The Upward Ripple

“Nate, please tell me what happened in Las Vegas,” she said as she climbed down from the counter.

He looked at her and exhaled loudly.

“I met the president of The Outlaws. Technically, my former… boss,” he said.

“Boss,” she echoed, and he nodded as he walked out into the living room and switched on the lights.

“Yeah, let’s call him that.”

Cynthia suddenly felt herself panicking.

“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” she wondered out loud as she followed him into the living room.

“I’m okay but seeing him again, talking to him made me remember the main reason I left… it brought back a lot just seeing him. I feel terrible about having left without making sure that The Outlaws never hurt anyone again…”

“Wait, did they hurt people while you were there?” she asked.

Nate nodded.

“Yeah, they did. I mean, I was there for a long time and yes, I heard a lot about them, but I was too young and too angry to seriously consider anything people were saying at the time… and there was the drinking and the getting high,” he said and shrugged. “Honestly, there is a blank space when I try to think about the few years I was there.”

“A few years?” Cynthia shook her head. “I was made to understand that you were gone for fifteen years. I wouldn’t call that ‘few’.”

“Well, when I left home, I spent some time around Nevada just having fun at the tables and everything. I met AK, the president of the Nevada charter of The Outlaws in Vegas and we bonded over my bike and my love of Harleys. I didn’t know who he was at first, or what he represented. All I knew is that I had found myself a new friend. So, the first year was just all about having fun. Vegas type of fun. I was a typical tourist by day checking out everything you would want to check out while in Sin City, but AK showed me another side to Las Vegas I didn’t know existed.” He took a long, deep breath and rubbed his temple. “I don’t know if I should tell you this.”

Cynthia shook her head.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“The Nate Duncan that left Colorado is not the same Nate Duncan who went back to Colorado and he is most definitely not the same one you are talking to right now,” he said, and she shrugged.

“I have a past too. A not so perfect one if you recall everything, I told you on the night of the gala,” she said in a soft voice.

Nate forced a tired laugh.

“My exploits in Nevada were a little wilder than I care to admit. The clubhouse is a hotbed of drugs, alcohol and almost every carnal desire known to man,” he started explaining. “I managed to stay away from the hard stuff but there was an abundance of designer weed. I was looking to forget myself. Drown the grief of my mother’s passing and the anger of my father’s new union to Elise so, I smoked a lot of blunts and vodka, The Outlaws’ preferred drink of choice became my best friend. After a while, vodka and weed was hardly enough. So, I graduated to pharmaceutical drugs and even more booze… that was one thing that never ran out in that clubhouse. I was either blacked-out drunk or nursing a hangover…. Charlie Sheen’s lifestyle could not hold a candle to the wasteland I had made my life.”

“So, when did you become part of the club?” she asked. “Officially?”

He shrugged.

“I was spending more and more time with the club members and the fact that money was not an issue for me was a big advantage with AK. I was first made an honorary member of the club owning to the fact that I had poured in tens of thousands of dollars and I think after they found out just who I was, they thought that they could milk me for everything I was worth which fast tracked my membership. So, roughly a year and a half after leaving home, I got the mark of the brotherhood and a patch.”

“Didn’t you feel out of place or something?” she asked. “I know that sounds really judgmental but that is something I have wanted to ask for a long time. I mean, the name of the club is The Outlaws.”

He nodded.

“I know I should have and maybe if I was sober enough, I would have felt it, but I was almost always under the influence. All I was at the time was angry and spiteful… and at the time, I was in the company of people who were orphaned or hated their parents or had been disowned…. Somehow, I wanted so much to fit in that I never saw the obvious things I should have seen. Until the day I saw the charter president murder someone in cold blood.”

Cynthia’s eyes grew wide.

“What?” she asked, and Nate nodded.

“Yeah, it was during one of the parties at the clubhouse. There was almost some kind of bender happening there every other day. So, on one of those days, the club brought in working girls and I was not really in the mood plus at any one point, there had to be a few club members to stay alert in case of anything. Think designated driver without actually having to drive anywhere… long story short, I went to the roof of the clubhouse to escape the madness and ended up seeing AK in a heated argument with a man which ended up with said man in a barrel.”

“A barrel,” Cynthia echoed. “Like the ones used to dispose of industrial waste?”

He nodded.

“The very one. And I am sure they disposed of the body by liquefying him or something of the sort.”

“Whoa.” Cynthia put her hands up. “Liquefying?”

“Yeah, there were a lot of industrial chemicals delivered to the clubhouse the very next day and then, the barrel was gone. Part of me back then and even now, feels that the only reason the authorities have such a hard time with The Outlaws is the fact that they literally do not leave any body trail.” He looked at her. “The deal I went to make is in contradiction with some of their plans… I am not sure what exactly, but I know it has something to do with corrupt officials in Nevada and Utah and I was not supposed to make the deal.”