"Kyle, please." Ryan looked at her sister through the rearview mirror. They had been sitting in the car for nearly twenty minutes. Kyle was mean mugging her something fierce. For a seven year old she could be down right scary when she wanted to be.
"There aren't even any black kids at this school." Kyle pouted.
"That's the point Kyle. This is Wonderland here. Grass, trees, fresh air. Kids who actually use a playground to play and not shoot up or sucking dick on the monkey bars. No drive-byes and no ho stroll. So get your butt out of the car and go to school." Ryan was tired of arguing with her sister about going to school. She really was.
Kyle snatched her book bag off the seat and threw open the car door. Ryan winced. Her car was taking a beating a beating today. "Kyle wait." she called rolling down the window. Her sister turned around and glared at her. "I love you." Ryan knew that she wasn't the favorite of Kyle. She didn't blame the girl. After their mother died she went on a slow roll to the pits of hell and she didn't care who she hurt on the way down.
Kyle's startled surprise almost killed Ryan. Had she never said that to her sister? "I love you too," then she was off. The magic of the moment broken.
Ryan wanted to call her back, but she didn't.
Ryan sat in the car to watch her little sister scamper off into her new school. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest as she replayed the look of shock on Kyle's face.
It was in that moment that it finally slammed home how much she had lost in the last few months. The tears started to roll slowly down her face.
Harlow's murder thundered to the forefront of her mind. Ryan had to grip the steering wheel to keep from crying out. It still hurt to think about her.
Harlow had been the ultimate big sister. Always there when she needed to be. Always prepared. She could have been the Boy Scout pin up girl. Harlow was the best of humanity. She never gave up on Ryan. Never judged her, never turned her away. The tears started to roll faster.
The Bell sisters had grown up in a crack addicted house. Their mother gave new meaning to crackhead. She woke up with a speedball and stayed awake with her crack pipe glued to her lips. Their mother had turned their home into a shooting gallery to earn crack money. Selling space for neighborhood crack addicts to come and shoot up. All hours of the day and night strangers stumbled into the house handed off a grubby ten dollar bill and took their wares to some corner of the house to get high.
It got so bad that Harlow used to corral them into the only livable bedroom and deadbolt the door. Just to keep them safe, but still it wasn't enough.
Ryan had hid in the closet one night as one of their mother's dealers raped Harlow as payment for some crack he had fronted her. When he was done he had passed her off to another guy in his crew.
Ryan had spent nearly seven hours in that closet. Ryan knew she wouldn't have been able to handle it, but Harlow cried and then she went on with her life. Never mentioned it, never let it slow her down. Ryan never told her she had witnessed the rape, but after she had been blessed into the Niners she asked for the dealer's head on a platter.
Slim let her pull the trigger.
She shook herself back into the present day. The ghost of her mother had long since been buried. It had taken all Ryan had to get out of Oakland.
More than money, it had taken Harlow's life.
She slapped the steering wheel. Ryan refused to let anymore tears fall. She couldn't keep blaming herself for Harlow's death. It wasn't her fault. She had made the mistake of falling in love with the wrong guy and thinking that the Niners were family. That was her fault, but Slim killing her sister was on his head.
Ryan shook herself and started up her car before she got arrested for being a creeper or something sitting out in front of Charming Elementary. She pointed her car toward Main Street. She had to get to work if she was going to pay for this new life she was going to give her baby sister. It was the least she could do.
Charming had been the perfect escape for Ryan and Kyle. It was close enough to reach on the tank of gas she had left Oakland with and it was crawling with SAMCRO. The Niners would never chase her over the border to drag her back. White biker trash and her .45 were going to secure the life her little sister deserved.
If there was one thing that she learned getting smacked around by Slim, it was SAMCRO owned Charming and the Niners stayed away. Every black gang or MC from L.A to Mexico gave Charming a wide berth. The Sons ruled Charming with an iron fists and if the Niners wanted to keep getting their guns they were going to keep everything peachy with the Sons.
So it was the only solution that she had. Short of trying to make it China or someplace.
Which was a good thing. Being a young black woman in a town with a -1% black population was glaring enough. At least she had a good reason for being there.
Her car wheezed. "Come on baby," it was a real POS Toyota, but it had been cheap and it ran. The kid she bought it from told her it wouldn't last long, but she was hoping he had been trying to get more money out of her. The car had been more than what Ryan had needed at the time of her and Kyle's escape.
It coughed again. Then the damn thing stalled.
Ryan slammed her palm against the dash in frustration. "Not today. Come on." She turned the key and pumped the gas. The car shuddered once then stilled. Even the radio blinked off.
She couldn't be late on her first day of work. It had taken all her powers of persuasion to get the job in the first place. She climbed out of her car to see that the engine was coughing up a cloud of black smoke. "Damnit you worthless piece of shit." she growled.
She knew about as much as cars as she did Trigonometry.
This was going to be a long day she could see it already. It was barely 9 a.m. She could feel the heat creeping up the nape of her shirt. She had to get to work. She only had enough money to pay the rent for three months. That didn't include all the other bills.
Like a sister with a bad attitude and a need to punish Ryan by spending money she knew Ryan didn't have.
Ryan lifted the hood and almost chocked on the smog that billowed out into her face. "Fucking hell," she muttered as she tried to draw air into her lungs.
"Now that's no way for a lady to talk." A voice called.
Ryan whirled around almost reaching for the gun in her purse. "What..." she stammered once she took in the SAMCRO stamped on the man's chest.
He grinned as he leaned against her car. "Need a hand," He asked pointing to her car.
The man had a strange accent that Ryan had never heard before. He was impressively tall. Well it didn't take much to be taller than Ryan. She was barely five feet tall. Kyle was going to be taller than she was. He wasn't skinny, but he wasn't fat. Ryan would have called him healthy.
Her certainly filled out his jeans and kutt nicely. She couldn't tell how old he was because his beard was salt and peppered something fierce, but he wasn't wrinkled like most old guys. He did have a pair of reading glasses shoved up into his black hair.
He boasted wicked scars on both sides of his face. On anyone else Ryan was sure they would have marred and disfigured, but he wore it well. He had more facial hair than Ryan liked, but he wasn't her man. For someone covering in grease he still smelled good. Ryan had to shake her head to clear it.
She kicked her tire. "My car broke down Captain Obvious." Sarcasm was her default emotion, and it covered up her obvious attraction to the man.
"I can see that much lass." He told her. Throwing her attitude right back. "Need a hand anyway." He peered into her hood. He had to pull back to keep from inhaling the black smoke that was still spewing out of the car. "Locked your engine up." Ryan gave him a confused look. "Won't be going anywhere for awhile. Engine is shot to shit." He explained slowly.
"I'm not stupid." She snapped. "Just late for work on my first day." And she wasn't looking forward to the trek through Charming that seemed to be in her future. She slung her purse strap over her head and settled the bag on in her hip.
Chibs stared at Ryan as he watched her think. She was the tiny slip of a woman, but the attitude coming off her made her larger than life. She was the color of polished mahogany with blue black hair that swung across her face covering one eye. The wind changed and he caught a hint of perfume. It made his head swim. Like a good blunt.
She tugged her bottom lip into her mouth and scrunched up her forehead. It was the sexiest thing he had ever seen. "If you need a ride I've got a tow truck." He offered. She couldn't have been more than 23, 24 but her eyes held miles of bad road. He wanted to know her story. He wanted to know her.
She narrowed her eyes at him and he stepped back. He threw his hands up in surrender. She was a feisty one. Like Fiona. Though she was a hell of a lot darker than his ex-wife. Like candy bar dark. Good enough to eat. "Just an offer, but you can walk." He turned around to head back into the Teller-Morrow lot.
"No wait," Ryan reached out and touched his arm. "Look I'm sorry. Its been a rough couple a days." She sighed. The hair in front of her face puffed out revealing a pair of startling deep brown eyes. "That doesn't mean I have to be an asshole to you." She didn't know what was wrong with her. She had been jumpy since she left O-Town.
Chibs didn't back away from her touch. He saw the faint outline of a tattoo circling her wrist. Ryan snatched her hand back pulling the sleeve of her shirt over the scar. "Don't need to hide your ink from me lass." He gave her a faint smile. "I've got enough ink for two men." Not to mention he liked her touching him.
She peeked out at him from behind the curtain of her hair. "Its not something I want to advertise." she told him.
He nodded. He found it refreshing that she wasn't covered from head to toe in ink. There was nothing worse than a beautiful woman covering herself up with ugly biker tattoos. "You new around here?" Chibs said it as a statement.
She popped her hip out and threw out a smile. The shyness was gone. Ms Attitude was back. "Is it that obvious?" She gave him a smile.
Chibs' heart danced a jib. It had been a long time since a beautiful woman smiled at him just because she could. "Pretty much. I can count on one hand how many black people live in Charming." He didn't have a problem with black people. His ex-wife was black. Well the Irish version of black and at the time he had set Belfast ablaze with their union. "And I think they are all related." He added.
Ryan's voice punched through his trip down memory lane. "Well this was the safest place I could think of." She popped her hand on her hip. "You work at that garage?" She asked with a jerk of her head toward the TM sign above his head.
"Most days." He wiped his hand on the rag that he pulled out of his back pocket.
Ryan was about to ask if he thought he could do something with her POS when a squeal of tires turning on a dime pulled her attention to the intersection. She had grown up in Oakland. Tits deep in gang activity.
She knew a drive-by when she heard one. On an instinctive level she reached for her gun and brought it out.
Chibs' eyes widen and he reached for his gun ready to shot Ryan, not seeing the danger pulling up behind him. Ryan pushed him toward the fence. "Get down stupid." she shouted.
Men. They were still slow on the uptake.
Chibs stumbled under her weak shove but turned around to face the actual threat. Three Mayans hung out the open windows on a green Honda. She fired off two rounds before he even cocked the hammer on his gun.
She hit one in the shoulder. He nearly fell out of the car. His comrades showered the street with bullets in response. Ryan squealed and danced around avoiding the gunfire, but kept on shooting back.
Chibs grabbed ahold of Ryan's wrist and yanked her into the Teller-Morrow lot. "Got incoming!" he shouted.
The rest of the Sons moved into action. Tig and Jax were the first out of the clubhouse and the to reach him with guns drawn. They riddled the car and the Mayans with bullets. Half-Sack jumped down to throw the gate closed. He was met with more bullets ripping through the plastic coverings.
Ryan fired off a few shots before Chibs shoved her behind him. Everyone was scrambling around ducking for cover and firing off shots. Ryan fell away from Chibs and fell flat on her tail.
The pavement was not forgiving. She swore enough to make a sailor blush.
She heard the car finally race off down the street as the rest of the club spilled out of various buildings. A few of them got off random shots before everything went quiet. If Ryan had to guess she would have said the whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds.
If it had happened to anyone else they would have been in a right panic about getting shot at, but Ryan had grown up around drive-byes. She had gotten over her fear of bullets a long time ago, but her tail bone had taking a beating though. That was a new one.
Chibs turned to pull her to her feet. He saw her wince. He caught her around the waist to steady her. In that heartbeat that he held her something passed between them. Ryan couldn't have said what it was, but the moment was shattered as if it never happened.
"Who the fuck is that?" Ryan whirled around with her gun pointed at the speaker. Chibs stumbled back. It wasn't smart to sneak up a hood woman with a gun.
"Whoa." Jax held up his hands.
Chibs snatched Ryan back by the waist. "Easy there lass. He's a friendly" He growled in her ears. He couldn't hid the arousal in his voice.
Ryan shivered as his breath tickled her ear. She didn't want to admit how much she enjoyed the contact. She held up her gun in surrender. "You can set me down now." Chibs chuckled as she dropped her to the pavement.
He however didn't let go of her.
"What just happened Chibs?" Jax shouted still eyeballing Ryan.
"Mayans. The filly here pulled a piece and shot back." He indicated Ryan who gave Jax a little finger wave.
"The filly has a name. It's Ryan thank you very much." She told both men.
"What are you doing here Ryan?" Jax asked not giving her an inch. He folded his arms across his chest.
"You mind toning down the attitude. I'm dangerously close to my period and I've got another clip in my purse. I just saved your guy's life." She jerked her head back towards Chibs. "My car broke down and he was offering to help." She dropped her gun into her purse.
Jax blinked at the woman. Ryan stared right back. "You just happened to have a .9 mm in your purse?" Yeah most SAMCRO women carried guns, but he didn't know this black chick from Adam and she was standing in the TM lot waving a gun around.
He had shot people for less.
"I look like a short eighth grader with a C cup. Girl like me needs a big gun." She told him with a pointed look.
"What sort of girl are you? We got enough crow eaters around here." He sneered at Ryan. Any other day she would have smacked him, but his kutt held her back. If she smacked a Son she might end up a hood ornament back in Oakland.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know what the fuck a crow eater is, but check your tone when you talk to me." The girl can get out of Oakland, but Oakland wasn't going to get out of the girl. "My car broke down. You and the Backstreet Boys pissed of some Mexicans. Deal with that before you get all in my face." She stepped out of Chibs' embrace and toward Jax who returned the gesture.
Chibs grabbed her arm before her and Jax came to blows. "I'll deal with her." Chibs offered.
Jax nodded and wandered back to the clubhouse to deal with the shoot out. Tig wagged his eyebrows, but followed Jax back into the clubhouse.
Chibs steered Ryan back outside the gate after he checked that it was safe. "You always mouth off to total strangers?" He closed the hood to her car.
"No, just the special ones. So who was Blonde Ambition back there?" She wanted to kick the car again, but kicking a animal when its down wasn't sporting.
She kicked the door. She wasn't in a sporting mood.
Chibs laughed. "Blonde Ambition?" A black eyebrow rose up into his hairline.
Ryan shrugged, "All you white boys look alike. Gotta get creative to tell you apart." She shared in his laughter. The smile slipped from her face. She didn't know what she was going to do without her car. "Shit. I've got to pick my sister up from school." Was anything going to go right today?
Here she was flirting with a Son like she was a debutant fresh off the boat.
"How old is she?" Chibs asked.
"Seven." She leaned against the car. "Are you taking a survey on me or something?" she asked him with a smile.
"Do you mind the questions?" He offered her a smile.
"Not with you asking. Where are you from? Cali don't grow fruit like you." He was older she was sure. Half his beard was sporting white or grey hair, but on him it didn't look bad.
"Born in Scotland but raised in Ireland." He took in how her jeans wrapped tightly around her ass.
"Why did you come to the States? Thought everything was better over there." Ryan had only been out of California once. She been to Las Vegas once. She thought it was a trip of a lifetime. She shook her head. She didn't want to think about Slim anymore.
"What were you thinking?" He asked softly. "You got this funny look on your face." He reached out and grasped her hand. Both parties were surprised.
Chibs blushed. "Nothing important." Well nothing she was going to share. Slim was something she wanted to lock away in her mental filing cabinet. "So what's your name? Unless you want me calling you Gramps." She offered a smile.
"Chibs." He told her.
"Is your name really Chibs?" Her nose crinkled.
"Its a nickname. Chib means blade in Scotland."
"So whats your real name?" They were still holding hands Ryan noticed. It was weird. She couldn't remember Slim ever holding her hand. Unless he was yanking her around.
"Filip." There were precious few people who knew his real name. He had been Chibs so long it was a wonder he still knew. "You can call me that if you want."
She nodded. "I would like that."
He pulled his hand back. "You ride?" he asked walking back into the TM lot to get his bike.
Ryan trotted after him. "Once." They were walking up to a row of black Harley's. Ryan thought they looked like they were the devil's personal hogs. She eyed the things like they owed her money.
He handed her a helmet and climbed on his Harley. "You want me to ride bitch?" she asked slipping the helmet carefully over her hair.
He fixed his eyes on her, "I ain't riding bitch on my own bike." He told her. There was a lot of things he was willing to let Ryan do to him, but taking the handles on his bike was not going to be one of them.
Ryan smirked as she slide in behind him.
The rest of the Sons gathered under the shade of the club overhang. It had been a long time since they had seen Chibs share his bike with anyone.
Ryan wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled in tight. Chibs wanted to sigh when her small breasts pressed into his back. He revved the engine.
Ryan yelped as she felt the vibrations travel up her legs into her lower back and other places south of the border.
"More than the philly can handle?" Chibs chuckled.
"I can handle anything you got Irish." Ryan told him. He liked the nickname. He revved the engine again before peeling out of the lot to a lot of whoops and catcalls. Sometimes his brothers were worse than females.