“Only if you're on the bike in five minutes.”
The door slammed closed as much as a door can slam when it’s only open three inches and I heard her banging around in her room.
I grabbed my keys, shrugged on my jacket, got the phone out of the charger, and headed out the front door.
Tiny’s was a diner located diagonally across the street from the Blue Dog Saloon. Because of its proximity to the biker bar, it was the best spot to grab a bite to absorb all that alcohol. Not that I drank alcohol. I’d never touched the stuff, honestly. After what that shit did to my life? No fucking way.
Tiny Jimenez was one of the first patches in our MC. He’d run with us for years until his wife Peggy finally got him to give it up. He bought the diner, which used to be a Spires, and now he gets the best of both worlds. He gets to hang out with bikers, but also have a happy wife.
Happy wife, happy life, isn’t that what they say?
I was on the bike listening to the engine idle. This machine was such an extension of my body that I could tell just by its sounds whether or not it needed a tune up.
Lily came out, grabbed her helmet, and slid behind me. She’d grown up in this exact position—on the back of my bike, holding on to the one person she could always count on.
Tiny’s was only a couple of miles away from the apartment complex we all shared. Outlaw Souls had bought the whole building and almost everybody lived on the property. The exceptions were Yoda and Chalupa. Yoda lived in a largely Asian community downtown with his 101-year-old mother, and Chalupa lived outside of La Playa in the neighboring city of Hacienda. We’d been offering him a place to live with us for years, but he said his mother would kill him if he left home. My guess was that she didn’t know anything about his association with us and he wanted to keep it that way.
Lily and I didn’t try to talk over the engine, and so I gathered my thoughts about what to say to her. I had to be careful not to piss her off because then she’d shut down and not listen. But I also needed to be direct enough that she understood the danger she was putting herself in. The Las Balas were not people to fuck with.
If she really thought that kid loved her, then she was as stupid as she was beautiful. I couldn’t just come out and tell her that he was using her, though. She’d probably just get up and walk out.
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”I could hear Yoda’s advice in my mind.
As I pulled in the dirt lot next to Tiny’s, I was glad to see that no one was here. There were customers, of course. But no bikes, which meant no distractions while I was talking to Lily.
We locked our helmets and Lily started talking like the teenager she was. “So in chemistry class this bitch Kayla decided that she was just going to copy off of my work like that. So I said, ‘Bitch, do your own fucking work.’ Like, I’m not about to get my grade lowered because she’s too dumb to actually understand chemistry.”
Despite her stubborn streak and rebellious nature, Lily was actually a really good student—when she wanted to be. If she was interested in a subject or felt the teacher respected her, she’d work her ass off. But if she thought the subject was stupid or had a problem with the teacher, she’d just shut down and not do any work whatsoever.
I held the door open for her and we walked back to our usual booth. I liked it because it gave me a clear view of the door and all the exits, and our backs were to a wall, not a window. In La Playa you can never be too safe, as drive-by shootings were a real thing around here. I should know. I was one of the best.
“Hey Ryder,” the waitress said as she came up to our booth. Nodding to Lily, she asked, “You want your same order? Cabellero Burger and curly fries, with a vanilla shake and apple pie a la mode for dessert?”
Lily looked at me hopefully and I nodded as Julie wrote down the order. “What about you, handsome? Anything look good to you?” She winked at me.
Lily rolled her eyes and got out her phone. It was always embarrassing when women hit on me in front of her. For both of us.
Julie Kim was harmless, though. She’d been working here since Tiny opened the place, and I honestly figured that if I did respond to her flirtation she wouldn’t know what to do with it. She was all talk because it led to higher tips.
“I’ll get a breakfast burrito and black coffee, please.” I folded the menu and handed it to Julie. She appeared to be the only one here today, which was odd. They usually had more than one waitress on the floor. “Where’s Rocky?” I asked, scanning the room.
“We hired a new girl and she’s training her in the back. Why? Ya need somethin’?”
I shook my head. “No. Just curious.” Rocky and I had hooked up a couple of times last year and I tended to avoid her now. She’d wanted more but, well, I just wasn’t feeling it.
Julie went to put our orders in and I turned my attention to Lily. “Lil. I need to talk to you. Can you put your phone down?”
“Uh huh,” she said, never taking her eyes off the phone. “Just a sec. I’m texting Jax.”
“You text her day and night, Lily. This is important.” I put my hand over hers. “Please?”
She sighed dramatically and put the phone aside. “Fine. What?”
“I need to talk to you about Las Balas.”
Her face started to get angry again and she said, “I don’t want to talk about this Ryder. I know about Las Balas. Scorpion told me all about them, and said that you were going to try and fill my head with all kinds of lies about them. I told him he was wrong, but I guess not.”
“Scorpion is a prospect, Lily. Do you honestly think he knows what really goes on? He’s not even a patch yet.”
