“There was a fire. I was pinned by some shrapnel. Took a little while to get free.” The phantom scent of burning flesh fills my nose. I breathe through it. It’s not real.
“Oh, my God.” Amelia grabs for my hand. I’m still holding my steak knife. I don’t know what to do. She’s holding my hand. I’m holding the knife. I freeze. “You could have been killed.”
True. I wish she would let go of my hand so I can put the knife down.
“Did everyone make it?”
“We lost two men.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Were they friends?”
I shake my head. I’d met them that morning. They were my ride to Stuttgart. I can’t even remember their faces. The pictures I have in my head of Specialist Daniel Gates and Staff Sergeant Alvaro Ortiz are from their memorial services. I can remember their screams, but I don’t know what their voices sounded like.
“Are you okay?” Amelia drops my hand and inches back in her chair. I guess my face has gone Terminator, and I’ve still got the steak knife in a really tight grip. I carefully place it on my plate, blade facing in.
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“Not at all.” Her eyes get shiny. “You’ve been through so much. I can’t even imagine.”
I swallow a few times until I don’t feel like puking. It’s survivor’s guilt. The doc at the VA talks about it a lot. He served in Nam. Oddly enough, he was in the same unit as Twitch, a brother who came up with my granddad. Doc’s a good guy. He makes valid points, but it doesn’t help anything. I still have nightmares.
While I’ve been stuck in my head, Amelia’s gotten her courage back. Her hand’s wandering now. She’s reached under the table, and she’s squeezing my thigh.
“You don’t have to talk about it if it’s too much.”
I didn’t plan to, but I’m happy she’s willing to leave it be.
“You related to anyone in the service?” That’s another one of my go to’s. Everyone in this town knows someone who served. Petty’s Mill is as small-town America as you can get, and until Steel Bones turned legit and got into construction, there were shit-all jobs to be had when the blast furnace shut down. Lots of people enlisted to get out.
“My cousin’s in the Army reserves, and my granddad was in the Navy.”
I expect her to tell me all about it. That’s why it’s one of my questions; it keeps people talking with minimal effort on my part. Amelia must be done with the heavy shit, though, ‘cause she’s sliding that hand up my thigh and leaning so close her tits brush my forearm.
“I don’t know what’s sexier,” she purrs real low. “A soldier who served or an outlaw biker.” Then her hand creeps up to rest high on my thigh. Blood rushes down, and I get a semi. Nice to know the plumbing ain’t totally broke. “It’s like I’m with the good guy and the bad guy.”
The way she says “bad” tells me everything I need to know. She’s ready to go, and she’s not the one. Amelia, the systems analyst, wants a walk on the wild side. It isn’t a total let down; I can work with that. But that’s not why I shaved, put on a button-up shirt, and left my cut at home.
When I got my medical discharge, I decided I was gonna get myself a wife and family. The whole reason I joined up out of high school? It wasn’t ‘cause I’m some kind of patriot. No more than the next man. I enlisted ‘cause I needed a job that would let me support Nevaeh Ellis.
I was gonna buy her a big house, fuck half a dozen babies into her, and raise our kids better than hand-to-mouth, the way I came up. I was a dumb fuck who barely graduated, and the Army had done well by my Pops.
Then Nevaeh ground that dream into dirt, and I became a sniper instead. I have good aim. Always have.
I did well in the Rangers. When shit went south three years back, I’d just been tapped to go to Fort Benning as an instructor. But I’m home now, that life’s all done, and there’s no reason I can’t have what I planned on in the first place.
I already bought the house up in Gracy’s Corner. Don’t stay there much. Clubhouse is more convenient. The house has all the amenities, though. Big fenced yard. Energy Star appliances. Finished basement.
All I need is the woman and kids.
I have preferences, but no real requirements except loyalty and good sense. Someone who’d be a good mother, who’ll stick around when the going gets tough. I don’t think Amelia’s it. I’m not saying that a woman lookin’ for some strange is unappreciated, but she isn’t wife material in my mind.
She clears her throat and raises her eyebrows. Oh, yeah. Guess she’s waiting for me to say something.
“Steel Bones isn’t an outlaw MC. We’re in construction.”
“That is what they say.” She digs in, really kneads my junk. “Pounding wood, right?”
Well, this is taking a turn. What with the kind of women I’ve been dating, work, and all the shit that goes with being VP of Steel Bones, I don’t fuck much. I steer clear of club pussy. Not my type.
It could be good to let off some steam, though. I’m down with Plan B.
But Amelia’s gotta know what kind of man I am. I snatch that wandering hand, and before she can react, I’ve got it tucked between her own thighs and pressed into the seam of her jeans right over her clit. She kind of moans and pants at the same time, and her eyes glaze over.
My gaze scans the restaurant. We’re in a corner booth, and the joint is dimly lit.
“We done here?” I ask. “Should I get the bill?”
She’s swallowing hard, about to say yes, when my phone goes off. It’s Heavy’s ring tone. Damn. Bad timing.
“I need to take this.”
I stand, drop my napkin on the table, and head for the hall by the men’s room. My dick’s tenting my cargo pants, but it’s not obscene. Besides, it’s not like there’s kids in the place this late. The crowd starts getting rough about nine o’clock, and it’s nearly ten.
Heavy knows I’m here with a woman, so he wouldn’t call unless it was urgent. There have been some incidents lately with the Rebel Raiders. We’ve been handling it as it comes, but Heavy and I both have the feeling we’re on the precipice. We don’t deal with this beef decisively and soon, it’s gonna be all out war. That’s not good news for our legitimate businesses.
When I’m back by an alcove where the pay phone used to be, I swipe to answer. “Speak.”
Raucous clubhouse noise spills from the speaker, shouts, music, laughter. A woman is shrieking, really going off. They’re startin’ early tonight.
Heavy’s voice booms over the noise. “Did you know Nevaeh Ellis is at the clubhouse tonight?”
In an instant, my dick isn’t kinda stiff, it’s rock hard. Then, immediately, my free hand balls into a fist and pure rage, mindless and raw, whips through me out of nowhere, a ghost from the past with teeth and claws. I rock back on my heels, and it takes me a second to straighten, square my shoulders, pull it together. I can’t calm my heart down, though. It’s beating to break my ribs.
She’s back.
“No,” I finally manage. “I was not aware.”
“Did you even know she was back in town?” Heavy asks. There’s hollering in the background. Quick-talking. A woman screeches. A fight’s brewing.