Beat-Down

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SATURDAY NIGHT, JUSTIN called me, because he’d heard I was singing in town. When I left, the band split up for good, but I thought they would join other bands. Before The Greys were together, we all were in different bands that didn’t work out or our agents felt weren’t a good fit. However, if he was calling me, that meant he wasn’t on tour, which meant he wasn’t in a band. His wife probably loved that.

“You come to town and don’t tell nobody huh?” he asked in his usual jovial tone.

“Yeah, man. It was just a spur of the moment thing.” I felt chastised. “But, how have you been?” I exclaimed. “It’s been a long time.”

“Yeah, it has. A lot has happened since the band broke up.” He paused. “We missed you.”

“Yeah, I missed you guys too. It just got a little crazy after a while.”

Justin knew damn well how crazy it had become. Scott was having breakdowns every other rehearsal. Justin’s crazy ass wife kept coming up and causing all types of drama with him and me. She was positive that Justin and I had screwed around. The sad part about it all was that we actually hadn’t. Well, technically hadn’t.

One drunken night, Justin tried to kiss me. Even in my drunken state, I pushed him away. We were only friends and that was all we would ever be since he was married. Now, if he wasn’t married.

Well.

Justin and I could have been an item. He was thoughtful, sweet and a helluva guitar player. He was also a great friend and that meant a lot more to me.

“How long you in town for?” he asked.

“A while,” I answered. “You still live in Huntstown?”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Let’s get together for a beer.”

“Okay, cool. I’m going to be at Peppers tonight. Meet you there?”

“Yup, that’s perfect. Nine work for you?”

“Yup, see you. Looking forward to catching up.” I smiled.

“Me too.”

******

PEPPERS was crowded as usual. The music was hot, drinks were flowing and the people were buzzed. Shay and Lori made a pact to get me out every weekend so I could get acquainted with the town again. It had been a long time, so it was needed. Soon, I’d have to start looking for a job. I had a nice nest egg, but I wanted to keep some for a real rainy day.

There were some familiar faces here unlike at Wiley’s, where a lot of the ‘out-of-towners’ usually came through. Sometimes the local college students would swing by, but you could easily point them out. Fresh faced and mischief written all over them.

“Do we have to go out every weekend?” I whined to the girls.

I even tried to get out of going because of my eye. However, after Shay put makeup over it and styled my hair so it covered the left side of my face, I almost looked like nothing had happened.

Almost.

“Yup, every damn weekend,” Shay said with her eyes narrowed on me. “There is only so much FaceTime, Facebook and other social media communication we can do. Now we are in make-up mode.”

“Exactly,” Lori chimed in.

The door opened and several guys walked in, but only one of them looked familiar.

Razor.

He did not see me, so I definitely turned around so I would not be seen by him. He sauntered in like he owned the joint.

Arrogant son of a bitch.

Shay had disappeared by the time I turned back around and Lori was chatting it up with another guy. We were sitting off to the side at an island designed for patrons to sit down, order drinks and maybe an appetizer. Not much else could be held on the small countertop but there were plenty of seats. Someone touched my back on the right side, but when I turned, no one was there. I swiveled my stool to the left and saw Justin Carter in the flesh, looking like a million bucks.

“Justin!” I screamed and flung myself at him.

He caught me and swung me around.

“Kylie Mills. So fucking good to see you.” He put me down.

“Yes. Oh my God. You look so good!” I exclaimed while still holding on to him.

“Well, shit. You are the one that looks good. Always did.”

Oh boy.

“Let’s get a drink.” I motioned for the bar.

“Yeah.” He smiled and put his arm around my back. “Let’s do that.”

We started to walk towards the bar when a tall man stepped in front of us. When I looked up, I saw the president stitching under the Guardians’ patch.

“She yours?” Razor said through gritted teeth.

“What are you doing?” I was yelling over the crowd.

“Won’t say it again. Is. She. Yours?”

“Not sure why that’s any of your business,” Justin said while holding me tighter.

“Your hands are on her like she’s yours. I’ll just assume she is.” Razor smirked.

If I had known what was going to happen next, I would have never invited Justin to come out. Razor slightly turned his head and then he punched Justin right in the face, sending him flying backward and sliding across the floor. The place was packed but that punch moved people out of the damn way.

Justin was a solid guy standing six feet tall and husky. He was not a small man, but the way he flew back like a rag doll was almost impressive.

Almost.

I lost my shit.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I screamed.

I hadn't realized that I had moved toward him and raised my hand to slap him. He caught me by the wrist and growled in my face, “You need a man that will take care of business inside of the bedroom and out; exhausting you from fucking and weak from cuming, both sets of lips swollen from nips and bites, not from hits and gripes. Your eyes should be filled with tears of ecstasy, not from physical abuse.”

What?

We stared at each other for a long moment. It felt like an eternity. He was angry, upset and disappointed in me. He thought that I would allow someone to hit me and stay with him. He must have thought that someone was Justin and went about correcting it for me. Razor did not even know me, but he saw something and decided an eye for an eye, literally. How I gathered all of that from the look in those damn eyes, I had no clue, but I read it just the same.

I opened my mouth to say something to him, but he dropped my wrist and stalked off. My body, on the other hand, stayed planted there with my eyes staring at the same spot Razor used to occupy. Someone took his place and when my focus cleared up, I saw it was Lori.

“What the hell just happened?” she yelled over the music.

“Razor just happened.” I turned swiftly to see Justin getting ice from the bar.

As I scanned the area, I saw that there were more than the usual amount of guys with cuts on and they were all eyeing us suspiciously.

Walking towards Justin, I exclaimed, “Oh my God!. I’m sooo sorry.”

He shook his head and said, “It’s not your fault. Fuck. He has a mean left hook. Your ex or something?”

“No, just some guy I turned down, who can’t let go. I think.”

Razor was a ball of confusion. Rough, angry, yet avenging.

“Well, it seems like he likes you.” He tried to smile.

“Let’s get outta here.” I turned towards Lori. “We’re leaving. I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Wait, I’ll come...”

I cut her off, “No, you guys stay. I want to catch up with Justin and I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?”

“Yeah, okay. I can’t find Shay anyway. I’m sure she’s in a closet somewhere.” She shook her head.

“Okay. See you.”

Justin and I left for the burger joint in town. He was trying to be nice about the entire thing, but I was feeling a range of emotions, anger being one of them.  I told him about the situation and why my eye was covered with makeup.

“Now, we have matching black and blue eyes.” Justin laughed.

“It’s not funny, Justin. I swear I want to kick his ass.”

“Well, serves me right.” He shook his head. “I did not account for the men in your life when I put my arm around you. That was possessive. He picked up on it and called me out.”

“I don’t give one fuck. He had no right punching you!” I exclaimed. “He and I aren’t a thing.”

“Kylie, he’s a Guardian. That’s what they do.” Justin looked at me while holding the ice wrapped in a towel to his eye. “If he felt like you were being beat on, they step in. Usually, it’s when people ask for help, but sometimes, it’s because they are drawing the line in the sand. Like tonight.”

“Drawing a line in the sand? What the fuck does that mean?” I took a bite of my burger. “You know I don’t speak biker.”

“Making a play. Dropping the gauntlet. Laying down the law. Taking the girl.” He leaned in. “You get it.”

“Shut the fuck up.” I shook my head at him. “Razor can kick rocks.”

“Well, as long as you’re kicking them with him, you’ll be fine. He doesn’t usually chase women, Kylie.”

We had to get off of this subject because I did not want to think of Razor, the crazy biker, barbarian chasing after me.

“Where’s your other half?” I asked.

“Right here.” He pointed to himself.

“What?”

“We’ve divorced.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said sincerely.

“No, the fuck you’re not.” He erupted in laughter. “You hated her guts.”

“Well, this is true.” I smiled. “However, you loved her, so there you go.”

He laughed some more and then said, “Well, she was toxic. Causing many of my relationships to go south, including ours and I never wanted that.”

My head nodded and that was all. I would not trash-talk her because, despite all of that, he still loved her. He had tolerated her mess for years.

“Thought you might have been the one for a long time, but you were gone.”

Oookaay.

I put my drink down and looked at him. Half of me could not believe he was saying this and the other half of me thought it sucked that he had the worst timing in the world.

“Uh. Look, Justin. This is the worst timing ever. I’m just not...”

He held up his hand. “No, Kylie. I get it.” He pointed to his eye and then said, “Oh, I get it.”

“Wait. Oh hell no.” I started to say. “Razor and...”

“Kylie, you and Razor need to talk.” He sipped the last of his soda. “So, if you need a guitar player the next time you go out I’ll make myself available.”

“Justin ...,” I started to explain how it was just that one night at Wiley’s.

“I’m available is all I’m saying. No band, no rekindling, just here if you need one.”

We left the burger joint a few hours later.  When I finally tried to sleep, I tossed and turned thinking of Razor.

Nobody but a gray-eyed Razor, the president of the motherfucking biker club in town.