by Anna Lewis
“Ease up kiddo. Everybody wasn’t Paw’s biggest fan. And just because his funeral was today doesn’t mean I won’t go pay my respects. Besides I never cared what other folks thought about me or any of us. I do what I want, when I want. As you can see, this place ain’t empty, so why close it down? If Paw was alive, he would’ve shit bricks if we closed on a beautiful day like this. Relax, he ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
The crudeness of his humor made Whitney chuckle a bit. “Well you missed the fireworks anyway. Duke wants Mom to sign over her half of the bar to him. He asked her at the burial plot!”
“To do what? He’s only in here for club business and every other night I’m in here with the staff anyway. What’s he gonna do with half of a bar?”
“I assume he’ll try to muscle you out of your share, or maybe gift it to the club. Who knows? But I tell you what, as long as I’m here I’ll do whatever Mom asks.”
“Is that because you want to, or because you’d rather stick it to Duke one last time before you hit the road again?” he asked.
Whitney’s face dropped, “Are you mad at me too? You know why I left.”
Ben got really close to her and whispered so only she could hear, “I know why, and I told you then what I’m telling you now. It’s bullshit! All you have to do is face it, take what comes with the decisions you made and move on. Staying out of Cedar Breeze won’t make the problem go away.”
“Yeah, but staying in Cedar Breeze will sure be a lot of fun,” a voice said from behind Whitney. Ben shook his head and walked away.
Whitney turned around to see Tara Ingram. The petite woman had huge tits, a slender waist, long legs, and a leather jacket with a Shadows of Chaos patch on the sleeve. She stood with her hands on her hips and her fire red hair swept to one side of her face. Their history was connected by one man. She was the other reason Whitney ran out of town. Certain things were about to come out that she wasn’t ready to deal with. The funeral was hard enough, and facing Tara wasn’t on her list of things to do that day.
“Hey Tara,” Whitney mumbled getting up.
“Oh no honey, don’t get up for me,” she insisted, narrowing her eyes. “I didn’t realize you’d be in town long enough to stop by.”
“As a matter of fact, I’ll be here for a bit longer than everyone imagined,” she asserted, as she walked passed the leather clad vixen. She and Tara hadn’t gotten along since Whitney wrecked her relationship with Julian years ago. While the fault seemingly lay with him, there was a part to the story only Ben and Tara seemed to know about. Whitney was far from ready to open those pages again, so she left The Shock Bar. There would be plenty of time for her to spill her guts over the next few days and hopefully it wouldn’t ruin the relationships she had with the people she loved. Their bonds were hanging by a thread as it was.
***
The scent of Julian was all around her as Whitney woke up with him on her mind. Not surprising as she was in his bed. The black walls kept the room dark. The mattress was lumpy, but the comforter was still warmer than any other blanket in the house.
Whitney couldn’t hear Duke and Molly arguing, and she didn’t want to. She wanted to sleep in her own room, but with boxes stacked up to the ceiling, it was less than welcoming. The signs were all around her that she’d left and vowed to never return, but there she was, in her old house about to get ready to spend the day in The Shock Bar with a bunch of people who were less than enthusiastic to have her home.
It only took a few minutes for Whitney to scoop her long locks into a ponytail and slip into some figure hugging jeans, and a tight knit black shirt that barely covered her chest and midriff. If she was going to help run The Shock Bar, she would love to get some great tips while doing it.
When she emerged from the rear bedroom, she made her way into the kitchen to find her mother putting dishes away and sniffling to herself.
“Morning, Mom. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Molly replied. She turned around and her eyes were bloodshot. “You ready?”
“You’re not fine! What happened?”
“Duke just doesn’t understand why I want to bring you into this. He doesn’t understand that Paw left me a piece of the place because if he only left it to Ben, Ben would sell it off to the highest bidder and dad wanted it to stay in the family. I would love for you to go in and run the place for a bit with Ben. Use that schooling of yours to help me make a decision on whether to sell up, or keep it in the family and find some decent people to run it for us. Ben said he would do whatever I wanted, but if Duke has his way, he’d give it to Marco and I don’t want to do that. Paw wouldn’t have done that either.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked out the kitchen window.
“He doesn’t have to understand,” Whitney rubbed her shoulder, “When all’s said and done, I’ll give you my honest opinion about the place, and hopefully it’ll make everybody happy.”
“This ain’t about folks being happy, Whit!” her mother scolded, surprising her. “The reason I chose you for this was because you have nothing tying you to this town. You showed me and everybody else that you can just pick up and go. You can make the tough decisions. I don’t need everyone to love the decision, I need you to be honest with me about what’s going on. How much money does the place need to run? How much debt is that place carrying? Did Paw leave any money in the accounts to keep it running? Because I see too many folks with tabs that they ain’t paid. Just be yourself, take charge, and don’t let folks push you around. And as much as you may hate Duke, he’s your step-dad and you may need to use his leverage as Vice President of the club. Don’t be afraid to, because if push comes to shove, I know he’ll do the right thing.”
“You mean run me over with his bike,” Whitney scoffed.
Her mother shook her head and stepped over to her, taking Whitney’s face in her hands. “He’ll stand by his family. Those patches don’t mean as much as you think they do. Now go have a good day.”
Whitney grabbed a cup of coffee and left the house with her mother’s words hanging over her head like a dark cloud.
Whitney wasn’t sure what to expect when she grabbed the keys to her mother’s jeep and drove down to the bar. There was a line of bikes parked out front as usual, even though it was barely nine. Who drinks at nine in the morning?
There was a meeting being held when she stepped in. Duke was in front of the wall of memories, a small group of men sat around him. The shade of red pulsating through his cheeks told her he wasn’t in a good mood, and neither were the rest of them. One turned to her, “Well look at what the sun dragged in? What you doin’ here girl?”
Whitney sighed. She understood that Duke would do anything in his power to make her job difficult. She wished they had a different relationship, one that wasn’t so combative. Then he surprised her by speaking up, “Hush Carl. That girl don’t wanna be here no more than you want her to be. I don’t want her here either, but her Momma is making her do this, so you gotta respect that. How many of you would turn down a request from your mothers?”
A few mumbles let her know they would get used to the idea of having her around. She made her way behind the bar toward the door that led to a hallway. Down the hallway was the back entrance to the kitchen, and a doorway which led into an empty back lot, and the office.
The door to the office was ajar when she reached it. As she stepped inside, she was surprised to see Marco Raine. The leader of the Shadows of Chaos motorcycle club was handsome in his older age, but Whitney wasn’t one of his groupies. She didn’t care that his black hair flowed effortlessly down to his shoulders, streaked with grey. Those smoldering blue eyes of his were light in contrast to the dark scar running down the left side of his face. The scar cut into his goatee which he kept neat and closely shaven to his square jaw. He never wore sleeves so everyone could see his muscles flex, but Whitney wasn’t impressed.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked.
He peered up from the papers in fro
nt of him. His eyes raked up and down her body, making her shrink away from him. He grinned at her discomfort. “Just making sure the tabs for the month are paid. My way of paying respects to the old man.”
Whitney watched him check off the last line of a list and put a stack of cash in an envelope. He tipped it to her for her to watch him drop it in the safe behind the desk.
“Thank you,” she said. She wished that he’d just leave. There was something about Marco that she didn’t trust, but maybe it was because he had chosen Duke as his second in command. Truth be told, she didn’t know Marco outside of his reputation and the rumours she’d heard.
“I ain’t doin’ this for you. Though I’m sure it’ll make your job that much easier,” he said, getting up from behind the desk. “Duke is worried you’ll come in here, strip the place down, and sell it for parts. But I told him to relax. Ain’t no way in hell you’d do that to your family. You’re a runner, not diabolical. Loyalty and family is everything to people like us. You get that, right?”
She sighed, “I get that. I’m not running, and I ain’t making no promises about what goes on here. I got a few weeks to give my mother my honest opinion and then it’s up to her.”
“Well then maybe we should all go say nothing but good things about the place,” he mumbled before leaving the office. She could hear his footsteps as he walked further away but after the door to the bar slammed and there was an eerie silence.
Whitney got up from the desk and went into the kitchen. There was no one there. The guys that were supposed to prepping for the afternoon service were AWOL and the waitresses weren’t lacing up their boots and aprons. She poked her head out to see a bar full of bikers looking around, seemingly waiting for their orders to be taken, but the staff had disappeared.
The pounding of her heart against her ribs was deafening as she wondered what she was going to do. They were hungry, paying customers who needed to be served. Panic was beginning to set in.
Pulling out her cellphone, Ben was the first person she called. He answered the phone. What he said wasn’t reassuring. “Listen kiddo, I spoke to Dave, one of the fry cooks. Duke got the staff to walk out in hopes that you’d understand he was much better at running the place than you. Essentially he proved his point, but they won’t go back to work until Duke tells them to. Duke won’t tell them to unless you hightail it and your Mom signs things over to him.”
“What about you?” she asked, frantic.
“I’m on my way in already, but you know I only run the bar, right? We still need a staff to wait and cook. Other than a miracle, we gotta shut down for the day which won’t sit well with people. Just hold tight. I’ll make a few calls and see what I can do. Try to make nice with a few folks and get some help. Do you have any friends left in Cedar Breeze?”
“I’ll figure something out, just get in here,” she demanded and hung up. The last thing she wanted to do was run to Julian but she had little choice.
***
The Great Danes Auto Repair shop was only a few blocks away from the bar but still far enough that Whitney didn’t want to walk. Time was ticking and she needed to get to Julian as soon as possible. Abandoning her pride to speak with him was worth it just to stick it to Duke. He was purposely making her job difficult. Did he want the bar, or did he just want her to go back to school? It would be easier for him to talk her mother into anything if she weren’t there, that was the one thing she was certain of.
She wondered if Julian, or anybody else, was inside the shop. She hopped out of the car and made her way toward the first door she saw. The sound of machines tightening bolts, metal clanging, and sparks flying greeted her as she tiptoed around the shop floor. Men eyed her with grins and greedy eyes as she scanned the place for Julian. He was nowhere to be seen.
A man approached her in a dirty overall, smiling a sparkling white grin. “How ya doin sweetie? Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Julian Danes,” she said, looking over the man’s shoulder, searching for a reason to get away from him.
“He’s a bit busy right now, under that truck over there, but I’m sure I can help ya if ya want.” He ran his tongue over his teeth, which made her skin crawl.
“No thanks,” Whitney shoved passed the man, heading for the pickup truck with a pair of legs sticking out underneath. The tinkering from the vehicle’s undercarriage wasn’t a foreign noise to her, but it didn’t do much for her patience.
One of his legs dropped and something crashed to the ground. A few curse words soon followed. She snickered and nudged him with her foot.
“I’m busy right now, Ed. That taillight ain’t even come in yet. Work on the Honda,” he barked.
Whitney sighed. “Well if I were Ed, I’d be mighty disappointed. But if you’re sending him away, I’m guessing you ain’t got time to help me either.”
He slid out from under the front end of the car with a peculiar expression on his face
“What are you doing here, Whit?” a smile spread across his lips, and she didn’t know why, but it felt good that he was happy to see her.
Putting her pride to one side, she smiled back at him. “I need your help. Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Julian led her to the small office near the back of the shop. The space was pretty clean in comparison to the rest of the garage. Whitney watched him grab a towel to wipe his hands and face off. He tossed his cap onto the desk, letting his hair fall to the sides of his forehead. She swallowed hard. She had almost forgotten how attracted to him she was.
“So?” He smiled at her again.
“Right.” Whitney shook off the fantasy of them being together, and told him the reason she had come to him. “The staff walked out on me.”
“What do you mean?” he raised an eyebrow, and leaned back onto the edge of the desk.
Her voice cracked. “I just came from the bar. Duke was holding a meeting. Marco was in the back office paying tabs of all things, but when I came out to open up for lunch the cooks and the girls were gone. I spoke to Ben, and he told me that they ain’t coming back until your father tells them to.”
“And you want me to do what exactly? Talk to my dad?” he said, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. “You know how that’s gonna go over.”
“No, leave Duke to my mother. I want you to tell me if you know anyone who needs a job for the day. If they’ve ever flipped a burger or pancake, I need ‘em to come in ASAP!!”
“Calm down,” Julian grabbed her by the shoulders. “Those bikers ain’t going nowhere. Besides, no one else in this town will feed ‘em without a police escort in the building. I can loan you Greg, and I’ll shut down for an hour or two until you get the people you need to get the place going.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Whitney’s words ran into each other and she threw her arms around Julian. His hands clasped behind her back, holding her for a minute longer than she expected and when she backed away to see his face she could see the look in his eyes. It was one she hadn’t seen in years, but its meaning was unmistakable.
The simple motion of his tongue moistening his lips sent chills down her spine, and the heat between them intensified. Her breathing hitched and her bottom lip quivered right before Julian took it into his mouth. He kissed her like they were lovers who had been separated by war and time.
Whitney fell deeply into the passionate embrace, forgetting that she was there to handle a crisis. Caution about the gossip mill flew into the wind. She no longer cared about their family ties. They belonged to each other.
Her tongue swirled around his passionately. It was a reminder that she was in desperate need of a man in her life, but no one she’d dated prior to this measured up to the way she felt with him. The air could have swept her off her feet as she ran her fingers through his hair.
It felt like an eternity had passed but Whitney finally got a grip and pulled away, gasping for air, “What the fuck? I can’t do this right now, Jules.”
He grabbed her by the arm bef
ore she could storm out of the office. “We have a lot to talk about. You can’t just leave like you did before. I only kissed you to prove to you, and to myself, that I wasn’t crazy for feeling as I do. You felt that. I know you did. Don’t run away from me again.”
“I’m not running,” Whitney’s eyes shot to the ground.
Raising her eyes up to meet his, she steadied her demeanor. “Okay, I am running but only to the bar. I really need to do this. I need Duke to see how wrong he is about me. I need for everyone to see that. I’m not running away from my family. I left before because of—”
Whitney could see the look in his eyes, pleading for an explanation. They were interrupted by the loud, cantankerous voice of Tara shrieking through the garage. Whitney’s shoulders slumped as Julian pushed past her and went out onto the shop floor.
“Where the hell is Marco’s bike? Why ain’t it ready Julian?” Tara screeched.
She saw him raise his arms in a placating gesture. “Take it easy, Tara. It’s getting a detail and polish. I’m almost done with your truck’s tune up. So, give me ‘til the end of the day and I’ll have it back to you.”
Whitney desperately wanted to stay in the office and be with Julian, but she needed to go down to the local hardware store to see if she could drum up some cheap labor. Her list of friends in Cedar Breeze was short, and the few she had were far away at school.
The town was small, and with The Shadows of Chaos practically running everything, it seemed even smaller; especially with Duke’s influence evident everywhere she went. It was almost like a tradition amongst the kids in Cedar Breeze. You only hung around if your family, was associated with the club. The few who weren’t associated with the club, stuck to themselves, on their side of town, and settled for peaceful country living. They didn’t bother anybody, and in return, no one bothered them.
The tension was thick enough for Whitney to feel it in her gut, twisting like a sharp blade. Rolling her eyes, and biting her lip, she stepped out where Tara could see her.