Page 4 of Madame Mayhem
“What I’m telling you is the truth. I’m saying when my brothers learn he’s not the lead they think he is, they’re gonna be walking around with their tail between their legs.”
“Aye, I’m going to let you ride on that.” The timing couldn’t be better. The others must have smelled the smoke because Lara comes out and she’s making her way over to me.
“Wassup Lara?” Psych asks.
“Same old, you know how it is.”
“Sure do. See ya later on Slash.”
“Yeah see ya Psych.”
“Hey Slash,” Lara squints from the sun, covering her eyes. “Thinking about life out here?” she chuckles in her raspy voice, lighting up her own joint. If you didn’t see Lara and how pretty she was in a rough diamond way, you wouldn’t know she was a woman. You would think she was a man with her sandpapery voice. I liked it on her, if it was going to suit anyone, it would be her.
“What else is there to think about?” I smirk back, checking her mood.
“You’re right.”
“How you doing Lara? Snatch got you covered?”
“Yeah, he got me. I don’t have to ask if Fi has you. I know she does. She’s great with the girls, you know. It’s so bizarre with all she’s been through how level-headed she can be. When she talks, it’s as if she’s twenty years older than she really is. A true survivor that girl. Half the time I want to go off on her behalf.”
Fi can take the club to new heights. She has the capacity. She burnt those men alive. Badass.
I blow out a breath, thinking hard. “Tough isn’t the word.”
“You got any regrets about your father? What went down with that at the hospital? Snatch didn’t tell me everything. You’re made of tough stuff as well. That’s how we build them here at the Dark Angels.”
Lara’s rumble of a laugh coats the air while she puffs. “That old chestnut. Old beef, things my pop did that shouldn’t be done to women… he was a bastard, and he had to go you know. I tried with that man.” There’s a haunting look in her eyes. Something unsaid, and I never asked Snatch what he did exactly, but I got some pretty solid clues. I’m not gonna be the one to take it any further. Fi’s shit has me out here smoking like a fucking chimney.
“Fuck. Sorry Lara.” I’m seeing the running pattern with the old ladies of the club. They all got this high threshold for pain and the ability to overcome. It’s clear. I gotta take us to new heights. Everyone has their place and capabilities. “Hey thanks again for backing me with Bull. I get it would have been tough to go against Snatch about that shit.”
Lara finishes up her joint with a shrug. “Sometimes we get dealt that shitty hand in life. Nothing we can do. It has its benefits though… but umm yeah. Snatch regrets that shit.”
“What shit?”
“Ya know the vote.”
“My ass he does.”
“For real, I can tell he does, but he can’t take it back now. Stubborn guy, pride, all macho shit.”
Lara winks at me and I get it, but I got a thorn in my side over the shit, so I need Snatch to apologize before it comes out. Lara talking about her dad makes me think of mine.
“Okay,” I sigh and light up another one. Smoking calms down the fire in my soul.
“I wish I got to meet Axe. He sounds like a decent human from what I’m hearing around the club.”
“He was more than that. I miss him every day.”
“I bet. At the end of it all, Bull can’t be here forever. Who else wants to be prez? It’s a tough gig.”
I cock an eyebrow at Lara. “What are you doing about your situation over at Savage Outlaws? Didn’t you wanna run shit over there? How you got that on lock and being over here?”
“Ah, don’t you worry about that… I’m working on it and Savage Outlaws are gonna mind their fucking business and stay out of your way. That part is for sure. If they hadn’t had interfered, none of this would be going down. You could have kept on sailing smooth.”
“Fucking aye!”
We break into laughter together. “Nah, but how are you gonna do it?”