Rise of the Phoenix: Phoenix Skulls Motorcycle Club: (Phoenix Skulls MC Romance Book 1) Read online

  The four of them sat and Rock presented them with the gifts they’d brought. Jace and Beck both seemed genuinely grateful, and Beck seemed particularly happy with the blankets. She set the third one aside and said, “Finn is out right now but when he gets back I’ll make sure he gets that.”

  “Finn,” Ajei said. “That’s an interesting name.”

  “He’s Irish,” Beck told her. “He’s only been in the US for about a year. He’s young and he has a lot to learn, but I think he’s a good kid, at heart.” Ajei could see in Beck’s eyes that she still had questions about the young Irishman. It wasn’t her business however, so she moved on.

  “Our son is the same,” she said. “I wish he could have come with us today. He keeps himself busy with his projects. He just recently graduated from college and hasn’t found a permanent job yet, but he never stops doing his own research.”

  “What kind of research does he do?” Beck asked.

  “He’s got a degree in environmental services,” Rock answered. “He’s interested in anything to do with the land and the indigenous plants and animals. Sometimes I think he should have gone for a degree in Native American studies instead. He has a lot of interest in our culture and history.” Ajei smiled. Her husband explained their son’s “obsession” much more diplomatically than she could. She opened her mouth to ask Beck if they had any children but was interrupted by the sound of a man’s voice, calling out for Jace. It was coming from outside, around the back of the house. The four of them jumped up and Ajei saw Rebekah grab a gun off the top of the refrigerator as they ran outside. Jace stopped first and Beck nearly ran into him before she came to a dead stop as well. Rock stood on the other side of Jace, looking at what had stopped them all in their tracks. Ajei saw it, and the young, heavily tattooed man with the long hair standing next to it, and then she turned to look at her husband. Rock wasn’t looking at her. Maybe that was good. Maybe if he looked at her she wouldn’t be able to hide the fear in her eyes or the fact that her heart was slamming into her rib cage. She sucked in a shaky breath and looked back in the direction the rest of them were still staring in.

  “What the fuck is that?” Beck said, appalled, with good reason.

  No one said anything for a long time. Rock still wouldn’t look at his wife. They all stared at the big tan-and-white jackrabbit...or what was left of him. It was simply a carcass, without a head, and the four feet had been nailed to a post behind the house. Written in what looked like blood above it were the words, “Go Away!”

  Ajei couldn’t see anything inside of her head at that moment other than the bloody fingers of her son. She was looking down at her own hands and she felt like she could see blood on them too. Rock finally glanced over at her and when she felt his eyes on her face, she looked up. She could see the worry pouring out of his dark eyes. She wanted to deny that her son did this. She couldn’t imagine Tommy killing any animal just for sport, much less mutilating it. But sadly, she had to admit if only to herself that since he’d come home from college, it seemed there were a lot of things about her son she didn’t know. She opened her mouth, ready to tell their new neighbors that she might know who did this and that she would take care of it, when Beck, clutching her gun tightly at her side and speaking through clenched teeth, said, “When I finish with the motherfucker who did this, that rabbit’s going to look like the lucky one.”

  2

  “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Tommy was asleep when his parents got back to the store. He’d been awakened by his dad’s pounding on the door. Ajei had done her best to get Rock to wait until morning to confront their son, but he’d been too angry. Normally Ajei was the only one that could calm her husband down when he was fired up, which didn’t happen often, but in this case his anger was fueled by shame and embarrassment as well.

  “It’s not bad enough that you’ve embarrassed and disgraced us, and disrespected our new neighbors, but now you’re going to look us in the eyes and lie? Where is my son? What have you done with him?”

  “I’m right here,” Tommy said, his eyes narrowing on his father. Ajei put her hand on Rock’s arm. His muscles were tight, like he was ready to fight. She hated seeing him that way with their son. It was like they had all become strangers. Rock shook her hand off as Tommy spat out, “Your son is right here being accused of doing something disgusting, and then lying about it to my own parents. How could you think that I would mutilate an animal for any reason?”

  “The blood,” Ajei whispered, sadly. “There was blood on your hands earlier.”

  Tommy shifted his focus to his mother. The look in his eyes was pure betrayal and Ajei felt it all the way to her bones. “You suggested this? I could expect this from him,” he said, tossing his head at his father. “But you?” Rock took a step toward his son. Tommy began to take one toward his father as well. Ajei stepped between them.

  “I won’t have the two of you hooking up like a couple of street thugs. We’re family. Family doesn’t handle their disagreements this way. Rock, let’s leave Tommy be for now. We can all talk tomorrow when we’ve had some time to think.” And sober up. Rock wasn’t a big drinker, but once they got past the mutilated rabbit and their new neighbors had calmed down, they had spent a nice evening with food, conversation, laughter, and maybe one too many shots of tequila for her husband. She was positive it was throwing fuel on the fire that made him want to fight with his own son.

  “I still won’t be guilty tomorrow,” Tommy said. “But you know what? Just the fact that you believed I was guilty even for a minute says a lot.” Ajei felt like she was choking on his sadness as he looked back into her eyes and said, “I told you where the blood on my hands came from. I said a prayer for that rabbit...” He laughed sadly and said, “I even buried it. You know how I feel about this land, and everything the great spirits put on it. For you to even think for a minute that I would do this is the ultimate insult. But maybe I’m being too hard on you. Maybe all those years that you were busy following my father around, you lost touch with who your son really is.” Ajei felt a tear slide down her face and while the sadness seemed to be consuming her, Rock moved her out of the way, gently, with his left hand...and then he used his big right hand to push his son, hard, in the chest. Tommy stumbled backwards and when he regained his footing, he came back at his father. Ajei watched in horror as Rock wrapped his big arm around Tommy’s neck, pulled him in like he was hugging his son, but then using his other hand as well, he spun the boy around so that he had him in a choke hold. Ajei screamed at them both:

  “Stop it! Both of you, stop this!” Rock let go, and Tommy spun around and got in his face. Ajei could see the veins protruding on both her son’s and her husband’s necks. “This is not how we handle our problems in this family!”

  “What family?” Tommy said through gritted teeth. He was the first to back down, however, and as soon as he relaxed and took a step back, Rock did too. “I’d like you both to leave.” Ajei could see Rock’s jaw twitch and she knew her husband was about to remind their son that he lived above the store rent free. She put her hand back on Rock’s arm. This time she felt his tight muscles relax. He slid his hand up and took hers and pulled her toward the door. She looked over her shoulder at her son. His brown eyes were filled with hurt and she felt her soul ache. She wished that she could rewind time and that she’d never told Rock about the blood on Tommy’s hands. Now even if he really hadn’t mutilated that rabbit and issued that warning, she was going to go through hell convincing her husband otherwise.

  * * *

  Tommy had been sleeping. He was dreaming about a beautiful woman with long, dark hair and eyes that he couldn’t stop gazing into. Then suddenly his father was pounding on his door like he wanted to break it down, and both of his parents were hurling accusations at him. When they finally left, he looked at the time on his phone. It was barely midnight, but there was no way he was going back to sleep now. He got dressed and quietly made his way down the back stairs, just i
n case one of his parents was camping out in the store. Once he made it to the landing he was relieved to see that they’d left. Their house was only about a mile up the road, but where Tommy planned to go was in the opposite direction.

  Sometimes wind therapy was all it took to clear Tommy’s head and give him a break from the thoughts that haunted him. He didn’t know why, but Ama Sani’s voice was in his head, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop hearing it. He could hear her weeping. She was devastated that the land she’d held as sacred for so many years was going to be defiled by the bikers. Tommy didn’t have a problem with bikers per se. He loved his Harley and the MC life had been a big part of his growing up. He wasn’t sure, but he thought that maybe he held a lot of resentment toward them in general. He also knew his Ama Sani hated that his mother and father rode with a “gang.” She cried about it often before her mind began to go and she moved from the present to the past. Tommy hadn’t understood Alzheimer’s as a kid, but he was oddly grateful for it as an adult. Ama Sani had taught him all about his heritage and culture without even trying. In her beautiful mind she was still living it and he’d sit at her knee every day, waiting for another story. Her stories were powerful, and true, and they were the reason why Tommy knew he couldn’t let that pathetic excuse for an MC grow any larger than the three people that his parents had gone to welcome the night before. He had to think of something.

  He turned his bike into the parking lot of the Highway Club. The name was deceiving; there was nothing club-like about it. Despite the name and the big sign near the road, the outside of the bar told the true story. The parking lot was made up of cracked pavement. The building used to be painted gray but the persistent Arizona sun had faded it to an off-white in the places where the paint actually still clung to the chipping, peeling, and rotting wood. The place even looked like it sat off-kilter and the tiles on the roof looked like they might slide off into the dirt someday. The inside looked almost as bad, but this was Tommy’s favorite bar. Only locals showed up, everybody was friendly, and there was one little bartender that Tommy couldn’t get out of his head. The woman in the dream his parents had ruined looked a lot like Jessie. Tommy had been flirting hard with Jessie for over a month now. She flirted back, but that was as far as she ever let it go. He was optimistic, however. She looked at him sometimes when she thought he didn’t know she was looking, and he was sure he saw lust in her pretty brown eyes. Or maybe he was just horny...either way, he was going for it hard tonight.

  Tommy rested his hand on the door and the rough edges of it would have stabbed him in the hand had they not been so calloused already. He pushed on it and the hinges squealed as it opened. No one inside noticed, however, thanks to the sound of the jukebox blaring out 80s music so loud that the old building shook on what was left of its foundation. People were talking...or yelling...to be heard over the music. Laughter boomed from almost every corner of the room, and because it was one of the last bars in the area that allowed smoking inside, the air was thick with it. Tommy detected a hint of marijuana as well, probably being smoked in the back room where the pool tables were. Tommy wasn’t interested in playing pool tonight, though. There was only one thing he’d really come for and his core tightened as soon as he saw her behind the bar.

  Jessie had on a gray tank top with a pair of sequined boots on the front. Tommy couldn’t see the bottom half of her, but he was sure she was wearing jeans and cowboy boots as well. It was her “uniform” for work, so to speak, but Jessie always wore boots and jeans, and Tommy much preferred that over a woman in a fancy dress with her face painted up with eighty dollars’ worth of cosmetics. Jessie didn’t wear makeup, but that was okay, because she didn’t need it. Her skin was like chocolate mocha that had been lightened with cream. Her brown eyes were framed with the kind of lashes those other girls paid for...and her lips...those full, red lips...set his body on fire from the inside out. Tommy loved her hair too. Sometimes she wore it long and loose, like the woman in his dream, and as she brushed past him when he sat up at the bar, he caught a whiff of the fresh shampoo she used. Her hair was brown, but so dark that in the dimly lit bar it looked black, and it was always shiny and it looked silky and he was aching to touch it. Tonight she had it in a thick braid down her back, and he was already imagining unwinding it and wrapping it around his hands.

  Tommy went over to the bar and took a seat on the last stool at the end. Jessie saw him and gave him a little smile, but she continued pouring shots for two old men that spent their days at the little diner on the reservation and their nights at the bar. Tommy could tell they were flirting with Jessie. Everyone flirted with her. She had an energy about her that drew people in. His Ama Sani used to tell him stories about Asdzaa nadleche, or in English, “Changing Woman.” She was born created through the efforts of First Man and First Woman and in the first four days of her life she grew from infancy to puberty. She was said to be the closest thing to the personification of the earth and the natural order of the universe. That was what Tommy saw when he looked at Jessie...the universe.

  “Hey there,” she said, flipping the braid over her shoulder as she approached him from behind the counter. Jessie had two tattoos that made the tips of Tommy’s fingers burn with need. One of her forearms held the Navajo/Aztec symbol for the sun and the other for the moon. When she held her arms together in front, they combined to make a perfect circle...night on one side, day on the other.

  “Hey beautiful, how’s your night going?”

  She looked up at the Budweiser clock behind her and said, “Almost gone, thank goodness. You’re out late tonight. You stopping by for a nightcap after a date?” She smiled and winked when she said it, but Tommy wanted to imagine that he saw a spark of jealousy in her eyes.

  “Nope, no dates,” he said. “I’m holding out.”

  She laughed and said, “For what?”

  “For the sun and the moon.”

  3

  “So what did you think of our dinner guests?” Beck was getting ready for bed and Jace had gone back outside to make sure the bonfire they’d had in the five-gallon barrel was out. He found Finn sitting in a lawn chair by the fire, nursing a beer. Instead of putting the fire out, he sat next to him.

  “I think they’re really interesting people,” Jace said, “that we can probably learn a lot from about the area and the people here.”

  “That’s kind of your thing, huh?” Finn said, taking another sip of his beer.

  “What’s my thing?” Jace asked.

  “Learning things from people.”

  Jace smiled. “Yeah, I guess it is. I’ve just always assumed it was everyone’s thing.”

  “Well...yeah, but not like you. It’s like, when people talk to me, I hear what they’re saying, but it’s different with you.”

  “Like how?”

  “Just the way you listen. It’s almost like I can smell the smoke from those wheels in your head turning. It’s like you take in what someone says, strip it down, throw away what you don’t need, and file the rest in that big brain of yours to pull out later, like Google or something.”

  Jace laughed. “I have to tell you, I’ve been called a lot of things in my life. Google is not one of them. I like to learn. I grew up...kind of isolated. Learning was how I kept from losing my mind sometimes. I guess it just became a way of life.”

  “That’s cool. It’s a good thing. It’s why you’re the president of this club. Something I’ll never be.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Smart is not really my thing, never has been. My life has been...interesting...and I haven’t learned a damn thing from any of it.”

  Jace laughed again. “I’m sure you’ve learned something. Sometimes, though, you have to learn on purpose. You have to start out a conversation or a relationship with the intentions of learning everything you can from that other person, or group of people.”

  “Is that how you did it, with the club? I mean, you weren’t even really around that muc
h from what I hear. You were a nomad from the start.”

  “Yeah, but I was lucky. I got to learn from some of the masters. Being taught by Dax Marshall and Wolf Lee...it was a blessing that I never thought I deserved. It made me want to learn that much more, and prove myself, I guess.”

  Finn drained what was left in the bottle and tossed it toward the trash. “I know I’m lucky,” he said. “But I’m kind of an idiot sometimes, so if I ever act like I don’t know it, or forget how lucky I am, feel free to knock some sense into me.”

  Before Jace could answer, Beck’s voice floated out from the doorway. “No worries. I’ll do it.”

  Jace laughed and Finn chuckled; the truth was, however, they all knew that was the most likely scenario. “You coming to bed, old man?”

  “I’m coming, old lady,” Jace told her, getting up out of his chair. “Put the fire out before you leave, Finn, okay?”

  “You got it, boss. Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  Finn shrugged. “Pretty much everything.”

  “Come on you two, kiss already and get it the fuck over with,” Beck said. Jace shook his head and laughed again as he went toward the house and his beautiful wife. His life was blessed, no matter how much shit he’d had to go through to get there. He was finally right where he wanted to be.