by Davida Lynn
At first Raven couldn’t tell what direction the sound was coming from. She spun back toward Bakersfield, thinking one of the smaller motorcycle clubs had set the whole thing up. She grabbed her Glock from the holster, pulling the slider back and filling the chamber. She listened as the sound grew louder. The hills made the sound hard to pinpoint, but it clicked after a few seconds. They were coming back.
She mounted her bike and reholstered the gun. As they came over the crest and toward her, she counted. Everyone that had gone in came out, plus one kid riding bitch behind Bear. She waited until they all passed, then followed. Raven’s job wasn’t over.
She kept a sharp eye behind as they headed back to Bakersfield. Any retaliation would come from behind, leaving more mounting pressure on her. The entire ride back, Raven thought she looked behind more than she looked forward. They weren’t followed, and as morning broke and the city began to wake, the Rising Sons made it back to Los Bandoleros unharmed. Or at least, relatively unharmed…
When Raven climbed from her bike, she saw that Trigger had red staining one of his pant legs. She rushed over and crouched down to see what had happened.
“Just a cut. Barely made it through the skin. Ain’t nothing to worry about.”
Raven shook her head. “It’s deeper than you think. We’re gonna have to get you to a hospital.” As she spoke, Gunner pulled off his bandana. He handed it to Raven.
“Thanks,” she said. He nodded back to her.
Trigger tore his jeans away just below the knee as Raven folded the bandana up until it could be used to stem the bleeding. She tied it on tight, and when she saw Trigger flinch, she knew the cut was worse than he was letting on.
“Quit bitchin’, little bro. It ain’t that bad.” Gunner squeezed his brother’s shoulders as Raven tied the bandana on.
“Seriously. You’re gonna need a doctor to stitch this up.” She stood up and helped him to his feet.
Bear got her attention. “Don’t worry. We come prepared. Anyway, you’ve earned your keep for the day. Go home and catch up on your beauty sleep.”
Raven was offended that Bear was sending her away. “I’m sure there’s shit that needs to be done. You woke me up, so I’m here.”
Bear walked past the crew that he had ridden with. He nodded to a few of the men. They headed inside the club. Gunner had an arm around his brother, helping him in, as well.
Bear smiled, but Raven could see that he was holding back. “Look, darlin’, you did great today. I wanted to give you a test. I’m sorry you couldn’t be in there with us, but I can’t put you on the front lines just yet. Your brother says you can shoot and fight. Well, we’ll find that out for ourselves in due time. For now, though, you gotta pay your dues. You know that, right?”
“Yes.” She let out a sigh. It was more exhaustion than frustration. “I know it. Sorry, but I just know I can do more.”
“Hey, hey.” Bear put his hands on Raven’s shoulders. Another time, she might have felt like he was coming on to her, but there was only the wise “dad voice” coming from him. “I know you can do more, too. Believe me. I can see some serious potential in you. For the time being, I need you to learn a few things. First, I need you to learn every one of those men in there that will become your brothers. You need to learn how they ride, how they fight, and how much they can take. They’re gonna learn the same about you.”
“I know that. I’ve just been fighting harder than anyone.”
“Damn straight you have. You gotta, too. Sorry, darlin’, but if we’re gonna let a woman in, she’s gotta be the toughest fuckin’ bitch we’ve ever seen. Can you be the toughest fuckin’ bitch we’ve ever seen?”
Raven smiled, ignoring the double standard for that moment. “You bet your ass I can.” She just needed the chance.
Bear nodded. “All right, then. Head on home. You earned a few days where we don’t bug you. I’ll get someone else to cover tonight. Just know that you got two more hard-ass tests coming up. Take some time, because you’re gonna need it.”
“I know, I know.”
“I got shit to take care of. Quit wastin’ my fuckin’ time, darlin’.” He smiled at the young woman and turned around. She watched him head inside the club before firing up her bike and heading back to the softness of her waiting bed.
As she drove back, Raven didn’t know if her conversation with Bear was a victory or not. It softened him around the edges—that much she knew. She wondered if they all got a talk like that. She reminded herself to ask Tanner the next time she saw him.
When she stepped through the door, Raven unloaded her gun and put it back in the hallway drawer. Exhaustion got the better of her, and she fell into bed still wearing her jeans and cut. She only managed to wrestle off her boots before sleep took over.
Raven wondered how she had drawn the short straw. Not two days earlier she’d gone on an early morning raid with the Rising Sons. Bear had given her a few days off, but she was back closing the bar down not long after.
“Scheduling,” Trask offered with a shrug.
Raven wondered why he was even at the bar. His bullet wound was still fresh, and he was on all kinds of medication.
She nodded toward the door. “Why don’t you head home? I’ll lock up and get you the keys back tomorrow. You really should be in bed.” Raven lowered her voice, “You don’t look all that great.”
Trask looked happy, but loopy at the same time. “Hope says I lost probably lost, like, three pints of blood. Guess it’s a lot. I don’t know. You know what happened that night?”
Raven shook her head. Tanner hadn’t caught her up on the evening’s events yet.
Trask laughed. “Fuckin’ Vegas. You notice he’s not around anymore?”
Raven had paid little attention to Vegas. He was a member in full since she had joined as a prospect. They were about the same age, but she saw him as a kid. Vegas followed Trask around like a puppy dog. Trask could do no wrong in that kid’s eyes.
“He was apparently working with Beezer. That little trip up to the Basin?” Trask gave Raven a moment to take in the fact that a Rising Son was working with the dealer the club had just taken down. “I know, right? Anyway, after Hope pulled the bullet out of my shoulder, I passed out, naturally.”
“Naturally,” Raven laughed.
Trask nodded. “So I wake up later on that night, and Vegas has got a gun pointed at Hope. He’s holding her hostage. Everyone in this place has a gun trained on him. He goes on and on about some shit about joining forces and how no one listened to him. I don’t know, I couldn’t really hold onto what he was saying. All I saw was that barrel against my girl’s head. I dragged myself off the table and dug a knife into his back.”
“Jesus Christ. So, he’s dead?”
“Nah. They threw him out on his ass, and I’m sure he was dragged to the hospital. He’s out of the club, obviously.” Trask laughed like the whole thing was a comedy of errors, not a life and death struggle.
“Holy Hell…” Raven shook her head as the information sank in. She couldn’t fathom a traitor in their ranks. She already felt like they were her brothers, even though she was two tests away from membership. Her blood pressure soared as she thought of Vegas and his betrayal. She had only met Hope once, but she was a sweet woman. Trask loved her, and Raven didn’t blame him for rescuing her.
“Holy Hell is right.” He threw back the last of his beer and tossed it overhand to the garbage can. It shattered on the back wall, but at least most of the pieces fell into the can. He shot finger guns at Raven.
“Seriously, is she coming to pick you up? Because I’m not gonna let you fire up your ride.” Raven was concerned for Trask. She saw how much he drank that night, and it worried her. Between the blood loss and the meds, he probably should have been in the ICU.
“Yeah. She’ll pick me up when I call. I stayed tonight for a reason. You and me need to have a sit-down.” Trask was slurring his words pretty bad, and Raven wanted to get him off the stool before he f
ell.
She nodded and pointed to a table. “Why don’t you grab a seat, and I’ll be there in just a second?”
He turned, his eyes half-open. He managed to make it the short distance to the table before falling into a chair. Raven finished sealing up the garnish tray and tossed the bar rag into the sink. She shook her head and laughed to herself as she came out from behind the bar.
“All right, Trask. What exquisite wisdom does a high, drunk, and short-on-blood biker have for me?”
He seemed to find a bit of clarity, because his words came out clearer than any others in that last hour at the bar. “I’m leaving.”
Raven was confused. “You’re calling Hope?”
“No. I’m leaving Bakersfield. Hope’s got a few more years of school in Davis, and Bear wants me to start a new chapter up there. I’m gonna do it. Bear’s right. We’re gonna need to spread out our territory, and he chose me. It makes sense. I get Hope, I get the top seat.”
“Why are you telling me, Trask?”
He leaned back, and Raven thought Trask was going to pass out. Instead, he kicked a foot up on a chair to his left. “Look, my pop’s a great man, but he’s getting old. You weren’t in Beezer’s place with us. He’s gettin’ slower. He’s still as strong as an ox, but damn if I didn’t see the age in his body. He knows it, too. I can see it on his face.”
Raven shrugged. “So what? He could lead this place well into his sixties.”
“Nah, he couldn’t.”
She waited for him to explain, but he didn’t. “Care to go into detail?”
Trask let out a sigh, and Raven could smell the alcohol on his breath. She thought about calling Hope for him, but she wanted more information. “Yeah, Bear could lead this place for another ten years. But the brothers won’t let him. They’ll pull a vote of no confidence… if he’s lucky.”
“What does it matter to them?”
“You know damn well. You’re just like the rest of them. They’re bloodthirsty. They all want to be president.” He stared right at Raven. Her desires were clear to him. “As soon as he can’t knock a guy out or shoot a gun straight, they’ll ditch him. Boss, Trigger, your boy Gunner—they’re all salivating at the thought of Bear retiring to a fishing boat on Lake Tahoe. And you.”
“What about me?” Raven hadn’t overlooked the comment about her boy Gunner, but she didn’t want to talk about that.
“Jesus, drop the act, Raven. You’re practically the old man’s shadow.” She gave Trask a hurtful look. “Ain’t nothing wrong with it, though. That’s why I’m here talking to you right now. You could do it.”
“I could do what? Be the president? Um, are you forgetting the fact that just about everyone in the club resents me for being a woman?” She could envision all the bikers that had made her work like a dog for their respect staring at her.
Trask shook his head. Raven tried to picture the club without him. She saw Trask as the keystone—a man in the background for the most part, but integral. Thinking of the club without Bear was about the same: unimaginable.
“Raven, you are a leader. I’ve seen it, and I’ve heard about it from Tanner. He sees what kind of man you are. Woman.” He let out a vaguely nervous laugh. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested. I just know that I‘m brand new. What right do I have to even think about the presidency?”
Trask slammed a hand on the table. “Every goddamn right.” Raven jumped. “You are just as capable as any of them. More than most, as a matter of fact. Man, I’ve ridden into some batshit crazy scenes with some of these guys. They are hard as fuckin’ nails, but that don’t make them leaders. Would they like it? Nah. You’d have a hell of a fight on your hands, but once they saw what you can do, they’d come around to it.”
Raven sat there absorbing it all. She had a game plan in her head, and this information threw a bomb in the middle of it. She wanted to befriend Trask. He was the president’s son, and it wouldn’t hurt to get on friendly terms. Now the president’s son was leaving. Who else did that leave?
Tanner was high on Bear’s list, and Raven knew for a fact that her brother talked with him about her. Bear had known things that she hadn’t told him. Raven and Tanner were close, and she knew he was proud of her. He was on her side. Gunner, on the other hand… Raven couldn’t be sure.
Trask dug his phone from his pocket and tapped on the screen. He held it up to his ear, and after a few seconds, he said, “Hey babe. Yeah, we’re just about done here.” He paused. “Yeah, I took the pills. No, I did not refrain from drinking alcohol.”
As Trask laughed, Raven marveled at the relationship he had with Hope. Ten years they’d been apart, and it was like a day hadn’t passed. Raven smiled. She’d never been in a relationship that lasted more than a week. She who travels fastest…
Even she couldn’t fool herself, though. She wanted what Trask and Hope had. She wanted it as badly as she wanted the open road and a V-Twin between her legs.
“This is hard. Maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” Everyone knew that Bear was telling the truth. He was an honest man, only lying when it was an absolute necessity. They could hear the emotion in his voice, and no one doubted his words. He didn’t like giving out bad news, and he hated to see anyone leave his club. Unless you fucked up, once you were in, you were a brother for life. This wasn’t a brother, though. It was a son.
Raven already knew what the announcement was. Maybe others did too, but as she looked around, she doubted it. Everyone had confusion in their eyes, and they were apprehensive, all waiting. One thing about bikers, they always wore their hearts on their sleeves. Some emotions may have been beyond them, but in the end, they were all brothers.
Bear looked around. “For a while now we’ve thought about territory. Do we have enough? Too much? Can we sustain more? All good questions. I believe this club can grow, even though there’s people here that think the opposite. We own Southern California, and after today, we might own just a little bit more. It is with pride and sadness that I announce that Trask will be leaving. Effective immediately, my son is going to move up to Davis and open a second chapter of the Rising Sons Motorcycle Club.”
Bear let it sink in. Bikers were looking around at each other. Trask and Raven were the only two not shocked by the news. She wasn’t quite sure if she agreed with Bear. Their numbers weren’t all that high, and they’d be losing a crucial member.
She tried to look big picture. She knew in a year’s time they may double or triple the numbers, but Trask’s absence left them vulnerable. As the Sergeant-At-Arms, his job was to keep them safe. Being ex-military, he had the necessary skills to hold the post. From the stories Tanner had told her, Trask was one of the best fighters in the group. Everyone trusted him, and everyone was willing to stand by him in a battle.
Boss made his feelings clear. “Well, ain’t this some shit? You think we don’t have enough trouble as is? I know the deal is already done, but I just want to let everybody know that I’m against this. There’s strength in numbers.”
“Boss is right,” Sam, one of the quieter members, said. “What if Trask gets up there and there’s no action? Are we funding him, and for how long? Hope we’ve at least got some jobs lined up.”
“I agree with you, Boss, and that’s why we’re doing this. Don’t be shortsighted. Think big picture. Think five years from now. Hell, think a month from now. Say we got heat on us from the Mexicans, and we need reinforcements. If Trask has him five or six guys, they’d only be a few hours away. No club in this area has more than twenty members, us included, for the most part.” Bear was working his magic. Raven agreed with his argument, and she could see Boss’s mind already changing.