Page 11 of Race With The Devil

“You’re not going anywhere!” Gary roared. He must’ve broken the eardrum of whoever was on the other side of the call, if anyone. It was hard to believe he’d call the pigs and basically bust himself for molesting his underage stepdaughter. Of course, our submissive mother was nowhere to be seen.

Lytton, Knoxie, Roman, and Wild Man formed a box around us. We all shuffled up the walkway as one unit, like an elephant in a high school play. Lytton actually had removed his piece and was pointing it at Gary, but that didn’t stop his bellowing. Gary was accustomed to guns. He hung around pigs. I was surprised he hadn’t already brandished his Sig Sauer at the Bare Bones.

“Kidnapping, that’s what this is! You’re kidnaping my daughter and that’s a federal crime!”

Ford shouted, “And what sort of crime is it to rape your own daughter?”

There was a brief, horrible silence, just the sound of two dozen engineer boots scuffling.

Gary’s boorish voice broke the silence. “I did no such thing! Who’s claiming I did?”

Ford bellowed, “Sure took you long enough to answer that!”

Lyric yelled, “I’m saying it, Gary! You know what you did!”

Giving up on the pretense of calling 911, Gary advanced on us, fists white-knuckled. Peeking around Lytton’s back, I saw Gary storm so fast toward us he was leaning forward, like a guy going up a steep hill.

We shuffled faster.

Something blocked out the greasy sun of Gary’s crimson face. “You ain’t going nowhere,” said Tanner with authority. Tanner’s Southern drawl was much more pronounced, as though he hearkened back to a tougher, rougher time. “Embrace the suck, buddy. You want to go letching on someone, there’s your wife. Or plenty of ladies in town. You know how this plays out, pal. It’s not going to end well for you.”

“Attempted murder!” Gary cried in a much higher register now. “I’m going to get you motherfucking Bare Bones on attempted murder!”

“I’m not a Bare Bones,” growled Tanner.

We broke apart as we reached Knoxie’s ride, and I saw what had finally shut Gary the fuck up. Tanner had gotten ahold of a semiauto and was pointing the barrel directly at Gary’s forehead.

Hope surged afresh in me as we got Lyric situated on the bitch seat. Was this really going to work?

“Well then, who the fuck are you?” Gary’s voice was down a few decibels now.

“Sergeant Tanner Principato, Paws and Gauze squadron. Come and see me directly if you’ve got any issues with this.”

“Oh yeah?” Gary squeaked. Lamely, he added, “Well, we’ll fucking see about that!”

By now every neighbor in the hood was in their front yards, gawking and taking cell videos. Gary hadn’t been caught on film doing anything much, but Tanner couldn’t deny anything. He must’ve known that, yet he protected Lyric and the club anyway. Foolish pride swelled in me because I had ridden up with this fucking beast of a surly man. The club didn’t know him that well. I knew him better than any of them.

The unit of bikes roared off and Tanner backed off from Gary, allowing him to retreat back indoors. I headed toward Tanner, beaming from ear to ear. But Wolf Glaser got there first.

“That was epic!” he chirped. Deflated, I tagged along as we headed down the block. The men were preening in front of the neighbors. I waved cheerfully at a few I remembered. “You really went to bat for the club!”

“For Unity’s sister,” drawled Tanner. “I hate to see any creature abused. I have a feeling Knoxie and Bellamy will take good care of her.”

“Oh, they will,” I said, glad of the chance to insinuate myself into the conversation. “They can’t have kids, so any teenager will benefit from them.”

Wolf ignored me, bursting with admiration for Tanner. “You’re a fucking natural, Tanner! I’m not even going to ask you what you did to spend ten years in that shithole Arkansas prison.”

Arkansas prison? What the fuck? Tanner didn’t even look at me as he handed me my lid. He grabbed his own, which he termed a “dome of obedience.”

“Good,” said Tanner. “This isn’t really the time or place. Thanks for the loan.” And he handed Wolf the semiauto, grip first. Tanner definitely didn’t have that piece when we had ridden up. They must’ve made the split-second decision during all the hullabaloo.

“I’ll see you back at Unity’s place,” said Wolf. He stood so erect and proud, I was surprised his button “Forget the cowboy, ride a biker” didn’t pop off his cut.

Tanner poked a finger at Wolf. “For the training.”

“For the training.”

Tanner pointed at my bike, indicating I should get on. He had a strange way of never looking directly at me. Normally, shying away from men as I did, I would’ve liked that habit. Now for some reason I didn’t.

My cell buzzed. Slushy.

A bunch of Lavinia’s friends are searching the roads she might’ve driven if you want to go with them.

Instead of telling Tanner, I handed the phone to him so he could read it himself.

He nodded at the phone and handed it back. “Good. I somehow don’t think they’ll find anything but let them feel they’re being useful. We’ll go do some snooping around after I train Wolf. Meantime, you’re going to put some aloe vera on those cuts on your arm. I saw an aloe plant on the smoking patio at the Bum Steer. Just break off a piece and rub it on. Now the weight of that asshole has been lifted from you, you can start healing.”

“Okay,” I said meekly, an unusual stance for me.

All the way back to Pure and Easy, Tanner’s hands firmly gripped my hips. I became incredibly self-aware of my “curvy” figure, in that paranoid overly-conscious way that had driven me to cut, pierce, and ink myself. I paraded my figure brazenly for the camera because appearing bold and daring covered up my microscopic self-image. I’d feel naked and bared to all criticism without my knife cuts to distract people.

But somehow, with this calm, determined man next to me, I felt secure. He’d driven off Gary Gregario. He could drive off my demons.