by Nicole Fox
“My name is Officer Bradbury,” he said. “Following the events that took place at the Freefall Music Festival, the discovery of the drug paraphernalia, and heavy push from public desire, I have made the decision to bring in outside forces to help disassemble this violent ring of debauchery and disregard for human life. We will send the message that these action and violent behaviors will not be tolerated. We will not be bullied.” He continued on. “In the case of Ms. Ember Amor, we ask that she submit herself to questioning of her own free will. We will make full efforts to have her brought in. However, we would prefer that she come in of her own volition.”
The television was cut off.
All of the sons were downstairs, meeting with Satan. He had made his way down just for this—to discuss the utter shit storm that was this situation with the boys in blue, the music festival, and inevitably, Ember. She stood with us, too, looking incredibly small and out of place with all the bikers in the room. It was odd to see her uncomfortable, but I supposed I could understand it a little. We were all looking at her. Some of the stares weren’t too friendly or benign.
I didn’t have time to coddle her, though. She stayed close to my side and that was what mattered. No one would touch her right now since it’d been made clear from the get-go who she was with.
“Well, that was interesting,” Bones spoke up, getting the attention turned to him. “They’re gonna bring the heat on us, and they’re trying to pin the drugs too. We didn’t bring in the drugs that were there; that was those rich boys.”
“Pft. The drugs won’t stick, and we’ve handled the heat before,” Leech brushed off. He still had his little tick. “It’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“That’s easy to say now, but it’s a real issue,” I said, shooting him an annoyed look. “We can’t take this lightly.”
“Says the one holding little Miss Fugitive in his room.” Leech leaned over in Ember’s space, and she leaned right back. “Maybe we just give the cops the girl in exchange for overlooking everything else—”
“That’s some low shit, Leech—”
“Like any of us need to go down over some pussy—”
“Fuck off. This is mostly your fault to begin with you—”
“Boys.” Satan spoke up, and Leech and I got quiet. I drew in a deep breath and turned my eyes to Satan instead of his dumb ass son.
“Sorry, Boss.”
Satan waved me off. Unlike the day before, he seemed troubled.
“Listen, Pops,” Leech said. “I—”
“Ember.” Satan turned his attention to her instead of Leech. Ember tensed beside me and I put my arm over her shoulder, squeezing to assure her that things were fine. She relaxed a little.
“Yes, sir?”
He laughed.
“You don’t need to call me sir. Did you do those things they said you did at the festival?”
“No. I didn’t. I was trying to put the fires out.” She glanced around to the other Sons. “While they were being made.”
“I see ... Well, I’m not going to apologize for my boys doing what they did, but you didn’t have to get caught up in it. So that’s a problem, isn’t it? I kick you out, that gets some heat off our backs, but it’ll be putting you in a bad place. I keep you, that’s more issues for us.”
“I don’t want to be here to cause trouble,” she said.
“I can see that. That’s why you’re going to be Wheeler’s problem. Wheeler?”
I straightened up a little.
“Yeah, Boss?”
“She’s your issue. Her room, board, whatever. Keeping her out of trouble. Since you decided to bring her here.”
I nodded.
“That’s fair.”
“In the meantime, I’m going to call some other chapters for backup in case the boys in blue decide they’re going to get serious about what they’re doing.”
“Whoo!” Leech cheered. “So it’s gonna be lit up like Christmas around here!”
The others yelled with him.
“Yeah!”
“Fuck those blues!”
“Can’t touch the Sons!”
I shook my head. This was ridiculous. How could they be celebrating, honestly? Were they all so delusional to think that anything about our situation right now was a good thing?
Dumb question. I knew the answer to that.
Satan didn’t seem to mind, however. He waved us off.
“Go on, you assholes. Go have some fun. Remember what I said, Wheeler.”
I nodded to him.
“No problem, boss.”
I let the others file out before leading Ember out. I groaned.
“God this is such a shit storm.”
“You need to talk about it?”
I laughed incredulously.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
She chuckled.
“You could. I’m about where you are at the moment with all of this.”
“At least we’re on the same page.”
“Joy.”
I snorted at her apathy and put my arm over her again. That was becoming a comfortable position for me, and that in and of itself should have raised red flags, but it didn’t. Impending war was right on the horizon if we weren’t careful. Ember was in my care, though I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with that responsibility, shy of making sure she didn’t end up in the hands of the police over some shit that wasn’t even her fault.
“Hey.”
I looked down, head tilted.
“Yeah, what?”
“Let’s, like ... I dunno. Do something,” she suggested. “Get out of the house for a little. Get loose. I think we need it and—no offence—but your friends are kind of scary, and that’s saying something even for me.”
I laughed.
“You think they’re scary?”
“To be fair, they did burn down a forest, and they’re very … leery. They leer a lot.”
“All right. That’s fair.”
“Exactly. Come on. Show me a good time?” She looked up at me, smirking. “You honestly don’t expect me to just stay cooped up in here forever, do you?”
There was a part of me that knew that we should probably lie low for now. That was the smart part of me, the one that had no problems telling a woman no.
But … she had a point. And I wanted to unwind. It had been a long time since I had felt able to do so here, with the other Sons.
I wanted to see more of what Ember was made out of.
I gave her a huge, dramatic sigh, as if it were a big deal for me. It really wasn’t—I just really liked fucking with Ember. It was fun.
“Okay, fine. I guess I could do that.”
She grinned.
“Cool.” She tugged on my hand, pulling me toward the front of the clubhouse. I laughed at her enthusiasm.
“You’re really excited about this, aren’t you?”
“Well, in my defense, I’m looking at a lifetime of running from the cops, or something equally crazy, at worst. So I think for now this is good. It’ll get my mind off things—though, actually.” She paused a second. “I can’t believe that I haven’t even thought about this, but my phone. I never got it from the festival. I’ll need to call my mom, Wanda, definitely just to let her know that I’m alive and not a crazy arsonist.”
“You think that’s wise?”
“My mother lives a few counties over and she doesn’t trust cops. Wanda—Wanda’s like a sister to me; she wouldn’t turn me over to the cops over something that I know she would know that I was never involved in.”
“You trust that?”
She nodded.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Well,” I said, giving a shrug. “Just don’t tell them where you are. You never know who’s trying to listen in or trace calls and shit like that. Satan meant what he said: you’re my problem, and it’s my job to keep you from being a club problem, you know?”
“I think I got it.”
“Cool.” I gr
inned down at her. “Come on. I know a bar I think you might like.”
Chapter Eight
Ember
To say that I was a little disturbed by all the Satan’s Sons would have been an understatement. They all had this cruel look about them, and I couldn’t really place why Wheeler didn’t feel that way to me, but I wasn’t going to question it. Nope, I was going to make him drag me out and show me a good time so that I could get out of my head for a little while and let my loved ones know that I was safe so that they wouldn’t worry about me too hard.
Totally, one hundred percent easy.
So I was on the back of Wheeler’s bike, again. More clothes on than the last time, but they were still a little skimpy. While Elise had been kind enough to supply me with some of her things, I hoped that I got the chance to go out and get some clothes of my own choosing at some point. I’d remind Wheeler about it when we got back to the clubhouse.
We pulled up to a bar that I’d never been to. It looked like your typical biker club, all rustic and rugged with a ton of bikes out front and loud rock music blaring, even though it wasn’t even evening yet. There were a few bikers out front drinking and laughing loudly with each other, and women in skimpy clothes seemed to be the norm. This wasn’t my crowd, but at least in the clothes that I had borrowed from Elise, I didn’t stick out in the “she doesn’t belong here with us” kind of way. Tight, tight, jeans and an impossibly low-cut red shirt had eyes on me, but the men had their eyes on all the girls.
As we walked into the bar, Wheeler had his arm around me, which was comforting and seemed to send the message to people not to mess with me. I was beginning to be fine with this contact and those signals—both in this situation and at the clubhouse.
Just don’t go getting used to it.
“You know, I’ve been around bikers before, but never like this,” I said as we walked inside. We were seated; Wheeler just found us a table near the bar.
“You mean in the thick of things as opposed to just seeing us wherever for gigs and shit.”
I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“I take it your general opinion isn’t very favorable.”
I laughed.
“Well, at least there’s you,” I said. He gave me a strange look and I realized how that must sound to him. “Oh, well, you know what I mean.” I rolled my eyes and held out my hand, refusing to let him think too long and hard on that one. “Go on, give me a couple quarters. I need them for the phone calls.”
Wheeler snorted, but fished inside his pockets and pulled out some change. I took it and winked at him.
“You’re a doll.”
Wheeler snorted and I got up, weaving through the huge crowd of people to get to the back where the payphones where. All the older places had them, and I was grateful for it. There was one out of the two that were back there that was free, and I slotted in one of the quarters before hovering my fingers over the dial pad. Who did I call first? Wanda, or my mother?
I sighed. Wanda first. That would be easier.
I dialed Wanda’s cell phone number and waited while it rang. She always took forever to answer her phone, and I stood there, foot tapping lightly until she answered.
“Hello?”
“Wanda?”
“Ember!?”
She sounded surprised to hear me, but not angry. That was a good thing.
“Hey, girl. What’s up?”
“What’s up? Ember, where have you been? Have you been watching the news at all? What the hell happened at the festival? And why is that creep Jameson saying that you had something to do with it? I don’t understand.”
I sighed.
“It’s a long, long story, and I can’t really get into all the details right now, but I had nothing to do with that fire, Wanda. You have to believe me.”
“Of course I believe you. Why the hell would you do something as crazy as that?” She sighed. “Still. What are you going to do? I mean, like—” she paused. “They’re really, really out in full force wanting to pin this on you and those biker boys,” she whispered.
“Yeah, I know. But I’m going to figure it out, okay? Don’t worry about it. I got it.”
“Okay, but Ember, where are you staying? Do you have a phone? Money? I’ve tried calling your cell phone and there’s been nothing from it. I’ve tried everything! How are you taking care of yourself? Let me come get you wherever you are—”
“No.”
She was quiet.
“No?”
“No. Listen, Wanda. You’ve done so much for me, and as much as I want to see a friendly, familiar face right now, I don’t want you getting into trouble over me, all right?”
“But you didn’t do anything!”
I laughed. “Tell that to the people that are looking for me because Jameson Mathers decided he was going to be a bigger asshole than he already was.” I sighed. “Listen, Wanda, I know it’s not ideal and I can’t tell you everything, but I’m safe, okay?”
“Are you? Like actually safe? You’re not just telling me what you think I wanna hear to get me off your ass, are you? Because I’ll hunt you down wherever you are and I’ll kick your ass. You know I will.”
I smiled.
“Yeah, I know you will.”
Wanda sighed again, resigned to the fact that this was my plan and it was the one that we were going with.
“Fine, fine, fine. Do whatever you want. Try to keep me posted, okay? Lord knows that the last thing I need is to keep worrying what nasty ditch you’ve fallen into. If anything happens, is there a way to contact you?”
I chewed on my lip. I wasn’t supposed to give details out about where I was staying. Or with who.
“I’ll let you know the next time I call, okay?”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“All right … I’ll take that for now. Listen, I need to go, okay? We’re sorting shit out on our end. Tried telling the cops you’re not an arsonist and they laughed, talking about some bullshit over how that’s rich, you play with fire for a living. Whatever. Anyway, basically they’re wanting to make sure we’re not arsonists, too.”
“Are you going to be all right?” I was concerned.
“Girl, you know I’m fine. You look after yourself, okay? Don’t forget to call your mother; she’s probably worried about you if she hasn’t been able to get ahold of you after all this time.”
“Don’t worry. That’s what I was getting ready to do.”
“Sweet. Love ya, girl.”
“Love ya too, Wanda.”
I hung up and slotted another quarter into the payphone. I dialed my mother’s number this time, and I waited less time than I did for Wanda.
“Angela Amor.” My mother sounded tired and worn down—I couldn’t help but wonder if it was partly my fault.
“Mama?”
There was a bit of silence and if it hadn’t been for the fact that there wasn’t a click, I would have thought that my mother had hung up on me.
“Em—Ember? Baby, is that you?”
“Yeah, Mama it’s me.”
“Oh, thank God.” My mother breathed a sigh of relief and I could imagine her holding her chest, sitting down before that relief got the better of her. “Oh Ember, I’ve been worried sick. You weren’t answering your phone; you hadn’t shown up. All those things they’re saying about you on the news—”
“They’re not true, Mama.”
“Oh honey, I know. I know. I know you would never do something bad like that. Why do you think they did?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Jameson Mathers is an asshole and a disgusting pig; he probably thinks it’s funny, trying to slot the blame onto me.”
“And then that news with the bikers involved too? And the drugs? I shudder to think how anyone would associate you with any of that.” She sighed again. “Honey, where are you? Are you safe? Do you need anything?”
“I’m fine, Mama, shockingly,” I said. “I—I’m staying with a friend right
now, under the radar until we figure out what to do about this situation.”
“A friend?” she asked. “What kind of friend? Are they safe?”
Safe? Pft. Questionable.
“Yes, Mama, they’re safe.”
“Boy or a girl?”