Chapter 4 – Ink
INK
It was no surprise when Phoenix called us into church later that afternoon. It was, however, a pain in the ass because I was tired as fuck. I’d only been asleep for three hours when I got the phone call.
“I need to ride with you,” I mumbled into the phone as soon as Dice answered.
“No dice,” Daphne said in the background. She’d recently started using the phrase every time she had a chance to say no to or for Dice.
“Dude, I can’t drive to the clubhouse. I’m too fucking tired.”
“Yeah, me too, man,” Dice rasped. “Walter and Buck are here. One of them can drive.”
“Sweet. When are we leaving?”
“Ten minutes.”
“Fuck,” I grumbled and jumped out of bed. “Later.”
Nine minutes later, I was running across to Dice’s house just like I did the day London was born—half-dressed, half-awake, and praying someone had coffee. “Please tell me someone has coffee,” I said as I fell into my seat.
“Right here,” Dice said and passed me a tumbler.
I brought it to my lips and paused. “Did you put ice cubes in this?”
“No,” Dice laughed. “But Daphne did.”
“If you ever fuck it up with her, I will hurt you daily,” I vowed before taking a large sip of coffee.
“You’ll have to get in line, sonny boy,” Walter said from the front seat. “Y’all ready to go?”
“I am,” Buck said. “I want to know what went down last night.”
“What makes you think you get to know anything?” Walter asked.
“I asked Phoenix if we could listen in on their meeting in exchange for providing safe transportation for his members to their home base,” Buck said.
“They’re fucking sleepy, Buck,” Walter grumbled. “You make it sound like we’re escorting them through enemy territory.”
“Doesn’t matter what it sounded like,” Buck retorted. “Phoenix said yes, so your nosy ass should thank me.”
“Whose nosy ass?” Walter laughed.
I chuckled to myself as I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they became honorary members of the club. They might as well have been with as much shit as they were involved in.
What seemed like seconds later, Dice shook my shoulder to wake me. “We’re here.”
I wiped my hand over my face and groaned. I only needed to make it through church, and then I could go back to sleep. Right down the hall in my room at the clubhouse. I rarely used it after I moved into my house on the farm, but it came in handy from time to time.
Blindly stumbling along behind Dice, I followed him into church and dropped into a seat at the end of the table. Thankfully, we were the last ones to arrive. I don’t think I would have been able to stay awake if we had to wait for others to show up.
“Let’s get to it,” Phoenix said and called the meeting to order.
“Last night, Flint, Edge, Dice, and Ink went to a party to get Raven and Blaze. They had been drugged, but Raven was able to call for help before she passed out.” Phoenix held his hand up to stop the grumbling that had erupted around the room.
“They got there in time, and they caught the fuckers who did it.”
“Fucking hell,” Ranger said. “You wouldn’t call us all down here to tell us you killed three wannabe rapists. So what the hell happened?”
“He’s telling us,” Shaker said.
“Right, right,” Ranger said and gestured for Phoenix to continue.
“We identified the guys as Leon Rhodes, Willy Smith, and Ricky Calvin Reynolds II,” Phoenix said.
“As in Ricky Reynolds?” Duke asked. “The one who used to throw parties around here before he moved his business to Cedar Valley?”
“Yep,” Phoenix said. “This is his son.”
“His son is the one who drugged Raven and Blaze?” Duke asked.
“We don’t know who drugged them,” Phoenix explained. “But Ink heard Calvin attempt to assault Blaze through the phone, and he’s the one they saw on top of Ariel when they got there.”
“Who’s Ariel?” Shaker asked.
“If y’all will shut the fuck up, I’ll tell you,” Phoenix yelled.
“Now, when the guys arrived, they found Blaze on the floor of a bedroom. A guy was on top of an unconscious girl on the bed, and Raven was hiding in a closet. The unconscious girl turned out to be seventeen-year-old Ariel Calloway, daughter of ER nurse Presley Calloway. The girl Ariel went to pick up was reported missing by her mother this morning, but that doesn’t seem to be relevant at this time.
So, as I was saying, the main culprit is Calvin Reynolds, son of Ricky Reynolds.
We’ve known about Ricky for a long time, but he hasn’t been a problem for us.
Regardless, his son tried to rape my daughter and granddaughter.
Any professional courtesies I might have extended to him were null and void the moment the girls took their first sip.
But you guys know me and my bleeding heart.
I couldn’t bring myself to kill his son. ”
I snorted a laugh and spoke before I could stop myself. “Bleeding heart? You broke his jaw and stomped on his balls so hard that both testicles had to be removed. Killing him would have been kinder.”
Dice slapped me on the back of the head. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Fuck. Sorry, Prez. I’m still sleeping,” I said.
Phoenix pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because I know you got the least amount of sleep out of all of us, I’ll let that slide.” He turned his attention back to the room. “So, yeah, we beat the hell out of them. Made sure they understood their mistakes. Then we dropped them off at the hospital.”
“Is this something we’ll need my mom to help with?” Shaker asked.
Phoenix chuckled. “No, Byte took care of it. He took the hospital cameras offline for a few minutes.”
“And no one noticed that three guys beat to hell showed up around the same time you did?” Ranger asked.
Dash laughed. “No, and I was the one who told them that there were three drunk guys passed out right outside the doors.”
“Back to that little nugget Ink casually dropped,” Shaker said. “What’s this about balls being removed?”
“Apparently, both of his testicles were ruptured beyond repair and had to be surgically removed,” Phoenix explained.
“So, he’s just a dick now,” I managed to say before bursting into laughter.
“How long have you been waiting to say that?” Phoenix asked once the room quieted.
“It just came to me. I swear,” I laughed. “But I’ve had No Nuts since last night.”
“Really? You, too?” Ranger guffawed.
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“Repeat the last thing you said,” Dice chuckled.
“I’ve had No Nuts since last ni—Oh fuck off,” I said and raised both middle fingers in the air. “I thought of the nickname No Nuts last night. You fuckers knew what I meant.”
“We did,” Ranger laughed. “And we heard what you said. Twice!”
“I’m sleep-deprived from saving young women from a future filled with trauma and pain,” I countered.
Ranger sighed. “Way to be a buzzkill.”
Phoenix lightly banged his gavel on the table.
“All right. Let’s get back on track. I spoke with Ricky in the early morning hours.
I let him know what his son did and told him he should thank me for showing his son mercy.
He started to get a little mouthy and made some veiled threats.
While he ran his mouth, I sent him a couple of pictures from the scene and told him I could and would send them to whoever the fuck I wanted to if he gave me reason to.
He mumbled something that sounded like thank you and hung up. ”
“Hang on. Pictures?” I asked.
Phoenix grinned. “While you were talking to that kid in the bathroom, Flint took pictures of the room. Nothing incriminating of us, of course.”
“Are there pictures of Ariel?” I asked, sounding more defensive than I intended.
“Yes, but I didn’t send them to Ricky. In fact, I won’t send them to anyone without Presley’s consent.”
I nodded, satisfied with his explanation. Logically, I knew Flint took pictures in case evidence—or leverage—was needed later. But I felt protective of Ariel and Presley in a way I never had of anyone before.