Chapter 33
FINGER
Another day, another dollar, as the saying goes. I’m meeting Jeremy’s new crew along with Pres and Cap. I’m hoping they are men worthy of our time. But Jeremy said they were former servicemen, so they should fit in with us.
Walking to the piece of land on which we have placed the offer, we meet the six men, you cannot mistake as having military backgrounds. Their hair, stance, and general aura of them states firmly, military.
Pres steps forward, and Jeremy quickly greets us. “Hi, Tracker. These are the men I told you I’ve taken as a new crew. They will work on the new land you are purchasing, building the infrastructure and the housing.”
Pres nods but doesn’t speak as yet. One of the men steps forward and holds his hand out to shake with Pres.
“Name’s, Dylon Grahams. Jeremy told us you are building homes for the men in your club.
I reckon that’s an honorable thing to have everyone in close proximity and be able to watch each other’s backs. ”
Another one of the men steps forward, “My name is Baron Sykes, but I answer to Dime because that’s all I had in my pocket when I joined the service.”
Felix Johnson, Conrad Anderson, Jethro Livingston, and Milton Buchanan, all introduce themselves, with Jeremy standing quietly watching the introductions happening.
Pres now speaks for the first time, “Welcome to the Restless Demons MC compound. This is part of our compound, and this is where you will be working. The clubhouse for now is out of bounds to you, but once we know you, we can lift that boundary.”
“Coin has ordered two trailers for you to live in. They are a home away from home and have three bedrooms in each. Keep them clean and maintained because we may sell them on at a later date. You can decide who lives in each one. How you live and eat is up to you. Questions, you can contact me, Cap, or Coin. I’ll give you our digits in a moment.
Pres, anything else?” I cover as much as I can with ease and look to Pres for his direction.
“Nope, done here.”
I chuckle as Pres turns and walks away, with Cap following slightly behind him. Jeremy shakes his head in amusement, and Dime asks if anything was wrong. “Nope, he’s like that. You’ll get used to it,” Jeremy states while still chuckling.
Twenty minutes later I’m sitting in Pres’ office and am listening to Coin reporting.
“The nephew has accepted the offer, Pres. I’ve transferred the money directly to him and Keys is getting all the paperwork through the channels today.
With Keys doing it, we don’t have to wait for any asshole to check the papers and tick the boxes.
” Grinning, Coin continues. “We can start the work immediately after the trailers arrive, which should be tomorrow. Jeremy has everything in place for the infrastructure, and Keys is making sure that there are no mishaps with that. Finger, you need to get your house design to Jeremy as you’ll be the first house he builds. ”
“Will do, Coin. I’ll speak with Cilla tonight and get our ideas jotted down for him.” I rub my hands together because this is exciting, and I know Cilla is going to be thrilled.
“I want a house built, and I have ideas I’ll get to Jeremy.
It’s time I sold my place because I hardly ever use it.
It’s a great place but standing empty is not ideal, and I’d use a house closer to the clubhouse far more than I travel to the one I have.
” Tracker leans back in his seat nodding to himself that he’s made that decision.
“Is there anything else you need us to do for you, Coin, in regard to the new compound, houses, or the tattoo place?” I ask because he has a lot of juggling going on with finances at the moment.
“No, between Books, Keys, and myself, we are getting it all done. If I need anything I’ll shout out, Finger,” Coin responds. “Okay, it’s lunchtime and I’m starving.” With that, Coin turns his butt around and is out of the office before anyone can comment.
“Yeah, lunchtime,” I chirp as I rush out of my chair and dash out of the office. I smile to myself when I hear Tracker and Cap heading out of the office right behind me.
While everyone is in the kitchen eating, a lot of discussion is happening around me. I’m not involving myself in any of it, as my mind is throwing out ideas of what Cilla and my house could look like.
Bull walks into the kitchen, grabs a bottle of water then heads out.
He does it with such purpose that my interest is piqued, and I follow him.
It only takes a moment to realize he is heading for Tracker's office. Now, Tracker has only just grabbed his lunch, so I’m not sure he’ll welcome being disturbed right now.
“Pres, I’m going to look at the gas station I’ve been hearing about. The fucking rent on the recovery yard is being doubled. The piece of shit is trying to screw us over.”
Hearing the annoyance in Bull’s voice, I walk into the office. Knowing Bull better than most, I can hear he is on edge and his infamous temper is about to boil over.
“What happened?” I ask as I close the door behind me. I give Pres, Cap, and Hot Rod a nod of acknowledgement as I wait for Bull to reply.
“We are not paying this fucker the increase in rent. I’m going to look at the gas station, and if that isn’t suitable, I’ll look for somewhere else or run the business from here until I find somewhere,” Bull snarls.
“I’ll come with you, Bull. We’ll have a look at the place.
Hot Rod, tell Books we want the key to look at the place, and we’ll place an offer if it’s suitable.
I’m not sure who the realtor is, but they’ve had that place on the market for about four years,” Tracker grabs his cut from the back of his seat and throws it on.
“Come on, let’s look while nothing is going on here. ”
An hour later, we have the keys and are walking around the gas station. The outside is obviously in need of renovation, but it’s so poor that it cannot be brought up to a decent standard easily.
“The gas pumps may need to be replaced, but that isn’t a certainty. We’ll need someone who knows what they are doing to verify what is needed to supply gas to customers,” Rides comments, and we all agree.
“Let’s look inside,” Bull grunts as he quickly walks to the front door of the building. Once he has opened it with the key he took from the realtor–who by the way is standing next to his vehicle playing a game on his phone–we walk inside.
The shop area has everything in place. The main counter has two registers, and one is linked to the pumps I would imagine.
There are shelves behind which look sturdy enough, and everything needs a good cleaning, of course.
There is a convenience shop area with aisles between the shelving.
Yeah, this could still make a working gas station.
Following Bull out the back of the shop area, we pass a storeroom, an office, and restrooms. But the part that Bull likes is the massive room that has bays inside for mechanical repairs.
“I didn’t know this place had a mechanic's shop?” Rides rubs the back of his neck. Probably as shocked as the rest of us, because looking at everyone else, it is easy to see they are as surprised as Rides.
I reply with surprise showing in my tone.
“No, I didn’t either, Rides. But hey, this would be ideal for a mechanics place or as Bull needs somewhere to repair the trucks for the recovery, and if we put a partition on one side, we could create an office.
Keeping it separate from the gas station. A win-win situation.”
Tracker steps back inside the shop area, walks around, and then stands near the main door looking out, and over the courtyard where the gas pumps are situated.
Cap turns to Tracker, “What do you think, Pres?”
“I think this is an excellent investment. We don’t need to open an auto repair shop. There are two in town already, and both are providing between them what the town needs. We don’t need to put a business out of business.
We can, mind you buy this place, supply gas station service, and have the recovery business attached. Saving us a lot of cash by not paying anymore rent to anyone,” Tracker is rubbing his chin, right before nodding to show he’s decided on the direction we need to go.
“Who is going to run the gas portion? The shop? Run the office for it?” I ask, thinking shit, Pres is going off on one of his gut feelings, and they don’t always work out, mostly…but not always.
“Don’t know yet, but we’ll work it out,” Tracker replies. “Lock this shit up, and Bull get it purchased for as little as possible. If you need help, ask Coin and Keys.”
“Will do, Pres,” Bull answers as he locks the building. We wait for him while he speaks to the realtor, and hands back the key. Saying something that I’m thinking isn’t what the realtor wanted to hear because his face looks like he’s witnessing something abhorrent.
Bull, however, swaggered over to his hog, straddled it, and all the while giving the realtor a cocky look. “Don’t ask,” Bull comments as he fires up his girl.
Tracker gives him the look that says he wants to know, and he will know as soon as we get back to the clubhouse. Bull chuckles at the look he received from Tracker, and we can all see he’ll spill the story.
“Follow me, we have another place I want to visit,” Tracker says right before he takes off, and we all follow behind.
Parking our hogs outside what is now Demon’s Ink with the newly painted sign.
Which I admit isn’t a sign as such–it’s a border above the vast window and the door–encompassing a hand-painted Demon’s Ink name.
It’s very easy to see why Jordan is called Scribe, because the filigree text is superb.
Maybe he can place Cilla’s name on my pec for me? It’s worth asking at least.
Stepping inside, there is a seating area, a desk the length of nearly an entire wall. I thought we’d see areas where the artists would work, but there are coffee tables with albums neatly sitting on top.
Scribe steps out of the back room and seeing us, looks from one of us to another. Spotting Tracker, Scribe steps forward and holds his hand out. “Pres. Welcome to Demon’s Ink.”
After only a slight pause, and taking Scribe in from head-to-toe and back again, Pres shakes the hand in return. “Show me everything,” Tracker says and follows Scribe as he steps back into the room he came out of.
I take a seat and wait, as do Rides and Hot Rod. Cap, of course, follows behind Pres, taking in everything Scribe is saying.
By the time we leave the studio Pres has seen every room in the building, and that includes the small apartment upstairs where Scribe is going to live.
I reckon this place is going to be very successful, especially when you see the list of clients waiting to have Scribe work on their piece.
Anything from a single name to an elaborate wolf in a forest scene.
Yeah, I’m more determined to have Cilla on my pec because it’ll look awesome.
I wonder if I can get Cilla to have a tat?