CHAPTER TEN
-:- CORK -:-
Waiting for Dallas and Star to come in for their hot chocolate, Meat shows me around the cabin.
I have to say that there are some design features I wouldn’t mind stealing if I ever got my own place built.
I doubt I’d have armories dotted about the place but there are some ingenious hidden weapons if you ever had a home invasion situation. That I wouldn’t mind.
Hearing an engine revving outside, I wonder if Star is taking Dallas for a ride. Meat gives a grunt and shakes his head. “Mia’s trike. She’ll want to show it off, too.”
“It would be easier to get everyone to turn up with their vehicles on a weekend so Dallas could see them all at once. Maybe she could give a prize to the one she thinks is best.” I’m joking, but Meat looks thoughtful.
“Do it.”
“Do it? Do what?”
“If it’s something you think Dallas would enjoy, organize it for her as a surprise. Get everyone to turn up, buy the top three prizes and let Dallas do it.” I think that’s the most words Meat has ever said to me.
“I’m sure she’d love it. Maybe I will. Thanks, Meat.”
“Thanks Meat, for what?” Star and Dallas just catch the end of the conversation, and I have to think on my feet.
“When I get to design my own house, Meat will act as a consultant for my armory, and what weapons I should have.” I know Star will buy that.
“I’d love to be able to do that one day.
I’d gravitate toward western styling. Log cabin but with western touches.
Saloon doors to a basement saloon, perhaps.
Enormous open-plan first floor, open staircase against one wall leading to a mezzanine floor with five or six bedrooms and a couple of shower rooms. The top floor would be a master suite, but I want an enormous sunken bath, so I don’t know how that would work,” Dallas adds to the conversation.
“That would be easy enough with the right engineer and architect on board. I like that idea. I might steal that idea for my place.” I hear Star sigh and think she’s shaking her head.
“Cork,” Star begins, and I think I’m in trouble. “You should leave Dallas here, we have girl stuff to attend to, and get yourselves off to the clubhouse for an hour.” Giving me a girly finger wave, I mutter ‘okay,’ and leave with Meat.
Walking into the clubhouse, the first person I see is Wings. “Just the man,” I say and walk up to him as he’s sitting at the bar. “What did the CCTV footage reveal?”
Wings quickly responds. ”Pryce looked it over, but he said there wasn’t anything to go on. A partial plate that he was going to pass over to Forest, see if they could match it to anything. None of the men's faces were clear enough to identify them. It was all a bit of a bust.”
“So where do we go from here?” I reply.
“We don’t go anywhere. We have nothing to go on, Cork.” Wings starts to turn away, but I grab his shoulder and stop the turn.
“What the hell do you mean, ‘we don’t go anywhere?’ The wine shop gets robbed, I get my head busted, and that’s it?” My voice is rising, and I can feel the blood rushing to my head.
“Yeah, that’s it. They took next to nothing from the robbery.
They did some damage, and we’ve upgraded the rear door so it shouldn’t happen again.
What else can we do? And you’re talking to the wrong man.
You need to talk to the guys at the security company.
That’s what they are there for.” Pushing my arm off his shoulder, he turns away.
As I walk away, angry as all hell, Chaos walks in. “Howdy, Cork. How’s the head?”
Without thinking, I sucker punch him to the temple, and he drops to the floor. Wings is on me in a second, and I’m pinned to the floor next to Chaos. There’s a lot of shouting going on, and my name is in the thick of it.
I see Stitch rush in and tend to Chaos, who is already coming around. Seeing me, he pushes Stitch away and tries to wrestle me from Wings, who happily steps away. I take one punch from Chaos, and blackness descends over me again.
Waking up on the bed in the medical room once again, I see Stitch and start to speak.
“Save it, Cork. Axel wants to speak to you as soon as you’re awake, and no one else, including me, is to discuss the shit you’re in. Sorry. I’ll fetch Axel.”
Stitch leaves, and in only a few seconds, he returns with Axel. “Are you okay, and what the fuck just happened?” Axel speaks quietly and slowly, and that is not a good sign.
“Physically, I’ve been hit harder. Mentally, I am ready to hand you my cut.”
Axel's eyes narrow to slits, and he nods at Stitch to leave. He closes the door on his way out. “Those are words I never expected to hear from you. You are one of the most dependable brothers in the club. What has brought you to this?” Axel takes a seat and watches me closely.
“I’ve put blood, sweat and tears into that wine shop. I’ve given up my own time as well as my own money to make the business a success for the club, as well as for my own satisfaction. You know this, right?”
“You have done an immense amount of work and made the business a tremendous success,” Axel agrees.
“In terms of percentage profit, the wine shop is right up there with any of our businesses, if not the top one.” I watch Axel closely, just as he is with me.
“Again, I can’t argue with that. Where is this leading us, Cork?”
“You know where I’m going with this, Axel. I can see you know.” Calling him Axel instead of Pres, I’m hammering the point home that I am about done with the MC.
“I need to hear it from you, brother.” Clearly he’s making his point, too. He doesn’t want me to walk away.
“If Hot Hogs, the Garage, or even the tattoo parlor had been hit, the club as a whole would have been in uproar. Everyone would be screaming for the blood of whoever had done it. There would be brothers out riding to see what they could find, searching for that damn truck. They would talk to contacts on the streets, offer rewards and incentives for information. If one of them had been hurt, there would be no stone left unturned.” I can see by the look in his eyes that he knows what I am saying is true.
“Wings just told me that there’s nothing anyone can do because the CCTV footage shows jack shit.
So that’s it, they sit on their asses because it’s only the wine shop.
It’s only Cork. Well, they sure banded together fast enough when it was Chaos that was down and out. ”
“I told Drag I thought that was the case. I’ve been as guilty as the rest of them.
I should have chased up where we were in investigating this.
I got lax and trusted that it was being followed up.
I have Drag and Buzz getting all the brothers in for a meeting as soon as they can get here.
If it means closing a business, so be it.
I told them to have everyone present within thirty minutes, and that was ten minutes ago.
I want you present at that meeting. Are you well enough? ”
“If I’m well enough to punch Chaos, I’m well enough to take them all on.”
“No, Cork. You’re not going to be there to take anyone or all of them on, that’s what I’ll be doing. I should have had your back right from the start.”
Axel gives me a chin lift, then leaves me to it, and I gingerly swing my legs over the side of the bed. Not feeling dizzy, I stand up and walk slowly back to the common room to get a bottle of water.
Waiting outside the medical room door is Dallas. She takes my face in her hands and looks into my eyes. When I say look, I mean gazes, soul searches. That look goes so deep she could know my innermost secrets.
As we walk into the common room all eyes turn to me. The talk changes to growls and snarls, but before I get to say anything Dallas beats me to it.
“You can all just shut the fuck up, and leave him alone. If you want a piece of him, you go through me first.” Although that’s not much of a deterrent for most everyone in the room, it does silence them.
Getting my bottle of water from the bar, Dallas and I head for church where I expect Axel to hold the meeting.
If he’s calling all the brothers in, his office won’t be big enough.
As everyone enters, some look angry, others totally blank.
When Web, Mensa, and Roadrunner arrive, they immediately stand by me.
Colton arrives and stands directly behind me, displacing Web, and places his hands on my shoulders.
As the whispers rise in volume, it’s obvious that those present when I struck Chaos are telling their side of the story, which has me getting more and more glares and dark stares.
Banging his fist on the table, I notice he doesn’t use his little gavel thing, Axel then speaks.
“Meeting to order, and you’d all better shut the fuck up.
First order of business, we all, me included, need to apologize for not having a brother's back in his time of need. None of us has stepped up and searched for the people who attacked one of us. Has anyone done anything to find them?”
Wings looks directly at me and now sees why I was so angry. “No, I for one haven’t stepped up. Don’t ask me why, I just took stuff at face value that we had no evidence and did fuck all. I’m sorry, Cork, it won’t happen again.”
“But you were quick to jump in when Chaos got knocked out, weren’t you?
Everyone in that common room jumped to Chaos’ side.
Not one of you, us, wondered why Cork, of all people would attack another brother.
” Axel looks around the faces that were there, and many can’t hold his gaze.
“Lincoln, where is BaronsSecure with the investigation?”
“We had nothing to go on, so we basically closed the case,” Lincoln whispers in his embarrassment.