by Nicole Fox
I’d always been told I was too protective of women. I needed to let them do their own stupid shit on their own. But that wasn’t the man that I was. Especially not when I saw that the tree that hung over the stage was blazing, and blazing heavy—leaning dangerously low over the stage, ready to snap and fall right on top of where Ember was working so hard.
“Shit.” I started running. There wasn’t even a second thought.
“Ember! Ember!” Get out of the fucking way before it’s too late.
Chapter Three
Ember
This night was an honest disaster.
I loved playing with fire, but this was simply too much. Out of Biker Boy’s hands, I was trying desperately to put out these flames. These fuckers were using my equipment to set all of this on fire, and what was worse, it was getting out of hand! They were putting lives at risk!
Sweat dripped down my skin in the growing heat of the flames as I tried to put the fires out. There was shouting all around and screams—people running around trying to avoid the growing, dangerous rage of the fire all around them.
“Ember!”
That biker was calling my name behind me. I ignored him; didn’t he see I was trying to help? This was his biker friends’ fault anyway. What the hell had they been trying to do? What were they thinking? What had they been trying to do?!
“Ember!”
“Fuck off—!”
I wheeled around to give Biker Boy a piece of my mind. Instead, I was barreled into, knocked to the ground. I saw stars when my head hit the hard ground, and blinked a few times to get my sight back in order before the rage boiled up in me.
“What the fuck—”
There was a thundering crash, and my eyes widened as a huge tree, on fire, came crashing down. Right where I had been standing.
My heart thudded so hard I felt the pulse thundering in my head.
“I-I—”
“Come. On!”
Biker Boy pulled me up and tugged me. All I could do was follow his lead, still in shock that that tree had almost fallen on me.
“I could have died.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t, so let’s keep it that way, all right? You’re coming with me. You don’t need to stay around for this shit show.”
I wasn’t going to argue with him. I didn’t want anything to do with this. The one consolation was that Wanda and the girls weren’t here tonight—I knew at least they were safe.
Biker Boy practically dragged me from the hub of the festival. We pushed through the people that worked there and the rich fuckers that had put this festival together, all trying to flee as well. A huge line of bikes came into view and he took me to his.
“Get on,” he barked.
This was insane, but I didn’t have it in me to even think about how insane it was at the moment. I slid onto the bike, right behind Biker Boy. Without thinking I wrapped around him, because that seemed like the safe thing to do. He revved up the engine and more and more of his friends started milling out from the chaos that had been caused, joining him in sliding on their bikes. They were all loudly drunk and sloppy.
“Are—can they drive?” I asked nervously. Out of the fire, into the frying pan, right? Riding around with a bunch of crazy ass bikers that had just committed the biggest case of arson that I had ever seen in my entire life.
“They’ll be fine. Hold on tight.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice, and as we peeled away, my arms wrapped around him tighter. The thrill of being on the back of a bike was dampened by the fact that I had no helmet, no proper protection, no nothing. There was nothing between my fragile, exposed body and the road.
As we hit the highway, Biker Boy was joined by the rest of his people. They weaved in and out of formation, overzealous and loud. One of them had music playing from somewhere; loud rock music echoed out into the night air.
I had no idea what was going on. The only thing that kept me from freaking out was the fact that, while all these other crazy ass bikers were out of their damn minds, the one that I had been saddled with at least had some composure. He kept up with the crowd, but he drove straight, steady—almost like he was cautious of my exposed and vulnerable presence at his back.
I tucked my face between his shoulder blades. That one comfort didn’t stop my belly from flopping nervously.
For the first time in a long time, I wished that I was home.
“Where are we going?” I asked him.
“What?” He had to shout over the roar of the bikes.
I sucked in a breath and yelled at him a little louder.
“I said: where are we going? Where are you taking me?”
He turned his head.
“Back to the clubhouse. We’ll regroup there. You’ll be safe.”
I didn’t know how true that was. These were the same people that had just set an entire field and surrounding forest on fire. But ... He sounded like he was telling me the truth, and he had saved me, hadn’t he? But shit, I didn’t even know his name.
“Hey—what’s your name?” I called out to him.
“It’s Wheeler,” he shouted back.
Wheeler ...
Once more I wrapped myself tight about him and pressed my face between his shoulder blades. I was lost at the moment; this was the only place that felt like it had any stability as Wheeler’s companions hooted and hollered loudly as we sped along the highway. Tires squeaked and squalled, and there were several times where I was certain that someone was going to crash.
These people were fucking crazy.
What had I gotten myself into?
Wheeler
Ember tucked herself in close behind me, and it would have been nice, having the press of such a full-figured, beautiful woman behind me. If it weren’t for the circumstances, I could have said that her tight embrace was from want. She trembled, though, and I knew it was more out of fear than it was out of want.
I watched my brothers as we rode fast along the highway. There was a time where I would have reveled at the debauchery, but now ... It was a shameful, embarrassing, drunken display, lacking a regard for the people around them. I hadn’t thought that things would have gone so badly. Cause a little scene, send a little message to the rich shits from Silicon Valley. This was too much.
None of them seemed to care as they weaved dangerously in and out of each other and through the scarce oncoming traffic. There were quite a few moments where a few of the other Sons almost hit the oncoming traffic—or each other. It was something that didn’t seem to concern them as they laughed and yelled jovially about it. As if it were all a game.
“Quit fucking off!” I shouted over the rumble of bike engines and drunken shouting.
“Oh, come on, Wheeler, liven up; have some fun!”
“I’ll have some fun when you shits aren’t trying to kill each other!”
They laughed in response, but luckily, they tightened up formation after that. I wasn’t about to deal with even more bullshit just because they didn’t know how to behave on the road. They would pretend to grump and gripe about me being a killjoy, but they would still listen to me, if only for the fact that I could and would knock the shit out of them when we got back to the clubhouse.
It was an hour or so before we got back to base. We pulled into the gravel drive and there were a few Sons that had already returned. Among the bikes that I saw, Leech’s was there. He must have filed out faster than the others had. I hated that little fucker, and the only reason he stuck around and kept as much power as he did was because he was the boss man’s son. Fucking typical.
I cut the engine to the bike and looked back at Ember as the boys started filing into the club. They were still loud as all shit, but I wasn’t concerned with that now that we were back home, off the road. I looked back at her.
“Can you walk?”
“I can walk just fine.”
She got off the bike on shaking legs. Her outfit wasn’t ideal for riding, in all honesty. I shook my head an
d took her hand.
“Come on.”
“You’re getting very comfortable with leading me around places, aren’t you.”
“Considering I’m doing you a favor ...”
She didn’t fight me though, and I figured that had to do with the fact that she was still in a slight state of shellshock. It made it easy to pull her through the clubhouse without her trying to fight and argue with me over it. The boys were still rowdy as hell, and a few of them made wolf whistles and catcalls at me and Ember.
“Nice piece you got there, Wheeler!”
“Save a slice for us!”
“Tell us how sweet she is!”
I ignored them. Ember? Not so much. Not like I could blame the girl for that one.
“Nice crowd you have here,” Ember muttered.
“They’ve been better.”
I led her to my room. I was one of the few who had the privilege of staying here permanently. My room was set away from all the others, down the same hall that the boss’ room was. I heard a ruckus from inside.
“... you wouldn’t believe the looks on those rich boys’ faces!”
I scoffed. It was Leech. Of course.
“Fucking prick. Whatever.” I would deal with that after getting Ember settled and in her place in my room. I’d have to come up with a good reason for that when everything settled down … Ugh.
I nudged Ember into my room, ignoring the way she tripped a little over her feet at my insistence. I flicked a light on for her benefit. It was simple and clean inside. A bed, dresser, that kind of basic shit. It was a living space without a lot of personal touches, and that was fine with me.
“I need you to stay here until I get a few things sorted out.”
She looked at me incredulously.
“Just ... sit and stay here? Like a good little girl? I don’t even know you.”
I rolled my eyes. Okay, so much for her easily going along with what I wanted her to do ...
“For now, yes. Unless you want a bunch of drunk, horndog bikers who are ready to party trying to paw at you without me there to put a boot in their face?”
She sobered a little at that, but the lingering grimace on her face told me that she didn’t like the idea either way.
“Fine.”
“Bathroom’s over there,” I said, pointing. “You’re welcome to use it and change into something else.”
“You have women’s clothes in here?”
“No, but I have T-shirts and sweats, if it’ll make you a little warmer and more comfortable.”
“What a gentleman.”
I didn’t even argue with her then. After all, what she knew of me was that I had tried to get into her pants and that I had, now, stepped in twice against shit happening to her. I shrugged, and turned.
“Do what you want. I’ll be back.”
Chapter Four
Wheeler
I left Ember in my room, figuring she would either listen to me, or she wouldn’t—whatever the case, it wasn’t the biggest problem on my plate right now. I had other things to settle.
I headed over to the boss’ room, Satan, as he was called, founder and leader of Satan’s Sons. He was like a father to me, and I respected the hell out of him. It was the only reason that I had remained with the Sons for so long; any other reason didn’t seem like enough to continue on with the same kind of wanton childish foolery that I had witnessed tonight.
I didn’t need to knock to be let in, and I pushed the door open in the middle of Leech regaling him further with the night’s tales.
“They were running and yelling—probably some of them shit their pants, they were so scared,” he snickered out. “They’re totally done, Pops. Done. Finished.”
A laugh came from the bed, and as I approached, my eyes fell to Satan. He was once a formidable-looking man. For the last few months, though, he’d been inexplicably sick. He cited old age—though I wondered how a man who was otherwise so strong just started to get sick for no reason. He refused doctors, saying that he would pull out of things. I wasn’t so sure.
His questionable health almost seemed nonexistent in his laugh, though, as he listened to his stupid son talk up the idiocy of the night.
“And then we—hey, Wheeler.” Leech’s face lost all of the animated fun that it likely had before. “You can’t just walk in here—”
“Hey, hey, let him be, let him be.” Satan, old man, smiled up at me as I stood next to his bed. “Wheeler, my boy! Leech was telling me about the night. Good job, good job.”
“I don’t know if I would call it a good job, Boss,” I said. I ignored the fact Leech was still in the room. I didn’t give a shit about his opinion. “Tonight—”
“Was a huge success,” Leech butted in. “We sent the message—”
“What message? That you’re good at starting fires and destroying property? We were supposed to make a noise and send the message about the drugs, not do what you did. What exactly did you accomplish, oh wise one?”
“We sent the message that we were supposed to send. That the Satan’s Sons aren’t to be messed with. Pops.” Leech came up beside me, trying to nudge me on out of the way, but I didn’t let him. So he stayed close beside me and leaned over the bed to talk to Satan. “They were so scared, so fucking just—Damn, Pops, I wish you had been there to see it. It was great. They’re not gonna fuck around in our territory ever again.”
Satan laughed. He was hooked. And when he was hooked, I knew that there was nothing that I could do to unhook him. Sometimes that was the perks that Leech had to actually being Satan’s son. The kid could spin shit any kinda way, and for the most part? Satan ate it up.
I couldn’t begrudge him that, but it didn’t make it any less of a pain in the ass to deal with.
“See, Wheeler? You’re so serious sometimes. Lighten up when there’s victory! The rich boys won’t be messing around in what’s ours ever again.
It was hard, but I held my tongue. I was annoyed, but didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was pretty sure that whatever the rich boys were pushing, they would keep pushing it. There had been nothing about tonight that had been about reclaiming territory, anyway. There was a time and place and way to do that, and this sure as shit hadn’t been it. All this was going to tell people was that the Satan’s Sons were out and about setting shit on fire and disturbing the peace.
Some big accomplishment. What had even been the point?
Oh, that’s right. There hadn’t been, other than for Leech to show the fuck off.
Satan beamed up at Leech, clearly proud of what his son and his boys had accomplished. So instead of arguing, I hung back. There was no talking Satan down when he got it in his head that something had gone well—even when it hadn’t. And hell, he hadn’t been there. He hadn’t seen ...
I shook my head though as I watched Satan clasp his hands around Leech’s, speaking to him about further plans to be made. I noticed a strange ... twitch to Leech’s hands. A jitter in his body. Almost like he was vibrating with excitement but ...
No. I knew that tick. My jaw clenched but still, I held my tongue.
“Wheeler,” Satan waved me over. I approached him, nudging Leech out of my way like he had tried to do to me before.
“Yeah, Boss? What do you need?”
“I want to keep this momentum going, all right? I want to keep this moving, growing, going. I need you to help Leech however you can to make sure this victory tonight sticks. You understand me?”
My jaw tightened, but I nodded.
“Of course. Whatever you need, whatever you want, Boss.”
He patted the side of my face. It was a father’s caress, and one that I was admittedly weak for when it came to Satan.”
“Good. Good. My boys working together.” He pulled away, covering his mouth as he began to cough. I leaned over him in worry.
“You good—”
“I’m fine,” he said. He waved me away and I pulled back, not one to hover over a man that clearly didn
’t want or need it. “I’m fine. I just need you and Leech working on keeping this up. It’s important. My legacy ...”
I frowned a little, but like the incident with the music festival, I let it go.
“Oh, Satan—” I stopped though.