Chasing Thunder (18 page)

He felt the same way when he looked down at her face. Her big, bright blue eyes rivaled any ocean, and her smile rivaled the sun. He grinned and took her hand in his. They headed up the stairs toward the wooden pier, which was full of tourists and street performers. She stopped in every shop and listened to every act. They walked all the way to the edge of the pier and leaned on the railing. The pier stood proud over the churning ocean below. Ocean breezes sifted through her dark hair like a dozen gentle fingers. In the distance, a street performer sang “Imagine” by John Lennon. The moment was so poignant that it brought tears to her eyes. This was the way life could be.

Should be.

She turned to Kid. His eyes were warm and kind. “Thank you,” she said.

If he’d had the balls, he might have leaned in to kiss her. But being with Baby was like holding a wounded bird in his hands. One wrong move and she’d fly away, never to be seen again. With each passing day, he realized more and more that he’d do anything he could to keep that from happening. Instead he just took her by the hand and told her, “We’re not done.”

They walked back down the pier to the 1920s carousel, housed in a nondescript building that looked, and smelled, its age. He paid the nominal fee for a couple of tickets and led her onto the round platform, where they picked the perfect hand-carved horses to ride. He lifted her up on hers first and then took the seat next to her.

The ride started, and she laughed as they bobbed along on the historic carousel to calliope music. He gave her that lopsided grin, almost a perfect mirror of his brother’s. But Kid was just sweeter somehow, less edgy. He was safe. For the first time in her life, she truly felt like she had a friend.

After the ride ended, he treated her to a milkshake at the soda fountain. They sat at the counter and shared their treat through two straws. “I feel like a starlet who’s about to be discovered,” she said, grinning.

He captured a bit of whipped cream on his fingertip before placing it upon her upturned nose. “You look like one, too,” he said, and she laughed. Again, he would have loved to lean forward and kiss that fluffy white smudge away, but he didn’t have the nerve. Instead he watched as she wiped it off and began to doodle on a paper napkin with a discarded pencil. She captured the image of one of the horses with ease.

“You’re really good,” he said as he watched her transform lines and circles into something recognizable and three-dimensional.

She shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands,” she dismissed. “Forget what they tell you about necessity. Boredom is the mother of invention.”

She started another doodle, this time of Kid, complete with his clunky glasses and his beanie. She gave it to him as a gift for their unexpected day together. When they were done, she practically dragged him down onto the sand, where she kicked off her shoes and trotted clumsily toward the water.

It felt like the edge of the world. She stared out into the horizon, the Pacific stretching as far as the eye could see. The sky was cloudless and perfect. Though it was midway through June, the temperature was in the seventies, so the water was cool as it lapped against her bare feet. She and Kid ran through the surf right along the shoreline until they collapsed, laughing, onto the sun-kissed sand. There was a primal rhythm to the ebb and flow of the waves, and as she lay there in the sand, looking up in the sky, she knew she was getting a little taste of what heaven must be like. This was why settlers had headed west, seeking their fortunes along California’s golden shores. This was what she had envisioned when she told that North Carolina ticket taker she wanted a one-way trip to Los Angeles. It was a city for dreamers. And finally she was here. She reached for Kid’s hand and they silently stared up into the endless blue sky.

It was mid-afternoon by the time they left the beach and headed along the Pacific Coast Highway. Baby’s heart leapt with joy when the bright red neon sign for Wyndryder came into view. She squeezed Kid’s waist and squealed.

The store was huge. It had a massive showroom full of bikes, both new and custom rebuilt. There was a corner for merchandise, where people could buy clothing and accessories. There was a coffee shop on the far side of the store, near the area where mechanics and specialists like Snake fixed and customized bikes. She spotted Snake right away. He was dirty and grimy, but he had that heart-stopping smile on his face as he interacted with the people at the shop. “He usually works at his own shop,” Kid told her. “He only works couple of days a week at Wyndryder, but he’s here more if he has the work. Summer is usually busiest.”

“What about M.J.?” she asked. “Will she get mad if I’m here?”

“M.J.’s presence is more sporadic,” he explained. “She technically owns Wyndryder. It was willed to both her and her grandmother when Joe died. But most of the day-to-day operation is left to Jim Guerra.” He pointed to the older Native American man standing at the counter. He was wearing a big smile as he teased one of his customers. “He worked at Wyndryder from the early days, when it was nothing more than fix-and-repair jobs in Joe’s garage,” Kid explained. “He knows the ins and outs better than anyone. It gives M.J. a lot of free time.”

Neither of them discussed what she did in that free time.

“Jim was Joe’s best friend,” Kid went on as they meandered through the large shop. “He served with him in Vietnam. I don’t think Joe trusted any other human more, except maybe his wife. He was here that night,” he added softly.

They approached the sixty-two-year-old man at the counter. His long hair was jet black and braided tightly down his back, with just a few silver strands showing on either temple. His cheekbones were high and his eyes were a deep and rich charcoal. It was obvious that he was a biker through and through. His skin was weather-beaten from decades of riding his canary-yellow 1953 Indian Chief anywhere it would go. His fringed suede vest was even more weather-beaten, and it struggled to meet over his generous middle.

Jim brightened immediately when he saw Kid. “As I live and breathe. What brings you down here?”

Kid nodded to Baby. “I wanted to show my new friend the shop.”

Jim had a ready smile for the young girl. “Any friend of Kid’s is a friend of mine,” he said, reaching out a hand. “My name’s Jim.”

“Baby,” she supplied, shaking it.

He chuckled. “Kid and Baby. I like that.” He leaned over the counter. “You know Maddox still asks about you. When are you going to come see us?”

Kid shrugged. “You know Snake.”

“Yeah,” Jim said quietly. “Well, the door is always open. For both of you,” he added, giving her a friendly smile. He turned to another customer and Kid and Baby stepped away from the counter.

“Who’s Maddox?”

“He was my best friend until my parents died. Then we left Venice and moved to Pasadena so Snake could start over. There have been barbecues and rallies with the old gang, but Snake really didn’t want me to be a part of it, so we generally never go. I haven’t seen Maddy since we were seven.” He laughed. “He wanted everyone to call him Mad Dog but no one ever did. He had balls even then.”

“You should look him up,” she suggested.

“I have. It just never seemed right to make contact. I mean, what can we do besides chat on the Internet? Plus, Snake would never go for it. I barely got him to teach me to ride a year ago.”

“What harm can come from chatting online? It’s not like you’re knocking over a liquor store.” She glanced over at Snake. “You want me to ask him for you?”

Kid shook his head. “It’s not worth the hassle. In a few months I’ll be eighteen and I can make my own rules. I mean, the Triumph is mine. Dad willed it to me. So there’s really nothing he can do to stop me. I was born to ride same as him. And I will,” he promised softly.

She smiled. “Where will you go first?”

“Anywhere,” he said with a wistful look on his face. “Everywhere.” He grabbed a black flat top cap decorated with rhinestone bling in the shape of a skull and slipped it over her head. “You know, you’re a biker now. Where do you want to go?”

She glanced around the busy shop and at her new friends. “I think I’m already here.”

In another part of the store, a buzzing phone caught Snake’s attention as he completed yet another customized order. He wiped his hands clean before he answered. This was a call he did not want to miss. “Where are you?” he demanded immediately.

“I had an emergency,” M.J. started, but he was quick to cut her off.

“Yeah. I heard. Thanks for telling me, by the way. It’s not like Rose is
my friend or anything.”

“It couldn’t be helped,” she replied unapologetically.

He braced himself. “Are you okay?” That was the most important question.

“I’m fine,” she said, but it felt like a pat response. Something was wrong.

“M.J.,” he sighed.

“I need you to keep an eye on Baby.”

“Why? Where are you going to be?”

She hesitated a moment. “I need to keep a low profile for a while.”

“Funny,” he said. “I thought I was the place you went when you needed a low profile.”

“Snake, please. I know what I’m doing. Just trust me.”

He took a deep breath and counted to ten. “How long?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly.

Snake glanced at Kid and Baby, who were trying on various accessories. He had spotted them the moment they walked in the door, and he’d had his eyes on them the entire time. He’d been a virtual parent for the last ten years, so his radar was honed. “If things are that dangerous, I’ll want the kids with me everywhere I go.”

It was a dirty thing to leverage, but he was done jumping through her hoops. She was going to have to cave a little, too. If she really was worried about being tailed to his place, then Snake would feel a whole lot better if he could keep his eyes on the kids. He had all the confidence in the world that if something were to happen, he could keep them safe.

“Fine,” she answered in a clipped, angry voice. She knew in her gut it was a bad idea to let Baby anywhere near Wyndryder, but she had to trust Snake now. Quite simply, she had no choice. There was no way she could be seen with Baby while Isbecky and his goons were tailing her. She needed time to be invisible, and that would be almost impossible with a kid at her hip.

“Just don’t let her out of your sight, Snake.”

For the first time in a long time, she sounded scared, which was the most terrifying thing of all. “I think it’s time for you to tell me what’s going on.”

“The less you know, the better,” she dismissed, for the hundredth time.

“You keep saying that. But if I’m tasked with keeping these kids safe, I need more information, not less.”

She was quiet for a moment. Finally she said, “You got out, babe. I’m not pulling you back in.”

With that sentence, he knew that he might be forced to do things he had sworn a long time ago that he would never do. The stakes were that high. He opened his mouth to say something, but the call ended. She was gone. And he had no idea where she was. Again.

With a sigh he pocketed his phone. When he looked up, he spotted Jim escorting their newest customer,
Fierce
reality star Jace Riga, to where he was standing next to the newly customized bike. They greeted each other with a robust handshake.

“This looks beautiful,” Jace said as he inspected the paint job, which mirrored the design on his artificial leg. “What do I owe you?”

Snake laughed. “Well, you can win that infernal singing competition, for one. Bring some street cred to reality TV.”

Jace laughed back. “I’ll do my best,” he said, withdrawing his checkbook. Snake gave him a steep military discount, since Jace was a combat veteran. He didn’t insult his honor by giving it to him for free, but he got away with charging as little as possible for the killer paint job.

Before he could leave, Snake called Kid and Baby over to meet him. Baby was a little starstruck by the handsome singer. “You have our votes,” Snake promised, and Jace departed. Once they were alone, he turned to his brother and his new partner in crime. Snake adopted his best smartass façade. “Well, this is a surprise.”

Both kids looked immediately chagrined. They knew they had colored outside the lines by coming to Wyndryder. “I took Baby out for a ride,” Kid explained, and Snake’s eyebrows arched. Kid had never taken the bike without permission before.

In a few months he wouldn’t even need it. He had been content to wait before now, but apparently Kid had decided it was time to be a man, and Snake credited the pretty girl at his side for the sudden transformation. So he swallowed any reprimand. “In any case, I’m glad you’re both here.”

Kid was instantly suspicious. “You are?”

They followed Snake back to the repair area. “M.J. has agreed for Baby to be here at Wyndryder
provided
,” he was quick to clarify when Baby gasped, “that you’re with me. So I figured you both can work as my assistants for the summer. Since you’re obviously old enough to make your own decisions,” he added, sending Kid a pointed look.

Baby didn’t care what the caveat was. She flung her arms around Snake’s neck. “Thank you! You won’t regret it, I promise!”

He hugged her tight and prayed she was right.