8, Slugger

Nash

I was sitting next to Bones at the large table eating breakfast. Jacob, Ulf and Ulf’s old lady had joined us. No one spoke. It was early and only three other tables had people at them. The same man that had been behind the bar yesterday stood there today as well. I wondered if he had even left, or if he was a permanent fixture. The doors to the kitchen opened and Tite walked in. She was dressed in snug fitting biker pants and a black tank top. She had a piece of toast in her mouth, in one hand she had two bags and a leather jacket and in the other hand a mug with more toast on top of it. She was sexy as fuck as she dropped her bags next to the other side of the large table and put down her mug. She was sitting a little away from the rest of us. The two men sitting at one of the other tables stood up and walked over to her.

“We heard you are going back with them,” one of them said to her.

“Yeah. Someone needs to go back and keep an eye on things,” she told him.

“You watch your back, you know where to find us if you need us,” the man told her. She nodded.

“Remember what I taught you about guns,” the other one said. Tite laughed and I had to stop myself from smiling at the sound. I couldn’t sit and grin like a fucking fool.

“I will. Uncle Gunnar has already made sure I have what I need,” she told him. He grunted and the two went back to their table. To my surprise, the act repeated with all the men in the room. They all walked up to her, made sure she knew she could call them and sometimes gave advice. The way her bitch of a step-mother and that daughter of hers had treated Tite yesterday, I would have thought she would be the club’s outcast. But it looked like they all respected her. I saw Jacob watching his daughter interact with the members. I had no idea what his expression meant.

“Ready to hit the road?” Bones asked.

“I’m ready,” I said and we both looked at Tite. She downed whatever was in the mug and smiled.

“Let’s head out,” she said. We all got up and headed out of the building. Tite’s family also came along and outside stood the Vice Prez and Sergeant at Arms with their Old Ladies. There was a lot of hugging. Tite was surrounded by family, only Jacob stood to the side, his Old Lady absent. When the hugging was over with, we walked towards the parked bikes.

“Is the jeep yours?” Bones asked. The look Tite gave him could have killed a weaker man.

“Don’t make me kill you before we even get on the road,” she told him. “That monstrosity belongs to my step-sister. That beauty is mine,” she said with pride. I followed where she was pointing. A classic bike in black and chrome. On the tank was an image of a snarling wolf’s head with flames and water around it. It really was a beautiful thing. She walked up to it and fastened her bags on either side. She pulled on her leather jacket, strapped on her helmet and looked at us. We walked to our own bikes, we hadn’t even bothered taking our bags off of them. We just got our jackets and helmets on and we were off. The beam across the road was opened without us having to stop. The man and the woman manning it raised their hand and Tite mirrored the gesture. The calm of the road came over me again as we got onto the highway. I caught myself watching Tite more than watching the road. Bones had taken the lead and Tite followed him with me picking up the rear. It was the perfect line up for me to be able to stare at her. She was sexy as fuck, the way she clearly knew how to handle her bike, how relaxed she looked on it, the way her body looked when she straddled it. I shook my head and forced my eyes away from her. It was a bad idea to try and get into her bed. We were depending on her father’s club to get us out of our mess. If she went crying back about an asshole who had broken her heart, well, I would screw us all over. I needed to keep it in my pants.

We stopped at the same rest stop Bones and I had stopped on our way to Ulvaskall. I got us all a soda.

“Thanks, slugger,” Tite told me as I handed her hers. Bones chuckled.

“Don’t fucking call me that,” I told her.

“What do you want me to call you then?” she asked as she popped the can open and took a sip. I did not follow her lips as they connected to the can and I didn’t see the way her tongue swiped over them to collect the soda that was lingering on her lips. Fuck, I needed to focus. She had asked a question.

“I have already told you my name,” I said, sounding a bit more gruff than I had intended. To my surprise, she giggled.

“Wolf? Yeah, not going to call you that. It’s too… ironic,” she said. Ironic? What was she talking about?

“You can just call him Nash,” Bones said. I glared at the traitor.

“Nash? Yeah, that will do,” she said, sounding pleased. No one used my real name, not many knew it. Bones did, of course. I hadn’t expected him to rat me out.

“Do as you wish, I may not reply to it,” was all I said. She just smiled at me.

“Miss Tite,” Bones started. It got a laugh from her.

“Miss Tite? I think not. Just Tite,” she told him. He looked a little uncomfortable. I understood him. Bones was old school, he liked to put people into their place according to how he was taught the club system worked. Tite didn’t fit into any of his categories. He knew she deserved respect, if nothing else, for being the daughter of the prez of Ulvaskall. But he didn’t have a neat slot for her to fit in and for him to relate to. It made him uncomfortable. “Don’t overthink it. Just see me as one of the boys,” she told him, clearly noticing how uncomfortable she was making him. I snorted, almost blowing the soda out my nose. Has she seen herself? One of the boys? She glared at me.

“Sure,” Bones said. I could hear how uncertain he was. “So, Tite. Do you know about the history between our clubs?” Bones asked. Tite smiled at him. Why did she give him her smiles and glare at me?

“I know the basics. I know you and your former Alpha needed help dealing with some criminal organisation back in the day. My father took you under his wings and helped you out of a bad situation. In return, you swore loyalty to our… club and him. You renamed your club and took my father’s statutes as yours. I know you still send us a small tribute every year. But since then things have been good,” she told him. Bones nodded.

“That is the gist of it. There is, as always, more to the story,” he said. Tite hummed.

“I would think so, no change goes that smoothly,” she agreed.