Chapter 25
It's crunch time, we're on the road, I've got twenty of my men with me, they've brought along their old ladies as cover since we're supposedly using this trip as our annual road trip.
Mom and Char are manning the phones as they usually insist on doing, Em is running things for the week or so I'll be gone and I'd left four guys at the garage and then there were the other crew members who worked elsewhere who will keep an eye on the town and our remaining families, like I said, I never leave my town unprotected.
Katarina was having a blast, we'd been riding for a good six hours already and it would soon be time for a break for the girls, if it was just us guys we could go for another couple hours at least, but we had to make sure our women were taken care of.
I pulled into the parking lot of an out of the way steak house we'd been to before, the food was spectacular for a place in the middle of nowhere. They must have great word of mouth too though because the place was always packed.
I looked over my shoulder at her overexcited face. "Can you get down or do you need me to lift you off?"
She sighed and laid her head against my back. "Just one more minute and I can do it myself." I gave her her minute while the rest of my crew walked by us with their smart ass comments.
"Your girl's green boss, gotta toughen her up." That was followed by,
"Come on champ shake a leg." She just groaned and held onto me tighter.
"My legs hurt." She whined which for some reason I found adorably cute.
Jared took his life in his hands by offering to take her off the back of my bike.
"Get the f*ck outta here Storm."
"Geez Lyon, take it easy will ya, just trying to help."
"Yeah, your help might get your ass kicked."
"Colton stop picking on Jared."
"You be quiet spider monkey."
"Hey." She punched my side with her tiny fist making me laugh.
"Well you're clinging to me like one, you ready?"
"Yes sir."
I just looked back at her with a raised brow,"You like playing with fire don't you Angel?"
"What you gonna do about it?"
"Fancy being f*cked in a restroom in Oregon do you?"
"Ooh can we?"
"Geez Katarina, didn't you get enough this morning and last night?"
"Well yeah, but it's sooooo good." She grinned and winked at me.
"You just have newness fever, in a couple weeks you won't be so horny all the time."
"What's the matter old man, too tired to keep up?"
"Oh ho we got jokes, okay hot stuff you're on." She actually clapped her hands in anticipation. I wondered if she realized how much she'd changed in the short space of time we'd been together, from the way she dressed to the way she spoke, even her laugh was different.
She still has moments when she would go into her little shell, but those were becoming few and far between.
Catching her neck in the crook of my elbow I followed the guys and girls into the restaurant, with a headcount of forty two they decided to give us the private room in the back which is a good idea since my boys didn't know how to act at chow time and we needed room to spread out, because when we were on the road we were Lyon's Crew, we tended to leave the sophistication back home, shedding it like a cheap veneer, not that we didn't remain complete gentlemen, but can you imagine the kind of attention we got when we rode forty strong and sometimes more?
Chicks came out of the woodwork, dudes sized us up and some lesser beings aka ass hats even went so far as to pick fights with us, so on the road our bikes shone to a high gleam, our leathers were f*ck awesome and our faces said 'danger, f*ck with us at your own peril'.
We've been known to close down a bar or two here and there, usually when some a*shole got grabby with one of the sisters, that was a big f*cking no no.
It was hot as Hades backyard outside and the first thing I noticed after we were seated around the long ass table was that the air-conditioning made my girls' nipples pucker to the point that I could actually see the imprint of her piercings. Removing my leather vest I threw it over her shoulders, helped her pull her arms through and closed up shop.
I guess she knew what I was doing because she just rolled her eyes at me, shrugged her shoulders and picked up her menu.
"Have the steak it's good here."
"But I want chicken fingers and french fries." She gave me the pouty lip, yeah she wanted to get f*cked alright, she was pulling out all the stops. Little did she know that there's no way I'd ever f*ck the future mother of my kids in some seedy out of the way bathroom.
"You can have fries with your steak, it might be hours before we stop again you're not eating chicken fingers as a meal."
The waitress came over to take our drink orders, I didn't tell my guys what they could or could not do but they knew there was a two-drink maximum when we were riding and if it was hard liquor that was cut down to one. I didn't take chances with peoples' lives and if anyone of them showed that he couldn't handle his liquor he'd better stick to soda or juice or his ass would get left behind in whatever town or city he f*cked up in.
I ordered Angel a banana shake since she loved the f*ck out of those things and got myself a club soda and lime. There's no way I was riding with my baby on my bike while I'd been drinking, not gonna happen.
My guys thank f*ck, followed suit and that's why they were my guys, they use their heads. After the waitress had gotten about halfway through, this chick Samantha came over to the table, f*ck, I'd forgotten all about her trifling ass, no we'd never f*cked but she always gave it her best shot whenever we came through.
There's no guessing how many bikers she'd spread for, I'm not into overplowed fields. Anyway this Samantha chick, ( and the only reason I remember her name is because it was on a tag on her shirt ) came over and told the first one that she was taking over. I saw the crestfallen look on the younger girls' face.
"Hello Lyon, long time no see."
"Miss." I inclined my head.
"Ooh are we playing shy because we have a new chickie?"
The volume at the table went down and not surprisingly the sisters all sat forward in their seats. Katarina was busy picking at the bread in the basket.
"Something I can do for you?"
"You know what you can do for me, what you could always do for me big boy." She laughed suggestively and went to put her hand on my shoulder. A small wrist flew by my face from the other side and Katarina grasped her hand and threw it off. "This one's taken move it along."
Oh f*ck me, I don't want to drop this bitch but I will if she even looks like she's going to retaliate.
"Excuse me little girl?"
"I've got your little girl swinging." Angel f*cking growled that shit at her.
The f*ck, it wouldn't be cool to laugh right now, besides the whole crew plus their women were already howling with laughter, I needed to head this shit off before it got out of hand. Oops, too late.
Now why would you pick a fight with a person who is sitting with forty or so other people, when any one of those people if not all of them might be willing to beat your ass down in a heartbeat, but that's just what this chick did, she took a glass of water and threw it in Angel's face.
Now I'm pissed, Jared was closest to us as usual so he was the one who tried to stop me.
"Remember the code bro, you can't go there."
"F*ck the code that's my f*cking woman." I threw his arm off as the others got up from their seats but he held me down by the shoulder.
"You can't man besides..." He broke off as we both turned to watch Katarina literally jump over the table, I guess all those damn stunts she's been doing paid off. Samantha the clueless didn't know what to do when five foot two of fireball landed in her chest. I gave some serious thought as to how far I should let things go before jumping in but then thought better of it.
I stood up and went to get my hellcat, by now the other patrons were peeping around the door at all the racket. Angel was using Samantha's head to pound nails into the floor, or at least that's what it looked like.
My men were no help as they and their women egged on their champ and the first waitress was grinning from ear to ear. The manager soon came running over to see what the f*ck was going on but before he could say anything the waitress whose name was Angela spoke up.
"She started it, she threw water in the customer's face, she was just defending herself."
"That's it Samantha you've been warned now it's time to take action, sir, ma'am, I'm very sorry about this, lunch is on the house." He wrung his hands together probably thinking we were either gonna sue his ass or tear his place apart.
"That won't be necessary sir, we're fine but thanks for the offer." I used a cloth napkin to clean up Katarina's face while the way beyond embarrassed Samantha struggled to her feet.
"Well let me at least buy a round of drinks for the table."
"We're drinking light my friend, sodas and juice."
"Well then sodas and juice on the house, Samntha you're fired."
My obnoxious crew set up a round of applause, Jared and Tommy picked Angel up on their shoulders and walked her around the room while she folded her fist and fist pumped the air.
"Get down from there you ham." I reached up and took her down.
"Damn Angel you're a feisty little scrapper aren't you, maybe I will do you in the bathroom."
She grinned at me and I put her back in her seat. Pamela came over and cleaned up the spilt water and set the table back to rights. The manager trying to save face sent over platters of wings and mozzarella sticks for appetizers and I got my baby some chicken fingers to munch on until her food came.
Things calmed down rather quickly and soon all that could be heard was the noise of eating and laughter.
Katarina's eyes almost fell out of her head when she saw the size of her porterhouse steak. "Holy... I can't eat all that."
"Eat what you can and leave the rest baby."
"I can't do that, that's wasteful." She fussed at me.
"Damn Angel, for the love of...are our kids going to be as fussy as you are?" You could've heard a f*cking pin drop as all the nosy f*cks at the table were suddenly all ears, katarina meanwhile was looking at me like she wanted to get the show started.
I chose to ignore them as Katarina asked Pamela to bring her a to go container before she even started to eat.
"What are you doing babe, you're not eating any leftover steak later, if you get hungry again we'll get you something to eat."
"No no, maybe we'll pass a homeless person on the way and I can give it to them." She meticulously cut off a huge chunk of meat and put it in the container.
"Uh huh, I know what that means." It meant that she'd make me go out of the way if needs be to find one, no problem, if it's what she wanted I'll make sure she got it.
Lunch was noisy as was to be expected with this bunch, I was proud of Katarina for carrying on as if nothing had happened, she just went right back to laughing and joking around with the others like business as usual.
I watched the way the other women interacted with her and was more than happy to realize that they genuinely liked her, they weren't just getting along because she was with me, they loved her because she was mine in every sense of the word and they could see that, but more than that they liked the person she is.
After a hefty tip for Pamela, we were back on the road in less than two hours. katarina found her homeless guy almost twenty minutes after we left.
I wouldn't let her approach him alone and she tried giving me shit,"You'll scare him away Colton, let me do it."
"Nope." I walked her over to the guy who was sitting on the sidewalk with a sign.
"Sir, I've got some food here if you'd like." She was very tentative and respectful, the old guy looked at her a bit skeptically before reaching his hand out.
"Much obliged little missy." When he opened the container and saw the large piece of steak with all the trimmings that katarina had insisted on ordering along with it his eyes welled up.
They started a running conversation about his life and I got the impression that she would've stayed there all day if we didn't have shit to do. I could see her heart as she spoke to this complete stranger like he was a long lost friend.
"Sir is this your usual hang out?"
"Barring snow or rain young man you can find old Cyrus right here on this corner."
"You don't have a place to stay?"
"Well the shelter makes us leave by a certain time in the morning and you can't go back until evening time."
"If you don't mind me asking why are you here, I heard you tell my girl that you're a Vietnam vet and you were once a mechanic."
"Well now, the wife got real sick a few years back and with one thing and another the money ran out, had to get rid of the house to pay for the medical bills, at least it gave her a few extra months but she passed, I'm just glad she's not here to go through this with me, this life is hard."
F*cking thieving f*cks, I hate this shit. I looked around for a place, there was a motel across the street a few blocks down, the town wasn't the best but it would have to do for now.
"I'll tell you what Cyrus, you see that place over there, how about I pay for you to stay there for a week and I'll pick you up on the way back this way, here's my card..."
"Young man I don't understand, what does this mean?"
"Are you attached to this city Cyrus?"
"Well no son, can't say as I am."
"Well then, that card means that after I've taken my girl here to see her mom we're going to swing back here and pick you up, we'll find you a home in Washington, that's as good a place as any right?"
"Well, but, is this one of those new fan dangled tv shows?"
"No sir, you see those guys over there, we're bikers, we have a shop where we build custom bikes back in Washington, I'm very serious."
"Well I'll be damned."
"Actually sir I think it's quite the opposite."
"Well then I thank you son." Those tears were now falling.
"Not me, thank my Angel."
"Angel, that's right fitting I'm thinking." I wasn't surprised when my guys came over and started dropping some heavy bills in Cyrus's little box and shaking his hand.
After we got Cyrus Reeds squared away with a room, some money for food and some new clothes, we were back on the road.
Katarina was like a kid in a candy store, she never stopped nattering away in my ear as we rode the wide open road of I- 5, she already had a million plans for poor Cyrus. I hope the old guy survived her, he was sixty eight after all, I'm not sure he should be learning stunts on a bike at his age, I'll have to keep an eye on the two of them.
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