Outside, the air was still and sharp. Jaxson mounted his bike, slid the key into the ignition, and cranked the engine. As it roared to life, he felt the same sparks of excitement fly through his body, the same way he’d felt on that first ride as a younger man. He loved it. He sped out of the parking lot and out onto the street. The road was calm and quiet, just how he liked it. As he revved the engine more he felt free and alive; a surge of adrenaline coursed through his blood. Riding would always be his salvation—the perfect exhilarating escape. It was no wonder his passion for bikes had become an obsession over the years.

Ten minutes later, he slowed to pull into the car-parking-lot outside of the clubhouse building. He looked left and right at the other bikes to see who was here. Six of the guys were already inside, and that included Antonio. Fucking great… He took off his sunglasses, dismounted, and headed towards the entrance.

When Jaxson stepped into the dimly lit room, and even now in this early hour, it was filled with choking smoke. The smell of cigarettes and old liquor hung in the air. Heavy metal music was blaring out of two large speakers that sat on either end of the counter of the bar that covered one side of the room.

Goddamn it. Not today.

He coughed and grabbed a stool from the workbench to his left and propped the outside door open, to air out the room. With the raging noise in the place, none of the guys had noticed him come in yet. Half sat tinkering with parts for their bikes, the others sipping black coffee at the bar and talking to Kelsey, Antonio’s girl.

Jaxson’s eyes darted quickly around the room and locked down on Antonio at the bar‒his mind sharply trying to assess the degree of potential danger. He knew to expect trouble. There was too much background noise to discern what Antonio was talking about‒but for now–he seemed to be in a pleasant and calm enough mood.

He turned his head to the three guys at a workbench just ahead of him and cleared his throat. “Didn’t I tell you fella’s Bruno was coming in today?” Jaxson asked, sternly.

One of the men jolted, then quickly alerted the others to Jaxson’s presence. In a matter of seconds, all six pairs of eyes looked up at him. They froze for a moment.

“I fucking cleared this place out yesterday.” His footsteps echoed as he walked across the room, thrusting open a window and the doublewide doors that lead to the back of the shop at one end of the main room, to ventilate the clubhouse.

“I did tell you not to smoke in here. Tidy this place up. And open another window for Christ’s sake! Bruno will be here at eleven am.”

“Sorry, boss,” a few of them muttered as they jumped up, snubbing out their cigarettes and shuffling their things around, keeping conversation to a minimum. The music stopped a few seconds later.

Jaxson exhaled deeply and glanced around the room again, inspecting the place before sitting down on the old sofa in one corner. He tried to relax a little, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.

From the corner of his eye, he could see that Antonio hadn’t moved to help the others. Fucking typical. Over the past few months, he’d become increasingly bitter and uncooperative. Still sat on his barstool on the far side of the room, back turned, it was apparent Antonio was trying to make a point.

“Lazy bastard,” Dino, Jaxson’s friend whispered as he carried a chair past.

“Ignore him. A reaction is what he wants,” Jaxson replied.

“Well, he sure is asking for it. Boy, he’s so smug, sitting there, still smoking, like he doesn’t answer to anybody…like he doesn’t give a shit who sees him doing it. If De Luca could see him now….” Dino made a cut-throat motion across his neck. He put down the chair and rolled his eyes.

“Would suit him to put those smokes down for once,” Jaxson commented, in a hushed tone.

“Yeah, maybe the fucker would eat something,” Dino mocked with a deep chuckle, eyeing Antonio’s lanky frame up and down. It seemed extraordinary to them that the great Bruno De Luca could have a son that wound up like looking this. It might be a petty thing to say, but it was the truth.

“Seeing as Antonio is a brother, we’ll treat him with respect,” Jaxson replied.

Dino nodded.

Jaxson didn’t say another word. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t let Antonio work him up today. It didn’t take a lot to set Antonio off. The man was the unstable type with a ferocious temper. And today, wasn’t a good day to be setting him off.

Antonio was a short, string bean of a man – 5’8 or 5’9 – with a terrier-like temper and a pretty face; nothing like his father, and certainly no match for Jaxson. Numerous times in the past, Antonio had blown up with violence far beyond the scale of anything used by the rest of the group.

“That cocksucker. Look at that smug grin still on his face, acting like you don’t even exist,” Dino commented in disgust.

Jaxson glanced up at the clock and took one last look around the room; Bruno would be here any moment. His eyes unwillingly drifted back to Antonio. At least he could see his face now, as he teased and flirted with Kelsey behind the bar. Jaxson noted that he was casting an eye in his direction every 20 seconds or so.

That couldn’t be a good sign.

“Seen that bruise on her cheek?” Dino asked

Jaxson’s eyes widened and he felt his blood start to boil with rage. “How the fuck did that happen?”

“Antonio gave that to her last night when we were out. The guys heard him, screaming, shouting, calling her a whore,” Dino whispered.

“Son of a bitch. He makes me so mad!” Jaxson growled. “Men don’t need to be hitting women. That just isn’t right.” Jaxson took a deep breath and stood up. He grabbed stacks of empty pizza boxes, crushed beer cans, and empty cigarette boxes that somebody had so kindly taken the time to drop down the back of the sofa, and threw them into the trash. Anything to distract himself and break down the fire of adrenaline burning up his insides.

“Shit. If he was any kind of man…..” Jaxson’s instincts screamed at him to go over there and tear his head off.

But the both of them know they couldn’t get involved. As Antonio’s girl, she was fundamentally – in practical terms completely – off limits to all of them.

“I want nothing more than to make him fucking pay.” Jaxson sneered.