Chapter 12
Asharp whistle brought the meeting to order.
For years, the thwack of a gavel had summoned silence, but while Ghost had taken Steel’s title and chair, he’d never used the gavel left to him.
It had been Steel’s, a present to him from Jenna—which many suspected was the only reason Steel had ever even touched the thing in the first place.
Ghost did not replace it or get his own, but he had memorialized Steel’s gavel on a wooden plaque that now hung on the wall of the Chapel.
This wasn’t the first Church meeting since being back from rehab that Ranger had attended, but it was the first where he didn’t feel like an imposter sitting in the enforcer’s chair.
Maybe he wouldn’t be taking the VP position anytime soon, which he did feel guilty about.
Lucky had only stayed on this long to train Ranger and so there wasn’t a whiplash regime change with Steel’s departure.
They’d been aiming for the two-year marker following Ghost’s appointment, which would be this upcoming New Year.
But no one needed to say what Ranger already knew: the club couldn’t have an addict as VP, and certainly not one who would barely have his six-month chip by Christmas.
But something had happened over the past couple of days that had made that knowledge not so depressing.
Ranger realized he hadn’t lost the club’s trust. It had started small with figuring out that Specs hadn’t been sent to Morgantown to spy on Ranger and ensure he was at the meeting he claimed he was at.
Then it was allowing Ranger to take the lead on Pike’s interrogation, which he would have insisted on whether he was enforcer or not.
But it hadn’t even been a discussion. Ranger knew he hadn’t imagined the eggshells the club had been walking on near him since his return, but maybe the pity he’d felt around them was more reflective of his own thoughts and feelings than it was theirs.
At least, that’s what Dr. Rutenberg was proposing, and Ranger had to admit that the man had a point.
Maybe it wasn’t the club who hadn’t been trusting Ranger, but Ranger who hadn’t been trusting himself.
Stepping up to the plate to protect Toni proved that he could still act as the club’s enforcer, that it wasn’t just a title the club was allowing him to keep out of pity.
He might not be able to take the position of VP anytime soon, but he could still be the best damn enforcer this club had ever seen.
The topic of Lucky’s retirement from the VP position was not why they were gathered for this Church meeting, but it was a discussion that, at least the officers, were going to need to have soon.
After nearly a decade at the helm, Lucky deserved to retire and spend his days and time with his family.
He still planned on being a member, just no longer an officer.
The club was growing in numbers, especially with four new prospects that would soon be getting their rockers, and before long, it would be the next generation who would be stepping up to the plate. It was definitely something the club was going to need to discuss.
Later.
“There’s a number of things on our agenda today, but first and foremost, we have more information on what Pike gave us,” Ghost told the crowded table.
He gestured to Keys and Rose, who wore her new Non Cras cut her sister, Poison, had given her.
Keys might have claimed Rose as his ol’ lady, but it was that cut that allowed Rose into Church meetings.
As sibling clubs, the Via Daemonia and the Non Cras shared many ties, including both clubs utilizing both techs interchangeably.
Really, there was no point in keeping Rose out when there was absolutely no expectation that she wasn’t listening in anyway.
From Ghost’s perspective, why cause a fuss when there didn’t need to be one?
Their son, Oscar, was either with one of the Riley brothers under Keys’ employment or with one of the other ol’ ladies.
Keys pushed his glasses up his nose before he spoke.
“Over the past two days, we’ve been digging more into Cody Pike’s life.
He doesn’t have a record or any history with drugs, but he used to work for an accounting firm in Cottonville.
” Which was a medium-sized town halfway between Mount Grove and Pittsburgh.
“He was fired from the accounting firm years ago after it was discovered he was embezzling money. He was arrested for the crimes, but never charged,” Rose said, easily picking up where Keys left off. “The evidence was there, yet the jury declared him not guilty.”
“We spoke to Toni,” Keys continued. “I left out the names and dates on the case, but based on her assessment of the records, she suspects jury tampering. Someone either paid off the jury or intimidated them into delivering a not guilty verdict. She said that it’s more complicated and expensive than getting a judge to declare a mistrial, but it also prevents the prosecution from being able to refile charges and try the defendant again. ”
“This was not a high profile case, which confused us greatly.” Rose’s expression said she was not happy about that fact.
“Based on the backgrounds of some of the jurors, we think they were offered drugs or money in exchange for delivering a not guilty verdict, and the rest followed suit. Which begged the question why someone would go through that much trouble just to get someone like Cody Pike off scot-free.”
Keys squeezed Rose’s hand on the table. “Then we looked into his clients more, the people he’d embezzled from. One of them is a shell corporation we linked to the Irish mob.”
Everyone at the table stiffened, the club having recently taken down a low-level family in Philadelphia who’d been responsible for Melanie’s murder.
“Different syndicate,” Keys quickly assured them. “We’ve been keeping an eye on the surviving sons of Kelly Gavigan, and to the best of our knowledge, they have no link to the Irish mob in Pittsburgh.”
“But thanks to Keys’ recent dive into the Gavigan business, we have a good understanding of how the Irish mob shifts their money around,” Rose told them. “And we were able to follow that trail back to Cody Pike.”
“So he’s not just some lowly drug dealer,” Ranger summarized.
“We don’t think he deals at all,” Keys clarified. “We think he’s the accountant.”
“Last time I checked, accountants don’t generally go around chopping off fingers and breaking into houses,” Demo, a CPA, drawled.
“And you lost three fingers playing with calculators?” Bear quipped.
Demo held up his remaining middle finger, having lost the other one when he was working for the Air Force’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit.
“All this happened thirteen-ish years ago,” Rose informed them. “The embezzling, the mistrial… The drug industry has changed a lot since then, and from what we could gather?—”
“With a number of assumptions,” Keys hastily added.
Rose nodded to her man as she continued her sentence. “—the mob started using Pike to collect debts, too. Possibly as recompense for getting him free of the charges.”
Bulldog spoke up then. “Scar, Starbucks, Jigsaw, and I tore apart Pike’s house. Even used Apollo,”—Artemis, one of the club’s prospects and Cage’s niece, was former Coast Guard and Apollo was her working dog who retired with her—“to help search his house. We found no trace of drugs.”
“Yet there was over half a mil cash stashed around his house,” Demo reminded them.
“Where is that money now?” Ghost asked Demo.
“It wouldn’t fit in the safe in either of our offices. Scar took it, so your guess is as good as mine.”
Every eye in the room turned to Scar, who was holding up the back wall with his shoulder. The silent man stared every one of them down, not budging an inch.
“Well, that’s as safe as it’s going to get,” Pumpkin retorted.
Pirate gave Scar a good once-over. “How much you want to bet he poured it all into a bathtub for him and Tally to have kinky sex in?”
A four-point ninja star landed in the table between Pirate’s middle and ring fingers. Pirate jumped, nearly toppling his chair over in surprise.
Next to him, Cage helped right Pirate’s chair. “The last person who said anything about Tally got scalped. Be grateful you didn’t lose another limb, brother.”
“I was kidding!” Pirate argued, pulling the star from the table.
Based on his expression, it took more effort than he’d anticipated.
He tossed the metal star onto the center of the table over the club’s logo.
“But I owe you Sophia’s life, so I’m going to be the bigger person and apologize for insinuating that you have kinky bathtub sex with Tally. ”
Ghost cleared his throat. “Pirate, Scar, do not make me put both of you in a time out.” Back to Keys, he said, “If Pike became his own enforcer of sorts and not just someone who kept track of the mob’s money, that would explain what he was doing in Toni’s house.”
Pike had confirmed he had been in Toni’s house when she’d shot her father.
He’d run when Wayne Anderson had died, and had not been aware of the club’s involvement with either Toni or covering up her father’s death.
He’d been very eager to tell Ranger that information, thinking that if he swore he didn’t have beef with the club it might incentivize them to let him go.
It had not.
“But it does not explain where her parents got the drugs from,” Ranger input.
“When Pike went to Toni’s office impersonating her father, he implied he gave her parents the meth on credit, which dealers are known to do to rack up debt, and when we questioned him, he also confirmed that the drugs were his.
But there was no evidence of drugs in his house. ”
“He clearly wasn’t cooking or weighing out from his house,” Bulldog confirmed. “Be nice if we could ask him more about the distribution.”