CHAPTER 11
Crack
We have to get this issue with Outlaw done, he’s not going to be breathing much longer. Any brother that threatens the President of any MC places a target on himself. We all know that it’s a death sentence.
Walking into the basement where Outlaw is being held, I give him a disgusted look. Tin, Glue, and Runner are standing to one side, scowling at Outlaw but not speaking to him. Outlaw knows this is the end of the line for him, but he looks like he doesn’t give a fuck either.
“Why didn’t you just leave? Join a one-percenter club and save your life?” I ask.
“Why should any of us leave what is our home, because one man decides to redirect everything we do?”
Outlaw snarls, and I must look astonished because the issue of taking the club down the legitimate route was put to a vote, and every brother of the club was at that meeting.
“You were at the meeting, you saw how the vote went. Only three of you voted against it. It’s called democracy, the largest vote is the way we go. That’s why Pres made sure every brother was at that meeting. You are an idiot for remaining here and to even consider killing Sharp. You signed your death sentence.”
The door opens and Trip, along with Brawl, walks inside, giving me a nod. I know that Sharp was putting Outlaw’s death to a vote of the officers. I’d already given him my vote, and I know Zip and Shrapnel had as well.
“Pres will be here in a moment,”
Trip states, and stands with his arms folded across his chest.
“Just get on with it. We all know I’m not making it out of here,”
Outlaw snaps.
Trip smirks as he replies, “Oh, you’ll not be getting out of here. You are an idiot. You could have worked at the garage, earning a decent living. Maybe getting yourself a decent woman and having kids. But here you are with nothing to show for your miserable life. Beer, women and getting high. Yeah, we know you started using and dealing and that alone was going to get your ass kicked out of the club. You were on a slope to the bottom, so as I see it, we are saving you a humiliating ending.”
Sharp walks into the room, looks at each of us before turning to Outlaw, who is sitting calmly on the chair he’s tied to. But the pulse in his neck tells the story that he’s not really ready to leave this world.
“You have been convicted by your own admission of conspiring against the President of the Club. Namely me.”
Sharp gives the cold smirk that we all know means he is about to do something nasty. “We have held a vote as to allowing you to leave or your demise. Your demise won. You acted with treasonous intentions toward the club, and for that, you will take your last breath.”
Surprising all of us, Sharp takes out his weapon, shoots Outlaw once between the eyes, and one directly to the heart. Turning, Sharp looks at every one of us in the eye before stating, “Clean this mess up.”
Watching Sharp leave, I know, along with everyone else, that he’s going to hate himself for a few weeks because of this. But, we will all be saying the same thing, which is, when anyone threatens a brother’s life, we have to take it seriously and move on it fast. It’s not something we can allow to fester.
“We’ll take out the trash, Crack,”
Runner states as he turns to Tin, who gives him a nod.
“Thanks, brothers,”
I state as I walk out and head to the bar where I need a whisky to wash this out of my mouth.
Sitting at the bar sipping my whisky, I look around at the few brothers that are here at the moment after pulling a night shift at the strip club, I feel the solemn aura in the room. None of us like to see a brother die, but to have to kill one leaves a foul taste in your mouth.
Hearing a screech from the kitchen, I rush through the door and stand shocked seeing Lira covered in cake batter. Ben, the prospect is on the floor with bags of groceries scattered around him, and Josie and Lizzie standing over him with smirks on their faces.
“What the everlovin’ fuck is going on in here?” I snarl.
Ben jumps to his feet, rubbing his knee, then his elbow, before pointing at the two club women. “These two were badmouthing Lira. But I couldn’t get through the door fast enough to stop them from throwing a bowl of cake batter over her. These two are rancid bitches, and Lira has done nothing to earn their non-stop nastiness.”
Now, I’m a bit shocked because I’ve never heard Ben say so much. In fact, I didn’t know he knew that many words! Turning, I look at Lira. “Go clean up, Lira. I’ll deal with this.”
“Thanks, Crack.”
I watch as Lira quietly walks out of the kitchen and to the small room attached, which we gave her to use if she ever needed to stay over at the clubhouse. Once she has closed the door I turn and look at Ben. “Are you okay?”
Ben gives me a nod as he picks up the bags of groceries he had obviously been carrying inside. “I’ll get the rest of the bags and help Lira put this away.”
I can see and feel that Ben is angry. I can also understand, and turning to the smirking bitches, I step up, grab each firmly by the arm and drag them out of the kitchen and directly to Sharp's office.
Dragging them into the office, Sharp looks up from behind his desk and Trip, who had been looking out of the window, turns and frowns at the sight of the two I’m dragging. I push them none too gently I admit, into seats in front of Sharps desk.
“These two have been messing with Lira in the kitchen. Ben is more than pissed about what’s just gone down. I walked in and Ben was on his fucking knees with groceries all around him. He’d fallen trying to get into the kitchen fast enough to help Lira, because these two bitches were badmouthing her, then had the audacity to tip a bowl of cake batter on her.”
Now, by the time I’ve finished my rant I’m puffing for breath, and Sharp is glaring at the two of them. Trip, who is a little more hair triggered, is ready to kill them both, and it’s more than obvious with the look he’s giving them.
Sharp slowly stands, hands flat on his desk, as he glares at each of them. “I told you all to leave Lira alone. She’s doing one fuck of a good job in the kitchen. She’s the best cook we’ve ever had and you are not running her off. If I have one more incident, complaint or anything else about either of you two then you can pack your gear and get the fuck out. I’m done with all this drama. You either do as you are here to do, keep your fucking mouths shut, unless the brothers want them, or get gone. Those are your only options from this point on.”
Sharp retakes his seat, Trip gives a grunt of satisfaction, and I watch the pair of bitches crying, which is fairly ugly crying, I have to say. “Oh,”
Sharp continues, “you are both on bathroom cleaning duty, and no sex for a month. Now get out of my office.”
They both jump out of their seats and run out of the door, which has both myself and Trip chuckling, because it’s not a pretty sight to see. They have stripper heels on and a lack of clothing. I shake my head, wondering why a brother even wants to go there with either of them.
“Call Psycho and Porky, Crack. See if you can persuade them to come back. We have places they can work, make a decent life for themselves. Oh, there was a message on the club phone for you to contact someone at a gas station. He has news for you, or something!”
Sharp turns to the paperwork on his desk, showing me this meeting is over.
I walk back to my room and take a seat in the easy chair by the window. Settling back with my eyes closed for a few moments before taking out my phone, I make the call to the gas station manager. I have watched out for anything suspicious after the incident both myself and Shar found ourselves involved with.
I make the call, and it’s picked up after six rings. “Hi, it’s Crack. What do you have for me, Stan?”
The manager, Stan, takes a breath, which is clear to hear on my side of the conversation. “Hang on, Crack, let me close the office door.”
I hear him slam the door closed, before shuffling back to, I presume, his desk. “Okay, I have seen nothing suspicious since we spoke about that incident. It had to have been a one-off thing with some assholes trying to get involved in shit. I have heard the pair of them were taken care of, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I have added two CCTV cameras to the front of the station and two more inside. Nothing has been seen as off in any way. But, that woman you saved came in the other day, and I was talking pleasantly with her. She informed me that her friend’s sister had not been abducted at all, she’d staged it so she could fuck off with a man she’d just met.”
“Who the fuck does that?”
I ask, shocked because come on, that’s a shit of a thing to fake.
“Well, her friend’s sister does,”
Stan chuckles before continuing to speak. “I’ll keep monitoring, Crack, but I honestly don’t think we have a trafficking issue.”
“Okay, thanks Stan. It’s good to know and let’s hope it was just some crazy bitch and a couple of men that were assholes.”
Cutting the call, I look out of the window and wonder what sort of a woman would do that, when trafficking is real, and there are women out there being taken from the street against their will, and sadly are never seen again.
I need to follow Sharp’s orders now and speak to Psycho and Porky. They have helmet speakers so it doesn’t matter if they are on the road. I’m hoping they’ll come back as they are great brothers. I don’t know where they were heading, or how long they were going to be on the road, so I decide to send a voice message first.
Crack, “Can you guys talk?”
Psycho, “Give us a minute to find a stop area.”
Waiting for them to call me, I rest my head back on the seat and close my eyes. It’s been one fuck of a day and it’s not half the day gone yet.
A few minutes later my phone rings, and I quickly pick up the call. “Yeah, can you talk now?”
Psycho responds, “Yeah, we are both here. What’s goin’ on?”
“We had to eliminate Outlaw this morning. An assassination attempt was made and you know the law when it comes to threatening to kill the President of the Club. I know you wanted away for good, but Sharp wants you both home, to settle in with us, be the brothers you both are meant to be. We have businesses opening and things are looking good. Oh, he made you nomads, too. He said he’s not letting you leave the brotherhood, but you can have time to get your heads right.”
I chuckle as I hear Porky cursing in the background. Psycho obviously has the call on speaker.
“I never liked Outlaw and I wish we hung around long enough to see his fucking end,”
Porky states, then continues. “We may come back if the incentive is right, but right now we are having this road trip. We are good with nomad status for now.”
“Shar is looking at Main Street, checking out the businesses to see if there is anything we can introduce for the club and the town’s benefit. Zara is going to train as a hair stylist and there is a salon in town that is an idea, but as yet, Shar hasn’t given us anything else to look at. We have the garage thanks to her, and the brothers are starting work on getting that operational.”
“That’s good, Crack, but still nothing that will pull us back at this point. Keep us informed if a business opportunity arises, and if we like it, we’ll head back to speak with Sharp. In the meantime, we are continuing our road trip,”
Psycho says, and fuck me, cuts the damn call. Well, I suppose that’s his way of saying we’ve talked about it enough. Now, I’ll inform Pres before I head out to the strip club and see if Shar has the cleaning issue under control.
Two hours later, I’m standing inside the strip club watching a new pole being fitted. The guys are doing a great job of not messing up the ceiling or the flooring. Shar walks over to me and leans her shoulder against my arm as she sighs. Looking down at her, I raise a questioning eyebrow.
“I’m about ready to get rid of one of the dancers. Fantasia is driving me crazy. She has a complaint about every fricking thing.”
I kiss the top of Shar’s head as I wrap an arm around her shoulders. “We’ll deal with it. What do you want to do?”
“Let’s speak to her together, so she knows it’s serious. Then if she keeps it up, I’ll get rid of her.”
“Okay, that’s fine by me. The pole isn’t taking long to get fixed up. Do you think the women are going to be good with it?”
I ask, because honestly, it can’t be easy climbing up and down that thing.
“I have a pole dance woman coming to teach them. If they don’t make the grade, that’s okay, as long as the customers still come to watch their strip routines.”
Shar is all business, and I hope she stays, but I have to agree with Sharp, she has a restless feel about her.
Stepping through to the changing rooms behind Shar, I’m surprised to see how clean they look. There are no clothes thrown around, the mirrors don’t have any G-strings hanging from them either. Yeah, Shar has already made a difference, and a good difference at that.
“Fantasia, a word,”
I state firmly.
“Hi, Crack, how are you?”
“Don’t start that shit,”
Shar snaps, and I give her a look that shows how amused I am.
“Okay, let’s get down to business. You are moaning and causing drama at all ends, so you have two choices. You either get with the program, which is the changes being made, or you get the fuck gone. It’s that simple.”
I lift an eyebrow at Fantasia and wait, but knowing full well she’ll not leave.
Shar is tapping her foot, arms folded, and frowning. Waiting not so patiently for Fantasia’s reply. I’m not surprised when she taps Fantasia on the chest while asking, “Well, it’s decision time. So, what’s it to be?”
“I’ll stay and get with the program.”
“Thought so. Now, get to whatever you should be doing before I make the decision you don’t want me to make.”
I watch as she turns and scurries to her locker and starts rooting around.
Following Shar out of the dressing room and to the bar, I take a seat on a bar stool and look around. The place is looking much cleaner, and it nearly answers the question I’m going to ask. “How are you getting along with the cleaning crew?”
Shar holds her hand out and gets Chuck's attention. “Can we have two coffees, please?”
“Of course,”
Chuck replies as he walks away from the bar area, and I notice not a word of complaint. He could say he is a bartender, not a coffee maker.
“Well, the cleaners are doing a good job now. Threatening that they’ll lose their job had a huge impact. The place is much cleaner, and they are more efficient. I am watching them and I gave Mr. Pembleton a warning that one more complaint, and I’d replace his company with another that would do the job right. Oh, I also got a discount from him for the trouble that’s been caused, and the lack of income the club made because it was so dirty.”
Shar is giggling at the last, and I’m shocked she got money out of that bastard.
“Fucking hell, Shar, you’re a miracle worker,”
I chuckle because honestly, she really is. She has made a tremendous difference as she has not been around the club very long. I think Sharp is right. If we can keep her with us, then we can only benefit from that.