Chapter 15
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
BamBam
By the time I return to the clubhouse, my initial anger over Jasper and his buddies showing up in our town and hassling Buddy, who’s one of ours, has turned into absolute rage.
In the scheme of things, I know Buddy wasn’t badly hurt, but the fact that hands were put on him shows me just how little Jasper and his friends care about others.
Which gets me to thinking about Livy and the condition I found her in several weeks ago.
She’s nowhere near the same size as Buddy, in fact, she’s somewhat petite in stature.
Plus, she was obviously malnourished when we found her, so she was seriously underweight as well.
How the fuck did she manage to survive Jasper’s abuse?
It’s truly a miracle that he didn’t kill her before she was able to escape his clutches.
I pull into the front of the clubhouse and Monkey is standing there waiting.
While I carry in the money bag from the laundromat, he’ll move the truck back to the vehicle barn, since the bikes have the best parking spots because they are our main source of travel.
Our area of the state typically has temperate weather; not that we typically have harsh winters like other parts of the state get, but we do get a light dusting of snow in the higher elevations, so we’re able to ride a lot longer than many bikers stationed further north of us.
Plus, later in the summer until early fall, monsoons are somewhat expected.
I may be a diehard biker who’s always up for putting my knees in the breeze, but during monsoon season, I’m more apt to take either one of the ranch’s trucks if I have to go anywhere or send someone else out.
As I meander toward Nerd’s office so he can count the money and handle the deposit, I pass by Rio who says, “We’ll have church once y’all are done. I think those fuckers are going to be a problem if we don’t get on top of things.”
“Same,” I reply. I got the sense that even though we kicked them out of our territory, they aren’t going to go far. Especially since they have it in their head that Livy is here.
Nerd’s office is distinctly different from Pokey’s, although both of my brothers are eclectic in their own way. Where Pokey has computer monitors all over the place, as well as one of the most comfortable chairs in the world, Nerd’s is almost minimalist in comparison.
He’s got the requisite desk, of course, and off to the side, he’s got a table that has various money counting machines.
One handles bills, another handles coins and today, it’s all about the jingle, although there is some paper in the bag that Buddy pulled for me, as well as what I collected from the change machine.
“Whatcha got for me, Bam?” Nerd asks, coming out from behind his desk. When he grabs the bag from me, he acts as though it’s about to pull him to the ground. “Holy shit, this is a heavy one.”
“Definitely don’t need to do arm day this week,” I tease.
Not like I miss any workouts. As the Kings Enforcer, I have to stay in prime condition at all times to ensure my brothers stay safe and I can handle all threats that presents itself to the club. But the weight of the bag is such that I could slack off of a few of my bicep repetitions if I wanted.
He scoffs as he hefts the bag up on the table and opens it. “I see Buddy helped today,” he says, pulling the smaller bag out. “I don’t understand why he won’t just do the washers and dryers as well.”
“I’m not sure of his reasoning,” I say, confused about the difference myself, “but I don’t want him to feel as though it’s something he’s required to do. I think that would stress him out more, to be honest. He does the vending and soda machines, so that’s one less thing we have to take care of.”
“This is true,” he replies, before he stacks the paper money into the bill counter and hits the switch to turn it on.
Taking the change, he pours it into the machine.
It’ll separate every quarter, dime, and nickel and count it with proficiency before Nerd wraps it to separate rolls and takes it to the bank to deposit.
Some of the change will go back to the laundromat to refill the change and vending machines, of course, but most of it will be funneled through the myriad of accounts that Pokey set up to ensure that it’s untraceable.
While a lot of our businesses are legit as hell, there’s no sense in giving Uncle Sam more of our hard-earned money than necessary.
The club is already taxed to the max as it is, and some of the transport jobs we do definitely don’t need to be known by anyone else.
“I’ll come back and grab the rolled change that’s going back to the laundromat to replenish the machines after church,” I tell him.
He snickers then says, “If I’m in church too, then it’ll be after that, brother.”
“Fuck, yeah, guess I’ll just take it over tomorrow. There was still enough that I think we’ll be okay overnight,” I reply. “See you in there.”
Before heading into church, I pop my head in Pokey’s office. “Got a minute?” I ask.
“What’s up?” he questions, pulling his keyboard closer to him, his fingers poised to start a search.
“The assholes who showed up at the laundromat, can you pull the video?” I query.
Once he has it up on the screen, with each of the fuckers showcased, I point to Jasper and say, “That’s Livy’s ex, Jasper Price. He said something that’s got me thinking.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, he said that someone saw the ranch’s truck pulled off on the side of the road. The thing is, Pokey, no one was in the vicinity, and it was a good ten or fifteen minutes before I even spotted anyone driving behind us.”
“Okay, well, I’m sure that area doesn’t have any cameras considering it’s remote,” he muses. “Do you remember the store you stopped in before y’all got back here?”
I slip my hand into my cut and pull out the receipt that’s been in an inner pocket ever since I brought Livy back and hand it to him.
I guess it’s a good thing I don’t empty my pockets nightly, it only happens when I stop and think about doing it.
“Here’s where we stopped. What are you thinking? ” I ask.
“Well, a store like this has cameras inside the store, of course, to help prevent shoplifting. But there are cameras outside monitoring the street as well. Let me see if I can access their CCTV and whether or not they have shit stored off site or if it rewrites after so many days,” he replies, his fingers once again flying as he scans the monitors.
“Okay, there’s a burgundy pickup truck that seems to have pulled in behind y’all,” he murmurs, almost as if he’s talking to himself.
“Let’s see where you came from, shall we? ”
I watch, astonished as Pokey backtracks our entry into town, where the truck is behind us.
Not so close that I would’ve paid attention to them per se, but close enough it becomes obvious they were following me.
I then see where the truck pulled into the shopping center, idling toward the back of the lot while I drop off Mongrel at the front, then head to the area where I parked while waiting for Mongrel to shop.
What makes it even more interesting is the burgundy truck parks and the person heads inside.
Pokey hits a few keys and I watch as he leisurely follows Mongrel through the store, occasionally taking pictures of him that he appears to text to someone else.
When Mongrel exits the store, the man follows, and Pokey quickly snaps a clear picture of him that he puts on one of the monitors while we both continue to watch.
“Fuck, that’s one of the guys who was with Jasper!” I yell. “Bet he was in the woods on the opposite side from where I picked Livy up that day, then he followed us. No wonder they have an idea about where she’s at.”
“I’ll keep following it as long as there are cameras, and bring all of it to church,” he promises.
“Appreciate it, brother,” I murmur, storming out of his office, my mind on one thing and one thing only.
Livy.
She’s not safe after all, at least not until her piece of shit ex disappears. The only problem is, I’m going to have to let her know, as well as Grace at Hope House, because it could put everyone who’s there in danger.
My anger at the current situation is still simmering as we all arrive in church. Once Rio bangs the gavel, he nods at me to explain what happened earlier at the laundromat. Then Pokey starts talking, which has the mood in the room shifting to something dark and dangerous.
“That fucker and his friends need to disappear,” Abyss states once Pokey’s finished showing everyone what he was able to unearth.
“Which will present a huge problem considering his parents have connections,” Rio advises. “We need to be smart, brothers.”
I honestly don’t care what we do, I just want her safe.
“Then we need to come up with a plan that’ll keep Livy and Theo safe,” I state.
“And I’ll need to let Grace know that Livy needs to stay inside since there’s a known threat against her in town.
” Which will suck, because I think she’s almost to the point where she can have outings with the other women.
I just hope when push comes to shove, this doesn’t cause her to backslide from what progress she’s made.
“We’ll come up with something that won’t blow back onto the club,” Rio promises. “Does anyone have anything else? My ol’ lady is neck deep in the rodeo preparations, even though it’s still a few months away, and she needs my input or some shit.”
I snicker then say, “Actually, I had an idea and it’s about some of the suggestions we’ve gotten from the laundromat customers.
I think we should add a laundry service where we wash, dry, and fold the clothes.
We should also offer to launder those huge fucking comforters.
Maybe do the clothes by the pound and give a flat rate for the comforters. ”
“Buddy won’t want to do that,” Abyss states.
“No, which is why I was thinking we could offer the job to Livy and toss in the apartment that’s above the laundromat as part of her pay package,” I reply. “We’ve got excellent security on all our businesses, so she’d be safe and also able to rebuild her life.”
“You gonna claim her, brother?” Rio asks.
“Kinda too soon to do that, pres, since she’s still recovering from what that piece of shit did to her. But yeah, down the road, that’s my plan. First, though, we have to get rid of the threat to her and Theo.”
“Then let’s work on a plan,” Rio says. “We can’t use her for bait, obviously, but what if one of the club girls dresses like her and walks around town with a stroller?”
“That could work,” I muse. “What happens when we catch them?”
“Then we show them what happens to those who decide to fuck with us,” Abyss retorts. “Maybe they can have a hunting accident?”
I snicker then say, “That might work. What if we did a murder-suicide scenario? I’m sure Pokey could manufacture something that would be credible enough it would hold up against inspection.”
Pokey cracks his knuckles then starts typing on his keyboard. “Look at this,” he says, almost giddy in his excitement. There, on the screen, are signed documents from all three men. Their signatures are legible enough that Pokey can copy and paste them into a suicide note.
“I like it,” Rio muses. “Go ahead and create something, while we work on the rest of the plan.”