“She wants to bartend tonight for the party,” my dad tells Shadow, as he rubs his scruffy jaw. I love when he does that; it reminds me of the sound of sandpaper.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Shadow says quickly, his face as worried as I have ever seen it. His expression takes me by surprise for a second. Is he afraid I'll see who he really is at the club's most carefree moments? Will the beast he claims to be come out? It can’t be much worse than licking coke off a whore's nipple, come on.
“She can get paid; help get her out of the club. Bet she would do great in tips,” Locks says. I turn and glare at him, he just wants me out of the club. I remember him bitching to Shadow about me and my mother staying here.
“Yeah, alright, but don’t make me regret this, Dani.” My dad gets up from the bar. “You got anything good to eat back there, Babs? I'm starving,” he enters the kitchen with Babs and Locks on his tail.
“Can you get me a beer, Firefly?” Bobby asks. I reach down and grab him a Bud Light. When he reaches for the beer, I see dark red blood spattered across his hand and I feel all my own blood drain from my face.
“Shit!” Bobby says, swiping the beer from my hand and rushing toward one of the rooms down the hall. I look up at Shadow and see concern written all over his face. I know I’m getting a peek at the monster under the mask now. What I don't think he understands is that getting a glimpse behind his mask might give me a better idea of what exactly I have hiding behind my own mask.
“I’ll be fine; everything will be fine,” I assure him, whispering so nobody can hear me.
He nods toward the hallway, gesturing for me to follow. Once we are in my bedroom, he locks the door and turns to me. “I don’t want you out there tonight, Dani.” Even when he’s mad, he’s gorgeous.
“Yeah, well, I want to be out there. Are you afraid I will see this beast you claim you are?”
“You think being out there tonight is going to give you a glimpse of my demons? Ha! Maybe a little, but most of my beast lies closer to the idea of what was on Bobby’s hands, Dani.”
I’m completely taken aback by his comment. Does he think he’s a beast because he has killed? Is he a murderer like my mother says; like the news articles said? The thought that he has murdered is a little scary. I'm sure he could kill me in a split second if he wanted to.
“Tonight will just be guys trying to pick you up and get you drunk to have their way with you. Not everyone will back down just because you are the president’s daughter,” he says, snapping me from my thoughts.
“Like you?” I smile.
He laughs as he runs his hand back and forth through that messy top. “Yeah, like me.”
By 6pm there are tons of bikers at the clubhouse; some I have never met before. There’s also a sea of half-naked girls. I can't see where Shadow went off to because there are so many bodies and I am being yelled at left and right for shots or bottles of beer.
I am pretty busy, but every once in a while I look out into the crowd and see things I have never seen before. In the corner is a guy from another club who has his head thrown back in ecstasy while a girl is bobbing up and down in his lap giving him a blow job. It turns me on, surprisingly. There are multiple people sniffing coke off the coffee table with rolled up dollar bills. The half-dressed girls are now running around completely naked. After an hour, I have pretty much seen it all. The club becomes thicker with the smell of smoke and cheap perfume; and louder with the cacophony of voices and blaring music. To actually hear what anyone is saying, I have to be face to face and sometimes just lip read.
“Well, look at you,” yells a guy with a black bandanna and black beard grown out into a braid. “You must be new. I would remember a gal like yourself.” He has a black shirt on with a cut that says he is one of our own; his name, 'OLD MAN', sketched on his worn patch. I haven’t seen him before, but there are plenty of the members I haven't met personally.
“What can I get you?” I yell, before taking a sip of the beer I have setting under the bar. His attempt to charm is lost on me; everyone has been flirting. Everyone except Shadow, that is. Where is he?
“How about you on your knees?” he yells back and flicks his tongue out at me. I can only laugh. Seriously, is this a line they use on girls?
“Something funny, bitch?” he sneers, puffing his chest out.