Page 11 of Maximus

I nodded at the man, who returned the greeting with a toothy grin. Yardbird and I shot the shit for a little while, as he gave me the rundown of his background and how he came to the Sinners doorstep. When he confirmed he was from Alabama, a slight laugh escaped my lips. I knew that accent anywhere.

“Prospect, I have one more task for you before you knock off for the night. I need you to show our guests to their rooms. Grab the keys from Gia. She knows which rooms have been cleaned and are ready for them. When you’re finished, get you some sleep. Your ass will be up with the chickens, making runs for breakfast. Maximus, you’ll go with him in the morning. Welcome to Oakland.”

With that, King stood up, and made his departure from the clubhouse. I expected he was headed home to keep his promise to his ole lady. I accompanied Yardbird to the bar to retrieve the keys for our rooms. I really just wanted one last look at the forbidden woman who was sure to star in my dreams.

“Miss Gia, King sent me over to get the keys for our guests.”

I pushed the man aside and held out my hand when Gia offered the keys. Her fingers lightly brushed the inside of my palm when she handed them to me. A jolt of electricity made me grunt out loud.Shit. I didn’t mean for that to come out.

“The room numbers are on the keys. King said for you to take this one as your permanent residence. The other two are for your friends.”

“Thank you, darlin’. You have a good night. Be sure to dream about me when you close those pretty eyes.”

What the fuck was wrong with me? King just reminded me to stay away from her, but I couldn’t help myself. Sometimes I thought I had a death wish. By the way Yardbird was looking at me, I was well on my way to getting my wish.

“Maximus, you shouldn’t have flirted with her. She’s off limits. Your ass will be in a mess of trouble if King finds out. He don’t play around when it comes to Miss Gia.”

“My bad, I forgot. I won’t let it happen again.”

“Good, because if you get in trouble, so do I.”

At the crack of dawn, or so it seemed, I heard a slight tap on my door. As a former Marine, I was used to being up before daybreak, but I had a long drive yesterday and then sat around drinking all night. I was exhausted and needed more sleep than usual. I stubbed my toe on the fucking bed as I stumbled my way to the door and yanked it open. I said I was used to getting up early. I never said I liked it.

“What the fuck do you want?” I screamed as I opened the door. I had forgotten where I was and what my position was. Good thing it was Yardbird standing there, or my head would have been chopped off.”

“Not a morning person? No matter, we’ve got chores to do. Go on and get dressed. I’ll wait here for you.”

Fuck!I had tasks to accomplish today. It was slowly coming back to me. King had ordered me to go with Yardbird and get acclimated to my new home. I rushed to the bathroom, took a piss, washed up a bit, and threw on some jeans, a black tee, and my cut. I rolled on some socks and stuffed my feet in my boots before grabbing my keys and heading out the door. The whole thing took less than seven minutes. I was getting slow.

“I’m ready to roll out,” I said to Yardbird who was standing at the door like a statue.

“Good because we’ve got a lot to do today. First up, grab shit for breakfast. After everyone eats, we gotta babysit a couple of the girls as they go into town to do a little shopping. That’s going to take us well into the afternoon. After that, we are assigned gate duty. I’ll show you what all we have to do. Don’t worry, none. It’s not back-breaking work, but it is boring.”

Little did the man know, but I was a security expert. I dabbled a bit in cyber security, as well as the regular degular safety measures. The Marines had prepared me for this. All I needed to know were the ins and outs of the compound. Everything else would be second nature. Just like riding a bike.

Instead of making a run to the grocery store, we hit up this local diner. Apparently, Yardbird had already called in the extensive order from their catering menu. We drove his truck so we would be able to carry the many pans of breakfast food back to the clubhouse. That shit smelled so good, my stomach started doing flip flops. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten. I knew one thing, I couldn’t wait to dig in.

“Sounds like your stomach is eating your back. Well, you’d better tell that thing to calm down. Prospects don’t eat until everyone else gets their plate.”

Fuck my life.

Eight

Gia

The smell of bacon wafted through the air as Maximus and Yardbird carried stacks of containers into the clubhouse. Usually, I didn’t partake in swine, but bacon was my weakness. I could tell by the smell this was good old pork bacon. None of that imitation turkey stuff for the Sinners. I imagined wiping a line of drool from my mouth as I sniffed the air like a fiend.

“Bitch, what are you doing? I know you are not thinking about eating that food. It’s not vegan. Here, let me make you a smoothie.”

I looked at my friend like she had lost her mind. Now what would make her think I wanted a smoothie instead of a greasy delicious slice of oink oink goodness?

“Chili, I think you must have fallen off your pole last night and bumped your head. That’s the only way you can possibly think I would pass up bacon and eggs for one of those green concoctions you mix up in the blender. You are supposed to chew your food, not drink it.”

“You say that now, but when your colon backs up, you’ll be begging for one of my delicious drinks.”

“Nope, I still won’t drink that stuff. They are green! Green!”

We both laughed at my over-the-top reaction to her drinks. Truthfully, they weren’t that bad, I just hated drinking my food when I could sit down and eat. I was a slim chick, but I loved to eat. It was my favorite pastime. I would continue to be a foodie until my metabolism betrayed me. Hopefully that would be half past never.

---