Chapter 19

(Saint)

More Pieces Snap into Place

“And who the fuck is this?”

Saint glanced up from his place at the end of the bar to see Kat glaring at Teddy and the unfamiliar brunette with an impressively colorful tattoo adorning the side of his neck. The newcomer had served Saint his drink with silent efficiency just a few minutes before, then gone right back to trailing Teddy, who’d been showing him where everything was kept.

“Scout.”

“And you brought him here because…” Kat asked, nails steadily tapping out a beat on the wood.

Her exasperation with him was showing, which was the last thing Saint wanted when he and Mark were still working out the best way to trap Teddy in the web of lies he’d been spinning for weeks.

“He’s in desperate need of a job, and we need new blood around here, considering we no longer have a prospect.”

“And just when did that aspect of club business concern you?”

As Teddy stood blinking and struggling to formulate an answer, Saint focused on Scout, who didn’t seem the least bit concerned about the atmosphere he’d found himself in. While Saint couldn’t be certain without seeing the rest of the tattoo, what he could make out was some kind of creature with more than one head. If it was what Saint thought it was, trouble on two legs had just swaggered around the side of the bar looking like he’d just stepped off the stage at a rock concert.

“Let me be clear on something, Scout,” Kat said, completely ignoring Teddy’s sputtered attempts at an answer. “Teddy does not recruit for this bar or this club. Bringing you here is another example of him overstepping his bounds, something we’re all rapidly growing tired of. Just about the only thing he got right is that we are in need of someone to clean up around the place. Looking at you though, I can’t see it being a good fit.”

“I’ve mopped a floor before.”

“And?”

“I don’t mind being a janitor if that’s the only job you’re hiring for.”

“Really, let me see your hands.”

Whatever she saw when she studied them left her lifting one eyebrow and appraising him in a slightly different light.

“Calloused and scarred. Shocking. And here I was thinking you were little more than a bit of eye candy.”

“I can be that too, if you need me to be.”

She laughed at that.

“If you’re trying to suck up, try harder. Instead of swaying my decision, you’re starting to piss me off,” she replied with a hint of a sadistic grin. Which of them she was having more fun toying with, Saint didn’t know at this point. Teddy might well have set his new friend up for one hell of a collateral damage incident.

“Will it piss you off less if I out and out admit that I’m every bit as desperate as Teddy said and then some?” Scout admitted.

“No, but it will make me ask how many applications you’ve put in recently and how many times you’ve been turned down?”

“Seven,” Scout admitted. “People don’t tend to like it much when I put down the campground east of town as my address.”

“I wonder why. Could it be because they don’t want to waste their time training someone who has the potential to up and vanish on them without a word.”

Her sarcasm was showing, and it was a grand and glorious thing, especially when Mark stalked through the room to stand behind her and rest his hands on her shoulders while he stared Scout down. Saint had to hand it to him, the guy didn’t flinch or look away.

“Who the hell are you?” Mark asked in the same tone Kat had used a few minutes before.

Saint snickered, then damn near snorted an impressively made Old Fashioned out of his nose when his brother glared his way. Too bad. It was downright amusing how many of each other’s mannerisms they’d assimilated over the years.

“Scout,” Teddy said.

“Scout got a last name or was that it,” Mark asked, while Kat’s eyes narrowed so much it looked like she was trying to shoot laser beams out of them.

“McKinley,” Scout said as he brushed a shaggy mop of hair out of his eyes.

“And what are you doing behind my bar, Scout McKinley?” Mark asked.

“Provin’ that I can bartend.”

“Are you old enough to bartend, ‘cause you look like you ought to be in a classroom, not fuckin’ around with a bottle of Bird Dog?”

“He’s legal, I can vouch for that,” Teddy said.

“With as shaky as the ground you’re on is right now, I don’t know if you ought to be vouching for a flea in a puppy mill, let alone bringing a whole ass person in here. You ever bartend before Scout?”

“Not officially.”

“He mixes a hell of an Old Fashioned though,” Saint remarked as he raised his glass in salute.

“He mix anything else yet?”

“Nope, I was just showing him where everything was when Saint asked for a drink.”

“Alright, let’s see how this plays out,” Mark said. “Scout, set me up with a Flamin’ Ba Jesus, a Crash Dummy, Liquid Cocaine, and the Knucklehead.”

“And you can get me a Titty Show, a Puckered Nipple, a Flaming Orgasm and a Flying Fuck.”

“Might as well make me a boilermaker, a Snake Bike, a Kamikaze, a Busted Shovel, and a Boston Bitch,” Saint tossed in.

“Teddy, you can sit your ass down and keep your mouth shut, I wanna see how he handles all that without you stickin’ your nose in.”

“But I still haven’t showed him where…” Teddy began, only to snap his mouth shut when Mark and Kat turned twin glares on him.

Scout still didn’t look ruffled and Saint watched with shocked intrigue as Scout quickly skimmed his gaze over the shelves, located the appropriate glasses and started pulling together the drinks.

“Looks like we’re all catching a buzz before four,” Mark said after checking his watch and beckoning for Teddy to come around and sit on their side of the bar.

Saint observed the efficient way Scout moved and the way he didn’t hesitate until he got to the Boston Bitch. He slid Saint his first four drinks, licked his lips, then flashed a flirty smile as he leaned against the bar in front of him.

“I know a bitch from Boston, but I’ve never heard of a Boston Bitch,” Scout said. “I can make it if you tell me what’s in it.”

“Nothing,” Saint admitted. “I was fuckin’ with you to see if you’d try to bullshit your way through it or own up to not knowing what the fuck it was.”

“Guess he passed that test,” Mark said.

“Pours a bit heavy though,” Kat grumbled over the top of her Flying Fuck.

“Sorry ma’am,” Scout said. “Heavy is the way my brother taught me.”

“Taught you a lot for someone who claims they aren’t an official bartender.”

“Because I’m not. Just a hang around who learned how to make himself useful.”

“Really, let me see that ink you’re sporting,” Mark said as he gestured to the tattoo on the side of Scout’s neck that had left Saint both curious and dreading what Teddy had invited through their doors. Sure as shit, it was a three headed hound spitting fire from the center head while it stood on a mound of old skulls and bones.

“Hang arounds don’t get ink like this.”

“They do if they earn it,” Scout remarked, tilting his chin up with what could only be described as pride tinged with arrogance.

“If you earned that then where is the patch that goes with it?”

“Unrequested.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?” Teddy interrupted. “He wasn’t kicked out of a club, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Among other things, like when you’ll learn to keep your mouth shut unless someone is talking to you.”

Once again, his words and the look he shot teddy produced sullen silence from the smaller man who’d been his longtime lover.

“I wasn’t a prospect,” Scout said. “My brother wouldn’t allow it. I hung out there when he let me, I jumped behind the bar when the club needed someone to sling drinks, and I did anything else they needed me to for as long as they let me be there.”

“Which ended when?”

“A couple of weeks ago.”

“Why?”

“My brother told me to steer clear because he had another job for me that they wouldn’t like.”

“And your idea of steering clear was to try and hook up with another club?”

“Look man, I didn’t even know this was a biker bar when Teddy brought me over here,” Scout said with obvious attitude Saint hoped he got in check before Mark snatched him up and booted him out the door. “I just need a job. You don’t want a prospect, fine with me. I’m good with that.”

“A prospect huh? Teddy what made you think this would be a good idea and where the fuck did you meet him?”

“Down at the Piggly Wiggly staring at the help wanted board,” Teddy admitted. “You’re always on the lookout for prospect material so I figured why not. He needs a job, he rides, and he’s been around clubs before. It sounded like a good enough mix that I thought you’d want to give him a shot.”

“And what, exactly does he ride?”

“She’s a bit of a rat bike but reliable as hell,” Scout said. “My brother and me put her together.”

“Same brother that ordered you away from his club?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you ever think that might have been for your own good?”

Saint turned at the sound of Night’s voice and gestured to the seat beside him, which Night took without another word. Scout blinked at the question, squared his shoulders, and shot Night a dirty look, hand twitching like he wanted to flip the man off.

“She parked outside?” Mark asked.

“Yeah.”

“Show me.”

Scout nodded and came out from behind the bar in weathered blue jeans to snatch a jacket off one of the stools he passed. It was about three sizes two big when he pulled it on. He was shorter than everyone but Kat, and only had her five-foot six frame beat by about two inches. Scuffed leather boots rounded out his attire and Saint caught sight of a chain running from his pocket to his beltloop, a medallion with a weird symbol hanging from one of the links. Saint followed Scout outside with Night at his side, Kat and Teddy trailing behind them. From the furious hiss of words being exchanged, Saint got the sense that Teddy was being chewed out again.

Outside, Scout led the way to an impressively assembled array of Harley parts, all from vintage eras. Mark said little as they walked around it, inspecting the pieces, but Saint could see his brother’s expression tightening into a pinched frown.

“Where’d you get the parts to put something like this together?” Mark asked once he’d examined it all.

“Scrapyard.”

Mark let loose a rough chuckle as one eyebrow shot up. “Okay, you’ve got me curious. Some of these pieces are next to impossible to locate. I should know. We’ve been hunting for at least three of them for months.”

“Guess I got lucky then.”

“Luck like that, maybe we need to take a little trip out to Vegas and see what else you can pull off.”

It was an odd thing, to see Scout glance down at himself then blush a little, like what they’d been talking about removing were his clothes.

“I’m not passing through, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m good with my hands, I know my way around motorcycles, and I work hard,” Scout said. “I’ll do whatever job you need me to do. I just really need the work.”

“He offered to be the janitor,” Kat added with a wicked smirk.”

“Really,” Mark replied, stroking his goatee. “In that case, you’re hired.’

“Shit, seriously, thank you,” Scout said, lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning. “I swear, you won’t regret it.”

“I better not,” Mark said. “Because if I do, that means bad news for you.”