by Clare Power
Ace brushes this away, but he’s clearly disappointed that there’s no more information to be given.
I’m beyond shocked that all these guys have put themselves in danger for me, well, for Backfire. I still think our relationship is new and there are still loads of things we need to learn about each other, but at the moment, nothing matters to them apart from Backfire’s claim on me.
I risk a look at Backfire first then ask, “So what happens next?”
“Next is that you get better and maybe try to stay out of trouble for a little while,” Ace says. “Start making plans for your business and seeing if you can work with Backfire and Tinman. We’re struggling to keep up with your adventures.”
“I’ll try,” I promise. That must have been the right thing to say because I get a squeeze from Backfire and smiles from all the men.
Go me.
Backfire
Kat’s in bed, fast asleep. Now, it’s time for me to play. My brothers have been questioning the kidnappers all day, and everything they know so far has been acquired by various methods. Shades and I join them, and I watch Trash with a boyish grin on his face and blood on his hands. If the women who chase him think he’s not as tough as the rest of us and is only a member to be a club lawyer, they’re so fuckin’ wrong. If they could fuckin’ see him now.
“Hi. I got all the info they had. Ace and the other Prez have been putting together a plan, so all that we needed was some vermin extermination. That one’s weak; blood loss from losing a few body parts.”
I smile slowly. I get to finish these fuckin’ scums off, and I will, but I shoot them so they’ll bleed out. Wouldn’t want it quick now, would we? I stand and watch until they all die, then I start to dispose of the bodies. AJ from Charleston comes over and says, “Go back to your girl in case she wakes up. She’ll probably be happier if you’re there.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you.”
Chapter 25|
One Month Later
Plan Making
Kat
I love my man!
I think he loves me.
Things with Backfire are going really well. We are having fun together doing normal things that don’t involve kidnapping or being shot at. Amongst other things we’ve been going shooting together regularly and I’m getting quite good. It’s much better being on the pointy end of the gun and not the receiving end.
We ride together, we hang out together, we go to the clubhouse together, and we party together. I now know all the members of the chapter by name and their old ladies, and even their kids. One big, happy family.
We go to lots of bike nights all over Florida. My excuse being I want to look at the different styles of custom paintwork that are popular here. It’s a hard way to do research, but someone has to do it.
Wednesday night is still girls’ night with Amber and Lori, we are often joined by Wizz, who I really get on well with. She does leather and loads of other things.
On some other nights the guys are away I invite more of the club sisters around and they all accept Amber too. We are all just a bunch of women having a laugh. The offer does not extend to the sluts who hang round the club as I can’t seem to find much common ground with them. Bizarre.
I don’t have nightmares anymore, but I don’t like being left on my own too much. I imagine this feeling will fade with time. I’m a work in progress, but there you go.
Backfire
We’ve a lot of business on the table at Church this Wednesday. After the routine officers’ reports we get down to the shit that’s been happenin’
Brewer leans forward and reports, “While you guys were rescuing Kat I found our mole and held him in our warehouse, where Trash and I had a few words with him before he had a little accident. There is no further infiltration of our club and the chapter sergeants have all rooted out the shit from their own clubhouses, so the MC is clean.” We bang the table in approval.
Trash presents the situation with the units. “The association seem to have withdrawn their opposition to the purchase of units by the club and Kat, thinking we wouldn’t have the money for everything we put in for, which is pretty much a fortune, but they’d be wrong. The process will be finalized in the next few days so we need to make final plans for getting the units up and running.”
Ace sums up. “We can fill all the space we’ve got. Backfire and Tinman have their custom shop with Kat’s paintworks. CC and Bullet’s old ladies, Jewels and Wizz, have a business working with leather, and Cobra and Tex’s screenprint machine can fit in with them. We good?”
Nods all round the table. Irish speaks up. “Have we got too much to defend in one place here? Three old ladies at least as well as the machines and equipment all stuck out in the open?”
Bullet’s right on this. “We can cover one entrance and exit a lot easier than units stuck all over the city as we have now. The businesses complement each other so they’ll trade off each other too. We’ve four brothers based on site permanently anyway as well as the ladies.”
OB asks if anyone needs to call on club resources to set up beyond the acquisition of the units. Everyone’s good.
Then Ace moves on to next business. “I need a package to go up to Jake, the Louisville president. Backfire, you want to handle this, maybe see your folks?”
“Always, brother, is it acceptable to take Kat with me?”
“It will be. The package is nothing dangerous and we’ve no problems along the road.” With that the gavel goes down and we pile into the bar.
Ace wanders over to me “How are things with you and Kat?”
“Fuckin’ great. Thanks for the opportunity to run up to Louisville. I get to take Kat away and meet my folks, and have a break from the crazy shit that is the business. She’s got lists made to organise her other lists, whatever the fuck that’s about. It also gives us some time alone, just the two of us, on a decent-length ride to see how we cope with no distractions.”
“It’s all good. Ride safe, brother”
Chapter 26
Kentucky
Backfire
The run up to Kentucky is a good ride, nice and long, but not too long. Instead of sleeping on the ground we stay at motels, not the fuckin’ grandest places in the Universe but better than camping, not that I think Kat would complain, just that I want to look after my girl.
It feels good to ride with her by my side as we eat up the miles. We ride together, eat together, shower together, and do everything else imaginable together. It’s just the two of us and it’s all good. We have a smooth ride with no trouble and we’re both in a good mood when we reach Louisville. We go to the clubhouse first, 'cause business (and fuckin' definitely club business) before pleasure. Mom and my old man meet us there.
I can tell Kat’s nervous, but I hold her in reassurance.
I hug Pop as Mom holds back, waiting her turn. Then he comes for Kat as I greet Mom.
“Liam,” he says, holding out his arm.
“Hound of Ulster,” she replies, taking in his road name, CuChulainn off his colours. “I’m Katrina, but most people call me Kat.”
“You know the stories,” he says with a grin.
“Oh yes, I grew up on them. My granddad was Irish.”
“Well, this is my wife, Mary,” he says.
“Hello, Kat. It’s great to finally meet you,” she says with a smile.
I go into the office to pay my respects to Jake, the President and deliver Ace's package. Then we move to the bar where loads of the brothers greet me. The prospect behind it looks too long and too closely at Kat, even though she’s wearing my property patch. It’s not only me, but the Louisville brothers catch him too. Their Sergeant at Arms, Bats, named for his favorite toys (any game will do, I’ve even heard he has a cricket bat in his collection) pulls him outside for a little discussion. I don’t think he’ll be doing that again. Another prospect quickly comes over and begins getting our drinks to us. Kat doesn’t even bat a lash. She’s learning, too. After that the night
proceeds with everyone making us welcome.
Kat
I ignored the incident at the clubhouse and let it go because it’s not my business and nothing I can do can change it. I continue the night hanging with Mary and her friends, then we go to Liam and Mary's ranch. Even in the dark I can see it's a beautiful property. Mary offers us supper but we're tired so we just go to bed.
“Well, this is awkward,” Mary says at breakfast after a couple of minutes of silence. “What’s the matter with you all?”
“You’re going to be my mother in law, have you heard all the scary stories about them?” I venture. “I might be feeding your son the wrong food or something.”
Mary throws her head back and laughs, “Well, if he eats it, it’s right. He can stand up for himself,” she grins. “I’m more interested in getting to know you, apart from bikes, books, art, and crafting, is there anything else you like? Anything you did in England you don’t do here?”
“Ride horses. I want everything to get stable here before I get a horse, if you’ll pardon the pun. I’ve found some stables pretty close–―I even went for a ride out there when I first came here. I was absolutely amazed at all the horses in the area.”
“I didn’t know that,” Backfire says to me, “I ride too and Mom has horses.”
“Well now that the ice is cracked,” Liam says, “let’s talk horses.”
After breakfast, we do more than talk horses. We saddle up and Liam and Mary take us around the farm on horseback. I admit that I haven’t ridden properly in Western style much, so Backfire takes great pleasure in being my instructor. I think he gets a kick out of being allowed to tell me what to do.
The ranch is beautiful and I soon start to relax with the new tack. We get back and take some time to check out the house and barns. It becomes easy to work out whose bits are whose. It’s a fabulous setup and I love it. A couple of the hounds are clearly happy to have Backfire about and stick to him like glue.
Once I’ve been shown everything, we all sit around an outside table and have a drink. I drink a Diet Coke whilst everyone else has coffee while we start to plan our stay. Mary says she’ll do some more Western riding with me, but before we do, we decide to go and do some shopping for the essentials; cider and a riding kit. Why are Sean and Liam rolling their eyes? Bizarre.
Chapter 27
Six Weeks Later
Family Ride
Kat
I wake up in Backfire’s bed at the clubhouse on the Saturday morning of the family run with a bounce.
“Babe, it’s too early to get up,” he grumbles.
“I want to help with breakfast,” I explain as I start to get dressed.
“Wake me up when it’s ready,” he says as he rolls over.
Oh well. I can’t be bothered with Mr. Grump this morning because the club is going out on a family ride today and I can’t wait.
I hit the kitchen to find it’s already starting to buzz. A round of “Morning, Kat,” greets me as I make my way through.
“Hey Kat,” Lori says. “Would you mind setting the table?”
“No problem.” I start to gather the things I need, beginning with stuff to clean the tables. I’m just setting the tables when the guys start to arrive.
“Morning. Those tables are wiped off guys. Give me two seconds and I’ll get you some plates and find out when breakfast will be ready.”
“Thanks,” Bullet says. No matter how much I know I owe this man and how much he’s done for me, I’m still a bit wary of him and treat him with the utmost respect.
Pagan brings them out a pot of coffee and I grab some mugs. When the guys are all seated, we go into overdrive to get things ready. Sock has been bringing around a girl named Christine, who is with us this morning. She has no problems with jumping in and helping out, and we all thank her.
“I’m just going to give Backfire a shout,” I say.
Lori looks around and grins, “Everyone’s up early. At this rate, we’ll be ready to roll at least an hour earlier than we’d originally planned. I love when men learn to follow a plan.”
Backfire
We all load up on the bikes. We really need to do more of these family rides, but it’s always about timing. We have four chapters in Florida and we don’t have any hassle with any of the other clubs in the state at the moment, so we can pretty much go anywhere within reason.
We’re meeting near the Everglades today. The Florida chapters clubbed together and bought some land with a big old fuckin’ hotel on it so we can meet up and party overnight. Kat and I loaded our bikes up yesterday with everything we’d need, along with some food for the run. We’re creating a fifth chapter, Everglades, out of the retired members who look after the site for us. We have enough room for everyone to have a bedroom, but the prospects have to fuckin’ share.
When Tex is happy everything is ready to go, he signals to Ace who starts his bike. At his signal, other bikes start up and we set out in club order. Lori, Kat, and Sock’s new girl ride their bikes at the very back, behind our pick up van, but everyone is keeping an eye on them.
We only ride for a couple of hours before pulling into a truck stop. Tex has added a couple of pit stops for the ladies and sure enough, they’re all heading that way.
Do women have small bladders?
I have more fuckin’ sense than to ask.
We arrive and settle in to our room. Kat’s gone to sort food with the women when there’s a knock on the door. I open it to find my blood brothers outside.
“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you two.”
“We came down to escort Jean. He’s meeting the local presidents so we’ve got some spare time to hunt you out and meet your lady. We’ll stay over at your clubhouse on the way back to New Orleans.”
Day just got even fuckin’ better.
“So fuckin’ pleased you’ll meet Kat.”
“Are you serious about her?”
“Yes. I’ve even taken her up to the ranch to meet the folks.”
“We heard. That made their year. Mom’s got you married off already.”
“It’s a possibility, brothers.”
Kat
We meet the other chapters and I watch as the guys give back thumps all around. There are things to do throughout the day. Everyone pitches in to sort the food out and many hands make light work. The men set up a bike rodeo outside with all kinds of games.
There is a covered area outside where some of the women set up and push tables together so we can all be together in a group. Others bring buckets of ice filled with beer and pop out.
I settle down where I can see what the men are doing. As they start playing games, I go over with Pagan and Christine to watch. “This is the slow race,” Pagan says. “The winner is the one who finishes last.” We watch it for a bit and then move along.
We come across a more rowdy group in an area lined with straw bales, on which men seemed to be falling regularly, which I’m sure isn’t the game. They’re riding what appear to be barstools converted into quads around a little course. We join in the general laughter at the guys’ antics.
Christine says “I’ve seen this in a video from an online magazine. The guys there fell off a lot too,” which causes us all to giggle.
”You sound happy,” Backfire says from behind me.
I turn and grin at him, “That looks fun,” I say and point to the flying bar stools.
Shades and Trash move over to look. Trash is dragging Pagan and Christine with him by putting his arms around their waists. That soon brings Sock and Rusty. Sean has two other blokes from the New Orleans chapter with him.
“Kat, these are my brothers; Seamus, also known as Vike and Ultan, known as Templar.”
“Wow. Irish and historical names. It’s wonderful to meet you.” I say as I reach out to hug them. Then I look at Backfire, “You never said we’d be meeting them here, and why haven’t you got a sexy historical name too? Like Saxon or something?”
“Didn’t know they’d be here,
babe. They just came in with their President, but they’re staying over with him at our clubhouse for a few days.”
I positively beam at this. “That’s wonderful.”
“As for his name, he’s he never eaten baked beans around you?” Ultan pipes up. Unlike Shades, Ultan knows when to duck.
“Don’t listen to him, babe. I got my name because my plans never backfire,” he says.
“Don’t you mean the other way around?” Seamus questions, but he’s just not quick enough to dodge Backfire’s blow to the gut.
“Are you going to put my woman down?” Backfire grumps.
“She’s our sister and she started it,” replies Ultan.
Backfire just shakes his head and pulls me to him as we walk over to the others. Pagan says, “I want to see the barrel racing,” so we move around to another sandy area where three barrels have been set up. “In a horse rodeo, this would be an event for women, but here the guys do it on bikes,” Pagan informs us.
“I’ve seen that in Wyoming when I was on holiday there years ago,” I reply. “This seems pretty exciting too.”
Rusty says there’ll be a couple of games later on. “There’s potato in a Haystack, where the women ride bitch and dive into a haystack when the music stops and the first one out with a potato wins.”
“What else?” I ask.
“Bite the wienie, which is where a hot dog sausage is hung up and the woman riding bitch bites off as much as she can. Whoever gets the most wins.”
“I wouldn’t mind having a go at the potato thing,” I say.
“Maybe we could all play,” Pagan says.
The guys nod and walk over to see if we can register. I don’t win, but it was fun and also took up a great deal of the afternoon.
We continue to party into the night. Backfire never leaves my side, so we spend the majority of the night with Seamus, Ultan, Trash, Shades, Sock and Christine. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves; eating, drinking, and people watching, or at least I am. Christine is too, and we start to compare notes. Ultan catches us and calls us out. He’s definitely the one with the sense of humour.