Chapter One
Movie Star Gorgeous
Dutch
Dutch’s phone rang while he was in the T-U-V sectionat Fortnum’s Used Books.
He pulled the cell out of the back pocket of his jeans andchecked the screen.
Jagger Calling.
He loved his brother, but it was hit or miss if he’d pick upa call from the guy.
This was only because Jag was all about good times.Gettingdrunk.Getting laid.Getting out of town for a change of scenery, doing it on along ride, and doing it in order to get drunk or laid in a fresh locale.
Jag was twenty-six, it was his time to carouse.
At least that’s what their ma and Hound said.
Dutch was twenty-eight, and apparently it was his time tocarouse too.
At least that was what their mother and Hound urged him todo.
Dutch just wasn’t feeling it.
Not anymore.
Not that he ever did.That was not the kind of guy he was.
He could see getting a buzz on, and he did.
But being around dudes who were so drunk, they were eithersloppy or turned into assholes, not so much.
Jag never took it that far.His brother just got happy(er)and (more) sociable when he got a buzz on.
Jag’s puking-and-being-an-asshole days ended that nighttheir motorcycle club, Chaos, voted Jagger in as prospect.Then they made himdrink to the verge of alcohol poisoning.After that, with the mother of allhangovers, they made him clean up after himself and everyone else who’dover-imbibed.
Come to think of it, that was when Dutch’s getting-drunk,puking-and-being-an-asshole days ended too.Before Jag’s.When the brothers hadtaken Dutch on as a recruit and made him do the same thing.
These were the ways of Chaos, Dutch had learned.
Even shit that didn’t seem to have a purpose, had a purpose.
Tack, their retired president, was that kind of guy, thatwas where he led the Club, and he’d cemented them there, all so he could handthat kind of Club down to his son.
Something he did.
In other words, no man wanted to be around another man whocould not handle his booze.Who didn’t know when to stop.Who got to the pointhe was puking and being an asshole.
So you learned right away in Chaos that wasn’t the brotherto be.
And they found a way to teach that lesson and made you thatkind of brother.
He ignored the call, shoved the phone back into his pocketand slid the volume from the shelf.
Vonnegut.Bluebeard.Hardback.
Dutch opened the book and saw, in subtle pencil written atthe top right of the opening page,$5.00.
