Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Hannibal
I walk into the clubhouse, pissed-off that I need to be here instead of with Lola, but I know what’s expected of me.
After making sure she was fed and putting clean sheets on the bed, I reluctantly left her curled up with a book-sated smile.
Pushing through the back door, I’m hit with the loud chords of “Sweet Child of Mine.” The room is crowded, but people are subdued, and I can’t say I blame them.
A lot has happened in a short span of time, and a change in leadership is never easy.
Nods are offered, and coy smiles from the women as I walk past brothers and club girls.
I ignore them all, still pissed over the whole Lola thing, and head to what is now my office.
I shove the door open and look around.
The room is dark and uninviting, kind of like my personality.
It’s just an office at the end of the day.
I couldn’t give a fuck what it looks like.
There’s no window, but the spotlights are bright enough to make up for it.
I walk across the faded and worn black carpet to the large dark wood desk and sit in the chair that looks like it might be the most expensive thing in the room.
There’s a bar on the far wall teeming with various bottles of alcohol.
Beside it are six chairs stacked on top of each other, like someone cleaned up after an impromptu meeting.
There’s a TV on the wall above it, and on the wall to the left, there’s an abstract piece of art all done in grays and blacks that probably cost a few hundred dollars but could easily be recreated by an over-exuberant toddler.
The desk itself is the dominant furniture, and it’s littered with crap.
I’ll have to go through it at some point.
A knock at the door has me leaning back and kicking my feet up onto the desk.
“Yeah,” I call out. The door opens, revealing Byte, with Elmo and Ferris right behind him.
“Pres.” Byte inclines his head.
He has a laptop in his hand and a bag slung over his shoulder.
Elmo and Ferris grab three chairs between them and set them up on the other side of the desk.
I wait for them to sit before I start.
“I know this is gonna take some getting used to, not just for you guys, but for me too.”
“Honestly, Hannibal, with the shitshow Khan’s been running, I’m glad you’re here. Sure, there might be some who need more convincing, but they’ll come around, especially when they realize just how fucking dirty he was,” Elmo states.
I smirk. “Can’t usually say people are happy to see me.”
Ferris laughs.
“You’re a scary motherfucker, and everyone knows it. Figure that’s exactly what we need right now.”
“Time will tell. You guys want to fill me in on everything I might have missed? G has told me a bunch of shit, but I’ve been a little preoccupied getting shit together for the move here. Anyone tell you I have a kid?”
They all look shocked as shit.
I can’t help but laugh at their reactions.
“Never been a part of her life, other than financially. But her mom is dying, and she has nowhere else to go but foster care. I won’t lie, part of me thinks that might be a better option than me, but…” I let my voice drift off.
I still haven’t got my head around it myself.
“There are some great foster families out there, but for every good one, there are two bad ones. We might not look like it right now, but we’re a tight family. We’ll be exactly what your kid needs,” Ferris adds.
“See, I’d like to believe that. But then I see the way Lola's treated, and I can’t say I buy it.”
“Lola’s not a kid.” Byte points out.
“No, but she’s carrying one.”
None of them say anything to that.
“She’s my old lady. I won’t tolerate shit when it comes to her. I’m telling you three now so you know the score. But the rest, I’m going to give them enough rope to hang themselves.”
Byte sighs. “You can’t take on everyone that’s pissy with Lola.”
“Fucking watch me. I don’t know what everyone’s beef is with her.” I raise my hand when he's about to interrupt again. “You all treat Driller like shit for fucking his brother’s old lady?
”
They look uncomfortable but answer anyway.
“He’s a brother. Was a brother,” Ferris corrects himself.
“See, it’s that shitty mentality that’s fucked this club up the ass with no lube. If I walk out there now and backhand one of the girls across the face, you’re gonna let it slide because I’m a brother? Hell, I’m the president now. Let’s say I give them something more than a slap. You gonna stand by and let that happen because we share the same patch?”
I shake my head.
“I’m fucked-up in the worst ways, but even I know the difference between right and fucking wrong. No women, no children. That’s always been our motto. You’d think you’d remember that after all the shit that went down with Bear and Snake.”
“You’re right,” Elmo answers.
“You don’t need to tell me that.” I stand up and lean over the desk.
“What you all did to that girl was beyond fucked-up. What you let Driller do to her? How am I supposed to trust you all to have my back if you didn’t even have hers? Someone small and weaker, being victimized right in front of your eyes, and you all did nothing,” I snarl.
“We didn’t know. That’s the truth, even if it still makes us dickheads. Truth is, we did treat Lola differently from Driller. We placed all the blame on her, and she took it. Most people steered well clear. Nothing is valued more than loyalty in a club. Because none of us paid any attention to her, we didn’t notice what was going on until the end, and Gunther brought it to our attention.”
“I’m calling bullshit. You three might not have noticed, but someone did. When she came to the mother chapter to warn us that Driller and Khan were up to something, she was sporting a black eye, and that wasn’t the only bruise she had. No way was that his first time.”
Elmo looks me dead in the eye.
“I didn’t know Driller was beating her. I rarely saw her, and when she was around, I hardly acknowledged her presence.”
“Same.” Byte sighs reluctantly.
Ferris is quiet for a minute before answering.
“I didn’t see him hit her, but now I’m looking back over my memories and see plenty of fucking warning signs that I ignored because I was pissed about what went down.”
“Like what?”
“He was never faithful, for one. I know there are brothers that fuck around, but I never understood why Lola would go from the kind of relationship she had with Havoc, who worshipped her, to one with Driller. He treated her like dirt, and she turned a blind eye to it all. Or that’s what I thought. Now I’m wondering if she stayed because she was scared.” He rubs his hands over his face.
“She flinches,” Byte says quietly.
Like Ferris, he’s getting a clear picture of what’s happening, and judging by the look on his face, he does not like what he’s figuring out.
“I want to say it’s because she could feel the tension. Nobody wanted her here, and we made no bones about hiding our disdain. I assumed it made her nervous. But that wasn’t it, was it?”
I don’t answer.
I don’t need to. As the truth slowly sinks in, the looks of guilt that pass across each of their faces make me wonder if there's hope for them yet. Oh, I know there will be those who think she got what she deserved. I’m sure I’ll feel the same way when my hands are wrapped around their throats.
“How the fuck did we get it so wrong?” Elmo shakes his head.
“Driller and Khan controlled the narrative. You were pissed things went down the way they did with Havoc and needed someone to blame. Lola made a convenient villain.”
“And yet, as you pointed out, we didn’t throw shade at Driller. And arguably, what he did was worse. Havoc's his fucking brother, for Christ’s sake.”
“Like you said, some brothers cheat. You’re used to it. But cheating is not something old ladies do. We hold them to a much higher standard. And they know the consequences, if caught, can be dire.” I shrug. “Right or wrong, the club was built on the back of misogynists. Do you really think Khan would've turned a blind eye to Lola straying, breaking one of the few rules old ladies are expected to follow, if it were anyone else?”
Ferris snorts. “You think he favored her?”
“Seriously? No, I think he put it into motion. Trust me when I say Lola detests Khan.”
“So you’re saying Khan ordered Driller to take Lola as his old lady? But why?” Elmo questions.
“Because if the dislike was mutual, he could strike out and not have any shit fall back on him. Driller wanted Lola. That was easy to see. He watched her everywhere she went. It wouldn’t have been a hardship for him to finally get the girl he wants, especially if it sticks it to his brother.” Byte rubs a hand over his face.
“Why would Lola agree, though? I remember the way Driller watched her, too. It’s what made their ending up together seem somewhat believable. But looking back now, I don’t ever remember Lola watching Driller. She only had eyes for Havoc,” Ferris says, confused.
It’s Elmo who answers, his eyes on mine. “He gave her an ultimatum, didn’t he? Club girl or old lady. Her family disowned her. She had no job or friends outside of the club. If she left, she’d be homeless. He left her no choice.”
I walk to the bar and pour myself a shot of scotch and down it in one. “That’s my guess.”
Ferris jumps up and joins me at the bar. “Then they both stood by and watched us tear her down. Fuck, even the club girls shit on her. But Khan kept his mouth shut and said nothing.” Instead of pouring himself a shot, he snags the bottle and starts gulping it down.
I yank it off him and glare. “You won’t find remorse in the bottom of a bottle. If you want forgiveness, then talk to her.”
He sighs but takes his seat again. “Yes, Prez.”
“Look, there's a lot of shit swirling around this club and not enough time to deal with it all. First up, I want to know everything you have on Khan and Driller, so I’m not going into church blind tomorrow.”
And for the next hour, that’s what we do, the three of them bringing me up to speed with where they’re at.
“So. We have tentative links between Khan and a few of the girls, but nothing on Driller?”
“For someone who beat his old lady on the regular, he’s surprisingly clean. We found two offshore accounts in Khan’s name, but there's nothing for Driller. And trust me, I’ve looked. I even checked aliases and accounts open in names associated with him, like Lola and Havoc, but nothing. We found a few messages and an odd photo that shows Khan with two of the missing girls, but, again, nothing with the girls and Driller.” Byte fills me in, showing me a photo of Khan here at the clubhouse with two of the missing women in his area. All three of them are laughing.
“It shows they were here but not that he had anything to do with them being taken. According to the local PD, it was just circumstantial evidence.”
“Convictions have been handed out with less evidence,” I remind them. “What about the texts?”
“Again, basic shit. Inviting them to a party or hoping to see them at the next one. Shit like that.”
“Inviting them but without making it look like they were dating. Something like that would bump him up the suspect list.”
“Exactly.”
“So where was Driller when all this shit was going on?”
“Working on the Fargo deal. He spent a lot of time at the Death Serpents MC. He still has friends there now.”
“They’re allies, right?”
Elmo nods.
“But are they allies to the club, or to Driller?”
“They say they haven’t seen him, but I can’t exactly go search the place. My gut says they’d protect him over the club. He’s the one who brokered the deal with them. He’s the one with the ties. That is why Havoc went down for Driller in the first place. They’d only deal with him.”
I scrub my hand down my face. “Tell me about the Fargo deal. I need to know if the deal made will still stand without Driller and Khan in power. And, if not, how it will impact us.”
“Khan’s mother needed a kidney transplant, going back eight years or so now. She was one of the lucky ones. The local communities got together, and everyone got tested. They found a match, and the transplant was a success. The problem was, during the recovery period she lost her job and her insurance. And with already huge medical bills, the monthly bills for anti-rejection drugs, and a whole host of other shit she needed, it was too much. She couldn’t afford the meds and, as a result, stopped taking them.”
“Khan couldn’t pay for them?”
“Khan didn’t know. Mary was a proud woman, and that pride buried her alive.” Byte says.
Ferris takes over. “During this time, back before we cleaned up the club, we were running drugs. But when Death Serpents staked their claim on a piece of land one of them had inherited, it fucked with our ability to use the tunnel system for transporting shit. Death Serpents had gone legal not long after Mary’s transplant. They’d had their own issues, which included their sixteen-year-old princess running off with her far older boyfriend, never to be seen again. She was the reason they went legit. That, and there were a lot of cops around trying to find them, with zero success.
“When Khan switched from distributing street drugs to medical supplies sold at discounted prices, Death Serpents showed interest. But given what happened with the princess, they had trust issues with any man who wasn’t a patched brother. Driller had a tentative relationship with one of them before this, and so he seemed like the logical one to take on the role of liaison. And the rest, as they say, is history.”
I whistle as I take my seat once more. “I can see the idea behind the deal. I like it even, but we’d be idiots to think Driller’s absence won’t have an impact. I’ll arrange a meeting with the president on neutral territory and feel him out, but I think putting all our eggs in one basket is risky. We need other avenues to make money. Especially now. Khan fucked up the protection detail you ran for the locals.”
“Most, if not all of us, have jobs. We might not be rolling in it, but if the Fargo deal falls through, we’ll survive. We just won’t be rich,” Elmo tells me, making me relax.
“Good. It would be a hell of a thing to come on as your captain only to go down with the ship.”
Ferris grins. “We should throw a party. A welcome to the family shindig.”
“Not sure that’s gonna work for Lola.”
“It will give us a chance to put things right. We can’t fix anything if she stays away from us all.”
I rub my hand across my jaw in thought.
“Alright, set it up, and I’ll make sure she’s here.”