The Lost Biker

Lucas I stepped out into the cold November morning, the weak sun was trying to get through the clouds. I took a deep breath in and exhaled, my first breath as a free man. Damn that felt good. I fumbled in my jeans pocket, the jeans I had last wore as a 19 year old kid. 16 years later they still fit, albeit a bit tight round the thighs. That’s prison workouts for you. I took out the crumbled piece of paper with the name and address on it. I looked at the name, Kim. All I could envision was a skinny little teenager with ratty hair and braces. She’d be in her 20s now. She was a sister of an old friend who agreed to let me stay at her place for a while. I needed to lay low, away from the place I had called home for the first 19 years of my life. The only life and place I had ever known. I could never go back there. Kim I put down the phone to Bobby. I was pissed!! Why did I agree to do this! I hadn’t seen Lucas Cane for nearly 17 years! I left that place to get away from everything, start anew. I loved my brother but didn’t love his lifestyle. He was a member of The Temple Red Motorcycle Club. It happened after both my parents died in a car wreck when we were kids. My Uncle Vinny who was the VP took us on and Bobby found a sense of family and belonging. I got it, he was 11 years old when our folks passed, he had no one. That’s when Lucas and him became like brothers. Lucas had grown up within the club, his Father was Prez so he’d been indoctrinated from an early age. Bobby found the family he had lost. I on the other hand struggled, I didn’t have a place. I was bookish and quiet, I didn’t have a lot of friends so I would lose myself in books , going into another world so far from my megre existence. Bobby always tried to include me with the club, but I wasn’t like the other girls. They were desperate to be an “ol’ lady” , just a piece of ass on a bikers arm. I was better than that and I told him so. Bobby was fiercely protective anyway. There wasn’t a role for females in the club, so there was no role for me. I loved Bobby but found myself distancing myself from him. By the time I was 25, I moved a couple of towns over and started my new life. During this time Bobby had slowly climbed the ranks to a patched member of the club. The club dealt with protection, but for a fee of course. They thought themselves as the law of the streets. Which resulted in blood shed and rival gangs/clubs, it got bad. I had to leave. My thoughts strayed back to Lucas, he’d be here any minute. Bobby had promised me there would be no danger to my door and it was only temporary. In the back of my mind, there was always that niggling feeling. Did he really do it, did he really murder those girls. Lucas. I looked up at the apartment before me. It was run down but a tall impressive building. I glanced around me seeing the many down and outs, a couple had taken refuge in the doorway. Did Bobby know his sister was living in this place? I don’t think I’d like my sister walking around these parts alone. I looked down at the crumbled piece of paper again to double check the apartment number. I looked down the long list of buttons and pressed number 224. “Hello?” He heard a sweet high pitched voice ring out from the tinny speaker. He hadn’t heard a voice like that in so long. “Hi, Kim? It’s Lucas” there was a pause for what felt like an hour but was only a minute “Come up” then a click and a buzz. I walked between the vagrants in the entry way, they didn’t even know I was there. I got in the elevator , I wasn’t even sure it was working but a loud rattling sound answered my question. I arrived at the door , took a deep breath and knocked gently. First I noticed the waft of feminine scent I didn’t know I’d missed when she opened the door, my breath caught in my throat. She was beautiful. The down cast eyes I remembered from teenagehood was replaced with direct big blue eyes looking back at me. Beneath those eyes he saw a straight noise and perfect white teeth smiling at him awkwardly , encased in lush full lips. Her perfect face was framed with long raven hair that reached to her tiny waist. She was incredibly petit, the top of her head probably reaching my collar bone. She was wearing tight jeans, which emphasised her shapely legs. I found it odd, how they looked so long in such a tiny statue. Her top half was covered by a pink sweater. It was fairly loose but I could just make out the curve of her breasts. I wished Bobby had warned me of little Kimmy’s growth spurt! She smiled and stepped aside to let me in the small apartment. “Hi Lucas, long time. Come through. Bobby should be here soon. Would you like a drink, I have beer I think” I could tell I made her nervous. I guess I’d changed from a skinny 19 kid to 35 year old man. I smiled softly to try to ease her nervousness. “Just coffee if you have it, I’m tee total. Haven’t drank for years and found I don’t miss it” she smiled in response and said she’d be right back. Kim Holy s**t! He was gorgeous! Where had the skinny kid with dark greasy hair gone. I remembered his motorcycle jacket looking huge on his slight frame as a teenager, his hair tucked behind his ears. I peeked out from the kitchen, he was about 6’5. He looked huge on my tiny second hand sofa. His long greasy hair was now shorter, it looked like ebony. He had the eyes to match, which showed a kindness I’d remembered seeing in him before. The sleeves of his white sweater was rolled up to show tattooed arms beneath broad wide shoulders. My thoughts went back to his skinny arms in his leather vest. I always thought his tattoos looked ridiculous on those arms. Not that i’d paid much attention to him and I was pretty sure he was the same with me. Although I remembered the time he came to my rescue when a couple of the Prospects were giving me a hard time. They didn’t know Bobby was my brother, if they had, that never would have happened. Lucas came up and told them to knock it off, even back then he was a force to be reckoned with. I remembered those kind eyes , although I was that scared I muttered my thanks and shuffled away. I poured his coffee, and put milk and sugar on a tray and carried it through. He smiled again and took the coffee “so Kim, wow! You’ve grown! You look great. Has life been good for you?” I laughed nervously, “I guess 16 years is a long time. I’m not that ratty little teenager anymore. Although speak for yourself. I guess you found the gym when you were.......” Should I say it?? “Away” I said pathetically. Lucas grinned “it’s ok, you can say it. It’s been a hard 16 years. I was lost at the beginning but I met some good guys in there ironically. They kind of took me under their wing and I trained with them” I smiled back shrugging “I guess it’s good you found a hobby? Do you think you’ll ever go back to Riverpark? “ His eyes darkened and looked so intently at me I dropped my gaze. I slowly raised my eyes to meet his again, his eyes had softened but had a sadness to them. “I can’t ever go back there Kim, which is why I’m so grateful to you for letting me crash. It’ll be a temporary thing, I just need to find my feet’ I couldn’t help but blurt out. “What are you running from?” He lowered his eyes and stared into his coffee, he replied softly “everything I’ve ever known”. Just then there was a bang on the door, Lucas jumped up, his eyes hardened. I gently touched his shoulder, “hey, it’s ok it’s probably Bobby” his shoulders relaxed and he did a small chuckle “sorry, I guess I’m a little jumpy. Make sure you look through the spy hole ok? “ I looked at him quizzically, why would I need to do that I thought but nodded and walked towards the door. I looked through the spy hole and sure enough there was my big brother. His blond hair tucked behind his ears, blues eyes staring intently at the door. The blue eyes were probably the only thing we shared. I opened the door to let him in, before he could give we a hello hug. I grabbed him by his leather jacket and hissed into his ear, “guest room, now!” . Lucas I sat down, my hearts beat returning to its previous calmer rhythm. I wish I hadn’t done that, now Kim is wary of her new guest and that’s the last thing I want. Who did I think it’d be, no one knew where I was apart from Bobby and Kim. I thought for a second, The Oaks wouldn’t know. I would never put anyone in danger, especially Kim who clearly just wanted out of the life, but at the same time I had to be realistic. There was a reason I had to lay low. The Oaks were a powerful rival club, they’d been around way before The Temple. My mind drifted back to 16 years ago, I was just a Prospect, trying to earn respect and live up to my families reputation as a serious club family. Unfortunately that involved getting into the wrong crowd along with my fellow Prospects Puck and Albie. It was petty s**t at first, selling joints and selling hot bikes, but then Puck started hanging with people from the drug underworld. People that The Temple had always protected people against. Puck found it exciting and harmless. We would sit and hang out with them at their drug den. Smoking and drinking, it was just normal guys stuff hanging out. But when the hard drugs came out. Me and Albie politely declined, we’d only smoked a little and drank, nothing major but Puck was into meth within weeks. Me and Albie kept our distance, especially when Puck got ousted from the Club for being strung out. Pucks new place was the drug den, it was sad. I’d see him in town and make idle chat but he wasn’t the Puck I’d grown to respect. He grandly said he was rising in the ranks in this new band of brothers he called family. Unfortunately this meant selling hard drugs and worse, selling girls. I looked the other way, if I reported it back to the Club, Puck would be in serious danger, but at the same time he was doing everything we were so against. The Temple weren’t saints, we dabbled in dealing but we would never sell girls. That to us was the lowest of the low, we even took in ex working girls so they had a place to stay with protection. So I thought I could maybe talk to him, give him a warning to get his s**t together, maybe I could talk the Club into giving him a job. I’ll never forget that night, the c*****e, the blood , the noise. I screwed by eyes shut trying to banish the images from memory. Images that had haunted my dreams every night since I was put away.