“Are you one of them escaped crazies or something?” he asked as he tried to get a better look into my eyes. He probably thought I was high or drunk. Eyeing me suspiciously from head to toe, he leaned in close enough that his warm breath brushed my face.
Other than shake my head to answer his question, I didn’t move any other part of my fear-frozen body.
“No, sir. I’m not crazy. I came to see if I can pay my sister’s debt. I don’t have a lot of money, so I’m willing to pay you in installments if you’ll allow me.”
I swallowed the brick-size lump in my throat and quickly sucked in a huge gust of air as the big biker strong-armed me. My tennis shoes squeaked against the dirty, brown linoleum floor as I struggled for balance. My shocked eyes bulged from their sockets as he backed me up and gripped my tense shoulders before he slammed me into the wall behind us. My anxious fingers dug into the particle board wall I had been harshly introduced to. Pain registered, but my true fight was to not pass out from fear. The country music in the background halted, tones hushed, feet stopped shuffling, and interested gazes zoomed in on Shark and me.
“Who in the fuck are you?” he asked. His demanding gaze warned me not to fuck with him. “You better be lost or crazy because you have stumbled into the wrong club. Don’t you know this is a whites-only establishment? There ain’t no signs posted, but anybody around here who don’t live under a fucking rock knows that fact.”
My voice cracked. I squeezed my eyes shut so tight that water oozed from between my lids as I fought against the pain of the tight grip Shark had on my shoulders. I balanced on the balls of my feet because he’d hiked me up the wall a couple of notches.
“Sir, I’m who I say I am. I’m here to square my sister’s debt. She’s on drugs, and I’m usually left to clean up the messes she makes. I checked her into rehab and now I’m here to try to do right by you and your men on her behalf, so...”
I was losing it. I’d promised myself I’d do this with bravery, but I was so damn scared, I was losing what little courage that remained to tears.
I swallowed hard to find my voice to continue. “So, they won’t come after her again or try to kill her.”
My nerves taunted me so harshly that I babbled, likely telling him shit he didn’t care to know. Just when it appeared I was getting through to him, Shark gripped my forearm and dragged me to a nearby chair at one of the five cheap wooden tables in the small dining area. He shoved me into the torn red leather bottom of a wobbly metal chair. I landed hard enough that I gripped the edge of the table to keep from tumbling to the floor as the chair grunted angrily beneath me.
“How the fuck did you know I was Shark?”
I’d studied as much information as I could gather about his MC before I approached them. They had a social media page that had a large following. People loved dangerous people, so I wasn’t surprised that a known criminal element like the August Knights had captured a large amount of attention.
My shaky finger pointed at Shark’s chest. The black leather vest he wore was filled with his MC’s patches. The word, “President” was on a patch that stuck out on his chest. Anyone who knew of the August Knights Motorcycle Club knew that Shark was the president.
Although Shark looked meaner than a rattle snake about to strike, he stopped looming over my shaking frame and took the seat across the table from me.
“Talk.” He spat that single word in my direction.
The background silence was as alarming as Shark’s presence. The hum of the AC unit and cursing drunks outside were the only sounds that carried over my thundering heart.
Without glancing at them, I sensed the hot gazes of the group inside boring holes into me from every direction. After I relayed my reason for being there to Shark twice more, the tightness around his eyes remained, and his glare of uncertainty increased in its intensity.
Shark cut me off in the middle of one of my shaky sentences about wanting to help my sister.
“So, let me get this shit straight. You drove out here to nigger-lynching territory to broker a deal with me so that my men would leave your drug-addicted sister alone?”
I flinched at the sound of the N-word being voiced so loudly in public. Truth was I was one woman in the middle of redneck alley. Therefore, there wasn’t shit I could do or say about him using the N-word.
I nodded my head, answering yes to his question and the oddest thing I’d seen since I’d arrived happened. As Shark stared me down, he laughed, it was a deep boisterous laugh. As his shoulders shook, he tapped at the table like I’d given the ultimate punchline.
The tension in my shoulders coiled tighter as Shark’s roaring laugher spread throughout the room. Although they had no idea what he was laughing about, others began to laugh along with Shark.
There was no doubt in my mind that Shark thought I was a damn fool, and he was probably right. I knew as well as the next person that this was about as insane a move as I could have made, but I had to convince them that I was determined to do everything in my power to save my sister.