Brawn

 

“Hey, if you’re going to keep pacing, you might as well grab a broom or something,” Cory joked with me as I walked past him for what must have been the hundredth time since I’d shown up at the workshop.

 

“Sorry, brother, got too much on my mind to focus on work,” I told him.

 

“Okay, what’s up?” he asked, turning to sit on the corner of his workbench and crossing his arms.

 

“What, is this therapy or something?” I asked with a laugh. “Get back to work.”

 

“No, but we’re brothers, right? We gotta look out for each other. So, while you’re walking back and forth, wearing down the floor and leaving a path where you’ve been pacing, I’m just supposed to continue working? Even if I wasn’t curious about what’s got you all fucked up, I’d still be distracted by your pacing. So, again: what’s going on, Brawn?”

 

I looked at him in shock. When Cory came in to start for me, he’d been quiet and shut-off, one of those kids who always seemed like he was trying to hide in the corner even if he was in the middle of the room. Now, after a month or so – time had been flying for me, making the weeks feel more like days since we’d opened the shop – he was sitting in front of me telling me how it was.

 

Maria had been a genius for convincing me to bring in apprentices from the MC. Some of our junior members really needed the chance to break out. It had certainly changed Cory.

 

“It’s about Maria, isn’t it?” he continued when I didn’t answer right away.

 

Carter, our last remaining apprentice, the kid who hadn’t left to work for Kelly, leaned against the other side of the bench. He wasn’t trying to listen in so much as he was just bored, but I decided I didn’t want him hanging around listening to what I had to tell Cory.

 

“Hey, Carter, why don’t you head out for some lunch, man?” I asked, holding out a twenty.

 

“Yeah?” His face lit up.

 

“Yeah, take the money, get whatever you want. I don’t need change,” I told him as he grabbed the cash and started to walk away.

 

“And take your time,” Cory chimed in.

 

“Good kid,” I said to Cory after Carter had left.

 

“He’s not catching on as quickly as Bobby did.”

 

I shrugged. He hadn’t fucked anything up yet, so he was doing all right in my book.

 

“So, what’s going on with Maria? Fill me in, bro. I don’t get all the info you share with the rest of the MC.”

 

“Well, there’s a reason for that.” I leveled my eyes on him. “You’re still a junior member. We haven’t moved you up yet. We haven’t even had time to talk about it,” I explained, reminding him of his place in the grand scheme of things. I still intended to get James to call a meeting once things settled down so I could vouch for making Cory a full member.

 

“Sorry. I figured since this involves the shop, though, I’d know something. More than I know right now, at least.”

 

“I get it. Let me catch you up.”

 

I grabbed one of the shop stools and pulled it over to where we were talking. This wasn’t something we could go over quickly. I knew it was going to take a while to tell him everything.

 

“I went to see her, as you know,” I started.

 

“Right.” He nodded eagerly.

 

“She’s working for her father again,” I said.

 

“Wait, what the hell?” He looked at me like I’d suddenly grown a second head.

 

“No, not like that. We’ve suspected he was tied to the mob for years. She has, too, which is one of the reasons she didn’t want to keep working for him to begin with. Well, she thinks she’s found something. What’s strange is that Bobby came to me about it, as well.”

 

“You’ve talked to both of them? Oh, this is getting good. Does James know about this?”

 

“Calm down there, Spanky. James knows what I know. We’ve got guys waiting on the word to go onto the jobsite to protect Maria in case anything goes wrong,” I explained to him.

 

“So all of this is going down right now,” he said.

 

“Yes, and no. That’s where we are right now, but her father didn’t show up to work today.”

 

“Then let’s go find him,” Cory said. “Find him and take him down. We know his connections, obviously. So let’s hit him and send a message to them not to try to do business on our turf.”

 

I laughed. “I wish it were that simple, and, believe me, if it were that easy, we would have done it years ago.”

 

“Why isn’t it that easy? Seems like it would be. I mean, we’re an MC, right? It’s what we do,” he argued excitedly.

 

“It’s not what we do. Not anymore. The days of riding out to look for trouble are over. We have to play it smart these days,” I said to try to calm him.

 

“How are we handling this, then?” He crossed his arms and stared at me with intense eyes.

 

“Maria has a detective waiting to take her father in. That’s the number one reason we can’t just jump in and handle it ourselves. The fact that we’re dealing with the mob also cools our heels a little.” Cory needed to understand that we had to be strategic, not just strong.

 

“So we’re going to sit back and let the law handle it?” he asked in obvious frustration.

 

“Yep.” I pulled my phone out. “I was hoping to have heard back from her by now, though.”

 

“Are you thinking she might be in trouble?”

 

“Maybe, but if she’s up there by herself, it could be that’s she’s swamped, trying to do her job and her father’s,” I tried to reason, mostly for my own comfort. I knew I didn’t need to give into what Cory was talking about doing. I wanted to, though. I wanted to handle it myself, without the MC.

 

“No wonder you’re pacing back and forth,” Cory said. “I’d be out there waiting for him, at the jobsite or at his home.”

 

I grinned. “That’s what I want to do, but, at this point, it would cause too much trouble to do something like that. You know, she’s got the law involved already, and the people he’s connected to have been monitoring the local MCs and gangs through him. That’s why he keeps hiring us.”

 

“That alone should be reason enough to ride over there and teach him a lesson,” Cory argued.

 

“True. You’re right, but it’s out of our hands now. All we can do is what we were planning on doing from the start.”

 

“Which was?”

 

“I already told you. We were sending guys onto the jobsite to blend in with his employees until the cops came in to arrest him. Then, we were going to grab Maria and get her out of there. Also, if anything went wrong, we were going to jump in to help her,” I explained again.

 

“That’s some shit, man. Why aren’t you at the clubhouse waiting to head out?” he asked, getting up from the corner of his work station and dusting it off.

 

“I had to leave. I tried to come over here to distract myself, but that didn’t work, obviously. I can’t get my mind off it. I can’t help thinking she hasn’t called or texted back because something did go wrong.” I tried to laugh off my worries, but all that came out was an awkward little snicker.

 

“There’s plenty of work,” Cory said encouragingly.

 

“I can’t.” I shook my head.

 

“You know, you’re talking like she’s your old lady,” he remarked.

 

“What? I mean, she’s the next best thing. She helped me build this business. She’s a key piece of the MC these days, even if we aren’t that active in the club. But she’s not my old lady.”

 

“That’s what you guys both say, but everyone else knows differently. Something’s up between you two, whether you want to admit it or not.” He lobbed his accusation at me nonchalantly.

 

I sat and shook my head. The reason I was worried about her had nothing to do with my feelings for her. She’d been a good partner. But there were things we hadn’t discussed that could have played into the way I felt. And it seemed entirely possible to me that everyone else would have seen it before we did.

 

I shook my head. “Not buying it, kid. She’s been the brains behind the business since day one, and that’s really it,” I argued. I got up and put my stool back.

 

“But explain to me why you’re both so devoted to each other.”

 

“I don’t know what you expect me to tell you.” I checked my phone. Nothing.

 

“You got it bad, man,” Cory added, laughing. “And you don’t even realize it. That’s what so bad about it.”

 

“Hey, let’s just drop it, okay? You wanted to know what was going on, and I told you. I’m sorry if I’m not worried about all that right now. I’m more concerned with Maria’s safety. If her father figures out what she’s up to, we’re all in big trouble because he’s going to think we’re behind it,” I explained in a stern voice.

 

“Calm down there, Chief. I was just trying to lighten the mood.” He held up his hands as if to ward me off.

 

“I appreciate that, but maybe you should focus more on your work,” I snapped.

 

“No worries there. I’ll let you get back to pacing and staring at your phone.”

 

The hurt resolve in Cory’s voice made me feel a little guilty for snapping at him like I did, but he’d been treading on dangerous ground, and I needed to remind him where he stood in relation to me. In the end, the reason I’d only brought up the situation with Maria with a few members of The Twisted Ghosts was because it was mainly my responsibility. Everyone didn’t need to know about it, but I needed help, so I had to let a few guys in on it. It wasn’t a situation I could easily handle alone.

 

Still, I walked the room, waiting on a call or a text to let me know everything was all right. Cory went back to work without another word. Carter joined him when he returned from lunch. I heard them talking about the project they were working on behind me while I paced.

 

The tension in the workshop continued to mount as Cory tried to ignore me and Carter bit his tongue, noticing me but not asking any questions.

 

Finally, I stepped outside and called Maria. The phone rang a couple of times but went to voicemail early. I didn’t know if that was a sign that someone didn’t want her answering the phone or if she’d declined the call because she was busy and didn’t have time to talk.

 

I debated calling her again, but I decided to wait and see. I told myself I had to assume that no news was essentially good news in our current situation. I looked back into the workshop where Cory and Carter were working diligently without me. I stuffed my phone in my pocket and decided to head back to the clubhouse. There wasn’t much I could do from the workshop if anything had gone wrong. I needed to be where the guys were ready to roll out at any moment.

 

I hopped on the back of my bike and fired up the engine with a roar. I sped out of the parking lot, heading for the clubhouse just a few blocks over. The rumbling engine felt good underneath me. It begged me to go after her myself instead of waiting for everyone else to join me. But that wasn’t the way to handle it, and I knew it.