Hard Ride Home (Tiger Snakes Motorcycle Club) (3 page)

Tommy looked up at him and nodded.

“Your mom and I are going to go out to dinner tonight. That means you have to stay with your grandmother for the evening.” He looked up at Amanda and then said, “If tonight goes well and your mom and I find out we like each other, maybe next time we will take you with us.” He paused and looked at Tommy. “Is that okay with you?”

Tommy again nodded a “yes.”

As Ron started to stand up Tommy said, “Mom really likes Italian food, but pepperoni gives her gas.”

Amanda held her hands over her mouth in embarrassed surprise. Her mother just laughed. Then, without looking up, Tommy held up his hand toward Ron. There were two cards face down in his fingers. “These are for you, Mr. Nice Man,” he said.

Ron took them, said, “Thank you,” and put them in his shirt pocket.

“Don’t worry about picking Tommy up tonight,” Martha said as they started toward the door. “I will just put him to bed here. That way you don’t have to worry about the time or—” she looked at Ron, “—or whatever.”

“Mother!” Amanda said abruptly.

Martha leaned in toward her daughter and said in just above a whisper, “This is the first time Tommy has ever spoken to a stranger without being coaxed by you or me or his therapist. You don’t want to let this one get away.”

Amanda continued to stare at her mother, but Ron took her arm and said, “Your ride and a nice Italian dinner awaits. Shall we be going?”

***

Gombardi’s Restauranti was an old-style Italian restaurant that now had three generations of Gombardis working there. Geovanni Gombardi, the patriarch of the family, ushered them to one of the booths in the back. As he handed them menus, he said the standard, “Your server will be with you shortly.” But then he added, “I put you back here where it is a little more private so you can-a talk. We aren’t very busy tonight, so take-a your time with your meal.”

A waiter hustled up to him and handed hima bottle of Chianti, which he placed on the table before saying, “Tonight, for you, the wine, she is on the house.”

Amanda waited until Geovanni had walked away and then asked, “What is that all about? Does he know you?”

Ron looked out into the room for a few moments before he answered. “I did some remodeling for him back in the day,” he said softly.

“That wasn’t a thank you for remodeling.” Amanda said, somewhat sharply. “There was something else, wasn’t there?”

Ron delayed his answer by carefully uncorking the bottle of wine and pouring each of them a glass of the dark liquid. He took a sip and bit at his lip for a moment and then answered, “I also talked his granddaughter into leaving town.”

Amanda’s face showed her confusion.

“…The day before she was to be initiated into the Tiger Snakes as their newest Momma.”

“What happened after that?”

“There was no ‘after that,’” he replied. “I hadn’t recruited her. She wasn’t one of the typical princess bitches. She was just a mixed up kid who wanted to rebel against her parents.”

Amanda continued to look at him and so he continued, “The day she left town was the day before the raids.  The initiation would never have happened anyway. But three of the Snakes who died at the clubhouse were Mommas who got caught in the crossfire. John thinks I saved his granddaughter’s life.”

He took a sip of his wine. “Maybe I did. She put her life back together and married a nice Italian boy in Vegas. They’ve got a couple of kids. No one up there knows about her past, but then, people in Vegas don’t ask a lot of questions about people’s pasts. Neither do people in Reno.”

Geovanni was right. They weren’t very busy, and it was very quiet back where Ron and Amanda were sitting. She found herself telling him about her dreams and how they had been shattered. In response, he told her about his life growing up as a “half-breed” and how it had almost driven him to the same level of hatred and bitterness that he saw in the other Tiger Snakes. Both wondered why they were telling each other things that they hadn’t told anyone else ever before. Some things of his trials in school Ron had never told to anyone—not his friends, not his fellow Snakes, not even his mother or father.

Somewhere during the evening, a second bottle of wine appeared on the table. Around 11:30 Geovanni passed by the table and announced that they would be closing at midnight. Their waiter stopped at the table. Before he could set the bill on the table, Geovanni picked it up and crossed something off. “The second bottle of wine,” he said, “that’s on-a the house, too.”

Then he leaned down toward Ron and said, “You treat this-a lovely lady right, sonny boy. Her momma, she’s a cousin to me.”

When he left, Ron said, “He’s your cousin?”

“He’s everyone’s cousin,” she replied. “But mom says we are actually related way back there somewhere.”

Ron dropped a stack of money on the tray with the bill. The waiter would be very pleased with the amount of the tip. “I guess it’s time to take you home,” he said as he offered his arm to Amanda.

“Is there somewhere else we could go to talk?” she asked.

“In this town?” he replied with a laugh. “Even my mom’s place closes overnight during the week.”

“What about your place?”

Ron stopped laughing. “It’s just a motel room with a small kitchen and dining area,” he said. He looked at Amanda. His face was very serious. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“No,” she answered, not quite meeting his eyes, “but everyone else seems to think we are made for each other. Maybe we should see if we are.”

“That’s not exactly an enthusiastic approach to spending a night together,” he said softly, “but I’ll take you to my place so we can talk… or whatever.” He laughed slightly as he realized he was repeating her mother’s words.

“If it isn’t working out, just say so, and I’ll take you home.”  He grinned, “Well, up to a certain point. There is a point of no return for any man, but I’ll try my best to keep my promise.”

“There is for a woman, too,” she replied. “But if it isn’t right, I’ll try to turn around early enough for both of us.”

***

Both Ron and Amanda were silent for the short ride to his motel room. Neither spoke as they walked up to the door and entered. It was as Ron had described: a more or less standard motel room with extra space on the other side of the bed that was taken up with a small kitchen and a four-person table.

“My apartment in Reno is a little bigger,” Ron finally said, “but not much.”

He turned and they faced each other. “Kiss me,” she whispered.

He did.

It was their first kiss. Actually, other than the few times when he had taken her arm or hand to lead her somewhere, or when she had put her arms around his waist as they rode, it was the first time they had intentionally touched.

The kiss began very tentatively. Their lips brushed against each other lightly as if they were unsure whether or not to proceed. Their minds may have had reservations, but their bodies did not. The response to that light kiss was as if a huge charge of electricity surged between them. Amanda pushed her lips forcefully against Ron’s, and in response his tongue moved out between her open lips.

Suddenly their bodies were tight against each other and it was hot—way too hot in that small room. Whatever the point of no return was, they were both rapidly approaching it. They tore at each other’s clothing, trying to remove anything which would separate them in the slightest.

Ron pulled her tightly against his chest. She moaned as the pressure pressed her nipples tightly against his ribs. Their hands ran up and down each other’s backs. Ron could feel a slight tingle as her fingernails slightly scratched his skin.

Somewhere along the line, Ron reached down and pulled the covers from the bed. Soon, they were rolling naked on the bed, alternating who was on top and who was running their hands up and down the length of the other’s body.

Finally, they stopped with Ron on top. Amanda allowed her legs to open and arched her body upward against him. He raised himself onto his arms and positioned himself between her legs. Then he stopped and looked down at her.

“Yes,” she breathed heavily, and he thrust himself into her.

If their initial kiss was a surge of electricity, this was a lightning strike. Amanda cried out as she exploded almost immediately into orgasm and continued to go higher as Ron thrust in and out of her for several more minutes before collapsing on top of her with a heavy groan of his own.

They lay there breathing heavily for a few moments, and then Ron moved off of her to lay beside her on the bed.  He pulled her over against his chest and began to stroke her back with his hand while she lightly stroked his chest.

“So,” she finally said, “were my mother and Geovanni right? Are we made for each other?”

“It would appear that way,” Ron answered as he stroked her breast and lightly tweaked her still-peaked nipple. He chuckled slightly and added, “But one-time, fantastic sex isn’t all there is to a relationship. Mom will eventually sell the store and I will go back to Reno. I may no longer be a Snake, but the wounds the Tiger Snakes left in this town are too deep to heal. I have to leave. I remind too many people of too many things that they need to forget.”

“I could go with you to Reno,” Amanda said quietly. “I take Tommy up there once a month to a support group meeting. I know the doctors up there. If you help me, I could re-establish Tommy up there and get him more of the help he needs.”

“I have to get a new job first,” Ron replied. “That usually isn’t too difficult for someone with my construction skills, but you never know. Some of the companies up there don’t like to hire ex-one-percenters.”

“I know someone who will,” answered Amanda firmly. “He’s in the autism support group Tommy and I attend, and he runs a construction company.”

“How do you know he will hire me?” asked Ron.

“Because Keith is also the President of the Golden Knights. That’s a club made up mainly of former one-percenters. They are still a pretty wild bunch, but they stay within the law—more or less. You would fit right in with his company, and maybe even with the Golden Knights.”

“What turned Keith?”

“His daughter,” answered Amanda. “One day his autistic daughter asked him why he wanted to be so evil. Keith didn’t know how to answer her.”

She pulled herself up slightly so she could face Ron directly. “Sometimes autistic kids can see the truth when regular people can’t. And they aren’t afraid to say it… or scream it… or write it on the wall in big letters… or maybe give it to you in some symbolic form.”

“Like cards?” Ron asked, suddenly grabbing alongside the bed for his shirt.

“What did he give you?” asked Amanda.

“This,” Ron said as he held up the two playing cards. In his hand were the king and queen of hearts.

Amanda laughed. “How did everyone, including my autistic son, see it before we did?”

“Maybe because we were too blinded by the past to see the future,” Ron replied. He reached down alongside the bed and again picked up something in his hands. It was the tattered vest that he wore everywhere except in his mother’s store. He threw it at the wastebasket next to the table. It missed and lay on the floor by the wall. “Close enough,” he said. “Tomorrow,” he continued, “I will take you—and Tommy—over to meet my mom. She isn’t one of Giovanni’s cousins, but is probably related to everyone else in town. Then I’ll call Keith and see if he needs a good carpenter. Mom said there was a promising lead on a buyer for the store. If it works out, we can leave in about a month. In the meantime, we have to figure out some way to explain this to Tommy.”

Amanda laughed and picked up the cards now lying on the bed. She held them up so that Ron could see them clearly. “He knows,” she said. “Somehow, he knew immediately that ‘Mr. Nice Man’ was truly my knight in shining armor.”