Starting Over (10 page)

me to do.” She patted her shoulder and walked out into the crisp morning air.

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

Maisey didn’t give her an answer that day, and River didn’t press her. If she

decided to go then great, if she wanted to stay, then it would be her choice.

The bar was slow for a Sunday evening, but with the Breed having their meeting, it

wasn’t a big shock. Locals and a few visitors came in, but al in al , the night was

uneventful. Even the usual drunks didn’t give her grief when she pushed the last ones

out of the front door and locked it behind them.

Maisey was cleaning the kitchen, so River decided to go ahead and get the nasty

chore of cleaning the bathrooms over with. The last time she’d been the unlucky one to

clean the bathrooms, she’d found used condoms on the floor, and broken drink glasses

too. The drain in the middle of the floor was a godsend. If the place was a real sty, all

she had to do was spray the place down with antibacterial stuff and hook up the short

hose to the hot water spigot under the sink to blast it off.

The backdoor slammed shut as she turned the corner with her hands full of rubber

gloves and the water hose. She caught a glimpse of half of a man’s shoulder exiting the

building, and she dropped the items in her hand to check and make sure the door

locked behind the late patron. She opened the bathroom door and dropped the wedge

shaped block of wood to hold the door open, before noticing the smell. She pulled on

the long sleeved rubber gloves and walked over to grab the trash, and stopped in her

tracks when she saw a man sitting on one of the toilets. She didn’t recognize him, but

that wasn’t what alarmed her as much as the fact that he was obviously dead. He had

to be a biker, the cut was unmistakable, even if his overgrown beard and the many large

skul rings didn’t decorate his fingers. “Fuck.”

“Maisey.” She had to clear her throat to raise her voice. “Maisey.”

She heard her before she saw her come into the hallway. “I’m not cleaning the

toilets again, it’s your turn, remember?” She stopped smiling when River pointed her

finger toward their unwanted visitor.

“Oh shit, that’s Glimmer, I’ve seen him with Wolfman before.” She shook her head

and backed away. “Not good at al . How did he get in here?” He can’t be in here.”

She grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hallway. “River, we need to get rid of him.

His club will burn the place to the ground. Everyone with him is the same, they are like

rabid dogs, you think Wolfy was bad? These guys brought him the slaves to work the

strip club and the shed that you burned down? They used to talk about it upstairs at the

old clubhouse.”

She nodded in understanding. It stood to figure the longer she stayed in this place,

the more shit that would hit the fan. It had been going too well for her to believe, and it

appeared that she was right to question the good fortune. “Let’s finish our normal

chores and think about how to do this. All I saw was a man’s shoulder, his tat was kind

of a generic percent sign on the back of his arm, but I couldn’t identify him.”

She cleaned the women’s bathroom and left the cleaning equipment in the men’s

bathroom out of the way so they’d have room to manipulate the two hundred pound

biker’s body when they were ready.

Her plan was fairly simple, the hard part would be moving his dead weight. They

took two of the busing trol ey’s and taped them together with silver Duct tape, and

locked the wheels so the thing wouldn’t move from where they left it next to the body. It

took several attempts to get his upper torso up and over the top of the carts, and both

women were winded by the time they got him onto the table so he could be moved. The

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

cause of Glimmer’s death was the large hole in the back of his skul where it had been

beaten in with something heavy.

As they rested and then cleaned the room around the trolley, River couldn’t help but

say, “We can be thankful that he wasn’t kil ed in here, can you imagine the mess that

would have made?”

Maisey nodded in agreement. “You know what? I think I’m tired of hauling dead

men around. I’m going to take you up on your offer. I thought I’d stick around to see if

Mambo might want to settle down.” She shook her head, “But there’s a lot of history for

both of us to get passed, and the more time I have to think about it, I’l be ready to leave

when you are.”

The weather was both a blessing and a curse since it had begun to rain and sleet

as they rolled Glimmer out of the backdoor and shoved his body into the bed of River’s

pick-up. The canvas top and tailgate were back in place while the women made sure

the bar was clean and everything was in order for the next day.

River told Maisey, “This is your last night here, so grab your stuff and let’s go.

You’re not the only one tired of this place. We leave in two days. I’d leave tomorrow,

but if someone starts nosing around, we’re just a couple of innocent women with

nothing to hide. Right?”

Maisey laughed. “Oh yeah, we’re just a couple of little women, what could we

possibly do to an overweight six foot tall bad ass. We are just as puzzled as whoever

might ask.”

They were headed out of town when a police cruiser sailed past them with his lights

strobing in the icy sleet. River watched her rearview mirror until the lights were no

longer visible, and breathed deeply. They drove past the old winery, and weren’t

surprised to see that no one seemed to be around the gate that was closed. The cage

sitting just inside the gate held a couple of Prospects, but in the dark of the night with

the sleet coming down sideways such as it was, the women weren’t real worried that

they might be seen or recognized.

A mile from the winery, River backed her truck up in the grassy spot overlooking the

river that was still flowing swiftly. The winter was just beginning here and it would take a

lot more cold weather than this to slow the current of the water. There was no traffic,

and no houses on this particular stretch of road, so it made an ideal dumping ground for

Glimmer’s body.

They watched as his weight carried him, rolling over and over to the bottom of the

steep hill and into the muddy riverbank. He was in God’s hands now, and they could

breathe a sigh of relief.

Back at the trailer, they had celebration shots of whiskey, and while River took a

shower, Maisey must have been more tired than she acted, because the woman was

snoring on the loveseat when she came out of the tiny cubicle. She tossed a blanket

over her and left the small light on over the stove.

The air was cool, but River felt frozen to her bones. The hot shower had helped,

and the shot of Jack had given her belly warmth, but it didn’t change how she felt.

When had she become so hard? Now that it was over, how could she find a dead guy,

move him to a location where no one would think to look for him for days, and still smile.

Did the life of a human being mean so little to her since she’d come to this place for

revenge?

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

Face it, girl, it’s time to go home, make some life choices and stick to them
. The

only glitch that she could see was if the people running the bar back home didn’t want to

leave.
Then what are you going to do genius?
She rolled over and closed her mind off

with a quick, s
hut it
. She conjured up images of Race, and War, and their lips, but it

took a long time for her to fall asleep.

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

There was over a hundred bikers at the winery for the summit and as the host

chapter, their people were outnumbered by a third, but no one seemed to want a direct

challenge, so the initial hour and a half was easy going. When it came time to lay out

the new agenda, the problems began, but Race had anticipated their response. War

stood behind him and four of the chapter leaders opted to approve the agenda, but two

factions were resistant to any change in Lucifer’s Breed MC policy, and one was

Glimmer’s club so Race began with that.

“I know there’s resistance to change, but you have to decide, what’s gonna happen

when your kid gets some bad shit from someone? You’re gonna’ take care of that

business, man, right? Times are changing, soon weed will be legal everywhere, a

smart group would be getting ready to set up for that. Premium shit rakes in major

bread, and if you have brothers as businessmen in a legit business, hell, who knows

what the take would be. They’re using J for al kinds of shit, from clothes to medicines

for sick kids. Think about it.

“From now on, you’d better be a diabetic if you want to bring a needle in here. If I

have to personal y make an example of someone who thinks I’m fucking with them, I’m

not against making my point out of him.

“I realize things have been lax around the group, but that’s changing, You come into

our town and start shit like what happened last night, you’re gonna lose more than your

scoot like those two did. I don’t disrespect your turf, you don’t get a free pass in ours.

Now the floor is open for business.”

Petty squabbles turned into chest thumping and men broke out in fistfights. Race

let the small shit pass, there were too many brothers in the room to start too much large

scale shit. There would be fines for those that threw punches during the meeting. He

couldn’t allow the disrespect to go unpunished.

So went the day, arguments and agreements, discussions about businesses and

financing. All in all it was a good day.

By Sunday night, most seemed to be in agreement to at least explore the possibility

of changing income by members becoming businessmen in various forms. Race was

feeling smug, until War and Elton told him that Glimmer was nowhere in the compound

and his lieutenants had no idea where he disappeared to.

“I don’t like this, his boys over there? Why aren’t they looking under the bushes for

their prez?” War had been watching the table full of members of the Dixie chapter, and

they all seemed a little too calm about the disappearance of the leader of their club. “I

had Pete check on their bikes and Glimmer’s scoot is stil in the parking lot.”

Race had noticed the Dixie boys seemed to be having a good time without

supervision tonight, not to mention he hadn’t seen Glimmer in two days now. He

nodded to the table on his right.

“Prowler is here with his brothers, and he’s been shitfaced since he got here. That

whore he brought with him is a bumper, and she must have gotten her fix an hour or so

ago, because she’s downright friendly with Ol’ Glimmer’s Vice. You see the way

Prowler’s smiling her way and she keeps looking back at him?”

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Starting Over by Ryder Dane

Bam and Billy came over to join them, and War stood propping up the wall while the

men discussed the weather conditions. They concluded that most of the Breed would

be staying on another day or two to let the roads clear enough for the bikers to leave for

their home turf.

Bam waited for Billy to leave with Elton and told Race and War, “Pete thought he

saw two people riding with Dixie rockers tonight before it started to rain. He was coming

back from a beer run in Cass City, but didn’t think anything of it. He said it had just

gotten dark, but one of the bikes might have had two people on it. He wasn’t paying

attention.”

He nodded at Race’s question, “Ideas on who?”

“An hour or so before the meeting, Merc and Pauly came in with wet hair and they

left water where they stood at the bar when they got a beer. I’d say those two are the

ones I’d put my money on.”

War piped up from the side. “Nice, so are we thinking the roaches are eating each

other in a power grab?” He watched the woman plop her bony ass onto Merc’s lap.

Prowler was still watching them, and the way the entire scene appeared was strange to

War. “Looks like we’ve got trouble brewing in the corner, and unless I’m reading this

wrong, it’s been set up to look like something it isn’t.

He nodded toward the tables. “Prowler’s about ready to make his move, and with

Glimmer gone, Merc gets to deal with the problem. You see Prowler’s boy just sittin’

there? He’s waiting. Fuckers are like a bunch of damn chickens. One goes down, the

rest peck their eyes out.”

War looked around the room and spied Yo Yo laughing with Boner. He walked up

to her and whispered into her ear, and she looked toward where Prowler sat and

nodded.

She downed a shot of whiskey and rearranged her tits before walking over to

Prowler’s table and, leaning over in front of him, blocked the sight of his whore and

Merc. She grinned at the surprised man, and grabbed his ponytail in her fist, pulling his

head back for a deep open mouthed kiss. She let go of his hair and twisted her body to

sit on the table in front of him, and stretched one leg to circle over his head and ended

up sitting in front of him with her legs spread. Her bare pussy was right in front of him,