Rising Heat (11 page)

I sighed, staring around the great expanse of the room, dreading the thought of having to move again. I thought I could be happy here, or at least content. Bones had the right idea. Starting over. No regrets, no looking back. Well, I had one regret, but at the moment, it didn’t have a huge impact on me. I would be disappointed not to be able to continue seeing Kathy. Not that I could in any way define us as a couple, nor did I want to. Nevertheless, she was one of the nicest girls I’d met since I relocated to Denver. It would’ve been nice getting to know her a little better.

I was still a bit surprised that she had agreed to go out with me again, especially after the yokel on the bike had called out my name and waved, then the added threat of the finger gun. Should I have told her the truth then and there? That I had been a member of that gang? I knew for some, that knowledge would be a deal breaker. Her reaction to the bikers was typical of many people who gave motorcycle groups a wide berth. Understandable, really.

Most bikers were normal, average, everyday people. Yes, there were bad apples in the bunch. Put a bunch of bad apples into a barrel and you had a fucking mess. The same applied to any large group of individuals looking for the same thing. Hence the birth of dozens upon dozens of motorcycle gangs, and hundreds or even thousands or more street gangs around the country and across the globe.

I had been young, foolish, and full of angst when I came out west and first became a member of the Biker Boys. With them, I had gained a sense of acceptance I had never felt with my own family. But not anymore. Now, belonging to the group just seemed lame. No… dangerous. Especially with the direction they were heading. I wanted no part of that.

I sat down on my bed, staring around the loft. No longer raw, no longer cool. In fact, it was rather sorry-looking. I couldn’t understand exactly when my frame of mind had changed. What had propelled me to leave home in the first place? I tried to tell myself it was wanderlust. Boredom. Annoyance with my parents. But I knew the truth. I had tried to run from my guilt. I knew on a subliminal level, and always had, that belonging to the gang was a nonproductive endeavor. But I had stayed. Where else did I have to go?

I was getting too old for that kind of shit, that kind of juvenile behavior. Yes, there were members in the Biker Boys who were in their thirties, forties, and even fifties, but I didn’t want to end up like that. A fifty-year-old man trying to hang onto his youth? Someone that passersby looked at, snickered, and muttered “loser” under their breath about? Not for me. Not that I had ever given a shit what other people thought, but I was beginning to feel the same way.

Enough.

I rose from the bed and began to sort through some more of my stuff. I made a keep pile, a throwaway pile, and a giveaway pile. I was looking forward to my afternoon and evening with Kathy. A nice change of pace. Nothing serious, just an afternoon doing something that I hadn’t done in a long time. The weather was fantastic. Maybe I’d take the bike west on the I-70 past Golden, up into the hills. Maybe we would even go as far as Aspen. From what Kathy had told me, it sounded like she had been kept pretty busy since arriving here. I didn’t think she’d had a chance to visit some of the mountain communities.

This time of year they would be filled with tourists. The air would be rich with the smell of pine. The sky would be deep blue, nearly cloudless, and the mountain air would be cooler than down here. As I sorted through my stuff, I realized I was smiling. It felt good. While I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go, I felt better. A little less unsettled. Just making a few small decisions had given me the desire to make a few more. Kathy had goals. Why shouldn’t I? I thought her choice of profession was quite admirable. A veterinarian. I had never dated a veterinarian before.

Dated?

Well, maybe we weren’t dating. Maybe we could just start out as friends. But if I was planning on leaving town, there wasn’t much point in developing anything more than that. I needed only one finger to count the number of friends I had at this very moment. Bones. I could stand to have another, couldn’t I?

I kept glancing at the clock, but the morning dragged by incredibly slowly. Then, just about lunchtime, my cell phone rang. It took me a moment to find it, buried under a pile of clothes on my bed. I didn’t recognize the number, although the area code was local.

“Hello?”

“Keep your mouth shut or else.”

Click.

That was it. The voice had been deep, slightly muffled as if the caller had held something over his mouth to disguise his voice. I didn’t have to wonder who the message came from. One of the Outlaws. I frowned and tossed the phone back onto the bed. Why the drama?

Stupid drug induced paranoid criminal wannabes.

I stood by one of the grimy, dusty windows looking down on the street below, frowning as I went through all the possibilities. Coming up with nothing, I reached for my phone and dialed Bones. After two rings he answered.

“Hey, Ash, how’s it hangin’?”

“You still in town?”

“Yeah, I talked to my cousin up in—”

“Not too many details, Bones. Just wanted to let you know I just got my own message.”

Silence for a moment. “What was it?”

“Keep my mouth shut or else.” Bones said nothing. “I think they’ve been watching me, my loft. There were a few of them hanging around outside the mall when Kathy—”

“Kathy? Who’s Kathy?”

“You know that girl I met from the pet store, the one I told you about? I had a cup of coffee with her Saturday afternoon at the Starbucks not far from the pet store where she works. Anyway, we were having coffee outside when three of the gang drove down the street, twice. The second time, they called my name and one of them acted like he was shooting a gun at me.”

“That’s not good,” Bones commented.

“That didn’t bother me nearly as much as what Kathy told me. She has a second job near the mall, and she said that when she got off work, the same trio were hanging around outside. They left when she did.”

“That’s not good either.”

“So what do you think? Intimidation or something more serious? Have you heard anything, gotten any more messages?”

“I heard some whispers the other day. Mops said something about a plant.”

“A plant?”

“Yeah, an undercover DEA agent, a Feeb, maybe even a local cop in the gang.”

Well, that would do it, but why focus on me? “Doesn’t make much sense when applied to either one of us. We were never in the core group.”

“No, but I wonder… you weren’t jumped-out, so I thought everything was cool with you leaving.” He paused. “I was gonna take off in a day or two myself.”

Jumping out was something that some gangs did, basically requiring a member to be willing to get the shit beat out of him before he could receive “permission” from the gang to leave. I hadn’t heard of that going on with the Outlaws. Maybe they were worried about repercussions from police. I was holding onto a secret, a secret that not even Bones knew about, but they were apparently keeping an eye on Bones too. Why?

There was no doubt that Bones and I had hung around the fringes of the gang and weren’t core members. So why the hell did they even care? Did they know? How could they? Did they suspect?

“You there, Ash?”

“Yeah, just trying to think. I called to let you know about it and to tell you to watch your back too.”

“You gonna be around later? I can come by. Talk.”

“I’m taking Kathy later for a ride, an early dinner, then getting her home before dark.”

Bones chuckled. “What, she underage or something?

I smiled. “No, nothing like that. I just want to make her feel comfortable. It’s not like I’m used to dating someone like her.”

“You like her, don’t you?”

“What’s not to like?” I finally said. “You know, she’s working two jobs and going to school. She wants to be a veterinarian. She’s got gumption. To tell you the truth, I’m feeling a little embarrassed that I’ve been so shiftless, wasted so many years just bummin’ around.”

“Yeah, I get what you mean. It
is
about time that we both decided what the hell we wanted to do with our lives, isn’t it?”

I offered a low chuckle. “Better late than never, huh?”

Bones laughed. “Don’t you know it.”

“I’ll be back here by nine o’clock. Want to come by? Have a beer?”

“Sure,” Bones agreed. “See you later.”

I disconnected the call.

Even though I had tried to minimize my concern with the warnings that each of us had received, I also knew I needed to take them seriously. The fact that those three guys had followed Kathy from the mall — and I had no doubt that they did — made me realize things were not quite as copacetic as I’d previously thought. Maybe the gang suspected. Maybe they figured I knew too much about their upcoming plans and activities, as well as some past stuff. I shouldn’t be surprised that they were worried I might say something to the cops.

I tossed another shirt into the charity pile. Maybe I was giving them too much credit. Making myself more important in their eyes than I was. I had never given anyone in the gang any indication that I was anything other than what I was: a man looking for a distraction, a sense of belonging. A man sowing his wild oats. Nothing more.

“I’m an idiot,” I said aloud and I was, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I couldn’t go back and relive the past ten years over again. I had no idea if I would even want to.

I tried to look at life as a learning experience. I’d made plenty of mistakes, no doubt about that. Now, on the back side of them, I could only learn from my fuck ups, not undo them. Of course, there was one huge and tragic mistake that I had made in my life that I wished more than anything I could undo.

Damn. Why was I in my head so much recently?

I decided to blame all my recent uncertainties and these odd glimpses into my psyche on Kathy. Not in a bad way either. Maybe I was just ready for a change. For now, she was a distraction, and a welcome one, no doubt about it, but I had no illusions. I was still surprised that she had agreed to go out with me again. Maybe she was feeling the same thing. Curious. Intrigued. Hopefully horny.

I wanted to get to know her a little better, understand why she had left family, friends, and a lifelong home to move to a city where she had no relatives, at least none she had mentioned. Why was she living a life of isolation, too busy with work and school to even come up for a breath of fresh air? What made Kathy tick? What drove her?

I found myself needing to know.

And I needed to know why a chance meeting had triggered a need within myself to find some stability. Some balance. For that reason alone, I was captivated by her. Sure, she was pretty and I certainly wasn’t one to ignore pretty women. But it was this mental or emotional effect she had on me that had me so curious about her. That had prompted me to ask her out again. She should have said no and I had expected her to. But she hadn’t.

Curiosity. The word reminded me of a phrase Becca used to say. “Curiosity killed the cat. Information brought it back.”

*

Early that afternoon I was on my motorcycle, ready to pick her up from the pet store. Of course, like always, people looked my way when my motorcycle rumbled into the parking lot. The noise had never bothered me before, but now I felt self-conscious. What the hell?

I shook myself out of whatever it was I was feeling and turned off the bike, watching the front door of the pet store. I didn’t think she would want me to come inside. I didn’t want to go inside either. If I saw the manager who’d sold me that crappy fish tank in the first place, I might be tempted to give him a piece of my mind, and maybe something else to remember me by. I didn’t want to get Kathy in trouble, either by having a confrontation with the manager or by giving people the idea that she and I were dating.

I’d just begun to explore that thought when the door opened, and she walked out wearing a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, and a red t-shirt. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that swayed from side to side with every step she took. She quickly scanned the parking lot, spied my motorcycle, and then tentatively offered a wave. I couldn’t help it. I grinned as I waved back. She looked so… I wasn’t quite sure how to put it. Natural. No illusions when it came to Kathy. What you see is what you get. Like the other times I’d seen her, she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Of course she didn’t need any, but that didn’t stop a lot of young women from piling it on regardless.

She made her way to my bike, staring at it with uncertainty as she approached.

“Hi, Ash.”

“Hey, yourself.” I smiled. “Ready?”

She offered a small nod but glanced quickly over her shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to just take my car? You can drive if you want.”

I shook my head, avoiding the real reason I didn’t want to take her car. “On a gorgeous day like this?”

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise, but I guarantee you’ll like it.” I reached behind me and unhooked the helmet I’d pulled out of the back of my closet. Full face with jaw guard and clear face shield. That helmet had been buried under a bunch of junk in my closet ever since I arrived in Denver. Colorado didn’t have a helmet law, but plenty of states did. I didn’t wear a helmet anymore, but that was my own choice. I’d never had a non-biker passenger before, but her safety was something I would insist on with Kathy… especially in light of other events in my past.

Before I could dwell on that, I handed her the helmet. “Put this on.” It wasn’t a request.

She glanced at the helmet, the buckles and the straps, then settled it over her head. It was big on her, but it would do. It was a tad loose after she tightened the straps under her chin, but again, it would do.

“You told me you never rode a bike before, other than a scooter.”

“Yes,” she said, eyeing the bike with a combination of anticipation and dread.

“Hop on.” I gestured. “It’s not that different from a scooter. Only bigger and louder.” She settled behind me on the seat. “Put your feet on those pegs,” I instructed, pointing to the rear passenger foot pedals that extended from the chassis. She did. “Now wrap your arms around my waist or grab hold of my belt loops. It’s not hard to maintain your balance, but since you’ve never ridden before, it will give you an added sense of stability.”