If she and Nicole hadn’t been connected to The Forsaken Riders in that way, there would be no chance that good girls like them would be heading to that part of town. Not only was it potentially damaging for Sarah professionally, but it was also just too frightening for words. And yet, they both skipped on toward it with excitement and without a care in the world.
“Do you think maybe we should hail a cab?” she asked Nicole as she stopped at the next set of lights and reached down to rub her foot. Already, her heels were starting to chafe, and she didn’t fancy being covered in blisters by the time they finally arrived.
“Sure,” Nicole grinned as she looked around the street.
As if by magic, a cab swerved around a corner up ahead and Sarah jumped up and down on the spot, waving her arm.
The driver saw her and began to slow before doing a U-Turn and screeching to a halt next to them at the side of the road. Sarah bent forward and put her hands on the open window.
“Hey,” she smiled. “Can you take us across town to The Bleeding Bullet?”
An amused grin spread across the cab driver’s face, and Sarah couldn’t help but notice that he had several days of unshaven stubble which made it look as if he hadn’t showered.
“Sure,” he said as he hit the unlock button on the car doors. “Hop on in.”
Nicole slid onto the back seat first and then Sarah followed. As they sat down on the grimy upholstery, Sarah winced and gave Nicole a sympathetic look. She could only imagine that this was a taste of things to come.
The cab swerved back out onto Main Street and into the traffic of other cars. He tapped his fingers along on the steering wheel as heavy metal screeched out of the stereo.
“I wonder what kind of music they’ll be playing in the bar,” Sarah smiled.
“No doubt it’ll be as loud and crazy as this,” Nicole mused.
“So,” the cab driver said as he looked at them in his rearview mirror. “What brings a couple of girls like you to this side of the tracks?”
Sarah couldn’t help but grin. It all seemed to cloak and dagger, it was as if they were about to step into a secret world.
“It’s my bachelorette party,” Nicole said with a giggle.
The driver studied her in the mirror and raised his eyebrows.
“Getting one last final fling out of your system then?” he asked wryly.
Sarah had to cover her mouth to try not to laugh, and Nicole somehow managed to keep a calm and straight face.
“Yes, something like that,” she said.
Sarah reached down and squeezed her hand. It would be tempting for them to tell the driver that they were in fact the fiancé and the sister of one of the lawless bikers, but if it was one thing Sarah had learned from her brother, it was to never admit your connections.
“Well,” the driver said. “Not much farther to go.”
Sarah looked out her window and took in the changing landscape of the town.
It was as if they had left Slate Springs entirely, and now they were on their way to somewhere deeper, darker, and more industrial. The streets were lined with big, old, cavernous and abandoned warehouses. Most of them were boarded up, but the ones that weren’t all had their windows smashed in. It looked messy, but it also looked kind of cool. There was something very post-apocalyptic about it, something that made you want to travel further and discover hidden secrets.
At either side of the road were burned out and skeletal cars. Old wire trash cans were burning and alight with rubbish while a couple of homeless men warmed their hands by them. It had been a blisteringly hot day, but even the desert got cold at night, and these people looked as if it had been a long time since they had spent an evening under cover.
Sarah shivered.
She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live a life like that. And suddenly, she was incredibly grateful for how lucky she was.
She looked back out the window and saw some abandoned police cars. They were half up the curb and on the pavement, with their windows smashed in and graffiti plastered all down the sides.
“Yikes,” Sarah whispered. “Looks like the cops really have just given up on it over here.”
“They’re not needed in these parts,” the driver confirmed. “The bikers do a better job than them anyways. And this,” he waved his arm around, “It’s all for show. It’s to intimidate other gangs, or truckers passing through that might feel like causing a bit of trouble.”
Sarah nodded, she could see why they would try and pull a stunt like that.
The warehouses were all so big and private, even with their broken windows, she could only imagine what The Forsaken Riders were hiding inside. She could almost feel the forbidden entities lurking within their walls. Guns, drugs, stolen money… Who knew what was boxed up and locked away deep within the basements of those old, cavernous buildings.
The driver pulled the car around another corner, and she felt Nicole grab her hand. She looked forward and let her eyes settle on the building looming up ahead of them.
It was completely black, with all of its windows blocked in, but it had two strong red spotlights being reflected up onto it, so it looked as if the entire building was dripping blood. Sarah couldn’t help but smile, it was all she could have hoped for and more. It looked mean and dangerous, and completely out of bounds, and yet she couldn’t wait to get inside.
On the steps and leading up to them were bikers and their molls draped around their shoulders. The place oozed sex and indecency, and the women were all scantily clad, wearing leather and fishnet, their hair backcombed high and their make-up dark.
“Wow,” Sarah whispered. And she was instantly even more glad she had chosen to wear such a risqué outfit. It looked as if she was going to be one of the most conservatively dressed there, and yet she was in stilettos and a leather miniskirt that could have doubled as a belt!
“This is it,” the driver said as he screeched the cab to a halt and looked over his shoulder.
“Thank you,” Nicole smiled as she thrust twenty dollars into his palm and climbed out onto the street.
Sarah followed and winced as her heels scraped along shards of broken glass and old trash.
The street really was a mess, but it served its purpose. This was clearly the kind of place that had a message to convey.
“Well, here we are,” Sarah grinned as she looped her arm with Nicole’s. “Happy bachelorette… And welcome to The Bleeding Bullet…”
6.
Sarah held onto Nicole’s hand, and led her to the main door. As they stepped past all the men and women loitering on the steps, they made a concerted effort to not make eye contact with any of them.
Sarah didn’t know why, but she could sense they were aggressive. They were all on alert, as if they were waiting for an intruder, and they were watching Sarah and Nicole as if they were the ones with something to hide.
Sarah ignored their wandering eyes, and when she pushed open the main door and felt the gush of hot air rush out and smack her full in the face, she gasped and instinctively squinted her eyes.
There was a dense fog of smoke hanging heavy in the air, and it was illuminated by interior spotlights, which, much like the front, were a deep red and gave the place the kind of atmosphere that made it feel like it was on fire. Sarah moved forward slowly, and could see shadows of people up ahead, that’s all they appeared to be as they merged into the smoke, but there were so many of them, and they were all grinding and bumping against each other as heavy rock music blared over the speakers.
Nicole gave Sarah’s hand a reassuring squeeze, and Sarah moved to the side, trying to get to the edge of the room so they could get their bearings and figure out where they needed to be.
“It’s crazy in here,” Sarah called to Nicole. “It’s completely rammed. Look at everyone, it’s like they’re in the middle of a goddam orgy.”
Nicole’s eyes were wide as she was watching the dark, writhing bodies appear and disappear on the leather couches s
cattered around the outside of the room, as the spotlights rose and fell, lighting and un-lighting each area.
“Come on,” Sarah said as she pulled Nicole forward, suddenly aware that Nicole was clearly regretting her decision to come here.
“I can’t believe Ranger hangs out here,” she hissed into Sarah’s ear. “I mean, what the actual fuck, this place is crazy.”
“It’s just work to him, Nic,” Sarah reassured her. “I can’t imagine any of this interests him in the slightest.”
She managed to catch a glimpse of a bar through the smoke and the ever changing lights, and she pulled Nicole quickly toward it.
When they reached it, the two girls looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief as they managed to pull up two tall stools and get themselves seated up at the counter.
“Get me something strong,” Nicole laughed nervously. “I feel all self-conscious.”
“Don’t be silly,” Sarah laughed, but she still raised her hand and motioned for the girl who was serving to come and take their order.
She requested two shooters and two beers, and the girls sat and drank them slowly as they took in the rest of the scene around them.
Now that they had become accustomed to the light and the smoke in there, nothing seemed as bewildering as it had before. Sure, there were horny couples attacking each other on the couches, and most of the men and women looked as if they would murder you for looking at them funny, but it was just a bar at the end of it all.
Sarah found herself nodding her head to the music, and when Ranger came over and kissed Nicole, she found herself looking lustily at some of the men in the room. Imagining what it would be like to experience life with an outlaw.
Her mind was wandering, and she knew her eyes were glazing over, but she didn’t mind. A lot of her wanted to submit to the fantasies she had been having of late, and she suddenly remembered the intensities of her dream as she looked at the smoke and the red lights, and how the inside of the bar looked like a different world.
“Lost in thought…?” the voice came from behind her, and it sent a shiver up her spine, even before she saw him.
She knew it was him, even though she had only spoken to him twice. He had the kind of voice you could never forget, and now he was right there next to her, and it was making her tremble.
She let her head turn slightly to the side and she glanced at him over her shoulder.
Snake.
He was standing right there behind her, with his hands tucked into the pockets of his low slung, ripped jeans, and he was wearing a tight, muscle-revealing t-shirt.
Sarah gulped.
She smiled.
“Hi,” she said, trying not to sound too ditzy, even though her mind was swimming and she was rapidly forgetting how to function like the highly educated woman she was.
“When Ranger said you and Nicole were coming down here, I thought he was joking,” Snake said with a sneer as he moved around the side of Sarah’s chair and looked down at her with a wicked grin. “Not after yesterday, anyway.”
He held a toothpick between his teeth, and when he rolled it in his fingers she couldn’t help but stare at the tattoos on his knuckles, and the open, venomous jaws of a snake that was working and twisting its way up his arm from his wrist.
“Nice tattoo,” she said, changing the subject. “Is that why you’ve got the nickname?”
He looked down at her with his dark, menacing eyes, and he licked his lips.
“No, sweetheart,” he said with amusement. “I’ve got that name for a much more exciting reason.”
He let the playfulness shine through his eyes, and Sarah felt her cheeks blush red.
Did he mean what she thought he meant?
She tried not to let her gaze wander down to the bulge in his pants. It would be so obvious that she thought he was hot if she fell for a trick like that, and yet, she found herself doing it anyway, before she looked quickly away.
“You’re not biting at my bait…” he said as he leaned in next to her. “I said I didn’t think I’d see you down here.”
“Well, this isn’t Tanner’s,” Sarah said cockily. “Why shouldn’t we come here?”
Snake smirked and shrugged his shoulders.
“You’re not my keeper,” she said with raised eyebrows. “I’m surprised you care…”
She let that hang between them, and then she felt herself smirk. She had called him out on his interest, and now he was going to have to respond.
“I don’t,” he said as he gave her a sympathetic smile.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes.
“Why have you come over then?” she asked, feeling mischievous.
Snake dismissed her question, and he nodded behind the bar to the girl who was serving. Sarah watched as the server nodded back and moved straight to a particular bottle of whiskey, before she cracked two ice cubes into a glass, poured some of the dark, brown liquid, and passed it to Snake, all in a matter of seconds.
“You call the shots around here then?” she asked him.
“We all do,” he smiled.
Sarah turned to see Nicole and Ranger slipping down from their seats.
“Do you mind?” Nicole asked. “We’re just going to chat in the office…”
Sarah felt her jaw sag a little, the last thing she wanted was to be left in a place like The Bleeding Bullet on her own.
“Wedding stuff,” Nicole whispered so that only Sarah could hear, and she could see the importance etched on her face.
“Okay,” Sarah said with reluctance. “No worries.”
As her brother and Nicole moved away into the crowds, she turned back to the bar and was glad to see that Snake was still standing there nonchalantly. She turned her chair slightly so she was facing him, and she spun her drink in her hands.
“Have you been instructed to watch over me tonight too?” she asked.
Snake looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and shook his head.
“Not like I was yesterday,” he said. “But I said to Ranger I’d hang around if he needed to steal Nicole. We understand places like this can be a little… intimidating.”
“I’m not intimidated,” Sarah said boastfully. “In fact, I like it.”
Snake threw his head back and laughed, before he looked down at her again and smiled.
“You’re not fooling anyone, kid,” he said.
She tried not to blush again, but the fact he had just called her kid let her know exactly what he thought of her. And it made her blood boil.
“Kid?” she couldn’t help but snap.
“You know what I mean,” he said as he looked out into the crowd. “You’re my best friend’s kid sister, that’s all.”
“I’m also about to graduate and become a lawyer,” she said spitefully. “I’m twenty-two, not twelve.”
He held his hands up in mercy and tried not to laugh.
“No need to be so tetchy,” he said. “It was a throw-away comment, one I use on most of the women in my life.”
“Ha, and I can only assume there are plenty of those,” Sarah said with a snort. “Why am I not surprised.”
Snake grinned and leaned in close to her.
“You really don’t like me, do you?” his eyes were glinting, and feeling him so close to her was making her heart race.
She could smell the dark, musky scents of his cologne and the lingering smell of motor oil. Mixed together, they were completely arousing, and it made her bite her lip and close her eyes to brace herself.
“I didn’t say that,” she whispered.
Snake grinned.
“I’m just playing with you,” he said. “What do you expect, it’s what we were like when we were kids, why wouldn’t we be like it now?”
Sarah looked up at him with shock, as if he had just slapped her in the face.
“When we were kids?” she asked with confusion.
“Sure,” Snake said with a wry smile. “I knew you didn’t remember me.”
&nb
sp; Sarah turned her body to fully face him now and stared into his face. He was looking at her with so much amusement, she had no idea where all of this was going, but the more she looked into his deep eyes, the more she felt the twinges of recognition.
She felt the rush of a memory come back to her.
She could clearly see in her mind’s eye her brother and his best friend riding bikes out front on their lawn, when Sarah could only have been around eight, and they would have been thirteen. She scratched her head.
“No way,” she said with a laugh and wide smile.
Snake nodded his head.
She couldn’t believe she hadn’t recognized him before, but there he was, her brother’s best friend from childhood. All those years later, muscled up, bearded, covered in tattoos and hot as hell.
She shook her head in disbelief.
“Of course, I remember you now,” she said. “You practically lived at our house.”
Snake lifted his finger to his lips and said “Shush,” with a half laugh.
“Your brother and I were both very different people then,” he said.
“Man, you’re telling me,” Sarah said as she sipped her drink. “I never would have put two and two together, you look so… so different.”
“Life changes us all in different ways,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ve been in The Forsaken Riders a lot longer than your brother.” He lifted his whiskey to his lips and took a long sip. “I’m the reason he got made in the first place.”
Sarah cast her mind back to what she could remember about Ranger and the way he had gotten involved with the outlaws. All she had truly known was that it was an old friend who had helped him find his feet, and now that old friend was standing right there in front of her, in the version of Snake.
“Your name, remind me…” She rubbed her temples as she tried to remember what he had gone by back then, but Snake just shook his head and tapped her lightly on the arm.
“Old ghosts,” he said. “We don’t raise them here.”
He smiled at her apologetically, but somehow, she already understood. She had heard Ranger discuss that once they left their old lives behind, they ceased to be that person altogether. Snake had taken a new name, a new life and a new identity. It only made sense that he would never want to remember the old him.
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