“Whoa, love, I’m just being cute. You’re Rocket’s old lady?”
I hesitated, because we hadn’t gone that far, had we? Was that what was happening? Wouldn’t I know for sure if that had happened?
“Okay, clearly that’s still up for debate. Don’t worry, love. They’re pretty evenly matched to be honest. They have very different skills, but they’re pretty much matched.”
The guy had long blonde hair, and a scruff of blonde beard on his jaw and chin. I glanced at his cut, and it said VP, and the name Stitch.
“I’m Stitch, love. I know you just worked that out. I’m glad Rocket’s found himself a nice friend here. He needed that.” He’d already downgraded me from old lady to friend, while I was still wondering which even applied.
“Are they going to stop soon?”
He laughed, pointing Micro out, who was shoving his way to the front of the crowd again.
“Any minute now. This was never about violence, you get that, right? It was about burying the hatchet and moving on to healing. Rocket and Grease were tight back at the old club, but learning Grease’s past seemed to turn Rocket against him. They needed this.”
I watched as Micro threw a bucket of waste beer over the two scrapping men, and they cursed, pulling apart and swiping it from their faces.
“Okay. I’m calling it. Nobody won, and you both put on a great show. Really, very entertaining. Adorable, even.”
“I’m giving it zero stars,” someone called out, and there was scattered laughter.
Micro passed the bucket to someone, and reached out to help Rocket up, who begrudgingly reached out to help Grease up, on a fierce glare from his President. It was like a forced attempt at friendship, like when you tell kids to shake hands and stop fighting.
“Okay everyone, thanks so much for the betting funds. They’ll be a nice start towards our rebuild budget.”
There were grumbles and some middle fingers flying, but Micro just laughed.
“Kidding. Kind of. If you want to get your money back, go see those two pricks. Anything left will go into club funds though.”
Stitch nudged my arm and passed me two bottles of beer, opening them as he handed them to me. At my frown, he laughed.
“The other one’s for your man there, I mean, unless you prefer to double fist them?”
His grin turned wicked, and I found myself smiling back at him. He was actually really nice, although I hadn’t met many club members I didn’t like, if any. Grease annoyed me, and that prospect who’d been so mouthy. That was it really.
“I’ll leave the fisting to you, Stitch.” I took the beers, and walked away to his laughter, approaching Rocket, who was tentatively mopping at his face with the front of his t-shirt, revealing those taut abs that made my mouth water.
“That for me?” I flipped Grease off, and turned away from him, passing Rocket his beer.
“You know, you can be nice to me now. We’re good,” Grease said, and I shrugged. I wasn’t ready to be nice to him yet. I was too busy taking in the swelling and bleeding on Rocket’s face, and the cut on his jaw. There were scratches and scrapes on his arms too.
“Look what you did to him!” I snapped, turning to glare at Grease as Rocket chuckled beside me, greeting that older guy as Doc, as the man showed up with the backpack.
“He got a few hits in too,” Grease said, smirking as ever, but he definitely had plenty of blood and bruising showing too.
“Alright, Doc, you gonna do me next?”
“Wait your turn, I can only treat one dickhead at a time. Be grateful it’s not Grace here patching you idiots up.”
Grease leaned around me, catching Rocket’s eye.
“Look, for the record, it was never a fucking game for me. It was like coming home, and I know you get that. Maybe I didn’t start out however you did, or any of these guys did, but I’m as much a biker as you are.”
Rocket grunted, nodding at him, while the doc was cleaning the cut on his jaw with a wipe.
“Another scar for your collection, dipshit,” the man grumbled, gesturing past me to Grease, while Rocket groaned.
“Yeah, I hear ya, man. I don’t like how you lied to me for all that time, but I guess I can see why it had to be that way. Just felt like we were tight back there, and yet you were lying to me the entire time.”
