“Fuck,” I saw Mak mouth in his mirror when he looked back.
At the next block, we ignored the light and darted out into traffic. Horns honked, and tires screeched from two different directions, but we ignored it and split once more.
Vick took the left, and so did the squad car.
I didn’t know where the hell we were going, I just kept pace with Mak once we got on the interstate. He didn’t slow until we hit the ramp to Raymond.
“There ain’t nothing here.” I called over the engines, just before he hooked onto the lonely highway.
His eye was black, but his scowl had softened a bit. We’d been best friends since we were kids. He always had been a hard head with the ability to hold a grudge better than anyone I’d ever met.
Thankfully, he turned into a gas station up the road a bit and waited for me to refuel.
“Did you reach the others?” I asked when I saw him messing with his phone.
“Naw. Fuck them. They’re on their own tonight. Me and you can get into some other shit.”
Mak getting into other shit, usually only meant one of two things. He meant to shove his nose across a mirror, or up an ass.
“Where to tonight?”
Swanwick was small, so he couldn’t get into anything without word getting back to his wife. Sasha didn’t like it when Mak got coked out, and who could blame her? It enhanced that temper of his and turned him into a damn bull most nights.
And, it kind of went without saying, that she wasn’t all that fond of him coming home smelling like other women.
“Nokomis.” He shrugged.
“Let’s go back.”
“What?” The cigarette he’d been about to light, nearly fell from his lips.
“I was digging that little blonde.” I mumbled.
He scoffed, and squinted like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“That little ratchet-ass thing that was on the pole? How many poles you think she’s been on since she left yours?”
My entire expression fell.
If he wasn’t already sporting bruises, I’d have probably slugged him, and he knew it, too. He snorted and shook his head.
“Come on. There are other fish in the sea. Who knows, you might even find one half the club hasn’t seen naked… Like that little blonde back there.”
He fired up his bike, and for a minute, I thought about letting him ride.
If we weren’t so far from home I would have, but he was Mark’s son if nothing else. If I left him alone and something happened to him, I’d never hear the end of it. He’d already gotten out of sorts in Springfield, and the night was still young.
I pulled onto the highway and cursed the fact that being his best-friend had once again earned me the role of being his babysitter. The corner pub in Nokomis was packed. There were bikes as far as the eye could see in a neat little row along the tracks.
The locals liked to bar hop from The Last Stand pub, to the tavern on the opposite corner, which was fine. It was when they crossed the tracks to hit the other two bars that things occasionally got interesting. It wasn’t often, but every once in a while, someone got hit.
I glanced across the tracks at the thick crowd weaving back and forth between The Oasis and Jerry’s bar and grill. That side was equally as populated, but the people over there were a bit different. Their smiles came easier, and they typically had eyes that were kinder, softer, and more hopeful than anything you’d find in The Last Stand.
“Jesus, you really are in the mood for something different, eh?” Mak teased, when he caught me gawking that way.
I snorted and shook my head.
“I don’t have time for nothing like that.” I reminded him, when he kept on staring at me.
