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“You excited for the lake this weekend?”
“Sure,” I shrug.
“Doesn’t sound like you are.”
“Toad…,” I break off wanting to tell him everything. But I stop short knowing his loyalty is with Rog and Creed no matter how close we’ve become.
“Yeah?”
“I’m worried about my students. I’m sure word has spread around that the new high school history teacher waits tables at the biker bar in town. I need to know what kind of crap they’re gonna say behind my back.”
“You don’t need to worry. That ain’t gonna happen.”
“Yeah, right. You don’t know teenagers like I do. I want to know everything about Springdale…. and Creed so I can be prepared.”
“Does Rog know you’re worried about this?”
“N-no. I don’t want to bother him with high school bullshit.”
“I don’t know Dev. The club is a brotherhood. One we don’t talk about. You’re not an undercover cop, are you?” He jokes but his eyes are serious.
“No! Me a cop? That’s comical. I can’t even handle violence. I’ve never been as close to it as I was when that guy threatened me and I’m not asking you to snitch. I don’t need to know club shit. I just need to know about the people.”
“Okay,” he shrugs. “Where do you want to start?”
“At the beginning.”
“Well… there were these two guys. They were best friends. John Masters and Colin Flynn. They founded Creed. For a while they rode these streets like kings. But then it all turned to shit.”
“What happened?”
“A woman. That’s what. Her name was Dee Dee Stanton.”
My fingers reach in a box, run over the spine of a few books while pretending that name’s not important. I sit back on a desk chair, take a sip of my Diet Coke and wait.
“Apparently, she was beautiful, crazy in bed, and played them both for fools. They both fell in love with the woman despite the fact that each of them were married with kids. The worst part is… Dee was the sister of John’s wife. But that didn’t stop him. Don’t get me wrong—John and Colin were both in the wrong for stepping out, but Dee liked the power she had over them and would pit them against one another every chance she could. Shit got worse, the club made a ton of money back in the eighties drug running for the cartels from Mexico to Canada. We don’t do that shit anymore. But Colin and John got rich, expanded Creed into Southern Cali, and stopped even the charade of pretending that they both weren’t having an affair with the same woman.
Dee got hooked on drugs. It was a goddamn mess. They all tore each other’s hearts out. She overdosed. It was tragic as hell, but her death brought shit to a head. Colin and John almost killed one another in the back lot behind Sassy’s. They threw punch after punch, blow after blow, until neither of them could stand. No one interfered. It was understood to stay out of it. They needed to do what they needed to do. Anyway, their bond was broken. Each of them wanting to see the other dead, but that would mean the one who did—would get to be with Dee and neither could stomach that. So they ended it, each of them walking away a bloody mess with broken bones.”
“That’s… so tragic and yet so incredibly romantic.”
He shrugs. “I guess. I can’t imagine being in lust or love like that. Anyway, they called a truce of sorts, disbanded the Springdale chapter of Creed since they were both Co-Presidents and never spoke again despite the fact they lived ten miles from each other.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it was hard on Rog. Colin was like family to him and so was John. He was caught in the middle. But Colin had a little girl, Shanna, that had Rog wrapped around her little finger.”
I smile, picturing it. But the little girl in my head has Roger’s blue eyes and my dark hair. My womb clenches and I yearn for something I never did before: a baby.
Roger’s baby.
I take another sip of my soda trying to get a grip. I must have lost it. The man hasn’t done more than kiss me and I’m already picturing our imaginary child? Hell, I don’t even know if Rog wants to be a dad.
“The Springdale chapter of Creed broke up. The men either rode north to Canada, forming a chapter there or south to LA. Rog stayed here. He couldn’t leave Shanna. She was only three.”
“Where’s Shanna now?”
“Married to Duke, John’s son. He was Prez for the past few years but handed that patch over to Smith. How’s that for karma? Their dads were bitter enemies and they married each other. Actually, the two of them are part owners in Sassy’s. It used to be called Stan’s Place before it burned to the ground. Roger and Duke rebuilt the place and gave it a new name.”