Bear by Lily J. Adams
Chapter One: Time to Fuel Up
Bear
Chilly and grey wasn’t the usual weather forecast for Holbeck; steamy and excessively hot was more like it, but there were always exceptions to the rule. Today was one of those exceptional days.
I smiled as the guttural roar of my Harley propelled me towards Holbeck Gas.
She was all silver chrome and matte black with long monkey bar handles. I liked to kick back when I rode, and take it easy. If the pace needed to pick up, then I’d switch bikes. I was the road captain for the Rebel Saints, after all. I had to know a thing or two about how and what bike to use on the road. My other everyday sports bike was for other reasons, like when I was feeling fast and dangerous—so hardly ever. There was a reason they called me Bear. My jacket covered my sturdy, bulky frame, honed from my years of military training.
As I rode, I cast my eyes up to the heavens to see if it was about to open up on me. Those large, dirty clouds looked ominous, but I liked my chances. The patches of sky blue gave me hope that I would make it over to the gas station and back without too much hassle.
I pulled in wondering if the young, nubile beauty that normally worked there would be on shift. She had a pair of legs that wouldn’t quit and a face like an angel. Her eyes had a slant to them that made them naturally appear as if they belonged to a cat.
I felt sorry for her. She was in the sights of the tenacious reporter Angie Carmichael due to the death of her brother, whose killer still hadn’t been found. I made the mistake of mentioning to Angie that the girl from the gas station was the sibling of the deceased. That passing comment had made Angie’s eyes light up like a Christmas tree. Then I realized my mistake, but it was too late now.
I pulled into pump four and slid off my bike, loading it up with premium fuel. That was the type of fuel my baby deserved. Whistling to myself, I paid attention to the vehicles around me. A couple of sedans and an old man injecting air in his tires. Normal stuff in Holbeck. I closed my gas tank and patted my pockets. No particular reason why, force of habit or something. I had this little problem of losing my keys out of the cargo pockets sometimes.
I pulled out my wallet as the doorbell dinged and moved to the front counter.
A couple of guys who looked to be in their mid-twenties were talking to the cashier.
That’s what I thought at first glance, then I realized they were harassing her. She was recoiling back from them with a wincing look on her face. I made my presence known, banging around the shelves a bit, and picked up a bag of potato chips along the way. My hackles were up. I rustled the bag even louder.
The two men who were snickering and taking up space at the counter then glanced over at me. Funny how their faces changed to expressions of terror so suddenly.
The young girl wore a cute necklace that she kept fingering nervously. She flipped her honeycomb-colored hair off her shoulder with a cough and a bite of her bee stung lips.
My temperature rose a few notches and I wished she was biting me.
No Bear. She’s too young. Remember what happened. She even looks like her.
My moral compass kicked in and set me straight as I flashed her a wide grin, ignoring the guys standing off to the side. I wanted to keep a clear connection between me and her. That was all—not the jackasses trying something. “Hi, how are you doing?” I greeted her with the big, happy-go-lucky smile I was known for.
“Ah, yeah, good. Pump four?” She confirmed in a placid voice.
“Yep. That’s me.” I pointed to the dweebs off to the side who were clearly hoping I was going to make a quick exit so they could keep harassing the young girl. “They giving you trouble?” I knew her name from the papers and the tragic death of her brother, but I didn’t want to let her know that. I’d dealt with my own fair share of tragedy, and people shoving it in your face only dug the knife in deeper.
She glanced over at the two guys as if they were nothing, and given the faraway look in her eyes, she couldn’t care less if they were giving her a hard time or not. “They’re a little annoying, but I’m all right. Nothing I can’t deal with.” Her lips seemed to almost lift into an appreciative smile, but they didn’t quite make it.
I nodded as I stroked my fingers over my dark cropped beard while glaring at the two men.
They pretended to sniff around the candy bars and quickly scuttled to the exit like cowards.
The girl whose name I secretly knew to be Delphia sighed long and deep. “Great, that’s 42.85 with tax, thanks,” she mumbled with a haunting sadness in her striking eyes.
“Thank you. I’m sure you can handle yourself. You probably get a few in here from time to time,” I commented, trying to put her at ease.
There was no need to make her feel incapable, most gas stations had the emergency buzzer under the counter and there was a plastic shield in between her and the customers as a safeguard. My eyebrows turned downward as I studied her a little. She was grieving and that was understandable, considering the brutality in the way her brother died. I was no stranger to death, in more ways than one.
“I can,” she emphasized as she stole a sneaky glance at me.
I flashed her a non-threatening smile, wanting to let her know I was on her side.
She slid the change back to me over the counter.
I scraped it up, putting it into my pocket. “Thank you. Have a nice day, okay?” I shot her a smile.
She considered me for a moment. “I will. Thank you for what you did. Sending them away and stuff. They were kind of bugging me,” she confessed with a small but slightly hopeful smile.
“Thought so.” I saluted her and walked out to my bike. I had to stop Angie before she came and talked to Delphia. She was on the fragile side, and if Angie went in too hard she’d clam right up.
A fat droplet of rain plopped right in the middle of my forehead as I made it back to my bike. I’d made the right call. I looked back one last time and saw Delphia staring out the window. Our eyes locked.
Yeah. I would be coming back to check on her a little more. Maybe I wouldn’t fill my tank all the way up. That way, I could swing past a couple of times a week.
Every time I saw her at the gas station, there never seemed to be anyone there with her. No boss, no colleagues, just her. Had to be a lonely ass job. I’d even seen her there late at night working, and for her being so young, it felt dangerous to me. Letting my protective thoughts from the past feed my brain, I headed back to my lair to settle in.
Angie greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and a mischievous smile as she placed her pool stick back in its groove. Wheelz was having a slow night, but it looked like the main regulars were in and keeping the bankroll steady.
I grinned before I started teasing her, “Winning or losing this time?”
“Always winning in life Bear, you know that,” she fired back with a flick of her golden hair and a lick of her tongue. She sauntered over to my space with a boldness that most of the guys knew her for. Angie was a fireball that had weaved her web into the Rebel Saints’ lives. She sure added excitement to the club.
She was hella attractive, but not a woman I would go there with.
I nodded at her smart aleck remark; that came with the territory from her. “I wanted to talk to you about something.” I picked up one of the pool cues. I was due for a game with Smoke, who was making his way over with a couple of beers in hand.
“Oh, really? Do tell.” Angie faced me with one hand on the pool table.
“The girl you’re going to interview at the gas station… You made a plan of when you’re heading to talk to her?” My eyes narrowed at Angie. I wanted her to keep her cool ‒ but since the acclaim from the article she wrote with us and her newfound chase to bring an unresolved case to justice ‒ her cockiness levels had inflated to new heights.
“Ahhhh, sometime this week, why?” She eyed me suspiciously.
“She’s fragile. Go easy, all right?” I insisted.
“Me? Easy? Bear, you know me by now. I’m not that type.” She winked.
I felt a twinge of anger and protectiveness wash over me. “You won’t get the story you’re looking for, how about that? Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Let me know how it goes with that attitude,” I fired at her in an attempt at a casual tone.
Angie’s eyes rolled over me quickly with mild shock. “You seem a little testy to defend a young girl that you don’t even know,” she mouthed off warily. She did look as if she was listening.
Somewhere in that brain of hers I was hoping she possessed common sense. If she knew the consequences I’d faced when I was younger, she wouldn’t have been so careless with her words.
“I’ll take some of that into account. Let’s see how it goes.” She tapped the felt top on the pool table. “Anyway, I’m out. I’ve beaten all the people I wanted to and now, I have to go paint my fingernails or something.” She cackled.
I whispered under my breath, “Angie, you’re a hot mess.” I eased the blue chalk over the end of my pool cue.
Just then, Smoke sailed up beside me and put a frothy beer down on the pool table edge. He arched an eyebrow at me. “Angie at it again? Are you thinking about Murphy?” he asked tentatively.
“Yeah, I am a little…” I sighed hard and cracked my neck. The past was the past, and I wanted to keep it there, but it was difficult when Delphia resembled my ex so much. “That’s what Angie does. I told her to go easy on the girl from the gas station. You know, the one whose brother got murdered.” I put the blue chalk down and calmed myself with a sip of beer.
“I remember for sure. I don’t wanna press you about it… but are you okay, brother?” he asked kindly.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just looking out is all.” A simple reply. I didn’t want to offer more than that.
“You seem to know a little bit about this girl…” Smoke queried with caution.
Yeah. He knew my past.
I could tell he was tiptoeing over the barely closed wound as he chalked his cue. I’d moved on to setting the balls in the rack, trying to ease my frustration with Angie. “I guess. Like I said, that's where I get my gas. I’m the road captain, and it’s my duty to tell you all where you can get the best fuel, right?” I spun a flat-out lie to divert the feelings bubbling inside of me. “I recommend you guys go there too, instead of going to that overpriced pump on the east side.”
Smoke whistled through his teeth. “You got a point there. Might be something to it.”
We resumed our pool game and caught up on everyday life.
Coyote, Hawk and Bones came over to watch the thrashing I was inflicting on Smoke towards the end.
Later that night, I walked in my door at a decent hour, happy with the direction of most things in my world.
My love life lacked thrill, but I knew why. I couldn’t seem to connect with anyone after the accident… Murphy had been the love of my life, but I didn’t realize it at the time. Young and dumb that’s what I was and I’d lost her. A stab of regret shot through my body as Delphia’s image flashed through my mind. Losing the love of your life sucked. Both of them had the same silky, straight hair. It was uncanny to me.
Sleep hadn’t called me yet, so I kicked my shoes off and decided to watch a movie. As soon my butt hit the couch, a phone call came through. “Keys? What the hell?” I scooted up on the couch, wondering why he was calling me so late.
“Hey, hey. There he is. I know—it’s been a while, man,” Keys punched out with enthusiasm.
“Hot damn. It has. Mannnn, this is great. Good to hear from you. What have you been up to?” I asked. Keys was one of my guys that rolled with me in my unit during my army days.
“Welp, we got our four-year reunion coming up. I know you remember that, right?” He sounded enthusiastic as always.
“Yeah, I do. Where are we holding it this year?” I asked.
“My plan was coming down your way, right to your neck of the woods,” he suggested. “Holbeck looks like the place. How about that?”
“That’s a great idea. It’s pretty nice down here in autumn. Make sure you bring your bug spray. The mosquitos will come for your ass and then some. Nice fat juicy ones.”
“Mosquitos are the worst. We got bears though, here in Wisconsin.”
Keys was the rugged, outdoorsy type so it didn’t surprise me he was wrestling with wildlife up there. “Well, I’m a bear, so I’m going to say that you win on that one. I know what we’re like. Grizzly at best.”
Keys laughed. “Yep. I remember some of those mornings in training, you acted like a bear with a sore head.”
I groaned as I recalled the mornings before sunrise when I’d pulled myself out into the deep, dark cold of the night to run through god-forsaken swamps and disgusting rank waters. “Don’t remind me! I don’t wanna think about it.” I loved my army days for what they taught me, but I didn’t want to go back to them, that was for sure.
“I feel ya. I don’t wanna remember much either. That was hell on earth, but we made it through. We did good,” Keys reasoned.
“Yeah, we did. Have you guys already talked about this? When are you coming through?” I was getting pumped to see my brothers. I missed the bond forged on the battlefield. “I can’t wait. Let me know all the details as soon as you can.”
