Screw (Hell's Handlers MC 8)

Screw was…antsy to say the least.

After another few minutes of maddening silence, he pulled over to the side of the darkened road. They had another three miles to go until they reached their destination.

“Hey,” he said.

Screw blinked and swiveled toward Gumby. “Huh? Why’d we stop? Something wrong with the truck?”

Wow, he really had been out of it. “Nah, just checking in. You seem…” How to say it without offending the man or sounding like a concerned boyfriend.

Which he was not and never would be.

“Seem what?”

“Off.” Gumby shrugged.

Screw looked smokin’ hot in dark black jeans, a nicer quality than he seemed to typically sport, and a charcoal Henley. No leather, chains, or rings. The outfit hovered somewhere between biker and plain casual. Perfect to portray the persona of someone curious about the MC culture but not quite part of the in crowd. Gumby had dressed similarly in dark wash denim and a simple black T-shirt. Biker boots completed both of their looks.

“Just getting my head in the game.”

“Nah, it’s more than that. You’re…”

Screw raised an eyebrow as though daring Gumby to insult him.

“I don’t know you well, but you’re a big personality. Always laughing, joking…inappropriate. Tonight, you’re just…” He lifted a hand from the wheel with a shrug.

“Oh, well, that’s clear as fucking mud. You’re real smooth with the words. If I were fucking you right now, we wouldn’t even need lube, you’re so fucking slick.”

Shit, the thought of being pinned down while Screw fucked him had him clenching the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened. He’d never gone there before but couldn’t deny the interest.

“There you are,” Gumby said with a smirk. “Nice of you to finally join me, but how about you get real and tell me what’s fucking your head up.”

Screw grunted. “You complain I’m too serious and now you’re saying I’m too much of a smartass. Make up your goddamned mind.”

“I don’t want to make up my mind so you can act like you think I want you to act.”

“So what the fuck do you want?” Screw slammed his hands on the dashboard then left them there as his head dropped to meet them.

“I guess I want you, the real you to tell me what’s going on in your head. We’re taking a risk tonight. I’m here, and I’ve got your back. I need to know you’ve got mine too, cuz if shit goes south…”

If shit went south, they were fucked, and not in the way he’d been fantasizing about seconds ago. In a shit-they’re-going-to-pull-out-my-toenails kinda way.

“So, you can’t admit you want me, even when your dick is in my mouth, but you want me to spill my guts to you?” Screw spat the accusation across the interior of the truck.

Was this fucker for real? Gumby shifted the car into drive. Here he was risking his ass to back Screw up and the bastard wanted to talk about why Gumby didn’t look in his eyes while Screw was blowing him. “You know what? Fuck you, Screw.”

Before he could take his hand off the gear shift, Screw’s closed over it. Though the other man stared straight out the windshield, Gumby knew where his attention lay. With a sigh, he shoved the car into park.

Screw removed his hand, still looking out into the dark night. “My mom was a stripper. Sometimes a whore when money was tight. We grew up not far from here in a town even smaller than Townsend. Her strip club was a real seedy joint. Fucking sad-ass, has been strippers with droopy tits and drug habits. Velvet carpets probably loaded with cum from years of nasty fuckers jacking off right there in the bar. Shit lighting, shittier acoustics.”

As his heart clenched for the difficult childhood Screw must have endured, he nodded. “I know the type.”

“Yeah. Well, the bouncer was the uncle of a kid I went to high school with. By the time we were thirteen, he was letting the fucker and his buddies sneak in the back and watch the shows. Made my life at school…uncomfortable.”

Having kids at school know what your mother looked like naked and shakin’ her tits on stage? Yeah that’d make life for a high school boy difficult. Add in the fact said boy was bisexual, and Screw musta had a time of it.

“Fuck,” Gumby said.

His passenger huffed out a laugh then finally turned his head, looking straight at Gumby. “I was into boys and girls with a mom giving lap dances to my classmates. Yeah, it fucking sucked.” He shrugged as though it hadn’t shaped his entire adult life. “But I survived it.”

Tilting his head, Gumby said, “By never letting anyone think you took shit seriously. By making them think it wasn’t possible to get to you.”

With a nod, Screw chuckled. “I was such a shit. Pranks, mouthing off to everyone, even more of a smart ass than I am now. I dedicated my teenage years to not giving a fuck and making everyone laugh with my outrageous behavior.”