“Don’t stop.” Her voice sounded so disappointed.
I ignored her sexy pout. “Tomorrow, we ride in a big parade. Will you be my date?”
“You’re asking me out?”
“If you’ll have me.”
“What about the baby?”
“I’ll find us a sitter. We’ll make a whole night out of it, if you get my drift.”
“We’ve got all night, tonight.”
“I want the first time I claim you as mine to be special.”
“Claim me?”
I couldn’t help but return my hand to her warm cave. “Yeah, I don’t just plan to fuck you.” I thrust my fingers in her hard. “I want to own you, Darlin’.” I drew out my fingers and licked them clean. “Stake my claim. Make you mine. I don’t feel like I can let loose right here, right now. We’d wake the baby.”
“It’s a date, then.”
“Alrighty. Please go shower before I stake my claim right now.”
“Okay, but then, I’m going to make you dinner.”
Before long, she was out of the shower, fully clothed and pulling a casserole out of the oven. While she was gone, the baby woke up and I gave him a bottle of more than just water since Halley was pumping now. I’d even gotten him back to bed without Halley even knowing he woke up.
“Delicious,” I remarked, not knowing Halley could cook.
“I wish I could take credit, but Wanda dropped it off. She said, someone dies, and people drop off all kinds of food. Oh, I’m sorry. Were you close to him?”
“The General, yeah, but I don’t want to talk about it.”
As we ate, it was my turn to be vague. The General meant a whole hell of a lot to me although I might’ve not meant a thing to him. In spite of everything, the whole club looked up to him, all the chapters of the Asphalt Gods MC spread out in twenty states and Canada.
He was my leader, a father figure who hadn’t thrown me out, no matter what stupid mistake I made. Sure, we had our ups and downs, but he had been a constant in my life. Fuck, he’d given me my road name. I hadn’t thought about it for a long time, but it’d also been the first time we went after Halley.
I was green, a boy of just nineteen. Before then I was simply John, my given name. But in the Devil’s Den, I snapped. We’d had the upper hand, but Scar had flaked out. He’d watched his mama die so he couldn’t kill the woman he’d snatched up. He hadn’t ever killed a woman until he offed Dixie around a month ago, surprising the ever-loving hell out of me.
Anyway, after he froze up, the enemy surrounded us. Serpentine and his officers showed once we were all trapped inside. With the crazy weather that night, we hadn’t heard them coming, had no clue they’d been onto us.
We were all as good as dead.
Everyone’s hands were up, but I’d been knocked to the ground. Threats were silent. Our whole crew was about to be slaughtered without so much as an interrogation. I saw my chance, went for the gun in my leg holster and shottoward a big man named Dice, if only to buy my brothers some time. I say shot toward, because I missed him. Instead, I’d hit a little girl.
What in the fuck was a little girl doing in their clubhouse, anyway?
I hadn’t seen her beforehand, but I’d killed her all the same. Her death was something I didn’t intend, but the shock of it all saved the lot of us. Because of my stupid ass, the Gods made it out of there alive that day.
While Scar couldn’t kill a woman after witnessing his mama get slaughtered, the opposite became true for me. Anytime any killing was about to go down, I didn’t let myself think of the horrible thing I’d done by doing as much damage as I could.
Yeah, the General had loved to tell the story. He’d say, John, he went Cowboy on their asses and killed a little devil right in the Devil’s Den. I’d survived to tell the tell. The General turned the lowest point in my life into a defining one I could never forget, even if I thought I had. The ghost of that little girl followed me with every mention of my name.
Cowboy
I sat beside Scar at the bar. “Good morning… You look like shit, brother.”
“Look in the mirror, asshole.”
