Chapter 5MarxLovely
Marx
I stand behind Lovely, hands gripped on the wheelchair handles like a lifeline.
When Switch had the nerve to shoulder bump me and tell me to “Sort your shit out, there are brothers here who would treat Lovely like the diamond she is,” I almost lost it.
The only thing that reined in my temper was that Switch is the only reason Lovely is safe here, and not exposed in the hospital.
“I’ve got Nitro on video call, so I’m sharing my screen,” Chewy says to nobody in particular.
She can share her screen all she wants, I have no real clue what that means. I just need to know what the fuck we’re dealing with and how to wipe out the threats.
“Nitro? Can you hear us?” she says, pressing buttons here and there, even pointing the remote at the TV and fucking around with it. “Are you on mute? I think you might be on mute…. Yeah, turn mute off.”
“Hello?” Nitro’s voice booms over the TV, causing us all to jump. Well, all of us except Flack, but I’m certain he has to be some level of deaf.
While this whole fucking thing is going on Mad Dog smirks at me from across the room.
His gaze flicking to Bee and Lovely, then to me and back again.
I slowly raise my middle finger, discreetly, so he gets the picture.
I have no idea why people are giving me looks.
Lovely is a beautiful woman, and Switch is right, any of the brothers would be lucky to have her.
But she’s mine. As soon as I figure out how the fuck to woo her or whatever it is you do to get women to like you.
I let out a long breath because shit, I have no idea how to date.
My whole adult life I’ve had pussy on tap, first from being a marine and then Pres of an MC.
I’ve put very little effort into getting and keeping a woman.
Now I have one that I have actual feelings for and instead of grabbing her with both hands and loving her, I flapped my fucking gums to keep her at arms length and hurt her.
Now anything I say will have her laughing in my damn face.
Add to that our clubhouse being attacked and I’m really being DP’ed by the dildo of life right now. Unlubed.
“Good, we can hear each other. Let’s get this show on the road,” Chewy says in such a cheerful voice that it almost makes this feel as if it’s an everyday family meeting, and not Church.
Chewy looks toward me, with a nod, and I thump my fist on the wall behind me, bringing Church to order.
“As you can see, Church is going to be a little different today. Ladies, it’s an honor to have you join us.
Without you some of us wouldn’t be here today,” I stare at Nitro on the screen, he has dark smudges under his eyes and his hair is sticking up on end, then my gaze flicks to the woman sitting in front of me, her dark head bent as she snuggles into Bee.
“Thank you. All of you. Your fast thinking saved lives.”
“Hear, hear!” Mad Dog yells out, the men cheering along, stomping, clapping and generally giving the women the thanks they deserve.
“As for my brothers, both MC, and Tombs,” I clear my throat of the emotion lodged there.
“There is nobody else I’d want at my back.
We stood shoulder to shoulder, defending our home.
Some of us came out of there a little worse for the wear,” snickers can be heard as Rhodie and Tank rib Rider, “But we’re all here, in one piece, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like a little payback is on the cards.
No one fucks with our family and gets away with it. ”
My ears ring with the roar that goes out, not just from the MC, but from the Tombs and the Landrys as well.
Tucking my lip, I let out my trademark whistle, calling the room to order once more. “Chewy, tell me you know who the fuck had the balls to attack us?”
“Of course I do. But maybe we want to call Moss in,” she answers, her eyes on her screen.
“Ah, babe, why would we do that?” Rhodie asks, his worried gaze flicking to me, then back to his Ol Lady.
“Because it was Sheriff Kelson who attacked us.”
You can hear a pin drop, and then the room erupts. There are gasps, yelling, and Violet is letting rip with an impressive amount of Spanish. Although that makes sense. If I found out my brother’s boss was a bad guy, I’d be livid as well.
I wait until everyone starts to calm before turning to Chewy. “Explain!”
“We picked him up on the cameras,” Wire answers instead, tapping at something on his keyboard and then looking toward the big screen TV.
The grainy images clearly show Kelson and at least two other men aiming automatic weapons at us before an image of one of them with a small rocket launcher appears.
“What in the fuck is going on?” Savage asks under his breath.
“Why is the Sheriff targeting us?” Lovely wonders out loud.
“Let me enlighten you.” Chewy says with a straight face.
She’s in infodump mode. “So, the first thing you need to know is that as soon as the Computas were situated we went intel gathering. We got the pictures of Sheriff Kelson straight off, but the men in the vehicle were a little harder to pin down.”
“So we don’t know who he’s working with?” Dex asks.
“Don’t be stupid, of course we do. I said it was harder, not impossible,” Chewy rolls her eyes at the ridiculousness that she, Wire and Remy wouldn’t be able to work it out.
“Once we learned who they were, we split our resources into three. Wire is working the cartel angle, Remy the adoption scam, and myself, I got the Sheriff and well, anything else. I’m cool like that. ”
There are snickers and Rhodie beams at Chewy like she’s the best thing in the world. I guess to him, she is.
“Let me guess, just because shutting down Candice’s operation wasn’t enough, we’ve managed to piss off the cartel and the sheriff as well?” Gus asks, running his hand down his face. Any minute now he’s going to pull out his Tums.
“They’re one and the same.”
“There is no way Sheriff Kelson, the old white guy that has been sheriff since I was a kid, is part of the cartel. No fucking way,” Tav says, shaking his head.
The Computas share a look and I know they’re going to drop a bomb.
“He’s not cartel as such, but he is an investor in the adoption scam business.”
“And when we shut down Candice’s business -”
“Yup, we shut down dear old Sheriff Kelson’s retirement plan,” Chewy finishes.
“How the fuck did he cross paths with them to begin with?” I ask, because none of this shit makes much sense.
“Gambling debts,” Sniper rumbles.
Chewy’s head snaps in his direction and she grins wide at him, clearly pleased that someone has put some of the pieces together.
“It’s how the cartel get you. They can sniff out anyone with a debt, offer to pay it off and then next thing you know you’re in their pocket. Desperate to do anything to clear that debt.” He frowns at the wall, staring at nothing in particular.
I know the brother has demons, I’ve always known. I also know that his family has had trouble with the cartel in the past. If this is the road we’re heading down, I’m going to have to keep a tight leash on him.
“Huh. So you know cartel stuff,” Chewy says, thoughtfully. “What do you know about Tito?”
Sniper schools his face. “I know that he’s one cold motherfucker. You thought the Cordoza Cartel was bad, they have nothing on Serpiente.” He rumbles. Roman took out the Cordoza Cartel when he found they had been trafficking his drugs inside sex slaves.
Wire stares thoughtfully at Sniper, running a hand down his stubble, “In all the intel we’ve gathered we have never seen a picture of Serpiente. Do you know what he looks like?”
Sniper nods once, and then rolls his shoulders back.
This shit is taking a toll on him. I make a note to catch up with the brother after this.
Looking around the room I realize there’s a few people I need to catch up with.
I was so focussed on Lovely that I slacked on my duty as Pres.
After we’re done I’ll take Lovely home, get her and Bee settled and then track down the people I need to.
My role isn’t just to bark orders, but to also keep my MC healthy, both physically and mentally.
Wire taps a few keys and Pops’ big ass TV is lit up with pictures of 3 Latino men. Judging from Sniper’s reaction, they’re all as fucking bad as each other.
“Serpiente, Tito Caram, is the greasy looking guy on the left. The right is Carlos Cordoza’s ex-brother-in-law. Got out of the cartel life when he married Carlos’s sister Magdelena. He could be back in, I’m not sure.”
“If he was active in the Cartel, Roman wouldn’t have left him alive when he cleaned the Cordoza’s out of cartel-aged men,” Ana offers.
She’s right. Roman may be a cold bastard, but he doesn’t go around indiscriminately killing. We’ve been dealing with his ass for over a year now, I know his MO just like he knows mine. Killing a husband and father who is no longer active in the Cartel doesn’t sit right.
Chewy nods her head at the new information. “Noted. What about the last guy?”
She stares at her computer screen before looking back at Sniper.
Well, over his shoulder. Her eyes track him as he moves closer to the screen, his posture rigid.
I share a look with Savage before returning my gaze to my club brother.
The only tell tale sign that the image of the third man is distressing, is Sniper cracking his knuckles one by one.
“Well? Do you know him?” Chewy asks as she taps at her laptop keyboard.
Sniper clears his throat, “Yeah,” he whispers. “I know him.”
“Oh good, what’s his name?” Chewy replies, completely oblivious to how this is affecting the quiet man.
“His name is Joseph Almaraz. He’s my brother.” With that Sniper stalks out of the room, the only sound is the thump of his footsteps on the porch and then the roar of his sled.
“Where’s he going? He could have some good intel for us?” Chewy asks, looking around the room wildly.