Chapter 15
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Doc
“And so it begins,” I murmur in Gretchen’s ear as the clubhouse doors open, revealing Riptide, Icer, and Indiana, along with their ol’ ladies—Van, Letti, and Zoey. Icer has a baby strapped to his chest that I think belongs to Van if my memory’s correct, with Elodie skipping alongside him.
“He looks rather… intimidating,” she whispers back, ticking her head in Icer’s direction.
“He is, but not when it comes to the kids,” I reply as I watch the three men who grew up around Pokey congregate at Rio’s side.
“Good thing Issy pulled out the bounce house,” she says, grinning up at me.
“It’s the third one we’ve bought since the brothers tend to take it over and destroy it in the process. We need one that’s got rebar in it or something,” I tease. “Come on, let me introduce you.”
She clutches my hand like her life is about to end but follows alongside me until we’re in the midst of everyone.
Introductions are made and then Issy, being the Queen Bee that she is, motions for the women to follow her.
I then see a side of Icer I’ve never seen before as he refuses to allow Van to take her son.
She finally throws her hands up and glares at Riptide before saying, “You deal with the big lug!”
“What time is Big Daddy thinking they’ll get here?” Rip asks Rio.
“Should be any time now. I know they’ve got an entourage, as they should, since we’ve got enemies everywhere, but it’s likely a bit slower going because they’ve got a couple of cages since it’s a long haul,” Rio replies.
“Think we’ve got time to have a quick meeting?” Rip questions.
“Don’t see why not,” Rio says. “Do you need everyone?”
“Might as well, it’s about Sphynx,” Rip replies. “We brought him as well, but he’s uh… confined in the second van. The women don’t know we’ve got him with us.”
“Gopher, Bam, go get him and take him out to the barn for the time being,” Rio instructs. “I’ll send out a text letting the brothers know that church will be in thirty. That’ll give y’all time to grab a beer and wash the road down your throat.”
While the women are busy getting ready for the wake we’ll have after Pokey’s funeral, we all get settled in the room we use for church.
Since several of the East Texas brothers are here, none of our finances will be covered, but with us having had some issues with the assholes that had targeted Rip’s crew, I’m sure he’s going to give us an update.
Rio raps the gavel against the table, which startles the baby wrapped against Icer’s chest. I watch in amazement as the surly man soothes him and he falls back to sleep.
Icer’s a helluva brother to have at your back, but he’s very selective about who he lets into his circle.
Not only that, but he is known for going off on a tangent when he feels something needs to be taken care of, which I’m positive gives his president fits.
“Okay, it’s a shitty situation that has us here right now, but while we are, we might as well talk about a few things. Rip, we found out that we have a group who were abducting folks from recovery groups, getting them hooked on drugs, then their plan was to auction them off.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Rip asks, his voice lethal. “Who in their right mind would come into Kings territory and try that shit?”
“A dead man walking,” Rio retorts. “We got two of his minions, who gave up all they knew before they ended up dying on us. We searched where they said the boss had been staying, but he’s been dodging us.
Nerd’s had no success finding him using digital means, and my guys have been running the roads in pairs checking out every lead. ”
I pop up and add, “From what my ol’ lady said, as she was one of those abducted, they target those who are alone or appear to have no family ties of any kind.
We had noticed a problem with some of the patients who are in our medically assisted drug treatment program when they stopped showing up.
That had our attention, but before we could investigate further, Gretchen was snatched one night. ”
“They could’ve relapsed,” Indiana says.
“Normally, I would agree with you,” I reply, “but the ones taken had almost a year of being clean and sober. Hell, Gretchen had sixteen years under her belt before she was abducted.”
“And now she’s back at square one,” Icer mutters. “I fucking hate drugs.”
While I don’t want to share her story completely, I do want to emphasize that not every addict starts out thinking that’ll be their lifestyle.
“Here’s the thing, many people who get addicted start out with an injury.
A doctor over prescribes pain medication and the next thing they know, they’re hooked.
It doesn’t snare everyone in its web, but when they’re no longer able to get the meds that were previously given like they were candy, they go to the streets and that’s when they get hooked on the hard stuff.
Gretchen was fortunate as a teenager because her family got her help early on and like I said, until she was kidnapped, she had sixteen years behind her. ”
“So, what are you going to do?” Rip asks Rio, bringing us back to the issue at hand.
“Hope like hell he fucks up,” Rio admits. “We’ve got brothers attending as many meetings as possible, without their cuts of course, but so far, we haven’t seen him. Granted, he could’ve found a few new minions to do the snatching, since he seems to be more of a behind-the-scenes asshole.”
“What if you have the brothers start searching properties that have been abandoned?” Rip queries. “They’re not gonna set up shop in a suburban neighborhood, brother.”
Rio chuckles but there’s no humor in it. “Considering that’s where we found the first group of survivors, that’s a great idea. Nerd, do a search for empty warehouses and get it to Abyss so he can set up teams to go search.”
“Got it, pres,” Nerd replies, his fingers hitting the keyboard, likely to start the search.
“You know we’ve had issues with the Dragons,” Rip states.
When Rio nods, he says, “Well, we’re not fully out of the woods where they’re concerned.
We’re still trying to pull one of them out of hiding, but the councilwoman is in federal custody, and we’ve got Jerome’s secondhand man, Patrick, in the catacombs, we’re gonna use him as bait.
We’ve also found ourselves an informant, someone stuck on the inside who’s gonna help us chop the head off the snake, so to speak. ”
“Glad that’s almost coming to an end,” Abyss says.
“Not sure why these fuckers think that we’re gonna allow them to shit on our territory.
Don’t they realize that some of our chapters may be smaller than others, but all we gotta do is put the call out and there’ll be so many Kings running the roads and handling business, it’s not even funny to think about? ”
“Because some of those low-lifes think that the Kings are nothing but a bunch of pussies who party hard and fuck their lives away,” Rio retorts.
“I guess they feel that with many of the brothers in all of our chapters finding their ol’ ladies, it’s made us weak.
I feel like it makes us stronger, because I would incinerate Texas if someone came after Issy. ”
“Same,” Icer grunts out, causing Rip to raise his brow at him.
“Brother, you don’t even need a reason,” Rip finally says to his enforcer. Icer just shrugs. He is who he is, and he doesn’t give that first fuck what anyone thinks about him.
“So, y’all are dealing with Dragon clean up, we’re trying to find our auction asshole. What are your hopes for Sphynx?” Rio asks.
Riptide sighs, running his hand down his face.
“Brother, he was tortured by them and lost an eye. Not only that, but they managed to brainwash him into thinking that the Kings are the enemy. We probably should’ve ended him then, but I saw something, a glimmer of the old Sphynx when I looked at him, and I think he can be redeemed.
Since the brothers up north are a bit salty still about the shit he pulled, we figured he would do well here. ”
“All we can do is try, brother,” Rio replies.
“Maybe get him working the ranch, it seems that fresh air and sunshine, plus the horses and other livestock we’ve got here, can work wonders for the soul.
I imagine he’s got demons from that time, so if you’re good with it, I can introduce him to a therapist who’s friendly with the club. ”
“Beth?” I ask, interjecting myself in the conversation.
I can see the concerned looks on the East Texas brothers’ faces, normally we don’t talk to outsiders.
“Beth is different, y’all. She has to abide by confidentiality laws, so nothing he shares will be spoken about by her.
The only thing she’s required to report as a mandated reporter is if he’s planning on committing a crime. The past is just that, the past.”
After a long pause, Riptide finally sighs.
“Fine, maybe that’ll help him. He’s definitely struggling but before he was found out and tortured, he was on his way to being a solid brother.
I’d like to give him that chance to see if that man will return.
If he doesn’t, then I’ll make the decision and he’ll go to the tombs. ”
“If there’s nothing else, church is dismissed,” Rio says, looking around the table. When no one says anything, he bangs the gavel on the table and officially calls church to an end.