Vinny’s laugh filled the cab, pushing a smile onto Sasha’s lips.
“Is it weird,” Sasha asked, stealing the cigarette from Vinny’s mouth, “having your brother back around?”
“Sort of. Dez is crashing at my place for a few days until he gets set up. That’ll be weird. I got used to living alone.”
“You should tell him to beat feet. He treated us like shit when we were younger.”
“Yeah right. He’d probably kick my ass then take my room.” Vinny smirked, but a hint of fear shined through.
“Dez does have a mean right hook.” Sasha peered across the cab, frowning.
“Yeah.”
Brakes whistled as Vinny steered off the highway and onto their ramp. They merged onto a skinny road, heading up into the hills, and he sighed. “I can’t wait to get out of this truck. My ass is numb.”
***
The sweet smell of sticky bud wafted from the clubhouse, and Sasha closed her eyes, inhaling the scent deeply. Vinny stood beside her, leaning against the front bumper of the semi to join her in staring at the rowdy swarms of people trampling their clubhouse.
“Weed,” Sasha said, stretching as she walked toward the voices that flowed over loud music.
Two men burst from the front door, tumbling down the porch steps while locked in a backwoods brawl. Sasha steered her gaze from flying fists and spurts of blood, looking at Vinny. “One in the morning and it’s still jamming. Here, gimme the keys.”
“Sweet. I gotta take a leak.” Vinny thrust the keys into Sasha’s palm and squeezed his way inside the clubhouse.
Sasha stepped around the bloody men on the ground and pushed through the growing crowd. She wasn’t even two feet inside when her mother waved her over. Tiny leather skirts and near nonexistent tops surrounded Sasha, yet somehow she managed to walk through the room with her eyes high.
“It’s all good,” Sasha said, handing the keys to Otis and reaching for her mother’s joint. “Felix says hi.”
“I doubt that.” Ellen yanked her hand away, blocking Sasha from the roach in her fingers. “Felix hates me. Always said—”
“You weren’t good enough for his brother from another mother. I know. I’ve heard it.”
Ellen snickered, passing the joint to Otis.
“Hey, Sasha, will you give me a hand unloading?” Otis asked between hits.
“Shit. I just got back, man.”
Otis held out a tiny smoking stub of a joint. “Please.”
“All right,” Sasha said, as if she could deny a request from her road captain. “Just give me twenty minutes to get my head on straight.”
As Sasha walked from the clubhouse, Dez caught her eye. He sat on the small couch, a cute blonde under each arm. Sasha slowed her steps, listening as she passed.
“My fist shattered the whole side of this guy’s face. That’s why they gave me seven years, but overcrowding…”
Sasha stopped short, her glare shooting to Dez. He flinched and she recoiled, then rushed out the door. She almost made it off the porch when Dez called out from behind her. “Sasha!”
“What!” Sasha spun on her heels, staring straight into Dez’s eyes.
Dez strolled into the doorway, smirking as he leered down at Sasha. “You know how shit was handled in the old days, when two club members wanted the same position?”
Chatter lulled to a hush around the compound, and Dez raised a brow. He waited for something, Sasha to argue or maybe throw a punch, but she kept her lips shut and her face blank.
“They had to slug it out,” Dez said, the words carrying chills. “I say we settle this the old-fashioned way.” He lifted his arms at his side, and his stare locked on her face. “If you can drop my ass, the spot’s yours.”
Beside the echo of music, a stillness clutched the air. Her gaze never left his, but she could feel a hundred other eyes on her. Without a word, Sasha turned and walked to her little room above the garage.
***
Otis revved the engine of a rumbling semi as Sasha hurried down the stairs. Twenty minutes was not enough. One could only suck down two joints in that time, and she needed far more narcotics to regain normal operational status. Her eyes kept to the gravel as she walked to the idling semi, ears blocking out whispers. She should be fuming. Cartoon smoke should be streaming from her every orifice, but it wasn’t. The fact that she wasn’t angry bothered her more than the humiliation. The piece of her that harbored dignity must have shattered. That, or she was just too numb. Either one would get her eaten alive.
After climbing back in the truck, and once they left the compound, Sasha turned to face Otis. “So what’s this really about?”
“What’d you mean?”
“You don’t need help unloading. There’s a forklift at the warehouse.”
Otis glanced at Sasha, his eyes stern. “Candy’s got loose lips.”
“So I’ve heard.”
The chuckle that flowed from Otis’s mouth twisted Sasha’s stomach, and that lovely visual of Candy going down on him popped into her mind.
“That’s not what I mean.” Otis shifted into seventh gear, glaring at her again. “She talked about you, a lot, the way a chick talks about a dude she’s into. Except you’re not a dude. No matter how hard you try, you can’t change what you are.”
A light shiver quaked Sasha’s shoulders, but she couldn’t tell if anger or fear was the culprit. “And what am I?”
“Just a little girl who likes to play with all the other little girls.”
Sasha moved back until her side hit the door. Fear. The shiver was caused by fear. “What are you gonna do?”
“What? You mean, like, tell Ellen?”
When Otis looked at Sasha, she nodded as words failed.
“Nah. Ellen would throw you in the cellar this time. I don’t want to see you hurt. That’s why I nominated Dez.” His hand fell to her knee, and he squeezed. “You have some tough choices to make, kiddo.”
“I know what I want,” Sasha said. She’d spent many nights pondering her choices. “The club is all that matters to me, my whole life. I just wanna do right by you guys. You’re my family.”
Otis rubbed Sasha’s leg before releasing his grasp. “Then you better straighten up, if you know what I mean.”
“No more of that shit,” Sasha said. “Women, men, fuck all that. It’s just club business from now on.”
“That’s not gonna work either.” Otis parked beside the warehouse, cutting off the truck’s engine. “Club members have fun. If you’re not having fun, Ellen’s gonna know something’s up.”
“So, what? I just slut around until I find the magic cock?”
Otis snickered, turning to face Sasha. “Maybe. I got one right here you can try.” He grabbed his crotch, grinning.
“You dirty old man,” Sasha said in an even tone.
“Old.” Otis’s hand dropped from his lap, his smile fading. “I’m only thirty-eight.”
***
A hush had claimed the compound by the time they returned. Otis climbed from the semi and into his pickup. After a quick nod, he drove off, leaving Sasha alone in the empty lot.