Page 12 of Phantom
“I was. I like this carpet.” I smiled at him. “Thank you.”
We finished breakfast and then made our way outside to head to Hoppa’s Taphouse and meet up with my dad. Colin’s bike was damaged beyond repair, so I helped him move it out of the driveway and over into the grass, and then I moved my own bike over to where his bike had been sitting so that I could open my garage door and pull out my car.
The Steel Knights were gearheads in general. Bikes were our bread and butter, but we had quite a few expensive, designer cars between us. In any situation, I’d prefer to get on my bike, but Colin’s bike was busted, and my bike didn’t have space for a second person due to Lockjaw’s specialty seat added, so there just wasn’t a way all three of us were going to make it to the bar without the use of a car.
Colin let out a whistle as the garage door lifted up. “Camaro. American muscle. What year?”
I led the way over to my army green, four-door Camaro and opened up the back door so that Lockjaw could jump in. “Brand new, 2020. I can never go longer than a year without upgrading.”
Colin chuckled as he climbed into the passenger’s seat. “Sounds about right.”
I started the car, loving the roar of the engine echoing off the walls of the garage. Lockjaw let out a low growl to match, and Colin laughed as I backed the car out and headed down the road toward Hoppa. I liked to take the side-streets when I was on my bike to enjoy the ride a little more, but riding down Hoppa’s main interstate, the Taphouse was only a five-minute drive away. I pulled into the bar’s empty parking lot, seeing only a handful of other bikes and our bookkeeper Bullet’s car.
I held the door open so that Lockjaw could hop over into the front seat and then climb out of the car, and I leashed him immediately while Colin unloaded out of his side and smiled over at me. “Just so you know, I don’t do anything by halves.”
“You think I don’t know that already?” I asked. I coiled Lockjaw’s chain around my fist a couple of times and started for the door. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Colin grabbed the handle of the door and held it open, and I led the way in with him right behind me. The bar didn’t have any of its non-Steel-Knight patrons inside yet because it was still early, but most of the Knights’ members, as well as their three current prospects, were all seated inside, and all eyes fell on us as we walked in. The gazes were vile, at first, the ones I was used to, but when Colin entered behind me, they cooled. Some of them even looked a little confused.
“Who the hell is that?” the Steel Knights’ Road Captain, Bernard “Bucky” LePall, barked.
I didn’t get to answer before Taylor was out of his seat and already marching toward us. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was intent on causing trouble, but Lockjaw moved to stand defensively in front of us, and I held up a hand. “Stop it. He’s here to prospect.”
Taylor stopped short. He glared at me, and the heat of it was so intense that I thought I may start sweating. “What?” he asked through gritted teeth.
I glanced back at Colin, and he nodded, saying, “I intend to become a full patch member of the Steel Knights.”
The Taphouse erupted into laughter apart from our bookkeeper, Harry “Bullet” Booth, and our chaplain, Parker “Father” Piscatoni, who both looked at me with indifference. The three loudest jeers came from Hoppa’s current prospects, Aaron, Vil, and Seth.
Aaron, the largest of these three, lifted himself off of one of the main bar’s stools and ambled over to Colin. He approached until he was standing nose-to-nose with Colin and sniffed the air like he was a brutish warthog. “And what gives you the right to come in here and state any intentions at all?”
“Knock it off,” I growled, but like most of the members, he didn’t listen to me and held his ground.
Colin stared back at Aaron as unbothered as if Aaron weren’t three inches taller than him and at least twice his size.
Vil and Seth ambled their way over from where they were standing and flanked Aaron on either side. Aaron cracked his knuckles, and a grin snaked its way across Aaron’s face. My dad strictly enforced the no fighting rule, but these prospects, in particular, seemed to have a thirst for it. That might have been why Taylor found them so amusing and backed them all as soon as they showed up. The rest of us, however, could tell they were nothing but trouble.
All eyes were on Colin, waiting to see what his reaction would be, but with a half-lidded gaze and relaxed mouth, he looked more like he was waiting in line at the bank.
“What’s with that stupid look?” Seth hissed. “The man asked you a question.”
There was no response from Colin, and Vil let out a muted grunt. “Maybe we’ll have to get an answer out of him by other means.”
Aaron took a step closer, leaving just enough room to breathe between him and Colin. “Maybe.”
I grinned as the bar’s front door opened, and my dad came striding through, calling out, “Well, you’re not causing trouble in my bar, are ya boys?”
Aaron held up his hands and backed away. “Nah, Nicky. Just meeting the new prospect.”
Seth and Vil each threw my dad a sneer but followed Aaron’s lead and backed off, all heading as a group to sit at a table in the far back of the bar.
My dad walked around Colin and turned to face him, not standing much further back from where Aaron was seconds before. “New prospect. Well, now, I always love getting some fresh blood around here. It helps to mix things up.” He held out a hand. “I’m Nicholas. You can call me Squared, Nick, or Nicky.”
Colin took my dad’s hand and shook it firmly. “CJ.”
There were some snickers around the bar, but Taylor took a deep breath. It seemed as though hearing the name satiated him for the time being.
“CJ,” my dad repeated. “Nice to meet ya. Oh, and I don’t know if Val here told ya, but I’m a man of honor. I’ll be sure to replace your bike, which was damaged on my watch.”
