Chapter 7
SEVEN
COBALT
Damn, can’t believe it’s only been a week since we brought the brother-sister team to the clubhouse.
It was touch and go for a while for Stash, as Incubus discovered he had a ruptured spleen.
As he explained to Julie: usually, if it’s a small tear, observation and rest can usually allow it to heal.
Unfortunately, Stash wasn’t that lucky. There was, according to Incubus, a moderate laceration which required him to perform a splenorrhaphy, which repairs the damage.
Thank God it worked out because Incubus said that Stash was in hemorrhagic shock, which happens when a person loses large amounts of blood.
Incubus was able to stop the bleeding, then he repaired the tear.
The concern was the loss of blood. Since we don’t keep blood on hand in the clubhouse, Incubus approached Julie to see if she and Stash had the same blood type, which they did.
Julie donated blood to her brother to make sure there would not be further side effects from his injury.
Stash is doing surprisingly well, under the circumstances.
He is following Incubus’s orders without question.
It’s actually surprising to me to watch my brother start to form a friendship with someone other than the men in this club.
Not many of my brothers understand just how intelligent Incubus is.
That library was put together specifically for Incubus so he had a place within the club to engage in his favorite pastime, which is reading.
Yeah, what an oxymoron… our enforcer, whose job is to eliminate any and all threats, finds pleasure in reading when not protecting our club and members.
Personally, I know how hard it is for him not to be practicing medicine, but he’s managed to blend into the club effortlessly.
It’s been seven days that Stash has been under close observation, on very strict orders as far as activity.
After a day or so he was allowed to get up and walk around.
Had to send Rocket to pick up a walker because Incubus didn’t want Stash to lose his balance and fall.
One of the club girls, Raquelle, has been helping Julie keep an eye on her brother.
It gives Julie some time to take a break, read a book, or just get some sleep.
The circles under her eyes give away all the time she’s been awake keeping an eye on her brother.
The only thing good that’s come from Stash’s injury and emergency surgery is, I don’t have to worry about either of them trying to leave the clubhouse.
Sitting at my desk, I’m going through some of the invoices Sparkle dropped off when my phone rings. Looking down I cringe, but know if I ignore it, he will just keep calling and calling. So I pick it up, knowing what I say will piss him off right off the bat.
“Hey, Sally, how the hell are ya?”
He takes in a deep breath, then lets it out before he growls for me to quit calling him a bitch’s name. I wait ’cause two can play his game. Finally, he engages.
“Cobalt, how are you? I haven’t heard from you since I made my generous offer regarding Stash and his nosy as fuck sister. Has your club decided to not only take this job but find those two ungrateful bitches? I can’t imagine what that kind of money could do for your club and brothers.”
Laughing, I let him stew for a few minutes. Then I drop my bomb again.
“Sally, guess you didn’t hear me before.
We are not taking this job or any other offers in the future.
We are willing to provide protection and cleanup services, like always, but if you are looking for hands to do this type of dirty work, you have the wrong club.
Told you we’ve retired from that part of the business and, Salvatore, listen to me closely.
We mean it and won’t be changing our minds anytime soon, no matter what is offered. ”
I hear him swearing profusely before a loud bang comes over the phone.
“Cobalt, I am willing to increase the offer to five million dollars but can’t go even a penny higher. Will that change your minds?”
Holy mother of God, did this dude just offer us five million dollars to whack two innocents who needed help with their ailing mother and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Why is my question. Well, first off, today I plan on getting answers from Stash and Julie ’cause nothing is making sense.
Knowing I have to answer this neurotic asswipe, I think for a minute.
“Well, Sally, that just might change our interaction with this situation. I’m going to have to talk to my brothers, so let me get back to you. How will that be paid? I’m thinking half now and the remaining balance when the job is done. Agreed?”
As we go back and forth, my head is filling with so many questions it ain’t funny.
Once I’m able to calm his crazy-as-fuck ass down and tell him to give me a few days to talk to the club, we both hang up at the same time.
I lean back in my chair, hands to my neck, trying to massage the tension away.
When someone knocks, I yell, “Come in.” Incubus and Psycho casually walk in, both plopping down on the oversized love seat.
I pray it can hold their weight as together they are a powerhouse of muscle.
They wait and I’m always surprised how they know I need to go over shit ’cause they seem to manage to be in the right place at the right time, every single time.
I explain the situation. By the looks on their faces, they probably have similar questions for both Stash and Julie.
We go over ways to get them to talk without doing any damage to Stash or overwhelming Julie.
The last I doubt would happen ’cause she’s made of steel.
I’ve seen it over and over in the time she’s been staying in the clubhouse.
She’s also managed to soften up some of the hardest badasses in this club.
What I like about her is she’s real. Like everyone always says, what ya see is what ya get.
With Julie that statement is totally true.
She’s shared with a bunch of us about her short time working for that mob caporegime.
Slowly she’s been letting out what happened and why her brother was so scared on her behalf.
Turns out Julie is highly intelligent, and I mean highly.
She looks at numbers like a master mechanic looks at a car or a doctor looks at a patient.
She was the valedictorian at her college graduation and, from what Stash told us, in high school she would have also been the valedictorian but the principal somehow managed to have his stupid-ass kid up there.
Both Stash and Julie laugh together talking about the kid’s speech, which left everyone shocked and his father so embarrassed.
Stash said right before school started up again in the fall, the notice came out that the principal was let go and a new one hired.
Guess the school board wasn’t into nepotism.
Didn’t bother Julie, as she was accepted into every school she applied for.
She told us she picked the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana because she received a free ride.
Well, all four years were paid but she finished in under three and a half.
After she finished, she continued her education with a one-year program at Notre Dame to get her master’s degree.
Then she attended Indiana University-Bloomington—Kelly School of Business.
At the moment she has a MS in Accounting with Data and Analytics (MSADA).
All of this has prepared her to take the boards for a CPA, which was her plan until their mom got the horrific diagnosis of stage four cervical cancer.
Julie moved back home to take care of her mom.
Stash, who is no dummy, graduating from Purdue University with a master’s in computer science.
He did his best to help out, but when all their mother’s bills started coming in and with the little bit of money they were able to earn, they were upside down.
Stash started doing computer shit on the side and somehow ended up hacking.
He’s good at it, so when the Mob came knocking with offers of tons of cash, he couldn’t say no.
At first, they didn’t ask him to do anything really big, but it didn’t take those assholes long.
He knew he was in trouble, especially when their family home was put into foreclosure.
Salvatore knew all about this as he was the one pulling the strings at the bank, so he could take advantage by giving the poor kid, Stash, a loan, which he knew Stash would never be able to pay back.
With Julie working as a bookkeeper or accountant and Stash hacking for the Mob, somehow, they fell into a hole and found shit out they shouldn’t have.
That’s when the hits were put on them both, and how my club fell into this fuckin’ mess.
Both of my brothers listened to what I told them, and leave it to Incubus to get right to the point.
“Ya know, Cobalt, the old sayin’ ‘book smart but common sense stupid.’ Maybe not Julie, but Stash is too smart for his own good and has no sense or vision of the world as it truly is. She’s a bit more streetwise, which is weird; the female being more in touch than the male.”