“WhatILiveFor”—RobBailey&TheHustleStandard
“Jesus fucking Christ, I’ll be glad when shit settles down around here,” grumbled Chains as he took a long pull from his bottle.
“You and me both.” I sighed as I did the same. Kira wiggled in my lap, and I swatted her ass playfully. “Sit still.”
Drunk as a skunk, she giggled. There was no way I was getting pussy that night, and I didn’t need her teasing me like that. If she kept it up, I was heading to bed with blue balls. Big fucking blue balls.
“I think I need another drink!” she cheerfully announced. “How about you, Calix?”
The vamp sitting at the table with us made me a little uneasy. Not that he’d done anything wrong to us. In fact, I likely owed him more than I could ever repay. That’s why our club was about to do him a solid, and if he took us up on the offer, great—if not, so be it.
“I’m good, thanks,” he said with a wry tip of his lips. I had yet to see fangs, so I wondered how that shit worked. Did he ever cut his own tongue or lips? A guy has questions about shit like that.
“Hey, baby, why don’t you go up to the bar and have the prospect make you a Raging Gorilla? I think it’ll be just what you need.” The rest of the brothers tried to hide their grins and laughter. She was oblivious, thank fuck.
“Is it good?” she asked with one squinted eye, her lips twisted to the side and one brow raised.
“You’ll love it,” I solemnly promised.
She smiled wide, stood up, and wobbled. My hands grabbed her hips to hold her steady. I gave her a questioning look, and she waved her hands at me. “I’m perferlectly fine,” she slurred a little as she stumbled over her words. She leaned toward Calix and actually touched his lip with her index finger. “You gotta show me those things before you go.”
“Sorry, man,” I apologized, but he smiled and gave a good-natured shrug.
“It’s no problem.”
Once I knew she could walk without falling over, I let her go.
“Bro, that’s fucked-up. You know that’s a nonalcoholic drink, right?” Angel asked with a smirk as he sipped his whiskey neat.
“Duh,” I said incredulously. “Did she look like she needs more?”
“Aww, give her a break. She’s had her mind blown over the past week.” Phoenix chuckled as he played with a lighter. He bounced the flame from the lighter, then along his fingertips and back to the lighter. Our new friend stared in awe.
I chuckled. “You have mystical teeth and drink blood, but you’re amazed by his magic tricks?”
Calix laughed. “I guess so.”
“Fuck off. It’s not magic tricks,” muttered Phoenix. Then he sent the flame over to the top of my drink, where it flared before I blew it out.
“Asshole.”
Everyone laughed.
Venom raised his drink and studied our new friend for a minute before he spoke. “Look, Calix. I’m not sure if you have, um, people here, or what your plans are, but I had an idea.”
Sweet Jesus. Please don’t let him have people around here.
He sighed heavily and ran a hand over his face before dropping it to the tabletop. “No. No people. They’re all up in Alaska. I’d rather not discuss my circumstances, but I’m definitely here alone.”
Thank fuck for small favors.
Venom continued. “Well, then this might work out well for you. It might be something that would interest you, since you said you only… uh… dine… on shitbags.” We’d had a pretty extensive conversation on the way back to the clubhouse about why he’d hooked up with the Bloody Scorpions.
Venom, Raptor, and I were the only ones who knew about the Tennessee chapter’s members because they kept things extremely quiet. The only reason we knew at all was because of one of my visions.
He drew in a deep breath. “So we have this chapter in Rock Bottom, Tennessee. They do some crazy shit to help kids that are in bad situations. They’re your kind of people.”
It was by far one of the most bizarre conversations I’d ever witnessed. That’s saying a lot, because I lived and worked with guys that could do some pretty amazing shit.