Rambler (Brothers of Chaos)

Phoenix paid for her iced tea and looked up to thank the man behind the counter.

He took one look into her eyes and gasped at their unusual color.

She smiled a bit nervously at the face he made but ducked her head away and put her sunglasses back on. She walked out to the patio and sat down at one of the tables. Slipping off her jacket, she placed it on the back of her chair and looked around the area.

Radium Springs wasn’t a very big town, only about a thousand people or so. She remembered seeing a population sign as she drove into town but she was too busy taking in the surroundings to pay too much attention to the numbers on the sign.

She’d come here with the hopes of trying to find her missing past. For the last twelve years, she hadn’t known who she was. Her hand crept up to her throat and even now, she could still feel the scars she wore from an incident that almost killed her.

Phoenix always wore a scarf to hide it but she knew it was there. Two perfect rows of a rope wrapped around her neck to strangle her as her skin swelled against the tightness of the hemp cord. Lucky for her, the rope was old and not in as good a shape as the user had expected. The rope still bit into her bruised flesh but it didn’t quite strangle her before it broke.

Phoenix dragged her thoughts away from that time in her life. It always drove her crazy, as she could never figure out just why it had ever happened. Why would anyone drag a nine year old kid out into the desert and leave her there in the full sun with a rope wrapped so tight around her neck, she was almost strangled? What had she done that was so bad someone just threw her away like that?

Phoenix didn’t know but she hoped she was finally in the one place she could find the answers she’d been looking for, for the last twelve years. She’d been told this was where it all began. She could still feel the burn of the tattoo gun on her shoulder as the artist inked her not so long ago.

When she came to that day twelve years ago, she’d found herself in an old man’s cabin at the edge of the desert park, he told her she would live. Her throat was on fire that day while he explained what happened to her as much as he could tell from her wounds and the scars she would bear for the rest of her life.

He also gave her something he’d found on her person. It was a patch she had in her pocket. He thought maybe it was a biker’s patch. It read Brothers of Chaos, New Mexico Chapter. She just stared at it for the longest time, like she didn’t know what she was looking at. She didn’t know who she was either, or what brought her here to this place. She had panicked and the old man had had to hold her down, so she wouldn’t hurt herself.

That was when she noticed another child sitting in the corner of the room. He was around her age or so she thought and when the old man introduced them, she found out the kid was his grandson, Tao. The old man told her his name was Moon and that soon he and Tao would join up with the rest of their tribe at the Gathering, a celebration the Apache’s had once a year to catch up with family and friends.

Now she had finally found herself here in Radium Springs. She wasn’t sure if this was a smart move on her part or not but the tat she had inked on her skin was the first step she had taken to reclaiming her past. The tat almost matched the patch she had found so long ago in her pocket. When she handed it to the artist, she asked him if he could do it on her shoulder. He hadn’t wanted to, but she talked him into it. She asked if he could break the patch into two pieces just broken enough so the patch wouldn’t be complete. She didn’t know what the patch meant to her but she felt she needed to find out. And with the patch not complete, she hoped it wouldn’t piss off the MC.

Once the tat had healed, Phoenix decided it was time and she set off to find Radium Springs. As she sat down at the table, she knew the man behind the counter would be able to see the tat on her shoulder and she hoped he would make a call to the MC to let them know she was there.

She didn’t know what would happen next and her belly was rolling in fear but this was her first step…one she needed to take. Good or bad, she didn’t know but it was too late to stop it now.

She adjusted the scarf on her throat and sat there sipping her tea. It didn’t take long, maybe twenty minutes before she heard the roar of bike engines and she had to smile. She turned her head and looked back into the coffee shop. The man was still standing at the counter but now he was wearing a frown. She lifted her cup and silently saluted him.

Turning to face the front of the street, she saw four bikers coming toward her. They parked almost in front of her table and the one in the middle just glared at her through the lenses of the mirrored sunglasses he wore.

When he got off the bike, she couldn’t believe how tall he was. Well over six feet, he could be mistaken for a tank. His shoulders were broad and they tapered down to a slim waist and tree trunks for legs. His dark hair hung down to his shoulders and he was sporting a full beard. He wore a bandana and a red t-shirt under his cut.

His feet were encased in black leather biker boots and as he walked toward her, her heartbeat matched the sound of his footsteps.

He paused then pulled out the chair opposite of where she sat.

The other bikers sat down all around her and no one said a word to her.

The man from behind the counter brought out a tray of drinks but she didn’t look at him. He gave each of the new men a drink and then he disappeared back inside the shop.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the man sitting at her table. For some reason, she thought she remembered him.

But that was impossible wasn’t it? Had she been here before? She moved her eyes away from his face and studied the town again. Had she really been here before, if so why couldn’t she remember?

The man across from her cleared his throat and she slowly brought her head back to study him. He reached up and removed his sunglasses. The first sight of his eyes hit her hard. She knew those eyes. She’d seen those eyes a very long time ago.

She gasped as she remembered another pair of eyes so much like his. Eyes clouded with pain while the sound of his voice had been calling out her name. She couldn’t remember what he was saying but she remembered being close to him. Finally, she watched as the light faded from those eyes and then before she called out to him, someone was ripping her away from him. Then she couldn’t remember anything but pain.

Nervously, she wet her lips with her tongue. Then she leaned forward and she could barely whisper but she mouthed the words, “Do I know you?”

Rambler frowned as he stared at her. “What the fuck?”

When he got the call from Mike at the coffee shop, he’d been stunned by the other man’s words. He gathered up Hunter, Bearcat and Raven. They rode down to confront a situation he hoped wouldn’t get someone killed.

When he got off his bike, he was surprised at her appearance. She was a small woman with long dark hair. He couldn’t see her eyes yet, but she looked almost too dainty to be real. No, not dainty but delicate, almost fragile as if the next big wind could blow her away.

He’d only known one other woman who looked like her, that had been a lifetime ago and he hoped to never see that woman again. He knew if that woman ever came back to this area, plenty of his brothers would be very happy to see her dead, his own president included. Hell, twelve years ago, he would have been happy to see her dead as well.

Twelve years ago, his own blood brother was killed and he wanted justice for Mac. They say time heals all wounds but this one was not healed, it would never heal as long as his killer was out there still living the good life. It felt just as raw today as it had been back then. But as he studied her this girl reminded him of her.

“Who the fucking hell are you?” He growled at her.

“I’m called Phoenix,” she whispered as she looked down at the table between them. “But I’m not sure if that’s my name or not.”

Rambler sneered at her. “How can you not know your own damn name? You aren’t making any sense woman.”

She snapped her head up and glared at him through her own sunglasses. “Don’t you judge me. You don’t have that right. You have no idea what I’ve been through, so you can’t tell me that.”

Rambler grunted as he reached out and snatched the glasses off her face. He stared at her and more importantly the color of her eyes. He sat back and gasped.

The small woman glared at him.

“Rambler, what the hell is going on here?” Hunter, the club’s enforcer asked. “Who is she and why does she have those same eyes?”

“I don’t know but I aim to find out.” Rambler growled. He reached out and grabbed her wrist hauling her closer to him, “Now tell me, who the hell are you and why did you come here?”

Phoenix fought to get free but he wasn’t letting her go. His fingers tightened and bit down into her skin and she tightened her lips. She refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was hurting her. “Let me go.”

“I don’t think so sweetheart,” Rambler grumbled. He looked over at Hunter and nodded.

The club’s enforcer got up and walked around to her back where he paused and stared at the tat on her shoulder.

Rambler watched his face and when he nodded, Rambler hauled her to her feet and twisted her around so he could see her back.

There on her shoulder was the ink he’d been told about. She carried the MC’s patch, only this one was broken in half, so it was incomplete. “How the hell did you know what our patch looked like? You don’t have the right to wear this. It’s for club members only.”

She stumbled and fell to her knees as Rambler pushed her away from him.

She looked up at him and Rambler could read fear in her eyes. But the longer he glared at her the more he realized it was more than simple fear in her eyes. It was downright terror and the longer she was on her knees the deeper the terror went.

He reached down to help her to her feet.

In panic, she scooted away from him. She curled herself up into a small ball and cried out when he came near her.

Rambler looked over at his men then back at her. No one knew what was going on.

“Ok, everyone just sit down and settle down for a minute,” Rambler announced in a quiet, steady voice. He backed away slowly and sat down in his chair.

The others all sat down as well and after a moment, Rambler motioned to her chair. “We don’t hurt women or innocents. You are safe here with us.”

“But how do I know that? You were so angry before,” Phoenix whispered as she slipped her sunglasses back onto her face.

Rambler thought about it for a moment from her perspective and he had to agree with her, “Yes I was and I apologize for that. You reminded me of someone I knew a long time ago and it had been a trying time for the club. Something very bad happened and we were betrayed by someone we had come to care about very much.” He paused to raise a brow at her. “Then you show up out of the blue and refuse to tell us anything about yourself. Then you’re wearing our patch but nobody here knows you.” He looked around the parking lot and found her vehicle. “And your car has Texas plates on it. You shouldn’t know our patch or where we are located. Care to explain yourself?”

Phoenix got to her feet slowly and moved stiffly back to her chair. She had to move it, so she would be able to see everyone sitting there. She kept her eyes on Rambler but lifted her head just a little and said, “I would love to explain but here’s the rub. I have no clue who I am. I was found at the edge of the Big Bend National Park, bloody and broken with a noose around my neck, twelve years ago. When I woke up, I didn’t know my own name let alone where I belonged.”