KING(87)

“Nah, man,” Preppy said, waving his hand dismissively like the question was ridiculous, but I knew he was lying. I saw it in his eyes. “Just curious is all.”

I also had a very good idea of who he thought ‘needed killin’.

Bear looked around and leaned in close, waving for us to lean in bring it in as well. “We got these guys, specially trained. Pops calls them ‘the janitors’. You know what their job is?” he asked pausing dramatically, waiting for Preppy and me to urge him on.

“What?” Preppy asked, totally enthralled. “What do they do?”

Bear smiled, elated that Preppy had taken the bait. “When people need killin’, or get killed, they sweep in and make it so it never happened.”

He made a wiping motion with his hands in the air, extending them out to his sides. He sat back, looking pleased that he could share with us something about the MC. It wasn’t until he turned prospect that he’d finally gotten a glimpse of the inner workings of The Beach Bastards, and he was always excited to tell us more about the club he was raised in but didn’t necessarily know a lot about before he was given a PROSPECT cut.

The kid was a born biker, but as much as he tried to get us to join, it wasn’t for us.

Preppy and I never strayed from our plan.

Ever.

“You guys ever need a cleaning up, you call me. I can put a word in. Problem is, you’d owe us a favor. That’s how it works. No matter when we call in that favor or no matter what that favor is, you gotta do it.” Bear lit a cigarette and waved the smoke away from his face. “Nuff of that shit, boys. Preppy, you got the goods or what?”

“Goods?” I asked. I wasn’t aware that we were selling to Bear today, or any other day for that matter. Since he turned Prospect, he bought his weed from the MC.

Preppy hopped up and walked over to the hall closet. He came back holding something covered with a ripped sheet. “What the f*ck is that?” I asked.

“This—” Preppy waved his hand over the sheet. “—is your birthday gift, you ungrateful f*ck.” He set it on the floor and grabbed the sheet in the middle, lifting it off like a magician. “Voila!” He stepped back, and my eyes focused on what was in front of me. It was a cardboard box and inside of it were bits and pieces of something.

Not just something. It was a tattoo gun.

“Happy birthday, you f*cking f*ck! Now, let’s figure out how to put this thing together, because Bear and I already picked out which tattoos we want from your sketchbook.” I stared at the equipment in front of me, not believing my eyes.

“If you take any longer to get started putting it together, I’m going to request mine be put on my taint,” Bear said, knocking me out of my stunned state.

“Thanks, boys.” I lifted the box onto my lap and started tinkering with the parts. “And Bear?”

“Yeah, Man?”

“There is no f*cking way in hell I’m ever going anywhere near your taint.”

“Noted.”

That day, I tattooed for the very first time. I didn’t do the ones the boys had picked from my sketchbook. They were too elaborate and although I could draw, I’d never used a tattoo gun before so the full back piece Bear wanted with intertwining snakes, The Beach Bastards logo, would have to wait until I knew what the f*ck I was doing.

Instead, Bear got a small shamrock behind his ear, although I’m not quite sure if he was any sort of Irish. Preppy settled for PREP on his knuckles. The lettering was thin and crooked. They were the worst tattoos in the world. Blown out edges, a bloody f*cking mess. But the boys loved them, and I couldn’t wait to practice on them some more.

“I’m so gangsta.” Preppy said, admiring his newly tatted up knuckles.

“You’re about as gangsta as my ninety year old Grandma,” Bear said.

“Bear, doesn’t your grandma have a full chest tattoo and purple hair?” I asked.

“Sure does,” he replied.

“Then, I actually think she’s way more gangsta then ole Preppy here,” I said.

“You guys laugh now, but you’ll see. King here is gonna tattoo my neck next. I’m gonna look real mean.”

“Are you still gonna still wear button down shirts, bow ties and suspenders?” I asked.

“Fuck yeah. Always. That’s my style.”

Bear chuckled. “You may not look tough, or mean, but you might confuse the f*ck out of people.”