Chapter 1 #2
“Sswas an assident,” Thunder, our treasurer slurs out, his eye are mere slits, and he barely raises his head from where he’s lying on top of the bar.
“Man, I’ve seen better looking roadkill,” Rage snickers in response.
And he ain’t wrong. On second thought, I’m glad no one called me.
“There any food back there?” I ask Rage. None of the girls have gotten around to cleaning this room, so I can only hope they’ve been cooking.
“Yeah, there’s more chicken,” he responds, holding his plate up as a peace offering.
“That’s not chicken. Those are fucking over processed dino-nuggets made for three-year-olds,” I growl back, shaking my head at him.
For all of my dad’s—many—failings, that man could cook.
On his watch, none of the food I ate as a child came from a bag, can, or a box, that was a point of honor in his house.
Not to say that when he was away Mom and I didn’t indulge in her favorites—Captain Crunch for breakfast and Mac and Cheese for dinner.
To this day, my eggs and chicken come from the coop behind my house, not far from the small greenhouse where I grow my vegetables. Beef comes from a rancher I know, and I hunt for the rest of my meat.
Speaking of my meat, another quick glance around the room tells me that the chances of me getting off around here today are slim and none. Where the fuck is everyone? The question pops off in my head.
“What the hell crawled up Mother Nature’s ass this year?
” Bronco roars as he shoves the door shut behind him, before kicking the snow off of his boots.
“Son of a bitch, you tell me to meet you here during this, Prez, so you’ve got me hoping you’re taking us to a beach somewhere with blow and free pussy. ”
Thunder lets out a laugh, holding his head as he slowly sits up. “It’s funny, you saying that to the only man here cheaper than I am.”
“Being fiscally responsible does not make me cheap,” I drawl out the words. “Especially if it’ll let me retire to a beach with blow and free pussy someday.”
My dad’s voice echoes in my head, “Easier to get free blow than free pussy.”
“Pussy?” Edge repeats the word as he enters the room from the swinging door into the kitchen. “The Kitty Kats took off earlier today, said something about heading to California for the winter.”
He’s referring to the most recent grouping of girls who headed to Sturgis a couple of months back and were easily convinced to hang around after the rally wound down.
As usual, the new gets old after a few months, and it’s rare that any of them stay much past the first snow fall, rarer still that they all bug out at the same time.
The nine girls who had been hanging around had, like most women do, formed into groups and were just barely keeping the peace.
My stomach turns at the thought that they all suddenly left.
“They ‘all’ left? Did you know they were leaving?” I ask, turning to look at Thunder. He shrugs, then we’re both turning when Rage drops his plate and is double-timing it to our offices—obviously on the same wavelength as me.
Two of the women had left the week before Thanksgiving, and one of them had overdosed that holiday weekend, her family came to escort her to rehab shortly afterwards. One or two leaving at different times is understandable, a mass exodus screams trouble.
I’m nearly across the room when one of the girls in question, Bella, pops her head out of the kitchen, a question dying on her lips when she sees the expression on my face.
“Interrogate her,” I call out to Bronco, pointing between them as I continue to follow Rage.
“About what?” they ask at the same time.
By the time I catch up to Rage, he’s just entering the code into the pad to the right of the door to our storage room.
Most of the stuff in here is pretty mundane.
We get the occasional DEA or ATF raid, and it makes them feel better to find a little Mary Jane and Molly.
It’s no skin off of our back to let them find a handful of pills or some blunts, we all know it’s not worth the effort for them to pull us in over that.
Except that we’ve been holding a shipment—longer than expected due to the weather.
“Those fucking cunts!” Rage bellows, continuing to tear the room apart even though we know exactly where the stash was placed.
I’m gripping each side of the door frame in my hands, running possibilities through my mind as he continues to swear.
It wasn’t a huge amount of oxy, but it was the real thing. I know I have enough cash in my safe to cover the damage, but it’s the hit to our reputation that I will not accept.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl out the words, and he turns to look at me.
“Roads are shit right now. You call everyone up, including our cops. They went South or West, I’m guessing California like they said because they weren’t exactly smart enough to lie about that part.
The storms that have hit us, have continued on East, they’re not going to chance spinning off the road and getting busted. ”
“Bella…” he starts.
“I’ll handle that, you get everyone together and stock up three SUVs. Two heading out on both of the major roads until we get word about where they went, then the third one stands ready for backup.”
I turn, heading to the front room. My whole body feels like it’s on fire, not just furious that this happened but that I know who planned it.
That fucking bitch, Alli, always looking down her nose at us, even when she was pulling a train in the bar.
“You,” I growl at Bella when I see her standing behind the bar and pouring a drink for Bronco. “Sit your fucking ass down over there.”
I motion her out from behind the bar and toss the glass of amber liquid she had placed near Thunder into the sink off to the side. Bella nearly jumps out of her skin when it shatters, holding her hands up before turning to look at me.
“Look, I don’t know what happened,” she starts talking. “Can you at least tell me what’s…”
“Why’d your friends leave you behind?”
“They were hardly my friends.” The roll of her eyes has me clenching my fists before she continues. “Look, Blanca and Addie were fun and all but Alli kind of pitted them against Jade and me. So, no, none of us were very close.”
“Where’s Jade now?” I ask, my head snapping up when I’m reminded of her existence.
“She’s still in bed,” Bella says, pointing behind her like a portal’s going to open up, giving me a glimpse of her friend. “She’s had the stomach flu the past couple of days, so we stayed in the cabin last night. I was worried about her and didn’t really feel like partying.”
“Yeah, she looked awful yesterday morning.” Thunder readily agrees with her. “That’s when I helped her move out to the far cabin so she wouldn’t get anyone else sick.”
I lean back until I hear the wood of the chair groan and I consider my next question.
It’s not often that our Washington chapter drops a package by, and it’s never with us more than a day, two tops.
The weather would have delayed Ohio from picking it up, which tells me that whoever decided to make off with the goods, had seen it dropped off before the storm and already knew the code to the room and safe within.
“Who was Alli hooking up with lately?” I ask them.
My brothers, I trust. But two of them get a bit careless when they’re high.
“I mean, I’ve been with her a bit,” Thunder sputters out, drawing a giggle from Bella.
“Sorry, that’s Sally you’ve been hooking up with.
She’s been all fired up that you never remember her name.
” She holds her hands up while explaining what she found amusing in this situation.
“Alli has the Kool-Aid red hair, Sally’s got pink streaks in her blond hair.
Alli’s been real friendly to Pavement lately, which is weird considering the shit she used to talk about him. ”
“Tomato, to-mah-to,” Thunder answers with a shrug before looking at me. “You want me to round up Pavement?”
“Yeah, text him. Don’t tip him off anything’s wrong,” I say with a nod, pausing for a moment. “Go over and talk to Jade, see if she heard any relevant gossip.”
Heading back to my office without another word, I know it’s better that I call Lyric and let him know we have an issue, rather than pussyfoot around.
“Been a while,” he says, answering the phone. “When you gonna get back out my way?”
“Washington’s looking better and better with all this fucking snow we’re getting,” I reply, knowing that I’m overdue for a trip west.
“Yeah, Whiz said he hauled ass to avoid it. Didn’t want you thinking he was being disrespectful by leaving before he saw you.”
“We’ve had an issue on this end. I’m on it, but I’m good for it either way,” I tell him and wait out the silence on the other end.
“Need help?”
“Don’t have enough information yet.” My head shoots around when Frost, my VP, enters my office.
“We’re heading out. They’ve got about four hours on us, but Rage has our friendly men-in-blue keeping an eye out.”
“Prez,” Thunder’s voice crackles over the radio.
“I’ll call you back in a few,” I tell Lyric, before picking up the mic on the CB.
“Go.”
My dad calls me Go-Go. I shake my head when the old memory pops up and wonder if I’m losing it when I clearly picture the eyes of the little girl that looked up at me with a combination of fear and curiosity.
“Jade borrowed Alli’s SUV the other day, bringing her mutt to the vet,” he says, cutting right to the chase. “She left the harness in the backseat and there’s some kind of tracking device on it. She’s got the app downloading to my phone now and will log me into her account.”
It irks me more than a little that with the amount of time we spend making sure we aren’t being traced, Jade’s dog’s tracker might help us get the oxy back.
“Frost …”
“On it,” he acknowledges me with a wave of his hand and a moment later, I see him outside with Thunder.
We caught a break. Will update you in the morning. I shoot a text to Lyric, not wanting to be overly optimistic.
“Prez, I think we have a problem,” Rage announces, walking into my office.
I came in here imagining that I’d be the one doing the fucking today, but it feels like I’ve been bent over since I got here. “What now?”
“I reached out to Kent County,” he tells me. “But it wasn’t Mills that answered, and whoever it was—well, he wasn’t very friendly.”
“Didn’t you see him…”
“Last month, as usual. He was reelected last spring, and I’m not finding anything online. I’m thinking I should take a ride to see what’s happening.”
“Let’s just get this shit under control first.”
Just as he opens his mouth, my personal cell phone rings. Yanking it out of my cut, I see that it’s my closest neighbor and shake my head, wondering what the universe is throwing at me now.
“Glenn?” I hesitantly answer.
“I’m standing on your porch, but I don’t think you’re home.”
Glad he can’t see my smile, I continue. “Nope. Not at home right now. What’s up?”
“That old tree came down,” he tells me. “Right on top of your shed. Not the one with the animals, thank heavens. But I was watching for you and when I didn’t see you moving about, I came to check on you. It must have been the weight of the snow.”
I muffle the curse, knowing how he feels about swearing. “Thanks for the call. I’ll be along in a bit.”
“Say, do you want me to come by tomorrow and help you fix your mailbox?” he asks, and I know him well enough that he’s lonely and helping me fix things is one of his favorite social activities.
“Sure thing. Just not too early.” I respond before looking back up at Rage. “Man, I gotta get home and throw a tarp over my shed before it gets dark. Frost is going to head out, I want you to coordinate things here and keep me in the loop.”
“Will do. Hey, I meant to ask, have you seen the chick driving the snowplow?”
“Fucking menace,” I mumble under my breath. “No. Looking forward to it though.”
“Yeah, she’s like that girl-next-door kinda sexy,” he continues, not understanding that my intent is to wring her neck.
It’s well known that Rage lusts after anyone he puts into his famous ‘girl-next-door category’. He’d walk through a room full of strippers to hit on a woman in a hoodie. Me, I prefer to get a peek at the goods first. None of that having to work to unwrap what could very well be a prank gift.
Leaving the clubhouse, I brush the snow off of my pickup and head to my house. I could drive these curved roads blindfolded, but that doesn’t protect me when a deer runs out and I find myself skidding on a patch of ice.
Cursing myself for leaving the clubhouse with all the shit going on, I instantly count myself lucky that this little misadventure happened here. While I’m at an impossible angle in a shallow ditch, the front of my truck probably got off easy. Whether or not my axle did, remains to be seen.
Sensing movement in front of me, I slowly look up and see the reason that the deer jumped into the road. There’s a large black bear sitting ten feet away from me, like he’s pissed about missing a meal and assessing me as his back-up plan. A short burst of my horn gets him moving on his way.
There’s no room to open my door, so I slowly shift my weight across the seat and slide out of the passenger side. Walking around truck, I don’t see any blatant damage, but there’s sure as fuck no way it’s moving without being towed.