The Junkyard Boys (17 page)

“I agree,” Buck replied, on board with my decision. “We need to talk to Fox, see if he’s heard anything else at the tattoo shop, then we’ll hit the streets. Range, call your girl and make sure she’s safe. Tell her everything is going to be fine and that she doesn’t need to worry. The last thing we need is her getting' upset. Let her know you’ll try and keep in touch and will see her in a few days. That will buy us the time we need to hunt. Max, Sebastian, you stay here.”

“What the fuck, Buck!” they both shouted at the same time, but Buck silenced them quickly with a raised hand.

“I need someone here, someone I can trust in case that asshole comes back. I’ll also need someone to do drive-bys on Range’s girl, make sure she’s safe, home and work. Now, you can choose who does what, but that’s the end of it. Got no time to argue.” They were still pissed but understood his logic. Once Buck was done laying down the rules, it was over, no room for second-guessing or arguments.

“Ok, we’ll do it.”

“Good. Range, let’s roll.”

He stood up and headed toward the door, grabbing his bag on the way. He carried extra ammo and essentials, all of which we would need if we ever found this fucker. As much as I had hated calling him into this situation, I knew I was way over my head and Buck would see me through. He had that old-school biker knowledge and could get into this guy’s head so we could figure out what he was thinking and what the fuck he was after. Once you lived the life, you never forgot the hard lessons it taught you, like self-preservation and having your brothers’ backs. I would need Buck to have my back if I was going to make it out alive and protect my girl.

Clover

It’d been nearly twenty-four hours since I last heard from Range, and I was beginning to worry. All of my calls and texts had gone unanswered, which meant he was either too busy or was purposely ignoring me, neither of which made me feel any better. He told me Buck had made it to town and they were going to try and find Craze so they could talk to him and get to the bottom of this situation. Somehow I knew talking would be the last thing they did if or when they finally caught up with him. I still felt like shit for not telling Range about the little visit Craze had paid me, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

I didn’t understand any of this shit that was going on. So many questions were left unanswered; I could hardly wrap my head around any of it. Why would someone so young be looking for Buck if he had left the MC years ago? Why did Range think I was in so much danger from Craze? I knew it was silly and probably naïve of me to think he wasn’t a dangerous man; you had to be if you were part of a motorcycle club, at least that was what it looked like in the movies. Somehow I didn’t get the feeling Craze wanted to hurt me; or if he did, he was way too good at hiding it. He flirted shamelessly, but I’d imagine he had women falling to their knees any time he wanted them to. There was just something in his eyes that said he needed a friend or maybe just someone to help him. Yeah, totally naïve and completely stupid. I really needed to get my head examined.

It was way too early to have to think about all this shit. Monday morning was the worst, and waking up hours before I had to go to work was just plain cruel. I loved my sleep like a fat kid likes cake, and to have it interrupted due to my wayward thoughts just wasn’t cuttin’ it. As soon as I turned over for another ten minutes, Ashley burst into my room like a highly trained SWAT recruit and yanked the covers off my head.

“Rise and shine, Clove oil, time to wakey wakey eggs and bakey.” What in the ever-loving fuck was she so damn chipper about? My life was a mess, Range was in danger, and I didn’t get any sleep last night. Talk about a rude awakening.

“Get out of my room, Ashley. I’m not in the mood for bullshit. I need to try and get ten more minutes of sleep before I have to get up for work.” Completely undeterred, she whipped open the blinds, causing me to squint in surprise. Then she calmly shot my morning to a new level of shit.

“No can do, sister of mine. Mom wants to talk to you in the kitchen before you leave for work.”

“Why? What happened?

I knew it was gonna be bad when she wouldn’t meet

my eyes.

“Shelly told her about what happened when we went to Range’s for lunch.”

“WHAT THE FUCK!” I was so pissed at Shelly for running her big-ass mouth. Now my mom would be all up in my shit over something neither of us had control over. I was going to seriously cuss her ass out for snitchin’ once I was dressed. She had no right to butt into my business. I was a grown-ass woman and could take care of myself.

“She didn’t tell her everything. Just that she didn’t think Range was a good fit for you and that she wants you to stay away from him.”

“Well, that’s not her decision to make. It’s mine.”

“I know, Clove, but weren’t you scared when the window was shot out? I’ve had a hard time sleeping myself since Saturday, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

I knew Ashley was really shaken up when Sebastian threw her to the floor when all hell broke loose. I just hadn’t realized how much until I looked into her eyes and saw real fear there. My sisters only wanted the best for me, and of course for me to keep living. I felt like an ass for being so upset with them for being worried. I felt even worse when I looked at Ashley again and saw tears of sadness streaking down her cheeks as she tried to sniff them back. I jumped up from my bed and ran over to embrace her.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me, Ash. Range will take care of everything, I promise you.”

“How do you know that?” she asked through a sniffy sob.

“Because I trust him. He loves me and wouldn’t let anything happen to either of us. You’ll see.”

She wasn’t completely convinced, but at least I was able to soothe her enough to stop crying. She wiped her eyes with her hands and shook her head as if to gain some control over her emotions. It worked for the time being, and I let her go so that I could resume my morning.

“I’ll be down in a minute after I shower and change. Don’t worry, ok?”

“Ok, I’ll see you downstairs.” Then off she went.

***

Freshly showered and ready to face the firing squad, I made my way downstairs with as much bravado as I could muster. I wasn’t about to let them grill me over my relationship with Range; it was mine to hold on to as tightly as I could. No one was going to take him away from me, no matter what. As I entered the kitchen to grab my coffee, I was surprised to see that only my mom was there, no Shelly and Ashley. She must have wanted to speak with me in private, which was something she had never done before. Most of the time, my sisters were witnesses to my most embarrassing moments in life, and through constant teasing never let me forget them. My mom obviously felt this was a different set of circumstances and she needed to discuss this in private.

“Sit down, Clover, we need to talk.” Her tone left no room for argument, so I grabbed my cup of coffee and took the seat across from her at the kitchen table. She had a look that screamed, “Mother lecture coming,” and I braced myself for the onslaught of demands. They never came.

“Do you love this man? I mean truly love him from the depths of your soul?” It was an easy enough question to answer, so without hesitation, I responded.

“Yes, with all my heart. I love him more than I ever thought possible to love anyone. He is my cool glass of water on a hot day, my safety net when I want to jump without looking, my warmth on a cold winter’s day. He’s my everything and a bag of Skittles.”

She stood from the table and emptied her coffee cup into the sink then started to speak without turning to face me. She lowered her head while taking a deep breath to fortify herself before addressing me again. This was clearly hard for her to comprehend.

“Do you know why I married your father? Aside from the obvious, of course. I loved him, but that wasn’t what made me marry him.” I was totally confused by her question and how this related to Range and I, but I waited for her to continue.

“I’m not blind, nor am I stupid. I hear the talk around town that I married an old man, then cheated on him and had a baby with someone else, that baby being you. I know you take a lot of shit from your sisters about how differently you look. I never gave a damn about any of that and neither does your father; we both know the truth and that’s all that matters. What I do care about is that my girls find real love and all that entails.” She must have caught the perplexed look on my face, so she continued with her story. I had no idea she was so aware of what was going on with the people in our neighborhood.

“Your father wasn’t the most handsome man in the world, nor was he the richest. And believe me, I had my pick of suitors. But none of them held a candle to your dad, and I didn’t give a shit about our age difference. He was simply put…nice.”

“Okayyy…”

I dragged out the word, indicating that I was waiting for her to say more, something that would bridge the gap between my situation and her reasons for marrying my dad. What the fuck did him being nice have anything to do with marrying him? I mean, to each their own, but I wasn’t sure a man just being nice would be reason enough for me to say “I do.” What about sparks, lightning strikes, panting with sexual tension? Creaming your panties as soon as your eyes meet across a crowded room? Now those were reasons to marry someone, not because they were nice.

“I see the way you’re looking at me like I’m crazy, and yes, we had passion too. Mind-blowing, rip-your-clothes-off, can’t-make-it-to-the-bed passion.”

“Jesus Christ, mom, really? I don’t really want to hear about your sex life with Denny.” I held on to my stomach like I would blow chunks at any second. She chuckled to herself.

“Don’t worry, I won’t go into details. Just saying that if he weren’t a nice man, we never would have gotten together in the first place and I never would have married him years later. I never mistook his being nice as him being weak. He showed me the fierceness within him on more than one occasion if pushed too far. He protected our family then and he protects it now. The only place in the world I feel safe is with this man, and that comes from years of him helping me to feel that security.”

I was beginning to understand her logic now. She needed to know that Range would keep me safe, no matter what the circumstances. Not only did he need to keep me safe, but I needed to feel safe being with him. It was never solely about my dad being nice to her. I’m sure that played a part in their relationship, but certainly not the most important part. He worked hard to provide for his family, and in the midst of all that he made certain we were safely tucked away in a decent neighborhood with food in our bellies and clothes on our backs. He kept us safe from harm and worry, and that was what a real man did for his family. Range did that for his family, his junkyard family, tirelessly and without complaints. He was my “nice” man in this world and would do whatever it took to put an end to this shit with Craze. Come hell or high water, I would be safe no matter what. There was only one way to answer her question, and I felt it so strongly I stood from my perch at the kitchen table, ready to face my day head-on.

“Yes, mom, Range is a nice man.” She smiled at my answer and started to wash the morning dishes as if we hadn’t just come to some sort of understanding about my relationship with Range.

“Good. Have a nice day at work today. I hope we get to meet your young man real soon.”

With that, I grabbed my bag and headed out to Fosters’.

Range

Buck and I sat outside this dump of a bar, waiting for this douchebag biker to come out. It was early afternoon, but this fucker had been inside since nine this morning. Buck didn’t want to take him on in the building since we didn’t know how many bikers were in there and we didn’t want to take the risk of an ambush. Just because we didn’t see them going in didn’t mean the place wasn’t loaded, and they were sure to be packing heat. We pulled around to a nearby alley and waited. This guy ran a small local crew in the area, dabbling in drugs and women. They were small-time compared to Buck’s old crew, but if anyone knew anything about our unknown visitor, this guy would.

We had been hitting the area pretty hard over the last twenty-four hours. Buck might have been old, but he didn’t lose his touch when it came to extracting information. We hit the local strip joints, crack houses, and drug corners, all while trying to keep a low profile in case we ran into our guy. None of it panned out, but one of the strippers recommended we speak to this guy, ‘cause in addition to being the local hood he was also a known snitch for the right price.

I was tired and frustrated, and to top it off, I missed Clover like crazy. I knew she must have been worrying her pretty little head about me. I’ve only been able to call her once since Buck and I set off to find our mark. She sounded so sad when I had to hang up, but I promised I would call back. That was twenty-four hours ago and we were no closer to finding this guy now than when we started yesterday. I was beginning to think he was some sort of ghost or a figment of my imagination. Maybe a bird flew into the window and broke it and I just thought it was gunshots. Yeah, I needed some sleep. This shit was making me crazy. I let out a much-needed deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair to try and clear some of the tension building in my body. It didn’t work; my ass was so tight I could crack a walnut in it.

“You know, I’ve been in the woods a long time, boy. You might want to stop playing with all that pretty hair of yours before I forget you’re a dude and try and fuck ya.” I was not amused.

“Whatever, you old fuck, you probably can’t even get it up anymore.”

“Shit. Ain’t nuthin’ wrong with my dick. I’ve turned down more pussy than you’ll ever get in a lifetime, boy, and don’t you forget it.”

“Yeah, what the fuck ever, old man.”

By this time, Buck was grabbing his crotch just to emphasize he still had his dick, while I was trying not to throw up all over him. The look of horror on my face did nothing to quench his amusement, but he could kiss my ass if he thought I would ever find it funny to watch an old man play with his junk in my presence. I knew he was just trying to lighten the somber mood in the truck cab; he was just as frustrated as I was, if not more. This fucking guy needed to get his ass out here so we could end this shit.