by Ryder Dane
War had experienced one of his freaky feelings that morning, and he was the first one to pull his scoot to the side of the highway, causing the other brothers to follow his lead. That intuition had saved the six men’s asses since they hadn’t ridden straight into the crossfire that had been arranged several hundred yards ahead of them. It forced the bad guys to come out of the woods and drainage ditch to be seen as they tried their damndest to wipe the bikers out. Fortunately for War, Roark took the hail of bullets meant for him when he shot the only fucker with an automatic gun.
Traffic had been light that day, but there were still several witnesses that made statements in the Breeds’ favor. Lucky for them, the cagers were smart enough to stop driving as soon as they heard gunfire and seen the bikers scatter for cover.
He called Stalker to let him know what was going on, and assured him that he would be home in another week if the weather held out. “I haven’t had one damn dry day of pavement since I left on this trip. That crazy fucker is probably enjoying the hell out of himself laughing about the shitty mess I got into at that excuse for a farm. I picked up some trouble to bring back with me, so be prepared for some fun. You’re gonna like this one, blonde, sapphire eyes, and as feral as a female comes nowadays.”
Stalker jerked his chain about falling in love at first sight or some shit. “Or are you just in lust at first sight? She don’t have an old man hanging around somewhere does she?”
*****
Dutch scrubbed the road dirt from his body and tried to keep his thoughts on Kylie’s life and possible choices, rather than her body. He couldn’t help but think that she needed to eat at least a couple of meals a day and a few snacks. Of course, he was a man with a taste for a woman with a wide ass and long legs. They were nice, but he’d had some limber short women that were just as talented. Big tits didn’t impress him much unless they were the real deal. He never bothered to ask himself why the women that attracted him weren’t the usual biker bunnies that hung around. It was just sex, it didn’t matter if the female was short, tall, or buck toothed. If he found something attractive in them, his dick was ready to play.
Kylie would be fun to play with, but hell to leave behind. She looked to be innocent one minute and the next he knew in his gut that she wasn’t virginal. She was a puzzle, and he wanted to know more about her, even that calculating look. What he knew about her life so far fascinated him, and he figured that one of her new memories should be with him in it. One thing was sure, if they both lived to talk about this journey, he was going to have the girl.
The television was still on when he left the bathroom, so he didn’t have to worry about waking her up while he watched the news. He smiled as he ripped the top off of the candy once he settled under the covers. The pretty brunette weather girl predicted more rain and severe weather for the next two days and nights. From the radar maps and the predicted path of the storms, Dutch figured that they might be lucky enough to have a five hour window of riding time, if they left early enough in the morning. He didn’t want to tackle the foothill roads in the dark either, so waiting for daylight cut that window of opportunity down to roughly three hours.
War had told him to stall for an extra day, but Mother Nature might have her own agenda and the next seven hundred miles might take that day and another before they made it to Braxton Hills, Ohio. War wanted Dutch to bring the girl to the cradle of Lucifer’s Breed. Regardless of the forces of nature, he wanted to be as close to the club as possible, and then if he had to, he could lag back on some excuse or other.
Chapter 5
Other than a few intense looks coming her way from Dutch when they’d been getting ready for the day, things were going smoothly. They decided to put a few miles on the road before stopping to eat a meal, and settled for a quick stop at the gas station quick mart to get drinks and for Kylie to stock up on her stash of snacks. He didn’t say a word to her about her sweet tooth, considering that she was kind enough to include his favorites in the stack of candy that the clerk was putting into a small paper sack.
He walked outside and looked to the west. The storms would be moving in fast when they hit. And he hoped to be ahead of the worst of the wind and rain. He hated it when he got caught in this kind of weather. Hail was always a factor and dangerous as fuck when you’re on a bike traveling eighty miles an hour. They would have no choice but to find shelter and hope that there was room for Betty Lou.
Kylie came out of the building with her goodies and extra bottles of water. He couldn’t help but tease her a little bit.
“Are you expecting that I won’t allow you to eat? I know I said I want to get some mileage in today, but I get hungry too, you know.”
He was ignored as she put a few things in her pockets and the rest she put in her back pack. He wondered what he might find if he searched the pack again. It looked like the zipper closing would split anytime, and he had more important things to think about right then. Like getting those miles behind them.
He started the bike and she got settled in for the ride.
He wasn’t just speeding, the man was flat out gliding the wheels over the concrete and blacktop as they raced the storm clouds that kept creeping closer and closer. Kylie kept feeding him the sweet treats, and handing him a water bottle to wash the sugar out of his mouth. They rode in one hundred fifty mile increments and filled up the tank, taking care of personal needs.
Dutch chose a gas station with a sub shop inside. He bought a couple of sandwiches and headed back to the bike to wait for Kylie to finish her girly necessities. So far she had been a good passenger, and he was getting used to eating candy from her slender fingers.
When she appeared, he had to laugh to himself. She was again carrying a small brown paper sack, and in her other hand she had a bigger bag from the sub shop. He held his sandwich that he was eating up for her to see, and she stopped in her tracks looking confused for a second. She shrugged and walked the rest of the way with a small smile on her lips.
“I see that great minds thought alike. So what are we going to do with the extras?”
He opened his saddlebag and dropped his extra sandwich inside. He waved towards the open bag and she took half of a foot long and put the rest in the leather bag.
“So I take it we will be running flat out again this afternoon? Or should we find a place to wait out the storm? I saw an ad on the board inside for a bed and breakfast in Tennessee. I think it’s just over the border, but I don’t know the area. We may be smart just to get a room along the highway in a hotel like last night.”
He shrugged. “Let’s play it by ear. The clerk inside told me that there is tornado warnings for this county and the next two counties. He told me that the predictions say shit will hit within the hour and I want to be out of the path of the worst of it.”
The interstate was not desolate, but there were very few vehicles on the road once they got going again. An hour and a half after their last stop, the wind was beginning to make it almost impossible for Dutch to keep the bike on the road. They were one mile from the next exit when the semi-truck and trailer in front of them was picked up and dropped onto its side. The straight line of debris pushing over the trailer was surprising to the two of them watching from a relatively safe distance. Dutch yelled at Kylie and told her to “hang on.”
He slowly rode the shoulder of the road until they reached the truck. The driver was now standing next to the hood of his rig and talking on his cell phone while another trucker parked his rig on the other side of the highway so he could help his fellow trucker. They waved Dutch off when he yelled to ask if they needed help, so they didn’t stop.
Pulling off of the highway might have been a mistake, but Dutch had caught a glimpse of the clouds running fast up their asses and he wanted to find shelter. He hoped that there would be a small hotel or something besides that derelict building with no roof right off of the interstate.
He headed north east and tried not to think about the
rain that was in the form of drops that felt like pebbles pelting their skin as it whipped through the air. Kylie patted his side and moved her arm to his left side pointing towards an old barn on the edge of an overgrown field. It was the only shelter that they’d seen for the past few miles, and looking around he saw nothing but more flat land and steam rising from the ground where the water was hitting the soil. He nodded his head, and slowed the bike to a crawl as he turned onto the driveway that could barely be found. He stopped the bike and Kylie hopped off, and ran to the building to pull the big door open for him to ride the bike inside.
It was locked and there was no way for her to slide inside of the small opening between the doors. She shook her head at Dutch and held up her hand making a circle motion to tell him she would look for another way inside.
There was a small hill going down the side of the barn and she discovered the open back wall of the basement of the barn where a farmer’s animals would shelter at night or be held in close quarters for some reason or another. Two thirds of the large room was enclosed by concrete and rock walls, but there was room for Dutch to shelter the bike, too.
She had to bend double and grab the weeds to pull herself back up the hill to wave him down into the hidey hole where they could wait out the storm in what she hoped was a safe place. After getting his attention and seeing his head nod, she slid on her ass down the slope and ran into the opening and headed for the back corner hay mound. The old fodder was brittle and she kicked the small pile of bales to get any mice or other vermin to leave before she sat down. The noise from outside increased as the rain began to hammer at the small window on the opposite side of the room.
Dutch was pushing his bike into the opening of their shelter, and Kylie ran over to unhook the bungie cords that held Dutch’s road pack and her backpack. She pulled them from the sissy bar and went back to the corner nest that she’d chosen for them to ride out the storm.
He pushed Betty Lou as far towards the back wall as he could, and set the center stand down on a wide piece of board. He pulled the leather saddlebags off of her rear fender and gave her a pat on the tank. So far she looked to be in good shape and not damaged by the hail that started to fall just as they’d gotten down the slope to the shelter. He could hear the small pellets hitting the wood siding above their heads, and said a short prayer of thanks.
When he looked over towards where his companion she was rolling out his blanket over the tarp that he always kept his kit wrapped in, and he shook his head. The woman had skills, and any other time he’d be all over that, no matter if a tornado or a hurricane was threatening. She was attractive enough, and he would enjoy fucking her, but like the rest, that would be it.
During the ride he’d had a lot of time to think, and he wasn’t certain that he wanted to fuck with a woman that might or might not be a potential threat to the Breed. He was a lot of things, but his loyalty to the club could never be questioned. He was second generation with the Breed, and that held a lot of pressure and clout. He looked at Kylie again and shook his head before walking over to the comfy spot she had made for them to wait for morning, and the threat of tornados to be gone.
*****
She was afraid, but there was no way that she’d show this man that fear. Men were the major reason that women suffered. From everything that she’d seen in life, women always had to compromise and keep their true thoughts to themselves. Lessons such as never catering to a man to start with if you had a choice. Treating a man the same way that he treated you was a big goal for her. Giving what you get would be another of the rules she’d been listing while they rode throughout the hours yesterday and again today. Naomi used to tell her that someone in each relationship loved the other person more.
“Don’t be the one to love the most, girlie. It fuckin’ hurts too damn much when you get your heart stomped on. Pick a man that worships you, one that wants to make you happy no matter how miserable it might make him. Once you have him where you want him, you can go ahead and treat him better. It’ll make him willing to kill for your smile.” She had smiled sadly and shook her head. “I should have taken my own advice, but Job was handsome and women stepped all over each other to get him to notice them.”
She’d adjusted her breasts in their underwire bra, and straightened her shoulders. “Too bad for all of us that Job has a thing for big tits, and a woman with a mouth like a vacuum. I got the prize alright. Twenty years later, I’m still living here in paradise with the man of my dreams, right?”
The last sentence was delivered with a sneering smile and a defeated sigh.
As the powerful motor carried them down the roads Kylie remembered a few things that she’d never cared about before. There had always been other things to worry about. Now she was embarking on an entirely new lifestyle change and the excitement and concern for her future damn near choked her.
She wanted to find the town that she had left perched on the back of a motorcycle, and find her parents’ graves. She would sort herself out from there. There were too many questions that she wanted answers for. How her parents had died was a mystery, and over the years she begged God to let her talk to her mother just for a few minutes. That particular prayer, and the ones following the same childish heartbreak, had never been answered.
She no longer hated God, she felt nothing for the entity that so many people invoked the name of when they were stressed or in trouble. Perhaps someday she would get the prayer protocol thing correct, but for now, she would continue to rely on her own wits. At least she knew going into each day that there was a fifty-fifty chance of things going well and as planned, or going to shit and being forced to recalculate the odds of tipping the scales in her favor.
She planned to have Dutch drop her off when they crossed into southern Kentucky. She could take a bus to Lexington, and then she could buy a computer notebook at a refurbish place once she found a place to stay for a while. Every fast food joint had free Wi-Fi nowadays, so she could do her research while nursing a cup of coffee. She tried to do research on her parents and had gotten into trouble at school for navigating the school computer out of the lesson plan.
Naomi and Job had pulled her out of school when she turned sixteen. They told her that she was going to be home schooled from then on, and for a year and a half, they’d kept their word. She was smart and passed all of the tests that she had to take at a designated school facility to make it count towards graduating high school. At seventeen and a half, she received her diploma.
By then, the excuse to keep her around the farm was that they didn’t have reliable transportation. She had allowed them to keep her complacent and bored all of the following years and now she felt dumb as dirt. She should have walked out years ago, but fear of the unknown held her back. Now she was afraid of the future, but she was ready to face whatever she found. Knowing that she had a plan helped her feel less afraid.
She pulled the saddle bags toward herself with a grin and took the leftover half of her sandwich out to eat. “I’m so glad that I wasn’t starving this morning. This is great.” She took a big bite of the thick bread and chewed while Dutch snapped his fingers and nodded his head for her to reach inside the bag for one of the two foot-longs that were left from their last stop. She tossed him a bottle of water and they continued their feast with the raging wind and rain whipping against the barn.
“So tell me Dutch, what’s your story? All I know is that you are a good man to have as a friend, and that is only my observation. It takes a special kind of man to ride all of the way to the farm just to see his friend settled. Job would’ve dumped the ashes in the driveway to fill in a pothole.”
He didn’t say anything out loud. The noises coming from Dutch made her swing her attention from the sight of the shit blowing into their shelter to him. He was choking on his sandwich, and she crawled to get behind him to put her arms around his wide barreled chest. Her hands barely touched fingertips, so she helped him to stand and tried again. She didn�
�t have the strength to administer the force that was needed to dislodge the lump of food cutting off his airway. She had to think quick, and the only thing she could come up with was to stand in front of him and look him in the eye when she kicked him in the gut as hard as she could right above his belly button.
The chunk of bread flew out of his mouth and she turned sideways to avoid having it hit her. He was gasping for air and had his hands on his knees as he bent over to relieve the pain in his gut from her booted foot hitting it.
She picked herself up from the dusty floor and slowly approached him. He looked up from his bowed position and glared at her. She stopped and frowned at him.
“What’s the matter now? I can’t help it if you’re too damned big for normal methods to save your life. What did you expect me to do, sit out the storm with your dead carcass laying next to me? You could say thank you, but you act like it was my fault that you wolf your food down too damn fast and ended up choking on it.”
She sat down and he plopped next to her.
“Thank you for kicking me in the gut like that.” His tone was sarcastic. “It was your fault that I choked on the bread anyway. Saying that Job would have dumped his friend in a mudhole to fill it in. That’s fuckin’ whacked you know. No real man would do shit like that with a dead friend. Hell, even old Herc, the crazy bastard, wouldn’t dispose of a brother like that. An enemy? Yeah, I can see that. He once flushed a fucker’s eyeball down the toilet during a fight. But that’s the nature of the beast.”
The picture in her brain of some insane looking man tossing an eyeball into a toilet and laughing as he flushed the thing down made her lose her appetite. She shook her head and walked to the doorway to look out into the flooding pasture. Lightening was coming closer and she saw what appeared to be a solid wall of water falling from the sky and heading towards them fast. She ran back to the small haven in the corner and grabbed Dutch’s arm to pull him down as far back to the rock wall as she could get.