For committing suicide, I believed I was going to hell, or was already there, as I saw her little hands reaching into the fire for me. I looked up and saw a little girl with green eyes, just like mine—
I jerked awake in a bedroom I had never seen before, lying on what appeared to be a queen-sized bed with an abundance of white-cased pillows under my head and around me. The room was inky blue. There were no windows, and I could almost feel the walls closing in on me. It felt like a dark cave. A trap. The only light came from a lamp on a long, dark brown dresser. There was a dark blanket over my legs, which seemed to be another shade of blue. I quickly kicked it off and scrambled backward over the pillows, almost crawling up the wall behind my head. The wall touching where I had been hit had me wincing in pain. “Shit.”
From a corner in the room, a soft female voice told me, “You’re okay. You’re okay. I’ll get Diesel.” Her little dark shadow rushed to the door. When it opened, there was loud music and a rowdy crowd of men nearby. As soon as the door shut, the sound faded to barely audible.
After pulling my hoody over my head, I slumped back against the wall, wondering where the fuck I was. I grabbed my chest to see if I was on fire because I could still feel the heat from Delilah’s engulfed car. My fingers not moving easily had me noticing my hand was bandaged up. The gas station’s mirrored glass has done a number on me. Although I guess it was me who had done a number on it.
The door opened, letting in light from a hallway, but closed after Diesel entered. “You’re finally awake.” He sat next to me on the bed. “Had me worried.”
I could smell liquor on his breath and grinned. “Not that worried.” He had been drinking instead of taking me to the hospital.
“Eh. No need for your drama. The Prez had you seen by a local doc. Besides,” he chuckled, “I can’t help it if everyone is excited to see them some el Diesel. Wanna party?”
“Nah, I don’t think so—”
“Great! Let’s roll.” Diesel yanked on my arm and dragged me up to my wobbly feet. The earth spun a little. Delilah would’ve had me in the ER by now. Diesel? Not-even-close. “You need some whiskey.”
I was dragged to the door. “Umm, I’m kinda dealing with a concussion right now.”
“Stop being a weak tit and pick your poison.”
As soon as we reached the end of the long hallway full of closed doors and toward the loud music, I was greeted with a room full of bikers, smoke, barely dressed women, and cheers. “Hey! There he is! To the new Prospect!” I was either joining a pack of vampires or Texans that liked to avoid the sun. The expansive room had no windows, but did have monitors on the upper part of every wall. On them were multiple views of what looked to be the compound surrounding the building.
Looking around, the walls were a light brown, once again recalling my thoughts of a cave. Parts of them even had cool looking rock. If I were a bear, this place would’ve been perfect for a long hibernation. There was soft lighting that matched the bar vibe. At the far end of the room were three pool tables and arcade machines. Pac-Man? Galaxy? These guys must be as old as Diesel. In a corner was a stripper pole that seemed to be movable. No joke. In the ceiling was a metal track that traveled to the middle of the room.
Along the wall to my right were several huge black couches and big comfortable lounging chairs, good enough to get a sound night of rest in. Also to my right were swinging doors that looked to lead into an industrial kitchen. To the left of the doors was a long bar with enough stools for any bar’s Happy Hour. The bottom part of the bar had the same rocks as some of the walls. Past the bar, to the left, was another hallway. Beyond the hallway entrance was a jukebox.
A fierce-looking man with an eye patch approached with his hand out. “Never have we had a ‘Prospect’ before ever even meetin’ him. Ya better be honored, kid. I’m Dagger.”
Feeling a little lost in some sort of alternate universe, I shook his hand. “I’m Ken—”
As if he were the bull in a herd of elephants that he had every intention of keeping in line, his hand tightened on mine and his arm curled to yank me to him. “Nope.” Our bent arms were the only thing separating us as he spoke in my ear. “You are now James Gunn Dalton.”
Talk about ripping the band-aid off with no warning. Dagger was preparing me for my new life, and the new leader in my life. My eyes found Diesel, only to see him raise his hands as if he was no longer in charge of me.
Air hissed from my lungs as shock tried to take over, but what that shock didn’t know is I had just met someone strong enough to take charge of me until I was strong enough to stand on my own.
Not releasing me in the slightest, Dagger added, “I’m your VP. You do as I say. Kenny is gone. You’re now home.”
Was it harsh? Even brutal to my senses? Maybe, but you can’t ride a roller coaster that’s only half on the tracks. It will crash and burn. I had to be secure and buckled—grounded to my new life—for it to work.
With that, I did my best to swallow forming tears and surrendered and slowly bobbed my head while closing my eyes. I let Dagger take the lead. I may not have had much of a choice, but that was the point. The elder men in my life knew, without a doubt, if I did have a choice, I’d be runnin’ straight back to Delilah.
“Yes, sir,” I told Dagger.
Approvingly, he nodded while slowly releasing me. “Now, this is a very serious question.”
My upper lip started sweating as he took a step back, staring me down. What was coming? Some sort of initiation?
Dagger smirked. “What’s your poison, kid?”
I almost collapsed to the floor, thankful I wasn’t going to earn an initiation biker tribal scar in front of everyone while they sang some sort of biker song from the eighties. I was clueless about the life of a one-percenter.
Tuck and I had partied many times, but it was more like getting as drunk as we could, as fast as we could, because we were young and dumb and only had getting laid on our minds. So, my answer was, “I don’t really know.”
The room went quiet. Like, pool sticks lingered in the air, drinks suspended in front of gaping mouths, only the music played, kind of quiet. All eyes were on me.
Dagger, with brows lifted in question, watched me intently with his one blue eye.
Every insecure part of me wanted to high-tail my ass out of that building, but that was a ‘Kenny’ thing to do. I was now James Gunn Dalton. So, I searched until I found what resembled a spine, then stood up straight, setting my shoulders back. “But I’m willin’ to find out.”
Crickets…
Oh shit.
Suddenly, cheers broke out as if I had just promised a million dollars and a thousand beautiful strippers for all.
In the background, Diesel smiled with pride at me as Dagger dragged me to the bar. Some supermodel-looking bartender smiled as I was forcibly plopped down on a brown leather stool. I was trying to hold my man-card, but being surrounded by a bunch of rowdy big bikers is, well, unnerving. The bombshell saw it all over my face. She winked from under her long, straight blonde hair. “What are we starting with tonight?”
“Whiskeyyyy!” howled the bystanders as if singing to the moon.
Blinking, due to the booming sound of male voices, I watched as the bartender thumbed over her shoulder. Behind her was a big round silver circle on the wall, about six feet wide and tall. In the center of it was a cut out of a horse with a wild mane flowing in the wind. Above the horse was the word STEEL, and under the horse read STALLIONS MC. On each side of it were smaller silver cutouts of a wolf howling.