Chapter 5 Denver #2
“Speaking of assholes,” he grumbled to himself, as he saw some dick harassing Johnny on the dance floor.
The guy had his hands on Johnny, around his arm, and he pulled him like he was trying to get Johnny to go with him, but Johnny had other ideas.
He shook his head and tried to pull away.
Pilot wasn't going to have that shit. Why did assholes think any slim dude on the floor wanted to get fucked in the bathroom?
Johnny just wanted to dance and maybe meet a few new people.
He didn't want to hump every guy grinding on him.
Pilot stood up and took a long drink out of Johnny's untouched glass, then marched out to the floor before his friend got dragged off.
He grabbed the guy's wrist and shook it a little.
“Let go!” he roared at the guy. This guy was almost as big as Pilot.
He wore cowboy boots with faded jeans and a Florida Georgia Line t-shirt with their name and motto scripted in a circle in fancy writing.
Pilot didn't care. He looked into the guy’s face.
He had a scruffy beard and a mustache and an incredulous look on his face like he was used to getting his way and had no idea why Pilot would be interrupting him.
“Mine,” the cowboy mouthed, gripping Johnny's arm harder, making him squeak.
Pilot shook his head and yanked Johnny back, inserting himself between them. “Fuck off, dude. He doesn't want to go with you.”
The guy let go and took a step backwards. He held his hands up in front of him in a peace offering, like he didn't want trouble. His face softened and he seemed to be saying it was a misunderstanding with his body language.
Pilot gave him a curt nod, content to let him walk away. He started to turn to Johnny when the guy yelled, “Hey!”
Pilot flinched back and the asshole cowboy took a swing; his knuckles clipped against Pilot’s jaw.
Pilot rolled with the punch. He took a step, re-balancing, and then swung back.
His punch hit the guy’s face, full force.
Johnny hollered out something unintelligible and grabbed Pilot's shoulder.
The cowboy hit the floor. Pilot kicked out at his prone body.
“Asshole!” Even wearing a pair of L.L. Bean loafers, Pilot could do some serious damage.
His legs were no joke, either, bulging in his Levi's.
Johnny tugged at his bomber jacket. “Come on.”
He turned to leave with Johnny, but they weren't fast enough.
He pushed right up against the bouncer, and this guy was bigger than Pilot.
That was rare. Broady was the only guy he knew that came close to intimidating Pilot with his size, but they were partners and worked together.
This bouncer was a different story with his face mashed into a scowl that screamed out his desire to crush something.
Either that or he wore his underwear too tight.
The guy grabbed Pilot by the shoulders. “Out. Now,” he growled into Pilot's ear.
He could have fought the guy, could have made a bigger scene, but the music had stopped and most everyone had vacated the dance floor, choosing to stand around it staring and waiting for more entertainment.
Nope. Pilot wasn't going to give it to them.
A second bouncer had his hand on Johnny's back, gently guiding him out of the club beside Pilot and his own bouncer.
“It's cool. I'm gone.” He let them be escorted to the front of the club and out the glass doors without a fight.
Possibly getting arrested wasn't worth it and Pilot had accomplished his task anyway.
Out on the street, Johnny shoved his brown and blond highlights out of his angry face.
He wore his contacts so Pilot could really see his expressive eyes, and his thin lips pressed into a frown that dragged his cheeks down.
The center of his face was wide with his eyes set kind of far apart with high, sharp cheek bones, and a long, strong jaw.
“Can we go to the Apollo now? I wasn't done.”
“Done?”
“Dancing. You fucker. Why do you have to pull shit like that?” He started marching off, not giving Pilot a chance to answer. “Did you book a fight? I saw you talking to that dirty fucker.”
Pilot didn't answer, just grunted and followed after Johnny.
Johnny kept moving, kept talking. “At least you didn't have your gun.”
Pilot lifted the tail of his button down shirt and flashed the butt of his gun.
“I'm always armed.” He had his .38 Ruger LCR, or lightweight concealed revolver, in his tuckable holster on his front right hip.
In social situations, it was almost never needed, but he'd never go anywhere unprotected.
After four years in the service and a good hard year working for Uncle Gary, he knew better.
“I should have known,” Johnny said with a sly smile. “I'd felt your back earlier and you'd never have gotten in the club with one at your back.”
Pilot winked at him. Not too many people carried in the front, but Pilot had practiced this and knew what he could get away with in most situations. “I know what I'm doing J-man.” He was licensed to carry concealed, but clubs don’t allow guns there and Pilot couldn’t blame them.
“Oh, don't even fucking call me that.” Johnny flipped him off and marched off. “Fuck the club. Let's get milkshakes and just hang out.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah. I, uh, don't feel like dancing any more. That's all. Come on.”
They made it back to their side of the city early, and after dropping Johnny off, Pilot called his sister. He put her on speaker phone when she answered. “Hey, sis. You up?”
“No, jackass. I had to answer the damn phone anyway. What the hell do you want at this—. Shit, it's two in the morning, Sean.”
“Pilot.”
“What-the-fuck-ever. At two a.m., I'll call you whatever the hell I want.” She sounded sleepy and grumpy, but he could also hear the affection she had for him. It was nice to hear that from family again, even when she was bitching him out.
“Okay. So, uh, can you call Colin and get him to back off of Johnny?”
Sheila groaned. “That couldn't wait until a reasonable hour? He's always fucking with Johnny.”
“He showed up at his work demanding discounted services.”
Sheila laughed like she couldn’t believe what Pilot had just said.
“Wh-What? Fuck! What kind of service?” Pilot could tell she was holding back some smart ass comment.
His sister was a no-nonsense, foul mouthed, hard assed, bitch, and he loved her beyond reason.
He could live without the other assholes in his family, especially Colin, but not her.
Pilot could bet his entire savings that getting his family to come around to accepting him had been all Shelia’s doing, one hundred percent of it.
“Sis. I'm serious. He can't keep doing this and if I have to deal with it, I'm just going to shoot the fucker.”
“Okay, okay,” she sighed. “I'll take care of it. I suppose he wants help with his business mess?”
“Yes, but instead of asking nice, he just barges in.
Demands. At a discount. And I know for a fact his mess is worth extra if Johnny sorts him out.
Colin can't even keep his shit straight.
I'm surprised that dive hasn't closed yet.” His brother Colin owned a small, very small, auto shop.
He had good people working for him, though and he paid those people well and never fell behind on his suppliers, but outside of that, he was a mess.
If his staff didn't carry more than their share, he would have gone under years ago.
It wasn't Pilot's place to judge, though. At least his brother had a somewhat successful business and really, he wouldn’t mind Johnny helping him, but only the right way.
“Fine. I'll talk to him and get him to apologize. We done?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, love you baby-boy.” She hung up before he could answer, but he didn't blame her.
Sheila knew he loved her. He didn't need to say it.
Sheila was the only one of his family that didn't change toward him when he came out.
She took it in stride, like she'd known all along, and she probably had.
She was ten years older than him, and had been his primary caregiver as a child.
Hell, his parents had never really been there for him before he came out, so it didn't surprise him that they weren't there since.
He went a long time without speaking to them since that day and had only started those conversations back up recently. Thanks to Sheila.
He pulled into his dark driveway and cringed.
Johnny's parents hadn't been much better.
In fact, worse, they assumed that he and Johnny were boyfriends.
Ugh! Nightmare. They were too much like brothers for anything romantic to ever happen.
At least Johnny had his uncle, and well, Pilot did, too.
That thought made him smile as he went into his lonely, empty little house.