Chapter 22
-:- CHAOS -:-
Pres has called some of the brothers that were involved with the cleanup operation to church. It’s classed as a special meeting and not a usual church meeting.
Taking a seat in church, the tension is fairly even compared to many special meetings I’ve been involved with. Forest is sitting calmly with Aaron and Dep by his side. They are here with something to share regarding the FBI, I’m sure.
Axel walks in and takes his seat. I’m surprised Buzz isn’t in here, but he’s been watching the businesses along with BS while Wings has been on the cleanup mission.
“Let’s get down to it,” Axel says as he settles himself, “Forest, what is happening from your angle?”
Forest taps his knuckles on the table. “I, along with Aaron, have been in contact with our FBI friends. They have all the information we uncovered. They have also made sure the brothers involved, and the club will not be brought into any conversation or be under any suspicion. They have the list of names that were not eliminated, and they will follow through with arrests.”
Aaron takes up the conversation at that point, “My contact has information on two other senators that are under suspicion of being involved. He thinks they’re heavily involved, too.
They will probably bring more names forward.
This thing is far larger than we suspected, and it was ridiculous that Tizwald targeted Victoria as a technical fiddler.
I say fiddler because that’s what he wanted her for, fiddling the figures. ”
“Was this all about money laundering for the cartel and mafia?” Axel asks.
“At the moment, it appears there may be more to it, but we don’t know for sure, so I won’t make any guesses.
I’m more than happy to leave this can of worms with them.
We, as the Sheriff’s Department, are clear and the MC was never involved.
We can get on with our lives and forget this happened.
Apart from, of course, Bethy’s murder.” Forest leans back in his seat and looks at Axel.
“Any more questions on this?” Axel asks, and everyone looks around before shaking their heads with a nope nothing to add. “Okay, Colton, you had Sting and Drag with you. Did you get Philipson?”
Colton smirks. “Sure did, Pres…”
Axel holds his hand out to stop him saying more. “No, don’t say another word. What’s not said cannot be repeated.”
Wings sits forward in his seat. “We did Stockdale. Meaning Clay, Reuse and myself, of course.”
“Good, that is what I like to hear.” Axel leans forward now with a massive grin on his face.
“Nell has been in touch with me. She said to tell you she had a lot of fun. She was fed up with being at home, and the change of scenery did her good. They found Scarrow and Anderson, and according to her they screamed like babies who wanted their mammas.”
“Graham was well up for it. He was buzzing. He reminded me of Star when she’s having that excited thing she gets. The one where she can’t stand still and either laughs, sings or dances all over the damn clubhouse,” I add, and Wings nods in agreement.
“He’s a crazy fucker, but I like him. He’s like us in the way he’s got Tank and Ritchie’s backs. He’d never leave them behind and he’s well possessive with Nell, much to her irritation,” Clay laughs.
“We can call this done, I reckon.” Axel looks from one of us to another, and we all agree.
“Let’s keep our heads down and not draw any attention to ourselves.
We have Bethy’s funeral coming soon, and we want to turn out in full for that.
Victoria needs us to stand tall for her, and that’s what we’ll do. ”
We all discuss what’s happened and get it out of our system before we leave the room.
We all know it’s best to only discuss shit like this when we know we will not be overheard.
It’s best said so it’s not festering in the gut, too.
I don’t think any of us here have any issue with what we’ve done. Even Jack is sitting tall and calm.
Brothers are leaving the room as Axel calls me over to him.
“Chaos, you need to get back to work at the range. Jack is going to start working with you. Vicky doesn’t need him anymore, and she needs to get some form of normality going.
The funeral will be the thing she has to get past first, but I know you’ll get her through everything she’s going to be facing. ”
“No problem, Pres. I’ll get Jack started and I’ll get back to it. I need to speak with Specs and see how the adoption is coming along, too.”
“Chaos, if I were you I’d get married fast so that the adoption can be done for Victoria and Corey, too. It’ll go easier if she is your wife.” Axel stands while giving me a solid look. I give him a nod as I grin because Victoria doesn’t stand a fucking chance.
Walking into Specs' office I take a seat, and turning, Specs gives me his attention. “What is it you want?”
“Well, let’s see. First, has my adoption been completed yet?”
Specs turns to his desk and uses his keyboard while watching one of the monitors. Flicking into and out of folders before turning and pointing at the printer in the corner of the room. “There you go, official now. Corey Styles is your son, completed change of name too.”
“Awesome,” I state, walking over and taking the paperwork from the printer. “Second, we need to organize a wedding. For right after Bethy’s funeral. Just a few days and I’d like us to somehow include Bethy in that wedding.”
“That’s a tricky one but let me think on it. As for getting the wedding arranged, that is not a problem now Axel is ordained. He loves that shit too,” Specs laughs, and I have to admit our Pres loves to be in control, even at weddings.
“The appointment for the lawyer, can you get it for Victoria as soon as possible?”
Specs picks up his phone and makes a call, mutters to someone on the other end, then looks at me, “Can you do this afternoon at four?” When I nod that yeah we can, he speaks to whoever is on the phone.
“Yeah, that’s good.” Putting the phone down, Specs gives me a nod.
“All done. Appointment at four. It’s Callahan and Burkdales down on Main Street. You’ll be seeing Mr. Callahan.”
“Okay, thanks, Specs.”
I quickly make my way out of the clubhouse and back to the apartment. I’ll have to take Corey with us, unless I can leave him with Gemmy at the Sheriff’s office for a while?
Walking inside the apartment, I give Jack a slap on the back.
“You can get off now, Jack. You’ll be starting with me at the range so get your hog finished.
It needs to be reliable.” I hand Jack an envelope and slap his shoulder again.
When he tries to hand back the envelope which he opened, I shake my head.
“Nope, take it. You earned it keeping my woman safe.”
“I did it because I like her. She’s a great person, Chaos. Keep close to her as much as you can because she’s suffering from losing Bethy.”
“I will, Jack, and I’ll call on you if I need you,” I reply.
Jack leaves after shouting goodbye to Victoria and Corey. I head to them in the living room and give Corey a rub over his hair, mussing it up and getting a laugh from him.
“Specs has an appointment for you to see Callahan for the will reading at four this afternoon. We can drop Corey at the Sheriff’s Office and Gemmy will watch him for us. It’s on the way so it will not have us running around all over town, and Corey will be able to meet the deputies.”
Victoria’s eyes pool. I quickly take a seat and wrap an arm around her, pulling her to me. She’s nodding her head that yeah, she heard, but this is going to take some coming to terms with. Losing someone that close to you leaves such a vast gap in your life that it feels like it’ll never heal.
“I’ll go take a shower and get ready.” Victoria kisses my cheek before giving Corey one as well. “Get cleaned up, Corey. You don’t want the deputies to think you are unprincipled,” Victoria states.
“What’s that, Mom?” Corey asks, and Victoria laughs as she replies, “Ask your Dad.”
Victoria rushes to the bedroom while I turn and look at Corey who I see has an expectant look on his face, which tells me I have to respond. “Okay, let’s see how you will find out what words or phrases mean.”
I take out my phone and hand it to Corey. “Google what does unprincipled mean?” I sit next to Corey and watch him type out the question.
“Oh, it means not acting in accordance with moral principles. What does accordance mean?” Corey clears this definition on the phone screen and types in accordance. “Oh, now it says conformity.”
Aw, fuck, we could be at this forever. But Corey is deep into checking out the words. But each time he finds one it gives him another. I’m getting a little exasperated but daren’t say the fucking word or he’ll be googling that one.
“Come on, Corey. Go wash up and get ready. You only have fifteen minutes now before we leave.” I take the phone from him and shoo him on.
****
Giving Gemmy a smile as Corey rushes to the reception desk gets me a wave in return. “Well, who do we have here? A criminal?” Gemmy is smiling at Corey and he’s cottoned on quickly that she’s playing with him.
“I’m an investigator, and here to find out if you’ve been good or bad…” Corey tries to say seriously but fails when the huge smile on his face doesn’t leave.
“Me! Are you investigating me? Wowser. Okay, then you’ll have to have a desk in the deputies’ office.” Gemmy gives me a wink as she guides Corey into the deputies' room, and I hear hellos going on. Gemmy looks over her shoulder. “Go on, buzz off while he’s busy.”
Stepping back outside, I jump into the truck and give a smile to Victoria. “He’s okay. He’s with the deputies doing an investigation into Gemmy.”
“Oh, well, that’s interesting,” Victoria smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“Come on, let’s get this done.” I start the truck and head to the lawyer's office.
“Mr. Callahan will see you now,” the receptionist says, giving us both a small smile.
A few minutes later we are sitting in front of a massive desk with a large man looking back at us.
“I’m Alan Callahan, and I knew Bethy and her brother Art from when they were young.
I drew up Bethy’s will only six months ago.
She had a bad feeling about the trouble Art was in and told me she wanted things in place. ”
“What do you mean things in place?” Victoria asks.
Clearing his throat some, he replies. “She wanted to have her financials in order, and she wanted all arrangements noted in case of her death.”
Victoria gasps lightly, and I take her hand, grazing her knuckles, trying to give her some comfort. “Will you make all the arrangements, or will we do it?” I ask, trying to take some of the hard questions from Victoria having to ask them.
“No, I will do them. I will make sure they are exactly what she wanted and they will be paid for. Once that is done, I will pay any outstanding bills Bethy had, and the rest will go directly to you, Victoria. She named you as the sole beneficiary.”
“What about Art?” Victoria asks, but the look on Callahan’s face tells me he doesn’t give a fuck about Art, and probably neither did Bethy.
“He was left a letter, but he received nothing from her apart from that. However, he has died, as you know, so the letter will be filed with all the other documents that are from Bethy’s estate.
” Mr. Callahan takes a piece of paper in his hand and reads from it.
“Bethy wanted to be cremated but said she didn’t mind if her ashes were buried or scattered.
She wanted no funeral, party, or other kind of celebration of her life.
She said she wanted to slip out of this world as quietly as she slipped into it. ”
Victoria is crying fully now, and I scoot my seat closer, wrapping an arm around her, holding her as best I can. I look at Callahan and he has tears in his eyes as he watches Victoria break down.
A while later, once Callahan tells us there is no more that he has to tell us we leave with a thank you and a heavy feeling. With nothing more we can do or learn, we leave the office and sit in the truck for quite some time while Victoria gets herself back together.
“I’ll have to speak to Mia and tell her we are not having a funeral or any kind of send-off for Bethy.
I’ll just have to live with the fact she wanted to slip away quietly.
But she can’t take the love I have for her out of my heart.
She’ll stay there until I die and I see her again.
” Victoria takes hold of my hand and holds it tight while I drive us back to the Sheriff’s office to pick up Corey.
“We’re gonna get married, Vicky. We have a son.
The official adoption papers are here. Once we are married, you’ll adopt him too.
Then he’ll have parents that love him and support him.
We can add to that family, too. Maybe have us a few kids running around like rugrats,” I chuckle at the choked sound Vicky makes when I say a few kids.
She didn’t complain about the marriage part of that mind you, and that’s happening far faster than she thinks.