Chapter 22
(Saint)
Beneath the Stars
“I can’t remember the last time I went camping for the fun of it,” Night said as he helped Saint erect the six-person tent while Sinn got the fire going despite Saint telling him they’d take care of that too. The look on Sinn’s face, half frustration and half pissed the fuck off, had made Saint take a step backward, while Night chuckled and raised an eyebrow at him.
Okay.
Damn.
That look had served as a silent reminder that Saint was infringing upon Sinn’s fiercely guarded independence, again, and to tread carefully unless he wanted to spend the night on the wrong side of the tent flaps.
Message understood.
“Long as I’m in a tent and not under a guardrail, I love being out here,” Saint admitted.
“I’m sensing a story there,” Sinn called from where he stood carefully adding a log to his kindling.
“Same,” Night chimed in.
Saint snickered as he pounded the last of the stakes into the ground. Unless the sky unleashed an unexpected deluge on them in the night, they wouldn’t be in any danger of a tent collapse.
“Wouldn’t call it much of a story. More like a brief comedy act punctuated by hours of uncomfortable accommodations,” Saint admitted.
“Stop fuckin’ around and tell us,” Sinn demanded. “And it better be funny with how long it’s taking you to get to the punchline.”
“Ever see a piston sticking out of a crankshaft?” Saint asked.
“Nope, and I don’t wanna either, especially not on my bike,” Night replied.
“Yeah well, Beaver wasn’t so lucky,” Saint explained.
The questioning look Night shot him served as a reminder that the tale he was alluding to had taken place long before his, or Sinn’s time with them.
“Beaver doesn’t ride with us anymore, but back when he did, he was infamous for breakdowns and crackups,” Saint explained. “I can’t recall a single run when something didn’t fly off his bike. His sideview mirror whipped past a prospect’s head one night at eighty miles an hour. If it had hit him, there would have been nothing left for the EMTs to do but scrape him up off the asphalt and carry him away in a body bag.”
Sinn let out a long whistle while Night muttered holy shit.
“We were on our way down to Tampa when the piston incident happened,” Saint explained as Night got the air pump started and began blowing up the mattress they’d brought along.
Twenty years ago he’d have scoffed at the idea of using one, but these days he saw no reason to be uncomfortable when he didn’t have to be.
“White smoke started pouring out of his tailpipe, blinding me and Rabbit, since we were the idiots riding behind him,” Saint explained. “I’m still not sure if he hit me or I hit him, but the whole mess resulted in three disabled bikes and the two of us pickin’ rocks out of our flesh while we waited for help, which didn’t get to us until morning. Turns out the support vehicle blew a tire and didn’t have a viable spare. Talk about a clusterfuck. We were in the middle of nowhere with too many pieces to carry, drag or push, so we just bedded down behind the guardrail with our bikes in front of it and hoped for the best.”
“And you actually fell asleep that way?” Sinn asked.
“Eventually.”
“I’d have had to opt for the nearest field or something,” Night admitted.
“Not in Florida you wouldn’t have,” Saint said. “Between fire ants, scorpions, and cottonmouths, I’d have slept in the road if it wasn’t for the occasional semi.”
Sinn had the fire going by the time they finished arranging the mattress and sleeping bags inside, and soon joined them in the sprawl of soft material while they waited for the Dutch oven containing their dinner to heat up. Saint waited for them to get settled before finally sharing what had been on his mind all day.
“Guys, I’ve been doing some thinking about the whole living arrangement back at the house and it isn’t working. I hate seeing my brother and Kat look so heartsick over Teddy and as much as I’d like to choke the little bastard for being the cause of all this, he’s hurting too and I can’t help but feel like us getting our own place might be just the fix that’s needed to get things headed in the right direction,” Saint explained.
“You think they can patch things up?”
“Sixteen years is a long time to just toss in the trash like a wasted paper towel,” Saint said. “I know people do it all the time but I dunno, without us there I can see Teddy settling back down and behaving himself again.”
“Yeah, because he’ll have finally gotten his way when it comes to me,” Sinn muttered.
“You may have a point there,” Saint said. “And it doesn’t sit right with me after he sat on that license plate number when he knew Keegan could have traced it with ease, but you’ve already made him pay for that.”
“True enough.”
“For the record, I’m not looking to move us out just for them, it’s for us too. The vibe is toxic whenever you two are within ten feet of each other.”
“If he’d just get his head out of his ass,” Night grumbled.
“Let. It. Go.” Saint ordered. “There’s nothing more that can be done to him than what’s already been done. Sinn extracted his pound of flesh, which means you keep your hands off him, understood?”
“Yeah.”
“Good enough,” Saint said. “Now, Wreck told me there is a place a few doors up from him. If you want I’ll call the real estate agent and we can take a peek. The neighbors will probably gnash their teeth and complain here goes the neighborhood but they’ll just have to deal with it or move. Bellamy and Cody pretty much live there now so we won’t lack for our kind of company.”
“Fine, set it up,” Sinn snarled. “I hate being the cause of anyone’s misery, even Teddy’s.”
“Uh-uh, nope, let’s get one thing straight. Teddy is the cause of everything that’s happened to him and some of what’s been going on with that Scout kid too. If he’s going to keep hanging around, or heaven forbid, prospect, then he’s going to have to find himself another mentor because Teddy is fast tracking that kid right out the door.”
“I feel bad for him,” Night admitted. “He scoured the bar until it reeked of bleach which we all know was Teddy’s doing. He wanted to drive me out of there and make it so you couldn’t take two steps inside the door. I’m sure he never considered the effect it would have on others when he told Scout to clean the place that way.”
“I’m betting Teddy was the one who gave him the recipe for that punch he mixed up on club night too,” Sinn said.
“At this point Bellamy has zero patience for his mistakes,” Night said. “You should have heard him cuss Scout out in the kitchen the other night.”
“You know why, don’t ya,” Saint asked.
“Nope,” Night said.
“That kid went and plopped his ass in Wreck’s lap the other night and asked if he’d like to go on a wild ride with him.”
“Damn, that takes balls,” Sinn said. “Did Cody see.”
“Tried to yank him up offa Wreck but that little son of a bitch packs a mean left hook. He knocked Cody flat, then acted all butthurt when Wreck called him a troublemaker. That kid has a mouth on him. He said trouble was just another word for fun and that when it came to making trouble he only made the best kind. I think he was going for lewd with the move he tried to pull off to punctuate it, because he wrapped his leg around one of the support beams like it was a stripper pole and started to spin, but the whole thing fell flat when Cody shoved him. Scout wound up knocking a pitcher of beer into Rabbit’s lap, and Cassidy slipped in what spilled on the floor and wound up sprawled across a table. The kid is on permanent cleanup duty alongside Teddy and not allowed in the place until after it’s closed.”
“He’s lucky Rabbit didn’t gut him,” Night said.
Sinn chuckled at that. “No bull.”
“He couldn’t leave it at that, either and went right back after Cody until Creature snatched him up and dumped him outside. Little shit was leaning against the wall waiting for Cody to come out so they could finish fighting once the place shut down. Wreck finally just said let ‘em brawl which didn’t turn out the best for my nephew,” Saint admitted.
“Now that’s balls,” Sinn said.
“Yeah seriously. Whoever taught that Scout kid to scrap was serious about making sure he could defend himself,” Saint said. “Cody is going to be bruised up for a while and as long as he’s hurting, Wreck and Bellamy are going to be gunning for that kid’s blood.”
“It’s a good thing they don’t stay on grounds anymore then.”
“Exactly,” Saint replied. “And I’m hoping it proves to be just as good a thing for us. Here, check this out. I was able to pull up a listing for the house Wreck was telling me about, or at least, I think it’s the right house. It’s the right street anyway. Looks like there’s another one up the block from this one. Maybe we should look at ‘em both.”
“I think I’ll leave the looking to those of you with working eyes if you don’t mind,” Sinn said.
“Cut the shit, you’re coming too,” Night declared. “We’ll just describe them for you. There. Problem solved.”
“Please tell me that neither is multi-story,” Sinn said.
Saint clucked his tongue while he checked. “Mmm nope. Both are cottage style with fenced in backyards. Damn, it might finally be time to head down to the pound and put in an application to adopt. It’s been way too long since I’ve had a dog of my own.”
“Our own,” Sinn pointed out. “Because if we get a dog, we’re gonna need a California king with a dog extension, because no way is it sleeping on the floor.”
“Newsflash, we already need that Cal-king,” Saint pointed out. “Especially with a particularly persistent bed hog in our midst.”
“Persistence has nothing to do with it,” Night grumbled. “It’s more like insistent sprawling that doesn’t lessen no matter how many ways you go about pinning him.”
“I’m right here, ya know and my ears work perfectly.”
“And?” Night remarked, prompting snickers from Saint and grumbles from Sinn.
“Okay, so must have a master bedroom big enough for a Cal-king with dog bed extension,” Saint murmured as he read over the specs of the house. “En-suite bathroom is a must along with a two-car garage which will more than fit the four bikes we’ve got between us.”
“Just know that you will have to brush up on your knots if you ever try and stick me in that sidecar because I won’t ride in it willingly,” Sinn declared.
“Duly noted….weld in restraint posts so Sinn can ride all trussed up in the sidecar,” Saint remarked as he typed away on his phone.
“I swear on all you hold dear…” Sinn began.
“Which is the two of you,” Saint interrupted.
When Sinn started grumbling curse words, Saint knew he’d conceded defeat, at least temporarily.
“I love how he said the garage needed to fit the four bikes between us when he’s the only one of us with more than one of the damned things,” Night pointed out.
“Yeah, well I’d happily make it five, only the DMV frowns on driving blind for some reason,” Sinn said.
“Go figure,” Night muttered.
“And just when I was hoping to go for my license next year,” Sinn continued. “Guess I’ll just have to wait until someone invents a self-driving bike.”
“Oh hell no,” Night and Saint spat simultaneously.
“Its bad enough people are following little digital maps off cliffs, let’s not add bikes into the mix,” Saint declared. “Can you imagine roaring around on the back of a bike that’s being controlled by artificial intelligence when it suddenly decides not to turn control back over to you? Fuck that shit. At least in a car you can bail out, tuck n roll, and pray for the best. But on a bike you’re trapped by the whole balance issue.”
“Trapped in a car too, if the locks are automatic and won’t disengage while the vehicle is in gear,” Night pointed out.
“Son of a bitch, I forgot all about that.”
“I didn’t,” Night replied. “Which is the other reason I’ll never drive one.”
“Yeah and what’s the first?” Sinn asked.
“Cages man, once you’ve seen the world from the back of a bike, who wants to be trapped behind metal and glass?”
“Amen,” Saint said.
“Go fuck yourself,” Sinn grumbled.
“No one said you had to ride in one,” Saint pointed out. “You can cling to me forever.”
“When you put it that way…”
“Get over here,” Saint demanded, tugging Sinn on top of him and rocking their lower bodies together. “No matter what it takes, I will make sure you get to experience everything your heart desires as long as it’s in my power to make it happen.”
“Or mine,” Night added.
“Then I’ll be happy to cling to you both as long as you’ll have me,” Sinn said. “But you’ll still need restraints if you ever try to stuff me in that sidecar!”
“Challenge accepted,” Saint and Night replied simultaneously, the laughter to follow something Saint knew he’d cherish for years to come.