Rough Trip

Chapter 1

1

3 years ago

It had been two years since the attack in Afghanistan. Sage had managed to get his life back in order and his head healed although he was left with a scar. His heart had never been able to fully recover from the loss. He still had the constant feeling that he needed to protect something, to fight for something. It had been the one thing he had been trained to do and that sort of training never goes away, even after everything he had been through. He had been in and out of security jobs until he had found Hamilton. Having the opportunity to join the Screaming Demons was not something he could easily just walk away from. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and he took it with both hands.

It was the first time Sage entered the Screaming Demons bar. He had no idea how well the meeting with Max would go. He wouldn’t walk into a place like that without doing his research first. He liked to be prepared. He liked to know who he was dealing with. And this place, the people who ran this place, were not people he wanted to be on the wrong side of.

The place had a rundown, old school look about it. The walls were half mahogany with bricks going toward the ceiling, generously lined with photographs that looked like they had been taken at least 30 odd years before, completely vintage looking. The light fixtures hung low from the ceiling, with dim bulbs to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere which suited the Screaming Demons perfectly. There was a large mahogany bar just off-center from the entrance that had ceiling to floor shelves filled with only the finest liquors around the world. The Screaming Demons had to have the best there was and Sage knew that. And although there were a few stools at the bar, the place had mostly booths that were covered in pure leather and detailed to perfection; each booth looked plush and extremely comfortable. The bar itself would never be filled to the brim but there would always be just enough people to make it buzz like a hornet’s nest.

Sage decided to take a seat at the bar as he waited for Hamilton who had gone to speak to Grier, and Sage had been ordered to wait for their return. He had thought about ordering a drink. A whiskey neat would be great but Sage knew better than to drink on the job. Also, he had laid off the booze for quite some time so it wouldn’t be smart to start as he was just entering a new job.

“Anything I can get for you?” the bartender asked as she approached Sage from across the bar.

“Oh, nothing for me thanks. I’m here for Hamilton,” Sage said.

The bartender who had fiery red hair nodded knowingly. “All right,” she said as she walked back to the other side of the bar.

“Sage, over here! Max is expecting you,” Hamilton shouted and the room went quiet. All the Demons watched as Sage slowly dragged his body across the room, passing all the Demons, toward Max’s office. He could feel each one of them, breathing down his neck, sniffing him, checking him out. He knew they couldn’t touch him. Not when he was there to meet their king. Not until he’d had a chance to prove his worth to their club.

“We could use a man with your skill,” Max coughed while pointing at the whiskey at the table. The woman next to him quickly poured him a glass and at the same time threw him a you-shouldn’t-be-drinking-this look.

“Just do what you’re told,” Max took the glass and signaled Sage to leave the room. Those words were for him as much as the woman. Max was an undeniable genius, he chuckled to himself.

Unlike the other Demons, his first meeting with Max was short and kind of sweet in that there was no bloodshed. Max was too exhausted to even look at him for another second. Maybe he didn’t care about the club anymore as he was dying. Maybe he trusted Hamilton, his judgment of character.

Either way, that was ancient history…

Now… he works for Fiona.

* * *

“What can I get you?” a female voice asked from behind him.

As Sage turned around, he saw a pair of brown eyes looking straight at him. The brown eyes glistened with mischief, and he sensed trouble. As he continued to examine the rest of the face he noted a head of short black hair, with slight flicks at the ends just meeting the female’s collarbone, freckles splattered across the bridge of her nose going slightly onto her cheeks and small, pixie-like ears popping out of the sides. Although her eyes were just brown Sage couldn’t help but be slightly captivated by them. They looked like pools of honey; he could probably get lost in them for hours and he knew that that could be bad news. It took him a while to bring himself back into the moment. He had almost lost track of where he was.

“Where’s Autumn?”

“She’s gone to a different chapter. I’m her replacement.”

“Since when?” Sage moved closer to the woman as if interrogating her. She moved even closer in response and he could now smell her perfume.

“Mmm… a few weeks ago,” Sage had been busying himself, pretending to sleep through the Wall Kats and the Hell Kats, he didn’t notice they had a new girl working at the bar.

“So what will it be, big guy?” she said with a cheeky wink, bringing him back to reality.

“And who are you exactly?” Sage asked. Danger, he thought to himself. He could already sense that she would be bad news for him if he were to get involved and the one thing he knew about himself was that he was never wrong. There had only been a few times where he didn’t listen to his instinct and he had learned his lesson.

“The name is Mia, but you can call me whatever you like, sexy,” she said with a cheeky grin that showed off a perfect set of white teeth.

He couldn’t help but smile at her little grin.

She oozed confidence and s*x appeal.

“You done with your questions?” Sage could tell she was part of the Hell Kats and he knew how they worked, a little too well. Messing around with the Kats was one thing, having a close relationship with one was another. He knew he couldn’t get too close.

“Don’t you have better things to do?” Sage asked. She hadn’t moved, she had taken a seat next to him at the bar and rested her head in her hands and stared at him while she leaned on the bar with her elbows.

“Well, I could be doing you but I think that’s still up for discussion,” Mia said with yet another wink.

Sage chuckled. “Someone is coming in hot.”

He would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t like her attitude. Although she came across as cute, or rather she looked cute, he could tell she had a bit of a feisty side. He liked it but he had to keep his head straight. He wasn’t here to get involved with anyone, he already knew how that could go. He had a job to do and that had to be all he focused on.

“I’m only matching the heat that’s radiating off of you,” she said. She seemed to have a sharp tongue and a quick mind.

“Do you have a handbook of sayings hidden somewhere?” he asked.

“I can’t help myself, you bring it out of me,” she replied.

“Haha, see you around,” Sage said as he saw Fiona call him over.

Sage had had to pop into the bar more frequently the more he worked for Fiona. Sometimes she’d send him there without her to get files from Grier.

He would be shadowed by Mia every time he went. She seemed to have taken a liking to him and she made it very obvious. And he hadn’t taken any interest in any other Kats since he saw her.

“So it’s another day, what can I help you with?” she asked the next time he was at the bar.

“You never quit, do you?’ he asked. He could have felt irritated by her constantly at his side but instead, he rather liked her following him around.

“Not when I want something,” she said. “And you’re something I want.”

“I’m not something you should want,” he said.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she replied.

Clearly, she would not give up any time soon.

Although Sage liked the attention she gave him, he knew couldn’t allow himself to feel anything for her. He would not allow himself to. The last time he had fallen in love he had lost it all and it had taken him a long time to recover from that. He could not put himself through that again, especially in this line of work; it was even more messed up than the army ever was. He still missed Laura every day and he could never see himself getting mixed up with anyone again.

Mia was fierce and beautiful; he definitely had thought about them together but he had to keep his distance. He could not risk getting his heart torn apart. After Laura had died, he could not put himself in a position to lose someone important to him again. It had taken everything he had just to survive after the attack, it had taken everything just to feel normal again.