Page 23 of Sugar and Skulls

“Oh, I don’t know what his name is.”

“What the fuck do you mean you don’t know his name?” He looks away from the window to stare at me.

“I didn’t ask. But, I did find out that he is the president of the Rebel Skulls. Know him?”

His face blanches as the bikes roar into our dinky trailer court. He drills me with an expression I hope to see again real soon. Patience. I will see it again. The day he realizes it was not the old biker president that was a threat. It was the little girl he should have been worried about. “Deal,” he simply states and walks out of my room.

I pick at the polish on my nails, waiting a few more minutes. The roar of bikes rattle the glass panes, waking up the warrior inside me. Glancing at my reflection in the mirror over my dresser I envision the skull that hides beneath my flesh. How fitting, maybe I’ve always belonged to the Rebel Skulls.

Renee and Jimmy are both anxiously peeking out the curtains when I leave my room for the last time. They both turn to look at me. I shift my bag up higher on shoulder and hold out a small piece of paper with my number on it to Jimmy. “If you ever want to invest in some good ink give me a call.” I shove it in his hand. Renee looks from Jimmy to me. Before I walk out I pause, saying quietly, “Take care of yourself, Renee.” Her only response is to drop her eyes shamefully.

With one last look around I turn and open the door. On the other side I find Big Dan, his hand paused in mid-air, moments from knocking or I should say beating on the door. I push him back and step out closing the door behind me. “Nothing to see here. Let’s go,” I say.

“We know he’s here, Jess. Have him come out,” a big man, not as big as Dan but still rather large says in a calm though growly voice.

I stop on the top step and stare him down. He has the same black hair, although peppered with white and the same intense green eyes I see in the mirror each morning. I tip my head to the side. “Who?”

Dan touches my back gently. “Jess, you need to tread lightly here.”

I take another two steps and hop down the last few until I’m standing directly in front of my father.

“Tell Jimmy to get his ass out here. I’ll kill him and then we can move on from there.” The man cracks the knuckles of one of his hands in the palm of the other.

“Kill Jimmy? Wow, what did he do to you?” I ask, laughing lightly.

His eyes narrow and he looks over my head at Dan. I glance over to Raffe and wink at him. My dad catches it. He glares at Raffe, making him shift nervously on his bike. I laugh again. Then I notice tattoo man, I’ve dropped the scary...like really, I left him with his mouth hanging open and bare butt naked. I pretend to shoot him with my finger. “I knew you’d eventually catch up,” I tease. He glares at me like I just called his mom a whore or something. Perfect.

Let’s be honest here. I know they have all the real power. Sort of. My attitude, my actions, my perception is all I have. It’s all I’ve ever had. If you don’t like the way the situation looks then change the way you look at it. I shift my focus back to Dear. Old. Dad.

His face is turning a slight shade of purple. “Jesse I’m not messing around. Was Jimmy the one who hurt you?”

“No.”

He grits his teeth. “Who did?”

I shift my bag to my other shoulder. “No one. I fell off a ladder while painting a mural.”

“Jesse,” he says on a sigh. His eyes plead with me, his sad, sad eyes.

“I know you’re not letting me stay so let’s just go. You’re scaring the shit out of the neighbors.” I tip my head to the other shitty trailers surrounding us. Curtains are pulled back, beady eyes peeking out.

He takes the extra helmet off his bike and hands it to me. I take it but walk past his bike and head for Big Dan’s. When I look back I register the hurt on his face. That’s fine. He has hurt me more than anyone. He knew about me and for some reason he chose not to come find me. Not until now. Not until every last piece of my soul had been broken.

Dan pats him on the back while they talk quietly to themselves. My dad offers him a nod and then hops on his bike and fires it up. Everyone follows along behind him. One by one the bikes roar down the dusty road.

Big Dan doesn’t say anything to me as I climb on the seat behind him. When I wrap my arms around him he pats my hand. The bike vibrates beneath me reminding me that I’m alive.

The good news is my dad finally came for me.

The bad news is I’m not sure if I should be happy about it.

Bill

???

She is beautiful. My baby girl is everything I imagined. She is nothing like her mother and believe me when I say that is indeed a blessing. Goddammit, I loved her mother, but the bitch was weak. I wanted her to be my queen. She wanted to be the queen of smack. I literally had to lock the whore up to keep her clean while she was pregnant with Jesse. Honestly though I don’t blame her. I blame the Desert Dipshits who sold her the shit. Fucking white powder pussies.

And now I find out their VP hurt my baby. Jesse isn’t talking but she will. She’s simply scared. Beneath the bad girl act is my little girl. She is there. I’m here now and no one will touch her ever again. The Desert Devils will pay. They will pay for taking her mom away from her and they will pay for what they did to her. Oh, how they will pay.

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