Behind Blue Eyes by Jordan Abbott Page B

this was only the auto repair section and that the other part of their compound was gated off. This gave her some relief. The redhead sitting behind the counter looked up from her magazine. She looked agitated, which put Ella on edge.
    “Is Pi… Pipe here?” It dawned on her at that moment that she didn’t know his name.
    “Who are you?” The redhead looked at her with her nose scrunched up.
    “Ella. So, is he here? He told me to ask for him.” By the way the redhead was looking at her, Ella figured she must be Pipe’s woman.
    “No, he’s not here,” she replied, then went back to her magazine.
    Ella stood there for a moment. Did this woman just blow her off? “I need my car. Is there someone else who can help me?” Ella stood there for a second gaining her composure. She then turned around and walked out. It was stupid for her to come here in the first place without calling him first. She was standing outside, trying hard to avoid eye contact with anyone wearing a Hells Vipers insignia, when a familiar deep voice called her name.
    “Are you leaving?” She turned around and saw Pipe coming toward her.
    “She said you weren’t here.”
    “Screw her. She’s pissed at her old man.”
    “Are you her man?”
    “Fuck no! Sal, he’s one of the mechanics that works for us.”
    “Oh.”
    “You look good early in the morning.”
    She had on a white cotton dress with a V-neck and empire waist. It had a flirty, high-low hemline and the shoulder straps showed off her recent tan. The dress showed off her size 34 double C-cup. She purposely hadn’t worn a bra, and her hard nipples were poking out through the thin material of the dress.  She looked good and she knew it, from the top of her head straight down to the tips of her pedicured toes, which were sticking out of the open-toed, white wedge sandals.
    “Come on in,” he said as he wrapped his arm around her waist and ushered her back inside.
    The redhead with the attitude looked up from her magazine again.
    “I ain’t here, huh?” he said to her as they walked by.
    “I thought she was that girl, the one you told me about. You said to say you wasn’t here.” She looked apologetic.
    Ella ignored the little green monster trying to whisper in her ear.
    He shot her a look, then closed the door behind them as they entered a back office.
    Ella immediately pushed his hand off her waist. “Is my car ready?” she asked.
    Pipe crossed his arms and leaned back onto the desk with his long legs stretched out in front of him.
    “It will be in less than an hour, I promise.” He held up two fingers like a scout.
    “Are you really not going to charge me anything for repairing my car?”
    “Not a dime. It’s on the house.”
    “Hmmm.” She looked around the garage. “Is this place legit?”
    Pipe chuckled. “Yeah, it’s legit. Real law-abiding citizens like yourself bring vehicles here and we repair them. We pay taxes, too. I have insurance because I’m a full-time employee working for a legal company. We’re closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. But there is an emergency number you can call for a tow.”
    “You know what I mean, Pipe. Don’t get offended. It’s not like the Hells Vipers Motorcycle Club is listed under clubs to join in the city.”
    “Yet you’re still here in spite of thinking we’re all criminals.”
    “I need my car repaired,” Ella replied as she looked out of a window. She noticed a car being towed into the garage and several more people who didn’t look like criminals picking up their vehicles, including a woman with her children.
    “If you lower your bitch shield, you might get something better out of the deal than that piece of shit you drove in here.”
    “Yeah, right. How long have you been a biker?”
    “Got my first motorcycle when I was fifteen.”
    “That’s not what I meant.”
    “I’ve been Hells Viper for seventeen years.”
    “What’s up with that girl the redhead was talking about?”
    He