Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 50311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 252(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 252(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
Living together, we built a friendship. I guess he senses something is off with me. In moments, he is off his bike and lighting a cigarette as he struts over to me as if he’s got all the time in the world. “Wanna talk about it?”
I don’t answer.
“You didn’t go to vote, Little Foot. They aren’t stripping your cut when we get back.”
I let out a sarcastic huff. “Do you know why I didn’t go to vote?”
He shakes his head taking another draw of his cigarette.
“Fuckin’ Double told Rex not to put my name on the table because he would vote me down.”
Toon whistles low. “Shit.”
“Said he doesn’t think I’m ready yet and didn’t want to cost me my chance.”
His brow lifts, “he did what?”
“Came to my room last night, laid it out. He doesn’t think I’m mature enough and wants me to give it more time as a prospect.”
He shakes his head. “You think you need more time?”
“I’m fuckin’ ready, Toon,” I tell him confidently.
He looks out to the mountain in under the night sky. “Vision is blurred. Gotta see clearly.”
“What the fuck! Not you too!”
He steps into my space. “You ready to take a life in the name of brotherhood? Literally watch a man take his last breath at your hand? Did you think maybe your brother doesn’t want that life for you? The weight of the cost of this cut sometimes is another man’s life. Are you prepared for that? Sometimes this is what is necessary. No one likes it, but you gotta be man enough to not let it eat you up inside.”
Anger builds. Toon being Toon is unfazed by me.
“You got fuckin’ fire, Little Foot. But you burn too hot. Don’t think shit through. The rate you’re goin’ you’re gonna burn up.”
“Maybe I want to.” I challenge.
He laughs, “no the fuck you don’t. You want to be seen. You want to be part of this. You’re busting your ass for this. You just gotta learn it ain’t about you. What does the club need? And if that means blood shed or a life lost, including your own, you are willing to go the distance. What does the club need? A man who can be patient and wait for the right time or one who has never had to hold back?”
I look out over the trees feeling worse than I did before. He doesn’t see me either. None of them do.
“Drew,” he says my regular name. “Look man, you got a spark inside you I don’t want to die out. But you don’t wanna get your patch because of who you were born to. You wanna know you earned that shit. That you put brotherhood above everything including your pride."
"No one would have voted me through simply because of who I am.”
He reaches out and squeezes my shoulder, “For Shooter, yeah, they would. For Rex, yeah they would. For you, yeah they would.”
I don’t reply.
“Come on, let me get you a beer. The fact you took the ride today, you’ve earned more respect from me than before. Keep your head down, learn what it is to be a brother and you’ll have that patch and your place and it will be on your merit not whose son you happen to be.”
His words settle into my soul. I will prove them wrong. I don’t care how long it takes now. I’m going to make sure Axel regrets doubting me. More than showing him up, when I earn my final rocker, it’s going to be because I am someone they respect as a man. Not someone they tolerate because I’m a son to a Hellion.
After finishing his cigarette, we head back to our bikes and back to the hotel.
I may not have my final rocker today, but I will.
I’m not done. Not by a long shot.
Something inside me has changed. A fire that was smoldering inside me just found its fuel.
ONE
LITTLE FOOT
FIVE YEARS LATER
Play stupid games win stupid prizes
It’s the kind of night that tastes like trouble—sweaty bar, stale beer, too-loud music, neon flickering overhead like a dying pulse. Toon and I are sitting at a high-top near the corner of the room, beers half-drained, our cuts on our backs like a piece of armor.
The place is packed. Friday crowd outside Charlotte. Every table is full, bodies pressed together, women laughing too loud, men trying too hard. The kind of place the Catawba Hellions roll into and immediately own. People shift when we walk in, some because they recognize the patch, others because they can feel it. The weight of who we are. What we stand for. Kings of the Carolinas.
Toon slaps his hand down on the table. “You see the rack on that brunette by the jukebox? Jesus, brother.”
I glance over. Yeah, she’s hot. So is the blonde she’s with. Tight dresses, high heels, lips like candy. Five years ago, I’d already be walking over. Hell, even a year ago. Tonight, I’m just… tired.