Page 3 of Saint

The next twelve months are a blur of tears and anger. Ranger stepped into the role of Club President and he and the club did all they could to look after myself and the boys. The boys thankfully accepted all the love and help that was offered and just let the club rally around them. They both prospected for the club and were patched in before I left. I couldn’t. I mean, I tried. I wanted to. But it was just too hard. Twenty years of memories everywhere I turned. So in the end, I decided to take a break. I asked the boys if they’d be ok then I paid off the mortgage with some of the insurance money, packed my bags and headed here to the US with the rest. There were so many things I’d always wanted to see. So I did. I spent eight months travelling and touristing. Four months ago I found myself here at Sapphire Lake and fell in love with the place.

“And here I still am. That’s it in a nutshell mate. And I was all good until yesterday. Now it feels like I’m right back home”.

Jameson sat there in stunned silence. He chose actions over words. He stood me up, put a ‘back in 15 minutes’ sign on the door and walked me home. He made me a cup of tea, made me get changed, found me a sleeping pill and tucked me into bed. Apparently he sat on the front porch until he was sure I was asleep and then headed back to the bar.

Dublin

Back at the bar, Saint and a few others were waiting for me on the deck and all of them were looking thirsty. “What gives? A man is not a camel!” exclaimed Smoke.

“Shit to do” I said gruffly as I unlocked the door and let them in. “Give me two minutes and I’ll have your drinks ready.” Saint just raised one eyebrow at me in question. “Same two minutes and then I have news for you. All right Keepers – whisky or beer? Who wants what?” A chorus of replies echoed back at me and in two minutes, as promised, drinks were poured and served. I handed Saint a shot and a beer and answered his curious look with “you’ll need it”.

“I promised you gossip would walk through the door and it did. Remember that woman you were watching paddle toward here as you left yesterday?”

“Hard to forget” he said with a smile rubbing has hand over his stubbled chin, remembering her curves and long, liquid chocolate coloured hair “though I have no idea why she was on a fucking surfboard around here. There’s no surf for days”

“Not a surfboard. It’s a stand up paddle board. But that’s beside the point. Her name’s Jack. She’s only been in town a few months and I just found out that she saw Reign get hit by that truck. Not only that, but she sat with him and held his hand until the paramedics arrived. It really upset her. She’s desperate to know how he is. I just walked her home and told her I’d find out what I could. She’s living in Beau’s old cottage just up the road. How’s the kid today?”

Saint threw back his shot and stood. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go. I need to talk to her!”

“Not tonight brother. There’s a lot more to this story and trust me when I tell you, Jack is absolutely not up to talking to your sorry ass tonight! So drink your beer and tell me how Reign is doing and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

I poured several more drinks and the rain started about the same time. Luckily, there was plenty of undercover parking out back for the bikes which meant the lads were here till the rain stopped. Could be a long night, though this was fine by me as it meant more money in the till and after a quiet afternoon, I wouldn’t turn it down. I poured drinks for Saint and myself, settled on the stool next to him and repeated Jack’s entire story to him. When I mentioned that she was Australian, a flicker of vague recognition registered briefly in his cool green eyes but when I mentioned that she is was part of an MC back home, he almost fell off his stool. Just so happened it was the same stool Jack almost fell off earlier. I might have to get rid of that one.

The rain started to come down harder and the lads, knowing they’d be here for a while yet, settled in for a long night of drinking and playing pool. I went back behind the bar to pour more drinks and left Saint to digest my news.

“First up, Reign will be fine in a couple of weeks – thanks to Jack apparently. Seems she applied a tourniquet to his leg which stopped him from bleeding out. She really someone’s ol’ lady?”

“Was” I replied drily. “Anyway, I’ll take you to meet her tomorrow. She was out to it when I left and looked like she needed to stay that way for the night.”

The rest of the night passed in a blur of whisky, games of pool and boys being boys. They all hung around till the rain stopped sometime after midnight and then dispersed off into the night – probably waking the lakeside residents. Not that most of them would care, only old Mrs Kite down the other end of the road and I wasn’t really bothered about upsetting that old crow.

Dublin

Saint rocked up early the next morning, earlier than I expected. I was sitting out the front enjoying the morning sun with my coffee when he rocked up. He was anxious to go meet Jack and talk about Reign I guess but seeing as I was still suffering after last night, I made him suffer with me and wait while I downed not one but two cups of coffee. More for amusement value than because I needed two. It’s not often Saint looks anxious and I was cruelly making the most of it.

“Come on. We’ll walk down. It’s not far.”

As we got closer to Jack’s, I could see old Mrs Kite standing on Jack’s front porch looking like she was having stern words with Jack. Old Bert, Jack’s neighbour, was sitting out the front enjoying the show. He was a happy old man who passed his days just sitting, watching and drinking and I suspect he got a lot of mileage out of old Mrs Kite’s antics.

When we got to Jack’s place, Mrs Kite was making her way down the front path. She looked at Saint and I and in her nastiest old busy body voice said “Figures that woman would be friends with the likes of you two!” and then continued on in a huff.

“Now you have a nice day too Mrs Kite” we both said on a smile and watched her oversized old ass waddle back across the road to sit on her undersized fold out lawn chair watching the lake.

Jack pulled out her phone and turned on some music. She chose a song called Gimme Head by some Aussie band, turned it up so loud the speaker on her front porch was vibrating of its stand and very coolly, waited for old Mrs Kite to turn around before giving her the bird. “Sit in front of your own fucking house you cranky old bitch!” she yelled out. Bert next door cracked up laughing and wandered back inside and we headed up the path to say good morning to Jack.

“Making friends with the neighbours I see?”

“Apparently” she said rolling her eyes and glaring across the road where the old biddy was sitting “I dunno why she can’t sit out the front of her own home. I swear she comes down here and sits in front of mine just so she can have something to complain about! The view is exactly the same from the end of the bloody street. Anyway, if I’m lucky, I’ve finally offended her enough that she won’t come back. What did you two do wrong?”

“The list is long” sighed Saint, shaking his head.

At this point she turned to face Saint and I. “Thanks for looking after me last night Jameson. You’re the best! The world needs more chivalrous Irishmen like you. And what’s with the cut? I didn’t know you were part of a club. You don’t wear it at work?”

“No problem Jack. Always a pleasure to help a damsel in distress. Looks like you’re feeling better this morning. And yep, I’m a member of the Hell’s Keepers – Road Captain in fact - and no I don’t wear it at work. The bar is not just for the club, it’s part of the town and was long before I bought it. Anyway, this is…”

“Saint” she interrupted, looking him up and down, recognizing the green eyes and finally settling on the patch on his cut. “Saint. As in ‘ain’t no’…?” she asked looking up at him.

I took him a second to process the question before he answered. “As in ‘ain’t no’” he agreed with a curious grin on his face and one eyebrow raised. So she is the woman from the café, he thought to himself. He took note of her golden, hazel eyes and long dark hair and his cock twitched in approval.

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