Wrath Chapter 20 #4
Corker stood. The room came to attention.
“Lion has done a lot of talking. I wanted you to know that everyone seated here with him feels the same way he does. We’re committed to stopping this practice within the Black Outlaws.
We see no way it’s acceptable, no matter how much money it makes for a club.
We know we’re asking you to trust us, and it’s hard.
We’re kinda feeling it on the other end, too.
We’ve never allied with a non-one-percenter club.
” Corker sat back down. There were numerous chin lifts acknowledging the truth of what he said.
Trust would have to be a two-way street.
“Lion, you mentioned the example of asking for advice on establishing legitimate businesses like Wrath’s body shop.
Admittedly, as it stands now, we don’t compete with any of your chapters.
If you make some of yours legal and ask us for help, only to have them compete against ours, it could kill our businesses.
A few of your chapters are somewhat close to ours,” Jinx stated.
“Yes, we’d ask for advice. No, we wouldn’t allow a business to form in a chapter close enough to one of your territories to make them your competition. Our old national president would’ve done it. We won’t because we sure wouldn’t want you to do it to us,” Lion answered.
He stood again. “Ding is the national treasurer, and while he focuses a lot on the money coming in and investing and how we spend it, he would check to make sure, before approval is given to start a business, it wouldn’t cause that.
You asked how it would benefit your clubs and why we want to change.
I’ll answer the last one first. I partially said it before.
We’re sick and tired of constant wars with other clubs.
And it’s not just them. There’s organized crime run by the Mafia and the cartels to deal with, too.
With just those three, we find ourselves going to prison, which you’ll be lucky to survive, or dying young.
We don’t want that. Where’s the fun and living free in that equation?
And, as many of you know, those with families get left to fend for themselves.
“The benefit for you is that you have additional backup when needed. For example, if you go up against someone else who’s running drugs through your territory and selling people, because MCs aren’t the only ones who do it, you would have us.
And since we’re tapped into the outlaw side of MCs, we can get the information you need.
Plus, you will be paid consultation fees if we use you for consulting. We don’t expect it for free.
“Agony, you mentioned your chapter’s firsthand experience due to Jessamy.
I wish Mace and her were here so we could tell them how fucking sorry we are that any Black Outlaw had something to do with it.
I know it probably doesn’t mean anything, but I do want to still offer it to her.
Is there anything she needs or wants to do that she can’t afford?
I ask because we plan to offer her restitution for what she suffered.
It doesn’t heal her pain, but maybe there’s something good she could use it for.
We have set aside funding to help those impacted because of our dealings, if we can find them. ”
“You’re right. It won’t make up for it. I’ll ask them, but I doubt they’ll accept.
However, if you have funds, we can think of a way to help, even if not everyone is a victim of being sold or almost sold.
More than one of our old ladies across the various clubs has been a victim, although not all of it has been due to the Outlaws.
In Hunters Creek, they have a refuge for people who have been abused, raped, kidnapped, or you name it, called Warriors’ Haven.
That money you spoke of would help a lot of people.
And occasionally, we run into those who have suffered what Jessamy did or worse, that we could use funds for.
Many end up having to restart their lives, and they don’t all have family or friends to help them,” Agony explained.
Lion glanced at his crew. They all nodded their heads.
He turned back. “We’d be more than happy to assist. Another way I see this helping is if you’re having trouble with another outlaw MC, and we can help smooth the way for you.
We’d be happy to assist. You gotta think, having you associated with us would confuse people and maybe make them think twice about messing with you. ” He chuckled.
Several guys joined him. He had that right.
“You asked what percentage of our chapters are behind letting that dirty business go. I can confidently say sixty-five percent, maybe seventy. It’s been slow getting to all of them and spending enough time to get the lay of the land.
Also, they tend to have other problems we need to assist them in addressing.
” Sundown answered this question. He and Shovelhead exchanged smirks. I could imagine what they had to do.
I addressed the room. “Are there any other questions for right now? If so, call them out. If not, I suggest you think over what Lion and his guys said and jot down any you think of for tomorrow’s meeting.
” I waited. When no one said anything, I nodded.
“Then I call this meeting adjourned. I need the Black Outlaws and Panthers’ clubs to remain along with my officers. ”
The others got to their feet and ambled out. The two clubs and my men stayed. Psycho had been present at the meeting, but, per instruction, he was told not to speak. He’d listened intently, I noticed. He didn’t give much away on what he thought of their proposal.
The silence was tense as everyone took their seats around the table.
To me, the tension felt worse than when fifty of us were in here.
I didn’t think any of us were looking forward to this.
Psycho sat there with his head up and his hands folded in front of him on the table.
I knew Panther would expect me to start this since it was my club, and Jalisa was my old lady.
In a way, it affected my club just as much, if not more, than his.
“I don’t believe we have to go over all the minute facts again to see why we’re meeting.
Panther and my club are very familiar with the accounting Psycho gave and his reasons for what he did.
Lion has been advised of all that, and his crew has been updated.
The reason we asked for the Black Outlaws to be here is that their men were involved in this.
Killer was directly responsible for getting Psycho involved in trafficking by lying about what he was transporting.
When Psycho discovered the truth, he helped the victims escape and refused to work with Killer.
“However, that led to Psycho’s daughter becoming the focus of Killer’s attention.
By keeping what happened to yourself, you almost caused her to be kidnapped, raped, or possibly dead.
We know Killer killed two women he was involved with, and one was pregnant with his baby.
A baby he cut from her body before it was old enough to survive and sold it for fucking parts!
” I had to take a deep breath. My anger was rising so fast. I swore I’d be detached, but I couldn’t.
Dad took over. “Wrath is as angry as you would be. He didn’t know Jalisa until after the attempt to acquire her here in Eatonton failed.
But they quickly became close, and he claimed her as his old lady.
Psycho, I don’t think any of us doubts you love your daughter.
And you love your club. What we can’t wrap our heads around, or I can’t, is how you thought hiding it from your club would help.
Maybe in the beginning, when you wanted to show what you accomplished to Panther, but as soon as it went wrong, you should’ve confessed.
They had no clue about the real danger the club or Jalisa was in.
“They thought it was merely an obsessed-after-a-few-dates situation. Killer told you if he didn’t get her, he’d take Jalisa and sell her.
She could be gone and in some other country being raped, beaten, and God knows what else, daily by someone.
” The mental images Dad’s words created made my fist slam on the table. I took deep breaths to regain my calm.
“Stop, stop, yes, everything you said is true. I was a stupid fucking moron for doing it in the first place. I let my need to find a different place in the club to blind me. I should’ve never gotten involved with a Black Outlaw.
I knew Killer was bad news. His reputation preceded him. He was said to be unstable.
“And I was an idiot for thinking he’d be on the up-and-up about the work, or he would let me walk away.
However, I truly never thought he’d go after my daughter.
I almost had a heart attack when I found out they’d been dating.
I panicked, and instead of telling the club what I had done, I rushed to have her sent somewhere I thought she’d be safe.
Only she wasn’t. I made her life worse by trying to scare her away from being Wrath’s old lady. ”