Roll Me Away: A Smokey's Roadhouse Novel

by Jacobs, Jessa

  Five minutes before the deadline, Doc and I pulled up in the van and took our seats at the long table. Other clubs were having breakfast in the same restaurant, but it didn’t look like they were meeting about club business. Not enough of them, for one thing. We had the back room to ourselves, and someone had pulled all the tables together so we could talk business. Of course, it was all in misdirection and code. I had to stay sharp to keep up.

  Sure enough, the whole mission and reason we were here was to boost the bikes. This year it was especially critical, because for some reason I couldn’t make out, cash flow was down. The logistics were complicated. Because anyone besides me who rode a stolen bike back to Rawlins would have left his own bike in Sturgis, the brothers would have to hitch back to get them.

  This year, Rooster wanted everyone to try to do it twice. Every one of the young members, that is. That meant Jake, Pug, Snail, Gears, Hoss, and me. And the urgency meant we’d have to be extra careful. It wouldn’t be easy to roll twelve hot bikes through the same corridor of the highway system and expect not to get caught with one of them.

  Rooster ended the meeting with a list of the features we were to look for. I wasn’t in a great mood anyway from lack of sleep. This just seemed to be the last straw. Not only was I expected to steal two bikes, ride them to Rawlins, hitchhike back to Sturgis in between, and risk my freedom for a club that didn’t even consider me a full member, but I had to make sure the bikes I stole were equipped with special features? Oh, hell no.

  On the other hand, they’d made it plain that this was my initiation. If I pulled this off, I assumed I’d be patched in, and I’d have the rest of the money I needed for the bike I had my eye on.

  We left the restaurant in a bunch, but soon spread out in twos and threes to take in the sights and sounds of a tiny town hosting a crowd that dwarfed the population of the entire state. Things would heat up later in the afternoon.

  As Sarge and I passed the motel where the girl was staying, I wondered if she was still asleep, or if I’d see her later in the day. With hundreds of thousands of rally-goers in the city, it seemed unlikely. On the other hand, she might come looking for Jake or me at the bar where she’d seen us before. I realized I was kidding myself if I thought she’d be looking for me.

  Sarge interrupted my daydreaming when he nudged me and nodded toward a bike parked in the same motel’s lot. I focused and took in the make and model with a quick glance. Working at Carl’s shop had given me a ton of information about various bikes, and I shook my head.

  There was no question the Triumph Rocket III Roadster had what the club was looking for. It also had the look of a custom job. Too recognizable. I walked on while Sarge took a closer look.

  I hoped these guys weren’t really this clueless. They couldn’t be if they’d been doing this successfully for very long. But casing a bike like that, while wearing club colors, that didn’t make any sense. If that bike went missing later, we’d be the first club the cops came looking for.

  And it didn’t matter if we’d stolen that one or not. Any hot bikes in our possession would bring down more scrutiny than we could handle. Not even noon yet, and I was sweating bullets that someone else’s boneheaded mistake would get my ass thrown in jail.

  Loitering on the corner and waiting for Sarge, I was startled to hear the girl calling me. “Zach! Zach! Hold up a second.”

  I looked around and spotted her on the walkway of the second story of the motel. She waved. Reluctantly, I lifted a hand in acknowledgment. A moment later, she was in front of me, breathless from running down the stairs. Her hair was slightly damp, and gave off a scent of strawberries. With no makeup, she looked impossibly young and good enough to eat. I waited for her to tell me what she wanted.

  “Where’s Jake?”

  I should have known. She shrank back from me, and I realized I must be scowling. I tried to straighten my face before answering her. “I don’t know. He’s around. Why don’t you wait until later in the day and catch him at Downshift?”

  “He’ll be there? You’re sure?”

  “As sure as I am of anything. Something could come up. But he’ll probably be there.”

  “Thank you!” She beamed at me before skipping back toward the building just as Sarge came up.

  “Fast work, kid,” he said.

  “She’s not mine. Just wanted to know where Jake is. They hooked up last night.”

  “Oh. That’s no surprise.”

  I took a second to be pissed off that he’d think it was cool for me to pick her up, but routine for Jake to. Before I had an answer ready, Sarge had another question.

  “How’d she know you?”

  I hadn’t meant to snitch, but now I was at a loss for how to answer without telling him the story. “Jake had me take her home last night after… Well, anyway, I took her back to her motel. I mean I brought her. This is her motel.”

  My stammering didn’t go unnoticed.

  “Okay, son, better tell me the whole story and don’t leave anything out.”

  “I’m no snitch.”

  “Good. I’m not asking you to be. I’m telling you that as a prospect, you’ll answer my questions fully and tell me the truth. What happened last night? Why didn’t Jake take her home himself?”

  “Come on, Sarge. I have to get along with those guys. Why don’t you ask Jake?”

  “Because I’m asking you.”

  With no choice left, I put the best spin on it I could. When I finished telling him what happened, I ended with, “It freaked him out, man. But she was okay, just overwhelmed, I think. He must be one heck of a stud, is all I can say.”

  “Guess so,” Sarge answered. He looked away, and my interest sharpened. He knew something he wasn’t saying. I sure wanted to know what secrets they were keeping from me, but it looked like I’d learn them in good time.

  “You’re not going to let on I told you, right?”

  Sarge looked over at me. “Don’t you worry about that. Just keep your head down, and do what you’re told. You’ll be okay.”

  Sarge

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  Rooster sounded belligerent, but I couldn’t blame him. He’d been torn in two when his son left the club, and now he was in a bad position because Jake wanted back in. If those kids hadn’t been our own, the club would never even consider it. And I’d just given him the low-down on Jake’s behavior last night.

  “I just thought you’d want to know, in case there was fallout.”

  “Jake’s an adult. I can’t control him, and I don’t care about his shit. If there’s fallout, let him deal with it.”

  “Okay, Rooster, I get it. Sorry, man.”

  As sergeant-at-arms for the Dust Devils, I had to walk a narrow line between enforcing our rules and staying in the good graces of my brothers, especially the founding members. I was a latecomer to the Originals, but still first-generation. Smokey, the president, and Rooster, his VP, founded the club right after they returned from Vietnam and found themselves hated for doing what their government had told them to do.

  Doc joined soon after, and I came along about six months later, drifting through their territory in my own rebellion against the good citizens of this country. I wasn’t a baby-killer. I wasn’t even on the front lines, but society didn’t care. Well, fuck society, then and now.

  In fact, I didn’t care about Jake’s shit either. Not now, anyway. He and his asshole buddies didn’t wear our patch at the moment, and if he fucked up too badly, he wouldn’t in the future, either. But there was a mission to fulfill, and we needed him to fulfill it. If he was in jail, even for a couple of days, it would jeopardize the mission, that’s all.

  From what the prospect had told me, I wasn’t certain Jake hadn’t slipped the girl a roofie. ‘Course, Ecstasy was all the rage now. Better for the girl to stay awake and participate, but still trouble if she denied taking it on her own.

  I thought maybe Rooster would talk to his boy, find out the truth of it. Then if
the girl cried foul, we’d have a fighting chance to keep Jake from being charged. Rooster seemed to think I worried too much.

  For my money, this role was getting to be too much trouble. Before Jake got hotheaded, everyone behaved themselves except for the usual teenage shit. We had a couple of scams going on, but we kept a low enough profile that heat never came back on us.

  We didn’t get rich, but we didn’t get hassled, either. We kept to ourselves, didn’t worry too much about The Man, and got along just fine. I don’t know what got into the younger members. Too much television, maybe. They saw our way of life as too tame, not up to the standards of the fantasy world on TV. Decided to shake us up a little.

  Well, they found out soon enough, didn’t they? You don’t go offering protection to an organization that’s already got protection. As for distribution, that was a joke. What kind of business expansion is a drug cartel going to expect in Wyoming? Barely over half a million populating the whole state, less than most major cities.

  Most of Western Wyoming’s residents were Mormons, or it seemed so when we were surrounded by them. Good luck selling drugs to them. In fact, the emptiness was what made us settle there in the first place. That and the mind-your-own-business mindset of the west in general.

  So here they came, Jake and his crew, wanting back in, because they’re dead broke and don’t have the brains of a gnat. Yeah, shooting videos has hit a standstill, because they had the swinging dicks.

  Most of the men left in the club are either old farts like me, aging bikers with bodies that aren’t quite screen-worthy, or in a few cases, men with old ladies that would castrate them if they stuck it in one of the Bunnies for the camera.

  Didn’t matter to me. My old lady was plenty for me. At my age, messing with the Bunnies, let alone an outside girl, didn’t even appeal to me. Maybe I was losing my edge.

  Anyway, we could use the little bastards, and they knew it. They also knew we’d do better at Sturgis this year if they were along, so this was their key. And if Jake and his dick didn’t screw it up for us, we’d go back to the way it was.

  My talk with Rooster concluded, I rejoined the prospect out in the parking lot. I’d told him to wait for me there and keep his eyes open. To his credit, he didn’t ask for what, and he did exactly as he was told. I was beginning to like this kid.

  He hadn’t wanted to rat on Jake, and he’d downplayed it as much as he could. He knew his bikes, too. After he nixed one I showed him as a test, I knew I could count on him to be smart about what he boosted so I could turn him loose and let him do things on his own. He was going to be an asset to the club.

  “Okay, we’re done here. See anything interesting?”

  “Lots of Angels here,” he answered.

  “Always. Anything else?”

  “Yeah. I assume you don’t want us to jack bikes from other clubs, right?”

  “Hell, no. Good way to start a war we can’t finish. Right.”

  “Okay, then I think the best bet’s going to be the campgrounds and motels. I’ve noticed the civilians here with family don’t take their bikes when they leave.”

  “Good. What else?”

  “Dinnertime. That’s the time to do it. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll head straight for the highway. No sense hanging around here, waiting to be spotted on a bike that isn’t mine. Do you need me to show you what I’ve got before I ride?”

  “Nope. You’re on your own. You’re doing fine, son. Just report back to me when you get back.”

  “Got it.”

  Ten

  Zach

  So this was it. I was doing it. My first felony, if I didn’t count working on the bikes in Carl’s shop that I didn’t know were stolen. Right up until this moment, I didn’t know if I could go through with it. I felt a buzz of excitement in my arms and legs.

  Another first would be the race across to Rawlins, a longer trip than I’d ever made on a motorcycle before. It was surreal – a dream I never knew I dreamed – but I was pumped.

  The smart thing to do would be to blend in with the crowds and try to ignore what I’d be doing in a few hours. I needed to be calm and smart about it. The crowds were noisier than they’d been before noon, so I knew the drinking had commenced.

  When Sarge cut me loose, I took a minute to orient myself in the little town, and then headed toward Downshift. I expected to see some brothers there. I also wanted to hook up with Jake and his crew, and find out if they were working in tandem or every man for himself.

  I found Gears and Snail outside on the patio munching on pretzels with a pitcher between them.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, prospect. What’s your name again?” Gears asked.

  I took a split second to decide whether this was a taunt that deserved a smart-ass answer, or whether he was just drunk already.

  “Dunno. What’s yours?”

  The two of them busted up. “Have a beer, man,” Gears answered. “There’s a bitch around here somewhere. Have her get you a mug.”

  The bitch in question was right behind him, in fact. She sneered at the back of his head and then smiled at me when I winked.

  “What can I get you, honey?”

  “Just a mug. These losers offered to share,” I answered.

  “I’ll bring you a cold one and fill it fresh,” she said. “This is piss-warm.”

  As she walked off, I told Gears he hadn’t made a friend.

  “Ah, fuck it. If I wanted her to, she’d be sucking my dick before nightfall,” he bragged. Yep, he was drunk.

  “So, what’s the plan, you guys? We doing this in pairs, or on our own, or what?”

  “Doing what?” they chorused.

  That wasn’t going to catch me. I kept my mouth shut.

  Snail glanced around, and seeing we weren’t in anyone’s range, leaned forward and stage-whispered. “Don’t wait for no one. You see something, go for it.”

  Good news for me. These guys were going to be sloppy drunk by the time the easy pickings started. I didn’t want to be within three miles of them, much less in sight. I couldn’t figure why the five rebels were the cream of this club’s crop, or so they seemed to think. They were careless, and that wasn’t something I wanted to be around.

  I nursed my beer and shot the shit with the guys who, despite being careless and not what I wanted for partners in crime, were pretty funny. Maybe an hour after I got there, Hoss showed up. Gears asked him about the others.

  “Pug snagged one last night. He’s probably on his way back by now. Haven’t seen Jake.”

  After we compared notes, it turned out I was the last to see Jake, when he dumped the girl on me. “I saw him, around midnight. As far as I know, he went back to his room. Wait, wasn’t he at church?”

  We racked our brains. It was strange no one had remarked on his absence, but then, Pug had been absent, too. We knew where he’d been. We finally came to the conclusion that Jake had, in fact, not been at the meeting.

  “What was he doing when you saw him, Zach?” This, from Gears, gave me a clue I was on the verge of being accepted. He’d called me by name.

  “Uh, he asked me to escort a young lady home,” I finally answered. It seemed the safest thing to say.

  The others broke out in guffaws. “Escort… ha, ha, didn’t want to keep her, huh?” They pressed me for details, but I just shook my head. Let Jake tell the story if he wanted it known. I knew when to keep my mouth shut.

  In a coincidence I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it, just then I spotted the young lady in question, approaching from the inner bar behind Gears. I looked at my watch. Three p.m., right on time. This girl had it bad. Unfortunately, Jake wasn’t here as I’d suggested, and now I needed to make her understand why he wasn’t, without knowing the truth of it myself. I sure couldn’t tell her he was on his way back to Wyoming on a stolen bike.

  Excusing myself, I went to meet her.

  “Hey, Cricket. Good to see you.” She craned her neck, trying to see around
me to the group at the table I’d left. “He’s not there, sorry.”

  “Where is he?”

  “That seems to be a bit of a mystery. If you want, I’ll walk you over to the motel, see if he’s in his room. No guarantees.”

  “That would be great, Zach.” She smiled at me and suddenly the sun was brighter. Fuck me. I had the hots for this girl, and all she could talk about was fucking Jake. But at least she knew my name. Maybe when she figured out he was a player, she’d need someone to pick up the pieces.

  I’ll be there for you, sweetheart.

  I could feel the eyes of the brothers on my back, so I turned and waved at them, then took Cricket’s elbow and turned her toward the exit. Catcalls and hoots followed us out. I cringed when I heard Gears’ voice yelling, “I’m next!”

  I’d have pretended it wasn’t my friends yelling, if she hadn’t turned to me with a frown on her face. “What does he mean?”

  “Never mind. He’s an asshole. Just trying to get to me. Don’t worry about it.”

  She stayed silent, but a quick look at her face revealed she was still frowning. Thanks a lot, buddy. You’ve just made it twice as hard for me.

  Cricket

  Ever since I’d seen Zach outside the motel this morning, I’d been wondering whether to go to that bar or not. How lame was it to chase after someone like Jake? He was famous, and I was a nobody. But I felt I needed some closure. Even just to talk to him. Had it been as intense for him as it had for me? Probably not. I guess he hadn’t passed out. Jeez, what a stupid thing to do. I didn’t even know if he’d climaxed.

  Or, what if he’d just kept fucking me, even though I was unconscious? That would have been creepy, right? Or maybe he didn’t notice? But yeah, he’d taken me to Zach so someone would take care… Wait. Why hadn’t he taken care of me himself?