Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
He looks up. “Here?”
“Yeah, Lo. She’d come hang out here with you.”
He nods. “ ‘K.”
I have to admit, I’m dying of curiosity. So far, I’ve only met the members, and they’re all men. If I understood correctly, Bonnie was the old president’s wife, or old lady I guess—look at me starting to use the right words—before he was killed, and Anne was adopted after some mess with a rich weapons dealer that I remember seeing in the news about a year and a half ago. I get the feeling there’s a lot more to the story than the news ever heard.
So I have no idea what to expect from them.
My brain is picturing chain smoking ladies in skimpy clothes with big hair and big attitudes, but I think that’s mostly just what I’ve seen on TV. The guys weren’t at all what I would’ve expected, so I should probably keep my prejudices in check.
When I open the door, I feel like I was half right. At least a little. Bonnie is a stocky lady in her early fifties, maybe. She’s wearing ripped jeans, a leather biker jacket and while her hair color isn’t wild, I’m pretty sure that red comes out of a bottle. She smiles broadly, taking me in just as much as I am her. I wonder what she thinks.
Anne, on the other hand, looks like a regular teenager. Jeans, a pink hoodie, and long blonde curls with a single pink streak running through them. You could’ve pulled her out of any high school and not known she’s protected by a whole club’s worth of bikers. In her hands she has a cardboard box that’s closed up. Her smile comes much more naturally, especially when she spots Logan, who’s watching the front door curiously.
“Hi, I’m Anne. You must be Logan.” She looks over at Lo with a slightly nervous smile.
He gets shy, ducking his head down and focusing on the motorcycle toy in his hand.
I have to laugh. “Hi, Anne. Nice to meet you. I’m Dakota, and yes, that would be Logan.”
“Why don’t you go over and say hi? You can get to know each other while me and Dakota shoot the shit.” The slight rasp in Bonnie’s voice is almost exactly what I would’ve expected from an old biker chick.
“Sure. Nice to meet you too,” she says over her shoulder before bringing the box over to Logan. She puts it on the floor in front of the TV. “I hear you like motorcycles. Have you ever played video games?” And then she opens the box, pulling out a video game system and controllers. “They’re a little tricky to start, but there’s a motorcycle one that I think you’ll really like. We can play together, would you like that?”
And that’s all it takes for her to have Logan on her side, hook, line and sinker.
Bonnie laughs. “She’ll keep a good eye on him. She knows what it’s like to be the only kid in the clubful of bikers. Got coffee or anything?”
“Oh, sorry, yeah, of course. Let’s go to the kitchen.” I gesture the way, like she probably doesn’t know the place better than I do. “I haven’t been here long, but I’m sure there’s something.”
I look over my shoulder at Anne and Logan as we switch rooms. Anne’s obviously an old hand at setting this stuff up. She’s already done plugging it in, and is patting the rug next to her for Logan to come sit. He runs over excitedly, bringing his motorcycles and the stuffed toys with him. His eyes are huge as a cartoony motorcycle game starts up on the screen. “Dirk Mayhem!” a deep man’s voice declares.
“Don’t worry. If you don’t want him spending too much time in front of screens, just let her know and she’ll handle it. She’s a smart girl,” Bonnie says proudly, rummaging through the cabinets over the kitchen counter.
“It’s fine. I don’t have a game system at home but some of his friends with older siblings do. Right now there’s so much stuff going on that I’m just happy if he’s happy.” I pull a bakery box out of the fridge. “Lash brought these over earlier. He said you’d approve.”
Bonnie glances over. “Oooh, DiMarcellos!”
I cut the string holding the box closed and check out the selection while she gets the coffee machine going. When she sees the options, her eyes light up almost as much as Logan’s did when Anne pulled out the video games.
She grins. “Lash always was one of my favorites. He’s a sweet kid at heart.”
The thought of Lash as a ‘sweet kid’ makes me laugh.
Soon after, we’re sipping coffee and I’m devouring a bear claw while Bonnie enjoys her apple fritter. She’s right, they’re fantastic. In the living room, Logan is laughing with his whole chest at something in the game, while Anne yells at the TV about something being impossible.”