CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
-:- MAV -:-
I knew what Ed and Bitty were up to last night, and not reacting to their staring was the best way to handle it. They deflated fast when they realized they were not getting anywhere with their antics. Giving Ed responsibility for Blake tonight softened his attitude and I know I can win him over, given a little time.
“Everyone in church now,” BS shouts as he passes through the common room. We all follow behind and take our usual seats while waiting for Axel, Buzz and Drag to appear.
Knuckles is sitting quietly next to me, lazily leaning back in his seat with his arms folded over his massive chest. But it’s the look of peace on his face that attracts my attention. “You okay, Knuckles?”
“I’m more than okay. I have my woman, my club brothers, the best food in America thanks to Meat, and tonight I’m gonna pound some asshole's head into the ground. What better way of spending my life!”
“Well, I suppose when you put it like that, it is a good way to spend your life,” I respond with a chuckle. “I like the way you added Meat’s cooking into your good life.”
Hearing grunting, I look to my left and see Meat with a smug grin on his face. He obviously overheard our conversation, but Wings joins with his own comment. “Well, I only came here for Meat’s cooking, and nothing and nobody is going to have me move from the brotherhood at this point.”
“Me either,” Chaos adds, “We were a brotherhood before, and we will stay as one until we are six feet under.”
Target, BS and Stitch were all brothers together in the military, and they’ll certainly stay brothers until their time on earth ends. That is a given, and every brother in this room knows it.
Axel, Drag and Buzz walk into church and take their seats. Axel quickly opens the meeting and gets right to it. “Okay brothers, we have our mission tonight to take down the fuckers who are murdering innocent fighters. You all know what you have to do, and I’ve spoken to you all about your role tonight. Mav, you make sure you get your man down fast. Don’t kill him, just get him down and out so we can get you out of that cage.
“Knuckles, you watch Mav’s back, and Colton, you strut around like a pimp on his best day at the brothel. Keep as many eyes on you as you can and that’ll give us the chance to get fuckers that have their backs to us.”
“I can do that, Pres.” Colton grins, rubbing his hands together. But it’s the fuckin’ twinkle in his eye I’m worried about.
“Any questions about this evening?” Axel asks and nobody has an issue because we all know what is going to happen and how. Axel, Buzz and Drag have spoken with all of us, making sure we know our position and what we have to do.
“Any other business?” Axel asks.
“Yeah,” I quickly say, “I’d like to nominate Garth as a brother. I’ve spoken to him and he’d be honored to be a brother, now that he knows us all and how the MC works. He was worried we were like Sons of Anarchy bikers.”
The room bursts into laughter, and comments fly about the program being a hindrance rather than a help to MCs that are legitimate.
“I’ll second that nomination.” Hammer taps on the table in front of him, gaining attention.
“Okay, show of hands for Garth as a brother, and I need a unanimous vote.” Axel counts heads as he looks around, and he has the full vote. We have a new brother. “What about a name?”
“Well, Garth likes the name his momma gave him, so let’s just leave it. But if he does anything that gets him a name, so be it,” I add. Everyone quickly agrees and PT will arrange his patch.
“I also want to put out that Blake is my Ol’ Lady. I’ve ordered her property patch from PT, and it’ll be here next week. I just need the brothers to give me the go and it’ll be done.” I quickly throw that into the mix.
“We all want our woman, Mav. I can’t find my fucker. She must be living abroad or she’s found someone else. Fuckin’ sick of looking and waiting if I’m honest,” Dice states and we all give him a shocked look because I don’t think any of us realized he was keen to have an Ol’ Lady.
Clay laughs sourly as he responds, “She’s probably with mine, living under a fucking rock somewhere.”
Now that is interesting, I’m thinking, and by the looks on some of the brothers' faces, they are feeling the same. Well, except for Chaos, who has a shit-eating grin on his face. Before he can say whatever was about to come out of his mouth, Target slams his hand over it and shakes his head to be quiet.
Axel takes up the call after he stops smirking at Chaos. “Okay, show of hands, let me see them for Mav to claim his lady Blake.” It’s simple, every hand raises and as I’ve gone around speaking to all the brothers, it is exactly what I expected.
“Anything else?” Axel asks, and we can all see he’s getting ready to leave church, and we all know why… He always makes sure he and Mia have some loving before he goes off on what he calls a mission.
Forest speaks out, but surprises me with what he says. “Heather asked me to bring up that Hammer and his team, or he has a team go over to the house that Blake is going to be selling. Yeah, Blake who is now Mav’s Ol’ Lady. The yard is a mess and needs some designing, plus a new path to the front door. The people that were in it have left a fuck of a mess to be cleaned inside and out. Heather said if you can do it Hammer, or arrange it, then she’ll pay through the business as they are doing the cleanup job.”
Hammer nods. “I’ll take a look and give you a quote for the work. I’ll keep the price down, but it will be an outside team I use because we are starting Mav’s house this week.”
Now, I’m excited to hear they are building my place, and I’ve given the plans of how I see the house to Hammer, so it’s all in his hands now.
Meat taps the table, gaining everyone’s attention. “Theme night soon, be ready.”
Nobody responds, as we all know it’s mandatory to attend theme night or we have the worst meals you can imagine afterward. Brag didn’t attend the last one, and he was given separate meals for a month. They were disgusting, and he vowed never to miss another. Meat didn’t say what the theme was, but we all know we’ll be told, and we’ll all be going to the costume shop to get rigged out.
Later that evening we are all ready to depart, and I walk over to Blake, who is sitting happily with Ed on one side of her and Bitty on the other, talking animatedly with Raven and Destiny.
Leaning down, I take her face between my hands and lower my face to hers, placing my forehead gently onto hers as I murmur, “See you later. Have a good evening and stay out of trouble.” I don’t wait for her response. I slam my mouth over hers and kiss her thoroughly.
“Hmmm, that’s enough now. We have children in the room.”
I look up and grin at Ed who is the one mentioning kids, but as we all know the twins have seen far worse and the other kids are too young to notice I give Ed a cheeky wink before walking away and joining Knuckles and the others who are my team for the night.
Walking into the warehouse behind Colton and Knuckles, myself, Wings, Chaos and Fist give off the impression of not having a care in the world. What we are doing, in fact, is scanning the place, and making sure we have noted all of Milanas’ men. They are fairly easy to detect, as they are all jittery and look like they need a good meal and a bath. That’s what drug taking does for you and it makes you very easy to spot, even in a room with hundreds of other people.
I flip my baseball cap so the peak is over my eyes, giving me the option to flick my eyes over the room without it being obvious. Fist, however, is hopping from one foot to the other. I’m thinking it’s probably a good thing he’ll be the first of us to fight.
Colton disappears to a side room, which at one time was an office, I’m sure. Knuckles leads us all to an area where a bench has been placed and a dirty blanket strung up to give the illusion of privacy.
Chaos sarcastically comments, “Very professional.” I have to admit, we all chortle at that one.
The cage is ready, and by the look of it, we won’t be long before the fighting starts. I scan the room from where I’m standing in front of the filthy blanket and see brothers scattered around the room. Axel has on a ball cap, his hair tucked under, probably in the man bun that Mia likes so much. Buzz is doing his best to not look intimidating, but I’m not sure he’s going to get away with that, as people are giving him a wide berth.
“Fuck…” I quickly turn and speak to Chaos, Wings and Fist, who are all ready to start this night’s massacre. “Fucking Vitale is here, and shit, he looks like he’s not going to wait for us to do any fighting. Well, inside that cage anyway.”
Colton rushes from between a group of spectators and waves his arm around like a windmill. Honestly, what is he trying to say?
“What’s wrong with Colton?” Chaos asks nobody in particular.
“No idea, but look over there.” I point to our left and we see Vitale storm into a room, which sets off a chain reaction. Vitale’s men zero in on a man each, and I glance up at Axel, who throws his arm out and punches some sucker who is near enough for him to target.
“Yeah, let’s roll,” Wings hollers, and not waiting for anyone, he runs into the crowd and targets a man.
Well, we have to follow, of course, and that means the fight is on. We all know who we have to target, and that’s exactly what we do.
I run for one of Milanas’ men who is trying to get to the back of the room and escape. I grab the fucker and slam his head against the wall, making his ears ring, I’m sure. This is one of the fuckers that was organizing the death fights. He was on our radar to take out, and he’s going to be going to Nell’s and meet Jaws. Just to be sure, I slam him against the wall once more and as he slumps to the ground. I kick him in the head to make sure he’s out for the count. Just for the hell of it I kick him a few times in his gut, and that has me feeling a little better.
I grab his collar and drag him out of the building and to the van where I throw him in and leave him with Ruger, who quickly has him hogtied and gagged.
That is the momentum we get going. Take out a man, drag him to Ruger. Go back for the next. Passing Fist, I hold up my hand, showing four fingers. Frowning, Fist snarls, “Fuck, I’m gonna beat you this time.” I chuckle as Fist runs back into the room and pummels his fists into the nearest Milanas man he can find before dragging him to the van and running right back inside.
“What’s up with, Fist?” Wings asks as he passes by me.
“He was behind my body count, so he’s hurrying to catch up and bypass. You know how competitive he is.”
“How many has he got?”
“He’s got four now, drawing level, so I best get a move on.” I hear Wings laughing as I run back in and pick my next victim, which isn’t easy with the screaming, fighting and fleeing going on.
It can only take around thirty minutes, and it’s all done. Everyone that could be was out the door and disappeared faster than you could say ‘motherfucker’.
Vitale had Milanas out the door and into an armored vehicle before Axel could get to him, but we all know that our Pres isn’t going to let that stop him. We have plans already in place to steal the fucker away from Nell’s, with Graham and Nell’s help, of course.
Standing with my brothers waiting for orders to get the hell out of here and back to the clubhouse, I look at Fist, who is holding up eight fingers, I give him a smirk and hold up seven which has him dancing around like a fool.
Wings nudges me and murmurs, “You took down nine. Why are you telling him seven?”
“Look at our brother, brother, he’s ecstatic. How could I take that away from him?”
“Yeah, I see that,” Wings mumbles under his breath but I can’t tell what he’s saying, but he walks away and I lean on the side of the van while waiting for orders. My mind is already thinking about Blake and hope she’s had a nice evening with the other Ol’ Ladies.