Page 49 of Burning Ember

Goose loudly licks his fingers. “Fuckin’ fantastic, cherry girl. You teach my woman here how to make this shit and I’ll owe you fuckin’ big time.”

At the word cherry, Mav starts choking and Griz slaps him on the back until Mav brushes him off saying, “I’m good.”

Mav’s eyes flicker up to mine. There’s something in those maple depths that I can’t read and too soon, he looks away from me. He eats everything on his plate.

When he looks up at me again, I motion toward his plate. “You want more?” I notice that the room goes a little silent or fades away. I’m too focused on him to know which it is. Mav nods once. I put more on his plate and hand it over.

For the next ten minutes, I feel his eyes on me every time he looks my way. But I stay busy, as I play waitress to a clubhouse full of bikers and the clubpieces, Jade, Noel, Lo, and Lita, who live at the clubhouse.

“Is someone gonna turn on the tube?” one of the bikers that I haven’t been introduced to yet asks.

Rigor shakes his head. “Already tried. Fuckin’ thing won’t work. Told you all that it was on its last leg.”

I force my face to stay blank. Hoping no one will see the guilt flooding through me.

“Last night, took a ride,” Mav speaks, after he finishes. I try to make it look like I’m not hanging on his every word and busy myself with cleaning the bar and a few glasses. “Saw Davis parked down the road.”

I pause for a second.Davis.As in Officer Davis? Every limb in my body tightens up. What is he doing? Waiting to see if I leave the clubhouse? I try to relax and act normal. But it’s weird how knowing Davis is out there, makes me feel caged. Trapped. Like I’m slowly losing what freedom I have all over again. Bit by bit.

“Deputy Dipshit?” Griz asks.

“Yeah.”

Griz sits back. “What the fuck’s he doin’?”

I peek up for a second and catch Lily’s knowing gaze.

“No idea. Gonna make a call to Ortega today and tell him to check his boy scout.”

“Good idea.”

“Spread the word though.”

“Yeah. Will do,” Griz answers. “I’m gonna head out to the casino for a few hours and check on things. Then I’ll make the rounds. Figure I won’t be able to make it to the hospital until around five though.”

“No problem. I’m headed up to Santa Fe with Bodie and Taz. But we’ll be back by then so we’ll meet you there.”

A couple of minutes later, the front door opens and Dozer comes strolling into the clubhouse with a gym bag over his shoulder. He’s in gray basketball shorts and a red Under Armour tank top. “God, it smells fuckin’ good in here.” He smiles at me. “Did you save me some, babe?”

Bodie responds before I can. “Nope. Ate the last piece of bacon myself. And let me tell you that shit”—he pats his belly—“was fuckin’ good. You snooze you lose, brother.”

Dozer ignores him and gives me a questioning look. We talked about this before he left. “Babe?”

“That depends.”

Dozer sidles up to the bar, and takes the seat next to Rigor, whose sticking around though he’s finished eating, because he’s on babysitting duty.

“Oh yeah, on what?”

Mav says something I don’t catch. Out of my peripheral vision, I see him push his plate away roughly.

“Did you pick up a paper so I can look at the jobs section?” I do want to look for jobs, but it also dawned on me this morning that if Dozer got me a newspaper, I’d also be able to check it to see if my story’s still as big as it was weeks ago.

Dozer leans over and I hear him unzip his bag. He places a newspaper on the bar top.

“You a paperboy now, D?” Griz asks.

“Thank you.” I reach for it, and try to pull it away.