Page 2 of Sac-rifice
“Don’t talk about yourself like that,” I joked half-heartedly, shoving my hands into the sleeves of my leather jacket and shrugged it the rest of the way onto my body.I guess we’d all been too wrapped up with what was going on between Sledge and me to remember we had somewhere to be.
Knowing Ghoul like I did, he was about to speed past the Cuyahoga so fast it would look like a creek instead of the river that it was and expect all of us to do the same.Seeing as I was our Road Captain, I would be one of the two riding right behind him setting the pace for the rest of the club, so the quicker I got my ass out the door the better.
“Yeah, I know I’m getting up there, but we can’t all be young tic-tac warriors like you, Sac.Spider and I might have more gray in our hair than color now, but when I say Leo is old, trust me, he’s ancient.”He grabbed his jacket and pulled it on as he continued, “Did you get the ponchos?”
I nodded.“Yeah.”
“Enough for all of us?”Ghoul’s eyebrow raised as he passed me, heading toward the door.
“Yeah, Sac, didyoumake sure to get enough for everyone?”Sledgehammer questioned like a parrot repeating Ghoul’s words, no doubt seeing the chance to get even with me for riding him all night.Not only was he going to throw me under the bus, but he was also driving the damned thing.It wouldn’t shock me one bit if he pulled out some conniving shit and slammed the bus into reverse just to crunch me under the wheels another time for good measure.
I glared at Sledge.He was more than aware I wasn’t the one to physically buy the ponchos per say.I paid for them, but what I didn’t do was handpick every last plastic raincoat and put frilly little nametags on each of them for all of my brothers.I was in a hurry and completely done with the sweet butt that stayed that night before I made sure I had what the club needed.
Having her pick up the items made the most sense.I had offered to take her home, and she asked if I would let her run into a store for something.I didn’t ask what she needed, didn’t care.Of course, I agreed to take her.I wasn’t a complete asshole all of the time.Both of us going into the store seemed pointless, so I sent her after them.She was a fairly smart lady—too smart to be tangled up with any of us bastards for damned sure—and besides, it was a simple task.The thought that she might have screwed up and not gotten enough had crossed my mind but only because Sledge kept asking about how many I bought almost daily for the whole week prior to today.
“We have enough.Okay?Now, are we gonna stand around all night nit-picking or are we going to get the heck outta Dodge?”I stood still for a second, questioning him, hoping he took the bait and shut the hell up.I glanced from him to the open door when Ghoul’s bike rumbled to life and Wiley zipped past us.
“C’mon, fucksticks.We have places to be and a man to see.”Wiley paused, meticulously pulling on his black leather gloves.“We already have to deal with the two of you going back and forth, I don’t want to add a pissed off Ghoul into the mix.”
I opened my mouth to say something smartassy but decided he was right.If we didn’t get our asses out the door, Ghoul would leave without us, and the whole club would pay for it.
CHAPTER2
CAPTAIN PINK
SAC
“Leo, it’s good to see you, brother.”Ghoul clapped the man on the back with his hand as he hugged him.
“It’s been too long.”He emphasized the last bit of his sentence, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Ghoul took a second before he opened his mouth to stare at Sledge and me.“Yeah.Sorry about not being here when you arrived.Getting all these bastards rounded up is like herding cats.”His eyes scanned the group of us standing around.He glared at Sledge and me for a second time, and then his focus went back to Leo.
“Heh.How so?”
“One of them,” he nodded his head in the direction of Sledgehammer and me, “has a pissing problem, and the other needs to get his elephant balls clipped off.Maybe then, they’d learn how to behave like good boys.”He giggled, and Sleeper blew a puff of air out of his mouth as he joined him.
“Completely get it.I’ve come across a couple of difficult assholes in my life,” Leo admitted, running his fingers through his hair.
“Bet you have,” Ghoul absentmindedly answered him, looking past all of us as he watched his ole lady, Ginger.She divvied out the ponchos to us one brother at a time, carefully clutching the stack of them against her chest.I guess she wanted to be helpful because she offered to hand them out shortly after we pulled into their driveway.She was a person I was never able to predict.From the stories Ghoul shared about her past, she’d gone from one terrible situation to another.I didn’t know what I expected, though.She not only put up with our Prez’s stubborn ass, but she also matched his crazy.She was one intense broad, but then again, I guess most of my brothers’ ole ladies were.
We all talked a big game about chasing ass, but in reality, most of my brothers were locked in.Even Tin Man had his ex-wife.He was still hung up on her; there was no convincing me otherwise.In my brothers’ eyes, I was the only truly single brother remaining.What they didn’t know about me, I didn’t have any interest in women beyond getting off.My idiot heart had fallen for someone long before I was their brother.Hell, it was before I was a hang-around.
When I wandered my drunk ass straight into Ghoul’s back one night, I was on a bender that had lasted a couple of weeks at least, I reeked of alcohol, and I probably hadn’t showered for at least four days.By that point, I hated the world and had settled into the mindset of“If I meant so little to her, then I wouldn’t be enough for anyone.”It took a while, but by the time I figured out that wasn’t what I really thought, I had probably slept with half of the women in Ohio and Tennessee.It wasn’t that I wasn’t worthy of anyone else; I just simply didn’t want anyone other than her.No one else compared.
Ghoul hadn’t changed a whole hell of a lot since we met, but I had.I was still me to the core, always looking out for everyone else, and rarely myself.The memories felt a lifetime away, instead of two decades.Ghoul was still as meticulous as he ever was when it came to minute details like having our ponchos match so we didn’t draw unwanted attention.I didn’t understand why ordering them online and waiting for them to be shipped to us was a bad idea.I guess days like today were the reason.Judging by the humungous storm rolling in, I was thankful our Prez had forced the club’s hand into being prepared.
It hadn’t started raining, but a hell of a storm was in the forecast and headed our way.Ginger silently whispered to herself, touching the end of her finger to the remaining ponchos she held.She pulled a deep breath into her body and blew it out slowly, closing her eyes briefly before opening them, and then her attention lifted to the sky.
A humongous boom of thunder cracked behind us, rumbling through the atmosphere.The sky lit up blue as lightning darted down from the clouds and down to the dirt a little too close for comfort in the distance.Another deafening bout of thunder rolled out of the heavens, this one louder than the first, and lightning fractured through the darkness—this one was closer than the last.
“Better hurry with those ponchos, Ginger.The storm is here early and doesn’t look like it’s leaving anytime soon,” Ghoul said around his cigar, lighting the end of it after he secured the opposite end between his teeth.
“Yeah, I smell the rain coming,” I agreed with him.“The rain is about to start.”
“For fucks sake and biscuits!What in the hell do you mean you can smell the rain coming, Sac?”Sleeper eyed me from where he stood between Wiley and Ghoul.
“What do you mean what do I mean?You can’t smell the rain?”I asked, my eyebrows pulling firmly down in confusion.
