“You ready to ride?” I asked Willow as we sauntered out of the Buitre del Demonio clubhouse.
“Aren’t I always?” she murmured as she leaned in close to my side.
It’d been three weeks since I spoke with Suárez, and there’d no hint of trouble. I’d hung onto the burner phone, leaving it off except for a couple of minutes each day when I checked for messages to see if Suárez had reached out to me. There was no reason he would, other than his drugs weren’t where I’d said they would be, but as there’d been no messages, I was confident that my business with Suárez was concluded. Willow hadn’t been happy about it, but I’d kept the phone. When I was sure Suárez wasn’t going to try to contact me, I’d turned the phone off, wiped it clean of any fingerprints, sealed it in a Ziploc plastic bag, and taken it to one of the wells that I serviced. There I tucked it out of sight where a brace connected to one of the legs of the derrick. If I could find who was working with the cartel to harm Willow, I’d use the phone to contact Suárez again to inform him who the culprit was. Until then, if there was some way for the cartel to track phone down, it was out in the boonies and miles from us.
I smiled down at Willow. Today the club was going on a ride. Last week Goose had his cast removed, and Big Dick had his removed yesterday. Big Dick was still hobbling, and he had an external brace he had to wear for another few weeks to keep his weight off the mending bone, but he was anxious to ride again.
To celebrate Big Dick and Goose’s return to riding form, the entire BDMC and their old ladies were riding to Laredo for lunch on Larke’s dime. Willow still had a company credit card, had suggested the outing, and was going to use the opportunity to present a surprise to Lilly, Maddy, and Lucia. She and I were the only two that knew what was tucked into my inside pocket.
I’d lept at her suggestion for lunch… not because the club couldn’t afford to pay for the outing, or because of what she and Larke were doing for my sisters, but because it was a chance for the sisters to see Willow as someone other than a job, the woman the club was protecting, or the person who some still seemed to think caused the death of four of our brothers.
We were preparing to ride when Maddy slowly approached. Though Grace was no longer with us, Maddy was still one of us, and would be riding bitch with Whiz, who didn’t have an old lady or a squeeze of his own. Lucia and Lilly were behind Skip and Jammer respectively, and for the same reason. I saw Willow stiffen slightly in anticipation, and I hardened myself to verbally slap Maddy down if she got into Willows face.
“Willow?” Maddy said, her voice slightly meek.
“Yes?” Willow replied, her voice carefully neutral.
“I want to… apologize for the way I acted… and what I said after Chuck…” Maddy’s gaze dropped, unable to complete the sentence. “I was way out of line… and I’m sorry.”
Willow said nothing until Maddy looked up, clearly afraid of what she might see in Willow’s face. “You were upset. I understand,” Willow said softly.
Maddy looked down again and scuffed her feet before she pulled Willow a little farther from me. She was speaking softly, and I turned my back, giving the woman a little extra privacy, but I could still hear Maddy’s words.
“I was, and you were an outsider, but it looks like you’re Colt’s squeeze, and… and I wanted to clear the air between us.”
“Is that why you’re apologizing, because I’m Colt’s squeeze?” Willow asked, her voice giving nothing away.
“Yes, kind of, but not really. I don’t want to there to be hard feelings between me and a sister, especially when I was the one who was wrong, but also because… well… it’s the right thing to do.” There was a pause, but then Maddy continued. “I have a temper, and I know it, but sometimes I can’t control it.”
There was a long moment of silence, and I turned to see what was happening. Willow and Maddy were hugging each other fiercely. Willow saw me turn, met my gaze, and nodded ever so slightly.
“I’m sorry for your loss. I really am,” Willow whispered, almost too softly for me to hear. If she’d been facing away from me, so I couldn’t have seen her lips, I wouldn’t have been able to make out the words. “I can only imagine how much you’re hurting. I’d give anything to be able to bring Grace back, for you and for Colt.”
Maddy sniffed. “Thank you. Thank you for understanding.”
“If there’s anything I can do, just ask.”
“Thank you,” Maddy said again before she released Willow, sniffed, and wiped her eyes. She seemed to want to say something else, but then nodded and made her way to where Whiz was waiting beside his Road King.
“I told you she’d come around,” I said quietly as I handed Willow her helmet.
She smiled, but there was a sadness to it. “Yeah. I can tell she’d still hurting, but I’m glad she did that before I presented the scholarships,” she said as she patted my chest where the three envelops were tucked into an inside pocket. “This way it won’t seem like I’m trying to bribe anyone.”
The paperwork for the seven full ride scholarships for my fallen brother’s children had arrived in the mail several days ago, courtesy of Larke Oil. The only restrictions on the scholarships were the kids had to attend a school in Texas and they had to maintain a ‘B’ average. At the end of four years, if the kids wanted to pursue a career in the oil industry, the scholarships could be extended for up to another four years if they were studying geology, petroleum engineering, or one of another half-dozen fields. Though it wasn’t stated in the paperwork, if the kids were smart and chose their careers wisely, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a job offer waiting at the end of those four to eight years as well.
Willow was going to present Lilly, Maddy, and Lucia with the scholarships at lunch today. Fish and Janet were already divorced before I met him, and I didn’t know the woman or where she lived, so I’d get the scholarship for Maria, Fish’s daughter, to her through Fish’s mother.
With our helmets on kissing her was a problem, so I caressed her lips with a finger instead. “This is a good thing you’re doing for them. Thank you.”
She looked down briefly before bringing her gaze back to mine. “I wish I could do more.”
“Nothing you do can bring my bothers back.” I saw her face fall and she looked at the ground. I placed my finger under her chin and forced her to look at me. “Listen to me,” I said softly. “You’re making sure their kids have a chance for a good start in life. That’s more than you had to do, more than anyone expects you to do. No matter what you do, no matter how much you give, you can’t bring them back… so don’t try.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Do you?” She nodded slowly. “Then stop feeling guilty.”
“I don’t.” I held her gaze. “Not much, anyway,” she amended.
I touched her lips again. “I understand how you feel. We’ll get past this… together.”
When she nodded, I dipped my head at the bike. “Let’s ride.”
-oOo-
As president, Willow and I were leading the BDMC to the Palenque Grill, Goose and Deb riding just behind and to our right in the traditional vice-president position. The rest of the Buitre del Demonio were following us in staggered formation, with Big Dick and Haley, as sergeant-at-arms, bringing up the rear to herd any stragglers. We were in the big nothing between Eagle Pass and Carrizo Springs, rumbling East and South on 277 when I noticed a white Chevy pickup had closed up on the club even though we were traveling well above the posted speed limit already.
I ground my teeth in annoyance. Some people were such assholes. When a car or truck crowded a biker, if something went wrong, the biker lost, regardless of who was at fault. As I watched, Big Dick, Limpkin, and Ricky began to gradually slow, backing the truck off from the main group before the truck whipped into the oncoming lane. US 277 was level, straight, and easy to pass on, and the truck was coming hard as the driver attempted to pass the entire club. I shook my head. Asshole! We were doing over seventy in a fifty-five zone, and this ass-wipe was acting like we were holding up traffic, but then the truck slowed as it drew alongside the bulk of the club, almost pacing us. This isn’t right… my mind whispered. I put my hand on Willow’s knee, gave it a squeeze, and then returned my hand to handlebar.
The squeeze was our way of me saying I wanted her attention. Normally I pointed, or gestured, but now I was focused on the white pickup slowly passing the club. After a moment, I saw her look over her shoulder in my rearview. Watching the truck, she tucked in closer and wrapped her arms around me.
I backed off the throttle, not liking the asshole in the truck pacing us in the oncoming traffic lane. As it drew alongside Willow and me, the man in the passenger seat looked directly at us before turning to speak to the driver. The little voice whispering of danger began to scream. I didn’t think, only reacted, and instantly went to maximum braking. As Willow slamming into my back, the truck whipsawed into our lane on the edge of control, the rear bumper barely missing my front wheel. Brothers scattered as I burned off speed faster than they could react. The driver of the truck slammed on the brakes, dumping speed as fast as possible, but there was no way a five-thousand-pound truck could brake as hard as my eight-hundred-pound motorcycle. Some of the brothers riding close behind flashed past in an instant, swerving around me before the brake lights on their bikes began popping on, while behind me I heard the crashing scrape of bikes hitting the ground. In front of us, Turney slammed hard into the rear of the truck before he and Amanda began to tumble and slide along the ground in a tangle of flesh and steel. Jammer swerved but was unable to avoid Turney’s tumbling bike, causing him and Lilly to go down hard.
As soon as I’d bled off enough speed, I leaned the bike hard over, circling in the middle of the road, parts of my bike scraping pavement before I whacked the throttle open. Willow and I were racing away, the big bike clawing for speed, when I heard the buzzing roar of an automatic weapon, the same snarling buzz I’d heard during our desperate escape in Willow’s RV. I had to get Willow out of there as fast as possible.