Page 6 of Riding Through Life

A warm body presses against my side and a slight purr wraps around me. “I’ll see you later, Biker.”

And yet again the woman takes off before I can shake myself out of the idiot I’ve become. I slam the cart into the cart parking and stomp to the SUV. I climb inside and slam the door so hard, it rocks the SUV.

“Not a fucking word to anyone. Do you hear me?” I bark as I start the cage and drive away. Now what the fuck am I going to do? Not tell Kensi that’s what. Nothing happened so there is nothing to tell.

Chapter

Six

AFTERMATH

It’s been a week and Lexi and Pearl haven’t said a word to anyone. Thank fuck for small favors. Guilt and embarrassment have been eating away at me but I know if I tell Kensi, it’ll send her into a tailspin. Nothing happened, so why do I feel so guilty?

“What’s up, brother?” Red asks as he sits at the barstool next to me. Kensi is at her dad’s house in Cannondale Springs and I’m here drinking whiskey trying to drink away my problem. I’ve been pissy all week, waiting for the shoe to drop, but it hasn’t and I can’t keep going on like this.

“Nothing.” I slam another shot down and don’t feel the burn anymore. My eyes are glossy and my vision blurs. Shit, I’m fucked up.

“Bullshit. You’ve been acting weird ever since you went with me to Nadia’s dance studio. Did something happen that you didn’t tell me about?” I grunt out a no and Red’s eyes grow wide like he figured it out, which he probably has since he’s smart as fuck. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, fuck.” I swallow another shot and slam the shot glass on the bar top. Knight scurries over and grabs my glass, putting it away. “Hey, I wasn’t done with that.” I’m angry this little fucker thinks he can take away my drink. I’ll show him.

I lean over the bar top and attempt to grab Knight and show him who’s in charge when I miss and before I can topple over, a strong grip pulls me back onto my seat and I topple ass over tea kettle in the other direction making my head spin. I can’t stop myself in this state, so I brace for impact. All my drunken weight lands on my right shoulder when I hit the ground with a hard thunk. I cut an icy glare to Red, but he’s holding his hands up in the air. “What the fuck?!” I shout, ready to kick some ass. I struggle to stand up when a boot lands on my chest, stopping me.

“Watch yourself, Aftermath.” Capone stands over me and I exhale a deep breath. Fuck.

“Fuck is right.” Capone leans down and gets in my face. His deadly black eyes pin me to my spot. “My daughter is here, Aftermath. If you want to get shit-faced drunk, then do it in your room, not out here where young, impressionable girls are roaming around.”

I swallow hard and nod, my heart is hammering against my chest at a frenzied pace. “Sorry, Prez. It won’t happen again.”

“You’re fucking right it won’t happen again.” He offers his hand to help me up and I take it. That’s the one thing about this brotherhood. You can fuck up, get your ass handed to you and then be forgiven in less than thirty seconds. “Church in ten. Sober your ass up and quickly.”

Capone walks away with Blayze and I scowl. “What are you going to do?” Red asks.

“About what?” I look at him wrinkling my forehead.

“About your problem.”

“I don’t have a fucking problem because nothing fucking happened,” I counter. If I keep telling myself this, it should come true. I didn’t do anything wrong. Once I saw that woman was naked, I high tailed it out of Nadia’s dance studio and haven’t been back since. “Nothing happened so there’s nothing to tell.”

Red shakes his head and hands me a cup of coffee. “Word of advice?”

“Sure, this’ll be interesting.” I pay attention to Red while sipping my coffee, trying to sober up for Church.

His face burns bright red, like his name. “I believe you if nothing happened, but something did happen and if you don’t tell Kensi about it, shit will get worse and you’ll break her trust, even ifyoudidn’t do anything.”

Fuck. Red’s right. I release a deep sigh and take another swallow of my coffee. “Fine. I’ll tell her and hope she doesn’t go all Harley Quinn on my ass. Even though that outfit would look sexy as hell on her.” I’m sober now but drunk on images of Kensi in booty shorts with black ripped stockings, black combat boots, a baby doll t-shirt, and her hair up in pigtails while carrying around a baseball bat and blowing bubbles. I shiver and shake the image away knowing if I go into Church with a hard-on the guys will rib me forever.

Red and I enter Church with Torch, Dagger, Tiny, Pretty Boy and Bones. Capone, Blayde and Derange are already inside. Their faces are impassive as they look up from the paperwork spread out on the scarred table. Whatever this is isn’t going to be good. The three of them remain silent as we take our respective seats. Red pulls out his laptop and sets it on the table, turning it on. He’s not only our IT guy, but he’s our secretary too. He takes impeccable notes for every meeting. It’s been discussed for either Bones or Pretty Boy to take over as Secretary, but Red hasn’t wanted to give it up yet. Said he doesn’t know which brother will take notes the way he does.

Capone lights up a cigarette, exhales the smoke and slams his ivory gavel onto the scarred table signaling Church to begin. “Our contact reached out to us asking for our help, again. He said his clients were so impressed with our last job that he has more lined up if we want them.” Capone takes another drag off his cigarette before putting it out and continuing. “That means if this pans out, they will be paying us twice as much as the guns and drugs we’re running through the Cartel. We can finally break away from them.”

Hoots and hollers along with fists banging on the table celebrate Capone’s news. We’ve been trying to find a way out of the Cartel’s clutches for the past two years and hopefully, this is it.

Capone holds up his hands, silencing the room. “This is a perfect shift for our Club. This way we don’t have to use the Casino as much as we do now. Only for the underground fighting rings. But it’s going to take time. We have to set up a new buyer, a new runner and get the Cartel on board with them. All in favor of taking this on and moving away from the guns and drugs say aye.”

Each member starting with Bones and Pretty Boy agrees with this change. Capone slams his gavel on the table, “It’s unanimous. Torch and Aftermath, reach out to your contacts and get a feel for who wants to take over for us. If anyone else has a contact they trust, run it by Red and he’ll get the background check done to see if they are a fit.”

We’re all watching as Red types furiously on his laptop as Capone speaks. Once Red is done, he lifts his head and looks around the room. Noticing all eyes are on him, his face flushes a deep shade of red and flips everyone off grumbling under his breath about assholes and dickheads.

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