Bingo started barking just then. He'd dropped his bone, causing it to roll down the small incline, just outta reach from the spot where he was straining on his chain.
“Shit. Hold up, boy.” I looked down, noticing how the fuckin' thing had gotten lodged in that little pit we used to hide our spare guns.
Not an easy climb. I got down on one knee and slid, turning to see Firefly standing by my dog at the last second.
Lost my grip somewhere along the way and fell three feet, smack in the mud, right on my ass. Overhead, Firefly and Sixty looked down at me, laughing their asses off.
“You need a rope down there, bro?”
Fucking shit. Sixty's crap didn't deserve a response, so I reached into the muck, digging around the cold metal box to see where that damned bone had gone.
Took about a solid minute for my hand to come up with that chewed up, dirty, mottled white stick. That was when the wrecking ball crashed through my brain.
I toppled back against the wall, twitching like a current went through me. My eyes weren't seeing the club's spiderholes anymore.
Instead, I saw the hell in grandpa's fire pit three goddamned years ago.
My brother's bones. What was left of his scorched cut. They'd burned him, bones and all, incinerating his leather, his clothes, his flesh. His whole fuckin' body.
Everything except the head I'd found, next to grandpa, who was barely breathing after his heart attack.
They'd ripped out his fuckin' eyes. My eyes, the same hazel set we shared as twins.
That sick, soulless grin from my own flesh and blood haunted me. Stalked me like a demon through time and space, always sideswiping me like this during the most mundane bullshit.
Damn. Damn!
I quietly cursed the shit out of everything now, swinging the bone, holding my muddy face up to the sky and screaming.
“Joker! Fuck's sake!” Firefly's booming voice cut through the nightmare. “Get a damned rope. We're coming down for him.”
“No!” I snarled, shaking my head.
Holding the bone between my teeth, no different than my dog, I pushed my fingers deep into the muddy walls of the pit where I could find the wooden boards. They were rotten and dirty but they held a man up. I climbed through the slippery shit with brute force, one push at a time, hauling myself over the ledge about two minutes later.
I ignored the hands my brothers held out. The bone plopped outta my mouth and the big dog started growling, staring at me all covered in mud.
“Shit, Veep, you okay?” Firefly asked, shaking his head.
“We've gotta get a fuckin' gate around that thing,” I said, standing, shaking off the muck clinging to my jeans.
Picking up the bone, I carried it over to my dog and took him off his chain. He plucked it up in his mouth as we made our way through the clubhouse, heading for my room.
Time to go. I'd drop Bingo off and then hit the showers, blast all this crap away, before I hit the bottle or my bike.
Didn't know about the order just yet. Shit, maybe I'd ride into town, check out the new skin shop, the Ruby Heel. The girls there were easy, desperate to suck the cock of any man wearing this patch.
Probably thought it'd bring 'em more money than what they got in tips at our joint. Or maybe they just got wet for any man with a bike, a cut, and a dick between his legs that could fuck them to high heaven.
I stopped by the sink near the back, jerking the bone outta the wolfhound's mouth one more time. Rinsed that shit off before I gave it back to him, stroking his head. “Savor the fuckin' flavor, wolfie. Took a little detour through hell to bring it home. You're welcome.”
He looked up, wagging his tail. Bingo whined through his clenched teeth, snug around the bone. We walked into my room and I left him by his bed, gently closing the door behind me.
Skin stood at the end of the hall, looking at me like he'd just seen a ghost. “Christ, Veep, what the fuck happened to you?”
“Just a spill,” I said, wondering why the fuck the universe was conspiring to keep me dirty. “What's your deal?”
“You've got a visitor.” His smile jerked up, following the scar going across his cheek, and I sure as hell didn't like it.
“Visitor?”
“Yeah, some chick, showed up at our gate and called your name. Lion and Tin were gonna chase her away 'til she insisted she knows you.”
“Better be Honey-Bee,” I growled, thinking about the skinny little stripper with the sweet ass I'd fucked three times the other night.
“Definitely isn't Honey-Bee, brother. Meg's been busy telling her you're bad news.”
Stopped myself just short of telling his old lady to fuck off. Woman had no business telling her girls who they could and couldn't fuck in this club. Would've said we'd fucked up making her lead manager at the strip joint, but she had the business end down, better than any of us.
Besides, I really didn't need a fuckin' fight when I was still dripping mud on the floor.