Steel Knights Prequel

Chapter 2

Random hookups and murder were among my least favorite reasons to leave home, but heading to Motors and Mayhem, the half-chop shop, half-pool hall home base of the Unchained Dogs Motorcycle Club was among my favorites. I’d been in the club for about seven years, and it was one of the few places in Rumble that brought me any peace. The sounds of bikes being worked on were like music to my ears, all while playing a game of pool and enjoying a glass of brandy.

Perfect.

“Hey, there he is. A Phantom in the night,” Brady “Gearhead” Pietro grunted as I walked in. “They found that one Brutus guy dead in his car. Know anything about that?” I walked right past him, doing my best to ignore him although he was damn near seven feet tall with long, gray hair falling down half his body. He laughed. “That’s Luther’s Phantom for ya. You never see him coming.”

I plopped myself down on one of the barstools at the bar along the back wall that sat perfectly half in the white, tin wall side of the establishment dedicated to the chop shop, and the other half in the dark brown, wood panel walls that made up the pool hall. Rock music filled the place at the moment, but there were a handful of people standing on the stage fiddling with instruments and preparing for a live set.

“Hey, Kitty,” I greeted the thin bartender with chocolate skin and a short, black bob haircut. “A brandy please.”

“You got it, C.J.,” she replied. “How’s Caid?”

“Good. Sleeping when I left.” Kitty slid me the drink along with an envelope, inside of which was likely my pay for the kill. It wasn’t unusual for Luther to pass payments through Kitty because she was discreet and trustworthy. “Three grand,” she confirmed. I stuffed the money into my pocket and then lifted my glass in a toast to nothing before throwing most of the brandy back in one long swig. Three grand for a kill wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t the fifty k I needed for Caid’s treatment.

“Where’s Luther?” I asked.

Kitty nodded toward a door in the back corner of the pool hall and didn’t need to say anything else. It was Luther’s private workshop where he worked on his bike… among other things. Almost as if on cue, the loud whir of a power saw filled the air, followed almost immediately by a blood-curdling scream. No one even batted an eye at the sound. The bikes were the Motors, and Luther was the Mayhem.

Kitty popped out one hip and balanced her arm on it. “Think the poor bastard was a runner for the Steel Knights.”

My eyes shot over to the door and then back at Kitty. “Really?”

“You don’t believe that?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Swirling around the ice in my glass, I imagined those few people I knew were members of the Steel Knights. “Do I think any one of ’em is dumb enough to come wandering into enemy territory all alone? No.”

“I wonder what it’s like in Hoppa,” Kitty said. “You ever been?”

An image of my small, rundown childhood home swam into my mind’s eye. “Nope.”

Kitty nodded over my head. “Your friend is making her way over.”

I raised an eyebrow. “The woman I left with last night?” Kitty nodded. “Do you remember her name?”

Kitty shook her head. “Men,” she scoffed. “Jess.”

“Jess!” I set my hands together in gracious prayer for the nosy bartender. “Thank you.”

Moments later, Jess was settling down onto the barstool next to me. Her hand landed casually on mine and she stroked the back of it while her blue eyes bore into my own. “Hey there.”

Kitty wandered off and I turned and looked Jess up and down. She was wearing a sinfully short black skirt and a white tank top that showed off her perfect breasts. “Hey.”

“You skittered off so quickly this morning, I didn’t get to show you my best asset.”

“Oh really?” I replied. “What exactly did I miss out on?”

Jess looked to her left and right, and then hopped off the barstool and dragged me with her. I relented, letting her pull me through the crowd of patrons and down the hallway behind the bar that led to the offices and bathrooms.

My lower half was already reacting to the impending attention as she pushed against the door to the men’s restroom and led me in, pushing me into the first stall we hit. I didn’t argue as she crouched down in front of me and her hands smoothed up my legs until they got to the button of my jeans.