by Nicole Fox
“Young and tired.” Wheeler grinned. “Busy.”
The man slapped Wheeler on the shoulder. “You little smart ass. You young ones are always like that. I oughta put you to work.”
While Wheeler and the man talked, Smith leaned down to me.
“I’m gonna interrupt this before they get going and going and going. Someone doesn’t stop them, they’ll be doing this all night.”
I couldn’t help it. I chuckled.
That brought the attention to me. The man stopped midsentence and looked over to me. His brows rose.
“Oh ho, what’s this?”
“Ah, this is Ember.” Wheeler stepped to the side. “Ember, this is—”
“Just call me Boss,” he said, giving me a smile. He held out his hand to shake, and I did. I was surprised by the firm grip, but it wasn’t too much. “You look awfully familiar.” He looked to Wheeler. “Lots been going on lately down your way.”
Wheeler nodded.
“Yeah. Can we talk?”
Boss nodded. He gave Smith a look, and Smith nudged at me.
“That’s our cue to go.”
I shot a look to Wheeler. Go? Why? Couldn’t I stay?
But I knew bikers had their own kind of codes and knew that that wasn’t very likely. Wheeler gave me a smile.
“It’s all right, I won’t be that long, and Smith can entertain you. Don’t worry, he doesn’t bite. And if he does, you’re free to punch him in the face.”
Smith pretended to look hurt.
“Don’t go giving the lady a bad impression of me!”
The exchange was playful, but I continued to stare at Wheeler. He nodded at me again, reassuring.
“Don’t worry. I won’t be long. The boys here aren’t rowdy like the ones back home.”
Smith nudged me again, gently, and this time I turned and followed him out of the office. On the plus side, if something funny happened, all I would need to do was throw a kick to someone’s groin and scream; I had no doubt that Wheeler would come running, considering the fact that he had had my back at every turn thus far.
The door snapped shut behind me and Smith, and I walked beside him down the hall.
“So, how do you and Wheeler know each other?” he asked. “He doesn’t usually have women around—or, well.” He laughed a little. “Well, he does, but, you know. He doesn’t bring them around here. You special or something?”
My face heated up.
“Not really. We ran into each on accident at this festival I was performing at.”
“Performing?”
“Yeah. I’m a fire dancer. Some things happened though, and I got into trouble. Wheeler’s been helping me through that.”
“Interesting.”
We came back around to the front of the clubhouse. A few more bikers were out and about, talking among themselves. There was some attention turned to me, but none of them bothered me and Smith. He leaned against the wall and I stood with him.
“So, for curiosity’s sake, is he just helping you or … You guys a little something more.” He wiggled his brows at me.
What a gossip.
I shrugged my shoulders, as if the question wasn’t a big deal. But my eyes averted a little. I couldn’t look him in the eye and answer straight.
“We’re just … friends. He’s helping me, I’m … around.”
Smith laughed. He reached over and pat me on the shoulder.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer to me. I’m just nosy and pulling your leg. Come on. I’ll get you something to eat while we wait, and if you want we can shoot some pool until boss man and Wheeler come on back out.”
Wheeler
Ember left with Smith, and I felt a little bad for throwing her to the wolves, so to speak, but I knew that the San Diego boys would treat her well. There wasn’t the threat of Leech or the others here, after all. I didn’t have a worry about her safety.
Here? It was like home.
Boss settled back behind his desk, and I sat opposite him. Our reunion was good and had had a good start, but it was time for business now, and there was a lot to address.
“So,” Boss started. “Lay it on me. What’s going on?”
I explained to him what happened at the festival, from the reason we had been there, to what had happened during—and then after, with Ember. I left no detail out. I knew that Boss was trustworthy of this information, even if Satan didn’t think he was worth the time of day.
“So Satan sent out Leech to do some message sending … and he sent one, all right. Just the wrong one.”
“Pretty much.”
“And now this girl is involved.”
I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Hm. That’s a tricky situation.”
“There’s more,” I said. “It’s about Leech.”
This pulled Boss from his pensive thoughts. A darkness seemed to shadow his face.
“What about Leech?”
“Satan sent us out to send a message about the drugs. But I’ve noticed that Leech has been acting … off.”
“He’s always off,” Boss quipped.
“Well, I can’t argue that with you, but more off. He’s got a druggy tick.”
“You think he’s been selling to the rich boys and taking a cut?”
“Perhaps? I know at the very least he’s skimming. Satan’s also getting … worse. It doesn’t make any sense. And you know Satan, he’s not about to go to the hospital for what he keeps insisting is just a bad, persistent cold.”
“You think Leech has something to do with that?”
“I think all of this—the problems with the rich boys, Ember’s issues, and Satan, are a part of the same big issue. Leech.” I frowned a little. “I know being here won’t look good for me, but I didn’t think anyone else would be able to help or give me some insight,” I said. “It’s fishy. I kind of just came down here on impulse—”
“I gathered that much.”
“I’m sorry.”
Boss gave a small huff and leaned back in his chair. He looked troubled and stroked his beard.
“I told Satan, back when we split,” he said. “That something like this would happen. He’d have too much fun entertaining the wild life, and too much fun dabbling in things he shouldn’t, and it would come around to bite him in the ass. He didn’t listen to me. He wanted to do whatever, because it was fun or exciting or being it made him tough.” He shook his head. “He hasn’t learned a thing.”
“He’s not a bad man.” I had to defend him. I couldn’t not defend him. “He’s—”
“I know that he’s not a bad man, but his choices certainly haven’t led to anything good.”
I couldn’t argue that one. Boss went on.
“You know, you’ve always been a good kid,” he commented. “Back when Satan first brought you on, you’ve always been on top of the game, always working hard, always trying to do the right thing by Satan and the club. I can’t help Satan. What he’s gotten into, what Leech has? That’s not something I’m going to entangle my boys in—”
“But—”
Boss held his hand up.
“Let me finish.”
I sat back and let him move on.
“Satan and Leech are wrapped up in things they’re going to have to deal with on their own. I’m not going to help them. I will, however, help you and that girl. You know you’re always welcome to stay here, and I’ll even let her lie up until things smooth over where you are. She’s gonna need to change the way she looks though. We might can get her some fake identification, maybe set her up an account or something—”
“I can get her a prepaid card and load up some money for her.”
Boss’ lip twitched. “You’re a good boy, Wheeler. You and the girl are welcome to stay as long or as little as you want.”
Boss wasn’t going to help with the big picture. I could … respect that. I wouldn’t press that. It meant that there would be help for Ember, and that’s what I wanted more th
an I wanted help for the Satan’s Sons. Realizing that made me pause for a minute.
I actually cared about her more than I did them.
I filed that away in my head and stood up.
“My room still available?” I asked.
Boss laughed.
“Of course it is. You and Ember can stay there. Now go on, get. I’ll call up my guy for ID for her; in the meantime, get yourself settled. We’re having barbeque tonight for dinner.”
Fuck. My favorite.
“Thanks, Boss.” I stood up and reached out to shake his hand, which he did in return, gripping firmly. “I owe you one.”
“You don’t owe me anything other than keeping that girl out of the trouble that you Big Sur boys have done got her into. You hear?”
“I hear.”
Boss sat back down and I left the office. I came out to the front of the clubhouse and paused at what I saw.
Ember was leaned over one of the pool tables, lining up a shot. She concentrated hard, her brow furrowed and her lip bitten. I leaned against the wall and watched her as she pulled the pool stick back, slid it forward, back again and then—
Crack!
She sent the balls skittering over the surface of the table, sinking a couple. She stood up grinning as Smith looked at her forlornly.
“Now, when I made a bet with you over who was gonna with this round, I did it with the assumption that I was gonna win …”
“Well, you know what they say about assumptions. When you assume—”
“You make an ass out of you and me. You two having fun?”
I walked over, sliding behind Ember. I was tall enough I could rest my head atop her chin. I wrapped my arms around her middle. She stiffened a little in surprise, but relaxed within my hold. I was beginning to really enjoy that—when she relaxed back for me as though she belonged nowhere but in my arms.
Smith grinned.
“Hey, hey. This girl—she plays a wicked game,” he said. “She beat me out of my wallet money!” He pulled out said wallet as he spoke, handing over some bills to Ember’s waiting hands. “That’s totally not fair.”
“That’s what you get for betting against me thinking that I wouldn’t hold a candle to you!” she said. She fanned idly through the money that Smith had given her. I whistled.
“Damn, Smith, how much did you have to fork over?”
“A solid two hundred,” he griped. “Anyway. How long the two of you staying? Maybe I’ll get the chance to win it back!”
Ember snorted.
“I doubt it.” She looked up to me. “How long are we staying?”
I mulled over how to answer that.
“A bit,” I finally answered. “I need to call Satan and tell him where I am, why I’m here. But Boss is extending the club for us to lie low in while things are blowing over.”
“But he’s not going to do anything directly?” Ember guessed. “With the club and other stuff, I guess?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
For some reason, the news seemed not to settle well with Ember. There was a small frown on her face, but she let it go.
“Well, at least there’s a place I can stay for now,” she said.
“Yeah. Oh—I’m also gonna get you set up with a fake ID. Or, Boss is. I’m gonna go in town and get you a wig so that we can hide a little of who you are, and then we can get you some clothes and other things since we’re staying here a little longer.”
“So much for Elise loaning me her clothes.”
I laughed.
“I’m sure she’ll be delighted to have them back and on her own body again. Don’t worry too hard about it. In the meantime, we’re going to get that done; I’m gonna put some money on a prepaid for you, get you a phone—”
“You don’t have to do that.” Ember interrupted. The idea, for some reason, seemed to be a little too much for her. “It’s really not that big of a deal. I can use a payphone—”
“Which would tether you to … here.” I shook my head. “It’s no big deal. We’ll get that done tomorrow. I’ll show you where we’re staying now, though.”
I took Ember’s hand, tugging her with me as I led her through the clubhouse. I pointed out a few things to her.
“There’s other rooms this way, kitchen that way. Bathrooms, too, and then there’s a rec room.”
“A rec room?” The notion seemed to amuse her, and I grinned.
“Yeah. What, you think that bikers don’t like a little rest and relaxation?”
“I just think it’s a little amusing imagining a bunch of bikers sitting around a Nintendo or something playing video games.”
“Hey now, Nintendo is a treasure.”
She laughed, and I squeezed her hand a little harder as I led her along. It was so much smaller than mine; it felt right as I held it.
Don’t go getting all romantic on her now. You’re just trying to help.
I took her upstairs, where there were more rooms. Some were used for business, but there was one that was mine.
“You just have a room in every chapter of the Satan’s Sons?” she asked me.
“Nah, just this one and the one back home. I think other people would start to get annoyed if I kept getting different places to squat every now and then. Go on.”
I opened the door and nudged her forward. She gave a little gasp.
“Wow … this looks more like a personal room than the other place.”
I stepped in behind her and looked around. My room with the Big Sur Satan’s Sons was sparse. I hadn’t always been that way, but over time I had just stopped trying. Here, though, there were pictures on the wall. Some of them were from before Satan and Boss’ split. A lot of them were from my childhood. Ember went up to them, taking in the smiling faces. She stopped on one that had Boss and Satan in it.
“They look happy.”
I walked up behind her. Boss and Satan were in the picture, smiling up at Ember and I from a time long gone. Boss had his arm tossed over Satan, keeping him in a brother’s embrace.
“That was a Fourth of July barbeque,” I explained. “A little after I originally joined the Sons. Satan and Boss always threw huge get togethers for the Sons and their families, friends, whoever wanted to swing by and get a little bite to eat.”
“That doesn’t sound anything like the Satan’s Sons back home.”
“Yeah, well. Times change and so do people.”
Ember looked up at me, her head tilted.
“But you seem to fit right in here. I’m …”
“Confused?” I finished for her. She nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Satan was the one that brought me in,” I explained. “Back when he wasn’t Satan. He was called Pops then, because he was always bringing in runaways and boys that didn’t have anywhere else to go but join up somewhere where they could have stability. I had just lost my mother and father in a fire … I had no family to speak of. I was hitchhiking through California and he told me to get on or get lost when he rode up on me. I owe him a lot. When he and Boss had their falling out, I went with Satan because I didn’t know where I would be without him. He had been a father to me where I had lost mine. I couldn’t turn my back on that.” I shrugged. “Back then, I thought a lot like Satan, and Leech, and the others.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Ember said. “You don’t seem anything like that. Not at all.”
“No … but I was young and dumb and wanted danger and adventure. Satan wanted to get involved in hard stuff. Guns, drugs, doing a little petty payback here and there for pay. I came up as an enforcer in that environment because it seemed like how you got to make a name for yourself. How you got out there and in the world and did something. Young me was dumb. Me now wishes that I had known what I was getting into before I got into it and made a better choice.”
“I see.”
I turned Ember around so she could look at me as I went on.
“Boss isn’t gonna help with what’s going on with the Sons. That �
�� whole issue. I’m gonna need to figure out. But like I said. He’s willing to put his neck out for you. I’m willing to put my neck out for you. I know that this isn’t a very good image … Me running with them when there’s this here but—”
She surprised me. She leaned up, stopping my words with a kiss. My brain stopped and I groaned. Her mouth was soft against mine as she parted my lips and kissed me deeply. I slid my arms around her and tugged her close.