Chapter 4
VIKTOR
Ithink this party had already been going on for hours when Teddy called me earlier. The room looks alive with kinetic energy as I walk in.
The bar makes up the entire entrance to the club, booths and tables along the side wall, a pool table in the center back of the room, and a long bar on the opposite wall where a good chunk of the bikers are gathered.
There’s music playing from the jukebox in the corner.
Nothing that I’m into. Teddy and most of the guys like varying degrees of Southern rock.
On a night like tonight, the vibe is somewhere between that and country music.
At the moment, the crowd is in a nice groove.
Some of the bikers are dancing with scantily clad women in leather skirts and tight T-shirts, their hands firmly gripping the asses of their partners.
A couple more are loudly arguing over a pool game, and several are engaged in a poker game at a large table near the back of the room.
I spot Teddy among those at the table and make my way there.
I can tell his bald head anywhere. He’s leaning over his cards with his great shoulders hunched, a toothpick balanced in the side of his mouth.
The scruffy, mostly gray beard that he’s had probably since he was born has been trimmed down since I last saw him.
It was almost down the front of his barrel chest before. Guess he got tired of that look.
Along the way, I feel pats on my shoulder along with other greetings from the other bikers.
This is my second family, a collection of brothers who ride motorcycles and live by a similar code, but somehow, I’ve always felt a little more connected with them.
This was the place that Nikita called home on the nights when he couldn’t face Nikolai.
Teddy sees me and sets his cards down, nudging the nearest biker to him and telling him not to look at his hand. He walks over and gives me a hearty hug. “Comrade,” he says with a laugh. “It’s about damned time you got here. These fuckers have been ripping me off all night.”
We walk back to the table and everyone greets me warmly. “Hey, Vik!”
“It’s about time!”
“The party can really start now!”
Everybody except for Dodge, anyway. He’s sitting on Teddy’s opposite side, staring down at his cards. He’s got a thin face to match his thin, wiry frame and pointed nose. The most he gives me is a quick glance to acknowledge I’m there, then back to his cards, his mouth twisted up distastefully.
“Pull up a chair,” said Teddy. “Let’s make the game more interesting.”
“Maybe the next hand,” I say. “What I would really like is a drink. It’s been a long ass night.”
Teddy looks past me to the bartender, points at me, and nods. The bartender gives him a thumbs up and pulls a bottle of beer from behind the bar, handing it to one of the scantily clad women.
“So, how’s His Majesty King Nikolai doing?” Teddy says as he sits back down and picks up his cards. “All’s well in the region, I hope?”
I grab a nearby chair just as the pretty young thing from the bar hands me a cold beer. “All’s well,” I answer. I take a swig of the beer, and it tastes good. Bitter and sweet like juniper berries. I glance down at the label. It isn’t one that I recognize.
Teddy laughs. “A shipment of them fruity IPAs fell off a truck the other day,” he said.
“It’s not usually our thing, but since champagne ain’t our style…
” The others laugh at that. “We all thought tonight would be a good time to break into it. You know, just as a little something special. Not bad, eh?”
“Not bad at all. It’s definitely unexpected.”
“Say, if you’re not playing,” Dodge says, “can you shut the fuck up so the rest of us can concentrate?”
The collective reaction is immediate. The other bikers at the table either glare at him or look down at their hands with raised eyebrows. Teddy immediately jumps in.
“What’s the matter? That hamster getting tired of running on its wheel?”
Snickers and laughter sound all around the table. I’m not laughing. Dodge scowls and says, “I got serious money on this hand. I don’t need the distraction. Or the bad luck.”
“Then fold,” Teddy says. His tone’s still light, but everyone can hear the command in his words. “Pretty clear to me you’ve got a shit hand.”
Dodge doesn’t respond. He clears his throat and goes back to his cards.
I watch them play the hand as everyone jokes and drinks. In the end, Teddy wins the hand. He grabs the pile of cash and pulls it toward him, arranging it in neat stacks. “Deal me in,” I say.
We play and talk and for this moment, I forget my troubles, but I remember Nikita the most. This was where he could cut his teeth outside of the radius of his father’s spies.
“You know something?” Teddy says out of the blue. “Nicki would have loved this.”
I snicker. “Sure. He’d be in the back getting his dick sucked.”
“Might’ve been better off,” says Scam, one of the bikers with brown skin and a mohawk. Teddy’s right hand. “Ain’t had a good hand all night.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Teddy says. “He was a mean poker player. I used to say he hid aces in his hair.”
We all break out in laughter. Nikita’s curly brown hair had gone through a dozen stages when he was younger before he decided to cut it short about a year before his death. It still curled up in little cowlicks when it was wet, but at least it looked less like a mop.
“It was better after he cut it,” I say. “Way better. He looked like an adult.”
“I’m out.” Dodge slaps his hand on the table bitterly.
“Smart move,” said Teddy. Dodge just gives him an annoyed look.
“Hey,” said Scam, “Word on the street is that his daughter’s back from Europe.” He starts snapping his fingers. “What was her name?”
“Tatiana,” I say.
“Right, right. You know, Heila works at the airport. She said that Nikolai had his goons drag her back.” Scam pauses and looks at me. “No offense.”
“None taken,” I say.
Scam laughs. “Anyway, she told me that King Nick’s daughter got into some trouble overseas and that’s why he had her brought back home.”
“What kind of trouble?” Teddy asks, and Scam shrugs.
“I mean, what kind of trouble could a young girl get into overseas?”
“Depends on where she was.”
I lean back to separate myself from the conversation. I can almost feel them circling around to ask me my thoughts about all that.
“Probably selling pussy,” Dodge says as he lights up a cigarette. “It’s legal in some countries over there.”
That makes me look up and lock back into the conversation. “That’s not possible,” I say.
Dodge takes a drag from his cigarette and asks, “How do you know? Were you one of the goons who brought her back?”
“I know because she’s Nikolai’s daughter.” I give him a hard glare. “Not some random girl looking for thrills. There’s no way in Hell he’d let that fly, and everyone knows that. Especially her.”
“Never said he did,” Dodge says with a little shrug. “But he sends his guys to Europe to bring his daughter back to the States instead of just paying for her ticket to come back on her own. Sounds like something happened he had to drag her away from.”
“Maybe she had a boyfriend or something,” says Scam, clearly trying to veer the conversation in another direction. I’m not about to let it go.
I set my cards down and lean onto the table, lean in toward him. If he’s got something to say, I’m daring him to do it to my face. “So, you think she was over there whoring herself out, then?”
“I think that whatever she was doing, it was enough for King Nick to drag her back. That’s all.
” He takes another drag from his cigarette.
“Not my fault that the shit’s legal over there.
Pretty young thing like her ends up in another country on her own and needs to make easy money?
Why not do something strange for some change? ”
I smile at him, but it’s more like a dog showing his teeth. There’s nothing on earth I would enjoy more than beating the fuck out of him right now.
Teddy says, “Dodge, why don’t you go check those kegs? Make sure we’re not running out of the house special.”
He waves his cigarette toward the bartender. “That’s Sandy’s job—”
“Well, I’m making it yours.” Teddy stares at him, and I see a silent communication jump between them. Dodge averts his eyes almost immediately and leaves the table. Once he’s gone, he says, “Sorry about that, Vik. Dodge can’t help himself. He’s a fucking idiot.”
I snicker. Dodge doesn’t know it, but Teddy might’ve saved his life. If a fight had broken out, Dodge might not see tomorrow. I’m not in the habit of losing fights. I play to win.
It’s almost dawn. Teddy and I are sitting up on the roof of the club watching twilight change from darkness to light. Orange and yellow streaks are starting to appear on the horizon and within the hour, it’ll be morning.
The party went on as parties do at the club. Drinking, arguments, even a few small dust-ups around the bar. For the Red Devils, it was just another Saturday night.
For me, it was a chance to spend some time remembering my friend. It’s something that’s special to me. More than even Teddy knows. We’re sitting on folding chairs the way the three of us used to at the end of a party, drinking the last of the beers and sharing a joint.
No weed tonight, but that’s fine. I’m getting too old for that shit, anyway.
I raise my bottle and nudge his arm. He glances over at me, smiles, and clinks my bottle with his. “Here’s to good times past, present, and future.”
“Hear, hear,” he says. We take a swig from our bottles. Then we sit in silence listening the muffled sounds of the party raging on under our feet mixed with the silence of dusk. Teddy says, “So, I noticed Cindy making eyes at you tonight.”
I think for a moment. “Which one’s Cindy?”
“The blonde with the tits.” I glance dumbly at him. That doesn’t narrow it down. He rolls his eyes. “Sparkle mini-skirt and dangly earrings.”
The image of a young woman with tits so big they were busting out of her shirt and a sequined mini-skirt that just barely covered her pink panties comes to mind.
“Hmm,” I say as I take a swig.
“That’s it? ‘Hmm?’ That’s all you got to say?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Not in the mood, I guess. The girls who hang around here kind of run together in my mind. The last bunch of times, it was like I was fucking the same girl over and over again.”
He snorts a laugh. “The last bunch of times was at least a year ago, partner. You must be pent up. Get your rocks off while the getting’s good.”
I shake my head. I don’t know why, but I’m just not in the mood, I suppose. “I’m good. Thanks for thinking of the welfare of my dick for me.”
“Yeah.” He laughs. “Somebody’s got to if you ain’t gonna do it.”
We drink and listen to the beat of the music for a little longer. Then Teddy says, “Listen, there’s something I need to give you a heads up about.”
“What’s up?”
He pauses, his eyes scanning the horizon for a moment. “Somebody’s been asking questions about that night,” he says. “More accurately, about Nicki.”
I take another swig of beer. “Anybody that I should be worried about?”
“Not sure. One of my associates has been approached, though. You know Chivita’s Car Repair on Morton Rd?
” I nod. “The owner, Greg Guerrero, is a buddy of mine from my time in Joliet back in the day. He told me he had a customer who started asking about the kind of car that Nicki used to drive. Asking about how often the brakes failed or if there was ever a recall surrounding that.”
I take that in, drinking my beer. “They didn’t name Nicki, specifically?”
“Not that Greg mentioned, no. But it’s a little suspicious, don’t you think?”
I look at Teddy curiously. “Sounds like a coincidence to me. What happened to Nicki was fucked up, but it was an accident.”
“Yeah… so everybody’s said.”
I sigh and finish my beer. This is an old conversation. Teddy has brought this up every so often, poking holes in what the police reported on the accident. I’ve never refuted anything that Teddy’s said, however. It’s just a theory, and anyway, I can’t remember one way or the other.
“The thing is,” Teddy continues, “I’ve been in this game for most of my life. So has Greg. We’ve learned to watch out for people asking questions they know they shouldn’t be asking. And he wouldn’t have brought this to me if it didn’t raise alarms.”
“So, what are you saying, exactly?”
“I’m saying…” He sighs, taking a moment to mentally rephrase whatever he’s about to say. “All I’m saying is keep your eyes open. That’s all. Something’s brewing about that whole thing, and I’d hate it if you got caught by surprise.”
I take that and nod solemnly. “Thanks for telling me. I’ll keep it in mind.”
Teddy gives me a smile in the dim twilight and says, “That’s all I ask.” He groans and stands up, stretching his back until it pops. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a woman waiting for me.”
I snicker. “Have fun, man.”
“I always do.”
I watch him walk to the ladder at the edge of the roof and climb down. I sit for a little longer, watching twilight as it starts to change the sky at the horizon.
There’s always trouble brewing somewhere, always something hiding just beyond my line of sight.
Let’s hope I see it before it hits.