Chapter Thirty-Three
Ian
“Whoa! You look like shit,” Chris said the moment I walked into the shop that Monday.
He was right. I did look like shit. I hadn’t slept a wink since the party, and it was clear from the dark rings under my eyes. I nodded but didn’t say anything. Truthfully, I just didn’t know what to say, anyway.
“Ah, not even a snarky comment. You must be pretty shaken by the whole thing. So, aren’t you even going to tell me what happened?”
I looked at him and frowned. “How do you know that something happened?”
“It’s all over the papers, dude.”
“What? You’re kidding me!”
“Nope. Here, check it out!” Chris said and threw the newspaper my way.
I wasn’t just in the newspaper: I was on the front page, and everything that they had said was a lie.
“Bastards. I can’t believe this.” I looked up at Chris. “You do know that none of this is true, right?”
“I know nothing because you won’t tell me. So, what happened?”
I told him the story about Raymond showing up and how he’d tried to hit me.
“So, I hit him back.”
“Naturally. I would’ve done the same. Who was this guy, anyway?”
“A Californian idiot. Big fake smile with bright white teeth.”
Chris pulled a face. “I hope you punched him in the mouth.”
“Of course. It was the first place I went for.”
“So, what happened next? I mean, something must’ve happened for you to go to jail?”
“Nope. Nothing happened. Raymond was so drunk that he passed out the minute I punched him. Next thing I knew, Eliza had called the police.”
“The police? Why? They didn’t have to get involved.”
I sighed. “Exactly. But Eliza didn’t realize that. She saw Raymond passed out and figured the cops could help.”
“Clearly she has not had a lot of dealings with the cops before.”
“Clearly not. They took one look at me and locked me up. Raymond too. And then this whole story came out. And they put my full name in, as well as the club details, and the shop. This is so bad. So bad. My dad is going to freak.”
“It’s not your fault, man.”
“Well, you and I both know that. But try telling that to the rest of the world.”
“Man, that bites.”
Just then, my father appeared in the doorway.
“Ian, please can you come to the office?”
He looked smaller than usual, and I wondered how his treatment was going. But from the look on his face, I had a feeling that we were not going to be talking about his treatment.
“Good luck, man,” Chris said. “Shout if you need back up.”
I made my way into the office where my father was holding up a copy of the same newspaper that I had just read over. He asked me to explain what had happened, so I took him through the entire event. I also told him all about Eliza and hoped that he would understand where I was coming from. He’d liked Eliza so much, after all, and surely he would’ve stuck up for her too. For the most part, he listened intently to the conversation, and it looked like he might be on my side. But then he sighed deeply when I was done, and I wasn’t so sure anymore.
“This whole thing is just very unfortunate right now, Ian. It doesn’t exactly give us a good name, as I’m sure you’ll agree.”
“Of course I’ll agree. That’s why I’m so upset about it all. I mean, they twisted everything to make me look like the bad guy. You know the cops have never liked the club. And that’s not my fault. The club had a bit of a bad reputation back in the day. It’s not like that anymore, but they are still desperate to pin things on us. And the media loves a good story.”
“True. But you probably shouldn’t have hit that guy in the first place. Then none of this would’ve happened.”
I sat back in my chair with disbelief.
“Dad, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, anything,” he said.
“What would you have done?”
“How much do you like this girl?”
“A lot. More than a lot.”
“Then I guess I would’ve done the same.”
I nodded. That was all I needed to hear. I was just about to get up and leave when he stopped me.
“Wait. That’s not all, Ian. Like I said, it’s unfortunate that all this has happened. But it did. So for now, maybe while everything dies down, I think it’s best if Grant is the face of the club for a while. We really don’t need the bad publicity.”
“Patriot? You want Patriot to take over the club? Are you serious? But I’m the one that lives and breathes the club. Not him. I’m the one that has been there through everything. Not him. And I’m the one that stood up in front of all the members last week and ran an entire meeting without any issues whatsoever. Not him. But fine, let him take over. He can clearly do no harm in your eyes.”
I stood up and walked out.
“Uh oh. I take it that didn’t go well?”
“Nope,” I said. I grabbed my coat. “And I’m going home. I honestly do not want to be here today. If any work comes in for me, tell them I’ll be in tomorrow. I’m sorry to leave you like this, Chris, but I really just need to get out.”
He nodded. “Go. Go. I’ve got it here.”
I smiled at him. He was quite possibly the only person that truly understood me. “Thanks, man, I appreciate it,” I said and walked out.
I spent the rest of the day in bed. I didn’t even have the energy to go out for a ride. And that in itself was saying quite a lot. The only reason I finally got out of bed that afternoon was because there was a loud knock on my door.
“Patriot? What are you doing here?” I asked when I saw my brother standing in the doorway.
“Did you just get out of bed?” he asked.
“Yeah. Come in. Beer?”
“Sure,” he said and I went to fetch us both a beer.
“So, what are you doing here?” I asked.
“Well, I came to see what happened. I read the paper.”
“I also heard that you’re taking over from the club.”
“Pop’s rules. Not mine,” he said and held up his hand.
I grunted. “Yeah, whatever. I don’t care anymore.”
“So, tell me the story. What happened? Because none of this seems right to me. I’m assuming this is just another case of the media twisting a story to suit them.”
“It’s so good to hear you say that,” I said, and for the first time I was glad that my brother was there with me. “It’s total bullshit. It’s not at all what happened. Well, I did punch the guy. But he deserved it.”
I told Patriot the entire story, and he listened with intent. Afterward he told me that he completely believed me.
“You do?”
He laughed. “Hey, don’t sound so surprised by that. Of course I believe you. First, you’re my brother. And second, I know these guys well enough to know how they write their stories. They’ve been dying to get something on the club for a long time. This just gave them a reason. It’s pretty sick though. I mean, they didn’t even mention Raymond by name. I love the way that he just gets away free when he was the one that started it all.”
“Exactly!” I said.
“Although, I’m sure it felt good to hit him,” Patriot said and grinned at me.
I couldn’t help but grin back. I’d been dreaming about hitting Raymond ever since Eliza had told me about him. “No, not good. It felt great!”
“So, this girl, Eliza. You like her?”
“I like her a lot.”
“But she snitched on you.”
“I know. That wasn’t cool. But you know, the more I think about it, the more I think she didn’t really do anything wrong. She doesn’t know the sort of history that the club has with the cops. She doesn’t know everything that I’ve been through. It’s not her fault.”
“Yeah, but do you really want a girl like that around? I mean, maybe you shouldn’t be with her. I think you need to leave her well alone. There are plenty of other fish in the sea. And maybe you’ll find someone a little bit more . . . your type.”
My type? What exactly was my type? I thought about Eliza in her long blue dress and her white sneakers and I sighed. She was what I wanted. Wasn’t she?
I took another sip of beer and then threw it into the dustbin. It landed perfectly with just one throw.
“Nice. Let me try,” Patriot said.
He finished his and then threw. It missed by millimeters.
“Ha! You’ve lost your touch,” I said. I laughed as he ran to fetch the can and try again. And just like that, the topic was changed, and we went back to talking about stupid things like beer throwing. But even though I wasn’t talking about it anymore, it was impossible to forget his words. And maybe you’ll find someone a little bit more your type.