Authors: Casey Elliot
*****
Her hand was still shaking when she opened the door. Rex stood up when he saw her and, for the shortest second, she was sure she saw a redness around his eyes as though he’d been crying.
There was a deep tension hanging in the air, but despite the fear Brandy was feeling, she found herself stepping to the side.
“Would you like to see him?” she asked, as she noticed the softness in his eyes.
Something had changed in Rex like a switch. He was no longer the beast he was downstairs, but now, looked as though he had something behind his eyes she hadn’t seen before. If she wasn’t mistaken, he looked as though he cared.
She watched him in awe as he stepped into the room and introduced himself to Ricky.
“Hey buddy,” he knelt down on one knee. “Do you know who I am?”
The little boy shook his head, as he chewed on his pacifier.
“I’m your Daddy,” Rex explained. “In fact, I can see you’ve got the same nose as me,” he pressed one of his giant fingers onto the end of Ricky’s nose.
The child giggled and pulled away, his tiny hands resting against his chubby tummy. Brandy could see it, the resemblance between them. There was no denying it, he was definitely the biker’s boy. Despite him still being a baby, he had the making of Rex’s diamond shaped jaw and high cheekbones, and there was that nose… that proud, snub nose…
For a long while, Brandy watched the biker stare with love at his son. If she was being honest with herself, she’d have to admit he seemed to genuinely love him despite him having never met him before. There was a bond between the two as they played and laughed.
She watched as Rex picked his boy up and flung him over his shoulder. Ricky squealed and giggled as the enormous man tickled his ribs. Brandy couldn’t help but smile, eventhough she was still scared.
What now? She thought. What about Neil? As Rex looked up and their eyes met across the room, his mood seemed to change once again. He put the little boy gently on the bed and asked for a high five. As Ricky slammed his little palm into Rex’s, he laughed and did a backward roll.
“So…” Rex approached Brandy while he was still laughing at his son’s amateur gymnastics. “He’s a real cute kid. Looks just like me as a baby.”
“I can imagine that.”
“He’s even got that little cheeky streak running through him. He’ll be trouble, I can tell you that.”
“Yeah… I hope not,” Brandy looked to the floor.
“Well,” Rex reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “Shall we talk outside?”
She nodded, knowing she had no choice. She had to do what he said. As they walked down the stairs and back out into the garden, the biker lit two cigarettes and handed one to the young mom.
“I shouldn’t,” she sighed. “I’m really trying to quit.
“Urgh… Quitting's for losers,” he smirked.
Brandy found herself laughing at his lame joke eventhough she hated him. There was something about him that was so magnetic, eventhough he was a brute. He’s a psycho, just remember that, she reminded herself.
“Is that a smile I see?” Rex noticed the look on her face. “If I wasn’t dreamin’, I’d say you were sweet on me again.”
“Nope,” she looked back down to the floor as she blew out a lungful of smoke. “I’m just thinking of something.”
“Oh yeah? Like your new man?”
She looked up at him with panic in her eyes.
“What?” he upturned his hands. “Like you think I don’t know? It’s written all over your face, his smell’s still in this house and his shit’s everywhere.”
He shook his head in despair.
“I don’t know how you could do something like that to me, Brandy. I thought we were good together.” He looked into her eyes with a pained expression etched across his face. “Weren’t we?”
“We were,” she nodded, her lips hanging onto the end of the cigarette butt. “But, I can’t believe you’d do such a thing like hold up a gas station with a shotgun,” she spat. “Why would you do something like that? What did you need the money for?”
He said nothing, just sucked on his cigarette as if it was giving him life.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about gang business, lady,” he tilted his head back and gave her his signature cocky look.
She could see the sweat on his brow and smell the whiskey on him.
“You’ve been drinking already,” she said. “It’s not even nine A.M.”
“Well… what can I say? I was released at six this morning and I kinda went to town a little.”
“A little?”
Again, he said nothing. They both stood in silence. In the background, the humid breeze rustled through the long grass, and beyond that, a freight truck hurtled down the empty road. Brandy listened to it, her ears in tune to the sounds of the country. She imagined the vehicle kicking up dust as it drove, the driver deep in concentration as he hurled himself through the wilderness.
“You look lost in thought,” Rex interrupted her. “What’s on your mind?” he asked casually.
“Too much,” she slumped down onto the steps. “There’s too much swimming around in here right now,” she tapped at the side of her head. “I didn’t know you’d be out so soon,” she admitted. “I didn’t think things were going to work out like this.”
“Me neither,” Rex sat down beside her. “Where were you?”
She looked at him with a quizzical expression.
“What do you mean?”
“Where were you?” he repeated. “All those months I was holed up in that jail, you never came to see me. I waited and waited until I thought my heart was bleeding. Every time visiting day would roll around I’d be waiting to see your face. I’d be desperate to see those pretty blue eyes of yours, but you were never there.”
“I wrote to you,” she replied coldly, although she didn’t mean to. “I wrote to you a lot, but you never replied.”
Rex looked to the ground and kicked up the gravel with his biker boots.
“I never was good at writing letters,” he confessed, “or writing anything at all.”
Again, he shook his head as though trying to shake away the regrets.
“I just wanted you to come and see me. That’s all. Even once would have meant the world.”
There was a spike of anger in his voice, a tinge of menace that was once again resurfacing.
“I couldn’t make it,” Brandy looked up at his face, “because I was looking after your child.”
“Why didn’t you bring him with you?”
“Prison ain’t no place for a baby,” she said with a definitive firmness. “What kinda lesson would that teach him, eh?”
Rex stood up, anxious and annoyed. That stormy look came over his eyes again, the one that signaled trouble was approaching. It was one of the things Brandy had always hated about him. Despite his charming personality and stunning looks, he could flick like a switch, change moods in an instant.
“Who is he?” he stood up close to her, his chest pressing into her.
“Eh?” she knew fine well what he was talking about, but fear was holding her words back as though her mind was in a cage.
“Your new man. Who is he? I wanna know who’s stolen my boy.”
“He’s not stolen him!” Brandy protested. “He’s been raising him as his own while you were in prison!” she wailed.
“Raising him as his own?” the thought enraged him and his face grew red. “And, why would a man be so stupid as to raise a biker’s son as his own? Is the man suicidal?”
Brandy didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t bear the thought of Neil being hurt, but the thug in front of her…
“You still haven’t told me his name…”
Brandy looked down to Rex’s hands and saw they were white at the knuckles, his fingertips pushing into the palm of his hand.
“I don’t think it’s any of your business,” she feigned a level of haughtiness.
She knew it would make him madder, knew she was playing with fire, but she had a family to protect; a perfect one, and she wasn’t giving it up.
"None of my business!" he seethed, his eyes narrowing as he looked down to the tiny woman beneath him. "Bitch," he pointed at her. "Don't tell me who he is... and I'll take that little boy from up there and you'll never see him again."
She knew it wasn't an empty threat, but she also knew she didn't want Neil to get hurt. In a moment of terror, she did the unthinkable, knowing before all else, she had to think of her child.
"Neil Wilkins," she hung her head in shame.
"Neil?" Rex yelled. "That fucker mechanic who works over on Weston?"
"That's him," she nodded as the tears fell from her eyes once again. "So, now you know."
"I grew up with that prick and this is how he repays me?"
He stormed away from Brandy, his footsteps shaking the floor.
"What are you going to do?" she chased after him, her nails clawing at his jacket as he walked.
"Ain't none of your business what I do," he rasped.
Then he was gone, hurrying down the driveway to his motorcycle. Brandy watched him from the window as he left. There was no way he'd just want to talk with Neil, no way he'd let him get away with moving in and taking his woman. She felt disgusted with herself knowing what was to come.
"I should have called the cops earlier," she cried, as she made her way upstairs. "Stupid, stupid Brandy."
Ricky was standing on the landing looking down at his mother. He looked shocked to see her so upset.
"Why cry?" he asked.
"It's nothing, sweety," she whispered into his ear, as she picked him up and cradled him. "Just grownup stuff."
"Who that man?" his little finger pointed out the front door.
"No one, don't think about him."
"He funny," Ricky chuckled to himself.
It broke her heart to think that a child had to be separated from its father, but what kind of a life could Rex have given Ricky? She shuddered at the thought. Left to be raised by the Allen's, her little baby would no doubt grow up to be like the rest of them, lying, cheating, drunken, criminals.
I don't know what I ever saw in him, she thought to herself. I mean, apart from the obvious. Despite the fact she hated him and he treated her terribly, she couldn't forget that there was a time she thought he was gorgeous. With a muscular body like a Greek God and that rugged face of his, she used to melt as soon as he'd wrap those bearish arms around her. Even now, seeing him for the first time in two years, she had to admit he was still as handsome and strong as she remembered.
As she set about making the bed, she tried her best to dismiss the thought. Yet, seeing him after all this time brought back memories. She had to admit there were some good times; days they'd spent together in a lustful bubble with nothing else in the world but them and the bed sheets that cloaked their naked bodies. She felt ashamed for seeing him that way again.
Gripping the bed sheets as she tucked them under the mattress, she worried about what Rex would be doing right now. She thought of him riding out there to Neil's work and beating him to within an inch of his life. He was capable of it. She'd seen him do similar things to others. Her stomach lurched, and she had the sudden urge to throw up. Running to the bathroom, she vomited into the sink.
As she raised her head and splashed cold water on her face, she looked at the clock on the wall behind her and knew that it was a twenty-five-minute drive to Neil's work. She still had time...
Hurrying to find her phone, she tapped Neil’s name and listened to the dial tone. There was no answer.
“Come on, come on, just answer!”
*****
Neil wiped the engine oil from his hands down the front of his overalls.
"I always hated the smell of this place," a female voice came from the back of the garage.
He spun round and saw the look on the beautiful woman's face.
"You shouldn't be here, Laura," he pursed his lips.
"Oh... Why's that?" she sauntered forward, her ample hips swaying from side to side.
"Because someone might see you," Neil explained. "This whole God damn town knows each other, and there ain't nothing more fun for these people than gossiping."
"Is that so?" She approached him with a cheeky glint in her eyes and flashed him a smile.
Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed him hard, her pelvis pushing into his. He wanted to pull away from her, knew that he shouldn't cheat on Brandy, but this woman was so... so alluring, so persistent, so young and eager.
"Let's give them something to talk about," she whispered into his ear before she reached out a tentative tongue and licked the sweat from his neck.
"No... I can't. I mean, I shouldn't, I love Brandy."
"You love her?" Laura burst out laughing. "If you love her so much, how come you been comin' round my house the last few months?"
He genuinely didn't know. He was weak and had to admit that he'd been flattered by the attention of a pretty, young girl. His friends had goaded him and given him the go ahead. They said he'd be an idiot to give up the chance to sleep with a twenty year-old, but he knew if Brandy found out... she'd never want to see him again, and worse, she wouldn't let him see Ricky.
"We can't, we really shouldn't."
He tried to protest, but he couldn't hide his hardness and the bump that was forming at the front of his pants. Laura looked down and saw it. She felt satisfied with herself, knowing that her charms were working. Pushing a well-manicured finger into the top of her shirt, she popped open a few buttons and revealed one of her breasts. She made the face that she knew all the boys loved. Biting her lower lip and staring up with her big, doe eyes, she pinched her nipple and groaned, as she felt it grow stiff between her fingers.
Neil thought he was on the cusp of exploding in his underwear. He tried his hardest to look away as he blushed, but he couldn't. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't take his eyes off the girl. He wanted to grab hold of her and pin her to the ground. Instead, with all the strength he could muster, he walked away.
"You're a real piece of work, you know that, Laura? Think it's funny to split up a family?"
"I'm not doing anything," she proceeded to undo the other buttons on her shirt. "You're the one who wants to sleep with me. You said I was the sexiest girl you'd ever seen. You said I had the best tits you'd ever had the pleasure of sucking on."
She giggled and grabbed at her breasts, moaning as her fingernails pushed into her silky, white skin.
"Stop it right now," Neil turned his back on her.
"Oh baby, I know you want it."
"Stop talking like that."
"Why? You liked it yesterday."
"I shoulda known better," he sighed. "I'm sorry, Laura. You're a real sweet girl, you really are, but I have a family and I should never have got involved with you."
He looked as though he was on the brink of crying. Making a fist, he held his fingers in his mouth and bit down hard to take away the feeling of arousal, but Laura hadn't given up yet. She slid up behind him, pressing her breasts into his back. He could feel the heat of them through his overalls, and their enormous size as they pushed into him.
"Stop it."
He tried to pull away, tried to walk away from her for good, but she slid her slender arms around his waist and pulled him to her. Sliding a hand down to his crotch, her soft fingers explored underneath his pants, she felt his hardness and the way he was slightly damp at the tip. He groaned beneath her touch and pushed himself into her hand.
"I can't say no to you," he clenched his eyes closed, as she worked her magic on him.
"That's it, baby, I knew you wanted it," she pumped her hand up and down as slowly as she could, feeling every vein and bump of his length. Nuzzling into his neck, she kissed him softly, her tongue tasting the saltiness of his skin.
"We shouldn't be doing this here," Neil said, as his thighs began to quiver. "I'm gonna get in so much trouble if my boss catches us."
"Fuck your boss," she whispered. "I wanna have some fun," she bit his neck playfully, and loved the feeling of him squirming against her body.
They were both in the heat of the moment, so utterly lost in the pleasure they were experiencing that they almost didn't notice the phone that was ringing inside Neil's pocket.
"What's that noise?" Laura asked.
"Ah, shit," Neil pulled his phone out, all the time still pushing himself into her hand. "Fuck... It's Brandy. I gotta take this."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Laura was enraged, but still, she didn't stop moving her hand up and down.
She grabbed the phone and threw it across the ground. It slid to the other side of the garage before halting to a slow stop against the back wall. The phone continued to ring over the sound of Neil's grunts. If only he knew there was so much worse to come.