Devil Seeker

by Clare Power

  “We were just looking and learning,” I say, going for innocence.

  “Yeah, right,” he says, completely unconvinced.

  In the morning, after breakfast, we all help tidy up and then head back. We’re joined by Ultan and Seamus, along with their President, Jean, after Jean Lafitte; the infamous privateer. They stay for another day before they head home, and Sean and I spend as much time as we can with them. It’s really great that I really like his brothers and they like me, Sean is well pleased about this too.

  Backfire

  Ace calls a club meeting on Monday night. Jean, Ultan, and Seamus are present; my brothers flanking their president. Ace hands the meeting over to Jean.

  “So, let’s just dive in. The businessmen who were giving you shit may have pulled back, but they haven’t left the fight altogether. They’ve made a deal with the Nightmare Dead MC to support them while the Dead take us on. The Dead are recruiting at the moment. They don’t appear to be ready to go against us, but they’re making moves. Not only have they increased the number of prospects they’re taking on, but they’ve got whole clubs prospecting for them. They still seem to have an issue with Backfire’s lady, so that’s why you guys are getting a personal heads up. I’ll hand you back to Ace.”

  Ace looks grimmer than usual, “The Florida presidents have met and we think that it’s a good move to get that fifth chapter going. A lot of our members are older ‘cause they’ve retired here. We need to start actively recruiting younger men. If you’ve got any proposals, come see the Officers after the meeting. With the hotel, we can house a load of brothers should the need arise, and the presidents of the chapters have agreed to send two or three brothers from each chapter as a central reserve. We can only assume they’ve got partial intel on us ‘cause they picked up an ex-prospect from Louisville.”

  “Shit,” I say, “that’ll be the fucker they ran off for eyeing Kat.”

  “Poor Kat. All this trouble seems to involve her,” says Trash, “Best she doesn’t find out about this.”

  “I don’t spill club business, brother,” I snarl

  “This isn’t the time for this shit,” Ace says, “Just everyone make sure they keep half an eye on her. Meeting’s over.”

  Chapter 28

  Two Months Later

  Real Progress

  Backfire

  All the businesses are up and running and everyone is doing great.

  We’re making a bike I designed to enter into a custom show at local bike night level. I designed it, Tinman fabricated it, Kat painted it, and the ladies did the leather seat. Cobra and Tex have printed t-shirts as part of the publicity for the bike. It’s amazing, and our chances are pretty good. If we win, it should give us all another push forward.

  On a different note, we’ve not heard shit concerning the Nightmare Dead, but every chapter’s computer guy is monitoring everything about them and comparing notes weekly. We’re not going to be caught off guard. We have, I have, too much at stake.

  Kat

  Life is good. Backfire has officially moved into my house, well, our house, but he still keeps his room at the club so we can party and not worry about getting home. I think I worry more than him. I’ve been brainwashed I suppose. Drunk driving is BAD.

  Everything is going crazy good.

  Backfire and I are going out for dinner tonight to our favourite restaurant. I don’t know what the occasion is, but he has said to dress up, and that sounds good to me. I haven’t had an excuse to dress up in a long time. I’m looking forward to it.

  Backfire

  I can’t fuckin’ believe this. How fuckin’ stressed am I?

  No one knows that I plan to ask Kat to marry me tonight. No one even suspects, so I could wimp out and not ask her.

  She looks beautiful tonight in her little green dress that fits tight to her ass and then gets wider at the bottom, just above her knees with a pair of knee-high boots. She is so fuckin’ hot, and she’s mine.

  Ask her, or just tell her?

  Fuck.

  Kat

  We get to the restaurant and Backfire starts acting strange. Thinking about it, he’s been a bit weird for the last couple of days, but I put it down to all the competitions we have lined up, but now I’m not so sure.

  It’s not so much anything he says or does that’s weird, it’s how he does it. We’re sitting at the table, waiting for our food whilst I debate with myself about asking him straight out what the problem is when it all becomes clear.

  “We’re getting married,” he states, “Give me your hand.”

  I shakily lift my left hand to him, too stunned to disobey. He produces a ring box out of his pocket and slips a ring onto my ring finger.

  OH. MY. GOD.

  I sit still, absolutely STUNNED.

  I look at Backfire again as he breathes a sigh of relief.

  I hand him my napkin to help wipe the sweat from his face.

  I guess we are engaged.

  Backfire

  After we eat, we head out to the clubhouse. We go to the bar and before I even have time to make the announcement, the damn prospect behind the bar shouts out, “They’re engaged!” He’ll never get my vote now, big-mouthed fucker.

  After the whoops and catcalls start to die away, it doesn’t take long for the so-called comedians that are my brothers, to start in on me. Luckily, Kat is surrounded by old ladies examining the ring, all starting to make plans before these clowns start in on her too. If one of them upset her today, there will be hell to pay, but since she’s happy, I’ll suffer these fools gladly. Well, apart from Shades, whose stomach strangely hits my fist. How fuckin’ clumsy of him.

  Chapter 29

  Leather and Steel

  Kat

  Even when I was a little girl, I dreamt of a biker wedding; none of this fairytale princess stuff for me. As I got older, I fancied the idea of getting married in white leather – white leather jeans, boots, and jacket – so I’ve passed this information on to my girls Amber, Lori, Pagan, Wizz and Jewels.

  Wizz and Jewels are making the leathers for me and my wedding party. There are six of them, including Jack, when she gets here. I think that’s a lot, but apparently that’s really small for a wedding here.

  I’ll be riding a white Harley too. A spare bike never hurt anyone, and after the wedding I can change the paint. so all I have to do is think about underwear and a top, along with some jewellery. Oh, and buy the boots. I call Lori and Amber and see if they’re for up for a bit of a shopping trip. It would really surprise me if they weren’t.

  Backfire and I are getting married at the clubhouse. It’s being smartened up, again, for the ceremony. There was even a suggestion that Trash be the celebrant, but that just didn’t seem right, so Preacher, one of the brothers from Miami, is going to do it for us.

  My family are coming too. Who knows what family dramas a wedding will bring.

  “We could go to Vegas and do the deed, then no one can interfere. We just have the reception here for them, you know, give them a party,” I suggest to Backfire. “If we’re already married, the whole objection thing is pretty moot.”

  “Not a bad idea, but what about the brothers?”

  “Yeah, I don’t suppose everyone could just fly to Vegas. Shame though, I don’t know what it is about weddings that always seem to cause family drama. We could ask anyone who wants to go. We could have a bike parade at the reception so I can get my white dream machine.”

  “You and your white bike,” he laughs.

  “Hey, a girl’s got to dream.”

  Backfire just drags me into his arms for a hug and holds me close.

  “Do you really think your parents would object to an amazing man like me?”

  I grin and shake my head no.

  “And mine already love you. They see you as some sort of miracle worker,” he smiles at me, “They’d pretty much given up on me settling down.”

  “How would they feel about limiting the numbers of distant relatives you
haven’t seen since you were three, or have never even met, to the wedding?” I ask.

  “Let them try,” he rumbles.

  “Best we come up with a budget for the wedding and work with that, then we can see how many people we can have. Could you talk to Ace about how many non-members he is comfortable having around the clubhouse?”

  “Yeah, babe. This isn’t going to be easy, is it?”

  “Nothing in life worth having is ever really easy,” I tell him. “Let’s just say if we plan this well, it should be relatively easy.”

  “I suppose we’d better go to the County Clerk to get a license then and set up the other hoops we have to go through. We have to do a fuckin’ course about divorce before we can get married I think, according to the online research I did. That’s the way it is.”

  “Like everything else in life, just loving each other isn’t enough for us to get married. Someone always puts out more obstacles.”

  Chapter 30

  Starting to Take Shape

  Kat

  It’s a pretty good thing that the bike did well at the local show. In fact, we all had a brilliant time and everyone got lots of new business contacts. The plus side for me is that it’s distracting Backfire from thinking about the wedding.

  He just wants it done. What a romantic.

  It’s not even a really complicated wedding with lots of people taking part, but regardless, it takes some planning, and some seriously silly money for one day.

  We have the groundwork set up. It’s a mixture of biker and traditional, and I love it.

  We’re off to the airport to pick up my sister Jack. She has come over early to help with the last minute stuff and pre-wedding parties. I’ve also conned her into being a bridesmaid. It took some doing, like I may have threatened her with the whole matching satin dress thing just for being difficult. Amber would be the only one who would possibly go for that look, but I told the girls to go burgundy. The style was irrelevant, as long as they felt comfortable in their own outfit. Even leather jeans would do.

  Wizz has made me an incredible fitted corset top of white and burgundy leather that is way more comfortable than an actual corset. I think I look amazing in it.

  Just about everything is worked out, and now it’s time to start the parties. Tomorrow night, all the ladies are going out to see some male strippers. Hen night, or bachelorette party, whatever you want to call it; no men are allowed. This brought about some raised eyebrows in the clubhouse when some of the men found out.

  Jack comes through immigration and Backfire pays attention. My sister is beautiful and I’m used to men paying attention to her, even mine. It’s not that she’s trying to attract attention, it just happens.

  We grab her bag off the luggage carousel and head out to my new car. Backfire bought it for me and it is built more like a tank than a sports car. It keeps him happy knowing that I’m safe. I struggle to get around him wanting me to drive a tank when I want to ride a bike, but just don’t bother him with it. What he doesn’t know doesn’t hurt him.

  I have to be a bit careful about money now. Backfire wants to buy everything I need. I have to maintain a little independence without offending him, and since he doesn’t want to offend me either, it sort of works.

  I allow him to drive my car this time, which he always wants to do anyway so I can talk to Jack. It’s really good to see her. She’s like me in looks I suppose, but she’s a couple of inches taller and a lot more sophisticated. Her clothes are always more planned and elegant and she always wears makeup.

  So with that being said, she’s awesome. She rides a bike too, but her taste runs more toward superbikes. Jack is a bit of a speed freak who loves nothing more than taking her bike to a track day at Donington to see how fast she can go. She’s even been to some tracks over in Europe. At the sort of rallies I like to go to, she’ll sometimes come with me if she can do “run-what-you-brung” drag racing. Jack shares my love of books and is a University Librarian in Brum.

  We are totally excited to see each other, not even pretending to care about Backfire understanding us. With our Brummie accents out in full force, he just looks at me like he doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into. It’s a hard life, I get it.

  Backfire

  Fuck me!

  Kat’s little sister is going to go down well at the clubhouse but sadly, I can pretty much take any bet that Trash will be all over her like a rash. Poor girl.

  I love seeing Kat this excited and happy. It makes all these plans seem worth it. I grant you, we’ve often said “fuck it all, let’s go to Vegas,” a lot, but now we’re getting close to the actual wedding date and I’m glad we didn’t.

  We get back home and yes, it’s now my home too, and Kat starts dragging Jack around, showing her what she’s done with the place. I carry Jack’s bag into the newly defined guest room and leave them to it for a while. Anyway, I’m only catchin’ every two out of three words…

  I hear a couple of bikes and grin as Trash and Shades pull up. The girls come piling out to see them and it doesn’t take long for Jack and Trash to hit it off. I just fuckin’ knew it.

  The five of us sit out in the yard in our new entertainment area. I get my grill on and the new beer fridge starts to do its job. Like Kat, Jack is a cider drinker, and so it’s easy to see them mellow out. They’re both tired anyway. Kat’s been wound up about Jack coming and Jack has travelled all this way so it doesn’t take much. We eat, drink and enjoy the evening. Doesn’t get much better than this.

  Chapter 31

  Hen Nights and Bachelor Parties

  Kat

  All the girls are meeting up at a local bar before the final assault on the strip club, but that sister of mine is rabble rousing.

  “If we go to see a load of male strippers, all we’ll get is overly tanned, overly muscled, shaven chested, oiled-up pretty boys,” she states.

  I can’t argue the point. “So what’s your alternative?” I ask her. “And just once, couldn’t you have mentioned it sooner?”

  “Well I only just thought about it.” she says, “We could go and watch some female strippers and maybe even get some ideas. I’ve always fancied learning to pole dance.”

  Now why am I not surprised at that?

  “I actually think that’s a cool idea. Anyone else up for it?” I’m met with a load of grins and nods. Fair enough. “Where shall we go?”

  “How about here?” Christine suggests, picking up a magazine with an advertisement regarding a reduced entry into a new strip club a couple of miles up the road. We all pile into our cars with our designated drivers.

  Strippers, here we come.

  Backfire

  The club just opened a new strip joint so we’re going there. We’ve just settled around our table when another large group arrives.

  “Fuck me,” Trash says laughing, “it’s the girls.”

  Kat and the others stop dead in their tracks as all the brothers are laughing their asses off. The girls notice us too and start to make their way over.

  “Hey Handsome,” Jack says to Trash, “Great minds and all that.”

  “Hey, beautiful. What brings you here?”

  “We didn’t fancy the bloke strippers so we thought we’d watch the girls, see if we can pick up any tips.”

  “Well, pull up a chair, or better yet, sit on my knee.”

  That finished the guys off. Shades fell off his seat laughing, so Kat grabbed it while he was on the floor. She was laughing so much she nearly joined him. No fuckin way that’s happening so I pull her over onto my knee.

  “Hi,” she says, cuddling into me. “This wasn’t the plan. Why are you at this particular place?”

  “The club owns it now, so we thought we’d check it out.”

  All the girls are moving to their men. Looks like separate bachelor/bachelorette night is a bust as I watch chairs and tables being moved together as the girls settle in.

  A new dancer comes on stage and the ladies pay more attention to he
r than the guys do. We’ve all seen it before, but it doesn’t look like they have. They whoop it up and when the stripper comes near, their money comes out, however they don’t shove it down her remaining clothing, but club together. Jack takes it and goes over to hand her the lot. On her way back to us, Trash grabs her, pulling her to sit on his lap and holding her there. I’ve never fuckin’ seen him like this. It’s interesting.

  The next stripper comes on and the girls once again watch in apparent fascination. I’m not fuckin’ sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but at least we know what they’re up to.

  As the night progresses, one of the strippers approaches the table. Normally they’d be all over us, but they’re staying away because our women are here. Fuckin’ clever of them, I’ll say.

  “Hey all,” she says, “my stripper name is Blitz, but my real name is Dawn. Is everyone alright? I heard you may have some questions for us?”

  At this I feel Kat’s interest in what she has to say, as she and Jack exchange glances.

  “Hi, Dawn. My name is Kat, and this is my hen night, or bachelorette party. We’ve gone a bit off plan, but can I ask where you learnt to dance? A few of my girls are interested in learning.”

  I grip her hard at this and hear rumbles of disapproval from guys around the table.

  “We’re just looking to learn how to pole dance, nothing more.” Kat says to ease the tension from the guys.

  Why am I not surprised at that? What does surprise me is Ace.

  “If you ladies are interested in learning to pole dance, you can use this club in the mornings,” he says.