Tanner
“This the place?” Tyke asked.
“Look like it,” Tanner said. “At least, I think it is.”
The two men were pulled up in front of Aaron's childhood home. Rather, it was as far as Tanner could remember. He hadn't been overly close with the Roaming Wolf when they were kids, so he thought he remembered being over here one time or another.
The house itself was a rundown shack. Ten or fifteen years before, it might have been presentable. But, not anymore. The paint was peeling off in giant strips, and it looked like a branch had taken out an eve at one point and exposed some rotten wood in the beams. A small front porch stood at the front, with a busted porch swing hanging by one chain on one end.
“Well, let's go see who's home,” Tyke said as he swung his leg over his chopper.
Together, the two men ambled up to the front steps.
“Goddammit!” Tyke yelped. He must have stepped wrong, because the board on the second step snapped with a sickening crunch, plunging his leg down almost to the knee.
“Just a busted board,” Tanner said as he offered a hand to pull him back out. “Come on, now.”
Tyke got up out of the hole with Tanner's help. As he was bent over brushing wooden splinters off his jeans and boots, he glanced up and caught Tanner's eye. “You getting like a Texas Chainsaw vibe off this place?”
“A little. If they invite us in, don't sit in the leather chairs.”
“Especially if it has a face on it. Got it.”
They turned back to the front door, a plain, unpainted wooden one with no windows. They tried the buzzer that was installed to the right of it, but there was no sounds of chimes or bells inside, so they just knocked.
A minute or so later, they heard bustling inside the house. Slow, deliberate movement. “Just a minute,” an older-sounding woman said from the other side.
Whoever it was on other side flipped some deadbolts and pulled back the chain before answering the door. She was a wizened, bespectacled, little old woman, easily in her seventies, that only came up to Tanner's chest.
“Hello?” she asked, peering up at them. “May I help you?”
Tanner and Tyke both looked at each other knowingly. They must have gotten the wrong house.
She squinted her eyes and leaned forward a little, maybe to better focus on them. Then, she decided that wasn't working, and moved backwards. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I see your vests! Are you Aaron's friends?”
Both men exchanged glances again, with Tyke having an undeniable little grin on his lips.
Tanner turned to the little old woman, smiling as pleasantly as he could. “Yes, ma'am, we are. We were actually wondering if you could help us find Aaron?”
“Oh, that nephew of mine,” she said with a long sigh. “Always running off and disappearing. He doesn't tell me anything anymore. Not that he ever did, mind you. But the occasional call wouldn't be too much to ask for, would it?”
“No, ma'am,” Tyke said, shaking his head vigorously. “We feel the exact same. We've been looking for him for days now, but he's not even answering his phone.”
“Well,” she said after a moment, “I know he had been staying with some girlfriend of his, just until he got his own place. I don't necessarily approve of those kind of living arrangements, of course, but these modern kids and their ways still astound me. Why, back in my day, that kind of behavior just wasn't appropriate for proper individuals to engage in.”
“Do you remember this girlfriend's name?” Tanner asked. “Or where she was living?”
“Ashley, I think. No last name, I'm afraid.”
Tyke looked at him, eyebrow raised. “Do we know any Ashleys?” his facial expression said.
Tanner thought he knew of one, a girl who drank at the Old Crow sometimes. He knew she ran with bikers most of the time, but wasn't exclusive to any of the clubs in the area. Early twenties, cute in a trashy kind of way. He figured she'd be as good a place to start as any, and could probably start the hunt for her down at the Crow.
“Does that help you?” Aaron's aunt asked. “Will that help you boys find my nephew?”
“I think it will, ma'am,” Tanner said, a fake smile plastered on his face. “Have a wonderful day, now.”
She beamed at her ability to help out the two nice, young men. “You too, dearie. Have a blessed day.”
They were down off the porch and back onto their bikes in no time.
“Crow?” Tyke asked.
“Yep,” Tanner said. “Jethro can probably get us in touch with the girl. Then we can start there.”
# # #
They parked in the lot in front of the Regal, a roach motel of the highest order, and hopped off their bikes. It was one of those open-court styles, a single level with all the rooms facing out to the parking lot. A broken neon sign flashed on and off, advertising M-NTHLY RMS FOR RENT.
Jethro, after a few well-placed phone calls, had led them to this place in search of Ashley. Apparently, she'd been staying in one of the rooms for the last few months. Together, the two men ambled down the sidewalk to her place.
They skipped all the niceties on this one, and just pounded on the door. Inside, Tanner could hear movement, shuffling of stuff on tables. Whoever was in there, Ashley presumably, was worried they were the cops or something.
“Ashley,” Tanner called through the door. “Open up. We just wanna talk to you.”
“You the fucking pigs, man?”
“No,” he replied, “we ain't the fucking pigs. We're here to ask you about Aaron.”
“Aaron? Fuck that guy, man. He's a fucking asshole. I don't want anything to do with anyone who knows that son of a bitch.”
“He ain't exactly our friend, neither,” Tyke said. “So just open the goddamn door and you can tell us all about how big of a fucking asshole he is.”
She fiddled with the locks on her side and threw the door open.
She was a petite blonde girl, barely over five feet tall, and maybe weighed a hundred pounds, with a shock of bright blue at the front of her hair. Piercings covered her ears and face, but didn't do much to distract from the giant shiner over one eye.
Ashley pointed to her black eye. “That tell you enough?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Geez,” Tyke said. “Didn't expect it to get that descriptive.”
She looked them up and down. “Hey, I know you guys. You're Blood Warriors, right?”
“Yep,” Tyke said, propping himself up against the frame of the door with one hand. “That's us.”
“You gonna kick his ass when you find him?” she asked.
They didn't reply. The less they said, the better.
“You guys wanna come in? Have a beer or something?”
Tyke glanced towards Tanner, nearly begging with the look he was flashing him.
Tanner shook his head, almost imperceptibly. They were here on business.
“Really shouldn't,” Tyke said, his voice downtrodden.
“You know where to find Aaron?” Tanner asked, wanting to make this quick. This chick looked like a classic club girl, a biker groupie with no shame. If he wasn't careful, she'd be pawing at Tyke like it was going out of style, and then he'd have to spend the next hour and a half trying to get the guy out of her clutches. “It's important.”
She shook her head. “Nope. Last time I saw him was about a week ago. He disappeared one night when we were supposed to be hanging out. Got into an argument with him,” she said, pointing to her eye, “and he gave me this. Haven't seen the cocksucker since.”
“Any idea where he might have gone?” Tanner asked. “Friends? Places he might layup?”
“Checked his aunt's house?”
Both men nodded.
“Not there, huh?” She opened her mouth and played with her tongue ring, idly clicking it against her teeth. Beside Tanner, Tyke was mesmerized by the display.
“How we found you,” Tanner replied.
“Only other place I can think of is the Wolves clubhouse, then. No one else wants that psycho motherfucker around any more than I do.”
“Thanks,” Tanner said, slapping the frame of the door and turning around. He grabbed Tyke and pulled him along, and made sure the poor bastard's tongue was rolled up back in his mouth first.
“You kick that motherfucker’s ass when you see him!” she yelled after them as they left.
So, that was it, then. He was probably at the clubhouse, if only because no one else would let him stick around. Looks like they were back to square one. But, on the bright side, he had to come out of there sometime. A man wasn't meant to be a caged animal. Especially not if that man was a biker.