Read You Can Run but You Can't Hide for Free Online

came walking out of one of the back rooms. He was holding a
    half-gallon jug of cheap wine and smoking a cigarette. He stopped
    dead in his tracks to look Tom and me over. Tom handed him the
    courtesy card.
    “Name’s Hudat. Welcome to Phoenix, brother,” he said. “Make
    yourself at home.” Then Hudat looked over to where I was stand-
    ing. “Who’s this?”
    Before I said anything, Tom said, “His name’s Dog. I met him in
    Denver. I’m thinking about sponsoring him as my prospect. This
    brother’s a cold-blooded mother, man.”
    Some of the bikers who were looking at us from the other room
    started laughing. “He don’t even look like he’s big enough to hold a
    Harley Hog up by himself.” Who the hell was this guy telling me I
    couldn’t ride scooters? I been riding from the time I could walk. My
    whole family rode. My grandpa tried jumping a dirt bike when he
    was sixty-one and shattered his leg. But before we walked in, Tom
    had told me to keep my mouth shut, so I didn’t say a word, but my
    blood was boiling. I could feel Tom’s eyes on me. If I made a move
    on Hudat, every Disciple in the place would kick my teeth in.
    When Hudat asked me how old I was, I paused for a moment. I
    figured the Disciples didn’t want to take any chances with some un-
    derage punk hanging around the clubhouse with all the boozing,
    drugging, and fucking going on. If the place got raided, they’d go
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    Yo u Ca n R u n , b u t Yo u Ca n ’ t H i d e
    down for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I used my
    deepest, most mature-sounding voice and said, “Eighteen, brother.”
    His eyes widened and he started laughing. “OK then, big man.
    Come on in and grab yourself a drink.” He handed me his jug of Bali
    Hi wine. I grabbed it and took a huge swig. That is some bad wine.
    Living at the Disciples’ clubhouse was a zoo. The place was
    always crazy with people partying and loud music blaring. I got
    pretty tight with a lot of the Phoenix brothers, like Dago, Indian,
    Reverse, Pappy, and Little Pat. These guys would go out on their
    scooters and round up the hottest chicks in town. I’m not talking
    street whores, I’m talking about young, hot college chicks and bored
    housewives who wanted to party. Once the girls heard the thunder of
    the scooters rolling down the street and saw the boys in their
    leathers, it was a done deal. A college girl would come back to the
    house all shy, and before you knew it, she’d be up on the table danc-
    ing with her titties out.
    When they weren’t partying, the Disciples were robbing and
    stealing . . . or trying to, anyway. The cops kept showing up at all
    the jobs they were trying to pull off, because they kept tripping
    alarms, so they never got away with any loot. I thought it over and
    came up with a pretty good plan. I figured we could pretend to be
    the owner of a business and explain to the security company that
    we were having trouble with the alarm. That would make them
    think it went off because of a technical difficulty.
    I finally got up enough nerve to tell Hudat some of my ideas. He
    was pretty impressed with what I had to say. For whatever reason,
    the guys never let me tag along, but it felt good to be able to con-
    tribute something. After that, most of the Disciples had a new-
    found respect for me, and even the ones who didn’t now knew I
    wasn’t some dumbass
    My strength was devising a master plan, figuring out exactly
    how a job should go down. I wasn’t all that keen on going out with
    the guys on their burglaries, anyway. A lot of them were loose can-
    nons and way too careless. One thing Flash taught me was, you’re
    only as strong as your weakest link—and, well, let’s just say the
    Disciples had some very weak links.
    When the Disciples were out pulling off jobs, they usually left me
    back at the clubhouse with their old ladies—just me and the girls.
    And man, did those honeys like the Dog. Before the guys made it out
    P r o s p e c t i