Brawn

 

“Piece of shit,” I shouted as I chucked a fucked-up chair leg across the workshop.

 

“Hey, Brawn, take a break, man,” Cory said, holding his hands up to tell me to chill. The kid had really started to shine around the shop since I had become too preoccupied with Maria’s absence to focus.

 

“Brawn, you have a phone call,” one of the girls from up front called to the back.

 

“Tell them I’m dead,” I snapped.

 

“No, tell them he’s busy,” Cory suggested, correcting me as he walked over to me.

 

“That’s the third one today,” I told him, gesturing angrily at the wooden leg.

 

“Yeah, one more and you might as well use them for a chair,” he remarked.

 

“Funny,” I said, not at all amused.

 

“Okay, look, what’s going on, man?” He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me away from my workbench.

 

“Just having a rough day,” I told him, jerking my shoulder away.

 

“No. You’ve had a rough couple of days. Maybe you need to step away and clear your head.”

 

I shook my head but he was right. I laughed.

 

“Something funny?” Cory asked.

 

“You, man. You’re funny. You came in here as this punk kid who didn’t know anything about anything, and now I can walk out of here whenever I feel like it, and I know you’ve got this place locked down.” I couldn’t help but think someone like Lucas Kelly would have felt threatened by someone like Cory. But I was thankful to have him on board, helping me day in and day out to continue to grow this business.

 

“That’s how we do, brother,” he said.

 

“Brother,” I mused. “You know, it’s this kind of thing that can get you moved from junior member to full member. This kind of involvement in the MC. I might have to talk to James about that.”

 

“Are you serious?” he asked.

 

“I’m dead serious, Cory. I guess I should talk to your dad, too, huh?”

 

He rolled his eyes. “Sure, but I’m confident he’ll be happy about it. He won’t say no. But are you serious right now?”

 

“I mean, it would be a shame if you made it farther here than in the MC, right?” I laughed.

 

“Yeah, you’re right. But, back to work. Take a break if you need it. We can get to those chairs if you need us to,” Cory said.

 

I looked at the chair sitting there, waiting for its legs. The chair wasn’t what was aggravating me. I knew what was getting on my nerves, and it wasn’t work. Worst case scenario? That set of chairs would still be waiting on me to finish it after I took care of my personal business.

 

“If you don’t get around to it, don’t worry,” I told him. “I can do it tomorrow. I’m going to go ahead and handle my personal stuff. Thanks, brother.”

 

“Yeah, get out of here,” he said, dismissing me with a smile on his face. “We got this.”

 

“If not, just shut it down,” I told him as I walked through the shop door.

 

“Go get your old lady, man. We all know that’s what you’re doing,” Cory joked.

 

If he’d only known just how right he was. I grabbed my helmet and hopped onto the back of the Harley and gunned the engine. I could see Cory shaking his head and laughing as I pulled through the parking lot, heading for the road.

 

I knew where Maria was. I knew she’d be home from her dad’s work already. And getting her from her dad’s house was a piece of cake. I’d done it before.

 

I rushed through the streets to her dad’s neighborhood, back to the ritzy houses surrounded by walls to keep their neighbors out. Sure enough, Maria’s car was in the driveway. I had flashbacks of when I’d pulled up in my truck and forced her into it. I laughed as I realized Kelly didn’t ask me what had happened to the truck when I saw him. The truck was hidden somewhere safe.

 

I parked the bike behind her car. I wasn’t going to hide out of sight. I was going to be in and out with Maria before anyone else had a chance to realize what I was doing. I tried the front door: Unlocked. I stood in the foyer for a moment and looked around. I assumed Maria was upstairs, so I carefully took the stairs, watching each step so as not to make any noise.

 

At the top of the stairs, I stopped and looked around again, trying to decide which way to go. All I could hear was the clicking of keys on a computer keyboard. It took a moment to figure out with direction it was coming from.

 

The upstairs was carpeted, so my steps were silent. There were tables and sets of drawers in the upstairs hallway with plants and little statues on them. It was the kind of shit my brother, Shift, had in his house. All it did was create clutter and make it hard to walk around.

 

“What the hell are you doing here?” an angry voice snapped at me. I froze, as if I had become one of the little statuettes standing on the shelves and tables in the hallway.

 

“I figured I’d come see you,” I said, trying not to laugh as I turned my head from one of the Buddha statues.

 

“I told you to stay away while I did this, didn’t I?” Her voice sounded angry, but I couldn’t figure out why.

 

“I tried that, but it didn’t work. I’m going to take you back with me,” I told her.

 

“No, Brawn. I’m not finished. I’m so close,” she said, walking back into her room and closing the laptop sitting on her desk.

 

“Then grab your laptop and come with me. You can finish whatever it is you’re working on back at the house,” I told her. “I’m not taking no for an answer, Maria. You’re coming with me.”

 

She surprised me by actually obeying the order. She grabbed her laptop and stuffed it in a backpack. She also grabbed her new phone and put it in her pocket.

 

“Okay. But I’ve got to be back here before my father gets home. He’s taking care of some other business, but he’ll be back later tonight. I’ve got some information to give you anyway,” she said as she put the backpack over her shoulder.

 

I put and arm around her and pulled her to me, kissing her. Her fingers touched my cheek tenderly. Nothing had changed other than distance.

 

“Let’s go,” I told her, running downstairs with her behind me.

 

“Wait.” She put out a hand when we reached the door, holding me back while she peered outside.

 

“What?” I asked, eager to go. I didn’t want to wait.

 

“My father might have people watching the house. I can’t have you running around out in the yard in case anyone sees you. You know?” She stepped outside and looked around some more before waving me out through the door.

 

“All right, come on,” I said as I took her hand and started to pull her with me to the driveway.

 

“Where’s the…?” she started to ask, but she stopped herself when she saw the Harley. “We’re riding your motorcycle? You know how loud that thing is right?”

 

“I know,” I assured her. “I just don’t care.” I tossed her my helmet as she put the backpack over both shoulders.

 

She slid the helmet on and climbed onto the bike behind me. She slid her arms around my waist to hold on as I cranked the bike up. I walked her in a circle in the driveway so we were facing out. I revved the engine a few times, listening to the power in it. Then I gunned it, and we launched out of the driveway onto her street. Her grip tightened as we sped away from her house.

 

We pulled up to my house and parked next to the car. She cautiously hopped off the bike and pulled off her helmet. Her hair spilled down out of it as she pulled it off. The golden light of the afternoon caught it and created a glow around her head. She was radiant, but I could see she wasn’t pleased.

 

“When we go home, I’m going to need you to drive your car,” she said.

 

“But we are home,” I reminded her. “This is where you’ve been calling home for a while now, right?”

 

“Yeah, but you know what I mean. I’m going to need you to drive something that will draw a little less attention to yourself. Do you want my father figuring out that you came by to get me? I don’t think you understand what all is on the line at this point,” she explained, standing next to the motorcycle.

 

“Okay, you got me. I don’t understand what’s going on. I was sort of hoping that was why you came back with me, so you could explain to me what you’re doing. All you did was pack your shit and tell me you were going home because you were trying to do something so we could get rid of your dad. What is that supposed to mean?”

 

She looked around, like she was checking to make sure we weren’t followed. “We need to talk inside,” she said.

 

“Whatever it takes to get you to talk. Come on.” I put a hand on her back and walked toward the door with her. I almost expected her to recoil from my touch because of how she was acting, but she didn’t. All was not lost. Not yet.

 

I opened the door and let her walk through ahead of me. Then, I caught myself looking around the property, checking for anyone who might have been watching us, just as she had done. I laughed at myself. I would have liked to have believed that I would have known if someone had been following us, but the fact was I hadn’t paid any attention as we left her father’s house. I didn’t know.

 

“Make yourself at home,” I announced as I closed the door and followed her into the living room, pleased by my joke. But I found she wasn’t amused by my humor.

 

“We have a little while before my father gets home, so I figured we could talk about what I’ve been doing and what I’ve learned so far,” Maria said as she set up her laptop on my coffee table.

 

“Would you like a drink?” I asked, heading to the kitchen instead of the couch. I grabbed a glass from the cabinet.

 

“Water would be fine,” she called back.

 

I grabbed another glass and poured two glasses of water, saving the bourbon on my kitchen counter for another time. I walked back into the living room and sat down, handing her a glass. Even sitting on my couch, leaning forward over the keyboard of her laptop, she was beautiful and sexy.

 

I didn’t want to talk about her father. I wanted to push her back on that couch and pull her clothes off. I wanted to see that delicious body laid out before me again. I wanted to make her forget about her old life and leave it behind for good. I didn’t need her to get her dad to drop any charges. I had a vicious lawyer who did in the courtroom what some of our guys did on the streets— what I wanted to do to Maria in bed.

 

I sat down next to her and put an arm across the cushions behind her. She sipped from her glass and set it on the coffee table. I held mine in my hand, thinking I should have grabbed some of that bourbon to help me focus on the information she had for me instead of on her warm body next to mine.