9, MC Barbie
Nash
“That is true. The change we did back then, it wasn’t easy. Going legit impacted our finances and some members saw it as being soft and weak. Some even went so far as to tell other clubs we were ripe for the taking. It didn’t take them long to figure out just how wrong they were. We are not soft or weak,” Bones told her. Tite nodded.
“Are any of those members still around? Can they be the ones causing the issues?” she asked.
“Most of them left, or were killed,” Bones said, scratching his beard. “I guess there could be some who weren’t open with how they felt back then. But it’s a hell of a long time waiting to show displeasure. I would think they would have acted during the almost thirty years since we made the change.”
“That is a long time to hold a grudge,” she agreed. I kept silent, watching them talk. Well, watching her talk. I didn’t know why I had such a hard time not looking at her. It should be easy. There were a million fucking other things to look at. All I needed to do was just not look at her. But like an idiot the thing I looked at was her. I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. When I looked up again I met her eyes, she was looking at me.
“Everything okey, Wolf?” Bones asked.
“Sure. I’m just antsy to get back on the road,” I lied.
“We should get going,” he agreed. We emptied our sodas and got back on the road. I had offered to take the lead for the next part. It would stop me ogling Tite, I thought. I thought wrong. She was riding after me and caught myself looking in my side mirrors more often than I ever had in my life.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I swore.
“Are you having issues?” she called.
“No,” I called back and wondered how she had heard me over the roar of the bikes and the wind. We stopped at a burger joint to eat and then we hit the road again. When it got dark, we found a decent motel. They had a vending machine which we used to get something close to a dinner. Tite took one room and Bones and I shared one.
“I’m hitting the sack. See you in the morning,” she told us as soon as the chips, cookies, and chocolate bars were eaten. I wanted to say something that made her stay, I wanted to talk to her. But she had left before I could think of something.
“Come on, Romeo, we should hit the sack as well,” Bones said with a chuckle. When we got to our room he looked at me with a look which meant he was looking into my soul and reading my mind. “Sleeping with her is a bad idea,” he then told me.
“So don’t do it. I don’t think she is into older men so I don’t think it will be an issue,” I told him, trying to act calm.
“Fucking brat. Respect your elders,” he told me and slapped the back of my head.
“Ouch! Fine, fine. I know. Happy?” I asked.
“Just make your move, okay? The thing you’re doing is fucking pathetic,” he said. I looked at him and flung my arms out.
“You just said sleeping with her was a bad idea!” I exclaimed.
“Fucking stupid. Can’t do anything with stupid,” Bones muttered and got into bed.
The next morning we gathered by the bikes. How Tite looked like she had spent the night in a five-star hotel, when I felt like I had spent the night in a torture chamber, I had no idea.
“We can have a vending machine breakfast, or we can hold out for the first diner we come across,” I said. Tite looked at the vending machine and scrunched her nose.
“I would rather wait,” she said.
“Coffee,” Bones grumbled. He wasn’t really a morning person.
“Diner it is,” I said.
“I’ll lead. Less of a fucking disaster to look at,” he then said and got ready to hit the road.
“What is he talking about?” Tite asked.
“Eh, don’t know. He’s not a morning person,” I said. She shrugged and we followed Bones. An hour later we found a diner and Bones became his usual cheerful self after two cups of coffee. We ordered breakfast and ate. Tite talked with Bones, mostly about the good old days. I guessed it was her way of trying to get a grip on the club. She didn’t talk to me. Most of the time it was as if she pretended I didn’t exist. When I asked her something, she answered with one or two words. Why did it give me the impression she hated me, and why the fuck did it bother me so much? The day played out almost exactly as the last one had. We were close to home and I was leading, so I pulled over. It was time we had a little talk.
“We are almost at the club house,” I told her.
“Okay, good,” she said. She seemed to be wondering why we had stopped.
“Listen to me, Tite. The club house you are walking into is nothing like the one you left yesterday. The members are hardcore, though sons of bitches who won’t respect you for being the daughter of the prez from another club,” I told her. She needed to know and be prepared. She snorted.
“First of all, I will bet big money that the members back home are more sons of bitches than any of your members,” she started. “Besides that, do you take me for a fucking MC Barbie? You think the respect the members back home has for me comes from me being the daughter of the Alpha? That there is no merit in it? Do you take me for Kendra? Fucking insulting. I have earned the respect of my brothers and sisters in the… club. I do not rest on my father’s laurels. And fuck you for thinking I do,” she said. She had walked up to me, almost close enough for our noses to nudge. She raised her finger to poke me in the chest, but seemed to think the better of it. “Are we going to go to this fucking bad ass club house? Or are you just going to stand around insulting me?” she asked and headed back to her bike.
“You handled that quite well,” Bones said. I glared at him.
“She needed to know,” I insisted.
“Sure, sure. Maybe I should take the lead, we wouldn’t want her to use your back as target practice,” he chuckled and patted my shoulder.
“Fuck,” I muttered as I followed the two of them. I hadn’t meant it to sound like she couldn’t handle herself. But what she was heading into was not the warm and fuzzy kind of MC club.
We arrived home. The abandoned hotel building serves our purposes perfectly. It had a dining room, kitchen and conference rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms on the four other floors. Out back we had built some sheds. We got off our bikes and headed into the bar area, it was the best bet to find the people we were looking for.
“We have brought back a member of Ulvaskall, they will assess the situation and help us,” Bones called out. I came walking with Tite.
“A fucking sweet butt? That is what they sent us?” Chief called back. Tite raised an eyebrow and calmly walked up to the table where he sat. I could see her looking at his patch.