Page 2 of Cannon

“Is nothing sacred around here? Do you really have to have your nose in everyone's business? Can’t we have any privacy at all?”

“You want privacy? Join a fuckin’ monastery. Take a vow of silence and become a monk. You’re halfway to the chastity bit, anyway. When was the last time you dumped your swimmers anywhere other than the shower tray?” Whack grins, and without knowing why, I take offense at his jibe.

“Fuck you, Whack.” I storm out of his office and into the compound. With nowhere to go, I just stand there and gawk around at the houses springing up. Breaker and Fury both have houses now, and although very different, they are both stunning in their own right. Maybe I should put my name in the hat for the next plot, just in case. Listen to me. Just in case what? I need somewhere to build a garage?

Stomping back to Whack’s office, I find the door still open, so march back in and throw myself into the same chair I had so recently vacated. Leaning back in his chair, he steeples his fingers and glares at me.

“I don’t want to know what brought that on, but you need to know that I won’t stand for that kind of behavior. You’ve been getting touchier and touchier in recent weeks, so you'd better get to grips with whatever is causing it, or you keep it under control.”

I don’t know what to say to that. I wasn’t aware I was getting touchy, or if I am, what is causing it.

“Yes, I bought the truck.” It’s the only thing I can think of to say, but it comes out as moody as fuck.

“Get the hell out, Cannon. Go make some other fucker's life a misery. I’ve enough on my plate without my VP adding more shit to the pile.”

Leaving the office, in a respectful manner this time, I close the door as I go. It’s too early for a drink, and I don’t drink much anyway these days, so I go back out to my hog. I’m halfway to town before I realize that I don’t have my helmet on, and I don’t know where the hell I’m going.

Hearing a bike closing in on me from behind, I check my mirror and see Hellion sliding up to my right. I slow down and wait for him. As he pulls alongside, we stop and he reaches out, offering me my helmet.

“You’re a hard-headed bastard at times, but you still need this, brother.” He gives me this lopsided grin he has a habit of doing, and I can’t help but thank him and grin back. “Where are we headed?” He asks, and I can only shrug my shoulders.

“Follow me,” Hellion says as he pulls away, and I drop in behind him. We head out of town and follow some country roads into the back of nowhere. He turns up a dirt track, and I eat his dust for a mile or so before he stops and hops off his bike. He doesn’t wait for me, just walks away, and I follow along. Walking around a bend in the trail, I see him sitting on a rock and looking out over a fantastic view of a valley.

Sitting on a rock of my own, I just stare out, taking it all in. I have no words, and he doesn’t seem to mind as we sit there in silence.

“I don’t know…”

I begin to speak, but Hellion just shushes me, then he says, “You don’t have to know. Sometimes there isn’t a ‘know’, it’s just how we are for a time. When I recognize I’m being like you, I come up here and take it all in. I watch the farmer in his field, struggling against nature to grow his crops. I look at the town down there and think of all the families struggling to make ends meet. There’s a bar at the end of Main Street, and most weekends there is a police cruiser floating around just waiting to go break up the fights. I don’t know why but just sitting here and watching the world go by, thinking of other people struggling, I get to thinking. Hey, maybe my life isn’t so bad after all. We don’t have it bad at the club anymore. Whack made sure that we got away from the illegal shit and got our noses clean and our acts together.” He takes a moment and then continues.

“Most of us have a better life than we saw for ourselves when we left the service. Hell, I couldn’t see past my next drink for at least a year. It was a server at a roadside diner who snapped me out of it. She ripped me a new one in the parking lot one day when I was feeling particularly sorry for myself. I wasn’t as drunk as she thought I was, but I was drunk. She told me what her life was like, living with two kids who didn’t appreciate her and a husband who thought beating on her was a Saturday treat.”

“That's what made you go cold turkey?” I ask.

“Hell, no. I got so drunk that night that the hangover lasted damn near a week. The next time I went to the diner though, she had a black eye and a split lip. I followed her home that night and beat her old man to within an inch of his life. Her two sons were old enough to have stopped the beatings but didn’t care about her other than the money she brought in. I made her pack her belongings, and I threw them into the old junker I was living in. I drove her for miles to a town far away and gave her every last cent I had. That’s what made me go cold turkey. I don’t know what happened to her, but I know she never came back to that diner.” Hellion looks thoughtful, and I have to wonder why he never looked for her again.

“I guess I was lucky that I never spiraled when I left the service. I dropped straight into MC life and apart from the nightmares, never looked back.”

“All this talking has made me hungry. Let’s head back and see what’s on tonight's menu, shall we?” Hellion stands, we walk slowly back to our bikes, then head home.

Chapter 2

*~* Cannon *~*

Having the pickup has the brothers giving me a lot of grief and aggravation. I should have known that they would love giving me a hard time for having anything other than my hog. They forget how often they use the club’s SUVs or vans for their own personal use, as and when it suits them. My time will come. I just have to sit back and be patient.

I’m taking Molly to work this morning as a favor to Breaker. They are going out tonight when Molly finishes work, so he didn’t want her to have to drive home and then go back out again. I think he’s in for a shock because she is not going to want to go out anywhere straight from work without having a shower and a change of clothes. Not many women would go straight out from work without freshening up, depending on where they’re going, of course.

He told me he’s taking her on a date night, so if she knows that, and I’m betting Molly knows far more than Breaker thinks she knows, she is going to want to get freshened up.

Dropping her off at the practice, I see Barbara waving at us as she walks across the parking lot. As she gets closer, she gives us a beaming smile and then focuses her attention on me.

“Cannon, could you do me a favor later?” She asks this with a shy smile.

Now I like Barbara, she’s an angel, but I’m always wary of agreeing to unknown favors for anyone.

“Maybe,” I reply with a squint.

“I need a lift home after work. My old Toyota is playing up and I can’t get it looked at right now. Would that be something you could do for me?” She bats her eyelids at me and I cave straight away.