Chapter Nine
THE NEXT REASON WHY having Rocket around was turning out to be a bad idea was two days later, when my daughter Leah popped by to see me, and caught his eye.
I watched her walk through the door, and fuck me, she looked more and more like an adult every day.
At seventeen, she was already learning to drive a damn car, but I knew she’d come here today on that fucking scooter, and why it bothered me that she was on two wheels alone, I don’t know.
Hypocritical, but that’s parenting for you. Don’t do as I do, right?
“Hey, kiddo, is that for me?”
I saw Rocket’s head pop up from behind his counter, which was still covered with stuff while he and Has-Been worked on setting up the rest of his kit.
Turns out bikers don’t get much done once they’re all shooting the shit, and Grease’s visit the other day had slowed things down more than I realised.
I stepped in his way so he couldn’t see her, and hugged her carefully so I didn’t crush what I really hoped was my lunch.
“Hey dad, I grabbed a burger from your favourite greasy hellhole.” She passed me the bag and stepped around me to the coffee machine, and I turned to catch Rocket’s eyes travelling over her in a way that sent a chill down my spine.
“Eyes off my fucking daughter, Rocket.”
His eyes darted to me and his mouth dropped open. “Daughter? The fuck, man, oh… sorry, didn’t mean to swear. Shit!”
She was giggling, and I didn’t want her finding him anything other than abhorrent, because she’s my kid and if I can encourage her to avoid sex for her entire life, I’ll do just that.
“You’re not in a church, prick. Just get your pervy eyes off her, or you’ll have to learn to do that job blind.”
“Dad!” Leah swatted my arm, and tried to approach Rocket, and that was a hell no from me.
I caught her with my arm around her shoulders, and steered her away from him to the seat by my counter.
“Sit.”
“I’m not a kid, dad!” Fuck that. Even when she’s older than I am now, she’ll still be my damn child.
“He’s a real dick, Leah. You don’t want to waste your breath talking to him. Oh, he smells too.”
“Oi, you fucker! I’m Rocket, love. Nice to meet you.”
Was he fucking approaching her now? Hell THE FUCK no to that too.
I got in his way and shook my head, pointing back to his corner.
“You know you’re behind getting set up, man. Can you just do your thing while my little girl visits me, can you just do that?”
I heard her grumbling about being referred to as my little girl, but I didn’t care.
Rocket stared at me for a moment, like he was considering pushing things, but then he just rolled his eyes and turned back to his little area.
I should have thought this through. I didn’t consider who I was giving him access to when I let him come here.
I followed him to the spray booth and leaned close, while he watched me warily.
“That’s my daughter, and nobody messes with her, okay? Not you, not any biker, nobody with a fucking dick goes near her.”
He shrugged. “I mean, I was just gonna say hi, man. Didn’t even know you had a daughter. You got a wife too? What about Caroline?”
I jabbed a finger at his chest. “I don’t have a wife, and it’s none of your business. It’s nobody’s business, so I’d appreciate you not mentioning her to anyone. I don’t want the likes of Stag sniffing around her.”
Rocket snorted, turning to grab a pile of papers that really needed to be properly organised, but he was an untidy fucker. I snatched them from him, tucking them under my arm as he laughed.
“You’d think you’d be nicer to me as you ask me for a favour, huh?”
“I’m about to organise your fucking paperwork for you, so take it as a thank you for your silence. Got it?”
He nodded, and waited until I’d reached Leah before he called out again.
“Oh, by the way, does it have to be Grease who does our security? I can’t stand the fucker.”
Leah giggled again, and I shot her a glare. Why did she always roll her eyes when I tried to act like a father, for god’s sake?
“Yes, it has to be him, and no, it’s not up to you, and stop swearing around my fucking daughter!”
“Dad-”
“I know. Now, while I eat this lukewarm lunch, thanks to that idiot, tell me what’s going on with you. How’s your mum and uh… I wanna say Mike?”
She wrinkled her nose at me. “Dad joke time, huh? You know his name is Matt. It’s always been Matt, and it always will be.”
I grinned as I unwrapped my burger. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Mitch.”
“So what’s going on back there? Is he one of your brothers from the club?” I stopped in the middle of biting into my burger. The club? What the fuck. I chewed rapidly and swallowed without tasting my food at all.
“Club?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, dad, it’s obvious you’re with a biker club.” No it fucking wasn’t, because I’d kept her and her mother, and my club life so fucking separate, it should be impossible to know.
“I’m not.”
She reached under the counter and lifted out my cut, smoothing her fingers over the VP patch. Fuck me. Because it was a surprise visit, I hadn’t hidden it like I normally did. And of course I’d sat her behind my counter, to hide her from Rocket. Once again, it was all that prick’s fault, wasn’t it?
“I uh…”
“VP? That’s a big deal, right? It looks new.” Yeah, it looked really pristine and new compared to the other patches, even though the cut itself was new from the patchover. I set my burger down, wiped my hands over my ass, and took the cut from her, tucking it back under the counter.
“You didn’t see that, you know nothing, and you’ll keep quiet, okay?”
She leaned on the counter, fiddling with the edge of my burger wrapper.
“Are… they’re not bad people, right? Mum said biker clubs are full of bad guys, and that I should be careful here in case you have them around.
” Well, fuck. It seems even an amicable split can lead to bitchiness at some point.
I wasn’t sure how Avril fucking knew about that side of my life, but I had a feeling it had to be Rocket’s fault too.
“I promise you these are good people, even that prick over there, and yes, I know I just told you he’s not, but…
fuck me, I didn’t expect to be explaining about this today.
” I looked across the shop to see Rocket watching me, and I knew he was listening.
Nosy fucker. I glared at him, and turned back to Leah, my little girl, the one person I’d do anything to keep club life away from.
I thought I’d succeeded until now. At least she hadn’t found out when I was in the Rogue Riders.
They were exactly the reason why I’d hidden this side of myself from her.
Phoenix were different though, weren’t they?
“Dad, if you’re the VP, then they must be. I know you wouldn’t be in charge of a group of assholes.” I glanced at Rocket again, because the jury was still out on that one.
“Look,” I said, picking up my burger again, although it was stone cold now dammit, “Yes, I’m a member of an MC, and yes, some can be really nasty pieces of work.
Phoenix MC are not that kind of club. They’re decent guys, we are.
We’re decent, we love motorcycles, hanging out at the clubhouse, and working together.
That’s why Rocket’s setting up in the back there, to do custom resprays, because our customer bases overlap. ”
“There’s a clubhouse?” She sat up straight, and I heard a bark of laughter from Rocket, and fuck me, why today? Why throw me for a loop today? Everything had been going so well.
“No. As far as you’re concerned, there’s no clubhouse. There’s no anything. You stay away from bikers, and I mean that.”
“Even-”
I gave her the dad glare, and she zipped her lips, but she looked worryingly intrigued by the whole thing, and that was a bad thing. A really bad thing.
After she left, I joined Rocket in the back and he showed me the spray booth setup, which Has had popped back to help with, thankfully missing Leah by about ten minutes.
“Looks good, man. Hey, I’m sorry about earlier. She kinda caught me on the hop. I’m usually prepared for her visits, but I fucked up today. I really do want to keep her away from the club and all things biker related if I can.”
“She rides a scooter, man.” I grinned, even though I hated the fucking thing.
“I know. And that’s as much of a two wheeled life as she’s getting, got it?”
Rocket tossed the last of his tools in his toolbox and slammed it shut.
“Wasn’t gonna try anything, man. I like them my age, or older, whatever. I’m not into kids.”
He hefted the toolbox, and grabbed his cut.
“You coming back to the clubhouse that doesn’t exist?”
Prick.
Caroline
IAGONISED FOR DAYS after the coffee date. Was it a date? Was it a pity invite? Did he want to see me again? Should I just go into the shop and say hi?
I’d been working on a web design project for days, but every time I tried to work on it, I found my mind wandering, and while that wasn’t unusual for me, it was delaying me enough that my client was going to get frustrated.
The last thing I wanted was a phone call to suffer through, so I had to force myself to focus on it.
Web design hadn’t been the dream, and in fact, the dream had changed a few times, as each led me to too many people, and too much pressure on my fragile soul.
I wasn’t cut out for offices, and meetings, and conference calls, and in person visits to sites, back when I was studying to be an architect.
Or for collaborations with teams, back when I was apprenticing in advertising.
Web design gave me the opportunity to work from home, to stay online rather than on a phone, and to surround myself with the home comforts that made me work better, to enhance my productivity.