I'm With You (Reapers MC: Shasta Chapter Book 1) Read online

  “Why?” I growl.

  Ramona doesn’t answer. While I hope she’s talking to someone else again, I think she’s just intimidated by my angry tone.

  Shelby gives me a mournful sigh and shakes her head at Taylor. “That one needs anger management.”

  “Are you hurt?” I ask in a calmer voice.

  “No, you know, just a little banged up.”

  “Banged up, how?”

  “I’m fine, you know?”

  “Then why can’t we go out tomorrow?” Ramona doesn’t answer immediately, and I hear a bunch of talking in the background. “Where are you?”

  “At a salon, getting my hair fixed.”

  “Fixed, why?”

  Again, Ramona doesn’t answer. None of the voices in the background sound like hers, so she’s just refusing to speak.

  “I’ll come to where you are.”

  “No,” she says, regaining her voice. “I can’t see you yet.”

  “Why?”

  “I need to get used to my new haircut.”

  I feel my friends’ eyes on me, and none of them have started eating. They’re listening to my end of the conversation and thinking I’m a dick for sounding so angry.

  “I don’t understand why you can’t go out tomorrow.”

  “I need to get used to my hair,” she says again as if I should understand.

  “Why would you get a haircut that takes that much effort to get used to?” I mutter, and Shelby leans over to whisper something to Taylor.

  “Can’t we just meet up next week?” Ramona asks.

  “No. I need to see you tomorrow. I’ll come by after you’re done with work.”

  “But I need more time.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about your hair, Ramona.”

  Taylor reaches over with her long arm and snatches away my phone. Before I can jump across the table and tackle her, she hands it to Shelby.

  “Hey, Ramona, this is Shane’s sister. Hi. I’m super nice, so we’ll be great friends. It’s nothing to worry about. Anyway, my brother is in his Hulk-mode currently, and I sense that’s not going well. How about he comes by tomorrow after you’re done at the station, and you two can just talk normal-like?”

  Shelby falls silent while Ramona explains something. Then she says, “Oh, I understand, but when a man is as horny as Shane is for you, he really isn’t going to be bothered by your hair. Like, you could be bald, and he’ll still want to romance the shit out of you. Get what I’m saying?” Another pause, and then Shelby smiles. “Yeah, that’ll be the tits. So, he’ll meet you for coffee. If Shane doesn’t piss you off and you aren’t bored of him by then, maybe you can grab a bite to eat somewhere afterward. No stress. Just a horny guy and a girl with a new haircut. Life is just that simple, okay?”

  Shelby finishes up, says goodbye, and hands me the phone. “She’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “I didn’t appreciate that.”

  “You never do. I slave away for my dear, little brother,” Shelby says dramatically, and River pretends to play a tiny violin. “No matter what I do, he never appreciates it. I’m a martyr of unbearable proportions.”

  “Are you done?” I ask, still irritated.

  “No,” she says and then sighs. “I just kept him from scaring off a girl he’s super horny for, but do I get a thank you?”

  “No?” Taylor asks and starts to eat. “I’m guessing the answer is no.”

  “Of course not. I really ought to call our parents and snitch on him for being such a bad little brother.”

  Finally, I stop frowning and ask, “What’s the deal with Ramona’s hair?”

  “I’d assume those fapsocks cut it. I mean, could you not do the math on that, Shane?”

  River and Taylor laugh at me while Shelby just smiles. I guess I should have put it together. Except I got worried and then pissed. I lose my genius status when my temper gets involved.

  “Like Hulk,” Shelby says when I mention my inability to think when I’m angry.

  “Whatever. I want those fapsocks dealt with.”

  “But you can’t beat them up,” Shelby says.

  Taylor nods. “You have that sexist policy of never beating on a woman.”

  “It really is sexist,” Shelby agrees.

  “But we don’t suffer from such sexist policies,” Taylor says, smirking. “That means we can fuck up anyone.”

  “Ooh, let’s do that,” Shelby coos. “I’ll take the chonky one.”

  “I don’t know which one that is.”

  “One looks anorexic, and the other clearly enjoys her carbs. But names-wise, they’re Jizz Receptacle One and Jizz Receptacle Two to me.”

  “Names are so last year. These days, bullying a fapsock doesn’t require names.”

  “I’m glad we’re more modern.”

  “You and me both, sister,” Taylor says.

  Enjoying their banter, I’m relieved to know Fuse’s bitch daughters will suffer payback for messing with my woman.

  “Your woman?” River mocks when I speak up. “Two coffee dates, and you’re claiming this girl. Campbell men are an odd race of cavemen.”

  “Majors men only dream they could caveman it up like a Campbell man.”

  “Nothing gets the appetite going like a dick-measuring contest,” Taylor says, taking a bite of food.

  “Speaking of dickheads,” River mutters. “How is Maverick?”

  “I’m taking him home food.”

  “Is he a hermit now?”

  “No, he just likes me to serve him. It makes him feel manly.”

  “I haven’t seen him in three days.”

  “He’s playing ghost around town. Checking out what people say when they don’t think anyone’s listening. You know, trying to figure out who around here needs killing in the second wave of Reapers’ madness.”

  River gives me a sly grin. He’s excited about making another show of force in Shasta. We’ve gained several new members, loyal to us rather than the old guard. But we still have a few assholes waiting to retake the club.

  Too many people in Shasta haven’t accepted that the Reapers are running this town now. People like those jizz receptacles. With enough violence, their denial is bound to end.

  THE LEGACY

  If my friends weren’t with me at the salon, I’d be a bawling mess. I loved having long hair. It acted as my security blanket. When I’m stressed or hungover, I hide behind it. Now I’m missing large chunks in the back and on the right side. There’s no salvaging my long locks.

  “Bob or pixie?” Jayme says, standing behind me and running her fingers through what’s left of my hair. “Those are your two options.”

  “Is there enough hair left for a bob?” I ask, eyeballing the right side chopped to my ear.

  “A short one, just above your chin.”

  “You’ll look so chic,” Max says while using her shirt to wipe her glasses.

  “Well, it’s not as if I have much choice.”

  Jayme gives me a tight smile. Is she worried about my battered face or that helping me will piss off my half-sisters? No, I realize she’s intimidated by Kelsi wearing an aggressive frown.

  “Don’t fuck up,” she warns Jayme.

  “Stop hassling me.”

  “I know about your clit ring,” Kelsi sneers. “Don’t make me rip that shit out.”

  Jayme rolls her eyes, but I notice how she takes her time with my hair. Nearby in the lobby, Kelsi, Max, and Hugh eat a bag of popcorn they bought from the store next door. They regularly bring me a handful and compliment my hair.

  By the time Shane calls, I’m fighting the urge to cry. The pain pill Max slipped me did help, but I tend to get mopey on OxyContin. I don’t want to answer his call, but he won’t give up. I suspect that’s how Shane wins in life. He’s stubborn like a bulldog, refusing to relent until he finally succeeds. I’m the opposite. If something’s too hard, I give up. Life is too shitty to force myself to do painful stuff.

  That’s why I don’t want to have dinn
er with Shane tomorrow. I’m embarrassed by my short haircut and my swollen mouth. Why can’t we wait a week until I feel more confident? It’s not as if I get to date men like Shane often. This might be my last chance at feeling this way over a guy. Is it so wrong to just put on the brakes until I feel my best?

  Apparently, yes. Shane sounds so angry when I say I want to avoid him for a few days that I don’t know how to respond. Either I give him what he wants and ruin our date by feeling ugly, or I don’t give him what he wants, and he dumps me.

  I’m startled when his sister takes over the phone, but she sounds so calm that it feels right to allow Shelby to choose. Besides, she says her brother is horny, and I can deal with men who want to fuck. I never worried what Matt thought because I knew he was just using me like I was using him. There was emotion involved, of course. I liked him as a human being, but I didn’t shed a single tear when it was over.

  If Shane wants to fuck me, I can see absolutely nothing wrong with spreading my legs. He’s the best-looking man I’ve ever seen, and I’m going to enjoy getting my hands on his fine body. Yeah, if he doesn’t mind my swollen lip and short hair, then I’m going to ride him until he knocks me off and walks away.

  “You look chic,” Max says once we’re at the rental house, and she’s throwing together Baja tacos for us. “Like a model.”

  Max was the last member to join the Band. Her family lived in the Boulders part of Shasta, but she wasn’t popular like Hugh before his downfall. Max was a book nerd, hiding in the library during recess. By our first year of junior high, I think we’d only said two words to each other, and our school wasn’t that big. Then one day, I found her sitting in an empty bathroom during class. She stopped crying when I walked in, and I could have ignored her. Book smart kids made me feel stupid, and I had enough problems that I didn’t need to look for reasons to feel bad. But she seemed really childlike on the ground, pressing her face against her knees and waiting for me to leave.

  “What’s the deal?” I asked, sitting next to her.

  “People suck.”

  “Yeah, what’s that about? I think it’s the stink from the rendering plant that makes everyone so mean around here.”

  Max looked up at me with her sad, blue eyes. “I’m thirteen, and I’ve never had a friend. I think I’m the one that sucks.”

  I didn’t know if I could even like Max. She read books and was good at math. Those were nerd moves, and I was barely passing most classes. Even though Max might be a real dud, I could imagine myself having no friends. I got lucky with Kelsi and then Hugh. People could easily ignore me. I’d never been that interesting. Yeah, I could easily end up lonely like Max, crying in a bathroom, just wanting a friend to talk to.

  That’s why I took her hand and asked if she wanted to hang out after school. Even though I was from the Railroad part of Shasta and had badly dyed blue hair, Max didn’t have many options. Of course, she agreed to hang out with us. But like Hugh, she never walked away, even when she had the chance later in life.

  I’d walked away, though. Me. The one who should have known better. I left Shasta, thinking I could outrun my fuckups. Max was the one to tell me every week that there was no shame in coming back. She knew I’d want to, and she knew I’d be embarrassed to return. That’s why she planted the seed in my head that no one would blame me for wanting to return to a place where my family lived.

  And the Band really is my family. That’s why I don’t fall apart over my stupid haircut or how people are sharing videos online of the fight. I’m not even that worried about my date with Shane tomorrow. With the Band watching my back, I think I can survive just about anything.

  THE ROMANTIC

  All night, I suffer a rage-boner about those fapsocks hurting Ramona. If I didn’t have to play things smooth with her, I’d have been at her house as soon as I heard she was hurt. If I didn’t have that sexist rule about not hurting women, I’d have stopped by her fapsock sisters’ place and fucked them up first. Maybe cut off their hair and bring it to Ramona. Yeah, that’d be a nice gift.

  But I’m not at that point in our relationship. I’m still a stranger, and she has her friends to cheer her up.

  “What do you know about a guy named Hugh?” I ask Annis when we stop at the Saloon that evening for a beer.

  “Nothing,” she says, clearly lying.

  I glance at Taylor, who takes the waitress aside and gets the dish. When she returns, my friend leans closer and whispers, “He likes dudes. Apparently, he and Utah hook up.”

  “Which one is Utah?” Shelby asks, refusing to learn the names of the former Skullz since she figures most of them won’t be around long.

  We all look at the lean, bald, tatted fucker playing pool nearby. Chase notices us checking out his club brother and casually signals him. When Utah looks in our direction, the Fearsome Foursome turns away in unison.

  “Doesn’t get more subtle than that,” Taylor says and takes a swig of her beer. “Anyway, that’s Utah. He and Hugh keep things quiet since this town is full of embarrassed sluts.”

  I think of how Ramona claimed everyone in Shasta fucks everyone else. Scanning the bar, I wonder who in here has been with her. I’m not the kind of man that expects my woman to be a virgin. Back in Ellsberg with the local college, people were always getting laid. I’m not looking for an untouched princess that can be molded into my perfect sex partner. Besides, the virgin thing goes away once I fuck her. No, I prefer a woman with some sexual history. Probably because I’m too lazy to teach her everything. Better for her to lose her awkwardness on someone else’s dick before honing her skills on mine.

  Or maybe I just don’t fucking care about Ramona’s past. I can’t think of a single dealbreaker when it comes to Ramona.

  Sleep doesn’t come easily. I need four beers just to relax. River sits up with me as we watch “Society.” Shelby put on the movie an hour ago. Then, fifteen minutes in, she crashed on one of the couches.

  “I think we made a mistake by not killing Fuse,” River says from his recliner.

  “We assumed he’d make a move, and we’d grab up all his followers at the same time. No way to know he’d kill himself.”

  “People think we killed him, but I think his closest friends know better. They’re still waiting for something.”

  “A handful of Skullz are in prison. Maybe one of them is their great savior.”

  “We ought to do a deep dive into each of them. I figured we could wait until they were getting out, but I feel as if we’re missing a piece of the puzzle.”

  “Not seeing your concern.”

  River stretches his long legs out until they’re resting on a nearby chair. “Fuse’s old lady is still in town. Her daughters are still causing trouble. They aren’t scared of us. If they aren’t, even with Fuse dead, then how scared can his loyal guys be when they feel protected by wearing our patches?”

  “Since we don’t have access to a time machine, what do you suggest?”

  “Taylor and Shelby need to pound on Fuse’s other daughters. Might want to burn down his old lady’s house.”

  “Seems reasonable.”

  “We need to create fear that we currently don’t inspire.”

  “I’m all for beating the crap out of those bitches. And figuring out what to expect with the jailed Skullz. But killing Fuse early on wasn’t smart, and that’s why we didn’t do it. Don’t second-guess shit that we talked to death back in the day.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” River mutters, waving off my rational thinking. “We were new to the leadership roles and this town. Killing one or two can easily spiral into wasting every one of the Skullz, and that would bring too much attention on us. I remember all that shit, but today’s violence feels like a strike against us.”

  “Maybe it was, or maybe it was chick bullshit. I’ll know more tomorrow when I talk with Ramona. Taylor and Shelby will do their thing. If we feel like anyone’s looking at you wrong, we’ll poke them in the eye.”

  “Shut the fuck up
,” he says, smiling at my expression.

  “Firstborn kids are so sensitive.”

  “No, we’re actually super hardcore types,” he bullshits. “I want Shasta to run smoothly because we both know it’s only a matter of time before the club up north tries to mess with us. This cold war shit the Executioners have going with the Skullz is due for another flare-up.”

  “Yeah, but we’re not the Skullz.”

  “No, we aren’t, and I want them buried if they fuck with us.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What now?” he sighs, shooting me a dark frown.

  “I never thought you were suited for this job. With your blood lust, you should have gone into assassinations.”

  River waves off my comment. “My family is always the one doing the dirty work. Just once, can’t we run shit?”

  “Sure, but I think you’ll be bored in a few years when there’s no one left to kill.”

  “Well, maybe by then, I’ll have a woman and a few kids to entertain me in between murders.”

  “I do enjoy when you unleash your feminine hopes.”

  “Fuck off. You’re the one calling a chick ‘your woman’ after two coffee dates. That’s just super ladylike.”

  “You’re the one with long, luscious hair.”

  “I’m thinking of getting it cut.”

  “If you’re looking to be less feminine, a haircut won’t be enough. Not with your lovely, mascara-like eyelashes.”

  I feel River about to leap from his chair and attack me. We’ve been itching to throw down since dinner. Before he can make his move, Shelby growls despite her eyes remaining closed.

  “Don’t you fucking dare. I’m trying to sleep here, pillocks.”

  Knowing she’s awake enough to start real trouble since she used her fancy word for dick, I immediately reply, “River started it. He can’t control himself.”

  His blue eyes narrow, and I wait for him to come flying across the room. However, River might feel pity over Shelby not sleeping well since the move. Or he just gets interested in the increasingly fucked-up scenes in the movie. Either way, he remains in his recliner while I keep my ass planted in mine.