Eagle
Two Weeks Ago
LOUD, BOOMING NOISES aren’t exactly what a group of veterans with PTSD need to hear, so the club always heads northeast for Independence Day. We’ve held a standing annual reservation at a remote campground outside of the little one-horse town of Skykomish, Washington since the club’s inception. This year, the fourth fell on a Friday, so everyone gathered at the station on Thursday at noon to eat lunch and pack up the tents and supplies before we headed up.
Emily and Julia were among the ol’ ladies and club whores helping us prepare for the trip. Julia brought Havoc a beer and he pulled her onto his lap, keeping her there while they ate. She was wearing his property patch and geared up to go with us. Havoc didn’t let her out of his sight much since proposing to her after Link’s wedding. The two were planning to fly back east next month to have a little ceremony with Havoc’s family, then we’d throw them one hell of a reception when they returned home.
Link and Emily had been married for almost two months and still acted like goddamn newlyweds. He ate with one arm draped over her shoulders as he laughed and joked with the brothers around him. Link and Havoc were so damn happy these days it was hard to be around them. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy for my brothers and their relationships, but I hadn’t been able to get a certain blonde-haired brown-eyed Pedro off my mind since she fled from my room the morning after her brother’s wedding. Being around Link, Havoc, and their women just reminded me how much I fucked things up with her.
It reminded me that I didn’t even know if she was state-side or deployed.
Whether or not she was in danger.
Hell, I didn’t even know for sure that she was alive.
Granted, Link wouldn’t be nearly this damn happy if anything had happened to her, but sometimes it took a while to notify the family.
I sounded like one serious doom and gloom motherfucker, but I’d seen Naomi’s death more times than I could count, and it was fucking me up. Sometimes I’d see her lying on the ground, her body riddled with bullets and covered in blood, her eyes pleading for help. I’d kneel beside her, trying to stanch the flow, but there was so much blood. It would coat my hands as I tried to scoop it up and pour it back into her.
Sometimes she’d be lying on her side, missing a leg with a beam through her stomach, her eyes already vacant by the time I reached her.
Every night, Naomi died in my nightmares.
I knew it was just my fucked-up mind playing tricks on me, but my God this shit was driving me insane.
“You looking for some company on the road, Eagle?” a red-headed club whore by the name of Lacy asked as she pressed her tits against my back and placed a beer on the table in front of me.
Lacy was good looking and as sweet as they came with a nice rack and a willing mouth, but there was no way I’d let her on the back of my bike. “You know I don’t let club whores on the back of my bike, Lacy,” I replied. None of us did. The club whores tended to get ideas and expectations from that kind of shit. Come to think about it, Naomi was the last person who road bitch to me. She was also the last woman in my bed.
Lacy sighed. “Ah well. It was worth a try. Shari, Kim, and I are driving up together, so if you get a little lonely, let me know.” She ran her fingers down my arm before walking away.
After a six-week dry spell, you’d think I’d be all over that invitation, but my dick didn’t even twitch at the thought.
“You okay, brother?” Havoc asked, watching me curiously.
Shaking off his concern, I nodded and changed the subject. “Where’s Wasp? Is he fixin’ his hair or something before the trip?”
Havoc and Link both chuckled. Wasp had a reputation for being a bit of a pretty boy. We joked that he’d joined our club because he’d never make it as a one-percenter. The first time he got thrown in the slammer, he’d be someone’s bitch for sure.
“He’s not coming,” Link replied. “He’s taking Carly and Trent to Minnesota to meet his family.”
I had to raise my eyebrows at that. Wasp had been chasing the new bartender’s tail since the day she started working at the Copper Penny, but they’d only been together for about a month. She came with a five-year-old son, which seemed like a hell of a big responsibility for someone like Wasp, but he’d surprised us all when he gladly stepped up to the plate. Taking Carly and Trent to meet his folks was a huge step, so this thing between them must be getting serious. Never thought I’d see the day.
“What about Tap?” Morse, our computer guru asked, sitting beside me.
“He’s not coming either,” Havoc replied. “Says he can’t get out of work.”
“Did the motherfucker happen to tell you what he does for a living?” Morse fired back.
Tap was a mystery to us all. He’d been with the club for a little over a year, and before that, he served as an intelligence officer for the Air Force. His name was short for Wire Tap, and that was pretty much the extent of what we knew about him. And even that, he denied or lied about whenever asked. He was the most paranoid person I’d ever met and he stayed off the grid. No social media, no digital footprint, no credit score, nothing. He was such a mystery that not even Link knew what he did for a living or where he lived. Wasp had followed him, Spade had hidden tracking devices on his bike, Morse had even used the city’s cameras to keep an eye on him, but he always seemed to know what they were up to and stayed one step ahead.
“I gave up on that long ago,” Havoc replied. “We all have our demons. Let the man have his privacy.”
Morse grumbled, but agreed. He’d never give up, though. He took Tap’s mysterious life as a personal challenge he had to figure out, whereas Wasp just wanted to know so he could use the information to fuck with Tap. Me… I didn’t give two shits what Tap did or where he lived as long as he stayed faithful to the club and continued to show up when we needed him.
* * *
After lunch, we got everything packed and loaded up, then the fifty or so of us going camping hopped on our sleds and headed out, a handful with their ol’ ladies riding bitch. Out of all the prospects, Stocks had drawn the short straw, so he drove Havoc’s truck towing a trailer, both loaded down with supplies. Shari’s old Camaro full of club whores followed closely behind the truck, making us look like one hell of a road spectacle.
Traffic bunched up a few times as we made our way out of Seattle toward Redmond, but our road captain, Frog, was no spring chicken and had been directing this ride long before I’d even heard of the Dead Presidents. At one point, some asshole in a Lexus was riding my ass and Frog pulled up beside them and pulled a marble out of the front pocket of his cut. He showed it to the Lexus driver and the dickhead backed off real quick. I’d asked him about the marbles once, and learned that they were an old-school trick and would crack the hell out of a windshield at highway speeds. He’d never actually had to flick a marble at a driver; threatening had always been enough. He’d been clipped by some asshole driver once years ago, and now he never left the fire station without a pocket full of marbles.
It took about an hour and a half to get to the campground and about another hour to set up camp. By the time we finished up, the sun was riding low in the sky. Building a little fire, we roasted hot dogs and sat around drinking beer and shooting the shit as night crept in.
As usual, we weren’t the only bikers who utilized the campground during the holiday. Texas, the president of the Seattle Serpents—a local outlaw MC—held the next campsite over, like he did every year. While we sat around the fire, Texas, and a handful of his men made their annual stop-in to say hello. Link whispered something in Emily’s ear, and she peeled herself from his lap and she, Julia, and the other ol’ ladies and club whores who’d come with us headed into the big tent where we prepared meals. Texas usually wanted to talk business, and the women didn’t need to hear that shit.
Texas stood about five-foot-ten, weighing in at about two hundred and fifty pounds that used to be muscle. He had to be creeping up toward sixty, his long hair and beard now more salt than pepper. He was an Army veteran with one hell of a chip on his shoulder, always ranting about how the government had screwed him over. He used it as an excuse to dip his hands into all sorts of illegal shit. His men were constantly in and out of jail, and their club name made the papers at least once a month, never for anything good. Despite all that, he respected Link and Jake and occasionally stopped by to break bread with them.
The two presidents shook hands. As Texas’s men joined us, he asked Link to go for a walk. He wanted privacy. Knowing something big must be up, I watched the two presidents disappear into the trees before turning my attention to Texas’s men. Our club didn’t have much use for outlaws, but as always, we found common ground talking about bikes. After a time, Link and Texas returned, both looking troubled. Texas and his men headed out and I expected Link to go into the tent and retrieve Emily, but instead he took his seat.
“Everything okay?” Havoc asked.
Link shook his head. “Texas wanted to warn us about some trouble with the Serpents. It appears his little brother is feelin’ his oats. Has some big ideas about how things should go and has been doing some shady shit to build up a following.”
“Buzz?” Havoc asked. “What sort of shady shit?”
Link nodded. “He’s been making a play for the drug trade. Trying to undercut Texas. Fuckin’ with some of the deliveries.”
“But everyone knows Buzz is a crazy motherfucker,” Specks, our club Treasurer, replied. “The Serpents will never follow him.”
“If he can make them enough money, they will. Sure, some of the old guard will stay true to Texas, but the thing about one-percenters is that they’re in it to get rich and live free. Texas isn’t stupid and knows how to ride the edge of what the law will allow. He keeps his club reined in, and a lot of the members don’t much care for being told what they can and can’t do.”
“Shit,” Havoc replied. “The Serpents are bad enough now. I’d hate to see what someone like Buzz could turn them into.”
Link frowned, scratching at his beard as he stared into the fire. “You and me both, brother. We’re gonna need to keep an eye on things. See if we can’t find a way to help Texas keep control.”