“Sure can.”
“If so much of a note from that song comes out of my baby…!” Saint threatened as he followed Sinn up.
“You’ll deal with it or figure out how to disable it yourself,” Dalton replied, laughing again. “And I promise I won’t make it easy.”
“You suck!” Saint grumbled, but he was laughing too and leaned to embrace Dalton when he reached him.
Sinn had already grabbed a seat on a leather padded bench after fist bumping the man and was busy unwrapping the pieces of Kong’s machine that he’d brought for Dalton to examine.
“So, I hear there is to be an actual shop, finally,” Dalton remarked as Saint took a seat beside him. “You narrowed down the location yet?”
“Creature and Mark looked at a couple places the other night,” Saint admitted. “I was supposed to go with them, but I was too busy pinning my mouthy boy to my bed and giving him better things to do with his lips than spit snark.”
“Please note that he conveniently left out the part about me dragging him up to his room and riding him until he took over,” Sinn added.
“Oh, you’ve met your match with this one,” Dalton said. “But I’m shocked you didn’t bring your prospect along. Seemed like you three were gonna be a thing.”
“Still will, once he gets back,” Saint replied. “He’s off at a funeral.”
“And you didn’t think to join him?” Dalton asked.
“Thought about it then dismissed the thought,” Saint admitted. “Seems that I was being a bit smothering and didn’t want to piss off both my boys in the same night.”
“Ahhh.” Dalton replied as he wheeled over to position his chair in front of them. “I’ve been accused of that a time or two myself.”
“That mean you were guilty?” Sinn asked.
“You know it,” Dalton admitted. “Hard not to be sometimes, especially back when we were firmly entrenched on the wrong side of the law. Lost a lot of brothers in those days. Lost some civilians too. Those were the hardest casualties. Always left you wondering if you’d done enough or made too many bad choices. I’m glad to see you boys taking things in a positive direction.”
“Wouldn’t have known how to take the first step if it wasn’t for you and Rick,” Saint admitted.
“Damn, I miss that bastard,” Dalton replied. “When we landed here, we joked about needing an old bikers’ home wherewe could still raise a bit of hell in the time we had left on this rock. There just wasn’t enough of us left to warrant it.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t do better about keeping our senior members closer,” Saint said. “I wouldn’t know fuck all about what that entailed but Wreck would. We’ve always looked out for our own. Seems a shame that we stop doing it once they’re unable to be out on the road with us.”
“Oh now that’s bullshit boy and you know it,” Dalton said. “Club pays my tab to be here, and I see more of you guys now than I did when I was in the thick of things. I appreciate it, by the way, so don’t you go thinkin’ I’m complaining. You and I both know Wreck decided to get his nursing creds when Rick got admitted here. Him getting Cody hired on means I’m always up to date on what happens at chapel and Mark spends at least one night a week losing to me at poker. I’ve never had cause to feel like the club has turned its back on me and what you all did, setting up this mobile garage, has put me back in the thick of things again.”
“Good to know,” Saint said. “Since we’re hoping you’ll have a hand in setting up the new facility.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“The place two doors down from Iron Butt Ink is supposed to go up for sale soon,” Sinn said. “That’s the rumor that was swirling around when I was down there. A guy who was getting ink done when my Koi was being worked on, said the place was kicking off a month-long fire sale and closing its doors when it was through. Donating whatever was left to charity too.”
“He say why?” Dalton asked.
“Naa.”
“Are you talking about the old furniture store?” Saint asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Sinn replied. “Big building on the corner with all the lights across the front?”
“That would be the place,” Dalton said. “It would make for a hell of a storefront. It’s bound to catch someone’s eye with those raised platforms in front of the windows. Plenty of room for displaying bikes and custom leather pieces too.”
“Hadn’t heard anything about it,” Saint admitted.
Sinn could hear the rustle of him pulling his phone out of his pocket and the blip of each of the letters he hit, no doubt firing off a message to Mark to make him aware of the potential opportunity.
“One of the best features, if they haven’t torn it down since I saw it last, is the loading dock out back that leads into the alley,” Dalton said. “Will make unloading and test driving a sinch.”