Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
RYAN
NOW
W hen Haz and I arrived at the clubhouse, there were only six bikes lined against the gate, which meant only half of the club was here. Haz and I timed it perfectly that we were ten minutes late to the meeting so that my dad didn’t expect us to walk in while they were talking business. But if there was only half the club here, then where was everyone else? As we parked our bikes and walked closer to the entrance of the clubhouse, Ty came out the doors looking right at us and quickly getting our attention. His eyes were filled with worry as he approached us.
“Ty, what’s going on? Where is everyone?” I asked as I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder.
“Only half the club showed up. But Ryan, remember that guy I saw meeting Silas Gray at the cafe?” Ty spoke quickly and he looked nervous. I nodded my head. “He’s here. He’s in the meeting room with your dad.” I pulled my brows together in a mixture of concern and confusion. I walked past Ty and straight to the meeting room, I heard Haz right behind me.
I hesitated when I got to the doors. I held my hand on the handle, ready to push it open, but there was a part of me that didn’t want to know what was on the other side of the doors. Opening this door very well might have been closing the door on my relationship with my dad. I took a deep breath and looked at Haz, who gave me a small nod. He knew me well enough to know why I was hesitating and his small nod was his way of telling me he was here for me no matter what was about to happen.
I pushed the doors open and instantly looked to the end of the table where my dad sat in his usual seat. The other five members sat in their designated seats regardless of the empty ones around them. The seat on my dad’s right that was usually occupied by the Vice President, which was me, was occupied by a tall man with dark brown perfectly gelled hair. He was in a suit which made him stand out among the men in their leather cuts. I saw my dad look up at me, his eyes widened in surprise but he quickly regained his composure.
“Ryan, Harrison. You boys weren’t invited to this meeting.” He used Haz’s full name which no one ever uses. Both of us stood next to each other with our arms crossed against our chests.
“Is this not a Viper meeting? Pretty sure we are Vipers, unless this cut belongs to someone else?” I asked as I tilted my head up to show my dad, our President, that I wasn’t backing down.
“Some club business doesn’t involve the whole club,” Cruz, my dad’s right-hand man, said from his seat without looking up at me.
“That’s some fucking bullshit, Cruz and you know it,” Haz said beside me. I watched the other man quickly shuffle some papers from the table into a folder. I moved quickly to pick up some of the papers before he could, but Cruz reached out and grabbed my arm.
“Let fucking go of me,” I spoke through my teeth as Cruz looked up and smirked at me, still holding my arm.
“What are you going to do about it, kid?” He taunted from below me. I wanted to hit him but he was holding my arm so tight I couldn’t raise it. Haz reached beside me and put both hands on the back of Cruz’s chair and pulled it hard, making Cruz fall backwards onto the floor. He quickly stood and went to hit Haz but I stood in front of my best friend as my dad stood from his seat.
“All of you, calm the fuck down,” he yelled, getting our attention. I let go of Cruz’s shirt and pushed him back and he sat down in his seat again. Haz and I walked across to our designated seats. My seat was occupied so I stood next to the man in the suit and leaned my back against the wall.
“So President, please continue your meeting. I guess I’ll stand here while my seat is currently occupied,” I said.
My dad cleared his throat from beside me but no one resumed their conversation, so I put two hands on the table next to my dad and leaned in.
“This is quite interesting actually because you see, I’ve been tailing Silas Gray and only a few weeks ago he was spotted talking to a man in the cafe here in Haven Cove. Which is strange because what business would the Horsemen have in the Cove?” I leaned closer to my dad as he tried to avoid eye contact with me.
“Hold on a second, the Horsemen?” Billy, one of the only two original members left, said from the opposite side of the table. I guess their President hadn’t shared the full story just yet.
“Enlighten us. What business could you possibly have with both the Horsemen and the Vipers?” Haz leaned in towards the man in the suit and I stood up and leaned against the wall behind the table again. The man hesitated as he wasn’t sure what to say. He looked to my dad for help.
“Fuck sake, Ryan. You really want to know what’s going on? Fine. The Horsemen are currently running drugs through Cali for Mr Hutchins. They want to expand here in Haven Cove, but the Vipers have always kept Haven Cove a no drug town. Until now. Mr Hutchins is going to be paying us a shit load of money to work with the Horsemen on this.”
I laughed from the wall as I looked around at the men at the table. I noticed some of the men looked at each other, some with the brows pulled together in confusion and others avoiding eye contact. This told me who already knew about the deal and who didn’t. My dad had already raised the job of drugs to the club which was shut down by a vote, but even if he convinced some members to do this behind the rest of the clubs back; I knew they wouldn’t once they knew the Horsemen were involved.
“You’re unbelievable,” I said, and my dad’s eyes widened with fire. “You’ve completely lost sight of what the Viper’s are about. Look around this room. Where are all your brothers? Not here. Because they don’t want any part in drugs because that isn’t what Vipers do.”
“We can talk about this later, son.”
“No, we can talk about it right now. You’re done, Dad. If you do this, I will personally make sure that it’s the last decision you make as President.”
“How do you plan on doing that, Ryan? We all know the only reason you’re even Vice President is because of your daddy,” Cruz said from the opposite side of the table and it took every ounce of restraint not to jump across and punch him in the face.
“I call for a club vote,” Billy spoke up from the other end of the table.
“Seconded,” Haz said as he raised his hand from beside me. Ty was the next to put his hand up as well which made four of the other members raise their hands. The only two with their hands on the table were my dad and Cruz.
“Hope you enjoy that seat, Pres. It won’t be yours much longer,” I said in my dad’s ear before I walked around the table. I put my hand on Cruz’s shoulder, which he shook off before Haz and I walked back out the meeting room doors.
We walked over to the bar and grabbed a beer as the rest of the members started to leave the meeting room. My dad, Cruz and Mr Hutchins headed straight outside without saying a word to anyone and I heard their two bikes start as Billy took a seat in front of Haz and I.
“We didn’t know, Ryan. Your dad didn’t tell us he was bringing up drugs again or that it involved the Horsemen. We wouldn’t have been in that room if we knew,” Billy said. Haz passed him a beer as the other members took a seat around us. I knew that I would have these men on my side if I were to put out a vote to replace dad as President, but there were still other members that don’t know what went down today.
I looked down at my phone and noticed two text messages from Lexi. The first message was a photo of her tiny silver car overflowing with blankets and pillows followed by a text message that made me let out a small laugh.
Next time I might need to borrow your truck.. L x
What’s mine is yours, Lex. What are you doing?
It’s a surprise but let me just say this. When I’m done, we won’t need to squeeze into my tiny bed anymore.
I kind of like the tiny bed..
75a Cove Road. Meet me there at five.
I hadn’t even told Lexi about my apartment yet. Sure, she knew I lived somewhere but I figured she assumed I still lived at the clubhouse like I did when we were younger. I was hoping by her photo of all the home decor items that this meant she was staying for good. The last time the Vipers were involved with the Horsemen, it didn’t end well, to say the least. It was a disaster, a tragedy and also the reason Lexi left. If she found out there was still unfinished business, then she might just leave again. Which meant I needed to keep this to myself for now.