My cut. My bike. My freedom. Nothing could beat having all three of them again. Nothing but the two faces I’d yearned to see the first thing I was out of the gates and neither was there.
Fort’s big arms choked and squeezed me. “Freedom, brother! I got a killer party down at Rosewood for you. The place is torched, but some parts of it were still salvageable. I reckoned it’d be a crack house by now, but lucky people were still afraid of the Night Skulls all this time and never even dared come close to the notorious compound.” He barked a laugh. “I got some bitches hanging there for you, buddy. We’re gonna eat pussy for dinner and get our cocks royally sucked.”
I stared at the parking lot where there was no Jo or Rex. “Where’s he? Where’s Jo?”
“Bro, you know how your boy can be, but he’ll come around. We all did. Look, I’ll tell him to come to Rosewood tonight, and if he still doesn’t show, I’ll go bring him to the party myself. Trust me. When he sees the pussy, he’ll want to stay.” He laughed again, walking me to where our bikes stood.
“And Jo?”
“I don’t know, man. She was at her place this morning.”
“Then?”
“Then I had to bring your bike from Delilah’s and park it here, and then get my ass back to you.”
“Why didn’t you bring her with you?”
He scratched his head. “Uh…aren’t we supposed to be low key so we wouldn’t grab unwanted attention to her? Or was I busting my ass, sneaking around to keep an eye on her without being tailed for no reason?”
“That was before. Now, I’m out. Every motherfucker out there needs to know she’s mine.” I straddled my bike. “Let’s go.”
“To Rosewood?”
“To Jo.”
“What about the party? Ya think it’s the best place to bring her to, bro?”
“Fort, I appreciate you doing all that shit for me and all, but I don’t give a damn about any other pussy than what’s already mine, all right?”
“You sure it’s yours, Prez?”
I glared at him. “The fuck that means?”
“Look around ya. She ain’t here. She knows you’re getting out of the Arena today, and she’s a no show. It says something.”
“Fuck you, bro. Jo is mine, and she knows it. She’s just young and likes to be chased, so what?”
He stared at me like I was a crazy stranger. “Who are you and what did you do to my friend? Since when do you chase, Furore?”
Since a pair of Irish eyes squeezed my dead heart alive.
