21 Nights to You

Cain regained consciousness, his eyes opening slowly. He looked in front of him. There was a pool of blood around him. He shifted and examined himself; the blood didn’t belong to him, that was the first thing he noticed.

It was Eli, one of his people. He swallowed, the asphalt concrete under his knees biting through his ripped jeans and digging into his skin.

It was painful, but his mind was too fazed at the moment to notice it. Nothing mattered except the way Eli’s eyes kept trying to close.

“Don’t,” Cain breathed, dragging himself to him. It wasn’t a command or a vice president’s order at the moment, but a plea of a man who didn’t want to lose his friend.

Eli’s mouth twitched with a weak grin. “It hurts, Cain. It fucking hurts, I can’t take it anymore.” He coughed out blood.

Cain shook his head. “No. No, don’t, Eli.”

“I’m not going to make it this time, am I?” Eli coughed out more blood the more he spoke.

Cain searched himself for his phone. He had to get help quickly. He knew it was foolish to drag him out here with him. More blood pooled under Eli’s side; spreading out. Cain dropped his phone and took off his jacket, and then his shirt, using it to try and stop the bleeding.

“Get the stretcher over here, he’s bleeding” Cain heard someone yell from behind him.

Some persons thudded with urgency towards them while engines growled in the distance, approaching. The Steel Saints MC members were arriving, but it felt like Cain was alone on a cracked road with a dying man who trusted him too much.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Cain said to Eli. He said it like he could lie the truth into existence.

Eli’s hand found his wrist. He was shaking his head weakly. “If I go with them, the police will find out…”

Cain’s jaw clenched. “We’ll take care of that, don’t worry about that right now. Just get better, you can’t die, okay?”

Eli’s fingers tightened, just once, with a light chuckle. “No, I might not make it.” His grip loosened a bit but Cain held on.

“Shut up.” Cain told him, helping the woman transfer him to a stretcher, but he saw Eli’s eyelids close shut. “Hey, is he okay?” He asked one of the people who were accompanying Eli to the ambulance.

But nobody answered him, not the person his was asking, and not anyone. They were all busy trying to do their part in saving Eli, but he gave up the ghost the moment he was placed in the back of the ambulance.

“Oh no,” Cain heard one of the paramedics say and rushed over there. They all looked down, gloominess on their faces. “Time of death, 5:47 p.m.”

Cain didn’t move. He just stood and stared at Eli, not believing it. They had been near death a lot of times but they always survived it, but now, Eli was…gone. He heard the president of their motorcycle club call his name but didn’t budge. Not even when someone came forward and touched his shoulder. Not when distant police sirens began to wail.

He just stood there and stared at Eli’s face like he could wait him back to life. Later, much later, the brothers would say he was calm. That he didn’t lose it. That he handled it like a man meant to lead, but that wasn’t true.

He just died quietly on the inside first.

***

Years later.

At the Steel Saints clubhouse.

It smelled like oil and smoke, and old wood, the same way it always had. Metal chairs scraped as the men sat around together; bottles clinking and laughter bouncing off of the concrete walls.

Cain leaned back in his chair, boots up on the edge of the long wooden table, his vice President patch sitting proudly on his kutte.

“You telling me you really got rules about fucking now?” One of the younger prospects asked, barely hiding a grin.

The table laughed but Cain didn’t. He flicked his lighter open and closed it; a habit. The metal clicked with flame, and then it clicked again, and there was no flame. He repeated it. Again. And again.

“It ain’t rules about fucking,” He said, his voice low and even, with a dangerous undertone. “You can fuck whoever you want, I couldn’t care less. What I’m talking about is survival.”

The room quieted, and the laughter died when they heard how serious he was. “It’s happened many times, these guys target us with our women and get us every fucking time. It’s got to stop. From now on, we don’t spend time with any woman past twenty-one days.”

A patched member leaned in. “Why twenty-one days?” He asked, wondering why it was specifically that.

“That’s true, Cain. Why twenty-one days though?”

Cain’s eyes lifted slowly. “It’s just the right amount of time for them to know you’re not taking her serious, for her safety and for our peace.”

“What about us with wives?” One of them asked.

“We already protect your wives and children, the rule is for the others.” Cain answered but another question came.

“And what if we really wanna take the girl seriously?”

“Well, you’ll just have to let us know so we can treat her how we treat the rest of our sisters-in-law,” The president, Vic walked in and everyone readjusted their seats. Everyone except Cain. “And you better mean it when you tell us you’re serious with her.”

“So, we understand?” Cain twitched his nose and asked, looking each of the men in the eyes. Some of them cleared their throats with a half agreeing nod.

“Alright, twenty-one days,” Vic started, “Not twenty-two. And never twice in a row, else she’s marked as special. Formal vote…” He trailed and left the floor open.

“Yay,” Cain went first.

“Yay,” Someone seconded. It continued in multiple ‘Yays’ before someone asked again.

“What about girls who wanna stay?”

Cain’s mouth twitched, and it was not a smile. “They don’t.”

A pause, “And if they try?” The man sitting next to the first one to question asked too.

Cain stared at the man briefly, his legs dropping off the table one by one before he leaned forward. Then he said the part that turned the rumor they’ve been hearing people outside the club quite true.

“She mustn’t want to stay. Don’t let her think she owns a piece of you to want to stay if you’re not going to make her our sister-in-law.”

Silence came after he spoke, but he wasn’t done.

“You should always leave before morning. And you never let your heart outrun your head. Am I clear on that?” His lighter flicked one last time after he asked. The flame stayed. The man nodded.

Nobody spoke again after that. “Yay,” The man who prompted the first question voted and when everyone was done voting, the president sealed it.

“We got to deliver the packages from MacRoy tonight. I need like four of you with me.” Vic said and got on his feet, leaving. Four men voluntarily stood and left with him and soon, outside, engines roared till it became silent again.

Somewhere in the dark, fate was already lining up the woman who would test every single rule he just spoke. But Cain didn’t know yet…

That he would break all of them for her.