Betraying the Biker

1 Wolf IT’S TRUE WHAT they say about the past coming back to haunt you. And repercussions are not something a young, cocky punk considers while performing dipshit moves in their youth. I’m not going to lie, it’s a wonder that I never caught an STD or had dozens of baby mamas filing for child support in Jensen. It was also a wonder that I’d never ended up in jail being such a numbskull. Some of the early s**t I’d pulled, hell, even I thought I deserved to be locked up. Of course, I wasn’t exactly a free man these days. I was doing a different kind of time—taking care of my older brother’s daughter, Phalen. I was all she had and the f**k if I’d let the state put her in foster care. Not when it was me who’d made her an orphan in the first place. “Uncle Caden, my room is this way,” Phalen said pulling me by the hand down the hallway of her elementary school. I had a meeting with her second-grade teacher, Ms. Parker. Apparently, she had some concerns about Phalen and wouldn’t tell me anything over the phone. I winked at a hot blonde locking up one of the classrooms. They didn’t make ‘em like that when I was growing up. Smiling, she eyed us curiously. “Hi, Phalen. Is this your dad?” “Hi, Ms. Buchanan. He’s my uncle.” The teacher’s eyes twinkled. “Hi, Uncle.” “Hi, Ms. Buchanan,” I replied back. Phalen looked up at me and whispered. “She’s my music teacher.” Imagining those sweet lips wrapped around my flute, I bit back an evil grin. “Lucky you.” “She’s nice.” I glanced back at the teacher, admiring the sway of her hips as she headed away. “Yes... she... is... ” Phalen, who was eight and already an extremely smart kid, laughed at me. She understood my sense of humor. “You’re silly.” Biting back a smile, I gave her an innocent look. “What do you mean?” She rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand again. “Come on.” I chuckled. When we arrived at the classroom, I noticed the lights were off. “Ms. Parker?” Phalen peeked into the room and then looked up at me, worried. “Oh no! She’s not here. Maybe she forgot?” I sighed. This was my fault. I’d left the clubhouse later than planned and had gotten stuck in traffic. f*****g rush hour. “Sorry, chiquita. Looks like we must have missed her. We just got here a little too late.” Phalen groaned. “So, we’re leaving?” “Nope. You’re not getting off that easy,” a woman said behind us. Phalen’s face lit up. “Ms. Parker!” I turned around and stared appreciatively at the woman standing behind us. Long, fiery red hair down to her waist, big green eyes, and the kind of smile that lit up a room. Damn. First the blonde and now this stacked beauty in her blue, flowy, boho-style dress and black ankle-strap sandals. I’d have never left the second grade if I’d had teachers like this. Ms. Parker approached us. “So, who did you bring with you, Phalen? Is this the uncle with the motorcycle you’ve been talking about?” Phalen nodded. “Yes. It’s loud, too.” I chuckled. “Kind of like me, huh, chiquita?” “Especially when you watch football and yell at the TV.” She looked at the teacher, her expression serious. “He gets really mad when the Chicago Bears lose.” She laughed. “A lot of people do.” I asked her if she was a football fan. “Actually, no. Not really.” Studying my face, her eyes suddenly widened. She stared at me like she’d seen a ghost. “Oh, my God. It’s... you.” I raised my eyebrow. Do we know each other? I didn’t recall hooking up with her and doubted she wasn’t the type to hang around the clubhouse. Nor did I recall doing any business with her. I managed Wolf’s Den, a g*n shop I’d inherited from my old man. My gut told me that she’d never stepped foot inside of the place. Trying to think back, I studied her face, noticing the cute patch of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Yeah, drunk or sober, I’d remember if I’d seen her before. “I’m sorry, we’ve met?” Looking embarrassed, she removed her eyeglasses. “Yes. It’s been ten years, though. We went to camp together. I didn’t wear glasses back then.” The memories came back all at once, knocking the wind right out of me. No f*****g way. Sage Parker. How in the hell had I missed that? The last time I’d seen her had been at Bible camp. My mom had forced me to go, hoping it would tame my hell-raising a*s. I’d been a lippy, f**k-everything, troublemaking, seventeen-year-old shithead. Sage had been the soft-spoken, innocent bookworm who’d ignored me enough to make it a challenge for her not to. I’d spent the entire week trying to impress her, and it wasn’t until the last couple of days that my efforts had finally paid off. Big time. My gaze brushed over her again. She’d gone from pretty to f*****g gorgeous. This blew me away. It took everything I had to keep a cool composure. Part of me wanted to pick her up and twirl her around the room. Like the idiots in old movies. Bad-assed Gold Vipers didn’t do that, though. We had our reputations to uphold. “Wow, Sage. Small world.” She nodded. “Yeah.” We stared at each other, so many unspoken words hanging between us. Although we’d only had a week together, she’d been the first girl I’d felt something for. Hell, who was I kidding? Sage had gotten under my skin and I’d wanted more than a week with her. I thought she had, too, but I’d been wrong. Sage was from the northern suburbs, where the money was. Her parents had been filthy-rich snobs who barely let her out of the house, let alone hang out with a guy from the other side of the tracks. I’d learned that the hard way. After camp let out, and a couple days of texting and promising to meet up, she stopped answering my messages. It hadn’t made any sense, so I’d tried driving to the suburbs to speak to her. Unfortunately, she’d lived in a gated community and the security guard had sent me on my way. Of course, that hadn’t stopped me. The next day I somehow managed to slip past the security booth only to be turned away by Sage’s asshole dad. I could still remember the look in his eyes and the sneer as we stood facing each other. “Can’t you take the hint, son? She’s not interested. In fact, she’s on a date right now with another guy. Someone who’s going to make something out of his life.” That had pissed me off. “You don’t know anything about me,” I’d replied, trying not to be intimidated by the asshole, although it had been hard not to. Back then I’d been a skinny punk and her father had been a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers. “I know all about your family and your association with the Gold Vipers.” He looked at my rusted-out Chevy Impala. “Now get back into your car and leave before Sage gets home with her boyfriend. You’ve made a fool out of yourself enough already.” Needless to say, I hadn’t stuck around. “I suppose we should get started.” Sage walked into the classroom and switched the light on. Meanwhile, Phalen skipped into the classroom and showed me where her desk was. “I used to be in the back, but Ms. Parker moved me up front yesterday,” Phalen said. I wondered if she needed glasses. “Really, to make it easier to see?” “No, because of Dylan. He’s afraid of me. So is Josh, his friend. They sit back there,” Phalen explained. Smiling, I looked at Sage, who didn’t appear to be amused. “Afraid, huh?” Sage looked at Phalen. “Honey, why don’t you go over to the computer station and play some games while I talk to your uncle?” Phalen’s eyes lit up. “Okay.” She raced over to the corner of the room where an outdated PC was set up. She sat down, put the headphones on, and began clicking away on the keyboard. “Wow, she looks pretty comfortable there,” I said, watching Phalen. “I had no idea she knew how to use a computer.” “We have computer lab hour in the media room, across the hallway. The children work on math skills and take many of their tests online now.” “Huh. Interesting.” She smiled and it seemed strained. “Why don’t we have a seat and talk about why I’ve called you here.”