliated. He ended up being murdered and I was kidnapped. Since my biker name was Flame they thought I should
wear the Flame,” she finishes quietly.

  She doesn’t hesitate to raise her shirt up a little and show us the burn marks that scar her belly and left side. I’m not fully sure how far they go up but it looks like the scars are on her neck too and I don’t want to stare so I look up at her eyes. “Shitty part of my life,” is all she says as she shrugs.

  “Are you telling me you were kidnapped and burned because your name was Flame?” Jessie asks and I know he can’t wrap his head around it, neither can I but I want more than anything right now to kick him to shut him up.

  “Yeah.” She says softly.

  I reach out and touch her arm. “You know what? Tonight we are going to have fun. Screw mad boyfriends. Screw things that make us feel bad about ourselves. Screw the things in our past that are terrible. Let’s just go have fun.” I pick up the leather lace up pants and ask, “Jessie picked these out, what do you think?”

  “I think it’s a good thing you’re going to be with me. The boys will love those.” Oh boy.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Weasels

  We climb into a SUV that reminds me a lot of Tank's. It is blacked out with dark tint. I am beginning to see a pattern with all the vehicles but I don’t know what it means. Flame introduces us to Rocco. She doesn’t outright say he is her bodyguard but the large gun hanging at his side explains a lot. Rocco doesn’t say ‘hi or how are you back’ he just grunts. This doesn’t help calm my nerves any either. I can see Rocco is wearing a leather vest like the guys wore in that show Hunter made me watch. I look over at Jessie and he raises his eyebrows. Flame starts talking to us about what all we can do tonight. “We can dance, play pool, shoot darts, there’s even a karaoke machine but nobody really does that since Madonna left. Umm… let me think.”

  “Any of that sounds like fun,” Jessie assures her.

  We travel a while. When we turn on Highway 105 I start really paying attention because I’ve been out this way several times but I’ve never seen any place like Hunter described with the directions he gave me. And now I know why Rocco turns left onto a dirt road and the road makes several hard curves to the left then the right which I find really odd. Then he takes one more hard left while we were going around a sharp right curve that you will miss if you are driving by at any rate of speed. He drives another minute then pulls up to a gate and punches in a code. I look out my window and spot two cameras pointed in our direction. McKinsey, what are you doing? You’re with strangers going out to a place way back in the woods. You’re smarter than this, well I guess you’re not cause you’ve gotten yourself into this situation. At least Tank knows where you are, right? He’ll come save us even though he told me not to come. Why, why, why didn’t I listen to him?