Chapter 20

When something feels off, it is.
– Abraham Hicks

Tex

I’ve been sitting out here, leaning against my bike for the last hour and a half. I can’t say exactly why I feel like somethings up, but deep inside me, I just know. It’s like a sixth sense. Fist has given me the low down on why he and Grizzly, the Prez of the Bears MC, don’t get along. They never really have, but it doesn’t help that there is bad blood between their fathers as well. It’s a decades long war, and who knows if it’ll even end soon. They put up with one another because they have to… or maybe it’s easier for them to have the so called “truce” they have right now. I’m not Fist, I wouldn’t fucking know.

Fist and Cracker have been in that bar for far too damn long. I’m out here man to man with the Bears. The only two people in that fucking bar are our Prez’s and the VP’s of our clubs. The rest of us stand here, eyeing each other almost as if we’re waiting for a gun to go off just so we can end the others’ lives. We’re enemies, there’s no sugar coating this shit.

Bolt and Dracus are on both of my sides, eyes focused on the Bears. I wouldn’t put it past any of them to pull out their gun and start shooting for the hell of it. In my years, I’ve seen crazier things happen. This would be one of the more predictable actions I could see them taking.

“Aimee wants us to stop riding around,” Bolt says out of nowhere. I look to my right, glancing at him and then to my left to Dracus.

“She wants you two to get patched in with the Reapers?” I ask, already knowing the answer. Aimee has confessed to all of us that she wants to make the Reapers her full time home. She loves driving across the country with her men, but she misses having a sense of home. She craves it, and I can understand the need for that one place. Almost like the calm within a storm. A safe haven of sorts.

“Yep.” Dracus murmurs.

“Have you two talked to Fist?”

“Why would we do that? Don’t know if we even want to be patched in,” Dracus huffs, kicking the gravel underneath his boot.

“Aimee has told us that she’s going to stay if we don’t. Guess it’s an ultimatum of sorts. She wants to be here all the time, not out lugging across the States with the two of us,” Bolt confesses to me.

“I’m not a fucker who puts up with ultimatums. She wants to take away our freedom, and I can’t say I like that shit,” Dracus argues.

“She’s not trying to take away anything, brother. Aimee wants to give us more. She wants to fucking settle down and have our kids. You think she’s gonna do that while the three of us are riding across the States? No. She isn’t taking anything from us, we are only making a sacrifice for our future. A future that she wants soon, and if you won’t give it to her, then I sure as fuck will.” I’ve seen Bolt and Dracus get into it a few times, but never like this. They both love her, it’s obvious. I can’t say that I quite understand their relationship, but I understand our relationship – the group of us.

“What if I don’t want to be cooped up here? Anyone ever think I prefer to be on the road?”

“Sounds like you have a decision to make. You either stay Nomad and lose the both of us, or get patched the fuck in and be happy. Bro, you know that if you walk away from us you will be living with nothing but regret. Every day you’re going to wonder what could have been.”

“I don’t want to lose either of you, but I’m not gonna stand here and act like only being in Montana is going to make me happy. I need to be able to travel. I need that – for me.”

“Seems simple. We’ll talk to Fist about you handling some of the shit with the ally clubs. Maybe he’d be open to you representing us when we’re invited to events. It would be better to not have Fist out and about unless it’s necessary and all the while you’re still traveling like you want,” I suggest, hopeful that my idea will squash this pointless bickering between the two of them.

“That isn’t a bad idea,” Dracus murmurs softly, taking his hand and rubbing it across his jaw.

“Well then, looks like our Aimee is going to be tickled to death when we get back to the club.” Bolt laughs, I can’t help but smirk.

Truth is, I know Rox likes Dracus more than Bolt. If he didn’t stay with the club that would mean she’d lose him, and while I’m sure we’d still have something going on with Bolt and Aimee – it wouldn’t be the same at all.

You know, one day everything was simple. It was the two of us until the day it wasn’t. In one day, almost everything changed.

Suddenly the doors to the bar fly the fuck open and out runs Fist and Cracker, guns drawn at every Bear in their direction. We all quickly follow suit, aiming at the enemy. I don’t know what the fuck just happened in there, but shit went down.

“You’d best believe that any one of you fucking teddy bears who try to take a shot off at my men will fall to the ground quicker than you can say Whitefish,” Fist roars, nostrils flaring, he yanks another gun from his strap and points it at the man I’m aiming at. “Tex, Dracus, Bolt – get your asses to the club, NOW. Demons are in town.”

… No. Fuck… Roxanne!

I slide my gun behind my cut, under my pants, and hop on my bike, watching as Dracus and Bolt quickly do the same.

“We’ll be there as soon as possible. Go, quick. Make sure our girls are okay… make sure that motherfucker hasn’t done anything to my baby sister,” Cracker says, hatred laced through his voice.

I listen, taking my orders, riding my bike the fastest I’ve ever rode before. My heart pounds in my chest, head, through every part of my body as I go to her, praying – praying that nothing has happened.

I’m not dumb, I know many things have happened in the time that I’ve been gone.

I can only hope that he hasn’t killed her.

Time will tell.