Chapter 46 #2
But when Rattler steps into view, LoneStar gives a chuckle. He takes off his Stetson, brushes imaginary dirt off, before replacing it on his head. “Now you, Rat, I remember. You were stirring shit up.”
Rattler takes his hand and pulls him in close. While giving him the requisite man hug, he responds, “As I recall, you were as much of an asshole.”
“Oh fuck,” Freak drawls. “I can’t take another Rat. Tell me there’s not two of them.”
“Afraid I can’t tell you that,” Renegade replies while grinning widely, then adds to Hazard, “As we ain’t being offered hospitality, go round us up a few beers.”
Bullseye waves for their prospect to stay where he is, and yells, “Prospect? Beers all around.”
Knight’s not stupid. He whistles loudly, getting the attention of the club girls, and employs them as waitstaff to hand the numerous bottles he’s had to open around. Our newly arrived friends waste no time wetting their throats.
“When you’re refreshed, we should have a catch-up in church.
Let you know where we’re up to.” A ringing interrupts him.
Bullseye pulls his phone out of his pocket and discreetly moves away.
He’s back within seconds. “There are three brothers from the fuckin’ Georgia chapter who have flown all the way down.
” He shakes his head as though he can’t believe help has come from so far.
“Need a pickup from the airport in Tucson.”
Church will be all about the construction and what we’ve got planned. While I can wield a hammer as well as anyone, I haven’t much to contribute to the actual plans. What I know about building could be written on the back of my hand. I hadn’t even done particularly well with Trip’s toy bricks.
“I’ll go get them,” I offer. It will take me about an hour and a half to get there, and the same amount of time back. That’s with a fair wind blowing and good traffic. A good chunk out of anyone’s day, so might as well be mine.
“Appreciate that.” Prez gives me a chin lift.
I drain the last of my beer and leave straight away, deciding to take one of the club’s SUVs as it will be easier to manoeuvre in traffic than my truck.
As it happens, I have a clear run and am soon entering the airport.
Going to the cell phone waiting lot, I call the number Bullseye had texted me, and connect with one of the Georgia brothers, telling him to get themselves to the pickup area.
After giving them a couple of minutes to find their way, I go directly to the arrivals level of the terminal and pull into a vacant spot at the curb.
Sliding on my cut so I can be recognised, I ease out of the car, quickly spying the men I’m looking for. Likewise, they’ve already got a bead on me and head my way. Going around to the back of the SUV, I raise the liftgate so they can put their duffels and other bags inside.
Their slow progress toward me has me straightening and glancing their way.
It’s only then I realise two of them are basically carrying the third, whose legs are dragging on the floor.
When they reach me, unceremoniously, they throw the barely conscious man into the back seat before turning to greet me.
“Rhino.” The man closest to me offers his name in a tone that sounds like a bear’s angry growl. “Thanks for the pickup.”
“Short.” His brows rise. I’m used to the reaction when I give my name, so I grin. “Long story. And ain’t no problem.”
“This is Token.” Rhino introduces the second man with him.
I reach out my hand to shake the second man’s.
“And what’s with him?” I jerk my head toward the interior of the car.
The corners of Rhino’s mouth turn up. “That’s Blitz.
He, er, doesn’t like flying, so I gave him a few of our special gummies.
They didn’t help at first, so I kept feeding them to him.
Hell, man, he’d have tried to jump out of the fuckin’ plane if I hadn’t.
Oh, and the half dozen double whiskys he had to have, before he’d even walk up the steps to the plane, probably didn’t help. ”
Well fuck me, I’ve got a drunk, doped-up brother to deliver back to the clubhouse. Still, by the looks of him, he won’t even wake up until he gets there. Have to admit though, the story makes me chuckle.
Rhino removes his cut, then takes shotgun. The uncommunicative Token, now cutless as well, eases the comatose man over so he’s squashed behind me with minimal leg room, as I’ve got my seat pushed all the way back for obvious reasons. He then sits next to him in the roomier seat.
He tries to remove Blitz’s cut, then the first words I’ve heard come from him as he gives up. “Heavy fuckin’ lump can pay the fine.”
There’s silence as I concentrate on navigating my way out of the airport and through the city, but when I’m on the freeway, Rhino asks, “So you’ve got yourselves in a bit of bother?”
“You could say that,” I reply.
“Hate being in a cage,” he starts. “Hope you lot have got a few loaners.”
I snort a laugh. I can’t help it. Then, I wheeze as I try to get myself under control. I sober as I disappoint him, “You’re out of luck. The fuckin’ Mojave Devils MC decimated all of ours with some explosives.”
“You’re fuckin’ kidding me?” Casting a sideways look his way, I see his mouth has dropped open.
“Nope.”
“Jeez.” Rhino’s quiet for a moment. Then, as if he were having difficulty comprehending the extent of our tragedy, he queries, “All your bikes?”
“Out of fifteen, only six are rideable. Or will be soon as they’re fixed. As for the others, we’ll be doing a good business in spare parts if you’re interested.”
“Fuckin’ hell.” He’s quiet for a moment. “Prez was a bit short on the details. Was it your clubhouse they destroyed?”
Still facing forward, I shake my head. “Nah, managed to save that. But the clubhouse is an old farmhouse we’ve added onto, so there’s a clubroom, kitchen, meeting room, and offices on the first floor.
On the second floor, there are only five bedrooms. We converted an old barn into living accommodation for the rest of the members, club girls, and prospects.
The bunkhouse is what was totally destroyed.
” I shrug. “There’s damn near nowhere for the club to sleep. ”
“You got land?”
“A few acres.”
“You want to build up the same as before? Or have you considered houses?”
I can’t recall that idea coming up, but the proposal has merits.
On my part, I’d love to have a house close to the club, and where I could be assured of Bron and Trip’s safety.
“We need something fast, but in the long term, I think that’s a good idea.
For now, we’ve got brothers from California, who’ve drawn up plans to rebuild, basically just replacing what we had.
Well, better than before, but on the same principle. ”
“We’ll need to see those plans. See, Brother, we had to come help. We run Gold Wings Construction back in Georgia, and have a wealth of experience you need.” He slaps his leg. “You’ve got the big boys on your side now.”
Lunatic and Hardcore seemed to know what they were doing as far as I could tell.
Now, while I’m grateful for the extra manpower, I’m starting to be concerned that Rhino and his crew could rock the boat.
Not that we’d want to turn down their obvious expertise.
I just hope we can all work together amicably.
We’re all Kings, but we’ve got freedom in how we run our individual chapters.
Which means there can be a wealth of different ways in which we make our money, and the way each club is run – while adhering to the overall Kings of Anarchy code of course.
While we all straddle it, some clubs are more on the wrong side than the others when it comes to following the citizen laws.
Our differences make us strong, but the variety of ways our clubs are run can also cause issues among brothers of different opinions.
Our motto might be Nobody fucks with the Kings, but no one said there aren’t times we don’t fuck with each other.
Brothers, as in the patch we wear on our backs, but personalities can sometimes clash.
I don’t envy Bullseye, I think to myself as Rhino falls silent. He’s got to try to make four clubs work together.
We need our new bunkhouse built and don’t want delays caused by interclub rivalries.