Bad to the Bones(18)

Madison wasn’t about to give up. “But you do realize they tossed you out with the bathwater, along with those bums. They drugged your beer before herding you onto a bus with other undesirables. There was a reason for that, Bella. And I don’t want you going back until we find out what it was.”

Fair enough. “I’d like to know what the big mistake was, too. I’d like to complain to my master—maybe one of the drivers made a huge mistake, one of the daimyo who put me on the bus.”

I could tell by her lopsided grin that Maddy didn’t believe a word of it, but she’d play along, for now. “Yes, there’s got to be a way to get through to someone. You seriously can’t remember anyone’s cell number?”

“Not a one. A few people have them, but since I don’t, how would I memorize anyone’s number?”

“Well, we’ll send someone up there. Someone will get through. We’ll get you your own phone tomorrow. Now, my dear. Let’s go inside.” I thought she was warning me that I had drank too much alcohol. But really we were about to head back into her glamorous chef’s kitchen and make more drinks with umbrellas. “What do you do at your compound when you’re not…doing therapy?”

“I plant trees, I help make peanut butter, but mostly I repair motorcycles.”

Maddy turned to me, her mouth an O. “You’re f*cking kidding. I just remember you riding around on the back of John Sansing’s little Suzuki. You repair them now?”

“Or the back of Charlie Mooney’s pasta rocket. No, I’ve got my own Harley now. That’s what I really enjoy working on, although there are only about six other Harleys in the ashram.”

Maddy put our empty glasses down on her granite counter. “That’s amazing, Bella. I always wondered what happened to you, how you’d turn out. I know I vanished too, so I’m a fine one to talk.”

“You vanished for a good reason—to get your nursing degree.”

Madison was mysterious. “I guess that was the end game, although it wasn’t the reason I left so suddenly. Oh, well. It all turned out for the best. Now, I’ll make more QuiQuis and we can talk about how hot Knoxie Hammett is.”

“He seems to be a tattoo artist.” I had admired Knoxie’s carved body in a remote, art-loving sort of way, but it just wasn’t in me to get sexually aroused. All of those responses had been deadened by the filthy, unruly boys I’d messed around with as a teen. I certainly hadn’t been hot for any of them. And in the ashram, sexual response was something…different. It had more to do with chakras than cock rings. “Why do you keep talking about him? Are you trying to set me up or something?”

Madison put an innocent look on her face as she pressed the orange segment onto the electric juicer. “Not at all. I just think it was a great favor he did for our club, going out there and rounding up all the street people. Oh, and you.”

I shrugged. “He seems nice enough. He’s not a member of your biker gang?”

“Club. No, he’s not, although we’ve tried to corral him for years. He marches to his own drummer. He just got divorced and went through a black phase, and I think he’s coming out the other side.”

“Yeah,” I said listlessly. “His apartment sure is crap for an older guy.”

“I’ll tell you a secret. I think he might finally patch in.”

“Patch…in?”

“Join The Bare Bones. He said as much to Ford. Without his wife to hold him back, I think he’s ready to live more fully.”

“Why are you telling me all this, Maddy? You act as though I’m a citizen of Pure and Easy. Like I care what goes on in the community.”

Maddy put down the orange half and looked levelly at me. “Well, I want you to be a citizen, Bella. I have to be honest. I don’t like the idea of you up there being ‘penetrated’ by any f*cking one. And I’d love to have you back. We had some good times. And we could use a good Harley wrench. My brother Speed’s been doing all of the club’s bikes, but he’s overwhelmed with fixing the equipment out at The Citadel. That’s where Illuminati Trucking is housed.”

“So the truth comes out. You need my services,” I joked.

“Among other things. I basically want your company, Bella. Speaking of, where’s your sister Virginia? I never hear of her either, and I admit to googling her name. Did she marry and change her name?”

“Marry? No…She’s fine. She’s in Tucson working at a bank. Oh, don’t add too much tequila to mine. I’m not used to drinking the hard stuff, only beer.”

I was lying, of course. I knew I’d been developing a habit of lying to cover up to white party members about things that went on at the ranch. But with Maddy, I was just weary of being judged. I’d had my daily quota.

She was part of the life outside. And a lot of what went on inside was difficult for them to understand.





CHAPTER SIX




KNOXIE


“Well, you can’t very well lock her up like some kind of warped Jeffrey Dahmer.”

Knoxie snorted in his partner’s direction. “Wasn’t Dahmer already warped? So that’s kind of implied when you say Jeffrey Dahmer.”

Adrian Shirk was laying his ink bed flat to convert the headrest into a face cradle. He had a new client in half an hour who wanted an unusual design on his back, so Knoxie had stopped in to The Missing Ink to sketch out some ideas for Adrian. The guy allegedly wanted a frog, a tongue, a razor blade, and a needle. The overall emotion he wanted to create was “I’m in pain.” Knoxie was doing some biomechanical sketching as suggestions for Adrian. A bright green poison arrow frog on a razor’s edge would definitely say “pain.”