Blaze nodded. “Smooth. Come in. Have a beer or something.”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure."
"You just drop MacKenzie off at the airport?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Shit man," Blaze said. "That's fucking rough."
I nodded. "At least we got her on a direct flight out of LAX. Couldn't get her anything direct out of Vegas. Didn't want her trying to navigate airports by herself, even with a flight attendant or whatever the hell." I answered him like he was just talking about the travel itself being rough. That wasn't what he was fucking talking about, and I knew it. But I didn't want to talk about how rough it was that my kid was going to be far away because I wasn't a good enough dad.
"April's mom seemed like a good lady," Blaze said. He was trying to make me feel better.
It wasn't going to work.
I followed Blaze inside the mostly empty clubhouse, a handful of brothers watching a game on the TV. I stared at the concrete floor still stained this ugly rust brown color, where the residue from Mad Dog still remained.
Blaze saw me looking at the floor. “Yeah, I kept it like that,” he said.
“The cops never…”
He shook his head. “No real investigation. They came by asking a few questions, but that was it. We made the bodies disappear. With Benicio's help.”
“What about Kate?” Mad Dog's wife had been just as involved in his shit as he had been.
“I took care of her,” Blaze said. His features tightened and his gaze became intense.
"You did?" I asked.
Blaze nodded. "Personally."
Blaze was pretty easy-going, tolerant of a lot of bullshit. People sometimes made the mistake of interpreting his laid-back attitude as indicative of weakness. But you only crossed Blaze once. He took shit like that real personal. I had no doubt that Kate's treachery was met with an appropriate degree of vengeance from Blaze.
“Crunch,” Knuckles yelled. “How the hell are ya, you rotten old bastard?” He walked up, hand extended. I took it to give it a firm shake and found myself wrapped up in a bear hug. I couldn't help but smile, knowing that some things really did always stay the same. Knuckles was one of those guys who would never change, gregarious to the point of obnoxious, perpetually in need of a shower, and the first to throw a punch if shit was going down.
He dropped me and I nodded. “I’m okay, Knuck. How’s the family?”
“Oh, you know,” he said. “Same old. Cassie got a boyfriend.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, she told me it was none of my fucking business.” He laughed. “Can you believe that shit? Sixteen years old. I had a little chat with the boyfriend. Surprised he stuck around. What the fuck man, you been working out? Looks like you’ve been in fucking lock-up or something.”
“Yeah, been working out.” I didn’t add that it was about the only thing that kept me from losing my fucking mind anymore.
I turned to Blaze. "How's Dani?"
"Good," he said. "She's doing great in law school. Told her she'd better be doing good. She'll probably have to defend my ass one of these days."
"Here?" I asked. "Or is she still at Stanford?" I should know these things. The old me would have known these things.
"UCLA," he said.
"That's good." I was silent. Blaze and one of the other guys made idle chit-chat and I looked around, detached from the whole thing. I didn't recognize some of the newer patches, and the whole place had a different flavor since I had left. It was kind of like going back to visit your parents after years away-everything was the same, but it was all different.
It definitely didn't have the same vibe it had when Mad Dog was running the show, but that last year with Mad Dog in charge everything had gone to shit anyhow. The whole place had been out of control crazy, parties all the time, drinking, drugging. It hadn't just been me that was out of control. The whole fucking club was. This, now-it was more subdued somehow. The guys sitting around, relaxed, watching the game. It was more...normal, I guess.
One of the brothers, someone who had been patched since I left, walked up to me, held out his hand. "Hey, man," he said. "You're a fucking legend around these parts. Nice to meet you."
"A legend, huh?" I repeated the word slowly. "I'm not sure why."
A kid, one of the prospects, stood a few feet away, obviously eager. "Hammer," he said, nodding. "They've been calling you Hammer. Why are you riding up here in a cage, man?"
I felt blood pumping in my ears, and my face was immediately hot. Some stupid prospect without a filter and a shred of common sense wanted to run his mouth? Retired or not, I was going to fuck this kid up. "You want to find out why I'm riding in a cage, you stupid fuck?"
My fist clenched, my feet shifted, and then Blaze yelled, "Shut the fuck up, Prospect! No one said you could fucking talk. Thatcher, get in here and take care of your goddamn prospect."