by Evelyn Glass
Randy nodded. “I can’t speak for Steve or Greg, but I’m on board. You’ve never given me a reason to not trust you. You keep the, uh, special event out of the town and make sure those here for it understand the town is off-limits for that type of hooliganism, and you help enforce it. It’s been good for everyone.”
Dix nodded. “We live here, too, and we don’t want trouble any more than anyone else. What we do out of town is our business, but we don’t shit in our nest.”
Randy nodded. “If you need any help persuading Steve or Greg let me know and I’ll try to help convince them.”
“Thanks, Randy, I’ll do that. If those assholes show up here again, give them a nice long, in-depth, tour of the place…after you call us. We want to have a word with them, alone.”
Randy chuckled. “I can do that. We might have to have an all hands meeting about then, too. The shop will be empty, and that will be a good place to talk to them.”
Dix grinned as he rose and extended his hand. “I think we understand each other.”
Randy also rose and shook Dix’s hand, then Daisy’s. “I’ll call if they show up again.”
“Thanks. I’ll talk to Cale about maybe having someone keep an eye on the place. Maybe we’ll put a word in Chief Buckley’s ear. Let the cops earn their pay for once,” Dix grinned.
Randy laughed. “The Chief and I are fishing buddies. I won’t tell him you said that, but I might mention it, as well.”
Randy escorted them out as he and Dix talking about inconsequential stuff. She found it surprising that Dix, and the Cutthroats in general, commanded as much respect as they did. People feared the Firechrome, but they didn’t respect them.
“That was easier than I expected,” she said as she buckled her helmet.
“Randy’s a smart guy. He knows a good thing when he sees it, and he knows bringing a bunch of drugs into town is bad for business. Part of the draw of Douglas is the racers can come here, spend a few days, bring the family if they have one, and everyone has a good time. It’s a good, clean, family friendly town.”
“And Douglas doesn’t know what the Cutthroats do?”
“They know we help keep the bikers in line, ask them to quiet down if they get too loud or rowdy, and will chase them out of town if they can’t live with our rules. But the racing? No, for the most part, nobody knows, and we want to keep it that way.”
“Not even the police?” she asked as she climbed on behind him.
“They know, but they have no proof and we’re very careful to make sure they never get proof. But, to be honest, I don’t think they try very hard to shut us down. So long as we keep it off the public streets and confine it to the Green Hell, they tend to ignore us.”
“How do you do that?”
He smiled. “Easy. You get reported racing, doing wheelies, speeding excessively, anything like that, you’re banned from the race and you forfeit your entry fee. We make it very clear that stuff won’t be tolerated because it brings down the heat on all of us.”
She nodded as the Harley rumbled to life, still amazed at the differences between Leo and the Firechrome and Dix and the Cutthroats. Both clubs were engaged in illegal activities, but the Cutthroats made sure to protect the community from their actions. Not shitting in their nest, as he said. As the bike rumbled through town on the way to their next stop, she leaned in and wrapped her arms around Dix.
***
Daisy stepped off the bike and placed her helmet on the mirror. It was just after three in the afternoon and they were done for the day. Steve Terrill of Terrill’s and Greg Howard at Oregon Motorcycle Performance, or OMP as Dix called it, took a little more convincing than Randy at West Coast Performance, probably because they hadn’t been paid a visit by the Firechrome like Randy had, but they were on board.
She was feeling pretty good at the moment. She had enjoyed knifing Leo in the back and him not even knowing it. Revenge is a dish best served cold. She couldn’t remember where she heard the line, but it seemed to fit her mood. He fucked me with Riley and our marriage, and now I’m fucking him with the Firechrome.
“Hang on a minute,” Dix said. “Let me go see if James needs help.”
He hurried out to James as the massive loader rumbled past with a hulk of a car in its jaws and waved him to a stop. He stepped up onto the loader for a moment, then stepped down again before the machine growled away.
“Well?”
“I have to go pick up a car later, after the guy gets home from work. You want to go? We’ll get dinner while we’re out.”
She thought about it a moment. “Sure, I guess. I thought I would cook or something. Try to earn my keep. Is James going, too?”
“No. He doesn’t like to eat out much. He says the rich food upsets his stomach.”
“Why don’t you eat with him?”
“I do, sometimes, but I don’t want him thinking he has to cook for me.”
“You could cook,” she teased.
He laughed. “I tried…once. We both agreed it would be best if in the future I just left the cooking to him.”
“Maybe I could teach you.”
“Maybe, but not tonight. I still have to get the car.”
“So what are we going to do in the meantime?” she asked slowly.
He smiled, pulled her in close, and brought his lips close to hers. “I have a suggestion,” he breathed.
His lips were so close to hers she could feel the caress of his breath. “What?” she whispered as her heart began to speed up.
“You still have to learn to drive your car,” he whispered like a lover.
She blinked several times, unsure if she understood him, the pushed him back. “You ass!” she chortled. “I thought you were going to say something else. That’s mean, getting me all worked up for no reason.”
He chuckled as he kissed her quickly. “That’s for later, when we have more time.” He then leaned in close again. “Tonight I won’t be so tired and I can treat you right.”
She flashed hot with his promise. “Oh God. If you treat me any more right I may not be able to stand it.”
He smiled and kissed her again, a little more slowly, a little more erotically. “We’ll find out later.”
“Okay, do you know what the three pedals are?” he asked as she adjusted the seat.
“Gas, brake, and clutch,” she said as she touched each with her foot.
“That’s right. You work the gas and brake with the right foot, the clutch with the left. You press the clutch in to stop the car and to change gears. Got it?” When she nodded he continued. “Press the clutch all the way to the floor. Good. Now, here’s first,” he said as his hand covered hers on the shift lever. “Second,” he continued as he pulled the lever back. “Third, and fourth,” he continued, moving the gear stick though the pattern. “Reverse is a little different. Lever goes here, you push down, then over and back. Now you do it. Start in first.”
He watched as she rowed through the gears. She had a little trouble with reverse but got it soon enough.
“Okay, you’re done. Have fun,” he grinned as he made to get out of the car.
“Wait!” she laughed.
He chuckled. “Okay, clutch in. Good, now start the car. Keep the clutch in until I tell you.”
She started to pump the gas pedal but remembered at the last moment Dix’s warning, then turned the key. The Bug whirled over then growled to life. “That’s way easier than it used to be!”
“Yeah. There have been lots of improvements. Okay, reverse.” He released the parking brake and waited until she selected the proper gear. “Now, breathe on the gas as you slowly let the clutch out.”
She did as he instructed and promptly stalled he car.
“That’s okay. Everyone does that. Try again with a little more gas. Easy!” he warned as she revved the car too much.
With a lurch the car started backwards. She backed out into the path then stopped, stalling the car again.
“Clutch, then brake,
” Dix instructed. “Try again, in first this time.”
She stalled the car three times before she got it moving, but with Dix’s gentle encouragement and correction they were off. They puttered around the yard, Daisy shifting into second, then stopping to start all over again. She noticed immediately the brakes worked much better, the pedal not as squishy feeling, and the car had stopped pulling to the left. It also went much better, picking up speed far more quickly than it ever had before. And, best of all, it started every time she turned the key without fuss or bother.
At the end of the ninety-minute lesson she wasn’t stalling nearly as often, and could find each gear without having to look at the lever. She wasn’t confident, or smooth, but she was sure with a little more practice, she’d master the car.
“We need to leave,” Dix said as they puttered along in third gear.
She went around the corner, the little car struggling at the slow speed, so she downshifted to second, let the clutch out too quickly again, which caused the car to lurch, but then began picking up speed again as they growled back toward James’s house.
“I think you need to let me drive the truck!”
Dix chuckled. Daisy was such a fun and vibrant person when she was focused and not weighed down with guilt and worry. “No, I don’t think you’re ready for that just yet. Get good at your own car first, then we’ll talk about it.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Daisy climbed into the cab of the giant International Rollback with Dix and buckled her seatbelt as the truck shuddered to life. She was feeling good again. Though they had seen no signs of Leo or the Firechrome, she finally felt like they were doing something and she had a good feeling something was going to come of the Cutthroats putting word on the street to call them if the Firechrome showed their face in Douglas again.
They growled through town, following the GPS, and she admired how he handled the truck with ease and skill, until they arrived at their destination.
“Damn, that’s a nice car,” he muttered as they pulled to a stop at the curb next to a silver Pontiac sitting in the drive with a For Sale sign in the window. They crawled out of the truck and she followed him to the front door.
“Mr. Tyson? I’m with McGhee Recycling. I’m here for the car,” Dix said when the door opened.
“That’s it in the drive.”
“Yes, sir. You said it won’t run?”
“No. The engine is seized and they wanted too much to rebuild it. I’ve been trying to sell it, but the wife wants it out of the drive,” Tyson said as the three of them walked toward the car.
Dix nodded. “James said you would take two-fifty for it?”
Tyson frowned. “I think the car is worth more than that.”
Dix nodded in sympathy. “That’s our standard price for a non-running car.” He paused as if thinking. “I tell you what. It’s a nice car. Don’t tell James, but I’ll give you three hundred for it and I’ll have it out of your driveway in ten minutes. Maybe we can sell the doors off it or something.”
The man thought a moment then extended his hand. “Deal. It’s worth that to not have to listen to the wife bitch about it anymore.”
Dix chuckled and pulled a wad of cash from his pocket and peeled off three bills. “There you go.”
“Do you need the title? I have it in the house.”
“If you have it I’ll take it, but this old girl will never see the highway again. I need you to sign a bill of sale, though, and the key so I can load it. Daisy, would you mind taking the clipboard out of the truck and have Mr. Tyson sign the bill of sale and get the title and keys from him while I get ready to load?”
As Dix backed the truck up to the car, she did as instructed. He took the key from her, opened the door, and tried to start the car. It grunted as the lights went dim, but wouldn’t turn over. He placed the car in neutral and let it roll down the slight incline until it was against the truck’s ramp. He was blocking traffic, so he worked as fast as possible, wenching the car onto the truck, then pulling back to the curb before locking it down.
She watched him efficiently go about his tasks, admiring how he wasted no effort. He clearly knew what he was doing, and though she wanted to offer to help, she suspected she’d only slow him down.
“Done. You hungry?” he asked as he pulled on the straps one last time to make sure they were tight.
“Starving.”
“What are you in the mood for?” he asked as they crawled into the cab. “This calls for a celebration.”
“What does?”
“That car. We paid three hundred dollars for a car we can part out and get fifteen hundred, maybe two thousand, for.”
“Really? How? You said it won’t run.”
“That’s true, but we can take all the bits off the engine, the alternator, starter, air conditioning compressor, stuff like that, and sell those. As clean as the car is, the body panels will bring top dollar. We can sell the doors for a couple hundred a piece, the fenders and bumpers for maybe a hundred each, another couple hundred for the hood and trunk. The wheels are perfect and they’ll easily bring a hundred each. Plus, there’s all the interior stuff. Hell, even the tires are new enough to sell. I take it back, more like two thousand to twenty-five hundred for the parts.”
“Seven to eight times your investment? That’s not bad.”
He grinned. “No, it’s not. Not every car will bring that much. A totaled car is worth about three to four hundred in scrap metal, so that’s why we pay the two-fifty, but often we can salvage something and sell it to the body shops around to increase our profit, but it’s not often we get a car as nice as this one.”
She nodded and smiled. “In that case, no fast food. How about that first place we went?”
“Billbe’s?”
“Yeah, that’s the place. I want a piece of their meatloaf.”
He chuckled. “Billbe’s it is.”
***
They ate and talked and laughed, filling each other in on their backgrounds. He told stories about growing up with James, speaking as if his parents didn’t exist, and she talked about growing up in a solid middle class, blue-collar family, and how her parents nearly disowned her when she announced she was marrying Leo.
With hundreds of eyes all around town to watch for the Firechrome, she was able to not worry about Riley for a moment and enjoy his company. She was beginning to feel very cozy around Mr. Dixon Montague, and that worried her. Her attraction to him was purely infatuation, and she knew it, but that didn’t make the attraction any less real. This was how it started with Leo, and that had gone to shit in a big way.
But Dixon wasn’t Leo and was completely unlike him in nearly every way. She was considerably older and, hopefully, wiser now. She should be able to make better decisions, but she worried her judgment was clouded by his kindness. She had a hard time accepting he was helping her simply because she needed it and wondered if, or when, a different side of Dix would appear, as it had with Leo.
The other problem was distance. It was a hard four-hour drive from Prineville to Douglas. Even if Dix turned out to be everything he seemed to be, two hundred miles and four hours would make it hard to maintain a relationship. Not to mention Riley. Would he even want to date a woman with a kid? She was torn, wanting to believe in him and that he was something special, but afraid they wouldn’t be able to overcome the obstacles.
She shoved the thoughts away. It was far too early to be thinking about dating and relationships. She needed to focus on getting Riley back and getting her life in order before she should even think about dating. But even as she made up her mind not think about it, the memories of how he made her feel last night and again this morning surfaced and she smiled to herself. Panty-wetting handsome, kind, and a devastatingly good lover, did she really want to push him out of her life if he was willing to be part of it? And with that, the spiral of thoughts started all over again.
He smiled as they picked over the remains of their dinner. He’d enjoyed this
dinner more than most, and it was because of his companion for the evening. There was something about her that tickled his fancy. She was certainly easy on the eyes, and he enjoyed the two romps they’d had a great deal, but it was more than that. He knew he identified with her and her son, and he admired that she was getting out of a bad marriage to give her son something better. But it was even more than that.
It was her strength. She’d dealt with so much, but, in spite of it all, she wasn’t bitter or jaded. She didn’t act like the world owed her something, and she took responsibility for her mistakes. He admired her spirit and determination and her willingness to fight for what she wanted. She’d fought for her marriage but Leo was too damn stupid to realize what he had. Realizing he’d never change and be the husband she deserved, she’d battled her way out of the marriage, dealing with more dirty tricks and abuse than anyone should have to. And now she was here, having tracked Riley to Douglas and then found allies to help her get him back.