Chapter 2
CHAPTER
TWO
Abyss
“I see you’re classing up the place, Abyss,” BamBam shouts.
“Shelly’s from up north a ways,” I reply walking toward where my club brother is standing. “Her uncle taught her how to tattoo and once folks know I’ve got another artist, she’ll be in a chair. In the meantime, she’s covering the front for me.”
“Hi, Shelly, I’m Livy,” BamBam’s ol’ lady says, holding out her hand to Shelly.
“Nice to meet you,” Shelly replies, grasping her hand and shaking it.
BamBam glances at her wrist tattoo and looks at me, his brow raised. I slowly shake my head, grateful that he doesn’t push the issue. “Need to bring her out to the clubhouse for the barbecue this weekend, brother,” he suggests.
“I don’t want to impose,” Shelly protests.
“No, you really should come!” Livy exclaims. “It’s out at the Triple R ranch and they’ve got horses and everything. Plus, you’ll get to meet my little boy, Theo.”
Sorrow briefly covers Shelly’s face before it becomes a blank mask as she nods. “I’d like that,” she quietly says.
“We’ll leave you to it, Abyss. Pleasure to meet you, Shelly,” BamBam states. He looks down at Livy and asks, “Do you think we should bring food back for Marge?”
“She’s already texted and asked if we would,” Livy replies, giggling.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” BamBam replies.
Shelly is fitting in well at the shop, especially now that her uncle is also here.
What can I say? My other artists weren’t giving me the caliber of work I demand and having two artists who are well-known means that traffic is steadily picking up.
While she’s somewhat quiet and reserved, I suspect that has more to do with the tattoo she has than anything.
I’m curious by nature so I want to know everything I can about her, but I’m exercising patience.
She’ll share with me when she’s ready. Or not, who knows?
“Do y’all need us to bring anything to the barbecue?” Mack asks as we clean up from today’s work. It’s the overall end-of-the-day clean, since each of us sanitizes and disinfects our stations before and after every client.
“Honestly? Yourselves,” I reply. “The wives of the ranch hands have the sides down to a science. Unless you drink a specialty beer, we’ll have plenty of that, water, and sodas on hand.
Issy has the prospects bring the new troughs up from the barn and then they’re tasked with filling them with ice and beverages. ”
Mack chuckles while nodding. “Seems like a good idea to keep them occupied.”
Oh, they stay occupied, not that I’ll discuss club business with either him or Shelly. “You’ll meet quite a few more friends of the club,” I say. “The ladies from Hope House will be there, as well as our employees from the laundromat, Marge and Buddy.”
“Might just have Shelly whip up her banana pudding,” Mack muses. “Are there going to be any kids there? They go nuts for that shit.”
“Not sure if any of the women from Hope House have kids this go around, but Livy and BamBam have Theo, and Buddy loves sweets. But like I said, Pancho and Luis’s wives will probably have a table full of desserts as well.”
“Never hurts to have more,” Shelly quips. “I don’t mind making it, plus I’ll be sure to leave some at home for you, Uncle Mack,” she teases, “that way, Theo and Buddy will be sure to get some.”
Shaking my head, I look around to see that the shop is gleaming. “Alright, you two, let’s get on out of here. We’ll see y’all tomorrow around one or thereabouts. We don’t stand on ceremony, so dress comfortably and be prepared to eat some of the best brisket and barbecue around.”
Back at the clubhouse, I see Pokey and give him a nod, which has both of us detouring to his office. “Hey, did you get the background checks in on Shelly and Mack?” I ask.
“Yeah, brother, I did. Anything I should be aware of?” he questions.
“Nope, just need them for their files.” When he hands me the two folders, I slap them against my thigh and say, “Appreciate the help.”
“We’ve got church in thirty,” he replies.
“Gives me time to grab a beer and something to eat.”
I’m finishing up the sandwich I made, having missed lunch when Rio walks through the common room and yells, “Church!” Tossing my trash, I follow my brothers into the room we use and take my seat next to him while everyone else gets seated.
Once we’re all relatively calm, he bangs the gavel announcing church is in session and we start.
“How are your new employees working out?” Rio asks once Nerd covers the financial reports from our businesses. Most of what we do is on the up-and-up, but several of our endeavors allow us to launder money, including the rodeos we hold twice a year at the ranch.
We also provide transport services to several other chapters using the reconfigured horse trailers which allows us to haul everything from guns to drugs.
It may not be what we choose for making our money, but that’s the beauty of being a chapter of the Kings of Anarchy; we make our own decisions where our businesses are concerned.
While we have three main ones, there are a couple more we’ve been thinking about opening to increase our cash flow even more.
However, because there’s always a risk associated with doing that, we’re cautious.
We’ve got a good life with the Triple R, the tattoo parlor, and the laundromat, and we don’t want to cause the authorities or any of the alphabet agencies to look closely in our direction.
Grinning, I reply, “Hiring them was like adding the Dream Team to the shop. Since many of their former clients already traveled from all over to get their ink done by either Mack or Shelly, they have no problem at all coming here. In fact, I know we’re toying with adding an auto and bike repair shop, but have we ever considered building one of those small motels?
You know, like the ones that we’ve seen whenever we’ve visited other chapters? ”
“Like a strip hotel? Cheap rooms that are clean and near shit?” Rio asks.
“Yeah. Maybe we keep a room or two for folks coming in to get tats done? It would add another business to our books and provide some more jobs,” I say, thinking out loud.
“Nerd?” Rio calls out. When he gives our president a chin lift, I bite back my grin.
“Go ahead and check on available properties to see if anything fits the bill for this potential new venture. I’d rather renovate something that already exists instead of building brand new, but that’s an option as well. ”
“Got it, pres,” Nerd replies.
“Rio?” Doc asks. When Rio nods at him, he says, “Been hearing some things about shit going on in our community and I think we need to be aware.”
“What’s going on?” Rio questions.
“Well, you know I donate time down at the clinic for those who are somewhat transient, right? Mostly homeless folks, but also some who live around here who can’t afford health insurance.
There have been rumors circulating that some of those who used to be around aren’t any longer, plus, there’s been an increase in overdoses. ”
“What the fuck?” I growl out. “What’s been said?”
“Okay, so the clinic itself has a program for those wanting to get clean from using opioids, where we prescribe suboxone in conjunction with support meetings through NA. That requires us to monitor them to make sure they’re not overdosing or underdosing,” Doc explains.
Before he can continue, Nerd asks, “You can underdose? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that, to be honest.”
Doc glances in his direction and says, “Underdosing means that the prescribed medication isn’t being taken correctly so the person isn’t getting the therapeutic dose.
For example, it doesn’t do a bit of good if a patient is prescribed five hundred milligrams of something, but they only take half of that for whatever reason.
Many will do that to try and stretch their meds out, which is one of the reasons the clinic is so important.
The people in charge have busted their asses to get grants and shit to get samples from various pharmaceutical companies to make sure that patients aren’t doing that because it can have an adverse impact on their overall health. ”
“People really do that?” BamBam asks.
“Brother, not everyone has health insurance for starters, but some of the stuff out there now has a helluva price tag,” Doc replies.
“Anyhow, we’ve had about five patients who didn’t show up for their follow-up appointments and considering that they have been consistent with their treatment, it’s concerning.
Since some of them are transient, it’s not like we can go knock on their door, and many don’t have families, which means they fall under the radar so to speak.
As far as the overdoses, we’ve seen an uptick in various drugs being laced with synthetic Fentanyl, which isn’t regulated.
Anyhow, it’s a concern and while I know we don’t dabble in the hard shit, we may need to make our presence known in case someone has decided to come onto our turf and set up some nefarious shit, like sex trafficking or drug trafficking. ”
“Nefarious shit,” Chick says, snickering. “Only you, brother, only you.”
Doc scoffs. “Listen, asshole, what else would you call it? Honestly, the fact that someone thinks they can come into Kings territory and fuck with anyone in our community needs to find out really quickly that they were mistaken.”
“Fuck around and find out, eh?” I query, smirking.
Not that I don’t mind using my fists when the need calls for it, but the fact that it could put me out of commission at the shop is always in the back of my mind. Still, if what Doc’s heard is actually happening, then I hope we do get involved. Shit’s been too quiet for quite some time.
“How did it go in Montana?” Nighthawk asks.
“Fuck, the old president really did the Kings as well as the new guys dirty, y’all,” Rio says.
He fills us in on what they found when they went up with Rip and a few of his guys to offer some guidance.
Even though Gemini and his cousins were in a club, it was all family oriented, so they got a crash course in doing things the Kings way.
“But Issy is gonna be thrilled because they’re starting a breeding program for both bison and bulls.
You know damn well she’s gonna want to take a trip to see if any are worth us getting because we need a few new bulls for the circuit. ”
“How’d the prospect do?” I question. Mongrel went since he’s getting pretty damn close to patching into the club. He’s been one helluva prospect, that’s for sure, always willing to step up whenever asked, and often seeing things and doing them before one of us says a word.
“Pretty good,” Rio replies. “We got one other thing to discuss then we’ll call it for the day.
Seems Rip’s prospect, Sphinx, may be heading down to us for a little bit of rehabilitation.
Y’all may or may not remember, he was taken by those fucking Dragons…
or Devils, depends on which day of the week it is apparently, and he did some things to betray the East Texas brothers. ”
“Why the fuck aren’t they just sending him to the tombs?” BamBam asks.
“Because there are extenuating circumstances. The fucker lost an eye when he infiltrated their club to try and get a read on their plans,” Rio retorts. “Rip feels that his guys are not in the right headspace to handle that given that several of them are still pissed at what Gage did.”
“The problem is, Gage did it to our chapter, pres, so while I understand that some of the brothers who used to be here have a reason to be pissed, I don’t know how we can help a club brother we’ve never met,” BamBam states.
“That’s why we can help. We have no preconceived notions of him, so we can assess him from top to bottom. Ultimately, if we feel that he’s able to be rehabbed, then we’ll let Rip know and he’ll go from there,” Rio replies.
“Makes sense,” I mutter.
“Doc, can you get a list of the folks who’ve gone missing?
Seems like a good thing to have our prospects check into,” Rio asks.
“And BamBam, ask Marge and see if she’s heard anything since she’s right in town.
We can start nosing around a bit because nobody’s coming into our town and fucking with our community. ”
“Since I’m not giving you medical information, it won’t violate HIPAA laws,” Doc replies, “so yeah, I’ll get the list together.”
“Nobody fucks with the Kings!” BamBam shouts, which has all of us pounding the table.
“Good, now that we have a plan of sorts, let’s call this one.
Once Doc gets me that list, I’ll get the three prospects on it.
And, I’ll let Rip know we’ll see what we can do about rehabilitating his prospect.
Don’t have a great feeling about it, but I’ve been wrong before, so we’ll see.
Regardless, if he comes down, I’m gonna need either you, BamBam, or you, Gopher, on him at all times.
” With that, he hits the gavel and we head to the bar.
It’s time for a few beers.