Thrash
“Are you fucking insane, Chastity?”
I stare at her, incredulous, through the barely-open front door of her house. She’s got her hands on her hips and a petulant look on her face. Blonde curls spill to her shoulders and the pose she’s making accentuates her curvy hips. If she weren’t batshit insane, and if I wasn’t with a woman who — on every conceivable level — was endlessly better than her, she’d almost be tempting.
What the fuck was I thinking hooking up with her?
“No, Thrash. I’m just sick of your bullshit. Sick of your lies, sick of your manipulations,” she says.
“So you had your father lock up my woman?”
Chastity dismissively flips her hair over her shoulder. “She’ll get over it. And I didn’t have my father do it, though I encouraged him, it was your club that had your woman locked up.”
She’s right, I know, but I’m sure that Chastity took my clubs idea and ran with it. She’s gloating, and was probably more than happy to make Bull’s suggestion of throwing Alice in jail a reality.
“What would I have to do to get you to have your father turn her loose?” I say.
“You really want to go down that road?”
“It’s not a question of want, Chastity. I need her.”
That gives her pause. She actually looks shocked, as if she can’t believe the words that are coming out of me. I don’t blame her — I’ve never said that about anyone before.
“You must really feel something for her, huh? So, how desperate are you to have her back? Would you fuck me if I asked you to?”
“No,” I say, without a shred of hesitation.
“So you obviously don’t care that much about getting her out. I’ve never known you to turn down pussy, Thrash.”
“It’s because I care about her that I wouldn’t fuck you. I wouldn’t do something that could hurt her.”
Her mouth about hits the floor in surprise. “Am I hearing this right? Does Thrash actually give a damn about another person?”
I sense that she’s actually starting to sway in her opinion. This honesty shit works wonders with women, apparently.
“She means something to me. The way I feel about her is different, it’s something important, and it’s fucking scary as hell because I don’t even totally understand it. I care about her, Chastity.”
“Educate me,” she says, throwing open her front door and waving for me to come inside.
I follow her into her living room. Chastity keeps a modest house — it’s a rental that her father owns. The furniture is at least a decade old, but in good condition. There are family pictures on the wall and tacky shit like a singing fish above the mantle of her fireplace.
I take a seat on her couch and pat the spot next to me.
“Sit down, Chastity.”
She takes a seat, leaving a slight bit of distance between us. It’s intimate, but not intrusive. Just enough to let me know she still has feelings for me, but is willing to respect my new relationship with Alice.
I clear my throat and look her in the eyes.
What I’m about to say isn’t easy.
“I hurt you. I used you. Then I dumped you. I never gave a damn about you. And you have every right to hate me, to want to hurt me. You didn’t deserve that. You deserved a lot better. And you also deserve an apology.”
She blinks. “I can’t believe my ears. Is she really that important to you?”
“Don’t skip over this. Listen to me, Chastity, I am sorry. I’m man enough to admit to you that I did you wrong, that I should have never treated you the way I did. If I could take it back, I would.”
She stands up, tossing her hands out and looking down at me in disbelief. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to hear that? Ages. Fucking ages. But even so, Thrash, that’s not enough.”
“The fuck more do you want? Do you want me to grovel? For me to get on my knees and beg?”
“No. You hurt me deeply, Thrash. Every time you ignored me, every time you gave me a flicker of hope, just so I would suck your cock. I still hate your fucking guts, but I’ll help you get her out. Now, this is what I want. Hold still…”
She hits me with a slap that’s hard enough that my teeth rattle.
“Now, let’s go get your Alice out of jail,” she says. “Come on, I’ll meet you at the sheriff’s.”
On the way out to my bike, I pull out my cell and call Riot. I have the feeling I’m going to need backup, just in case Sheriff Bowles decides to show some backbone.
Riot picks up on the fifth ring, just as I’m about to say fuck it and hang up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Where are you?” I say.
“The bar. Why? What’s wrong?”
“You sober enough to help me out with something serious?”
“Yeah. I’m good for it. Talk to me, brother, tell me what’s happening.”
“Alice is in jail. Bull had her arrested, they’re going to hold her until this whole deal with the Reaper’s Sons blows over.”
“Shit. He went behind your back like that? That’s fucking low.”
“Damn right. But I’ll deal with that shit at another time. Right now, I just want her out of there.”
“I’ll be right there.”
I hang up and ride to the sheriff’s. We get there all about the same time and, together, the three of us head inside like we own the damn place. I’ve got to appreciate Chastity as we step inside — she shoots a death glare at the deputy working the front desk that keeps the man in his seat and, in no uncertain terms, tells him to shut his fucking mouth instead of giving us shit for marching in unannounced.
She leads us further back into the station, right to her dad’s office. Chastity throws open the door like she doesn’t give a damn, and the look of shock on her father’s face is something I’ll remember, and appreciate, for a long damn time.
“Let her go.”
Sheriff Bowles manages to recover quickly and shakes his head. “Fuck off, Thrash. We made a deal with the fucking president of your club, we’re not backing out of it.”
Chastity steps forward. “Do it, dad.”
The sheriff looks at his daughter in shock. “Have you lost your mind? Do you know the shit we’ll get into if we cross the Rebel Riders?”
I step up and slam my fist down on his desk. “What’s her bail? Whatever it costs, I’ll pay it. Just let me take her out of here. Now.”
“I haven’t even run up the paperwork, yet.”
Riot steps up. “How long have you fucking had her here?”
“Five hours, give or take.”
I can’t contain myself “It take your illiterate ass that long to fill out some fucking forms?”
“Watch your tone,” Sheriff Bowles says.
“I’m not going to tell you again: let her go. I will tear this place down if I have to,” I say, feeling my fists clench and one wrong word away from leaping on the sheriff and teaching him a lesson.
Chastity positions herself between me and her father. “Just do it. Unless you want me talking to the papers about how the sheriff is for hire.”
That does it. He gives his daughter one last disbelieving look, and then, without so much as a word, snatches his keys from a key ring mounted on the wall of the office and heads back towards the cells in the back of the sheriff’s station. We follow.
I spot Alice right away. She’s sitting, head in her hands, on a bench. Behind bars. Thinking about what she’s been through has me ready to bust heads.
The sheriff unlocks the doors and throws open the door.
“You’re free to go.”
Alice gets up, looks over the assembled group, and immediately zeroes in on Chastity. “Thrash, who is this woman?”
“That’s not important right now. Let’s just get you out of here, we can talk about the rest later.”
Alice doesn’t move. “No, no, we’re going to talk about this right now. You promised me honesty, then I find out that you’ve been anything but honest.”
I’m fuming at her attitude. At her choosing right now to throw a fucking fit. “Is this how you show you’re grateful? By throwing a tantrum in the middle of the fucking police station?”
“It was you who put me here. And I wonder how you got me out.” She turns to Chastity. “Do I even want to know what he did? Or would you lie about it, just like he lies about everything?”
Alice doesn’t wait for an answer and storms out. I follow her — too much depends on her, and I refuse to let everything I’ve worked for, and our relationship, die.
“You need to cool down and keep your head clear, alright? This whole thing was a setup, my club wanted to put you on ice because they’re worried that what we’re doing is going to ruin the truce between the Rebel Riders and the Reaper’s Sons. That’s all. Nothing else happened. Do you hear me?”
“It’s just one thing after another with you. Every time I think I have you figured out, another layer of lies gets peeled back and things just get uglier and uglier. Do you know how much it hurts, to care about you and find out — time and again — the man I think you are is just some kind of construct? A lie?”
I try to put my hands on her, to pull her into an embrace, and she pushes me away. “Alice, I care for you. You know that. But we’ve got more important things to focus on right now instead of arguing.”
She takes a step back.
“That’s just it. That’s how it is with you, it’s all business. Then let me make one thing perfectly clear, Thrash: I am done with you. All of it, it ends right now.”
I refuse to believe it. She’s got to have more sense than this, than tossing everything away over some stupid mistake. “You’d risk everything that could happen — your money, your future, and being responsible for all the violence that is going to come to this town — just out of spite?”
“You don’t get it. I’m not going to let myself get hurt by you any longer. I’m leaving.”
She starts to walk away, resolute in walking away — even without a car — just to escape my presence. From doorway into the sheriff’s station, Riot calls out to her, and I watch my best friend run after her. He’s trying to do what I failed to do: salvage this deal.
He catches up to her and they stop, just within earshot.
“What is it? What the fuck do you want? Are you going to threaten me?” She says.
He shakes his head. “Hell no. I understand why you feel what you feel. If there’s one thing about Thrash, it’s that he’s his own worst enemy and he can be the biggest fucking numbskull in the world sometimes. I hate him half the time and I’m his best friend and practically a brother. He can be a frustrating dick, but you need to give him a chance.”
“Why?”
“He’s got a big heart. Listen, about six years ago, not long after we joined the Rebel Riders, my family was going through a hard time. My dad got laid off and we were close to losing my home, there were so many damn bills. My dad was a machinery contractor on the army base — there was no way we were going to make up that kind of cash. Thrash took on a job outside the club, working at a hardware store, wearing a fucking apron and selling lumber, and he sent every paycheck to my mom. He tried to keep it secret — he picked a hardware store almost an hour away and two towns over — but my mom told me about it one day when I found the checks.”
I flinch, embarrassed. I hadn’t known that Riot — or anyone other than his mom — knew about that. I don’t regret it, but I ain’t proud of it, either.
Alice looks unpersuaded. “He was great to your mom, good for him, good for you, that still doesn’t tell me a damn thing.”
“If you were any other woman, he would’ve left you in jail. When the club finds out what he did, there’s a good fucking chance they’ll kick him out. But as soon as he found out you were here, he called me for backup and he told we had to do whatever it took to make sure you were safe. He was ready to tear this place down. He’s an idiot when it comes to saying this shit, but he cares about you. Give him a chance.”
Alice goes quiet, and I have a feeling that everything rides on her mercy. Finally, she relents. “Fine. I’ll help you guys out at The Smiling Skull, but that’s it. I’m done after that. No more MC’s, no more Thrash, none of it.”
She storms off towards town without another word and a mixture of relief and remorse hits me. The plan’s still a go. Tomorrow night, I’ll have taken in score of a lifetime.
But I’ll have lost the most valuable thing of all: her.