CHAPTER TWELVE
-:- RUGER -:-
Sunday morning and I had organized Penny and Punkin enough that we arrived at the clubhouse in time for a hearty breakfast. Punkin has an apple custard, well that’s what Meat called it.
It looks like slop to me, the same as all the other mushy stuff she eats.
It just changes color with whatever she’s eating.
“You want anything else, Babe?” I ask as Penny finishes the toast and banana she has on her plate.
“No. I’m fine, thank you. I wasn’t very hungry this morning.” Penny wipes Punkin’s face and hands before looking up when Joan asks if she can take Arabella out in her stroller.
“Where are you going with her?” Penny asks as she takes Arabella out of the highchair. Removing the bib and laying it on the highchair Penny kisses Arabella before placing her in the stroller.
“Just around the compound. We’ll not go out of the gate.
We all thought it would be nice to have a stroll around, maybe watch you all train for a while, too.
But basically, it’s a good stretch of our legs in a safe area.
” Joan stands waiting for Penny’s response, and I stop the grin forming as I see Joan’s foot starting to tap with impatience.
“Okay. I’m going to be training this morning, apparently. But don’t leave the compound, please.” Penny watches as Joan smiles broadly and takes the stroller.
“We’ll be good with her. She will be fine.” Joan quickly pushes the stroller, and her sidekicks join her, smiling and talking as they leave the kitchen.
“Punkin will be fine. She’s with them all week, so it’s not like they are strangers,” I try to reassure Penny.
Penny, however, gives me a look which asks me, am I stupid? “Yeah, but they have Nyx with them all week too.”
I lead Penny outside and kiss her forehead before she heads to the women who are warming up already. Chaos, Wings and Target are standing in front of them all, looking like drill sergeants if I’m being truthful with you. But the women do as they are asked, so it’s not an issue.
I walk over to Lincoln, Arrow, and Garth, who are watching our applicants for the security positions warming up. “Where’s Colton?” I ask as I reach them.
“He’ll be along in a few minutes. Knuckles may arrive too if he’s not too busy with Jo that is.” We all groan when Arrow says this because we all know what busy is when speaking about them two.
Watching the warmups, then the compound run finish is showing me that Pryce is far fitter than I imagined. He’s sweating as much as the others, but he is not finished, not by a long way.
Arrow steps forward. “Pryce, you team up with Dallas. Noah, stay with Declan. Holt, you are with Garth.”
The three teams stand together, and Arrow starts them on basic hand-to-hand, which is easy for them all except Pryce, but he’s blocking Dallas’s attempts well.
Lincoln steps in and covers basics with Pryce, while Dallas helps in any way she can, showing she’s a team player and will be good for the business.
They’ve covered eye gouges, elbow strikes, knee usage, throat punches, chokes, take downs, and lastly I’m watching disarming. This is causing Pryce the most trouble, which I’m surprised at.
“Why are you so bothered about the gun?” Lincoln asks.
Pryce shrugs a little but replies. “I’ve had nothing to do with weapons. My friend died when he was six while playing with a weapon his father had left on the kitchen table. He shot and killed himself, thinking he was just playing a silly game.”
“Okay, I want you to report to Target or Chaos at the Range three times a week. It’ll be evenings I realize, but you will learn everything needed about handling and using a weapon.” Lincoln gives Pryce a meaningful look, and Pryce nods that he will.
Chaos appears from nowhere. “What do you want me to do?” Lincoln explains the situation, and Chaos nods at Pryce. “Yeah, I’ll teach you everything, and maybe more.” Now, the fucker is smirking at Pryce, and I can see that has Pryce's nerves on edge.
Slapping Pryce on the shoulder blade, I smirk, “It’ll be okay, Pryce. He’s an excellent teacher actually, and you’ll know all the shit you need when you’re done.”
“I’ll come with you, Pryce. If we are going to be team members, then I’ll stand with you and go through the training, too,” Dallas states as she gives Pryce a wide smile.
“That’s great, thanks, Dallas. But you don’t need to. I’ll push through.” Pryce swallows hard, and that has Dallas laughing right before she tucks her arm in his and tells him straight. “Nope, we’re a team, and it’s good to work together. So, let’s do this together.”
I look at Chaos and then Lincoln, and see the respect they have for Dallas who has stepped up with no form of coercion.
She’s a keeper I’m sure. When Lincoln tells them they are both to form a team, and they start work on Monday I nod in agreement.
They are going to be an awesome team once they are fully trained together.
“The room, which was a conference room on the ground floor we are turning into a gym. It’ll help everyone keep fit, and work together as and when needed.
We all need a partner at some stage, and this will be a great team-building place.
We’ll have a smaller conference room further into the building,” Arrow steps forward to say, and we all nod that it’s a damn good idea.
With the cafeteria area, locker room with showers, bunk room, and gym it’s a home from home near enough. It will provide all we need to have the security business running smoothly, and it shows any staff how serious we are about the place being high class.
I was thinking of going back to construction once I had Penny locked down, but now I’m not so sure. I like what I’m seeing being built with the security company, and I’m invested in it at this point. I’ll have to contemplate what I want for the future, as I now have Penny and Punkin to consider.
After we have finished our training, and I have watched Holt, Noah, and Declan finish their training. I then quickly head over to watch Penny finish knife throwing, and funnily enough, signing up for archery lessons with Winter.
Chaos and Wings burst into hand-to-hand, and I mean it looks for real. They are hitting hard, and the grunts they are making tell everyone they are not holding back.
Meat, Target, BS and Stitch form a line to watch. But I can see the tension in their body language. Something must have caused them to fight like this, but I’ve not seen anything odd between them this morning.
BS jumps into the fray, and it goes from hand-to-hand to all-out freestyle.
It’s more like MMA at this point. Fuck, Stitch has joined in now, so four of them are at it, and they are not caring who they are fighting either.
I didn’t realize Stitch was so good at jujitsu!
Damn, Target and Meat jump into it against each other, and fuck me, they can both move fast. Anyone would think they are related to Bruce Lee!
“What the heck is going on?” I turn when I hear that and see Buzz standing next to me. “I’ve no idea, but they are about to kill each other.”
“Nah, they are just letting off steam. They’ve done it before. They’ll live. They’ll just have some cuts and bruises when they’ve finished,” Drag adds as he stands on the opposite side of me.
“Do you mean like play fighting?” I ask stupidly.
Drag snorts. “Well, if that is what you want to call it. I’m just pleased I don’t piss them off. What about you, Buzz?”
“They can try taking me down. I’m as good as they are any day. I just don’t brag about it,” Buzz grunts.
Now, I know how hard Buzz can fight. He’s not someone you would want to mess with. He has many fighting skills, and he keeps them honed, too. I’ve seen him take down Tank and Richie, and they are tough fuckers. It’s why he is our first enforcer after all.
“Come on, we’ve got to get ready for church.
” Drag states, and I follow him back into the clubhouse.
Looking back, I see the fighting seems to break up and they are pounding each other on the back while laughing.
Shaking my head because they are all crazy fuckers and I’m not sure I’ll ever understand them.
In the kitchen, I kiss Penny on the top of her head and check Punkin who is fast asleep in the stroller. “You okay? I’m going to shower, and then it’s church. It shouldn’t take too long today.”
“No problem, Ruger.”
Now before Penny can say anything else Amelia bangs her cane on the floor hard.
Getting everyone’s attention is her priority, and she doesn’t stop with the cane until everyone is looking at her.
“Now, let me make an announcement.” Amelia looks at everyone before continuing as she’s making doubly sure she has our attention.
“It has been decided that now we have an elder generation at the clubhouse we are going to form our own girl gang. The oldies gang is formed, and myself, Bitty and Sybil welcome Joan, Carol, Sandy and Tina to our gang.”
“Did she mean the older generation?” Dep asks Forest.
Quick as a flash, Amelia is responding, “No, I meant elder, as in you know Elders, as in, your betters. Like in the books Jo writes, where people change into animals. Elders, better thans, people with credibility.”
“I didn’t know Jo wrote shifter stories,” Penny looks at me for clarification, but I shrug because I’ve not read any of that. I just read the sex stuff.
Axel who isn’t surprised at all by Amelia’s declaration has obviously been kept in the loop, and as he’s not worried about it, we all settle back. That is okay. If he’s not worried neither are we. They have an elderly lady group, nothing to worry about!
In church, I’m sitting back in my seat, waiting for the meeting to start. Everyone seems to talk about Amelia’s declaration, but I’m not going to be concerned about it. Let them get on with what they need to do, just as we do.
Axel arrives, takes his seat quickly, and bangs the gavel down, gaining everyone’s attention and bringing the meeting to order.
“I know many of you are wondering why Amelia has organized this elderly lady group, gang or whatever you want to call it. She spoke to me at length about how the older generation gets forgotten in the aspect of adventures, fun, and are pushed to be unpaid babysitters and the like. Now, I’ve never seen them like that, and I know none of you have, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t felt it sometimes. ”
We grunt, nod our heads and think of the day we’ll all be old fuckers and become overlooked. We are lucky that we don’t have older generations in the club, but it doesn’t mean we discard them from our thoughts. Axel's comment is going in a direction I support.
Axel continues. “Amelia wants the crew, as I think of them to have days out together, go places, see things, just do something other than help cook, clean, and babysit. I’m happy to support them with this, but we may have to consider having prospects once more because let’s be honest although we support it do we really want to walk around with a group of old ladies? ”
“Hey, what if we find that Jack and have him do it? He doesn’t have to be a prospect, but he has no-one and nothing, so he may go for it if we give him food, bed and an allowance?” Grease adds to the conversation, and he looks like he thinks this could work.
We mostly nod at that comment, and I can see Axel doesn’t mind it either. When he nods and speaks again, we all smile. “Well, okay, we’ll find the little fucker and he can be your responsibility, Grease, you know, since it was your idea.”
“Oh, man, Raven’s gonna kill me.” Now, we all laugh at his response, because we know Raven is a firecracker, but she also has a heart of gold and will help this Jack the best she can.
“Speaking of Amelia, she wants to stop helping with the merchandise business. It’s gotten too big and takes too much time.
I’ve had Drag and Buzz look at a small shop on Main Street that’s been standing empty for a while.
If we take that we can make it into a printing shop.
Drew works at Tilly’s place, and she’s not going to want to move, but if we find staff to run the place maybe Destiny would be okay with managing it? ” Axel looks at Rock.
“She is doing most of it now, and if you gave her a part ownership, I’m sure she’d be buzzing.
She loves doing it as it melds with her other work well.
But with actual staff, I’m sure she’d have it running well in no time.
” Rock sits forward and looks around the room.
We are all nodding as we agree Red, as he calls her would do a great job of being the manager.
“Okay, Rock, speak to Destiny and get back to me. Moving on, Rolling Thunder needs a receptionist. The place has been buzzing, and with Buzz stepping away ReUse needs a replacement for the front. Are you all up for that? It won’t cost much to hire a person for that, so it won’t cut into the profits much.
” Axel looks around, and we again give nods that we are fine with it.
“I want to put Penny forward for being my Ol’ Lady. I’ve already ordered her property patch, and PT has it delivered and ready.” I jump in fast before the conversation diverts to something else.
BS surprisingly shouts out, “I’ll second that!”
Axel chuckles. “Okay, brothers, let me see a show of hands for Ruger and Penny. Gotta be unanimous.”
I watch as every hand lifts except for Wings who is sitting two seats away from me. I frown, and he lifts an eyebrow, mocking me. But fuck him, I launch myself out of my seat and I’m on him in two seconds. I know I’ve taken everyone by surprise as I’m not one for causing any drama, but fuck Wings.
When I hear Wings laughing on his back with a bloody nose, holding his hand in the air I know he was taking the piss. “Fucker…” I mumble and hold my hand out to pull him up. Everyone is laughing and slapping my back while giving me congratulatory comments.
“Okay, sit the fuck down. We have a unanimous, Penny is now Ruger’s Ol Lady.
Congratulations, brother.” Axel grins. “Last on the agenda for today is Fox needs to speak to Herb at the Wood Supply. We need them to be brothers. We’ve discussed this so many times.
Fox, you need to bring them to some of the family days, maybe Sunday training. Let’s get them involved.”
“I’ll get Carrie on the job. She’s far better at persuading than I am. We’ll do our best, Pres,” Fox mumbles, and I can see he doesn’t really want to be in this position.
“Anything else?” Axel asks, and when no one speaks out he slaps the gavel again. “Dismissed.”