Flabbergasted. It wasn't a word that came to Max's mind often. It was too goofy and old-timey sounding for him to ever use in a conversation, and just really never fit any occasion. Nothing tended to surprise him in his life so completely that the word ever materialized.

Yet here he was; sitting at the table in the formal dining room with his family, and that eyeliner-wearing, smooth-talking, little weasel was chatting with his ruthless mother like a snake-charmer with a pungi, rather than a punk with a salad fork. Max was fucking flabbergasted.

"So, tell me about your family, Mr. Bradley. How did they feel about your enthusiasm for engineering? Were they supportive?" Gloria asked.

Max glanced at his father.

"Eh, well..." Oscar cleared his throat. "I'd like to know the same. Pops died when I was a kid and mom split when I was in high school."

Gloria paused, lowering her fork and knife, and even Angela and Elise were now looking at Oscar. Max could almost hear the sympathetic "aww's" that their expressions suggested. "You've been fending for yourself, then?" his mother asked, before glancing at her husband, as if wanting to make sure James was listening.

Oscar's gaze flicked across the table to Max's father. If he hadn't been there Oscar would have lied, like he'd never lied before, but now he had to be careful. His entire criminal record was still out there for the world to see as well as schooling and credit history, his entire life was recorded somewhere so he needed his story to line up. "Well, sort of, I was a dumb kid who ended up where most troubled kids end up, behind bars. That's where I learned that I loved making things just as much as taking them apart."

Angela was quick to hide her mouth with her cloth napkin, but Max caught her bewildered amusement, and smirked himself.

"You...went to jail?" Gloria's surprise was evident in her face.

"Well, that's a first," Angela couldn't help but say through her beaming smile. "Our mother, dining with a convict!"

Elise lost her composure then, giggling before quickly picking up her wine glass.

"Now, there's no need to be rude, girls," Gloria scolded. "There are many people who've been dealt a much harsher hand in this world, and they have to make the best of it somehow."

"Right, my love," James said, with a hint of a smile himself.

Max shook his head, chuckling as he glanced down at his own food. It wasn't that the women were entirely ignorant of what the family business was, but rather...he, and his father, and the rest of the men, kept the majority of it from them. His mother and sisters believed they did things that were a little shady, from time to time, but they very likely didn't expect it was anything that any other wealthy family didn't do... A little money laundering... A bit of tax evasion... A little lobbying...

They didn't know about what really made them their money. They were kept in the dark. Innocent beneficiaries...and for good reason.

"It wasn't prison," Oscar defended in a coy tone. "It was a juvenile detention center," he said mockingly. "Completely different."

That got another round of laughter out of the women. It was impossible not to like Oscar...That much was obvious. The punk's confidence gave him ridiculous charisma...and Max wanted to touch him. Nothing that would be explicit or obscene in front of his family, of course, but just...something to wordlessly say that Oz was his. His best friend, and his lover... His, and no one else's...

"I was thinking Da may be able to put in a good recommendation for Oscar," Max said, "Steer him towards a better job or something."

"Oh, I'm sure he can," Gloria said. "Your father never seems to lack strings to pull."

"Only 'cause I have'a good social manager," James replied, giving his wife a wink.

Max knocked lightly on the door to the guest room they'd set Oscar up in after dinner. He needed to talk to him about what tomorrow's plan would be, if he could stay focused for long enough. Max had never expected he would find someone that could be such a tease simply from being enjoyable company to his family. It'd made him wish that he could just tell them that he and Oz were a thing.

But Oscar didn't answer. In fact, he never heard the knock because his ears were currently being assaulted by Charley's strained voice as he listed out, in detail, how irresponsible Oscar was.

"Look, I still have two weeks!" Oscar interjected.

"NO! Oscar you had two weeks! Now, Vick wants the money tomorrow, and a damned good explanation for why you weren't at the ride, or you're out!"

"Well, can't you stall him?"

"Kid, I've done all I can, but you made me look dumb for vouching for you!"

"I'm sorry-" Before Oscar could finish, Charley cut him off.

"Save it, Kid... Just...if all of this still means anything to you, be at the club house tomorrow, okay?" The calmer, more somber tone, was even worse than the yelling, because he could sense the finality in Charley's tone.

"Alright, I'll be there! I prom-" The click that cut him off made Oscar's heart sink. It was rare that even Charley didn't want to talk to him... "Fuck..." he breathed.

Max knocked a little harder, fairly sure that Oz couldn't be asleep yet, despite how insane his day had been.

After tossing his phone on the bed, Oscar turned and opened the door.

"Heeey~you look...unhappy," Max frowned. "What's wrong?" He placed a hand on Oz's waist as he gently forced his way into the room, closing the door behind himself.

"Gang's pissed. I have to come up with the money by tomorrow or I'm out," Oscar said as casually as if he were discussing some rainy weather.

The way Max's lips turned slightly downward made him look almost offended. He hooked a finger in Oz's waistband and tugged him closer, before wrapping his arms around Oscar's narrow hips. "I know you don't want money from me," he said, whispering against the shell of Oz's ear. "So tell me what you'll let me do to help..."

"You'd just give me the money...like that? No strings attached?" Oscar sounded skeptical and he had every right to be. Nothing came without a price.

Max leaned back so that he could look Oz in the eyes. "No strings. I can even put it in writing if you want. It'd just be a gift. No return expected."

Something tugged in Max's heart. It was a bit of a lie... He did want something in return, but what he wanted was for Oz to be happy...and that kind of scared Max. He'd never wanted something, or someone, so wholly in his life. And he knew better than to hope that it was something money could get him. Power wouldn't get it either... Another person's happiness was such a delicate thing. He could keep Oscar protected, and fed by the best cooks, and treat him to the nicest hotels, and dress him in the finest clothes, and fuck him in the hottest cars, but making Oz happy... Max wasn't sure how to do that yet, but where there was a will...

And there was that look again, the same one that Elise had given Oscar and he really hated it. He couldn't stand people taking pity on him. It was like a thousand ants crawling over his body.
"Well, it's that...or you could help me steal it...or I could..." Oscar turned and let one of his finger's trace down Max's torso to his belt. "Work it off in other ways."

Max's smirk returned and he laughed, amber brown eyes alight with mischief as he captured Oscar's hand. He took the punk's entire tattooed middle finger all the way into his mouth, sucking on it slowly before slowly guiding it back out from between his lips. "I want you to fuck me cuz nothing would please you more to...not cuz I spotted you some money to shut up your biker buddies," he teased.

"Mmmm...and what if it's both?" Oscar wondered, the breath from his words warming Max's lips as he stretched and draped his arms across Max's sturdy shoulders.

"Hmmm..." Max snickered as his eyes traced Oz's features. "I guess I could roll with that... If you really wanted to work for it."

Not another word left Oscar's mouth as he leaned in and claimed Max's lips.

Max eagerly deepened their kiss, pulling Oz with him until he felt the door against his back. A low groan escaped him and heat kissed his cheeks before sinking lower. Max rolled his hips against Oz, delighting in the little currents of pleasure the friction shot through his legs, weakening his knees. "Goddamn, I want you, Oz," he whispered breathlessly when he broke their kiss.

Oscar's icy blue eyes gave Max an incredibly daring and sultry look. "I'm always down, but..." He paused as another eager grind from his handsome partner almost derailed his train of thought completely. "Heh. What about the whole...no one can find out you and me are..." he motioned between them. "...like this?"

"Well," Max snorted, twisting a bit of Oz's black hair between his fingers. "I mean, Elise knows...but that nice woman you met at dinner would turn into a three-headed jackal the second she suspected something. So...we'll uh..." Max cleared his throat.  "We need to talk about tomorrow, and when you intend to go, because I have something I need to take care of," Max said, trying to get his head back on task before he got too carried away.

The following evening Oscar was flying down the freeway that wrapped itself around the city like an asphalt snake. It was just before sunset, the time of day when all the respectable working men and women were just heading home, and all the underbelly of Kingsport was just waking up. He didn't want to show up too early. Vick and Charley knew him too well for that. He'd had all day to plan his excuse for the check, and true to form, had spent none of it coming up with one. Instead, he chose to handle this like everything else—in the moment, unedited.

When he pulled up to the clubhouse, he could see a few bikes out front. None of them were Charley's, but he recognized Vic's, and that's all that was important. He trotted up the front steps, hands in his pockets, until he got to the door.

"Well, fuck me... Oz, you actually showed up," Bill said as he spied Oscar from across a pool table.

"Yeah, been busy but I-" Oscar cut himself off when he noticed that Bill and the other guy's he'd been playing pool with had put down their sticks and started for him. "What the-?!"

Before he could say anything else, he was nearly lifted off his feet by them.

"You're going to wish you hadn't," Bill murmured as they forced Oscar into the back conference room where Vick was waiting.

"Oz, you showed up, for once," Victor remarked dryly as he propped his boots up on the table in front of him and reclined back a little.

"What the fuck, Vick? I have your money. Now stop messing around!" Oscar said, yanking one arm free to retrieve the check from his jacket pocket, tossing it on the table between him and Victor.

"Heh... My money? What'd your mafia friend give that to you?" Vick sneered. Oscar felt his stomach tense as the gang leader stood and began to pace around him. "See, that's always been the problem with you, Oscar. You always see the individual instead of the whole..." Vick added just before placing his cell phone on the table in front of Oscar. "Where is he?"

Oscar paled—even by his standards. "Where's who?"

Vick sighed. "Don't play dumb with me, Oscar." There was a flash between Victor's hands as he paced back around to where he was back within view; the reflection of the shitty overhead bulbs across the blade of a butterfly knife. "Your little mafia friend. If you're here, then where's he at?"

"I, uh," Oscar laughed.

"The fuck is funny?" Bill asked.

Oscar shook his head. "Look, I don't know, okay? Shit, we aren't attached at the hip. He just said he was gonna be busy tonight."

While Vick stared at him for a few stifling seconds, Oscar heard footsteps behind him.

"Busy, huh?" Rufino Dina chimed as he came to stand next to Vick, with his hands in his pockets and a snide smile on his face...

Anyone a little surprised to see Rufino with the Devil's Rejects? ✋

The levels of back stabbing just got turned up. If you were Oscar, what's your next move?

Shout out to Brain_Weasel ! Thanks so much for your support!!