Chapter 19
FINGER
Cilla is helping in the kitchen, but on light duties such as sitting at the table drinking and talking to Jo. Bessy is here to check on Cilla too, and they are having a woman’s moment. Well, that is what Cilla told me when she ordered me out of the kitchen and told me to stop hovering over her.
I headed to Coin’s office to see what he had nailed down regarding the tattoo shop.
While passing through the common room, I watch as Cap is giving the club women a dressing down, yeah, that’s a pun about the cleanliness of the upper portion of the clubhouse.
After shaking my head at Cap, I continue on my way to speak with Coin.
Knocking on the door I pop it open and step inside. “Morning, Coin. Any news on the tattoo shop?”
“I got the figures, and she’s asking far more than the place is worth. We need to speak with Pres, and then do some talking to people, particularly the realtor who is dealing with the property, as it seems she’s already put the place up for sale.”
“Pres has called church this evening. I reckon we can discuss this at church, but after we’ve spoken to Pres about it, maybe Cap and I need to have a talk with Lulu?” I put it as a question because I do not want to overstep Coin.
“It wouldn’t hurt to speak to Lulu before we speak with Pres. How is Cilla coping with all that’s going on?”
Coin, I know, sticks to himself mostly, but he’s taken a shine to Cilla, and she had spoken with him quietly about his mother, who died when he was six. After that talk, he looked as if a weight had been taken from his shoulders, and a friendship with Cilla formed.
“Cilla is with Jo in the kitchen, drinking and talking. She is doing okay, Coin. Thankfully, she was not physically hurt. I am going out again with Bowie to find the two assholes who grabbed her. They are such idiots they shouldn’t take much finding.”
Chuckling, Coin shakes his head. “From what Cilla said I think they must be playing with half a deck of cards.”
“Yeah, it appears that way. I’m going to take a ride now, but I’ll be back in a while. I have a few contacts I can speak with and see if they have seen or heard anything untoward.”
“Okay, I’ll see you later,” Coin replies as he turns back to his desk and whatever paperwork he was concentrating on when I entered the office.
Walking back into the common room, Bowie is sitting near the bar and seeing me he quickly gets up and walks over, “Are you ready to get out of here?”
“I’m ready, so let’s get moving. We need to find these two idiots and take care of them,” I reply and follow him out to our bikes.
As we pull out of the compound Rides and Hot Rod appear behind us. I give them a nod of acknowledgment and take off to the warehouse where the two idiots kept Cilla. With what she told us, I imagine the pair of them are still sitting around there panicking that she has disappeared.
Nearing the warehouse, we pull over and hide our hogs behind a derelict cattle shed.
“You reckon the assholes will still be around?” Hot Rod asks, and he has a hopeful look on his face.
“Probably, because it sounded like, from what Cilla said they didn’t have a fully functioning brain between them,” Rides smirks and sets off on foot toward the warehouse.
“Did you bring anything to burn this place down?” Bowie asks, and I look at Rides because he’s the one that would bring something to blow up or burn something down.
“Stupid fucking question,” Rides smirks and Bowie throws him a middle finger, which I can’t help but chuckle at. That’s when I notice he has a rucksack over one shoulder.
“Do you think we should have come in the evening, you know instead of daylight?” Bowie is grinning like a fool, and we all know he is messing with us because he doesn’t give a shit when we do something that needs doing.
Having watched the warehouse for twenty minutes, we walked in, realizing that either the place was deserted or the guard on duty was absent, if they even had a guard in the first place.
Silence meets us as we take our first few steps into the building.
There is nobody in the main room of the warehouse.
I look at Bowie who is beside me. He shrugs and walks over to a door that leads to a corridor beyond.
I follow him but notice Rides is taking things out of his rucksack and setting up something that I presume is a bomb of some kind!
Bowie holds up a hand for me to stop walking, and as I do, I take a breath and let it out slowly. Allowing my hearing to become the primary sense I’m using. That’s when I hear what Bowie must have heard. Snoring...someone is fucking snoring!
“I’ll deal with them. You go inform Rides and Hot Rod to have everything ready to blow this place.”
I look at Bowie and as I’m about to argue he flashes his Bowie knife at me.
I quickly hold both hands up, showing him I surrender, and take backward steps.
I watch as Bowie enters the room and wait.
It only takes a couple of minutes before he’s walking out of the room, blood down his front.
I imagine that is arterial spray, and he’s killed them faster than you can bite into a sandwich.
“What are you doing here? You were supposed to go tell Rides and Hot Rod to be ready.”
“I know, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. I was having your back,” I snap, but honestly, it sounds ridiculous even to my own ears.
“Fuck off. You think I need you to take out two idiots that were asleep instead of watching for any of ZeBach’s men coming for them?
” Bowie storms past me giving me a dirty look, but I shrug it off.
“We are done, blow the fucker and let’s go have lunch,” Bowie tells Rides as he walks past and out of the warehouse.
“Well, that was an anticlimax, wasn’t it?” Hot Rod states looking pissed that nothing happened.
Back at our bikes, Rides takes out his phone, taps out something, and the bomb goes off in the warehouse. “Okay, that’s it, let’s go.” Rides straddles his hog, fires her up, and we all follow him home.
Arriving back at the clubhouse we all point at Hot Rod who is delegated to update Pres on what has gone on. That the threat from the idiots is neutralized. But I can’t help but think they were no threat at all and they should have stayed home watching Netflix.
Walking into the realtor’s office after lunch, I quickly asked the man about the tattoo shop building. He informs me that Lulu is asking too much for the place and she is not going to sell it anytime in the near future unless she drops the price.
Now that I have confirmed what Coin told me, I make my way to Lulu’s house. Whistle is with me as we are not to be out of the compound on our own, and he wanted to get out of there for a while. Whistle usually works inside the container business office, but having time away is getting to him.
“Where now, Finger?”
“We are going to visit Lulu and put her straight on what greedy ass bitches get when they try selling a property for more than it’s worth.
Call Coin and ask him to speak to Scribe about leaving the shop empty so no rent will go to Lulu.
That will light a fire under her ass. Then we need to speak to some townsfolk about nobody putting an offer on the place. ”
My mind is racing now with scenarios of how to get the building at a fair price.
Knocking on Lulu’s door, I turn my back to it and wait. It’s a pleasant street and I would be happy to purchase a house here if I wanted to be off compound. My thoughts were wandering when the door opens and Lulu sighs. “What do you want?” she snippily asks.
“Well, hello to you too, Lulu. You know why I’m here.
You’ve already spoken to Coin. Now, let me just tell you a few facts.
One is that we will pay the going rate on the building.
Two is nobody is going to be paying you rent on it from this point onwards, as Scribe has stepped out with all his gear.
Three is the fact that nobody in town is going to offer to buy the place.
So you can sell to us for the going rate, or you can sit on an empty, useless building.
Your choice. Now good day to you.” I steadily walk back to my hog, fire her up and pull away from her house without giving her an opportunity to converse with me.
Whatever she said, I didn’t hear as I wasn’t listening.
Back at the clubhouse I inform Coin and watch as he smirks, understanding that Lulu is sitting on a building that is going to give her nothing. No offers, and no income from rent. Perfect.
Sitting in church after supper, I wait for the usual reports to be read.
Then listen to Coin fill in what we have started regarding the tattoo shop and Lulu.
The brothers are amused that we are locking down anyone purchasing the place.
My afternoon had been spent making calls to everyone who would help, and they would spread the word.
Nobody is going to put an offer on that building.
As far as Lulu is concerned it is now a white elephant.
“Good work, brothers,” Tracker grins. “We’ll get the building, but what about Scribe?”
Coin speaks out, “I’ve spoken to him again, and he is good with becoming a working prospect. He works a lot of hours and said if we had a room here he could continue working while we get the shop purchased.”
“What about giving him the place Avery has empty? It was a clothing store, a fairly large building. I’m sure she’d allow Scribe to use it for a small cost?” I suggest and rub my chin while I’m thinking.
“Actually, that is a good idea, and I’ll ask her because I’ve helped her out a couple of times when she’s needed a pipe swapped and things like that,” Bull states.
“Okay, you deal with that Bull, and if it’s good, a few of you can move Scribe's stuff and get him set up. Coin, work out what percentage of the shop Scribe should get. Make sure it’s appropriate because we don’t want to undercut him.
We are good at taking a smaller profit until the place has paid for itself.
Then we can re-evaluate.” Pres looks at me with that smirk that everyone knows we either do what he wants or we could get a bullet.
Books bends down, and picks up a box, tossing it to me. I catch and open it. Grinning because, hey, it’s Cilla’s property cut. Handing it back, I ask him to hold on to it for now.
“Did you all vote without me asking?” I try to sound shocked, but it comes out more like a snarky laugh. The room rings out with the word AYE, and I chuckle while giving everyone a thank-you nod.
“We have our first official old lady in the club,” Pres grins, “make sure you all keep her safe. You’ll have to put up with the spooky shit and don’t make her feel uncomfortable because of it.
If I hear one word in the negative about her or toward her, you can meet the acid bath, and before you’re fucking dead. ”
“Pres, what are we going to do with the $5 million that Georgie gave us? You said something about demolishing the warehouse, but I’ve been looking at the blueprints for the clubhouse and we could easily make suites instead of bedrooms. It would be a hell of a clubhouse if we did that,” Demon states as he leans forward while giving Pres a solid look.
“Draw the plans, let me see and we’ll bring them back to church. The money has gained a lot of interest, and we can still use it for creating new businesses. But since we offed some of the trash brothers, there are not so many of us. It means we need to stay fit and always ready,”
Pres leans back and looks around at us. “How about adding a gym, with a sauna and shit? We could also add a swimming pool. We can make sure we stay fit. Even Scalpel can monitor our fitness. You know, Brewer, you could do to get rid of that pregnant look you have going on...”
“Fuck off, Pres. I have a fucking six-pack under here,” Brewer laughs, knowing Pres was keeping the meeting light.
Cap speaks next. “We have to get ourselves ready for moving on ZeBach. Time is running out. He’ll know that his men have lost Cilla and are dead by now. That may have them making a move earlier than stated.”
The door flies open, and Cilla rushes inside. I jump to my feet, but she heads directly for Tracker, who stands while looking concerned back at Cilla.
“Tonight, they are coming tonight. We’ve run out of time...”
“What?” Cap snarls, then holds his hands up in surrender when he realizes he’s done it to Cilla and Tracker has turned his head slowly to give him a look none of us want to get. “Sorry, Cilla, I wasn’t snapping at you. I’m shocked is all.”
“I was eating a cinnamon roll when Tank appeared, and he was angry, frustrated, and doing his best to get his words out as fast as he could. He, along with Bono and Pyro has been watching ZeBach. It seems something has sparked a panic in ZeBach’s ranks, so he’s ordered the attack tonight.
Will we be ready?” Cilla says all this so fast that we are leaning towards her so we don’t miss a word.
“We’ll be ready. Thank you Cilla. Anything else, you let me know,” Tracker wraps his arms around her and I’m ready to launch myself at him, but I hold back because it’s Pres and he’d have my guts out before I could stop him.
Cilla giggles and wraps her arms around him, but she’s looking at me with a twinkle in her eye. Yeah, she’ll pay for this later!