Page 21 of Savage Spades

Cam sighed and took another sip of her drink.

“You don’t look too happy to be here,” the young bartender said. He placed both hands on the bar top and leaned against them. He was a cute kid with chubby cheeks and messy brown hair.

“Between you and me, my friend dragged me here.”

“Ah.”

“How old are you?” she asked him. Her curiosity was getting the best of her.

He smiled, showing off a dimple on the left side of his face. “Depends, are you a cop?”

“Nope, but if I were, I probably wouldn’t tell you.” She took another sip of her drink.

He laughed. “Fair enough. I’m seventeen.”

She coughed, nearly choking on her drink. “What the hell are you doing bartending?”

“I’m prospecting.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Um, what?”

“You’re new to this whole motorcycle thing, aren’t you?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t call it that. I’m just here with a friend.”

He nodded. “Well, a prospect is someone who wants to be patched. Like, be a member of the Savage Spades. Basically, you have to do a lot of shitty jobs and put up with a bunch of bullshit until Gunner and everyone else thinks you’re ready to be an official member.”

“Wow, you guys take this thing seriously.”

“Well, yeah, it’s a lot of work to be a part of the Savage Spades. The club is much bigger than just here in North Carolina. There are chapters everywhere.”

She tilted her head to the side. “And why do you want to be a part of the motorcycle gang again?”

He grabbed a towel and started to wipe down the bar. “It’s not a gang; it’s a club. A lot of members don’t have a real family. The Savage Spades is the only family they know. We take care of each other. Even if I’m stuck doing the dirty work, I know it’ll pay off when I get patched.”

She took a sip of her drink as she processed the information. It still didn’t make sense to her. Why would a seventeen-year-old kid want to do a bunch of shit for a group of grown men just so they would accept him into a club?

“Aren’t you in high school?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Dropped out last semester. That’s when I found the Savage Spades. According to Gunner, I need to re-enroll by the end of this month if I want to think about getting patched.”

At least they were making him go back to school. Does that cancel out the fact that they also had him bartending at seventeen?

“I’m Oscar, by the way.” He stuck out his hand for her to shake.

“Cam,” she said, placing her hand in his.

A man at the end of the bar said something to the kid. She couldn’t make out his words.

“I’ll see you around, Cam,” he said before dropping the towel and heading towards the end of the bar.

Cam sipped her rum and Coke and turned on the stool to look out on the small dance floor. Jen swayed back and forth with Hugo even though it was a fast-paced song. Although Cam was annoyed that Jen had dragged her here, at least she was happy.

After spending the next hour playing on her phone and talking on and off with Oscar as he worked, she got up to find Jen. The bar was starting to quiet down. She’d watched a few of the guys leave with a barely-clothed woman on their arm. She found Jen in a corner booth snuggled up next to Hugo.

“Cam!” Jen exclaimed.

Oh shit.

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