“He’s surviving, but it’s not like he’s walking around town wagging his dick at anyone who looks at him wrong. Without Trigger around, people think they can play.”
“Nick learned,” I say, finishing my beer and waving for the waitress to bring me another one. “He learned in a real public way too. We dumped him on his old lady’s lawn and she wailed loud enough for us to hear her a block away. People know better now.”
“For now,” Joker sighs, tapping his fingers on the table. “For today, they fear the club. Tomorrow, they wonder if they can do shit better.”
Pax shrugs. “We’ll keep our bats ready.”
Joker smiles, but he looks tired. “Lucky is coming home and he’s got a girl with him. I figured he’d lost his mind bringing his whore to Little Memphis, knowing Jenn’s temper. He claims the girl’s a kid, not a fuck. He’s doing her a favor. Spreading love and harmony. I guess Lucky’s gone soft in his old age.”
Yawning, I stretch my arms as high as I can to work out a kink in my back. “Aren’t we all?”
“Fuck off, gramps,” Pax says, standing up. “I’m finding a girl before the only choices are Livie and whatever the hell that thing in the corner is.”
“That’s a dude,” Joker mutters, grinning wide now. “I hear he’s got magic hands.”
Pax glares at Joker, but he isn’t going to fight the VP. Loving to break shit and cause trouble, he’ll fight with anyone. Pax even went as far as to start a grudge match with a neighborhood cat that howls in our backyard.
Yeah, Pax loves to fuck with people, but he isn’t looking to die. Despite Joker’s easy vibe, he’s killed people for less than whatever stupid thing I know Pax wants to say.
After Pax walks off to find a girl, I size up Joker. “How much blood do you think we’ll spill until Trigger’s back?”
“Rivers,” he says, running a beefy hand through his thick red hair. “If Trigger doesn’t get his heart working right or I move up a slot, we’re talking the Mississippi River of blood, Slugger.”
“Works for me,” I mutter, standing up and stretching again. “When things slide smooth for you, I get bored. Rivers of blood though will mean I keep busy.”
5
Shay
Trucker Hats and Poodle Skirts, Oh My!
At two in the morning, we stop in a little town off the highway where Lucky gets a room with two beds. He never makes a move for me and I sleep pretty well for being in a strange room with a strange man. I don’t dream. I sleep guilt-free. The feeling doesn’t last.
Lucky sits inside a small Denny’s while I call my mom. She isn’t really awake and doesn’t understand why I’m not home. Is Lucky my boyfriend? Are we coming back? Will he be moving into the apartment? This last question tells me she isn’t thinking straight. Our two bedroom apartment barely fits the four of us.
Donny Junior talks to me next while Mom makes coffee. He understands better and I know he’s scared. Our mom is a gentle woman, but she sucks at parent stuff. Homework, permission slips, clean clothes, bedtimes were things that didn’t interest her. She’s never gotten up in time to take Donny or Devin to their first days of school. I’ve walked them to school and was there to pick them up. Always reliable, I’d ditched them on a whim.
After hanging up? I return to the restaurant where Lucky waits. He doesn’t mention my red, wet eyes. He doesn’t say anything until our food arrives and he’s dumped half a ketchup bottle on his eggs and hash browns.
“I was a geeky kid,” he says in a rough morning voice. “Scrawny as fuck. I got my ass kicked a few times, but life ain’t a Stephen King book where the bullies hunt you down and knife you and shit. I was just ignored. Even the ugly girls didn’t want to date a guy like me. They’d rather drool over the jocks who don’t want them.”
Blowing on my coffee, I focus on Lucky’s voice. Even calming, I’m haunted by Mom’s confusion and Donny’s fear.
“I didn’t get laid until I was nineteen. My first time was a pity fuck too. You know why I’m telling you this?”
When I shake my head, Lucky gives me a little grin. “One day, I left my shitty hometown and visited a friend in Blairsville. She was a girl from high school and wanted cheap labor fixing up her house. I had nothing going on in Hawthorne and I needed a change. Hell, if I didn’t get one too.”
Lucky pauses to eat a few mouthfuls of eggs and hash browns. “I bulked up those months working on her place. Less geeky kid, I suddenly had people paying me attention. After I fixed up the girl’s place, I decided to stay in town. Started working at a gas station for extra cash.”