Authors: Clementine Roux
"Alessandra?" Devon looked like he'd seen a ghost. "What are you doing here?"
"Damn," Sammi whispered.
Distraction. She needed to create a distraction or this near perfect trip would be completely ruined.
"Hey, let's go check out those bikes." Sammi grabbed Robert's arm with one hand and Joe's with the other.
"Wait. Where's Alessandra? Why did you leave her in there alone?" Joe turned and walked toward the gas station, his eyes peeled, trying to locate Alessandra in the sea of bikers occupying every square inch of the lot.
He walked in, nodding and grunting hellos at his fellow bikers, but keeping his eyes cast lower to find Alessandra.
At first, he couldn't see well past the throng of people gathered there, stretching their legs and grabbing ice cold drinks before making their way to Sturgis.
"Looking for someone?" A large bearded man, wearing a vest indicating he was a Buffalo Soldier asked.
Joe nodded. "Yeah, my girl. You headed to the rally?"
"Yeah, me and the wife and couple of friends. What does she look like?" The man asked, looking around for his wife.
"Curvy build, dark, curly hair." Joe stifled a laugh as he noticed a small group of women gathered outside the woman's bathroom that matched that description.
"See her?"
"Nope. She was dressed up. We just came from my buddies wedding," Joe explained, still trying to make her out in the crowd.
The bearded man's eyes lit up. "Oh, I think I saw your buddy and the bride."
Joe immediately tried to explain that he wasn't looking for them, but the man continued talking.
"They walked out those doors over there, I believe. Couldn't keep their hands off each other." The man laughed, pointing to the exit doors opposite where Joe had just walked into the gas station.
Feeling like there was no point trying to explain himself again, Joe thanked the man and careened his way through the crowd, thinking he'd find her on the other side of the gas station.
Bikers stood around, drinking coffee and talking about their trips and their bikes, nodding at Joe as he moved past them. She was nowhere to be found. Remembering what the bearded man said, he turned to return to the entrance doors to find him, but as luck would have it, he was no longer there.
Stepping outside, he kept his eyes peeled for Alessandra, but in the sea of people and activities, it was too difficult to see. In the distance, examining a pair of bikes, were Robert and Sammi.
"Rob!" Joe called out to his friend. "Where's Alessandra?"
Robert shrugged, turning to Sammi. The look of panic on her face only heightened the uneasy feeling.
"I... I don't know," she answered, glancing back at the gas station. "Changing, I think."
"Could you go into the women's restroom and find out? I didn't see her." Joe turned quickly on his heels and marched back into the gas station. This time, he carried anger with him. He'd grown up with bikers his whole life. That's why he rode too, but like any other group, there were always some bad apples in the bunch and, he hoped, for their safety, that one didn't take it upon himself to do anything to Alessandra. He had to find her and find her now.
Sammi tried to run past him, anxious to get to the bathroom, hoping that Alessandra was in there and fearing that she wouldn't be. She made excuses and offered apologies as she rushed past the women who were not too happy to have her skip in line to get inside, but this was an emergency.
"Alessandra? Alessandra?" She called out as she peeked under the stalls at horrified and unsuspecting occupants. "Are you in here? Say something if you are because Joe is getting hot under the collar."
Women yelped, screamed, and swore at her as she invaded their privacy to find her friend. She didn't care. All that mattered was that she had to find Alessandra before Joe did, because, given what she knew of the heat that penetrated between her and Devon, those two would most likely be in a very uncompromising position.
Annoyed, Sammi climbed onto the sink countertop. "Seriously? On my wedding day, Mr. Hot and Sexy shows up and you disappear? What or who has gotten into you, girl? Come out now before you make him go off."
More women made their way into the bathroom to see the spectacle. Some laughed, but most were appalled by her behavior.
"Get down from there!" An angry redhead shouted.
"You can't climb on there. What's wrong with you?" Another scolded Sammi.
She wasn't making any friends. She was just a desperate bride, still wearing her wedding gown, climbing onto the bathroom counter tops like her life depended on it because if Robert or Joe found out about Devon, they would be livid.
Sammi looked down at the wide eyed crowd and tried to explain, "Look, my friend came in here to change and now we can't find her. You could glare at me and waste time or you could help me find her. She was wearing a bridesmaid dress. A very expensive bridesmaid dress." Sammi added, pointing out that Alessandra would have stuck out like a sore thumb in this crowd. Someone should have seen her.
A small woman, who was more breasts than body, spoke up. "Wait! I saw that girl." She nodded at a woman standing by the sinks. "She was the one with Devil."
"That's it! You know Devil?" Sammi leaped down off the counter, wanting to hug the woman. "Yeah, she was talking to him. Did you see which way she went?"
Both women started laughing, giving each other knowing looks. One answered, "Knowing Devil, probably the nearest hotel."
Sammi's heart sank. "Funny, but did you happen to notice if she walked out?"
This time, more women started laughing.
"What's so funny? I can't find my friend and you think there's humor in that." Sammi's face reddened with anger.
The red-haired woman stepped closer to Sammi, her warm breath on her face. "Sweetheart, your friend made a deal with the Devil. He doesn't always play nice."
Sammi backed away, unsure whether to be angry or terrified. "I don't know what that means."
The woman laughed, prompting all of the other women to laugh heartily.
"I'm just messing with you. He's not going to kill her." She snorted. "You don't know who he is, do you?"
"No." Sammi took another step back, leaning on the counter top.
"He's the Devil. He's President of the Devil Riders. I don't know who your friend thought she was talking to, but she's about to find out. That's why you shouldn't talk to strangers." The woman smiled a near toothless smile.
Sammi inhaled, feeling like she might be sick. She didn't know how she was going to tell Joe and Robert this information.
"Thanks," she murmured as she walked out of the bathroom. Robert and Joe stood behind the women in line, anxiously waiting for her to give them some news.
"We need to talk." Sammi looked around. "Outside."
*
Joe looked at her with fire burning in his eyes. "What? She has to be around here somewhere. She wouldn't just leave with the guy? Help me look."
Sammi closed her eyes for a moment. She could feel Robert's eyes on her.
"She's here somewhere. Don't worry. But, why would you leave her alone with the guy? Isn't that the guy from Florida you told me about?"
Sighing, Sammi answered, "Yes, but I didn't know she was going to take off with him. I thought they'd talk and go about their business, not--"
Robert interrupted, sneering, "They went about their business all right. I just hope we find her before Joe does. Here, take my hand and let's go help him look. There's so many people here, it's hard to see anything."
Sammi searched the crowd, hoping that she'd just missed Alessandra because she knew there was no way she'd miss seeing Devon. Her eyes were trained to hone in on handsome men. Alessandra always teased her about that.
"Where are you," Sammi whispered, her eyes wide, searching for her friend.
Joe was inside the gas station, moving frantically through the crowd, asking if anyone had seen her, but no one remembered seeing her.
"How can you not remember a Black woman in a bridesmaid dress in a gas station in the middle of nowhere? How often do you see that?" Joe's emotions were all over the place. His senses told him that something had gone wrong. He tried to ignore them, but the longer he searched to no avail, the angrier he became. Finally, he walked to the front counter, frightening the clerk, "I can't find my girlfriend. She came in here and never came out. The last person she was seen talking to was some guy named Devon. Has anyone seen her?"
There were murmurs from the crowd, heads shaking, indicating no on saw her. A couple of men took charge and started barking orders at others to go help look for her on the grounds, then, others followed suit.
Sammi gasped when the crowd migrated outside, forming a perimeter around the gas station.
Joe walked out with two men and they took charge of the search. He motioned for Robert and Sammi to come over.
"Okay, she's not in there. No one remembers seeing her. They are going to help us look. She couldn't have gone too far. It's only been like twenty minutes or so." Looking at Sammi, he asked, "Tell me everything you know about this Devon guy."
She looked to Robert for reassurance. He nodded at her. "Tell him. It's okay."
"What? Tell me, what?" Joe's voice shook.
"His name is Devon Matthews. We met him in Florida. She--" Sammi started.
The two men standing with them interrupted her as they started talking to each other, seeming to know something about Devon.
One spoke up, "Hell. Um... I know him. You sure that's who your girlfriend was talking to?"
Joe's mouth went dry. "That's what I was told."
The man took off his cap and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. "That's Devil." Sammi swallowed hard, afraid of what he was going to say next. "He's a... Well, let's just say, he's not someone you want to leave your girl with. I saw him. He was here when we pulled in. I didn't see him with the girl, though. His crew was parked right there." He pointed to an empty space in the back of the lot.
"His crew?" Joe asked, hoping he hadn't heard right. "They're gone?"