Page 15 of Towles

Rumbling bikes distracted me from the address—probably for the better. I couldn’t say visiting her office and the shit show today were useless. I chuckled as Beast and Big Kentucky rolled up.

“What the fuck is so funny?” Beast asked. “Manning seems to have a thing for you. Tell me you didn’t suck his dick while you were locked up.”

“It’s all good, Beast.”

“Ahh, fuck,” Kentucky muttered. “This asshole is in love. Who the fuck is she.”

I started my bike and revved the engine, flipping off Beast and Kentucky before returning to the club. They would ride my ass harder than a Harley until they found out who she was.

I entered the club and found Cinder, Watcher, and Diesel sitting at the bar.

“You got the funeral covered, brother?” Watcher asked. He had Trixie sitting on his lap. The only thing between his hand and pussy was her blue jeans.

I nodded. “My sister and brother are coming in tomorrow. They’re fucking pissed at me. Say it’s my fault. Brother probably won’t show.” I shook my head. “It is my fault.” I moved behind the bar and took a beer from the fridge. “They’ll be cremated here. I’ll say goodbye, and they’ll take the ashes home.”

“What about a service?” Beast asked.

“Are you kidding? People back home don’t want me rolling into town.” I took a long drink and decided I needed to get drunk by the time midnight reared its ugly head.

Wendy walked in with Skittles and Gigi. She walked right up and hugged me. That was it. The three women went on about their business.

Wendy and I decided to part ways on the way back from New York. I didn’t think the biker life would work out for her, and I didn’t see the need to put any time or energy into something that wouldn’t work. Would it be the same with April?

I finished the beer and grabbed another while the others talked. I couldn’t get my mind off April and the fact she was so fucking eager to help the things bouncing around in my head. Who does that for another person?

“You should talk to someone about losing your parents,” Beast said. We walked away from the others and went outside. “That shit will eat you up if you don’t get rid of it.” He’d lost his parents, so he knew his shit. He smiled, being a fatherly asshole.

“How would it have gone for you?”

Beast chuckled and put his beer on the picnic table. He grabbed a football sitting near his beer, and I got up. “I’d never have shown up for the first session.”

I moved out into the parking lot, and Beast threw the football—a perfect spiral that hit me right in the hands. “You should have played,” I said

“Alabama stood on my doorstep my senior year in high school,” Beast said. I tossed the ball back. “They wanted me, but they also wanted me to follow the rules. I couldn’t do that, so I said no.” He waved for me to move back, and I did. Again, he threw a perfect spiral. “They said football was the perfect outlet for some of the issues I had in high school. Anger issues. Violent issues. Told me football was controlled violence and chaos. I could let it all out on the field.”

April would need an entire year to figure out our club’s issues. “I didn't tell anyone but Manning insisted I see this anger management chick. It didn't go so well the first time. I’m gonna go back to see her,” I threw the ball back. Had I actually said that?

“Do whatever you gotta do to work your shit out, Towles.” He laughed and cock the ball back, throwing it as hard as he could. I caught the damn thing and slammed it on the ground as if I’d scored a touchdown. “Just don’t make any of us go to a haunted house in Baltimore.” I think he’d had enough of Diesel’s weirdness.

We both laughed. Diesel was getting so much shit for dragging us to Baltimore that he was ready to drop the last name, Usher. He dealt with his shit one way, and I was going to try a different way.

I grabbed the ball and joined Beast. “I don’t know what I would do without this club,” I said. “Probably would have torn up the city.”

“Speaking of which, we have business to attend to.” We went inside and went right to church. Beast closed the door, and the other people at the table stopped talking. It was time for retribution.

“You fucking that cougar pussy?” Watcher asked when I sat. Everyone laughed and pounded on the table. Beast didn’t stop them.

Cinder cleared his cigarette-smoke-laddened throat. “Got word from a friend at Hogzz that the Punishers were having a birthday celebration at the bar tonight. Most of their club will be there.”

“This is my shit,” I said.

Beast shut me up real quick. “This is club shit, and the club will handle it.”

“Not many locals visit the bar after dark, so we’ll pay a little visit tonight at ten.” Cinder lit a cigarette and coughed with the first drag. He wasn’t a healthy man. “We’ll meet here at nine-thirty. Nobody here gets shot or dies.”

“We also need to vote on expanding Chaos Mods. We need to bring on some new mechanics.” Beast passed around a list of Prospects he wanted to patch. “We’ll vote on these assholes tomorrow.”

“Towles didn’t answer the question,” Big Kentucky said.

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