Page 1 of Cowboy's Way

Chapter 1

Cowboy

“It’s not too late to back out of this,” I lower my voice when talking to Demo. Not that I’m terribly worried about the others hearing since we’re about to make an announcement anyway.

“Sometimes you just gotta have a little faith,” Demo tells me, pausing to clasping my shoulder before continuing into church to join the others.

My eyes lock with Charm, one of the handful of us that know about the potential business venture I’m going to announce.

“Let’s get it over with,” he says with a smirk.

Taking his seat at the table, Demo quickly calls our brothers to order, his eyes scanning the room to make sure there aren’t any unexcused absences. We all know this takes precedence over everything else in our lives, so the only guys missing are Monk and Beast, who are on a job down in Mississippi.

I stay in my customary spot near the door, only half paying attention to the statement that Demo is making, one that he already ran past me at our earlier meeting. While most of what our chapter does is on the up and up, some of it, technically, falls under the criminal code.

At least in this state.

We have some alliances with other regional clubs whose activities are more criminal in nature, most of my brothers were in the service in one capacity or another and while we’ll turn a blind eye to what the Northern Grizzlies or Kings of Anarchy get up to, we also know they don’t dabble in shit that would keep us up nights.

“Hey, anyone know who scooped up the land next to Cowboy?” Rooster calls out when Demo mentions the upgrades that he’s planning on the bar the MC owns. “I was getting close to making an offer.”

“It’s been on the market for years, man,” I respond, shaking my head at him.

He’s not a bad guy and probably would have been a decent neighbor, even if he was Coast Guard.

“I was waiting for the price to drop some more,” the cheap bastard grumbles back.

“What? You wanted them to pay you to take it off their hands?”

“If it was such a good deal, why didn’t you buy it?”

“I got what I need,” I reply with a shrug.

And that’s the truth.

Demo knows I considered the property next to mine, but something he said years ago always stuck with me: There comes a time when your possessions possess you. Granted at the time, I only owned about three days worth of clothes, my phone, and my bathroom kit. Plus a Harley.

I grew up bouncing around foster homes, with barely a duffle bag of stuff to my name. After a couple of years in the Army, I didn’t have much more than that until I bought my first motorcycle.

The guys I served with always had the latest devices, gold necklaces, and nights out with their flavor of the month, but me? My phone might have been beat up, but I could always check my bank balance on it.

One-night stands aside, nothing was going to distract me from my goal. A home on a nice piece of land and some horses. Of course, after I got the horses, my world kind of opened to other animals also.

The same thing happened with motorcycles.

Years ago, when I was leaving the base PX, I saw a woman putting up an ad for a used bike. I remember glancing at it and thinking it was a mistake. I called out to her, my heart pounding in excitement at the thought of finally owning my own ride, but wondering what the catch was. The price was justtoo good.

She invited me back to her place so I could look it over. Not wanting any competition, I removed the page she had put up on the message board, then hurried to climb into the passenger seat of her car.

After an easy ride across base to the duplexes where the married couples lived and I was soon drooling over the bike, even though I felt a little guilty at the price.

With her permission, I used the test ride to bring it to my buddy who was a mechanic on base and after he inspected it, told me that I was a dumbass if I didn’t buy it. My next stop was the credit union—and there I was with my first Harley.

Some warning bell was still sounding in my head, even after I got the updated title back from the state.

About eight months later, Demolition returned from his deployment to find out what his wife had done.

It took a long while before I found what happened next amusing, but at the end of the day, I have hisexto thank for leading me to Demo and the Saints Outlaws.

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