Beautiful Outlaw by Emily Minton
Making Plans
Bowie
After cutting off my bike, I pat Shay’s leg. “Jump off, baby.”
She does as I say without even wobbling. I look to her feet and up to her face, taking in her beautiful body on the way. “See you got your biker legs.”
“Yeah, it’s not so bad. The first time I rode with you, my legs felt like jelly for hours,” she replies with a smile before taking a step back.
I slide from my bike and throw my arm over her shoulders. Turning to the house, I notice my old Chevy sitting in the back. I point it out to Shay and say, “Tomorrow, we’re gonna work on driving. When you get the hang of it, I’ll get you something better to drive.”
She stops, forcing me to do the same. “You’re going to teach me to drive?”
I look down to her and nod. “I’m on the road a lot, so you got to be able to get around.”
“When I was young, Dad used to have a truck just like that. He would let me drive it on the back roads, so I kinda know how, but I’m not ready to brave traffic.” She stares at the truck, a small smile on her lips.
I can just imagine a young Shay, the one Lock told me about, driving with her dad. “I bet you gave him hell.”
“No, I didn’t. I was the perfect daughter.”
She was. Fuck, no one else would have done what she did. My woman gave up everything for her family. She gave up her whole fuckin’ life for them. “Yeah, babe, you still are.”
She smiles, but I can see sadness; it’s as if she just remembered her mom’s death. She hasn’t mentioned it since we left North Carolina, but the shadows I’ve seen in her eyes let me know it is never far from her mind. Just like always, Shay does what she has to. Right now, she has to move on.
I push her forward, stepping onto the front porch. “You need to start studying for your test. It took Priss four times to pass the written part.”
“She was just nervous.” She automatically defends my sister, using the same words that Priss does every time I give her shit about failing. “I don’t have to take the test anyway. I already have my license.”
It’s my turn to stop in my tracks. “How the fuck do you have a license, when you don’t know how to drive?”
“Jeremy had one made for me when he gave me all my stuff for my new life.”
Huh, guess the boy in blue isn’t so squeaky clean after all. “Good, then all we gotta do is get you behind a wheel.”
I step forward and open the door, pulling her in with me. As soon as we step through the door, Tin walks out of the kitchen with a beer in his hands. “I thought you were just stopping at the clubhouse to grab your shit?”
We continue into the room as I remove my arms from Shay and head toward the fridge. Grabbing a beer for myself and Shay, I hand it to her and answer my brother. “We got held up. Cash started his shit as soon as I got off my bike.”
“More trouble with the Sixes?”
I shake my head. “Nah, he had a few things to say about Shay. I put a stop to it.”
“How’d you do that?”
“He grabbed my boob and said I was his property,” Shay answers for me, shooting daggers in my directions. “And he did it in front of everyone.”
Tin barks out a laugh, and I fight a smile of my own. I have no fuckin’ clue how I didn’t notice her fire the first time I saw her. I reach out to grab her chin, attempting to pull her in for a kiss, but she’s too fast. Shay sidesteps me and walks to the fridge. I watch as she puts the beer back before pulling out a bottle of water. She cuts her eyes to me. Then she leans against the counter. “I don’t drink beer.”
I ignore her attitude and turn my head back to Tin. “He thought he was forcing me to claim her, but I already planned to do it anyway. He just forced me to do it in a way she didn’t like.”
He looks to her with a smile on his face. “I’m sure she didn’t like that.”
I don’t even have to look to know she is shaking her head. “She didn’t, but she took it like a champ.”
Tin-Man opens his mouth to say something else but shuts it when someone knocks on the door. He shouts out a come in, and seconds later, Rollo and Tag are in the room. The kid is carrying a bag, looking nervous as fuck. He stops just inside the door, his eyes searching the room.
Rollo puts a hand on his back and pushes him forward. “He’s your trouble now. If I was you, I’d gag his ass. The little prick may have balls, but he doesn’t know when to shut his smart fuckin’ mouth.”
“You’ve been giving him trouble, boy?” I ask, my voice hard as steel. I want to help the kid out because I’ve been in his shoes, but I’m not gonna take any shit from him.
“Hell yeah, he has,” Rollo answers for him. “He kept bitching until I let him pack his shit from the barn. I told him it was just crap anyway, but the little fucker wouldn’t leave it behind.”
“It’s all I got,” he says in a quiet voice, one about to break.
Before another word can be said, Shay is walking across the room. She stops only a few feet in front of him. “Would you like a bottle of water? They don’t have anything else but beer.”
“I’d rather have a beer,” he mutters out as he takes it from her hand.
She gives him a look that clearly says that is not happening. “Water will have to work until I can get to the grocery story. What do you like to eat?”
I feel the corner of my mouth lift. She is so much like Nina, seeing a lost soul and trying to fix him. “Baby, he’s gonna be staying with us for a while, so you can find out what he likes later. For now, just take him and show him his room. It’s the last door on the left, and ours is up the stairs at the end of the hall. Give us a few minutes.”
She hesitates before catching the mood in the room. The tension went up a notch the moment Rollo came in, and it didn’t have a fuckin’ thing to do with the kid. He’s here to give us a report on Cash’s latest fuck up. Shay doesn’t know this, but she’s smart enough to figure out this isn’t the place for her. Finally, she nods and motions for Tag to follow her. As they walk down the hall, I hear her ask him his name. He starts to say Nate but catches himself and replies, “Tag.”
We stay silent until we hear the door to his room shut and the sound of Shay climbing the steps. “Okay, what happened while we were gone?”
“Before we start, are you gonna tell me who the kid is that’s gonna be sharing our house?” Tin says, pulling a joint out of his cut and placing it between his lips.
I shake my head. “We can talk about it later.”
His eyes narrow on me, but he doesn’t argue. Instead, he lights up his joint and takes a hit. Then, he looks to Rollo. “Tell us, what did dear old Dad fuck up while we were on the road?”
“Cash being Cash,” he says as he walks to the fridge and pulls out the beer Shay just sat back in there. “He’s called a meeting about the Sixes. He wants to call in the Hellions to ride against them.”
“Roundman’s not gonna go for that,” I say with a shake of my head, knowing the Hellions president won’t fall for my father’s shit. “He’ll know we’re in the wrong, and he won’t put his boys on the line.”
“That’s what I said, but you know your father. He thinks everyone bows down to him.”
“Well, he’ll find out when he rides in alone,” Tin adds, hating Cash as much as I do.
“That’s the problem. Cash won’t be riding. It’ll be us. He is gonna send the three of us down there in two weeks. There’s another drop, and Toke will be along for this one too.”
I fist my fingers, wanting to run my hand through the bastard’s face. Instead, I pull out a cigarette and light it up. “I don’t need a watchdog. None of us do.”
Tin takes a seat at the table and tosses back his beer. As soon as the last drop is gone, he looks to me. “He is talking this shit with the Hellions, knowing Roundman won’t play. It’s all a fuckin’ game. He wants us gone, and he’s gonna do what it takes to make it happen. He thinks he can throw up a smoke screen, but we’re not fuckin’ idiots.”
“Shit,” Rollo mumbles. “I think the same damn thing, but his problems aren’t going to end with us. There are a lot of boys that are not liking how he is running things.”
“Yeah, but none of them are blood. Tin and I are his sons, and your dad was an original. We could make something happen, but the rest of the brothers are stuck putting up with his shit.”
Tin barks out a bitter laugh as he holds out the joint for Rollo to take a hit. “I have no power. I’m just the spic bastard he doesn’t claim.”
The room goes quiet, tension picking up even more. What he says is true; if it hadn’t been for me, my brother wouldn’t even be wearing a patch. Sometimes, I have to wonder if I made the right decision by forcing the issue. I had to pull in every favor and play every card I had to get the vote to swing my way. I wanted him to be part of the Savage Outlaws, but now I wish he was as far away as he could be from our fuckin’ father.
Finally, Rollo speaks after taking the joint from Tin’s hand. “It’s time we made a play, stop his shit. I know he’s your father, but we gotta do something.”
“I’m gonna call a meeting. If he doesn’t step down, I’ll put him in the ground.”
Tin lets out a low whistle. “I know he’s a bastard, but are you sure you can do it?”
I think about it for only the briefest of seconds and know my answer. Do I want to kill him? No. Will I kill the motherfucker before he kills me? Hell yeah! “I can do it.”