Page 2 of Mile High With the Bikers
I stare at him for an embarrassing amount of time before it dawns on me that he’s trying to pay me for sex. “I’m not—sir, I’m just… Do you not want a drink?”
He must not be used to being turned down, because he counts out three more bills. “At this price you better suck harder than the fucking Dodgers last week.”
My pulse kicks up. The door is closed but Tim and Mason are only five feet away. If I scream they’ll hear me and come running, but I freeze, afraid to cause a scene. A part of me is waiting for the guy to start laughing, like it’s just a bad joke.
All of a sudden, Stewie’s wandering hand doesn’t seem so bad.
There’s a loud click, and then the bathroom door behind the suited man opens. A giant of a man steps out into the hallway. Well over six feet tall, he must be one of the three passengers that were added to our flight list at the last minute. They were already on board when the rest of us arrived, and honestly with everything else, I forgot about them.
The giant puts his hand on the door to the back, but pauses, coal black eyes narrowing in our direction. His head is shaved clean, with just a shadow of stubble, and his square jaw hardens when he looks at the man in the suit. Nothing about him screams ‘hero’. Heck, if you showed me a picture of these two men and asked which was the dangerous one, it would definitely be the one with vivid tattoos crawling out from under the collar of his shirt, in worn jeans with dusty leather boots and a scary looking black leather vest, but pictures can lie.
I shake my head and straighten my shoulders, feeling a little braver now that I’m not alone. “Sir, I’m sorry if there’s been a misunderstanding, but if you don’t want a drink, I need to get to my seat.”
“Look, I’m not going over a grand for a quickie, even if it’s on a plane.” The man in the suit pulls out two more bills.
Coming to a decision, the newcomer steps right up behind him and tugs the cash out of his hand. There’s a frayed patch that says ‘Bull’ on the left side of the giant’s vest. Is that his name? Ina deep, deceptively casual tone, he asks, “You looking for a good time, man? Because I don’t think she’s selling.”
“Who the fuck are you? I don’t swing that way, asshole.” Red-faced, the man reaches for his money but Bull holds it just out of reach.
He leans in with a wicked smile. “Me neither, so I doubt you’ll get what you were hoping for, but I promise I’ll make itrealfucking quick.” By the time the big man finishes, he has the smaller man backed into the wall and his face spells murder. Then he grins and the sudden mood shift is so stark it’s scary. “Or was the lady right and this all a big misunderstanding?”
“Asshole,” the guy repeats under his breath, backing right back into the little room and shutting the door. Pretty sure it wouldn’t keep Bull out if he set his mind to it, but he seems happy enough that the guy retreated.
“Yeah, I fucking thought so.” He turns to me. “You ok, angel?”
“Yeah. Um, yeah I’m fine.” Wait. I reach into my pocket and pull out the five hundred dollars. “Should I…” I look towards the door to the privacy room.
“Woah!” He holds up his hands. “I’m not here to judge. If you were negotiating or?—”
“I meant, should I give it back?” I blurt out, horrified. “Oh my God!”
“Oh! Gotcha. Nah. If he couldn’t afford it, he wouldn’t be throwing it at you. Fuck him. Not literally, obviously.” He winks.
A nervous laugh bursts out of me. “Obviously.”
“You’ve got some good shit on that cart,” he says with a smirk, waving the stolen cash. “Bring it back here. He’s paying.” He puts his hand on my back and pushes me gently towards the back of the plane.
“It’s complimentary.” Dad wouldn’t want me offering the high-end drinks to the people in the back, but who cares? If he wanted an actual stewardess he shouldn’t have brought his daughter.
“Even better.”
My father’s jet is split into three main parts: the conference room in front where he can hold meetings during the flights, the middle with a bedroom, a couple of privacy rooms and a bathroom, and the back that has a lounge for staff and more informal seating. That’s where dad put our last minute guests.
On either side of the aisle, there are massive chairs that can be rotated to sit in rows or to face each other for eating or being social. Bull and his companions have set themselves up on one side with a table in between. The other two, dressed like he is, are sitting across from each other, with cards and poker chips laid out like they’re in the middle of a hand.
When Bull moves past me to sit down, I finally see the back of his vest, where in big capital letters, the words Screaming Eagles MC are written around a massive logo of an eagle.
These guys are bikers. And I’m pretty sure not the puttering around on the weekends with their suburban friends kind.
“Didn’t know this was a full service flight.” His shaggy hair is a deep mahogany red, bleached lighter in spots by the sun, and a short beard traces his hard jawline. “No need to be scared, Honey. We only bite a little.” There's a slight scratch to his voice, and nothing innocent about the glint in his big baby blue eyes.
The third man cocks his head and his brown eyes slide slowly down my body. His ears are so heavily pierced I wonder if it messes with the airport security machines, and there are two rings through his left eyebrow as well. His dark hair is short and spiky, and his jaw is covered in a thick five o'clock shadow that looks like it'll be eleven o'clock if we give it another five minutes. It almost, but not quite, covers up a nasty scar.
“Who’ve you got there, Bull?” He asks. Colorful tattoos come down both arms, over the backs of his hands, and all the way out to his fingertips. He taps the cards he’s holding against the table as he watches me.
Bull points at his friends in turn. “Diesel, Shrapnel, and me. Bull, but you probably figured that out.”
I’d be terrified to run into them in a dark alley, but they seem friendly enough. And Bull did just save me. I do a little curtsy. “I’m Rory, and I’ll be your hostess for the… not evening I guess, but the rest of the flight. Anything I can get you guys?”
