Chapter Seventeen #2
“That’s not true! I respect Outlaw to the highest. I don’t want to die.
Now that sanity is back, I know he’d kill us.
But that’s it. He’d just kill us. Diesel would torture us, CJ.
He’s a fucking maniac. He has no mercy. No empathy.
No sympathy. I went to the meatshack once with Diesel.
The gore was out of a horror movie.” He dropped his voice to a whisper.
“I have nightmares about that shit. Why do you think he’s so enamored with The Crusades?
The violence and the torture. And the violence.
If I ever cross the club and I discover Diesel is coming after me, I’ll turn myself into Outlaw and let him shoot me dead. ”
CJ hadn’t been impressed. “Outlaw shot Torie after he fucking strangled her. When it comes to my mom, nothing is off the table. If you didn’t learn that the other night, then you’re a stupid motherfucker.”
In a different way from Diesel, a fuckhead who had no fucking cause seeking Rebel out and every reason not to. Family ties. Age difference. And sadistic motherfuckery.
Now, Rule was breathing down her throat.
Not on CJ’s watch.
He glared at his brother, not giving up Narci, Torrin, and Bishop as his sources.
“Fine,” Rule cried. “It’s true, but it’s different for me. A prudent wife is from the Lord.” The tension left his body. “It’s in Proverbs 19.”
“Yeah, Jesus Boy, so’s Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fillful the lust of the flesh ,” Axel said.
“Fulfill,” Mattie corrected.
Sitting up and forcing his little body between Reb and Mattie, Axel glared at Rule. “You’re not the only man that knows stuffs in the bible.”
Rebel wrapped her arm around Axel’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. “Stuff.”
“Ewwwwwww.” Axel jumped up, scrubbing his cheek furiously. “Girls got cooties! I’ve been poisoned.”
“Mom kisses you, dummy,” Rebel said.
“Mom’s mom ,” Axel told her, a ferocious frown on his little face. “She’s exempt from being a girl.”
“Perfect segue, big head.” CJ walked Rule back to the loveseat and shoved him next to his bible. He pointed to him. “Behave.”
Although he turned his back on Rule, CJ still felt the weight of his stare. It made the hairs on his arms stand on edge. Rule’s presence also unnerved their cousins.
For the first time, unease prickled CJ, too. Just as quickly, he dismissed it.
“We need to talk about the future. Specifically, our future roles,” he started.
“We can’t join the club, bro,” Mattie said. “Unless you intend to change the rules?”
“Dream on,” Ransom said with a snort.
Rory glared at Ransom, then smiled at Mattie. “No, Matt. Girls will never patch into the Dwellers, but think about Mom, Aunt Zoann, and Aunt Meggie.”
“Aunt Kendall’s an attorney. Momma has a good head for numbers, and Aunt Zoann is a nurse practitioner?” Rebel guessed, her interest piqued. “They contribute to the club in their own way.”
“Exactly—” CJ started.
“Mommie’s a psychologist,” Harley inserted, barely audible.
Lou scowled. “Mom’s disqualified herself. She doesn’t act like an auxiliary like the rest of the wives anymore.”
Harley’s face fell.
CJ moved on. “Aunt Bunny’s a teacher,” he added, not only for Mark JB’s benefit but because CJ had always shared a special bond with her. He wanted no one to only see her as his mother’s underling.
“What does all this mean?” Devon asked.
“A bunch of bloated bullshit,” Ryan scoffed, recovered from his encounter with Rule.
“It isn’t bullshit,” Rory insisted. “My dad runs the medical lab. Your dad is good with wiring and installations. Uncle Stretch knows how to hack into anything. Uncle Cash is the explosives technician. Sooner or later, they will step down. We have to make sure we can fulfill those roles in the event we can’t tap the general membership. ”
“I definitely think members with a variety of skills should be recruited,” Mark JB said.
Lou nodded. “And tax brackets.”
“Mattie can hack into anything,” Rebel volunteered. “She wants to study cybersecurity. Maybe, she can’t join the club, but she can assist.”
Rory looked at JJ, smiling at his little brother taking notes on an iPad.
“So, you’re mapping out the future and you invited me to take part?” Ryan asked, his tone unreadable.
“Aren’t you part of our family, assface?” Axel demanded.
Ryan scowled. “I’ve never felt like it. No one ever listens to me .”
“You rarely have a fucking thing to say,” Rebel replied. “Except hate and bitterness. Really, fuckhead, who wants to listen to that?”
Ryan stiffened. “Rebel—”
“You’re either a part of the group or you aren’t, Ryan,” CJ interjected. “You have something different to discuss, call your own fucking meeting. If you can’t contribute to this topic, shut the fuck up at my meeting or get the fuck out.”
Ryan backed against the wall. He glanced away, then sighed. “Sometimes, I think about other businesses the club should pursue. Especially strip clubs. I also think I know of a way to cut out some of the middlemen for our drugs.”
“Unless we create our own, I have no idea how we can do that,” Rebel said.
“ You can’t do anything, Reb,” Ryan retorted. “You don’t have a cock, so you can’t join.”
“Don’t waste your time explaining that to the Blonde Viper,” Ryder said. “She has a girl brain. It’s hard for her to comprehend she can’t interfere in men’s business.”
Mutiny gathered in Rebel’s eyes, but CJ threw her a warning look. She huffed but remained silent.
“We don’t run women, Ryan,” CJ said, hoping to speed the conversation along before Rebel lost her battle not to punch the fuck out of Ryder.
“Dude, we don’t have to run them,” Ryan countered. “We can offer high-end girls in an exclusive club. Bill them as mysterious and out of reach. Treat them good, pay them well, and dress them up pretty.”
“That probably won’t work, bro,” Mattie said. “With porn sites and OnlyFans, you can see naked girls any time you please. The club would never earn money without the dancers ending up on their backs.”
“It might work,” Ryan insisted. “Instead of just run-of-the-mill strippers, high-class looking chicks might draw in big bucks.”
“We can ask Diesel,” Rory said with a shrug. “He loves strippers.”
“Dude loves pussy,” Ryan replied.
They all snickered. Mattie and Rebel giggled and whispered to each other. Harley looked both angry and devastated.
“Girls are touched and groped at every strip club Diesel mentions,” Rory said .
CJ nodded. “At the least. Most are required to at least perform lap dances. A lot of them supplement their income with prostitution.”
“The Bobs suck dick,” Ryan argued.
“True,” Devon said, “but it’s for the pleasure of the club members. How do we vet random motherfuckers coming in to watch girls strip?”
“Memberships?” Rebel supplied.
“Why don’t you go all out in debasing women and just suggest a members-only sex club?” Harley said coldly.
Rebel shrugged. “Idea has merit.”
“I wasn’t serious.”
“Then shut the fuck up and keep your sarcasm to yourself,” Rebel said. “This is serious, Harley. CJ is trying to work everything out to put us… them ,” she huffed at the grumbles, “on a path to secure the club’s future.”
“Which is stupid,” Harley spat. “You’re all pretending to be members when you don’t even have bikes.”
“Harley, please shut the fuck up,” Rebel said. “Please? You’re working on my goddamn nerves. CJ invited you because he’s kind. The rest of us don’t give a fuck one way or the other if you fucking fall off the earth.”
“I—”
“Harls,” Mattie interrupted her quickly.
“Uncle Christopher, Uncle Val, and Daddy are drawing CJ, Ryan, Devon, and my brother more into the club with each passing day. But there are other, younger members who aren’t going to be satisfied with the sons of the officers so easily stepping into their positions.
They have to earn their places. To do that, they must have their own plans for the future that’s as strong, or stronger, than their fathers.
They need to stand together and build their own allegiances so the club can continue to thrive. ”
Additional side business that members could run might be a decent way to stop dissension and the potential for a coup. Currently, the club’s businesses centered on motorcycles, their trailer park, the tattoo shop, and the funeral home. They needed a more diversified portfolio.
“You’re just being CJ’s friend to hurt me, Ryan,” Harley accused.
CJ wasn’t touching that. He didn’t even care about Ryan’s smirk.
“We have a few years to fine tune the idea,” CJ said to his cousin. “Before we approach Dad and the other club members, we must have everything figured out. We’re both a year from eighteen and three or four years from earning our patch. Do you already have a location in mind? A budget?”
“I can create a report for you, Ryan,” Rebel volunteered. “I help Momma sometimes.”
Rule nodded toward the ceiling. “They are saying don’t trust Ryan.”
“ They need to shut the fuck up,” Rebel retorted.
Annoyance slid across Ryan’s face. “Never said it was for the Dwellers,” he bullshitted. With a straight fucking face. “I might do it on my own. Or patch into another club where I’ll be more valued.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re sensitive,” Rebel grumbled, rolling her eyes.
“We like your idea, Ryan,” CJ inserted before Rule had a chance to insult Rebel. “We all know you were talking about the club.”
“You like my idea, but not me, huh, cuck?” Ryan demanded, the asshole in him unable not to show itself.
“Fuck off, Ryan,” CJ growled. “You had no intentions of being a part of the club if a word or two from Rule and Rebel changed your mind.”
“Why fight to be appreciated when I’m valued elsewhere? ”
CJ stiffened, recalling the accusation he’d pinned on Ryan. “Like the fucking Scorpions?” he snarled, low. “ You’re why Molly’s gone, motherfucker.”
“Molly?” Harley spat.
CJ and Ryan ignored her, facing off. Ryan glanced away first and shook his head.
“I am not,” he said quietly. “I wouldn’t subject her to their form of brutality just to get back at you.”