Redbanks (Biker!SteveRogers AU)

Chapter 17

Steve pulled up outside of the garage and already could hear Bucky singing 'Bad Moon Rising' at the top of his lungs. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood, that Steve was almost jealous that his friend could simply have no worries and he was lumbered with them all. The Stark payment was nearly due and they'd thankfully had enough takings and more to tide them over for this month. The bar was doing especially well.

There would always be the threat that no matter whether Steve coughed up Tony's money or not, that one day the bulldozers and diggers would simply turn up at the trailer park, ready to flatten their homes for shiny new apartments or family houses. It made Steve sick to think of Clint's kids out on the street with nowhere to go.

He couldn't afford to let that happen.

If it did then he'd put a bullet in Stark's head himself.

"Morning Pal, only just got in..." He looked up from under the hood of the car he was working on and frowned on seeing Steve's expression. "What?"

"We need to talk." Steve replied and turned the music off.

"Hey! I was listening to that."

"Yeah, well now you're gonna listen to me - because this is something you need to hear." He replied and leant back against the workbench, arms folded. "It's about the she demon."

Bucky threw the tool in his hand down into the box, knowing that if Steve wanted to talk about Lilith then it was most likely serious. "I'm listening..." he said and then waited. On not getting anything from his friend he frowned. "Steve? What is it?"

"She's Hydra..."

"What..."

Steve looked up at him with a hardened stare. "She told me her dad was Schmidt...apparently she and her mom have been out of that life since she was a baby - but he seemed to know where they were. Not surprising, he had eyes everywhere. Anyway, she was making for California after her mom died, hence why she ended up here. "

"Well... fuck." Bucky said after he was finished.

Steve shook his head. "This is gonna cause a lot of shit if Rumlow finds out who she is. Shit for us more than her. She needs to go..."

"Steve..."

"I have you all to protect Buck! I can't trust her! Not now!"

Bucky rolled his eyes. "Doesn't mean to say she's anything like her dad - the guys are gonna ask questions if you throw her out, we've never exiled one of our own before."

"But she's not our own is she? She belongs to Hydra."

"And yet she chose us. She could've had all the opportunities in the world to go back to them, but she hasn't - she's part of our family."

"We can't risk it Buck...Barton's got kids..."

"And he did before she came long. Just how we grew up like it, and look at us? Somehow we're still here."

Yeah, sometimes it was a wonder how they were still alive with some of the shit that they'd seen and experienced. Close calls with Rumlow were the main ones and at some point one of them was going to end up with a bullet in them. Hopefully the Hydra leader himself if Steve had the opportunity.

Bucky's voice drew him out of his thoughts. "She protected our territory from the group her father led - you saw it yourself, she's got balls, more than some of us."

"I need to get a drink, want anything from the store?" He asked, pushing himself off the workbench and making for the door.

"We're out of beers in the cooler - and grab me some cigarettes."