Chapter 33
RORY
Sitting in the office of the gas station, I am listening to Rum walk me through the setup and the system he has in place. “The setup looks fine to me, Rum. I like the way you have projected the profit from the business after paying everyone’s wages, invoices, and leaving a healthy petty cash.”
“Do you think I have left anything to risk?” Rum is rubbing his bottom lip with his thumb as he stares at the monitor.
“You have all the monthly financials covered. You’ve budgeted all expenses, and your cash flow figures look perfectly fine.
I can see you are ensuring GAAP compliance, perfectly transparent, and will not leave any room for something to bite you on the ass.
I think the billboard will bring in an easy portion of profit, and the idea of the pit stop is fantastic.
If you can correctly estimate the salary for a cleaner alongside maintenance costs, then you’ll be able to charge the correct fee for the tokens.
” I lean forward and double-check a row of outgoings and see nothing that needs altering.
“You have it all set up fine, Rum. You have no reason to worry. But if you ever need me to take another look, just shout out and I’ll come. ”
“Thank you, Rory. I had Coin look it over too, and he has said the same as you have so I’ll continue as I am. Truck is learning everything too, so if I’m ever ill, or something happens to me then he’ll be fine with the system.”
“Don’t say that, Rum. You are not that old, or on your last legs. You could outlive the rest of us.” I grip his shoulder and squeeze as I stand. “I’m going home now because I’ve some things to look at for Coin.”
“Okay, thank you again, Rory.”
I bump into Truck on my way back to my car and I’m sure it wasn’t accidental, on his part, anyway.
“I’m going home now to look at the dumpster business for Coin.
I’ll probably be at home for the rest of the day.
Grady is having a day with his friend, so I’m going to get this done as quickly as I can.
Oh, you need to see Grady on the ice. Truck, he’s an ice hockey star in the making.
That’s if he wants to do that, of course.
But he is better on the ice than most people I’ve seen. ”
“We’ll have to take him together so I can watch him skate.
If he is that talently inclined, we can encourage him.
I’m a big believer in following your dreams, and if that is his dream we can do our best to make it a reality,” Truck replies before stepping into me and lining my back up against the wall.
He wastes no time in kissing me senseless, then chuckles as he guides me to my car and makes sure I’m safely inside, seat belt on, and ready to go. “See you later, babe.”
“Yeah, see you later, Truck,” I reply as I start up my car and drive out of the gas station.
Once home, I quickly settled down to evaluate the roll off/dumpster business.
Ninety minutes later I rub the back of my neck, which has tension building with me sitting over my laptop for so long.
I tend not to move my head much when I’m deep in the figures, and it causes a tightness in my neck and shoulders.
I step away from the table and grab a cold drink from the fridge.
I’m impressed that Keys, who sets up the businesses, does it so well, as does Coin, who organizes the financials.
Between them, they leave nothing to chance and they file on time, with no problems arising over the time the businesses have been in operation.
As far as I can see I don’t need to do anything for them.
Taking out my phone, I send a text message to Coin.
Rory: You can remove my guest login, Coin. Everything is A-OK, and I have no suggestions to make. Great job! You are running a tight ship with these businesses.
Coin: Thanks, Rory. I’m relieved that there are no issues. Both Keys and I have completed online courses, and it looks like they were worth doing.
Rory: They sure were because I have nothing to improve on with this business, or the gas station.
Coin: Thanks again, Rory.
Clearing away the table, which I’ve been using as a desk, I look around the house and wonder what we’ll do with it once we move into the house Truck is having built.
Maybe rent it out? Or do I sell? I’m not going to make any rash decisions.
Okay, now I have a few minutes spare I’m going next door to check on Martin and Cory.
They have become good friends, and even when I move I’ll still call and take them shopping and to any appointments they may have.
TRUCK
Icannot stop grinning to myself. I’m one lucky fucker to have found Rory and got to her before one of the other brothers did. I know some of the brothers are ready to settle down, have a family, and eventually enjoy some peace after all the shit we’ve gone through in our lives.
Rum and I are more than happy Rory has given us the all clear on the business financials, and I know Rum is more relieved than I am. Let’s be honest he has been more manager than I have so far.
Walking into the office, I take a seat next to Rum and lean toward the monitor. The monitor has six separate camera feeds running. “What are you looking for?” I ask as my eyes flick from one of the feeds to another.
“Bull said he’d seen someone on his camera feed but couldn’t make out what was going on.
But he has had nothing go missing or messed with.
I’m running through the timeline he gave me for the back of the gas station.
Our feeds show a different angle to his cameras.
Maybe we will have picked something up?” Rum hasn’t taken his eyes from the screen and is also scanning one feed after another.
“There! What’s that?” I ask, and we both lean in further to take a better look. “It’s a woman,” I utter softly as I watch her push herself underneath one of the recovery trucks.
“What is she doing?” Rum mutters, also shocked at what we are seeing.
“Hiding. It looks like she’s hiding,” Rum flicks the feed to run a little faster, and we watch as she stays underneath the truck for two hours. We also see a man walk around the yard, sticking to the shadows the best he can. “He’s looking for the woman, Truck.”
“Yeah, I’m going to speak to the brothers and tell them to watch this and keep their eyes and ears peeled.
Then if they see this fucker here after that woman hides they do what is necessary,” I grit my teeth as I say this and know if I’m here I’ll beat the crap out of the asshole.
“It’s fuckin’ obvious she’s hiding from him, and he’s got a beat down coming, Rum. ”
“I’ll speak to Bull and update him on what we found. I’ll get Keys to send this portion of the feed over to him so he can show everyone in the recovery yard what we’ve found. I hope she is okay, Truck,” Rum sighs as he picks up the cell phone he has sitting on the side of his desk.
Walking out to the front of the station, I look around for Echo, who was wiping down the pumps this morning as part of our daily chores. “Echo!” I shout, and as he looks up, I wave him over to me.
“What’s up?”
“When you get back to the house tell Xero to watch the feed on the back of the station for a woman. She was hiding under one of the trucks, and an asshole was seen shortly after trying to find her. Well, that’s what it looked like, anyway.
If any of us see her and this fucker, we'll sort him out. I’ll not watch a woman being hunted like she’s some kind of prey to any asshole. ”
“I’ll tell Xero when I get back to the house tonight. I’ll make sure he knows before he starts his night shift. Dice went into town to get lunch because Ian is busy at the clubhouse this morning. Either of us can tell him when he gets back. None of us would watch a woman being hunted or abused.”
Cracking his knuckles, Echo looks like he’d enjoy the job of straightening the fucker out. “You look as eager to find the fucker as I feel.” I give a snort of laughter which has Echo grinning at me.
Dice is informed when he comes back with lunch, and we check the feed again, so Dice and Echo are fully aware of what happened. Bull is snorting like a bull and sounds like he’s going to hunt this asshole down until Joker tells him to calm his tits, which has all of us laughing, of course.
“Who is watching the counter?” Rum asks after a few minutes, and we all jump to our feet shocked that we dropped the ball. Dice runs out of the office, and we hear him loudly saying, “Sorry, we had a problem in the back. I’ll get that rung up for you now. Anything else?”
We naturally burst out laughing at the way Dice quickly spoke to whoever the customer was, but no shouting occurred, so it seems Dice quickly got the customer served.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Truck. Briony is here. She’s cleaning the showers, and we are timing it to see how long it will take.
It’ll be longer this first time because they have stood empty for a long time.
But you know when we checked the showers worked,” Rum chuckles and continues.
“I expected them not to work after all this time, but…”
“Excuse me.”
We all turn and see Briony standing at the entrance to the office soaking wet, and I mean dripping from the top of her head to her trainers.
“What the hell happened?” Rum near enough shouts as he jumps to his feet.
“Well, it seems the showers have running water, but after a few minutes of warm water coming through a pipe burst and here we are,” Briony states so calmly that I don’t stop the smirk that crosses my face.
Seeing it, Briony laughs. “Yeah, it was a shock, but at least it wasn’t freezing cold water.
But I can’t turn the water shut off valve, so water is still flowing. Can someone look, please?”
Echo struts over and does not bother about getting wet as he throws his arm around Briony’s shoulders. “Come on, babe. I’ll take a look at it.”
As soon as they had walked out the back of the building Rum laughs, “Geez, Echo was quick to offer wasn’t he?”
“He was quick. But if you want her to work with us, you may have to give him a warning,” I say but laugh at the same time.
“She’s an adult, and I’m not getting involved in anyone’s love life. But this could mean expenses before we start the pit stop program.”
“I reckon it’s a good thing to rip it all out now, and then we'll know it’s up to standard.
The last thing we need is some asshole inspector coming because someone complained.
If we have it all done now, it’ll be ready for use and won’t need any repairs for a long time.
If any trucker breaks anything, then they’ll have to pay for it. ”
I quickly make my way out of the office and over to the showers. What I don’t expect to find is Briony pinned to the wall and Echo kissing the shit out of her. When I cough to get their attention, Echo grins like a fool, and Briony flushes the color of a tomato.
“Well, what about the showers?” I am doing my best not to burst out laughing at the situation. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll leave you two to sort this out.” I quickly walk out but don’t even try to stop the loud laughter that escapes.