CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER EIGHT
Spider
Officers and Lieutenants Meeting – Next Day
He had given the bitch’s real name to Fish and he, in turn, passed it on to the others who were looking into the Rutherfords.
Now all he could do was wait. And handle club business. Like he was doing. Updating them on the state of their shipment to the SWMC which had turned into a massive clusterfuck. There had been a huge delay on the parts needed to fix the freighter’s engines and their cargo had been sitting undelivered for almost two weeks.
“The parts the engineers were waiting for finally arrived yesterday and the freighter left port in the early hours of this morning. So far all is quiet and I expect them to reach Savannah with no further problems.”
Orca fingered the silver hammer and the block of steel that had magically appeared after he wrecked the wooden shit. Were they the originals? He wanted to ask but now was not the time.
“Good. Maniac reached out, their contact on board reported they were making good time and the cargo is safe.” He said, dragging a finger through the grooves he had made on the table.
“That’s great news, Prez.” Van, their security specialist, said.
Blaze was watching their prez with narrowed eyes, flicking his gaze to Spider before looking back at the man at the head of the table.
“It is. With the shit from that side of our business handled I want to address the bullshit that went down in the common room.” He threw a sharp glare around the table, going from a man handling business to the pissed off president of the club in nano seconds.
“Most of us at this table were voted into their position. We hold it because our brothers out there trusts us to have their best interests at heart. If they lose faith in us we lose not only their faith in us, we lose the club. Our VP stepped up and made the sacrifice to take the very unwelcome decision to outlaw sluts in the clubhouse on himself. It has caused quite a few unhappy murmurs out there, but, fuck ‘em, today I’m shutting those fuckers up. I will officially make Kid’s decisions club-wide unbreakable rules. Rules voted on and passed by every man at this table.”
Mutters started, he raised his hands and silence descended.
“We voted as a club to step back into the business we used to be in. Dealing with dark business, like we are now, we need to ensure our home base, our compound, is impenetrable. It’s no longer as easy to hide shit like it used to be back in the day. We now have to deal with cameras, bugs, recording devices, spies and computer hackers. Don’t misunderstand me, I know we had some of the same shit back then, but none of it was as prevalent then as it is today. We cannot allow shit like yesterday to happen again. Background checks on anyone wanting to be a hangaround is now mandatory. The same goes for sluts. There will be an application form they will have to fill in before they receive permission to join us as hangaround or club slut. Their applications will be checked and double checked to ensure they are who they say they are. The live-in sluts will be barred from all areas besides the common room, kitchen and the crash rooms. Security gates will be installed barring access to out of bounds areas. Those areas won’t only be our office areas they will include our bedrooms and the dorm rooms. Party nights will be announced via text to all brothers. Brothers will have to submit names of those they want to invite. Party girls who arrive uninvited won’t be allowed entrance. Impulsive parties will no longer be allowed.”
Shaking his head he sighed.
“I’m aware this is going to be unpopular with the brothers but it has to happen. The current disaster is partly my fault, over time I, and my retired officers, have allowed the stricter club rules to become suggestions, not rules. I’m convinced that between the less strict rules and easy going leadership we basically created the traitors we dealt with recently. It fucking kills to admit it but it can’t be ignored. We, the older leadership, made mistakes. Hawk tried to warn me but I believed my way was better. Turns out he was right. We’re outlaws and without strong leadership our club will become a battleground for those with delusions of grandeur, like Omo and his fucked up group of traitors. I know this sounds like we’re taking away the freedoms of the brotherhood but it’s not. It’s the other way around. We’re protecting them, and us, the only way we can.”
He tapped his fingers on the table while the men around the table silently worked through all he had said.
A knock on the door had them turning and watching as Sly unlocked it.
Wrath and the rest of the lieutenants walked in and took their places at the table.
“Our guests aren’t enjoying their accommodations, Prez. They’ve been complaining so we’ve strung them up to stretch their legs a bit.” He grinned and pointed at Blacky. “Our brother over there is wanting a bigger audience to watch his prowess with a blow torch.”
Looking at Blacky’s disgusted expression Spider couldn’t stop the laugh even if he tried.
“Motherfucker, I’m not looking for a bigger audience. I just thought Prez would like to be there when I finally toasted Omo.” Blacky growled at Wrath.
Orca grinned and shook his head.
“We’ll head down as soon as we’re done here.” He said.
He then laid out everything they had discussed. The lieutenants listened in what seemed like stunned silence. When Orca was done they nodded, one by one.
“We’re good with it, Prez.” Wrath answered for all of them.
“Good. Let’s get to some other business that went down today.” He turned to Spider and he knew it was finally his turn in the hot seat.
“How did it go with the court woman today, brother?”
Spider shrugged.
“The Social Worker was great at first. We had a chat and I told her I wanted custody of my son. She said the courts usually favoured a two parent household but she also said that it has changed over recent years. Apparently more single parents are being awarded custody. I fucking hope they will look favourably on me as a single parent who is also a member of a MC. I showed her the building and the unit I’m moving into, and made sure to tell her it was for families only. She met Noe and Star with the kids when I took her to see the playground. It was going fucking great. I thought I had it in the bag. But when I walked her back to her cage the shit with the fucking drunk hangaround, who incidentally isn’t a hangaround, went down. I apologised and got her out of here as fast as I could but I think the damage was done. I can only hope she won’t focus on the bad shit when she reports back to the judge.”
“There was one good outcome to the whole shit show though, Prez.” Kid said.
“What might that be?”
“It turned out that the drunk fucker is actually the brother of one of our junior patches and was here to help him move his shit into the dorm. Unfortunately one beer turned into too many when said patch got hung up with the sluts and didn’t keep his eyes on his brother. When we investigated we found the drunk fuck is very important to us, seeing that he’s the ex of the slut who stole Spider’s semen.”
Grunts and mutters of disgust fell off as Kid shushed them.
“Shut it and listen. Rims, the junior patch, told us that his brother fell apart when the woman he was about to marry left him for a rich older businessman who she married instead. Said businessman is none other than Robert Rutherford the second, husband of Kristen Rutherford aka Christa Davis. She changed her fucking name and Rutherford hid it deep, but I don’t think deep enough. Our team will dig it up and once they do we’ll do a full background workup. A workup that will be anonymously leaked to interested parties.”
“Yes!” Orca grinned and slapped a hand on the table. “This is it, Spider, I can feel it in my gut. It’s going to crack the case wide open and lead us right to what we need to free your boy. To bring him home where he belongs.”
Wrath tapped the table. “What if you got married, brother, like you know, a marriage of convenience? You get a chick to marry you for as long as it takes to win full custody of your boy and after a suitable amount of time you quietly divorce her.”
Some brothers were stunned silent, others let loose their shock.
“Whaat?”
“Are you crazy?”
“You been smoking your socks, Wrath?”
Spider shook his head as he frowned at his obviously crazy brother.
“No, not only no, but hell no. I don’t want a wife thrown into the mix, Wrath. What if the bitch catches feelings? I’ll be stuck in a marriage with someone I don’t want or love.”
“That’s not necessarily how it will play out, brother. We find someone who needs money, do the necessary background checks to ensure she’s a good person. We have her sign a non-disclosure agreement along with a contract stipulating exactly what the marriage entails. I’m sure there are women out there who’ll jump at the opportunity to have their debts paid off in return for a few months of pretending to be married to you.” Wrath grinned and winked broadly.
The bastard.
“No brother, when I claim a woman she’ll be wearing my patch and be on the back of my bike. Only thing is, my fake wife will never wear my patch or ride at my back. Everyone will know its fake when I don’t give her those two things. I can get away with taking my cage because of my boy a couple of times but not every time. Not giving her my patch? That’s going to be a hard one to explain.”
Spider shook his head.
“No brother, I can’t do that shit. Having some stranger living in my house with me and my boy? Getting attached to my boy? And what if he gets attached to her? How the fuck do I handle it when I kick her to the curb at the end of the contract? There are too many things that can go wrong, way too many.”
“I can see where Spider is coming from.” Kid said quietly. “I went into a fake relationship with my old lady for club business and it ended up with us getting close. Very fucking close. I was lucky. It turned out she was the woman I had been looking for. But we can’t all be that fucking lucky. I don’t think it’s a good idea, brother. Not even if one of my old lady’s girls volunteer to do it for you.”
“I agree with our VP.” Blaze said grumpily. “Our brother doesn’t need bitch problems while trying to gain custody of his kid.”
“Not all women are bitches, Blaze.” Dizzy responded quietly.
“I’m not stupid, I know that.” Blaze snapped.
It was time to cut this conversation off. Nothing good can come of it.
“I don’t want to talk about my shit anymore. Let’s leave it here.” Spider said grumpily.
Orca tapped a finger to his cheek. “I want Rims’ brother brought back in. He needs to sober up and then we’ll have a chat about the slut. And for our brother Rims sake, we need to shake his shit up and get him flying straight again. As of now he’s in the IDMC rehab. We dry him out and then he’ll start working off his fucking debt to the club.” He pointed at Smiles. “I want you handling it.”
“No problem, Prez. I’ve got it.”
“Right. I think that’s all we had for today. I’ll put out a text for a full church on Tuesday morning. Until then I don’t want you discussing anything that we talked about today in the hearing of the rest of the brothers. I’ll drop that bomb on Tuesday.”
Picking up the hammer he tapped it on the steel block and smiled as the sound rang in the room.
“Get out motherfuckers, let’s have a beer and a visit with our guests before I head home to my old lady.”
Standing at the bar Spider had a quick few sips of his beer then quietly left to go to his office. He needed to talk to his parents about what had gone down today.
When the call connected it was apparent they had been waiting on his video call.
And when he said they, he meant all of them.
His parents, Ice, River, Gail, Johan and Genna.
At least now he only had to tell the story once and not over and over.
“Okay, so, today was both good and bad.”
Was how he decided to start the conversation.
When he was done there was a long silence and then both his parents started speaking at the same time.
“There will be no fucking marriage of convenience.”
“No son of mine will go into a loveless marriage not while I’m breathing.”
His mum sounded really upset and he didn’t want that.
“Mum, Dad, I didn’t say I was going to do it. I said it was a suggestion from one of the brothers.” Spider tried to calm them down.
“I know you as if I made you out of clay. What the hell am I saying? I did make you, not out of clay but out of our cells and blood, your father’s and mine, we made you, and my blood fed you. I know you, Griffin, know the ins and outs of you. I raised you, loved you through the terrible twos, teenage shenanigans and pregnancy scares. I know where that brilliant mind of yours has gone and I’m not letting you make the biggest mistake of your life, not on my watch.”
His mum ranted at him, not giving him a chance to get in a word. Not giving anyone else a chance either. He did hear his dad growling at the ‘pregnancy scares’ bit though.
Fuck. That was a secret between him and his mum. Not anymore it seems.
“Mum. Ma. Mamma!” He got her to shut it with the last one.
“I’m not marrying anyone, it was a suggestion only. I know it sounds crazy but I’m a single guy with a reputation that might not look so good once it’s put under a microscope. Having a woman will make me seem settled, more able to take care of my son.”
“Bullshit!” His dad snarled. “You are talking out of your ass, boy. The courts gave Beast his girls and he raised those babies without a woman at his side for quite some time. Look at Rider, raising his baby girl on his own. And our girl River, she raised Duncan until she became part of our family. There are so many examples of men and women raising children on their own around the world and in our club. You know this, so you know you’re talking shit. You’re scared, admit it and move on. Marrying a woman to use her as a front is wrong on so many levels I can’t even tell you how very, very wrong it is.”
He opened his mouth to try and reply to his dad but Ice got there first.
“Let’s cut through the emotions here and go to the practical.” Ice said in that lawyer’s voice of his.
“Legally it’s a minefield. If you do this and at some stage it’s exposed you will lose your son. The State will see it as you manipulating the court to ensure a decision that’s favourable to you. The first thing they will do is take your son and place him in a place of safety and make him a ward of the State. They will then overturn your custody agreement and seeing that his mother isn’t a viable parent either your boy will be put in foster care, if there’s space available, if not he will go into an orphanage where he will await adoption. This will take months and during that time you will not see him because you won’t have any rights to visitation, or any rights at all. Once he’s in the system it will take months, even years, to convince the court River and I should be allowed to adopt him. You, however, won’t have any hope of getting him back. The laws are harsh because they are there to protect the children from predators. Unfortunately it means your boy suffers while we fight to get him back.”
There was a deathly silence.
“Is that what you want, little brother? Is that how you want your boy to grow up? Alone, among strangers who don’t love him. Because let me tell you, if you go ahead with this fucked up idea I will step in and you won’t like what I’ll do. That boy will end up being our son, not yours.”
Spider couldn’t believe his ears. He battled to take a breath. His sister suddenly waved her hand to make everyone shut it.
“All of you calm down, shut up for a second and listen.” Genna shoved to the front, her concerned face filling the screen.
“I’ll come to Cape Town, Griff. I’ll be the little man’s nanny until we find someone trustworthy. We’ll set up your place as a home for the two of you. You will fight those fuckers for full custody as a single dad. Why should women get preference in court when there are good guys in the world who can raise a kid as well as they can? We just need to show them what a good guy you are, little brother. Forget about this bullshit marriage thing and let Ice and Joan do what they do best. While they fight the good fight you and I will be getting ready to bring little man home, where he belongs.” She suddenly frowned. “And can we just decide on a name for him already? He needs to have a name, a good name, not that fucked up one those people gave him.”
“I agree.” River said as she appeared next to Genna. “You need to give your boy a name, Spider. We can’t call him little man forever. And fair warning, do not talk to Duncan about names, he got his hands on the baby name book and has a list of G names ready for his new cousin.”
“I third that suggestion.” Gail chimed in. “My nephew needs a name, pronto. I can’t keep putting my kids off, their questions about their new cousin is driving us nuts.” She smiled “I think they’re in cahoots with Duncan about the G name thing.”
Dropping his head into his hands Spider sat for several seconds not saying a word.
He couldn’t get anything past the lump in his throat. Finally, he swallowed it down and raised his head, swiping his hands over the tears on his cheeks.
“I fucking love you guys, so much. I know you just did a bad guy/good guy play to get me to pull my head out of my ass. To be totally honest I can’t see myself marrying some woman just because I need her to get custody of my son. There are too many things that can go wrong and screw up our lives.”
He smiled at his parents.
“You can stop worrying, I just want my boy and the idea that I might not get him is making me desperate.” He shrugged. “I think Genna is right, I need to find a nanny, a full time live-in one. She will take up the slack when I’m at work or have club business to take care of. We have some things going on at our chapter that I can’t talk about that’s going to keep me very busy. It might keep me away from home some days but I will try to be home every night. I want to do all those dad things, like put him to bed and read him a story, you know.”
“That’s the best any father can do, son.” Bulldog said gently. “I was blessed to have your mother by my side to get us through the tough times. Your boy is going to be fine. We’ll help you find the perfect nanny for him, someone we trust.”
“We’ll get full background checks done on all applicants. Between Ziggy, Fish and Star they wouldn’t be able to hide a thing. And of course there will be cameras installed in your unit so you can keep track of shit on your phone.” Ice threw in. “You can’t be too careful.”
His mum shoved them out of her way. “The most important thing is to have a home ready for your boy. A place where he will feel safe and loved. We need to have a talk about how you want to decorate his bedroom. We could do fantasy or the ocean or…”
Thankfully his sister saved him from having to get into a decorating talk with his mum.
“Mum, we’ll do that once I’m in Cape Town. Right now we have no idea what we’re working with so let’s give Griff a bit of a breather. Okay?” She softly stroked and patted their mum’s back and that’s when he saw the tears glistening in her eyes.
“Mamma, don’t cry, please, I’ll be okay and he’ll be okay. Soon he’ll be where he belongs, with me and a part of the Walker clan. I promise I’ll get right on sorting out his name. The minute I have full custody I’ll be petitioning the court for a name change. Your grandson will be a Walker before this year is done, I promise.” He hoped like hell she believed him because he only half-believed what he was saying.
“I’ll remind you of that promise, Griffin.” She said softly. “I want my grandson to have the safety of the Walker name, like the rest of my grandchildren. No matter how he came to us, he’s our blood and he is loved already. I have the photos Genna took of the two of you up on the family wall. I can’t wait to have his portrait done so I can put his picture up with my other grandbabies.”
Reaching to the side she took his dad’s hand.
Spider’s heart warmed to see the love between them.
He pointed at them on the screen.
“That right there is what I want. What you two have. You’re the reason why there will be no marriage of convenience bullshit.”
His brother and sister, actually he should say his brothers and sisters, because that’s what his in-laws were to him, part of his family, all nodded.
They spoke about shit for about another twenty minutes before they ended the call.
Genna was the last one on the call.
“I’ll let you know the date I’ll get down there. I have some things to tie up here before I can leave. Nothing major, just a couple job related things.”
“Okay, but please, don’t upend your life for me. I won’t be able to handle it if you lose your job because of me and my shit.”
She looked around furtively before coming closer to the camera and lowering her voice.
“I haven’t told the parentals yet but I’ve resigned. There was way too much shit going on because I’m part of the IDMC and don’t take shit from Chihuahua’s.”
She pulled her shoulders up and rolled her eyes.
“I might have punched someone in the nose for being a dick, so I’m leaving before they can fire me. Don’t want that bullshit on my employment record.”
“For fuck’s sake. I thought this job was the one you really wanted. You and Grietjie started those paramedic courses together didn’t you?”
“We did and we both qualified but when it came to jobs it was a bitch getting into existing crews. She was lucky and got into a very nice crew. I wasn’t as lucky. The guys hate me, especially when the fucker I punched told everyone I was a club whore. I’ve resigned so I’m done with their bullshit and I have time to help you. Once we’ve got your boy settled in I’ll start looking for a new job. So, don’t worry about it.”
Spider shook his head. “Only you will punch a fucker.”
“I’m a Walker, what can I say? We defend our honour, no matter what.”
“Proud of you, Gen. And you coming here to help me out is fucking amazing because I’m lost. I have no fucking clue what I’m supposed to do with the unit. We’re going to have to get everything because I’ve lived at home, then in the clubhouse so, there’s not even a spoon in my place.”
“No worries, little brother, we’ll do a major shop once I get there. I think I’ll be with you by next week. I’ll start making a master list of everything you’re going to need. Like I said before, you can look for furniture online and we’ll go test the ones you like when I get there. Nothing worse than a couch that’s not comfy. I’ll leave all the electronics to you because I’m not good with that stuff. Right, dad is telling me to get my ass in the kitchen. He most probably eavesdropped and now he’s going to interrogate me. Wish me luck.”
With that she was gone.
Spider shut things down on his end and closed his laptop.
The chat with the family had gone a lot better than he thought it would.
His parents were the greatest parents he could have wished for but even they had a limit for the bullshit their kids got up to.
Having a son he never knew existed was most probably the worst thing one of them had done to the parentals over the years. Ice’s scare with the crazed bitch didn’t count because, lucky for him, it turned out the kid wasn’t his. Between him and Ice he felt sure they had added to the grey hairs their parents now had. Gail has always been the good girl, not ever putting a foot wrong.
With how close they were in age, Spider and Genna got up to all sort of shit. His sister was a wild child and he didn’t think that would ever change. Even after she had her heart stomped on.
He knew the way the thing with Dive of the SWMC had ended hurt her. If he could’ve smashed a fist into the fucker’s face for her he would have. But she had asked them to back off and let it go, so they did. Bulldog hadn’t been a happy camper about that. He’d been ready to fly to the States and take care of the bastard who had made his little girl cry.
As far as he knew she never spoke to Dive again, choosing to move on.
He grinned as he stood, picked up his laptop and left his office, locking it behind him.
Maybe being around some new people would be good for her. She might even meet someone down here.
As long as there were background checks done on the fucker.
The common room wasn’t packed but there were enough brothers with whores hanging on them to impact his fairly good mood. The new rules hadn’t been put up yet so it was business as usual it seemed.
He didn’t begrudge his brothers the opportunity to get their dicks seen to, not at all. But he wasn’t the sex obsessed eighteen year old he used to be either. Walking into this shit seven days a week was too much.
Making his way to the bar he ignored the bitch who came sidling up beside him and held up two fingers to the prospect. When he had his two unopened beers he turned to head up the stairs. He was going to watch a movie, drink his beer then go to sleep.
As he took a step the slut slid her hand into the crook of his elbow and stepped up beside him.
He came to an abrupt halt.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He snarled at her.
She looked up at him coyly. “I’m coming upstairs with you. You got two beers.”
She said it as if it was a given that him getting two beers meant he wanted her in his bed.
“What’s your name?” He demanded.
“I’m X-Tasee, you spell it X dash T. A. S. E. E. I’m new, very new. I officially moved in yesterday.”
She fluttered her false eyelashes and pressed her plastic tits against his side, smiling with lips that had been pumped full of enough filler for another ten pairs of lips. Her hair was bleached blonde and looked stiff and grassy.
“Well, X-whatever the fuck your name is, for your information, the beers are for me. As for you, I don’t give a fuck that you’re new at the club. I know for a fact the other sluts would have told you not to approach me. I don’t fuck whores.” He said coldly.
The bitch didn’t back off.
“I can show you the best time ever, Spider. I’m the very best, you can ask the brothers who’ve had me, and they will tell you. I give the best blowjobs because my lips are so big and soft and they say my pussy is like sliding into a wet paradise.” She spoke in a breathy voice she most probably thought sounded sexy. It. Did. Not.
Spider lost it.
“Let me give it to you straight seeing as you’re obviously too stupid to understand simple English. I don’t give a fuck how good the brothers say you are. I do not fuck whores that my brothers have used. I do not fuck pussy that’s so overused it’s stretched out and gross. I do not fuck bitches whose mouths look like two Goodyear blimps are having a stand-off. I don’t fuck the club whores, EVER. Get your hands off me and fuck off.”
She looked confused, but the bitch didn’t move.
He snapped.
Between discovering he had a son stolen from him by a slut and the constant harassment from the club whores he’d had it. He’d reached the end of his patience and tether.
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME YOU FILTHY FUCKING WHORE!” He bellowed.
The bitch jerked back and fell over her own feet, going down in a heap. Her legs splayed, showing all and sundry that she wasn’t wearing panties.
Great, another fucking thing he had never wanted to see.
Glaring at the shocked brothers and sluts staring at him he turned and took the stairs two at a time.
He was done with the bullshit.
It was time to retreat to his room, watch a movie and try to sleep.
If there was fallout he’d deal with it tomorrow.