Zephyr Chapter 13
I stood there, taking in the scene before us. Three men were bent over, bleeding and moaning. Two women were crying, with one missing hair and the other holding her bleeding nose and lip. Next to them stood my club sisters and my shieldmaiden.
They were calm, with not a scratch on them.
I expected that from Spoiler and Slayer, but I was surprised by Everlyn, I admit.
But it was clear she’d taken care of the one missing hair, because part of it was still hanging from my woman’s hand.
At that moment, Everlyn seemed to realize it, and she shook her hand to get it off, grimacing with distaste.
“Do you know where I can get one like her?” Harbinger asked. There was a slight awe in his tone that made me want to laugh.
“You’re going to pay for what you did,” one of the men threatened hoarsely. He had a busted nose and streaming, hatred-filled eyes.
“Seems to me that if you are the ones hurt, it’s you who paid for what you did,” Raider remarked.
“What happened here?” Pirate asked our three before I could.
Spoiler and Slayer gave a short, concise recounting. Everlyn remained silent, but she seemed to be fine. She nodded along, confirming their story.
“Ah, so you’re one of those clubs,” Raider stated when they were done. He directed it at the three Wanderers. I’d never heard of their club, but that wasn’t unusual. They were from Georgia, according to their cuts.
“What does that mean?” The blond guy, Tree—according to his cut—asked. They slowly straightened as the pain faded.
I noticed several of my brothers were facing outward, watching to see if more Wanderers joined the mix and tried to get a jump on us, or anyone else who might be an ally to them.
“It means, dumbass, that you’re a bunch of stupid fucks who think women can’t be in a club.
And those like ours who allow them are somehow weak, pussies, as you called us.
I think you should reconsider your views.
If women are weak, like you think, and these three clearly handled your asses, then that makes you the pussies,” Invader taunted.
His words got chuckles out of the rest of us.
The three Wanderers’ faces flushed red. I saw their fists clench.
Before they could say anything, the blonde with the missing hair spoke.
Her voice was a low whine that made me want to be deaf.
Neither woman was an old lady. They wore no property cuts.
Based on their appearance and clothing, they were club hóror.
“Showtime, teach them a lesson. That bitch broke my nose,” the blonde woman whined. She was speaking to the brown-haired guy whose cut identified him as a member.
“Shut up, Heidi,” Showtime snapped at her. She did as he said, but she wasn’t happy about it.
“Are you gonna let them get away with disrespecting the club like this?” The redheaded woman asked.
“Prissy, you and Heidi need to keep your mouths shut and let us handle this. Women don’t run our club, especially sluts,” Tree replied harshly.
“Enough! All of you, be quiet. You don’t know who you’ve just made an enemy of,” the last bit of his remark, Caves, the treasurer, directed to us.
“We’re not worried. The only reason anything popped off was that you thought you could run your mouth to our sisters and Zephyr’s old lady and get away with it.
You learned you were wrong. We don’t go looking for trouble, but if it comes at us, we will take care of it.
And we’ll hit back three times as hard. Take my advice.
Walk away and let it go. If you don’t, you won’t like it,” Raider warned.
His tone was lethal, and you’d have to be totally stupid not to hear it. Some flicker of common sense must’ve ignited in their brains, because I saw the wariness overcome them. It was like they just noticed they were outnumbered four to one. Not good odds at all.
Caves broke eye contact and signaled his guys.
Tree and Showtime latched onto the arms of the two women.
They protested until they saw the men’s faces, then they shut up.
Slowly, all five backed up. My brothers made a hole for them to pass through.
When they were outside our circle, Caves said one more thing.
“Watch your backs,” he said.
“We always do. Better watch yours even more,” Harbinger said in a clipped tone.
We watched until they’d faded away. When they were gone, I turned back to Everlyn. She wore a concerned expression. I put my arm around her.
“Welcome to your first biker rally. What a way to start it,” I smirked.
“We didn’t mean to cause trouble or get a club coming for everyone,” my woman replied.
“You didn’t cause it. They did. And if they’re dumb enough to come at us, they’ll be put in their place, like you put those two women in theirs. Gotta say, I love seeing you can protect yourself. Is this an example of Jeremiah preparing you again?” I asked.
A small smile twisted her mouth. “I started it when I was in the group home, but he added a lot to it. He insisted that Allegra and I both learn self-defense as well as how to shoot.”
“Shit, too bad she wasn’t able to come with us. I would’ve loved to see what the two of you do together.” Barbarian remarked.
Allegra had been invited, but she had prior plans she couldn’t change. We promised her we’d take her with us another time.
Wanting to get Everlyn’s mind off worrying about what the Wanderers would or wouldn’t do, I turned her back to the vendor they’d been shopping with. He stood there, without concern. Clearly, he was a veteran of biker events.
“Ladies, I still have your stacks. Is there anything else you’d like to buy?” he asked.
It took several moments before all of us diverted Everlyn enough to re-engage in her shopping. We remained close to them, keeping an eye out for trouble.
?
As the day turned into evening and then night, Everlyn relaxed fully when there were no run-ins with members of the Wayward Wanderers MC. We remained on alert but didn’t let them spoil our fun.
The ladies did a fair amount of shopping.
The brothers who would have empty saddlebags and sea bags on the return home teased them about how much they’d charge to transport their stuff back.
That caused a fair amount of razzing back and forth, and Everlyn was right there doing it. She was fitting in nicely with my club.
We’d taken breaks, ate more when the mood hit us, and admired bikes galore.
As it got dark, we listened to a live band.
Tomorrow we planned to explore more of Gainesville, or so we said, but we also planned to look for possible other pickup locations for our businesses.
We hadn’t done that before, but we saw the wisdom in expanding our network to encompass more of Florida and then in Alabama, to have Ragnarok, their president, do the same.
We called it a night about twenty minutes ago. We took our bikes, left the rally area, and went to the campground we were staying at. The hotels and camping sites for miles around were booked solid. I’d told Everlyn we wouldn’t be sleeping on the ground. It hadn’t been a lie.
It was true, we’d slept in hellish conditions many times over the long centuries, and could again, if we had to.
We didn’t need to this time. Yes, officially, the place we were going was advertised as a private campground during events like this.
It was set up on a guy’s personal property.
He had twenty acres and made enough money from allowing intermittent year-round camping to cover his annual expenses and more.
Kenny, the owner, was an older guy who took no guff. He was surly at times, but that didn’t turn people off. We happened to help him out one time. We’d been down in this area a few years back and found him broken down along the road. We stopped, hauled his truck to his house with our crash truck.
Ordinarily, on a long ride, one of the prospects drove the crash truck, which carried spare parts, tools, and more to fix a breakdown and, if it was bad enough, haul an unridable bike home.
We used it that time to help Kenny get back to his place.
We chose not to bring ours this time, so Thor and Sea Rover got to enjoy riding, too.
After we got Kenny home, he told us to look him up if we were ever in the area and needed a place to stay.
We did. In addition to the open fields where people camped in tents and campers, he had a select number of cabins that he had built.
He rented those out at premium prices, but they were worth it.
And Kenny always gave us a discount. My shieldmaiden wouldn’t be sleeping on the hard, uncomfortable ground or getting cold.
When we entered Kenny’s land and rode up to the cabins, I knew Everlyn was surprised.
I saw her face in the mirror lit up by the outdoor lights that had been left on for us.
We parked our bikes under the carports between the cabins.
Each of the cabins had room for six to twelve people, depending on whether you slept single or double in a bed.
They were all queen-size beds, not tiny twin ones where your feet hung off the end.
At home, I had a king-sized bed, but we could make do with a queen.
It was a good excuse to stay close to her all night.
In cabin one were Raider, Pirate, Invader, Berserker, and Thor. In cabin two were Harbinger, Icelander, Plunderer, Barbarian, Norse, and Sea Rover. That left Everlyn, Spoiler, Slayer, Fenrir, and me in the last one.
We took our things inside, including the toys. Everlyn looked around as we got everything situated and the rooms divided. Since we’d been in these cabins before, we’d talked ahead of time, so everyone knew which cabin and room was theirs.