The Biker's Past: A Cold Steel Motorcycle Club Romance Novella (3 page)

“
You didn’t do anything wrong, Sammy,” Alicia interrupted.

“
You were just having fun and getting to know someone. You made a decision and you enjoyed it and you couldn’t have known that all this was going to happen,” Becky said, nodding in agreement.

“
You should never feel bad about something like that. I mean, you totally impressed me, going after what you wanted like that, and even if it ends in a massive crash and burn, you’ll always have my respect, girl,” Alicia said with a smile. I found myself grinning along. It was amazing, no matter how bad things looked, that my friends could still manage to put a smile on my face. I loved them for that.

“
Thanks…I needed that,” I said, breathing normally for the first time since Boon had shown up.

“
Of course, Sammy. You know we’re always here for you,” Becky said, leaning in and smooching the webcam.

“
Talk to your dad, then call us! Is it really bad that I’m kinda pumped on all this drama?” Alicia asked, a sly smile on her face.

“
YES,” Becky and I answered in unison.

“
You’re a total bitch,” I said, laughing. Alicia shrugged and leaned in to the camera, also pretending to kiss it.

“
Whatever, I love you,” she said. “Now go talk to your dad!”

As I signed off, I wondered if I should give Mom and Dad a little more time to hash it out. In the meantime, I figured, I could pace my room and think about every worst-case-scenario in the world. I knew that I’d drive myself crazy just sitting in my room alone, so I made the decision to at least try. I slipped out of my room quietly and hovered near the top of the stairs. I could hear Mom and Dad talking, loudly, from downstairs.

“
She deserves an explanation, Bill. Whatever went on between them…”

“
Jesus, Jillian! How can you even bring that up! When I think of our Samantha getting involved in that…that…”

“
She’s 18! She’s going to meet boys. She’s going to
like
boys. She’s going to like the
wrong sort
of boy sometimes. You, of all people, should know what a guy like that can do…”

“
Don’t you ever compare me to that scum, Jillian. I might have had a rough side when you met me, but…”

“
A rough side? Honey, you better make an appointment to be checked for early dementia. If I recall, you spent the better part of junior year in a cloud of smoke…and most of senior year in the drunk tank!”

“
This isn’t about me, Jillian! This is about
our daughter
making eyes with some
biker trash
! And not just
any
biker trash, the fucking
son
of the man who…”

“
How old do you think that boy was, huh? Do you
really
think he even knew what was happening then?”

“
Well, he’s old enough now to know to stay the hell away from good girls like Samantha!”

“
Okay, okay, I’m not saying I’m crazy about the idea either, honey, but you can’t blame her. Or him! Boys like girls! He followed her all the way from Vegas! I mean, does that sound like a guy who wants to throw Samantha away like a used Kleenex?”

“
I don’t care
what
he wants to do with Samantha; he’s never going to have anything to do with her ever again!”

“
Stop!” I finally said, my heart beating fast. The voices stopped. I tip-toed down the stairs, which was silly, since they obviously knew I was there, but I felt like I was an intruder in my own home, breaking and entering their conversation. “Please, just stop.”

Mom and Dad stared at me at the bottom of the stairs, mingled expressions of confusion and concern on their faces. I stared back, trying to look grown up, trying to look like I could handle it.

“
Just…please, tell me. I…I need to know. I’m afraid, Daddy,” I said, stuttering over my words, making eye contact with my father. I needed him to know how important this was to me, that it wasn’t just some crush gone wrong. I knew that telling him I was afraid (which I was) was my best shot at getting him to talk. Daddy could never let me go around feeling scared. And this time, he knew, telling me that he would “take care of everything” wasn’t going to cut it.

I was too old for that now.

I think, now, when I look back on it, that moment was all about that one realization: I was too old for a lot of things. I was too old to be kept in the dark. I was too old to not take risks. I was too old to entrust my safety with just my parents. I was growing up. I was making my own mistakes. A look of sadness came over my father’s face as he seemed to contemplate all this. Then he nodded.

“
You’re right, Samantha. You deserve to know what that was all about,” he said, glancing at my mother, who gave him an encouraging look.

“
Come,” he said, gesturing to the living room. We filed in and sat down, Mom and Dad on the couch, me on the loveseat facing them. I twiddled my fingers in my lap. I wanted to hear, I didn’t want to hear.

It didn’t matter what I wanted anymore.

“
Ten years ago…geeze, Samantha, you were
eight.
Ten years. How did…” Dad got a glassy look in his eyes, his sentence trailing off. Mom coughed, bringing him back on track. I knew that part of it was for show, just Dad stalling telling me the story. Dad sighed.

“
Ten years ago, I was a police officer, just a regular cop. There was a fellow on the force with me, named Giordino. Danny Giordino. He was a good guy. We never talked much, weren’t close, but you know. Cops are family. He bought rounds at the bar. He had a wife, no kids. Young, same age as me. A whole world in front of him…”

Dad seemed to get lost in the story again, in his memories.

“
He coulda been Sheriff, I guess,” he finally said after a long moment. Shaking his head as if to rid himself of the thought, he continued in a no-nonsense tone.

“
We had some trouble back then with a group of bikers who’d rented out one of the hotels. Bad guys. This was in the 90’s, and there were all sorts of ATM scams, still are, but worse back then before we had the technology to stop some of them. These guys were stealing money left and right, credit card fraud, identity theft. Plus, they had something going on with a couple local dealers, slinging heroin.

Samantha, this was serious business. Serious, serious business. We waited for months to dig up enough dirt on them to put the leader away, if not the whole horde. But, you know, things just moved slowly. Trying to gather evidence, trying to make a case that would stick. These guys were as smart as they were bad.

But we got them, finally. We had enough to make it stick. We got re-enforcements to come up from Billings, got ready to swarm the hotel, take ‘em all down. But when we got there…

I don’t know how they left without anyone noticing. I mean, those bikes make a lot of noise, you’d think someone would have noticed. But no one did…the hotel was empty, Samantha. They’d cleared out. The only thing left? Two bodies. Dead bodies. One of them was one of their chicks, a worn-out looking gal, couldn’t have been much older than you. Poor thing was probably doomed from birth. Worst case of meth mouth I’ve ever seen.

And the other body was Danny Giordino. He was…I’ll just, I’ll never forget it. It’s one of those moments as a cop when you realize how…how dangerous it all is. You were so young, Samantha, and I saw that body, and I thought, what if I never see my little girl grow up?” Dad was welling up now; I felt like my heart was breaking.

Have you ever seen your father cry? It’s something most people would be a lot better off never seeing, I’d wager. I felt my own eyes filling with tears, saw my mother’s head hanging low, as we sat in silence.

“
Two bodies. One cop, one woman. We couldn’t tell, from the way the bodies were splayed out, who’d shot who. We knew she didn’t shoot him. He might have shot her. We didn’t know. We didn’t know how he’d gotten there, either. He wasn’t on a call. He was a good cop, though. And I think…

Well, I’ll tell you what I think. I think he went there to try and save that little boy. See, the woman, she was shacked up with the leader of the group. Their president, so to speak. Tank Culver,” Dad said, his eyes now growing cold. The name shook me. I knew that was Boon’s father. I didn’t need Dad to finish the story; I had all the pieces now, could figure it out for myself. But I wanted to hear him tell it. Tell me. Make it make sense.

“
Real name John Culver. Biker name Tank. He and this woman had a son. That young man,” Dad said, his tone growing darker with each word. “That young man you’ve been…fraternizing with. I recognized him. He couldn’t have been more than 12 at the time, but I recognized him. After Giordino, I studied all our surveillance for days. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I think Giordino went there to try and get her and the kid out before the place got raided. So they wouldn’t have to see…”

Dad trailed off. We sat in silence, the ticking clock the only noise. Finally, he sighed again.

“
I know it’s not his fault, what happened to Giordino. I know that, Samantha. But he’s bad news. Boys like that, they grow up bad, and they only get worse. If he’s got half the piss and vinegar in his blood that his dad had…I think that’s who did it, by the way. I’m pretty sure, it was John Culver. Who else? That boy’s no good. I don’t want him in my city, I don’t want him in my block, I don’t want him near my daughter,” Dad said, finishing with a stare that turned my blood to ice.

I sat, turning the story around and around in my brain. I imagined Boon as a young boy, a pre-teen, on the back of his father’s bike, fleeing the scene of the crime. I imagined two bodies, pools of blood. I imagined my father standing over a dead cop. I imagined flashbulbs taking pictures. I imagined a woman.

“
How awful,” I finally managed to squeak out. Mom nodded gravely.

“
Your father has his reasons, Samantha.”

“
I’m sorry I scared you, baby. I am. I…I lost my cool. I just saw his face and it all came swimming back. All that blood…and me with a little girl at home and…I just, I lost it. I know, I went about it the wrong way. That was wrong of me. But I need you to understand…”

“
I do, Daddy. I understand. I…get it. But…but what if he’s not like his dad? What if he’s different?” I regretted the questions as soon as they left my mouth. Dad’s face grew cold again.

“
I don’t want you to take that risk, Samantha. Now, you know my side, I don’t want you to go digging for his. I’m serious about this, Samantha, this is not up for negotiations. You are never to contact that boy again. If he knows what’s good for him, he’s halfway to Portland by now, anyway. Samantha, if you care about me at all, you’ll promise, right here and right now, that you’ll let this go. You’ll have a good summer and meet a nice local boy and go to school and forget all about him.”

Dad’s face was cement, a brick wall, impenetrable. He meant all of this from the bottom of his heart. I could tell that. From the way he was speaking, from the look in his eyes, this was serious business. What could I do? I nodded.

“
I promise, Dad,” I said, vaguely aware, in the back of my mind, that I was making a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep.

I didn’t exactly get sent to my room after that, but it was clear the BBQ was off and I needed time to think. I didn’t call Alicia and Becky right away. There was enough for me to process on my own, without calling in extra opinions.