Chapter 15 Chaos
“This is the first church that’s been held since our brother, Chaos, has returned. So, we had a party, which was our unofficial welcome home, but this is our official welcome home to Chaos. Nigga, get up here,” Priest calls out as he claps his hands together.
Everyone claps and cheers me as I make my way to the front of the room. Priest daps me up and hugs me.
“You got something you wanna say to the brothers?”
“I missed y’all ugly asses. Don’t know why, but I did.”
Everyone laughs and teases me.
“It’s good to have you home again, bro. Crazy ass nigga,” Sunny states, standing on the other side of me.
I dap him up and pull him close as we give each other a one-armed, side arm hug. “Sorry ’bout that the other day, nigga.”
“I know you are. Next time ya punk ass throw a boot at me, I’m putting a bullet in you.”
I pull back and mug him. “Try me, nigga.”
“Yep! He’s back!” I hear someone in the crowd shout, causing everyone to laugh and Sunny and Priest to shake their heads.
“All right, brothers. The reason I called church today is because we’ve got some shit going on that impacts us directly and indirectly. Some of you have met Chaos’s li’l jit and his girl.”
I glare at Priest because I never gave her that title. He smirks and keeps talking.
“What you may not know is that someone is after them, specifically . . . his girl. There have been some inquiries into her whereabouts around the car washes and motorcycle dealerships so far. I don’t know if they’ll be rolling up on the restaurants and other businesses or not, but keep your noses clean and your eyes open.
Keep your ears to the ground for anything we might find useful in cracking this bitch open and hanging the niggas out to dry who are after her. Report any and everything back to us.”
“We can’t afford for our businesses to be shut down!” Blue shouts from the crowd.
“Nigga, nobody said anything about shutting businesses down,” Ox hollers back.
“How we supposed to operate business as usual if we gotta keep our noses clean?” Blue asks.
“You shouldn’t be doing shit at the restaurant but serving food, my nigga,” Priest states and frowns.
Blue used to have a habit back in the days, one that I thought he kicked long before I left.
Maybe he hasn’t. I’m not up to speed on what’s been going on in most of their lives in my absence, but I’ll find out everything I need to know in time.
For now, I’m only concerned about two people: Charisma and CJ.
“I’m serving up food, Priest,” Blue responds.
“A’ight, let’s keep it that way.”
“What the fuck does her whereabouts have to do with the MC though?” Blue asks.
“We’ve been having too many eyes on the dealership lately.
That shit didn’t end with me telling the cops to fuck off and acting like I didn’t know who they were talking about.
We’ve had some cars rolling by and some parked on the opposite side of the street.
In other words, we’ve got eyes on us,” Chainz shares.
“We’ll put eyes back on their asses. All I know is that I’ve been through their records. They ain’t got shit to pull a warrant, so for now, it’s all talk and intimidation tactics,” Geek states.
“That shit’s easy for you to say. You ain’t out there dealing with it. Hiding ya bitch ass behind the computer, you can always ignore the real heat,” Charmz, an older member who works at the dealership, states.
“Fuck you!” Geek states.
“Bend ya li’l prissy ass over and you might get some takers. Sho’ is hell won’t be me,” Charmz replies, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.
Geek, who was always picked on when I was here before, flies out of his chair and jumps over a row of chairs to land his fist into Charmz’s mouth.
It surprises the hell out of me, but I guess he’s tired of that shit.
The two men turn their all-out argument into a brawl.
With a blink, Blue has jumped in on Charmz’s side, and Digger, Geek’s brother, jumps in on his side.
Priest whistles, and just like that, the fight is over.
“Feel how the fuck you wanna feel. If this shit shakes out to be something bigger than what we expect, be prepared to go wherever this road leads us, straight pipes rattling, guns blazing, and kicking in doors. We ain’t making no apologies for shit.
We have to take care of family, and we must be mindful that this is somehow connected to one of our own.
I don’t know if this shit is about Chaos or not, but until we figure it out, we close ranks, and we keep our ears to the ground.
We’re brothers, and we’ve got our brother’s back.
The rest of that shit stays right here in church. Got it?”
“Got it!”
Road Rage, our treasurer, comes up and talks business and gives a financial report on all the businesses so far as well as those in the works.
Knuckles, our road captain, talks about a trip we have planned for late summer and gives the details about the route we’re taking and what we need to watch out for.
I look forward to the trip because it’s been so long since I’ve been on one with my brothers.
Jagged, our enforcer, and Lyon, our sergeant at arms, discuss disciplinary procedures, security, and club rules, and Jagged reiterates the bylaws for the benefit of a few new members who have recently been patched.
“You got all that shit, Moon?” Sunny asks our secretary when Jagged and Lyon are finished talking.
Moon gives the thumbs up, and Sunny asks, “Motion to close church?”
“Second it,” Rage states.
Everyone votes on it, and then Priest announces, “Break bread, niggas,” which is how he traditionally ends church.
As everyone gets up to leave, he calls for Geek, Digger, and me to remain.
“Chaos, what’s the status of ya girl’s relationship with that nigga Starling?” Priest asks.
“Ain’t no fucking relationship no mo’. I’m sure his bitch ass is looking for her though.”
“He is,” Digger states.
“It wasn’t easy to find any reference for the two of them in the media.
It seems that if anyone knows about them, it’s gotta be held close to the chest, because I didn’t find anything,” Geek explains.
His left eye is beginning to swell from the fight, but I know that it’s nowhere near as bad as Charmz must look right now.
Everyone always underestimates Geek because he’s thin, tall, nerdy, and goofy, but he’s a cool kid. He is the exact opposite of Digger physically, but they’re both smart as hell.
“Apparently, he’s convinced her that they should keep their relationship a secret.”
“How did he get her to agree to that?” Geek asks.
“For protection of our kid. Not wanting CJ in the spotlight, especially at election time,” I explain.
“You know that’s bullshit, doncha?” Digger asks.
“Hell yeah. He’s doing it because she doesn’t fit his image, and when something happens to me, he doesn’t want anyone connecting the dots.”
“Do you really think the two might be related though?” Geek asks.
“It’s gotta be. It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Priest answers. “How long has she been dating him?” he asks, turning to me.
“A little over eleven months.”
“You think she told him who her baby daddy was?” Geek asked.
“She says that she told him CJ was named after his father,” I answer.
“In other words, he knows your government name,” Digger states.
“A few well-placed questions with the right connections and he can figure out exactly who you are,” Priest mutters.
“Exactly, but what would this have to do with me? Why would he set her up this way? Why would he even go after her and make her his woman? He wouldn’t have known that beforehand.” I shake my head because it’s not making sense to me.
“You never know. There’s something that we’re missing here, and we’ll get to the bottom of it.
You need to find out everything that you can so that we can close the loop.
If he did know beforehand that she was your woman and that was your kid, I can see him targeting her to find out where you are.
The more information he can get on you, then he can narrow down your location and have you killed. ”
“I still want to know who told him that night that I was the one. The only thing that he was supposed to know is that it was the MC. How did he specifically finger me?” I ask.
“That’s where we go back to the campaign manager. He was the one who met with Sunny and inquired into the job. I met with him later, but we gave no details about who would perform the job. I simply asked him the date, time, and location,” Priest explains.
“Problem is, how did he know that it was Chaos though?” Geek wonders.
“I’ll dig around and see what I can find out,” Digger volunteers.
“In the meantime, Chaos, get back home and find out everything that you can about their relationship, connection, how they met, anything that will help us get to the bottom of it,” Priest instructs.
I nod and head toward the door, but he calls me back.
“Have you been by there to check on the finishing touches?”
“Yeah. I went by there yesterday.”
“What you think?”
“It’s all good. I signed off on a few changes that I requested them to make, but it’s looking good. I’m feeling good about it.”
“That’s wassup. It’s a good look for you, Chaos.”
“Thanks, Priest.”
I head out and hop on my bike. The only thing that I want right now is to set eyes on Charisma.
Although it’s not something that I’m ready to admit, she’s my peace.
Being in her presence brings me the same calm that it used to back in the days, and though I may be giving her hell, she’s worth everything that I’ve gone through these last five years.
I lean forward on my bike, Confusion, and become one with it, the road, and the wind.
There’s nothing like riding alone with no expectations.
It’s the most freeing feeling in the world, as though I’m flying.
Cars, trucks, houses, and commercial businesses all become a blur until I’m winding my way through empty stretches of road to get home, to get to Charisma.