It was early afternoon on Friday and Cody was at the club house, shooting pool with a guy named Beezy. He was one of the guys that had been in the club for as long as Cody could remember. He was short and stocky and he fit the stereotype of the guy with “little man’s syndrome.” He worked out constantly to make sure that even though he was shorter than the rest of the guys, he was just as muscular, if not more, than most of them. He also had a temper he kept on a hair trigger. He liked to fight and he’d taught Cody everything he knew about it before the boy went to prison. He had been shot about six months before Cody got out, and he was going on about how out of shape he was and trying to get Cody to agree to spar with him.

“I don’t want to fight you, Beezy. You’re still healing. What if I hurt you?” The bullet had damaged Beezy’s spine. The fact that he was standing upright and walking across the room was a miracle. Cody didn’t understand why the little guy wanted to tempt fate.

Beezy rolled his blue eyes. “You think because you went and got all big and buff working out on the yard that you can kick my ass, kid?”

Cody laughed, took his shot, and then said, “I didn’t say that. I just might hit you in the wrong place or something. I’ve heard all these stories about how hard you worked to walk again and prove the doctors wrong. That’s golden, man. I wouldn’t want to be the one that messed that shit up.”

Beezy stood up straight from taking his shot. One of the club girls was walking by and he reached out and slapped her on the ass. She squeaked, but just smiled at him as she kept going. “You see that sweet little ass?” Cody looked at the girl again. She was probably barely out of her teens, but Beezy was right, she had one hell of an ass on her. He nodded and Beezy said, “I fucked that little piece every which way but loose a couple nights ago. Didn’t have a problem getting into position or rocking that boat, if you know what I mean. If I can do that, I can fight. Oh, and by the way, you gotta try her out. That chick gives the best head I’ve ever had. I swear to God. I’ve probably been gone down on by five hundred women over the years and that girl…” He kissed his fingers and tossed them into the air. “Trés magnifique.”

Cody laughed again. “Yeah, maybe I will,” he said. When he was a kid he looked up to guys like Beezy who had a different woman, or two, on their arm every night. Then he met Macy, and she was so traumatized by the way she’d had to grow up watching her mother and listening to what everyone said about her, that he’d realized it wasn’t all fun and games. He’d been so young when he got locked up that he hadn’t had the opportunity to be like the other guys, but he liked to think if he had, he would have still chosen being faithful to Macy. He hadn’t seen her since Wednesday morning. He had been looking for her, hoping that stupid fight they’d had was just that, a stupid fight that could be easily forgotten…but he got the feeling she was avoiding him. He waffled back and forth between waiting for her to come around and just rolling with it and taking advantage of all the fruits the ranch had to offer.

“Hey, Cody!” Dax came in the front door and motioned at him. Cody looked at Beezy, who said:

“We can finish this up later. It was kind of embarrassing the way I was kicking your ass anyways.”

Cody rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Beez.” He handed him the pool stick and went over to see what Dax wanted. Dax was already at the bar and the prospect serving had already handed him a beer when Cody made it over. “Hey, Dax, what’s up?”

“I talked to Liam. He’s cool with a couple of the Commies being here. As far as your friend and his dad are concerned, however, Mayhem just stopped by for a visit. I don’t want my business discussed with another club, understand?”

“Of course. Thanks, Dax. This means a lot to me. There aren’t a lot of guys around here my age to hang out with. It’ll be fun.”

Dax nodded. “One more thing.” Cody nodded back at him and waited. “We’re having a party tomorrow night while Mayhem is here. They’re celebrating a birthday for one of their guys and Liam asked if they could do it here.”

“Okay, that’s cool.”

“That’s not the one more thing,” Dax said. Cody waited again and he said, “We’re also patching Jimmy at the same party.”

Once again that ugly feeling of jealousy shot through Cody’s body. Jimmy was going to be a full-fledged club member and Cody was still nothing, not even a prospect. “That’s cool,” he said again. “Then you’ll have room for another prospect?”

“Yes, if you’re sure that’s what you want.” Cody’s feelings of jealousy were replaced by excitement.

“It’s what I want,” he said, trying not to smile too broadly.

“Okay then, we’ll do that tomorrow night too.”

“Are you serious?”

Dax raised an eyebrow at him. “Aren’t I usually?”

Cody smiled. “Thanks, Dax, you won’t regret it.”

Dax stood up, drained his beer, and left the cup on the bar. “I better not,” he said before he walked away. Cody sat there smiling for a long time. Being part of the Southside Skulls was all he ever wanted…that, and Macy. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen with Macy, but he had to smile again as he thought that whatever happened and whenever it happened, he’d be wearing a club patch…at least a prospect’s one. Hot damn! Finally.

“Hi, Cody.” Cody looked up at the sound of the female voice and into a pair of green eyes that he hadn’t thought about in years, but had never forgotten.

“Harley?” She laughed at the old nickname and nodded. The last time Cody saw those eyes he was just about thirteen years old and they belonged to a skinny, freckled-faced redhead. She’d wrecked her bike on the paved road that led along the side of the dirt one on the ranch and she was crying. Cody stopped and helped her. They forged a strange, and ultimately forbidden friendship from that meeting and even after her father moved her away from the “dirty biker haven,” as he called the ranch, Cody had never forgotten her. She was a wild thing, even back then. Everything they did together, they ultimately got caught. Her father thought that Cody was the bad influence, but Harley used to start those sentences with… “Have you ever tried…” Cody never said no, and the trouble they both got into afterwards didn’t even begin to take away from the fun times they had. “Oh my God…it’s been like…”

“Eleven years,” she said, with a dazzling smile. Her teeth were perfectly white and straight, a far cry from the mouthful of braces that she’d had back then. The former brassiness of her wiry red hair had calmed into a dark auburn and it looked as smooth as silk and hung down across her back and shoulders. Her green eyes were still the focal point of her face, even set above high cheekbones and full lips. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, but they weren’t the kind of jeans the girls on the ranch wore. Hers were designer jeans with bling on the pockets and looked like they were tailored to fit her. Her blouse was a simple white cotton shirt with a collar, but the buttons were opened halfway down and underneath she wore a red tank top with the same kind of bling across the front that decorated her blue jeans. She looked gorgeous and completely out of place in the Southside Skulls Clubhouse. “Do I get a hug or are you just going to sit there staring at me?”

“Shit, sorry.” Cody stood up and hugged her. She smelled damned good and he felt his body respond to that simple touch. He was slightly ashamed of himself. He’d just been thinking about Macy and here he was perving on a woman he hadn’t seen since she was thirteen years old. He held her back after they hugged and said, “What are you doing here?”

She smiled and sat down on the stool next to the one he’d been sitting on. “Have a drink with me and I’ll tell you.”

Cody asked the prospect to get him another beer and Hannah, which was the woman’s real name, asked for a bourbon and water. “Damn, Harley Yates…the one place I never thought I’d run into you would be our clubhouse, that’s for damned sure.”

She laughed again. “You do know it was my father that had the problem with me being on the ranch and being friends with you, and not me, right? I used to love it here. Everybody was so free to just…live. I’d go home after coming over here and hanging out with you, and I felt like I was checking back into my prison cell every night. I was so mad at myself for letting my dad find out…this was my only happy place. After he made us move, I was miserable.”

“I’m sorry. It was my fault that he found out.”

“No, it wasn’t. You took me home because I drank too much of that strawberry wine. It would have been worse if I hadn’t gone home at all. He would have shown up over here with the cops, looking for me, and it would have been a mess.”

They sat there for a second, both of them lost in their memories. Cody was the first to laugh again. “Strawberry wine…whoever thought that would be a good idea?”

Hannah laughed. “If I recall, it was Jimmy’s idea. Is he still around?”

“Yeah, he’s still here. Things don’t change a lot around this place.”

Hannah looked across the room where Angel was talking to a guy that Cody didn’t know. He looked a lot like Angel in the face. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Hannah said. “There was a time that if anyone tried to tell me that those two would be here, I would have thought it true only if they were dressed all in black and were here to raid the place.”

“I’m guessing you know Angel?”

“Yes. I’m dating her brother, Kyle. That’s him that she’s talking to.”

“Oh.” Cody wasn’t sure why the idea of Hannah being in a relationship bothered him. He still had no idea what his own situation with Macy was and he hadn’t even laid eyes on Hannah in eleven years. “He’s a cop too?”

“Yeah, he’s a cop.”

“You two been together long?”

“Not really. I’ve known them all for a long time. After we moved from the property next door, Mom and Dad bought a house down the street from the Bradys. Kyle was already grown then and I didn’t really get to know him well until Angel and I started law school together about six months ago. We’ve been dating a few months now.”

“You’re in law school?”

“Yeah.”

“That should make your dad happy.”

She smiled sadly. “So far, yes. What he’s not going to be happy about is that I have no interest in being a prosecutor. I want to be a defense attorney. He’ll hate that.” Cody couldn’t help but wonder if that was part of the reason why she wanted to do it. Her father had been controlling and overbearing when she was a kid. He worked for some big real estate law firm back then, and Cody only knew that because Hannah told him that part of the reason he was making them move was her fascination with Cody and the club, and the other part was that he’d been asked to put his hat in the running for district attorney that year. He hadn’t won, and Cody remembered being thankful for that when he was arrested and prosecuted. He doubted that Hannah’s father would have been willing to offer him any kind of deal. He had a strong bias against the club and Cody heard that while he was locked up, the man had run for the next election, won, and made cleaning up the “MC trash,” as he called it, from the streets of Hanover County his mission. Hannah continued, “Did you run into him when you had your…troubles?”

Cody shook his head and then with a smile said, “Thank God.” She laughed and nodded too.

“Yes, that probably is a really good thing. I’m glad that’s all over for you. It had to be terrible.”

“It was…not fun,” he said. “How did you know about it?” He often wondered about her, especially when he heard someone cursing her father’s name when he was in prison, but he was surprised that she remembered him so well and knew so much about him.

“I didn’t know about it until I met Angel. One day we were having lunch on campus and studying together and someone called another girl across the room. Her name was Harley. I guess it was obvious that name meant something to me, so Angel asked me about it and I told her the story of how I wrecked my bike and busted out two of my bottom teeth and when I told you my name you thought I was saying ‘Harley’ instead of ‘Hannah.’” She smiled at the memory.

“I always thought it fit you better anyways.”

“I hadn’t talked to anyone about those days for a long time. They were honestly the happiest of my life. It was nice when I discovered I could talk to Angel about it. I had no idea she was with your president. This is such a small little county.”

“That it is. Well, damn! I’m glad Angel found you. It’s so good to see you.”

“It’s really good to see you too, Cody.” She looked back over toward Angel and her brother. Kyle was waving her over. He shot Cody a glare in the process. Hannah sighed. “I’m sorry. He’s really a nice guy, but he’s a cop above all else and even though his sister lives here happily, he still doesn’t really trust you guys.”

Cody grinned at her as she stood up and said, “As well he probably shouldn’t.”

Hannah smiled and Cody gave her a wink and said, “Come back and see me, Harley.” She looked over at Kyle and back at him and said:

“I just might do that.”