“Widowmaker is dramatic.”
“She prefers memorable.”
“She would.”
Her arms stay around me when we pull forward.
By the time the Fire Pit comes into view, she ain’t relaxed, but she is breathing like the wind has done something the clubhouse couldn’t. Maybe there is no safe place for a woman like her right now. Maybe movement feels better than walls.
The Fire Pit sits at the edge of Hell where the road widens and the town pretends it has manners. Old brick building. Black awnings. Bourbon barrel planters. A neon sign shaped like a flame in the front window. The Kings own it, but the Fire Pit is neutral ground in the way a loaded shotgun above a mantle is decorative. Everybody knows who controls it. Everybody also knows the rules.
No club war inside.
No Pearly Gates preaching unless they plan to drink and tip.
No touching the staff.
No insulting the bourbon.
No blood on the floor unless Legend decides the mop is worth it.
Locals come here because the Kings keep the peace better than the county does. Horse people from Paradise sit beside mechanics from Hell. Politicians drink expensive bourbon in corner booths and pretend they don’t see bikers counting their cash. Church ladies pick up to-go orders from the back kitchen and avoid eye contact with the sinners they secretlyenvy. Wrestlers, farmers, rich boys, poor girls, old men, club women, and the occasional lost tourist all end up at the Fire Pit eventually.
Kentucky has two religions.
Horses and bourbon.
The Fire Pit serves one and takes bets on the other.
I pull into the line of bikes out front, and every head on the porch turns.
Of course they do.
Derby doesn’t ride with women on Widowmaker often.
Derby sure as hell doesn’t pull up with a woman in Lottie’s Queen Bitch helmet, red lipstick, Sophie’s jacket, and fear tucked under her chin like she is about to bite it in half.
I cut the engine.
Silence drops heavy.
Amelia’s arms stay around me for one second longer than necessary.
I feel her realize it.
She lets go fast.
Too fast.
I get off first and hold the bike steady. “Take your time.”
“I know how to get off a motorcycle.”
“Didn’t say you didn’t.”
“You thought it.”
“I think many things. Most don’t survive court.”