Chapter 2
Mica
The Hendricks’ ledger has an error on line forty-seven. Four hundred dollars has been misclassified as a capital expense when it should be an operating expense. I make a quick notation and move on.
“Excuse me, sir,” my new office assistant says from the doorway. She has a cup of coffee in one hand and the legal pad she uses for notes in the other.
I wave her into my office. “I told you to call me Mica. Everyone does.”
“Yes, sir. I mean, Mica.” Handing me the coffee, she pulls the legal pad against her chest. “Are you finished with the Hendricks audit yet?”
“No. I’m about halfway through it. We need to call them and schedule a meeting for Friday afternoon. If that doesn’t fit into their schedule, look in my appointment book for an opening and put them on my schedule.”
She makes a note on the legal pad. “Yes, sir. I wanted to remind you that you have the regional small business consortium lunch on Thursday.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” I tell her. “I’d forgotten about that event.”
She smiles, and heads for the door. “I’ll let you know if anything urgent comes in.”
“Thank you, Rachel.”
The door closes and I get back to the audit.
After that, I take a moment to stretch and then pull up the quarterly summary for the club’s three businesses.
Two always have a positive cash flow but one needs attention.
We’re hemorrhaging cash and I need to know why.
Being an accountant made me the natural choice as treasurer for our club.
My family and club brothers trust me to make sure financial issues are caught early and addressed thoroughly.
I’m knee-deep into the quarterly summary when my intercom buzzes.
“Excuse me, sir.” Rachel’s voice sounds off, like she’s anxious or alarmed. “You have visitors, sir. They say they’re family.”
I set down my pen. “Did they give names?”
“The older one says Rock. The younger one didn’t offer one.” Another pause, slightly longer. “He just gave me a lopsided smile.”
“That would be Jasper. Send them on in. And if you could bring fresh coffee, I’d appreciate it.”
“Of course, sir.”
I stand from behind the desk when family enters a room and tease my father, “Did someone die?”
He drops down into the chair that I gesture to and frowns at me, causing it to groan under his massive weight. “Fuck no. What would make you think that?”
Jasper answers before I can get out the punchline, “He’s insinuating that something dramatic must have happened for us to come to his office.”
My old man’s frown doesn’t let up. He shoves one hand through his dark salt and pepper hair. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s nervous.
I glance over at Jasper who’s reading all the credentials hanging on the wall.
“Hot damn Mica. You actually work here, don’t ya? You just come here and sit at a desk, like a regular joe. What the hell’s that like?”
“That’s how an accountant operates,” I tell him. “It feels perfectly normal.”
Since he’s intent on being annoying, my brother picks up a gigantic onyx specimen and turns it over in his hand. “This looks expensive.”
“Put it down and stop acting like a child.”
He sets it back, grinning like a mad fool.
“Fuck, look at you all dressed up. You don’t even wear your cut when you’re accounting. How did I never know that?”
“Because you don’t pay attention to anything except club business and your old lady,” I shoot back. “Wanna tell me why you decided to make a trip all the way to my office? I know it’s not to aggravate me because you do a good enough job of that at the clubhouse.”
He wanders over to my desk and picks up the framed photo of the four of us from a run we made together a few months back. We’re all wearing our cuts and looking happy. I think maybe we were drunk.
He puts the frame down and sits beside our old man. My brother can barely contain his smirk. “I came to see the look on your face when you get the news.”
Before I can ask what in the hell he’s talking about, Rachel knocks and comes in. She’s got a tray with three coffees, and cream and sugar on the side. She slides the tray onto the table and hurries off clearly unsettled by the appearance of my dad and brother.
Jasper watches the door close. “Are you banging her?”
“No,” I say flatly, not in the mood to entertain any more of his bullshit today.
Rock doesn’t make a forty-minute drive just to have coffee with the only one of his four sons who works outside the club.
I don’t know what brought them here today, but they’re both acting more squirrely than usual.
I try to logic my way through this situation.
Our old man is slightly nervous, like he’s the bearer of bad news.
He’s letting Jasper run his mouth to cover that fact.
He hasn’t looked at his watch once, which means whatever this is, it’s important enough for him not to worry about time.
None of this sounds like a win for me. So I get straight to the point.
“It’s good to see you both,” I tell them, before turning to my father. “Why did you come to see me today? And what’s this news that Jasper wants to see me react to?”
Rock shoots Jasper a dirty look and sets his coffee down.
“I want to talk about Vulture’s territory,” he says. “He’s been gone three months. His club fell apart when he died and as you know Viper convinced a lot of his crew to join Stolen Oath.”
“Yeah, that didn’t last long once we forced Bran to explain how Viper was setting fire to clubhouses only to circle back around a few days later to act all shocked and offer to patch them over.”
Jasper speaks up, being just as flippant as ever. “I will remember them peeling off those Stolen Oath cuts and burning them in front of Viper until the day I die. We didn’t even have to deal out club justice to that crazy fucker. His own did the job for us.”
“Yeah, those were good times. No man likes being manipulated and betrayed. But what specifically does that have to do with me?”
My old man speaks again, “Vulture’s territory is now unprotected again and three clubs in that region are already making noise about moving into it.
” He pauses. “If that happens, we’ll end up with an unstable mess right in the middle of our own territory.
I don’t want us being forced to police someone else’s mess.
Nor do I want to risk it spilling over onto our club.
I’ve seen shit like that before. We had to put our old ladies on lockdown because we couldn’t risk them going to town alone.
By the time it was all said and done, we lost a half a dozen men.
I don’t want to risk that happening again. We need to be proactive.”
This is a legitimate concern. Rock knows I’ll recognize it as one.
“Yeah, I get what you’re laying down, pops. If you want us to take that territory, you know I’m down for whatever it takes. You’ve never gotten any pushback from me before on club business. There ain’t no need to make a trip all the way to town to talk to me about it personally.”
“Yes, there is, son.”
I thump my hand down on the desk to make my point and say, “Hell no, there isn’t. I know you and ma were never wild about me opening my own business in town. But you’re actin’ like I’m trying to pull away from club life and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Jasper’s fun-loving expression drops away in an instant. His voice is hard when he speaks, “Look, Mica. That’s not what we’re saying.”
“No, you look, Jas. I’ve shown up for every club meeting, take club problems seriously, keep the books and even fuck an occasional club whore. I’m a patched member and a club officer just like you. Just tell me what the play is, and I’ll be there giving my all just like I always have.”
Jasper opens his mouth but Rock cuts him off.
“I’m fuckin’ glad to hear that you’re up for whatever it takes.
Vulture’s granddaughter needs to get married in order to inherit everything he built over the years.
He left it all to her but only if she’s married.
Otherwise, she has to wait a decade to get it. ”
I look at him.
He looks back at me.
“Again, what does his granddaughter needing a husband have to do with me?” I ask, already knowing where this is going.
“You’re my smartest son. Don’t start pretending to be thick in the head now.”
“I’m not pretending to be thick. I just don’t see what us beating back the other clubs and taking that territory has to do with Vulture’s granddaughter. Territory is not something that’s conveyed upon a person’s death, like a house or business. Territory just means a club can operate in that area.”
Rock explains, “That might be true but if you marry his granddaughter, she can receive her inheritance immediately. Why fight and perhaps lose lives when we can make a case to the regional council to give us the territory.”
“Again, they won’t see me being married to the granddaughter as adding anything to the deal.”
Rock’s voice grows annoyed. “Yes, they will. Vulture didn’t start the same kinds of business as we did.
We’ve got a garage, salvage yard, and auto parts store.
Nobody’s gonna notice or complain if those types of businesses close up shop.
Folks will just go to the next town over and shop.
Vulture’s businesses are critical to the survival of the region. ”
“What the hell kind of business could he have built that would sway the council in our favor?”
“He owns a trucking company that delivers food from wholesalers to stores. About thirty percent of the regional supply chain depends upon that business to keep food in stores and restaurants.”
I lean back in my chair because my old man’s not wrong about this being part of the region’s critical infrastructure. “Vulture found a way to make himself indispensable.”
Another piece snaps into place in my mind. “He also owned Vulture’s Custom Choppers. They’re famous statewide and even draw much needed tourist dollars to his town.”
Rock nods, his expression showing relief that I understood what he was driving at.
Jasper adds, his voice serious, “We got the men to stave off any fuckin’ challenge that comes our way. If you were related to Vulture’s only heir by marriage, it would make sense for us to protect those businesses, especially if we were given the territory.”
Suddenly, it makes sense why they came to see me today. “And I’m the only Sons of Rage club officer who’s not already married, right?”
Jasper jokes, “I asked my old lady about taking a second wife and she threw my breakfast at me.”
“She’s twenty,” Rock says. “Her uncle called me with an offer for an arranged marriage. He asked for you by name, clarified he wanted the accountant. He told me Vulture’s granddaughter has been running the delivery service since Vulture died.
He said she was doing a good job. But she’s also taking night classes in business management.
The two of you sound like a good match on paper. ”
“This situation only works for me if the marriage is just on paper as well. Both of us going to college is not enough to build a relationship on. You know that, right?”
My old man says roughly, “This is an arranged marriage, not a fake one. If she divorces you, it’ll be because you were a shit husband.”
That gets my ire up. “Then how about you find someone else. What about Jinx? He ain’t married. Get him to do it.”
“Jinx isn’t my son. Her uncle trusts our family, not every brother in the club.”
“I said no. I’m not taking some twenty-year-old to raise in the guise of marrying her.”
“Her uncle is determined to see her fitted with a husband strong enough to maintain stability in the region and keep those trucks movin’. If you refuse, his second choice is the president of Ironbound.”
I freeze in place as fear washes over me.
Darkness is the president of Ironbound, which shares a forty-mile border with Vulture’s territory.
Ironbound is into everything from trafficking women to running drugs.
His biological brother is in prison for beating his wife to within an inch of her life.
He left her crippled and led the cops on a wild chase across the county that caused several automobile accidents.
I try to imagine a young grieving twenty-year-old woman marrying Darkness. It makes my blood run cold.
Jasper states quietly, “You know that Darkness would chew her up and spit her out. He’d take her inheritance and use those trucks to move drugs and all kinds of contraband. He’d baby trap her so fast, she wouldn’t know what hit her.”
I curse under my breath, because I can walk away from all the other things Rock believes will make me agree to an arranged marriage with this woman but not this. I won’t leave any woman to that fate, even a total stranger.
Knowing he’s poked through my last line of resistance, Rock adds, “We need the alliance to be seen as legitimate. That means there won’t be hiding this. The wedding needs to be huge and public.”
“Yeah,” Jasper chimes in. “We’ll pull out all the bells and whistles so Vulture’s little granddaughter can have the wedding of her dreams with her prince charming. Think about it. Who would spend that kind of money on a wedding unless it was real.”
“You’re enjoying this way too much, you prick,” I bite out.
My old man has really given this some deep thought. Jasper is along for the ride.
“It’s for the best, son. You’re coming up on forty with no bride in sight. Sometimes, young people just need a little push in the right direction to sort their fuckin’ life out.”
“She has a say in this too,” I point out. “Has anyone considered that? Maybe she’ll think this idea is as crazy as I do.”
“Her uncle talked to her about this plan,” Rock shoots back. “We’re not making decisions for the two of you. We’re just trying to work out a solution that solves everyone’s problem at once.”
“Which is not the same as her agreeing to it.”
“No woman is gonna agree to marry a man she’s never met. Which is why I arranged a meeting between the two of you.”
“You did what?” I don’t know why I’m so upset that he did that without asking.
My old man glances casually down at his watch. “They should be here any minute. Pull yourself together, son.”
“You set up the fuckin’ meeting without telling me.”
“I honestly thought you’d jump at the chance to marry the club princess of Vulture’s Pride. As it stands, the least you could do is meet her before you dismiss the whole idea out of hand.”
Rachel’s voice comes through the intercom, and even through the small speaker I can hear that slight elevation in pitch that means something has caught her attention. “Mr. Jackson, you have new visitors. Should I send them in or ask them to wait?”
“Bring them in,” I tell her with as much civility in my voice as I can manage.