Outlaw - By Nicole James Page 0,41
at her. She couldn’t hold his gaze, and so she looked away, and drank her coffee.
“Why did you pick California?” Cole asked.
She shrugged again. “I don’t know. The ocean, I guess. Something different from the desert.
He nodded.
“Ever been there?” She looked up at him.
“Where? The desert?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head.
“You’d like it. Phoenix is on the edge of the mountains. It’s really rugged and beautiful. Kind of makes you feel like you’re in a movie set for a western.”
“So what’d you do as a teenager growing up there?”
She smiled. “I wasn’t riding dirt bikes.”
“I figured that.” He laughed. “So what did you do?”
She shrugged. “Different things. A lot of times a group of us would drive out, and tube down the Salt River.”
“Tube?” Cole frowned.
“Float down in one of those big inner tubes. Sometimes the guys would put a cooler of beer in one of the inner tubes.”
He nodded, and smiled. “Sounds like fun.”
The waitress returned, and set down two plates full of food. “Need anything else?”
“No. Thanks, Mona.” He smiled up at her.
“Enjoy.” She walked away.
Cole poured syrup all over his pancakes. “Ever been down the coast?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve only been here a couple of months. Spent most of it near San Jose.”
“I think you’ll like it.”
They finished eating, and headed out to the parking lot. They had gotten a late start on breakfast, and it was about noon by the time they headed out to the bike. They got on, and Cole’s phone rang.
He pulled it out of his pocket, and flipped it open. “Yeah?”
Angel sat listening to the one-sided conversation.
“Shit. That’s today?
“Yeah. Okay. Where you at?
“What time’s it start?
“You headin’ there now?
“Yeah. Okay. See ya there.” He flipped the phone closed, and turned back to Angel. “We’re gonna have to postpone this trip, darlin’.”
“Something come up?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“That’s alright.”
“Maybe tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure. So, now what?”
“I gotta meet up with Crash and some of the guys. The War Dogs are having a big gathering and cookout today. I forgot all about it.”
“War Dogs?”
“They’re a lot of ex-military guys. They don’t carry the MC patch though.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re not outlaw. Just a riding club.”
“I thought you didn’t have anything to do with clubs like that.”
“These guys are different. Mack served with several of the older guys. They’re okay. Anyway, Evil Dead needs to make an appearance. It’s an annual party they throw.”
“And me?”
Cole thought about it for a minute. “Hell, I guess you’re comin’ with me.” He turned back to her. “You okay with that?”
She nodded.
They headed back across town. About a half an hour later, Cole pulled into the gravel lot of an old junkyard. There was a chain link gate that was open, and he pulled through, and around an old building that was covered with hubcaps. There were several rows of bikes already parked in the gravel lot in back.
Cole spotted the guys from his club standing near their parked bikes. He pulled up to them, and parked. They dismounted.
Angel noticed Crash and several of the other guys. She could smell the aroma of something being cooked on a grill. There was a fenced off area, running the length of the back wall of the building and on beyond it with eight foot high wooden privacy fence all around it. Music was blasting from inside.
“Sounds like the party’s started,” Cole said to Crash.
“Yup. They got a full house already. I think they started a couple hours ago. Mack’s inside already,” Crash replied, turning to head over there.
Cole put his arm around Angel, and they followed the rest of the guys into the area. There was a guy sitting on a barstool at the gate that led inside. He nodded to them, and they walked on past.
Angel looked around. The area was huge, going back a good ways. There were a bunch of picnic tables, a big, long bar improvised out of cement blocks and planking set up along the left side under an overhanging roof that jutted out from the building. There were tiny, colored lights strung along the bar and all along the top of the fencing. Way in the back, Angel noticed a huge stone grill that ran about ten feet across. A couple guys were flipping burgers.
Cole stopped to greet several members of the War Dogs. They chatted briefly, then Cole led her over to a group of Evil Dead that were standing by the bar. Several of them, she had never seen before.
Angel could hear the group talking as they