10. Picasso
PICASSO
Iwatched her walk into the house, not trusting that she would believe me about the ankle tracker.
This small woman packed more punch to her then a level four hurricane and she was going to blow through this place if we didn’t get her on our side.
Making my way back to the club house which was now full of all the men in our club.
I hurried over to the bar where I knew Eagle and the others would be waiting for me.
“She at the house?” Eagle asked his phone in hand.
“You tell me you're the one tracking her,” I said sitting down next to him. “Don’t forget to switch to the small fence around the house. Let’s see if she’ll listen to my warning.”
Void scoffed as he took a sip from his glass of whiskey. “That little demon, she won’t listen to anyone but Two Tricks. It was a mistake to bring her here.”
“Not here,” Eagle snapped. “We will have our meeting when this is over, Phantom Saints leaders don’t argue in front of the family.”
I scanned the room and saw that everyone but the few we knew wouldn’t be here were ready and waiting. Eagle stood from his stool, took his gavel, and struck the bar soundly alerting everyone that church was now in session.
“Today will be quick, not too much to go over, but what we do have is not great news,” Eagle said his voice booming through the club house.
“The mover we had is squeezing us for more money because they don’t want to be caught by Two Tricks dealing behind his back.
We are scouting out new options for this problem, but if anyone hears about more of our connections getting cold feet we want to know.
Business is fine and we have other areas that Tricks has no hold over.
They are apparently not his cup of tea. So be assured there is still work to be done and money to be made. ”
The room rumbled with talk and uncertainty as they took in that information.
Our group had been around for ten years and survived the loss of our sister club the Blackjax’s seven years ago.
This was another bump in the road but it would be one that we could weather if Eagle would get out of his own way.
As he said we didn’t need to do battle with Two Tricks to grow, even if it would make it happen faster.
“On another note I have a guest that you will be seeing around for a few weeks. She is off limits.” Eagle said, giving the men a hard look.
“I need her to be on our side to broker a deal and she wants to see how things run on our end. Let’s show the little lady just how the Phantom Saint’s became the top dog in the west coast.” Eagle said with a smirk.
That got the guys on their feet hooting, hollering, and whistling their agreement.
I was shocked to hear Eagle talk about her in church.
We had all agreed that we would have her keep a low profile and let them think she was his newest side piece.
Had something changed on his end? Why didn’t he tell us?
We never made choices like this alone, we always worked as a team.
“Now I’ll open the floor for any new business there might be,” Eagle said and sat looking over the group of men.
Tapper stepped forward and the room fell silent again. “One of my snitches said that one of Tricks’ competition on the east coast was getting ready to make a move. Word on the situation is that he let his enforcer go too far and they killed his son without provocation.”
My brows shot up my forehead hearing this and looked over at the rest of the guys. None of us had heard a peep about this and we’ve been keeping our ears glued to any news when it came to Tricks and Dax.
“Does your snitch know the name of the rival?” I asked.
“They didn’t know but it happened last year, it just took them a long time to find out it was a hit by Tricks. He didn’t leave his usual calling card,” Tapper said, shrugging his shoulders.
Why would he have a hit then not take credit for it? That makes no sense if it's a rival than you make sure they know you won. Was it a rogue hit? Did Dax act out on her own and tried to cover it up?
“Bring your snitch in, we want to talk to him,” Eagle said, giving me a look. He didn’t think it added up either. “Anything else we need to cover?”
When no one spoke up another rap of the gavel sounded and the men drifted off.
Eagle signaled us to follow him to the office in the back of the clubhouse.
Everyone sprawled out into their usual spots as I shut the door and locked it.
I trusted every member of our club but that didn’t mean that I would be stupid.
The things we talked about in here we sure as hell didn’t want anyone knowing about.
“Do you really think she would take out a rival’s kid without claiming it?” Sprocket asked, chewing on this thumb nail.
“Absu-fucking-lutly I believe that, all he would have to do is call her a bitch to get punched. Imagine if he called her a twat or something. From what I’ve seen in the twelve hours she has been around that girl is a loose cannon.” Void stated before he gulped back the last of his drink.
Cognac just chuckled, “You're just pissed because you got your ass handed to you twice by our little Loba.”
Void snarled baring his teeth at Cognac, “Don’t you fucking name her we can’t keep her.”
“Why not? It seems our leader might have changed his mind on that.” Cognac said winking at Eagle.
He was one of the only people I knew who could get away with shit like that. When Eagle didn’t deny the accusation the room paused and we all looked at him. He was sitting behind his desk leaning back in his chair rubbing his chin not even paying attention to what we were saying.
“Eagle,” I called out grabbing a pen from his desk and tossing it at him.
Immediately he glared at me but then settled back and focused on us. “I might have been short sighted on how to deal with Dax.”
“Fuck,” Void said getting up and grabbing the whiskey off the shelf and pouring himself another drink.
“What is your new plan?” I asked, cutting off Cognac from saying whatever asinine thing he was about to say.
Eagle leaned forward resting his elbows on the desk telling me that I wasn’t going to like this. “Instead of trying to get Two Tricks to play ball with us what if we took his move and just took over.”
“Run that by me again?” I blurted not sure I was hearing the crap that was coming out of my brother’s mouth.
“We have his second in command whether she likes to admit it or not, so we turn her against him. We have rivals sniffing around he will be distracted and not having his enforcer will cripple him.” Eagle laid out.
“It’s really rather smart,” Sprocket interjected. “Dax already has all the information that we could need to take him out. If we get her to side with us then it’s game over for him.”
“Look guys we have no idea what shit he has on her,” Void countered. “There has to be some reason that she joined him in the first place. Now that we know he is not her lover what other reason would a woman have to be at his beck and call.”
“God you really are an idiot sometimes Void,” Cognac said, shaking his head. “Why can’t she be in it for the same reason we would be, power. She is for the most part untouchable, rich, and way fucking smarter than I think we give her credit for.”
“I have to agree, Dax isn’t the woman that wants to be taken care of.
She can handle her own shit just fine. Working with Tricks’ gives her everything, to me it would be her freedom is what he has over her.
If he takes away everything she has, it leaves her with nothing.
” Sprocket said, showing off that brain of his.
“What about her shop?” I asked.
Cognac grabbed his tablet from the desk and flicked it open. As treasurer, Cognac was our stock market money making magician. He had a way of making the simplest moves and making big impacts. He also knew his way around technology better than any of us did, so we left him to do research with Gaby.
“From the legal paperwork that Gaby found for the sale it looks like she took out a loan for it with a cosigner, Weston Price. The odd thing was that it only took her two years to pay off a fifty-thousand dollar loan. This was around the same time that Two Tricks was really making waves in the industry.” Cognac said scrolling through the info.
“Okay so she has one source of income but no matter how good a tattoo shop does, it doesn’t pay as good as Tricks has to.” I said, frowning. “This doesn’t help us with getting her to turn on Tricks though. If we take over then we don’t really need her do we?”
Eagle scratched the scruff on his chin as he thought. “If this plan works it will only work with her being a part of it. This whole thing could be smooth sailing if we have a familiar face for them to trust.”
“That still doesn’t tell us how we are going to get her to turn on him,” I pointed out.
“Simple, we make her fall in love with us,” Eagle said as if we all should have thought of it.
Void shot out of his chair and slammed his fist on the desk, “Are you out of your god damn fucking mind Eagle!”
Eagle just looked up at him with an expression I knew all too well.
If Void didn’t back off he was going to end up with a broken bone or two.
My brother did not tolerate others second guessing his judgment.
There was a reason he was the president and stayed in that position after many people had tried to challenge him for it.
The five of us were close, brothers in all meaning of the word, but that went out the window if you were going to challenge him.
“Sit the fuck down before I make you.” Eagle barked, his eyes narrowing on Void. “This is twice in one day I have had to tell you to stand down, there won’t be a warning next time.”
Void froze knowing he had made an epic mistake, then sat down without another word.