Zack sat on a stool in a dive bar in Memphis, drinking his beer and waiting for his contact to arrive. The guy was late and Zack was beginning to get pissed off. He was in one of the worst areas of the city and the bar smelled like piss. When he ordered his beer, the bartender started to pour it in a glass. Zack stopped her and grabbed the bottle. No way he was drinking out of anything in the nasty bar. Just sitting on the stool gave him the creeps. He kept feeling things crawling on him. He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, or if there really were bugs crawling around. A couple of times he saw a different guy head to the back with a woman that could only be described as tore up from the floor up, and come back five or ten minutes later. It was obvious that she was handing out hand jobs or blow jobs, and he shuddered to think what kind of presents were getting passed around that might not show up until much later. If this guy didn’t make it in the next fifteen minutes, Zack was out of there. This Spider guy had reached out to the Invaders with a proposition, not the other way around. If he wanted to do business with them badly enough, the asshole could figure out how to show up next time.

He finished his beer and looked at his phone for the tenth time. His president had sent him here to meet with this guy, or he would have left already. He was pressing in the number he’d used to contact this Spider guy before, when the front door burst open and a woman, holding something in a blue blanket in her arms, ran into the bar. It might have been a baby, but Zack had to wonder what mother in her right mind would bring a baby into this hellhole.

Boredom, curiosity, and the fact that even though she was slightly disheveled, she was hot, made Zack sit up and take notice. She had long brown hair and huge hazel eyes. Her nose was long and slim and she had dark red, full lips. She looked clean, but she was wearing a pair of cutoff jeans that looked like they had been washed a hundred times and a faded peach-colored t-shirt, stretched out around the collar and sleeves. On her feet, she had a pair of flip-flops that looked like the kind they sold at the dollar store, and the blanket that whatever she was carrying was wrapped in was well worn as well.

Zack became especially interested in what was going on when he saw that the guy who raced in after her was wearing a Defenders patch on his kutte. The guy that Zack was there to meet belonged to the Defenders. Zack’s president was trying to set up a relationship with them so they could move guns through their territory without getting shot in the process. Zack folded his arms across his chest and listened.

“Don’t walk away from me, bitch.” His voice was loud, but Zack was the only one in the bar who was obviously paying attention. He instantly disliked the man. There was never any reason to call a woman names like that, especially in a public place. He looked around again and still, he was the only one watching the show. It was probably thanks to that Defenders patch the man wore. That club was the closest thing Tennessee had to the Head Hunters in Texas, and people with half a brain tended to avoid them. Zack may have underestimated the collective intellect of the people surrounding him.

“We’re finished, Spider, okay? Why can’t you just accept that?” The woman’s voice was lower than his and she was looking around the bar like she was embarrassed, and maybe afraid. Zack was trying to mind his own business, but when Spider stepped up into her face with his fists clenched, he stood up.

“Spider?”

The man spun around and the woman’s pretty hazel eyes were suddenly on Zack. “Dude, you must be Zack!” He held out his hand, but Zack just looked at it and then back at the woman. She was clutching the blanket tighter and Zack could see something moving in it. Ignoring Spider’s greeting altogether, he looked at the woman and said:

“Everything okay here?”

“Everything is fine.” Spider answered for her. “This is my old lady.” He said that like it was a challenge. Zack finally put his eyes on the other man’s face and smiled.

“Funny, I could have sworn I heard her say it was over between the two of you.”

Zack could see the change in the other man’s face. His dark eyes narrowed and the fake smile on his face fell away. “I’m not sure how y’all do things up in Clarksville, but here in Memphis, we mind our own business.”

Zack kept the smile on his face as he said, “Back in Clarksville, we talk to our women with respect…and if we don’t, we expect the ass-whoopin’ we’ve got coming to us.”

Spider looked like he was barely containing his temper. He breathed in and then out slowly before pasting another fake smile on his face and saying, “You know what, you’re right. I got angry and said things I didn’t mean.” He turned back to the woman and said, “You go on home now, we’ll talk later.”

“How am I supposed to get home now?”

“Take a cab,” he said, almost dismissively, as he turned his back to her again.

“You rushed me out of the house without my purse or his diaper bag. I don’t have money to take a cab.” Spider gave Zack a look like they were on the same side, and they both thought she was an idiot, before sighing heavily and pulling a twenty out of his pocket. He tossed it at her and she tried to catch it, but it floated to the floor. The woman clutched the blanket with one arm and bent down to get it, but Zack already had it in his hand. Their eyes met halfway up and he handed the money to her. She gave him a half-smile and said, “Thank you,” almost in a whisper. She glanced once more at Spider and then stepped around him and started for the door. Spider looked at Zack with that plastic smile stuck to his face and said:

“Excuse me, I just want to make sure they get into a cab safe. I’ll be right back.” Zack watched him follow her out, and he couldn’t miss the nervous look she gave Spider over her shoulder when she realized that he was following her. Zack tried to stay where he was, but something told him that the woman was going to suffer for the anger Zack had provoked in Spider. He went over and pushed through the heavy bar door. The couple was standing a few feet away and Spider had his hand on the woman’s arm, gripping it so tightly that even from where Zack stood, he could see the blanching of her skin around his fingers. He also saw a chubby little arm and a tiny little hand reaching up out of the blanket and touching her face. The scene made his blood boil, and he didn’t give a shit if he messed up this deal with the Defenders or not. He walked up behind Spider just in time to hear him say, “Don’t be stupid, you need me.”

Zack said, “Get your hand off her.”

Spider looked around at Zack and rolled his eyes. “Hey…dude…she’s my old lady. With all due respect, stay out of this, okay?”

“It’s okay…” the woman started to say. Zack stepped in closer so his chest was nearly pressing into Spider’s arm.

“Let. Go. Of. Her. Arm.” Zack could see Spider’s chest rise and fall. The look on his face told him that he was weighing the pros and cons of getting into a parking lot fight with a man who belonged to a club that his needed. He dropped the woman’s arm. It already looked like it was bruising, and Zack wanted to knock him out just for that. The fact that he smelled like an ashtray and sour whiskey only intensified the feeling.

The woman looked up at Zack. The look in her eyes was grateful, but Zack wasn’t offended by the fact that she didn’t thank him out loud. It would probably just get her into more trouble later. “You okay to get home?” Zack asked her.

“Okay, that’s fucking it! Who do you think you are, talking to my woman…”

“I’m not your woman, Spider.” That time Spider didn’t control himself. He turned back to the woman and, using his open palm, he smacked her on the side of the head. She let out a little cry and he said:

“Shut the fuck up and go home!” Zack had been caught off-guard by the smack Spider gave her, but before he finished his sentence, Zack had hold of the front of his vest with one hand and in seconds his fist connected with the side of the piece of shit’s head. As soon as it did, the man’s knees buckled and Zack let go of him with a little shove. He fell backwards onto the pavement, and his head hit it and bounced and hit it again. The first time it hit, Spider was looking up at him in shock; the second time, he was out cold.

“Oh my God!” the woman said with her free hand covering her mouth. “What did you do?”

Zack drew his brows together and as he rubbed his sore knuckles he said, “I was standing up for you.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t ask you to do that. Do you know how pissed off he’ll be when he comes to?”

“So what? You just let him treat you like shit so as not to piss him off?”

“You don’t know anything about it. I left him. I was finished with him…”

“Right, and how did that work out for you?” His eyes went back to the blanket. The baby was wiggling a lot now and making soft whining noises. “Seems to me that being dragged into a roach-infested bar with your baby in your arms might be a clue it’s not working out.”

“I’m not sure who you are…or…”

Zack smiled and interrupted her. With his hand out he said, “Name’s Zack. Pleased to meet you.”

She just looked down at his hand and then back at his face with an indignant look and said, “Please, just mind your own business. I’m going to get out of here before he wakes up.”

“And when he comes knocking on your door later?”

“It’s really nothing for you to be concerned about.” She sighed and said, “But thank you. I have to go now.” The taxi that either she or Spider called had pulled up along the curb. She put the now fussing baby up on her shoulder and headed over to it. Zack followed her. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t like the idea of never seeing her again. He pulled the door to the taxi open for her and she gave him another annoyed look before sliding inside. Before he closed the door, he looked at the cabbie and said:

“You have a pen, man?”

The man handed an ink pen over the seat. Zack pulled a dollar bill out of his pocket and wrote his name and cell number on it. “In case he gives you any more trouble,” he said, holding it out to the woman.

“I don’t need…”

“Me. I know,” Zack interrupted her. “Will you take it anyways, for my peace of mind?”

The woman took the dollar out of his hand. When their fingers touched, Zack felt a zing of electricity that landed right in his crotch. What is it about this woman? “Thank you,” she almost whispered. She pulled the door handle and Zack stepped back as she closed it. He tapped on the window as soon as she did. She rolled her eyes but lowered the window a crack.

“What’s your name?”

She sighed, but said, “Nicole,” before rolling the window back up and dismissing him. Zack watched the taxi drive away until it was out of sight. When he turned back toward Spider, the other man was beginning to stir. He had another vision of the asshole smacking Nicole in her head. The asshole wasn’t as big as Zack, but he wasn’t small either. He was about six foot tall to Nicole’s five-five or so, and 175 or 180 to her 125 soaking-wet. Zack was suddenly pissed off again. He crouched down and said:

“Hey, Spider?”

The other man looked disoriented and tried to lift his head up off the ground. “Huh?”

“Don’t fuck with Nicole again.”

Proving he didn’t have half a brain, Spider struggled to sit up, rubbing the back of his head as he said, “Or?” Zack smiled as he hit him again. That time he’d probably be out a lot longer. Zack got to his feet and walked over to his bike. Fuck the Defenders. They didn’t need to be associated with lowlifes like that.