“What the hell do you care?” he replied.
“I care cause they care. I wouldn’t expect them to wake my ass up unless this was something important,” I said.
Buck look around the group, and a few of them shied away from his gaze.
“He slept with Gracie,” said one of the bikers.
I cocked an eyebrow.
“Who the hell is Gracie?” I asked.
“She’s Connor’s sister,” replied Buck.
“None of this is making sense. Could you just explain it, Buck?” I asked.
Buck crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair.
“If you really gotta know, then I’ll tell you. Take a seat over here.”
A chair near the bar opened up, and I took a seat. Buck loomed over me like a statue while he continued his explanation.
“There’s another crew in town. They’re big, bigger than this gang, and just as mean. I met up with their leader a while back, guy by the name of Connor.
“His sister kept makin’ eyes at me, even called me in the bar from time to time. I knew she was trouble, and I might do stupid things, but I’m not stupid.
“Then you had to show up.” Buck stopped and took a swig of his beer and lit another cigarette.
“I was ridin’ about five miles out of town and I come across Gracie. She’s lookin’ good, so I pulled up alongside her. She just goes and smiles at me.”
“How the hell am I involved in all this?” I asked. “I just showed up this morning.”
Buck slammed his drink back on the bar.
“You always knew how to make me go crazy, Tara. When you wasn’t interested in shacking up earlier, I was pissed off. Figured I could use a little tail to take my mind off it all. It just so happened that the first tail I found was Gracie’s,” he added.
“So I got you hard, and she got you off,” I said matter-of-factly.
“That’s why this is your fault. You’re supposed to keep me from making stupid mistakes like this, but you just up and left like always. It seems to be the only thing you’re good at,” he said.
“I care about you, Buck, but I really don’t care about your love life anymore. I don’t even see what the big deal is anyway. You slept with some dumb biker bitch. Who cares?”
“Connor cares, and he’s the type of guy who backs up his threats. There’s a good chance he’ll start comin’ after someone in the gang. Might even be you.”
I sighed. I wanted to hit him for putting me in this situation, but I had a feeling he was in a mood to hit back.
“What are you goin’ to do?” I asked.
“Nothin’, I guess,” he said.
Most the guys in the club looked around, a little confused.
“The way I see it is, he doesn’t know. The only way he’ll find out is if his sister tells him what happened. She might be dumb, but she’s not an idiot either. I’m sure she doesn’t want to see a bunch of guys beating the shit out of each other.”
He might be right, but I still had a bad feeling about the entire situation. If Gracie was that crazy about Buck, then she might do something rash.
“I’m headin’ home for the night. I can’t deal with this right now,” I said.
The door slammed open. Two bikers were making their way inside. One of them was bloodied and beaten, and the other was so bruised that he couldn’t hold himself up at all.
“Connor’s gang, they just attacked us on the road,” said the conscious one. “They told me to give you a message.”
“What is it?” Buck asked.
“They said, ‘don’t mess with things that aren’t yours.’”
Buck polished off his cigarette and stamped it out on the table before lighting another one. I hadn’t known Buck to chain smoke except for times when he was incredibly upset.
He stood up and loomed over the crowd. His rage was palpable, but after a glance from me, he seemed to calm down a little.
“Connor needs to pay for this. I say we ride out and beat the ever-living snot out of every single one of ’em.”
Buck reached behind the counter and pulled out a familiar shotgun.
“Buck, wait,” I said, running over to him and throwing my arms around him to try to make him stop for even a moment.
“Wait for what? He didn’t wait to start attacking us,” he said.
“Buck, you started this. You slept with the guy’s sister. Will you at least talk to the guy first, before bullets start flying?”
He grunted and let out a puff of smoke.
“Fine,” he said. “But I’m taking my shotgun with me.”
3.
I rode with Buck for the first time in a long time. It was another thing I had missed about living here. The drive was long, but I didn’t mind. I got the chance to hold on to the man I had loved for a long time.
I wanted to have him pull off the road and have his way with me like he used to, but it wasn’t the time or place for such flights of fancy. The vibration of the motorbike hit me in just the right places, and I could feel myself grinding my hips into the bike.