Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
“Thank you for taking time out of your schedules to meet today,” Our President said as he commenced the meeting.
When I first joined the club, we only met once a month. Now with the increase in work, we changed it to biweekly meetings. Any more than that, and I thought the guys would just get bored. It had been about a month since I was arrested, and there were some things going on that I needed to discuss with everyone.
Mainly the fact that Axel was actually Officer Erickson.
While the Prez went through a couple more introductions, I wrote everyone's name down in the notebook app on my tablet. Brandt was the only one missing, but it was an excused absence. Church was mandatory. We either had to be missing, dead or dying to not show up.
“We're not gonna have a standard meeting, but there are several items we need to discuss,” Erik continued, then nodded at me.
“Most of you should have noticed by now that we have a new bartender.” Everyone nodded. “Archer comes to us from River City. He wasn't raised in the life, but he's Rooster’s nephew, so were gonna give him a chance.”
“What’re your plans for him?” Razor asked.
“For now, just bartending,” I answered. “I'm not sure how squeamish he is yet, but once I know that, I'll let you know.”
“At this point, we didn’t have any plans for new prospects, but with Hellcat’s new role and her studies, we might want to consider Archer, or someone else for that matter.”
“We don't have issues in the financials,” Razor told him. “Liam has started diversifying our portfolio, and it's doing well. That being said, we could handle having some more off the books assets.”
“We'll add that item to new business for our next month's agenda,” the Prez advised him.
“Fair enough,” Razor replied. “That’s all I've got.”
“Hellcat has brought the next thing on our list to my attention. She thinks it might or might not pose a problem for us in the future.”
“Thanks,” I told him. “You all know that several weeks ago, I got arrested after completing one of my jobs.”
Surprisingly, everyone held back their snide remarks. The promise of future razzing was present in most of their eyes, though.
“Did any of you know Axel was an undercover officer for the River City Police?” I asked no one in particular.
“The Road Captain for the River City chapter of the Chaos Crows?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, him.”
“Didn't know you two were that close,” Hunter muttered.
“We aren't here to discuss how close I was or wasn’t with one of our associates.”
Hunter opened his mouth to argue, but our Prez held up his hand to silence him.
“Our love lives aren’t up for debate in here. Answer Hellcat’s question.”
A chorus of a general consensus of not knowing he had been undercover sounded out around the table.
“He was my arresting officer.”
“So, what’s the plan on how to deal with him?” Kujo asked.
“I don’t think we should do anything yet, but I wanted to put the information out there, so we’re covered. I’m honestly hoping he steers clear of me, but I’ve never had so much police interaction that wasn’t spearheaded by me. So I’ll have to watch my back from now on.”
“Does he know who you really are?”
“The first time we met was when I was guarding that shipment of guns to River City,” I told him.
“That was two years ago,” Hunter interrupted. “You were only seventeen.”
“Your point being?” I scowled.
No one at this table knew exactly what transpired between Axel and me when I went on those runs. I was careful to keep things quiet.
“Prez, are you seriously not pissed about what went on between them?”
“This isn’t the place for this discussion,” Erik told him.
“Exactly, can we please move on?” I pleaded, then addressed the Prez and answered his previous question. “If he hasn’t figured it out, I’m sure he has his suspicions. I was only in that cell for an hour, not that I’m complaining, but they probably notified him of how I got out so fast and who picked me up.”
“They booked you under Jordan, though, didn’t they?” Jack asked.
I nodded. “That’s the only identification I carry. When I’m doing business with particular people, like the new owner of Home Wreckers, I verbally give West as my surname.”
“Okay, then, no big deal,” he responded. “Just keep an eye on him and maybe have Liam run a more thorough background check.”
“Will do.”
* * *
Later that night, I was back at Heaven’s Lace to meet with Cole’s daughter, Andria. It wasn’t exactly something I was comfortable with since Liam hadn’t been able to dig up everything on them yet. I was driving blind when it came to the Martins. No one seemed to know who they were. They came into town a month ago and Cole had been buying up real estate in the form of strip clubs, restaurants, and a hotel.
“Good Evening, Dale.”
“Ms. West,” he nodded. “Ms. Martin told me to inform you that her and her father are waiting to see you in the back office.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
I walked around the bar and went down the hall to the office. The same Italian thug from the first time I met Cole was standing guard in front of the door.
“I’m here to see Ms. Martin,” I informed him. Sometimes being respectful enough not to ruffle feathers felt ridiculous.
“I need to check for weapons,” he told me.
“Go ahead,” I replied as I stood still for him to pat me down.
Once he finished, he knocked twice and opened the door. Cole sat in the same chair as he was the last time I visited his office. His daughter sat behind his desk as if it belonged to her. Her long dark brown hair was pulled up into a thick side braid. From what I could tell, her clothes were designer. The price tag of her black pant suit could probably cover the cost of an entire wardrobe for me.
As I stepped in the door, she stood.
“I appreciate you agreeing to meet with me tonight,” I told her.
“My father told me you need some information.”
“That’s correct,” I told her. “We’ve heard about a possible hit on a police officer and we were wondering if you had connections that could provide useful information.”
“It’s a distinct possibility, but first I’d like to get to know who I’m considering working with,” she replied.
“Fair enough,” I responded.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
“No, thank you,” I told her.
“You can sit anywhere you want,” she told me.
“So you’re enrolled at Hilton Prep?”
“Yeah. It’s my last year there,” she replied as I sat at the far end of the couch.
“Was it your idea or your father’s?” I asked her.
“Mine,” she replied, rolling her eyes.
“I guess it’s a good school, but it wouldn’t have been my first choice.”
“Did you go there or something?”
“Yep,” I responded.
“I don't recall seeing your graduation photo,” she commented as she leaned back in the office chair.
“That’s because I didn't graduate from there.”
“Did you quit, or something?”
“After a few disagreements, I was homeschooled.” I smiled, recalling everything that went down to ensure I had no other options but to complete school at home.
She laughed. “What kind of disagreements?”
“I wasn't welcome at Hilton Prep after an unfortunate incident involving the quarterback.”
“I sense there’s an entertaining story behind that.”
“There is, but let’s keep that one for later.”
“And you're at Sandstone U now?”
“Yes,” I responded.
“Are you a junior?”
“No, I’ll graduate next year.”
“How old are you?” she asked. “You can't be much older than me.” She quirked her brow.
“How about this? If you answer first, I’ll tell you.”
“Okay, I'm eighteen.”
“Nineteen. When I was fifteen, I graduated from high school,” I responded, shaking my head. “Wow, I don’t know what it is about you, but I seem to be spilling my guts more than normal tonight.”
“I wouldn’t read too much into it. After all, we’re just getting to know one another.”
“I never talk.”
“Just a couple of stories between friends.”
“Is that what we are?”
“To be honest, it would be nice to have a friend who didn’t hold their punches,” she confessed. “Sometimes I feel like I’m wearing a mask all the time.”
I tried not to let it bother me that I didn’t have any female friends. It was purely my decision because I was sick of them trying to be my friend only so they could gain access to all the men in the club. It was tiring when I tried to have a conversation with them and they constantly tried to steer it to where so and so was or if they were dating anyone.
It would be nice to have someone I didn’t question the motives of, even if she wasn’t being completely honest about who she was. We traded questions back and forth, mostly skirting the truth. We weren’t at the point where we could divulge our secrets, but I had optimism.
“Now that we've had a chance to talk, I think I could be of assistance. However, as I'm sure you know, nothing in our world is free.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Nothing major. The favour to be named at a later date won't exceed the value of information.”
“It also can't result in my incarceration.”
“It won't. In fact, it might be right up your alley. I've come to learn your methods don't exactly align with other MCs of your calibre.”
“Something tells me you don't operate like most famiglia, either.”
I was just guessing with the mafia slang, but I wanted to see if she would bite.
She laughed, then said, “Cole, you were right. She's not what I expected.”
“I told you,” he replied.
It was the first words he had said since I walked in the door. He was a silent observer just like my brother John. If it wasn’t for his commanding presence in the room, I would have forgotten he was there.
“I'm not?”
“Nope. Not at all,” she responded. “I think you and I are gonna become great allies, maybe even better friends.”
“I definitely believe cultivating this new relationship might turn out to be very good for business,” Cole agreed.
“I’d like that,” I told them both.
We carried on our conversation for a few more minutes until Andria apologized about getting back for curfew. It would likely be a couple of days before she came back with any information, so I had to be patient.
On my way home, I called Liam.
“I want a full background check,” I told him over the phone.
I wouldn’t go into another meeting with them until we knew more.
“Why hello to you too,” he responded.
“Fuck off.” I laughed. Liam should be used to my method of jumping straight to the point.
“There is no way she's his daughter. Sister maybe. They don't act like parent-child. It's more like my relationship with Erik.”