AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ace had taken me in, under the condition that I cut out all the bullshit. Somehow, he’d made me listen to him. I’d straightened out, gotten my high school diploma, and then roamed around some until Ace had himself a heart attack. When that happened, I’d moved back to Cavallo. I figured after all he’d done for me, the least I could do was check in on the guy from time to time and be there if he needed some help.
I was glad I’d come back to Cavallo, gratified that I co-owned Ace Bar and Lounge, but those damn motorcycle clubs kicked up a hell of a lot of drama. Some days I felt like I was in a housewives reality show only much more bloody. Sometimes I thought about what it would be like to run a bar someplace mellow and chill. Maybe a vacation destination where people just wanted to relax.
Looking over at the mangy mutt, I saw he’d gone from bad to worse. The woman now had a seriously pissed off look on her face, but his hand kept trying to dive on up her skirt. With two fingers, I signaled to a bouncer over in the corner. He stepped in, broke it up and then, reluctantly, headed over in response to my demanding look.
“Hey, boss.” He sounded a hell of a lot like a kid that had been sent to the principal’s office.
“You know what I’m going to say.” I kept my eyes on the crowd.
“Yeah.” He looked all hangdog.
“I need you on shit before it starts. Not just responding when I tell you.”
“I know.” He agreed, though I could tell there was a “but” coming.
“But?” I prompted. Better to clear the air than let things fester.
“But we’re a biker bar, boss.”
“We are a bar that is open to one and all, including bikers. We are not a biker bar.”
I was getting tired of explaining that. It wasn’t that I looked down on bikers. Hell, my ride was parked right outside. I cruised around on my chopper with the best of them. With my shaved head, leather jacket and tattoos plus my sheer size, I was sure most people assumed I was in a motorcycle club, myself.
But that was the thing. I’d never much liked the labels other people put on me. Thug. Wrong side of the tracks. Criminal. Just because I felt right at home among all that, didn’t mean it defined me. Joining a motorcycle club and pledging allegiance to someone else’s bloody code of tribal honor would never be my choice. I lived life on my own terms, even if that made me a lone wolf.
§
Late Monday morning I got a text.
Zeke: headin your way tonight
Aw, shit. Zeke was coming to my bar? The man had some balls. Skulls owned west of L.A.; Iron Reapers owned the east. Skulls hung out at Ace Bar and Lounge. Reapers did not. But Zeke never did what he was told. And I had to admit, it was part of what I liked about him.
Zeke and I went way back. We hadn’t seen each other in a few months, not since around Thanksgiving and here it was early February, but that didn’t matter. We could go a year or more and get right back into a groove. It was like that with people you’d known since you were kids, especially if you’d gone through some shit together. Zeke and I had both done time in juvie when we were 15. He’d had a longer sentence than mine, but the nine months we’d overlapped we’d shared a cell. He’d had my back, I’d had his and we hadn’t stopped since.
Funny how going through hell with someone could form a lifelong friendship. I could count on one hand the friends I’d trust with my life. Actually, I didn’t even need all five fingers for Zeke, Liam, Chase, and Ian. What did we all have in common? Nearly dying together. Back in juvie, Zeke and I had fought for each other like animals locked in a pen.
As for Liam, Chase and Ian? One night had bound us together, changing the rest of our lives. We’d had no clue it was going to, of course. We’d been 14, dumb as fuck with all the arrogance of early adolescence. Ian and I had stolen a boat and not thought twice about it. What could go wrong? It was a harmless joyride. Liam and Chase had agreed, hopping on board without a moment’s hesitation.
Growing up, my dad worked construction and my mom cleaned houses. My family hadn’t exactly gone boating. I’d had no clue how lost we could get once the sun went down and a storm hit. It never even entered my mind as a remote possibility that a wall of water the size of a two-story building could appear out of nowhere and smash our boat in two.
That accident had sent me spiraling down, literally and figuratively. Thank God all of us had lived, but not all of us had walked away like I had. Ian was in a wheelchair for life. The sight of him trapped under a fallen, fiery mast would haunt me until the day I died. I’d landed in juvie not long afterward, and when I’d gotten out neither my mom nor my dad had wanted anything to do with me. It turned out when you stole a boat and sank it, then got caught dealing pot, plus breaking and entering, your parents got pretty pissed off.
But not Ace. He’d taken me in when no one else would. I swore I’d never forget what he’d done for me as long as I lived.
I took a shower and decided it was a good time for a visit. Mondays I usually took the whole day off, working out then heading over to see Ace. But with Zeke stopping by, it looked like today I should visit first, then head over to the bar. I needed to be there to keep things running smooth.
Outside the front entrance of the Cavallo Canyon home, a woman was selling flowers. I had a crazy impulse to buy some roses. But not for Ace.
That was why I didn’t buy them. What would Sky think if a big, gruff guy like me showed up bringing her flowers? She’d probably freak out, maybe get mad. She’d likely flash her ring at me and hop on the phone to that husband of hers. Then he’d cause a scene. I could handle him. I’d already done it once or twice at my bar when he’d gotten too drunk for his own good.
But I had enough sense to stop myself from doing it. Even though, walking up the stairs, I still pictured Sky’s face, all rosy and happy, looking down at the flowers, then up at me. Logic didn’t seem to figure in too well when it came to Sky. It didn’t make sense that I looked for her
as I walked down the hallway to Ace’s apartment. Or that when I knocked at his door, I hoped she’d be the one to open up, getting all flushed and shy when she saw me.
No Sky in sight, Ace and I had a good visit, like we always did. We played some Gin Rummy out on his patio, enjoying the sunshine and people-watching. Ace was quite the popular guy, enjoying the attention of more than a few of the local ladies.
“What’re you laughing about, old man?” he asked me after he got two women in their 70s giggling like school girls over his compliments.
“Just admiring your game, Ace.” I chuckled, marveling at how smooth he was. I did all right with women, but I mostly attributed that to being big and strong. I’d learned as a teenager the power of bulking up, in more ways than one, and I’d been hitting the weights ever since. But suave pick-up lines? That was Ace’s department, all the way.
“You’re looking for Sky,” he observed, catching me glancing around again.
“No.” My protest convinced no one.
“Yes, you are, and if I were your age I’d be doing the exact same thing. Now read ‘em and weep.” He laid his cards down in sets, throwing the final card onto the table to signal victory.
I shook my head, disgusted with myself for multiple reasons. Only a low down dawg lusted after a married woman. I should be ashamed of myself. I was ashamed of myself. It stopped me from doing anything more than looking around for her and then, once I found her, looking at her. She had to think I was a little soft in the head the way I stared at her. I’d seen her at least two dozen times over the past year Ace had lived there, but I never said much. Because the things I thought about saying to her weren’t the kinds of things I should say to another man’s wife.
Ace and I hung out until around four. Then I excused myself, explaining how Zeke was planning on heading up to the bar tonight.
