AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 3
Ajax
Four days later and I can’t wash her off. I didn’t even have her, but I can’t rid my thoughts of Claire Lawson. Her sweet face with its mischievous stare hovers over the world, colors it in her bronze complexion, laces the air with her perfume. On our way back from a drug run, I twist the throttle on my bike and race down the backroads while Rocco, Hunter, and our prospect, Scout, lag behind. The rushing air does little to erase her, an indelible mark on my psyche.
When we pull into the parking lot of the Rusty Chain, the boys all give me looks. “Don’t you guys always tell me it’s risky to speed like that during a run?” Scout says.
“Not after we’ve made the drop,” Rocco tells him, “so long as we haven’t picked up payment.” Rocco turns to me. “The boy’s learning.”
“Need to clear your head?” Hunter asks. “A fast joyride does that for me.”
“Your head’s never clear, Hunter,” Rocco says. “Like a junkyard up there, that’s why you’re always writing, to dump some of that shit out.”
“Is it the girl?” asks Scout.
“Now what girl would that be?” I question him. “When have you known me to get hung up on a single girl?”
Scout shrugs, but Rocco grins knowingly. “But maybe he’s right. Is Mr. Playboy falling for the poker babe?” He nudges Scout. “Bet he’d like to poke’r.”
Braddock emerges from the bar in time to rescue me from this juvenile conversation. “Fellas! Get your asses to the clubhouse, Kane and Tate want to review some business.”
As we make our way across the gravel parking lot, Braddock grabs my shoulder. “Not you, Ajax.”
I look at him quizzically. “What do you mean, not me?”
“You’ve got other business to attend to.” He nods back towards the bar with a grin. What the hell is he talking about? For a second, I peruse my hazy memories of the previous night, wondering if I made some sort of mess in the bar and forgot all about it. Despite my historic affinity for liquor, however, I’ve never once blacked out, which makes that possibility unlikely.
Braddock pushes through the front door and as I step in behind him, I see her.
For a moment, I doubt my sight, having been plagued by false Claires for days. But when she smiles at me, I realize she’s there, seated at the bar in a pair of jean cutoffs and a burnt orange blouse. I smile back at her then take up the seat beside her.
“Even when you dress down, you’re stunning.” I smell traces of her perfume on the air. “The same scent.”
“You remember?”
“It’s proven impossible to forget.”
Behind the bar, Stacy drifts over to us. “Would you two care for a drink?”
“Whiskey,” I say.
“Same,” says Claire.
I raise an eyebrow.
“I lived with my older brother for years, I just drank whatever he drank.”
“Where’s this older brother now?” I inquire. “Shouldn’t he be keeping you out of bars like this?”
Stacy delivers our drinks then floats away with a wink.
Claire leans in. “And what sort of bar is this? One where scary bikers congregate?”
“I guess not scary enough.”
She nibbles her bottom lip and for a moment all I can think of is chewing it myself. “Just the right amount, actually.” She raises her glass to her lips and I watch with rapt attention as she sips the whiskey. Then she lowers the glass back to the bar and says, “As for my brother, let’s say he’s hanging out wherever your unwanted family lives.”
I raise my glass for a toast. “To the bar of misfit family members. May our kin never set foot within these hallowed walls.”
