Hulk
It was Thursday night, and we were gathered in church as usual.
Our meeting hadn’t been called to order yet by Agony, our president, so there was a dull murmur of voices from all around the table.
At the head of the rectangular table sat Agony.
On his left was Dare, the VP, and on his right was me.
We were the top three officers in the club.
A lot has changed over the years. One of the big things was the faces around this table.
Many of those who were originally in the club had either died, retired from riding and the club, or gone to prison and had never been heard of again.
One thing that hadn’t changed was the emblem on the flag on the wall, on our cuts, and burned into the table we sat at.
Our emblem was of a circle with the triquetra, and a snake had a lot of meaning in Celtic lore, which was why the club was called the Pagan Souls. Agony may be Cherokee Indian, but he had interests in his mother’s side, which was Irish. And along with it came the Celtic legends.
In Celtic lore, the triquetra, also known as the Trinity Knot, represents the interconnection of the sky, water, and earth.
The circle symbolized unity, completeness, and eternity.
The snake was revered as powerful and was believed to be connected to the earth’s energy, with ties to the life-death-rebirth cycle.
The snake was also a central figure in his Cherokee lore.
It was a bridge between the spiritual and physical realms, and the snake served as a guide in the creation of the world and its inhabitants.
When you thought of it, it was pretty damn deep and cool—another reason to be proud to wear our cuts.
A pounding sound brought my attention to the head of the table. Agony was calling the meeting to order with his fist. Immediately, everyone grew quiet and gave him their attention.
“Now that I have your attention, you know the drill. Old unresolved business first. Then we’ll discuss how the businesses are performing so far this month, since we’re halfway through it. Then it’s on to any new business.”
From there, it was standard. There was no outstanding old business to discuss, so we proceeded directly to the business reports.
We had a specific order for reporting on the various businesses we ran.
We had a garage, a tattoo shop, a bar, a laundromat, an apartment building, a pawn shop, a strip club, a truck stop, a clinic, an online jewelry business, and an antique shop.
The last three were businesses owned by three of the old ladies, but they insisted they be counted among the club’s holdings.
They also allocated some of their profits to the club as a gesture of appreciation for the assistance we provided, even though we had initially declined.
We were fortunate that all continued to turn a more-than-decent profit.
We made better money now than when we were doing the illegal stuff, and the risk of dying or going to prison was almost nil.
Once we were through all that, it was on to new business. I didn’t have anything, and it seemed no one else did when asked. I thought it was about to be a short meeting when Agony raised his hand.
“I have something to bring up. It’s not anything directly related to the club, but it’s disturbing to say the least. Eliana came home upset about it today, and I don’t like my old lady to be upset. Plus, this isn’t something we want happening around here.” His expression was grim.
My mind raced with possibilities. Eliana ran a clinic/caregiver service as well as a handyman service.
Many of her patients were elderly or disabled.
They came to her because she was a nurse practitioner who took a holistic approach to treating patients.
It was that which brought her to Tana’s attention, and she had insisted on seeing Eliana about her arthritis five and a half years ago.
Agony had taken Tana, but he was skeptical of Eliana. He thought she was a charlatan and had tried to destroy her reputation. It cost her her job at the hospital. When he saw how well Tana responded to the things Eliana had given her, he had to eat his words.
If he had waited a little longer, he wouldn’t be sitting here happy and the father of twins.
Eliana had been days from leaving Cherokee for good to find a new job.
Luckily for him, he convinced her to give him a chance to make amends and to date her.
Eliana founded the clinic, and it soon expanded to accommodate a diverse range of individuals with non-medical needs. Our community loved her.
“Who upset her?” Knight, our club secretary, asked.
“It’s more of a what. She got wind of something terrible today when a couple of her regulars were in the waiting room talking. Eliana happened to walk by and hear the tail end of it. She stopped and asked them what they were talking about.
“It seems that a couple of weeks ago, a young woman who lives here in Cherokee was raped at a party. She can’t recall anything, according to the gossip.
She’s twenty-one. The police are supposedly still investigating, but nothing has come of it.
It’s suspected that they won’t catch whoever did this,” Agony growled.
There was nothing we hated more than finding out that honest people who lived everyday lives were harmed or threatened by the evil in the world.
However, rapists were one of the top monsters we liked to hunt and eradicate.
They fell into the same category as murderers, pedophiles, and traffickers for us, at the top of the extermination list. At Agony’s words, anger filled me.
I clenched my fists. There was a lot of angry murmuring happening around the table.
Once we’d vented a tad, Agony continued speaking.
“Eliana is upset not just because someone was hurt, but she actually knows the woman and her aunt. They’ve come in and volunteered to assist Pagan’s Promises with various things.
Sometimes it’s time. Other times it’s a gift of clothing, food, or other things.
Eliana wondered why she hadn’t seen them for the past two weeks.
It’s almost Thanksgiving, and they always help with that. ”
This revelation made it worse. She was pseudo-connected to the club. I knew what he was about to say before Agony uttered it. I believe my brothers knew, too.
“I want to ask you, my brothers, if we should assist in the hunt? Confidence in the police to solve this is pretty damn low,” Pres added.
“Hell yeah, we should help,” Pope said.
More affirmatives sounded from around the table. Agony’s eyes landed on mine. That’s when I realized I hadn’t said anything out loud.
“Hulk, what’s your take on it? You’ve been quiet, which isn’t like you.”
“Sorry, I was just thinking of how badly that young woman and her aunt are feeling. Whoever did this needs to suffer the consequences. I say yes,” I replied.
Agony nodded. “Good. However, to make it official, I need a show of hands from those who say we help.” Agony didn’t even get his whole request out before every hand hit the air, including mine. He chuckled.
“That’s what I thought. Okay, motion carried. Make sure to note that in the minutes, Knight,” Agony told him.
“It will be,” Knight assured him.
“Okay, I suggest first, Wire digs using his computer magic to see what he can find on the victim and her aunt. Their names are Capri and Celeste Malcolm. Capri is the one who was raped. From there, it’ll be seeing what the cops have, and you know the drill.” Agony directed the last bit to Wire.
“I sure do, and I’ll get right on that, Pres,” Wire promised him.
“Thanks. The rest of us will nose around and see what we can find out. Listen to what the locals are saying. I’ll ask Laramie on the down low what the police have discovered,” Agony told us.
Laramie was Lieutenant Laramie, a detective with the local police department.
Usually, the cops and bikers didn’t mix well.
It had something to do with the fact that they always wanted to throw us in jail, even if we hadn’t done anything wrong.
Laramie was different. He suspected we weren’t totally clean, but we didn’t sell drugs, people, or guns, nor did we harm the innocent people he was sworn to protect.
For him, that was good enough. Too bad that none of the others at the police department felt the same way.
“Okay, that’s all for now. I’ll let my Medicine Woman know we’ll be lending a helping hand,” Pres said as he ended church. I knew it wouldn’t be the end of the discussion. We’d debate it in the common room over beers and maybe a game of pool or darts. That was fine by me.
???
A week had passed. Things had been super busy at SS. The same was true for the other businesses. Perhaps it was related to the Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone was hurrying to get things done before it came.
While it was Thursday again, we wouldn’t have church tonight because today was Thanksgiving Day.
We’d do it tomorrow night. For us, the holiday was all about food, football, and relaxing with our family.
The old ladies, with help from the prospects and even a few of us, had created a spectacular spread.
We’d eaten way too much and would go back and have more in a few hours.
Until then, we were lazing about, watching the game, playing a few games of darts and pool, and just chatting.
The kids were playing around the common room or down in their special room.
It was created for the kids, but doubled as a safe room if needed.