Without even bothering to check to make sure Bug was okay, I grabbed my purse and headed out the door. I started my car and as I pulled away from Bug’s house, I felt scared to death and fiercely proud of myself all at the same time. I’d done it! I’d taken back what was mine and kept Bug from stealing from me and treating me like shit.
Feeling like I’d just climbed Mount Everest, I headed home, proud that my plan had worked and that I’d be able to pay my rent.
Chapter 19
Luke
Friday, May 10, 2013
The first thing I thought of — even before I opened my eyes — was Krystal. I stretched, my hands and feet barely able to reach the corners of the enormous king bed, and I wondered what the chances were that I’d be waking up alone tomorrow morning. The notion of her, naked and asleep in my bed, gave me a hard-on that wouldn’t have been quite so uncomfortable if she’d been there. Since she wasn’t, I took matters into my own hands and decided to hit the hotel gym before I picked Sable up for the weed shop visits.
Just before I left, I thought to call down to the front desk and ask them to stock the refrigerator with some champagne and to send up some strawberries shortly before Krystal was supposed to arrive. If strawberries and champagne didn’t impress a girl used to hanging out with dirty bikers who sucked down Coors Light like there was no tomorrow, I didn’t know what would.
***
“Hey, Sable,” I called from the Jeep as she walked down the drive toward me.
“Mornin’,” she said cheerfully.
“Joker here?” I asked, since the garage door was closed.
“Oh, yeah,” she answered, clearly irritated. “I doubt he’ll be up before noon.”
“Was he out late?” I asked, already regretting have brought it up.
“Luke, that man still acts like he was in his twenties and still drinking with his Marine Corps buddies. I’m not sure if he’s ever gonna grow the fuck up and start taking better care of himself.”
I didn’t say a word. I remembered Joker’s warning to stay out of other Sons’ relationships, and I kept my mouth shut.
Sable looked over at me as she fastened her seat belt. “I can see he’s already gotten to you. That you’re learning the ‘stay out of your brother’s business’ bullshit that they all live by, but you mark my words. If that man doesn’t start taking better care of himself, he’s gonna end up in the hospital with a heart attack. He isn’t exactly a young man anymore.”
I hoped she’d change the subject, and I didn’t say anything, just letting the silence follow us out of their neighborhood. Finally, after a few miles, I decided to end the awkwardness.
“So you know both of the people we’re meeting with today?”
“Yeah. Bobby Findlay owns the first store, and we went to school together.”
“And his business is doing well?”
“When I talked to him yesterday, he said he’s making way more than when he ran his construction company, and he has a fraction of the overhead.”
I smiled and nodded, her conversation confirming what I’d heard from my friend in California. “I really think this could be the answer to the MC’s problems,” I told her. “And my ticket in.”
Sable got quiet, which I was quickly learning meant that something was wrong.
“What?” I asked, mentally bracing myself for the lecture I feared was coming.
“Luke, I know that I don’t really count as your mother since I abandoned you, but will you at least listen to me for a minute?”
“Sure.”
“Luke, even though I had nothing to do with it, I couldn’t be prouder of you and what you’ve accomplished. You have a college degree and a professional job. You wear a tie to work, for heaven’s sake. You father owns one tie, and he’s worn the same on to every funeral we’ve gone to as long as I’ve known him. And funerals aren’t that uncommon, Luke.
“You never met your cousin, Moses, but he was just a couple of years younger than you. He was smart and successful, and he’s dead now. He’d be alive if it weren’t for the Savage Sons. This club won’t be good for you, Luke. I couldn’t be happier to have met you, and I want more than anything to continue to be a part of you life, but you should go back to the life you’ve built for yourself fin Arizona. I’ll come visit, if you’ll let me, but I’m scared about what the Sons will do to you.” Sable exhaled, like she’d just gotten something off her chest that had been weighing her down.
My first instinct was to tell Sable something that would keep her from worrying, and I realized that that instinct — my tendency to be a peacemaker, to try to make everyone happy — was one of the main things that made me different from the rest of the Savage Sons. I realized that I wanted to be different, wanted to live more like the Sons did — doing what I wanted and letting the chips fall where they may. I realized that I wanted to feel like I did on the bike — wind, sun, and nothing else. All the other bullshit — what Sable thought, what the people at my job were going to say if I came back and told them I was quitting — I just needed to let it roll off my back. Let it go. That was going to be my new attitude.