Path to Our Future part 7

I’m on the road towards Wyoming on Pale Horse and I’ve been going for a few hours when I get a phone call and answer it on my Bluetooth.

“You’re calling me, who are you,” I ask my caller.

“Hey kid it’s me,” I hear the Old Man’s voice chime in over the headset,” Heard from Imelda that you were heading out to find the long lost sister.”

“That’s right, something wrong with me going,” I ask smirking.

“No you little shit just letting you know we got a couple road houses along the way if you need them, I’ll have Vicki to that whole texting details shit so you can find them. These are Union houses and I’ve let them know you might be by,” the Old Man tells me.

“Well thank you sir, anything you need me to do when I get to them,” I ask figuring this might turn into a favor or task he needs done.

“Not really, I have things under control down here. You just do what you need to do,” He tells me plainly.

We end the call and I’m down the road enjoying the now afternoon weather. Since the beginning of this year I’ve stopped shaving my head and now it’s actually long enough that I can comb it if I want to but thanks to a lot of bike riding my dirty blond hair goes one way, straight back and down to my neck. The girls love it and keep fighting me on cutting it down, it’s nice but I hate the extra work. I left first thing in the morning on Thursday and its barely afternoon as I’m out of the state and into Oregon before following the interstate east along the Oregon/Washington border. I spend most of my day riding and all the way into the night getting well into Idaho when fatigue hits me midday on Friday. I get into a town call Twin Falls Idaho and end up heading north of there to find a bar/motel of sorts with more bikes in front of it than I care to count. It’s not super crowded outside and I get a spot to park my bike and get a few feet when I really start to feel the fatigue set in. I double check the name and sure enough The Metal Stallion Motel is right where I’m supposed to be. I get inside and the place doesn’t completely go quiet with a new person walking in the bar but since I didn’t see an office I figure this is the place. I pull up to bar and am addressed by a stern biker in a cut with the Union patch and a few others on his chest.

“Kid you wanna explain what brings you here,” The big man asks taking the toothpick out of his mouth.

“Yes I do, I need a room and I was told this was Union territory,” I tell him letting the man see my Pariah patch.

“Well shit kid Jim said you were young but damn if he left that in the understatement category,” the biker bartender tells me,” You look like you’ve been riding for a while.”

“Since yesterday morning, I need to crash out sooner than later,” I tell him leaning hard against the bar.

“Okay kid, hey Clarence,” my new biker friend calls out to a short fat biker,” check this kid’s bike and get him a room.”

“He’s a fucking kid! Let him stay at the motel 6,” the short fat man hollers back.

“He’s Union from Texas,” the barkeep replies back and Clarence hops up to assist.

I lead the way to my bike and grab my saddlebags as Clarence leads me to a room on the second floor. I pass a few rooms where I hear sounds of sex coming from behind the doors and ignore it for the most part as I get let into a room and handed a key. I close the door behind me and note that the room has seen better decades but it’s got a bed and a shower which is enough for me. I am lying on the bed for about thirty seconds before sleep takes over.

Waking up in a strange place is one thing but when someone is fucking with the door to your room it brings you up to do strange things. Like quietly bolt up and grab the silenced nine millimeter that you got last summer and had registered with all the appropriate paperwork in your name before getting back on the bed and waiting, mental note having a lawyer for a stepdad and a military dad is awesome. The door opens and a couple, man and woman, stagger in to see me sitting there with a pistol.

“Hi, I’m guessing someone gave you the wrong room key,” I state noting the Union cut on the man.

“What the fuck is this kid doing here,” the man asks the woman, both look to be in their late thirties.

“Honey we took the wrong key from Clarence, let’s just go back and get a different one,” the woman says pulling her man out of the room.

I watch them leave and close the door after themselves but shake my head, wrong fucking room indeed. I’ve only been asleep for a couple hours and settle right back in to my restful sleep on the old worn bed. My next wakeup call comes at seven in the morning as my phone starts going psycho, I answer it to find Kori calling.

“So maybe you didn’t hear us when we said call in daily and check in,” She states playfully.

“I’m sorry baby I’m in Idaho and was driving since I left till afternoon yesterday,” I tell her keeping her updated.

“So where are you staying,” She asks and I discover I’m on speaker phone.

I give her the details and we chat a little, school is going good and Ben has people keeping watch all over for our mystery female that attacked Maggie. All my girls are good and happy but worried since I’m all alone; I reassure them that things are fine and that I’ll be back on the road soon and hopefully in Wyoming by the end of the day. I give them my love and decide showering is good and once done pack up my shit and head back to the bar to turn in my key. Same big biker bartender is there and he smiles as he greets me.

“Everything to your liking sir,” he jokes and I laugh back.

“Hey it’s a bed and a shower, if I wasn’t ready to rough it a little I’d ask for silk sheets and a mint on my pillow,” I reply and he laughs hard.

“Jim said you were a funny kid, we got people in Wyoming so if you need help just call Jim and let him handle the rest,” the big biker, Mitch, tells me as I sit down at an empty table.

“Do you have anything to eat here before I pay up and head out,” I ask getting a surprised look.

“Jim never said anything about you paying,” Mitch tells me before heading into the kitchen.

I wait and Mitch comes back after a few minutes and sits down opposite of the table with me. We talk a little about the Union and how Jim runs things pretty good. I discover the friendly Old Man that I know has a pretty gruesome history and caused some chaos for a couple rival groups including Devil’s Best till new leadership took over.

“I knew he was a tough man but damn,” I remark as a busty Latina woman brings out a plate for Mitch and me.

“Thanks darlin’,” Mitch says getting a kiss as she heads back,” Wife loves to cook for people sadly most don’t want to eat here.”

I dig in and I do not understand why people don’t want to eat her cooking, it’s pretty good. I finish the whole plate in record time and check my clock to see it’s a little after eight in the morning before asking if they have a card reader for payments. Mitch points me to an ATM and I get out three hundred in cash and go to hand him half but he declines.

“No thanks Kid, Jim said you were family to him and that’s good enough for us,” Mitch tells me and I smirk.

He looks at me funny as I head into the kitchen and find the cook, Guadalupe is his woman, and hand her the money getting an odd look.

“Ma’am that was the best meal I’ve had in days, go get something nice and surprise Mitch with it,” I tell her with a wink and a smile.

She laughs a little and I get a hug before exiting the kitchen and shake hands with Mitch before mounting up on Pale Horse and heading back down the road towards Wyoming. The trip is more time consuming and I discover the city I’m heading to is in rancher territory as I am passing large plots of land in the mid afternoon on Saturday that lead me to what passes for the center of town, it’s not huge but quaint and livable. My presence however gains a bit of attention as a good portion of people here are country western and I’m metal. I search around for a bit and settle on a place in town to hold up in, it’s a nice little hotel that looks nothing like a commercialized one and I figure that is worth something. I pay the friendly yet wary of me woman behind the counter and get myself settled, it’s about dinner time and I take the silencer off my pistol and store it in my bags and holster it in my coat before heading down stairs and figure I’ll go look up somewhere to eat. I settle in at a bar and grill and get to suffer through the country music and dancing going on at the other half of the restaurant when a very top heavy blonde woman in what I can assume is her early forties welcomes me to Old Hand’s Grill and hands me a menu.

“Never been here before,” Trudy, her name plate gives it away, asks stating the obvious.

“Nope, never been to Wyoming before,” I reply looking at the menu, at least the food has meat in it.

I place an order for the steak plate with barbeque fries and a soda which Trudy takes happily before leaving me to my silence. I shoot my girls a text letting them know I’m in town and promise I will try to be polite. They send their love and I look around at the locals, god do I stand out, aside from my jeans I’m wearing the wrong boots, my combat boots are not cowboy boots. My black leather jacket with a hood isn’t brown and worn and I don’t have a cowboy or baseball cap. It takes a while but I’m served and it’s good food, I get about halfway through my meal before nature calls and I’m gone for maybe five minutes before coming back to find my table has been overtaken and there is a guy sitting in my seat with a woman on his lap eating my fries.

“Excuse me this is my table,” I state in a non threatening tone.

“Well hell you weren’t here,” the man in the white hat says chuckling.

“Regardless that’s my food you’re eating and my chair you’re sitting in,” I tell him stating fact and not trying to threaten.

“Well kid this is my chair now and my table so why don’t you order something for yourself and go sit somewhere else,” the man laughs and his friends laugh with him.

I don’t want to fight and figure I’ll just settle for half a meal, catch Trudy and she looks happy to see me save for the fact that I only hand her a twenty for the meal when it was more like thirty five and start to leave. A hand on my shoulder from her stops me.

“The tab is thirty five honey,” Trudy tells me and I’m not in a mood to argue.

“Well take that up with the man eating my food and sitting in my spot,” I tell her pulling out a second twenty and handing it to her before heading for the door.

I’m about ten feet away from Pale Horse when I hear two people running to catch up to me on either side. They come into view and it’s two of the jackasses from my old table. I start to step past when I hand on my shoulder turns me and I’m blindsided by a fist to the side of my head. There is some laughing and talking when I feel one go through my pockets and I hear keys jingling, my keys.

“Thanks for the ride kid, new in town tax,” I hear the asshole who took my seat.

I get kicked in the gut a couple times and once or twice in the back before the beating stops and I’m left alone to hear my bike start up and pull away from the restaurant. It takes me a minute and I can hear a couple people talking when I see some familiar red and blue flashing lights.

“Sir place your hands on your head and get on your knees,” A female officer tells me and now I’m pissed and confused.

“Help me, some asshole and his friends just took my bike,” I state with some pain turning to face the officers.

“Sir I won’t repeat myself now place your hands on your head and get on your knees now,” the female officer says again only louder.

“Wait I get jumped and my bike is stolen and you’re arresting me,” I ask starting to get pissed off.

I do what she says and its a few seconds later that my pistol is taken out and I’m cuffed before being put in the back of a local Sheriff’s car. I get driven to their jail and find they have two cells as I am sat in a chair with the female officer going through my wallet and running my information. I stay quiet till someone decides to talk to me.

“You wanna explain what you were doing starting a fight in the parking lot of Nathanial’s restaurant,” a male deputy asks but I remain quiet,” can you hear me kid I asked you a question?”

I don’t respond, I don’t even look at them. Dad taught me to focus my rage and save it for when I need it, now in a sheriff’s office with cuffs on is not the time.

“Hey kid I asked you a question,” the deputy starts in again before turning to the female,” I think we got a tough guy on our hands.”

“Well this kid has a registered firearm and a concealed carry permit, full licensing to drive and a bank card. I’m running background now but we should get him some ice for his head. Whoever he started the fight with didn’t let him up,” the female says looking at me.

I am stood up a little forcefully by the male officer and note my two guards. White female in a brown deputy uniform and badge with blonde hair in a bun and a lean build, her partner is a white male who is well tanned in the same uniform and a cowboy hat to match it and he’s well muscled. I get lead to a cell and once put inside the deputy takes the cuffs off and closes the door after me. I move to the cot and sit down pulling my legs up and crossing them as I stare at the door directly across from me. A few minutes later the female deputy comes back and has an ice pack and a first aid kit with her.

“If you come over to the bars you can get this ice pack,” the female deputy says trying to be helpful.

I don’t move, if it wasn’t for her standing right at the door I wouldn’t even be looking at her. She stands there expectantly and finally starts to get frustrated.

“Hey kid, I’m just trying to help you out here,” the woman says again and finally turn to someone out of my sight,” Jesus Burt do you think they brain damaged him when they threw him out?”

“I don’t know but Nathanial said he’ll be in to give a statement, after he sees the sheriff,” the male deputy says to her,” Apparently we got it all wrong but the kid had a gun so it’s on us for bringing him in.”

“Yeah I guess but he didn’t threaten anyone with it as far as I could tell,” the female says finally walking away.

Small town justice, apprehend the outsider because he’s causing the problem. I close my eyes and sit quietly. Save the rage, keep the fire warm, wait for your time. I must have been here for an hour or so when I hear an older male’s voice calling to me.

“Hey son you going to talk to me or do I get the silent treatment too,” the voice says as I open my eyes.

I look and see an older white man in normal clothes with a cowboy hat in hand and a badge on his shirt standing next to the owner of the restaurant where I was assaulted. I figure now is as good a time as any.

“I would like my phone call so that I may contact an attorney concerning my unlawful detainment,” I state getting a shocked look from the Native but the Sheriff looks barely fazed.

“And how do you figure this is unlawful,” He asks gauging me.

“Instead of judging the scene your deputies cuffed and detained me without any statements, they saw my firearm and didn’t try to gauge the situation. I was cuffed and being questioned while the assholes who did this to me were allowed to get farther away from the scene of the crime with my motorcycle. My paperwork for the firearm is in order, I did nothing wrong but I’m in a cell with no miranda being issued, just two deputies with a point to prove against someone in town but not from town,” I state going down my list,” Now I’d like my phone call so that I can get my attorney up here and proceed with formal charges.”

“Son there will be no formal charges, you haven’t been charged with anything and there is no need to turn a misunderstanding into a small war,” the Sheriff says and I chuckle.

“Sir I know you don’t really have any idea as to who I am so let me just say this, you have no idea what a war is like when it comes to me,” I tell him firmly.

“If I may speak with the young man John,” the native says and the sheriff nods leaving the front of the cell,” I never got your name but mine is Nathaniel, you can call me Nate.”

“No you didn’t get my name,” I state not interested in conversation.

“Son I’m trying to speak with you man to man,” Nate says but I decide to chime in.

“Like when I’m being arrested for leaving your restaurant in a shitty mood because I’m not a local and don’t deserve any respect before getting blindsided three on one and my bike get stolen and you and your employees who saw it are doing fuck all to help,” I ask with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

“I spoke with Eddie my bouncer and he apologizes for not saying anything sooner. Also I apologize for what happened with your meal, anytime you want to come in next one is on the house,” he tells me trying to make a peace offering,” I know you are upset about what happened…”

“Just stop, it’s quite clear you don’t care for outsiders and new business so I’ll just stick to fast food and I’ll move my goods to a motel outside of town so that I’m not disturbing the local wildlife,” I tell him as Sheriff John comes back.

“Son you don’t need to do all that because of one bad altercation,” the Sheriff says trying to placate me.

“Whatever Barney Fife, I’ll just be here till I get my phone call and can get about my business and charges to be pressed,” I state closing my eyes.

I don’t know if they left and frankly I couldn’t care less. I fall asleep with my head upright and when I wake up I discover by the light that it’s morning. I slowly open my eyes to see the female deputy opening the door.

“Connie, sheriff said leave the boy be,” I hear the male deputy yell.

I watch the female deputy as she opens the door and steps inside with a box of doughnuts and a cup of coffee. I stare at her like she just pissed on me till she finds her words.

“Hey I brought in doughnuts this morning and figured you could use one,” Connie says extending her hand with the box.

“Why,” I ask not moving.

“Well I figured you could use someone to talk to and since your file came back this morning and you’re on the up and up as it were I was gonna drive you back to your room,” she says still waiting for me to take a doughnut.

“Do you normally keep people in her over night for no reason or is that just for non locals,” I ask getting a frustrated sigh.

“Listen Guy I’m just trying to help,” she says and I look at her oddly because she used my name,” I saw it on your file.”

“Wonderful so am I free to go or do you need to keep me here for more bullshit,” I ask not happy and growing impatient.

“Sheriff wanted to hold you here till he got in so he could speak with you before letting you go,” Connie says finally pulling the box away from me.

I watch her leave but she’s torn about not being able to reach me, it’ll take more than a smile and doughnuts to get to me now. I watch her close the cell door and lock it, I shake my head about it and she looks at me funny before walking out of sight. I guess it’s another hour when Sheriff John comes back and there is a new voice with him talking very fast and panicked.

“No Sheriff you aren’t understanding me, let the young man go right now and his legal counsel won’t bring up your deputies on charges,” the voice says talking about me and I snicker, Mr. Delauter caught wind of my situation without a call.

“We’re holding him for his own safety, it was the Burk’s boy who was screwing around with him last night and had he used that gun he’d be in worse trouble than he is now,” I hear the Sheriff reply but he gets cut off.

“What we are looking at are dismissal level offenses by a legal team that will not stop till they have enough of this offices blood sweat and tears on their hands that the next five sheriffs will remember this young man’s name. I’m telling you that if you don’t release him and let him call off his council you will not have to worry about an election you’ll have to worry about whether or not you can retire,” the man says again before it sounds like he’s being ushered out.

“That’s good and well and I’ll take it under advisement Mr. Adams,” I hear the sheriff say before I hear a door close,” My god that man reminds me of a little dog yipping about everything.”

I hear some laughter and they talk for a minute or two when Connie the deputy comes back and motions me out of the cell after opening it. I get led past the deputies’ desks and into what I can only presume is the Sheriff’s office where he’s sitting with Nathaniel in one chair and I’m being asked to sit in the other.

“I was hoping you’d be in a better mood to talk this morning but from what my deputies tell me you’re still looking for a fight after yesterday evening.