12. Dax
DAX
Now that everyone was awake after my little morning show, we all got ready and decided to grab breakfast on the way to the warehouse. I tried to talk some of the guys to just head back to the compound so they could deal with their own business, but that turned out to be a bust.
“Little hellcat, if we don’t fix this problem, there won’t be a business for us to go back to.
They’re hunting you. If they take you out, our entire world changes, starting with turf battles for who will fill that power void.
Keeping you alive and well on top of helping to end this, is me protecting my assets as much as yours,” Eagle explained as he pulled up to the drive-thru window.
The aroma of the best breakfast burritos from the small mom-and-pop stand made my mouth water. “Don’t forget the hot sauce or an extra side of Madre’s special salsa,” I reminded from the back seat of the SUV.
“You’ve told me ten times already. I won’t forget,” Eagle muttered, passing off a paper sack to Void who was sitting as co-pilot.
Sprocket shook his head as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “Are you trying to start trouble, little rebel?”
“No…” I hedged. “I just like my food the way I like it. Food is my one thing, and right now, I need it to be something that doesn’t change on me.
I lost my home and everything in it, so I’m controlling what I can right now.
I know I always act like I’ve got my shit together, but after years of faking it ‘til I made it, it’s just habit. ”
“Wow,” Sprocket said, his brows shooting up at my words. “I wasn’t expecting you to be so self-aware about this moment. Normally, I have to pry it out of you when it comes to admitting your emotions.”
“Look, I’m trying, alright? You guys deserve that from me.
I ask a lot from you, being with me, and I don’t think I’d be able to handle everything the same way if I didn’t have you guys backing me up.
Maybe it’s just made me realize I don’t want to fuck this up,” I mumbled, turning to look out the window so I didn’t have to see Sprocket’s expression.
To my surprise, though, he didn’t have a comment or quip for me.
Instead, he just threaded his fingers through mine and gave them a squeeze.
Giving in to my curiosity, I looked up at him and only found love and understanding in his eyes at my words.
He pressed a kiss to my forehead, letting his lips linger before he spoke.
“Did I ever tell you our pasts are somewhat similar?”
“No, I mean, other than you saying you were an orphan who’s been through the system too,” I answered.
“My mother was a druggie and used to prostitute herself out to her dealers so she could get drugs. She never had any idea who my dad was since she didn’t even know she was pregnant with me until it was almost time for me to be born.
I’m sure you’re wondering how she was able to keep me.
She cleaned up her act enough to stay under the radar, needing the money she got from the government for me.
There was a nice neighbor lady, Betty, who used to look after me when Mom disappeared for days at a time.
She was my real mother and taught me what life could be like with someone who gave a shit about you.
Eventually, social services would catch wind of what was going on, and I’d get pulled from my mom.
She’d fake getting help and being sober until I was given back.
The day I knew was coming happened when I was ten.
Her habit finally killed her, and I was in the system for good until I ran away at sixteen.
Betty wanted to keep me, but she was too old and couldn’t take on the work of having a kid around all the time,” Sprocket shared as I rested my head against his shoulder.
“When I was living on the streets, I ended up meeting Donald, an ex-con who started his own repair shop for motorcycles. He took on the occasional car if he was short of work or a buddy needed help. He only employed other ex-cons as a way to help them out since you know how people feel about doing shit like that. After seeing me lurking around the shop for a week or so, he started giving me odd jobs to do as I learned, watching everything going on, paying me cash under the table until I was eighteen. That’s when he officially hired me and taught me everything I know about bikes and people.
Believe it or not, while he was in jail, he was working toward becoming a psychologist, but it seems that you can’t practice if you have a record.
Donald would have been one kick-ass therapist, that’s for damn sure.
He used it in other ways, helping guys stay out of gangs and really trying to help them get a better life. ”
Just by the tone of voice, I knew this story wasn’t going to have a happy ending. “What happened to him?”
“He helped the wrong guy leave his gang and got shot for it. Seems the leader didn’t like that all his top people were turning their backs on him and the crew, so he eliminated the threat.
He shot him point-blank in the head right in front of me.
He was protecting me. That gang leader was the first man I killed and when I decided that living a clean life wasn’t in the cards for me,” Sprocket answered.
“When did you meet Eagle and Picasso?” I questioned, hoping to change to a lighter topic.
Sprocket let out a huff of laughter. “After Donald died and I killed the gang leader, I left town and came up to LA where I started working in the underground bike racing, ticking out everything imaginable. It didn’t take much convincing if I’m being honest. Those two showed up in my life right after everything went down with their uncle.
They were working on starting their own crew and Eagle, the cocky bastard, wanted the best of the best working on their bikes so they came to me.
I could tell how fucked up the brothers were after everything went down, and they understood me while offering the first glimpse of a real family.
So there I was with the two of them at ground zero of the Phantom Saints.
The next person we brought in was Cognac, then Void to round out the team. ”
“So you’ve been with them the longest,” I mused out loud. “Guess that’s why everyone in the crew respects you so much.”
“That has nothing to do with it. People only respect those they fear or trust. The stronger of the two would be founded through trust, but fear is just as useful in the right situations,” Sprocket pointed out.
I hummed in agreement, thinking about the fact that was how people viewed Two Tricks.
The people of the Empire feared him and the wrath he’d bring down on them if they did something wrong.
Now Dax, the enforcer, they respected out of trust, knowing I was tough but fair in my dealings with people.
Cross me, and you were dead. If I discovered the real story before my temper got the better of me, I could be known to see reason.
Maybe this was why people had been accepting the fact I was now in charge so easily—I’d already earned their respect where Tricks hadn’t, not really.
“We’re here, hurry up so we can eat,” Cognac called out, shaking me out of my thoughts.
Getting out of the SUV, I looked at the building where I almost died and waited, half expecting to have some kind of freak-out moment.
The warehouse’s dull white aluminum siding didn’t offer up any feelings other than the familiarity of working in this place for years.
The sounds of the shipping yard were loud and busy, but that too was normal, like everything that happened to me just seemed like a dream.
I guess it had only been two maybe three weeks since that night, but I guess I felt like so much had changed that this should too.
Sprocket gave me a questioning look, but I just smiled and headed in toward my office.
The large open space we’d had emptied out for the meeting was full of the normal shipping containers we used to smuggle our goods in and out of the country.
Typing in the code for the door, it beeped, allowing me to turn the handle and shove the door open.
My office was just as I’d left it when I headed out for that meeting, again showing no signs of what I’d gone through.
Maybe I was making too big a deal out of this.
It wasn’t like it was the first time I’d been shot.
That had to be it—prolonged exposure to things or something along those lines.
I wasn’t reacting because it wasn’t that big of an event, and I was already working on a plan to pay back those who tried to take me out.
“Sit wherever you can find a spot, not that there’s a whole ton of room. Wes’s office is bigger since he has all the computer shit in it,” I commented as I plopped down in my chair behind the desk.
“I didn’t know what your office would look like, but now I’ve seen it, it totally fits you. You always did love a good black-and-white contrasting moment with splashes of red,” Cam shared as he started to poke around.
“Leave my shit alone and eat your breakfast,” I grumbled, tossing a rubber band ball at him that bounced harmlessly off his back.
Void set the two bags of food on the desk, and I tore through them to get mine as my stomach grumbled, knowing it was about to get fed.
Once I procured my burrito that was the size of my forearm and the condiments, I set to work eating.
“It’s like we never feed her,” Picasso commented as he was handed his burrito. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so protective of their food.”