CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

-:- AXEL -:-

Walking into church for another Sunday meeting. We seem to have a merry-go-round of meetings at this time. It’s one of those things that happens when trouble is upon us, and although this wasn’t directly aimed at us it would have come to us, eventually.

Taking my seat, I look around before opening the meeting. “Okay, let’s get to it. I have a report from Nell. She contacted me this morning to inform me she has eradicated half the vermin, and she’s waiting now for the gators to digest. Vincenzo Vitale stayed until the early hours, helping, well, training his newest men. He oversaw they did it correctly, mind you.”

“Was that his excuse, Pres?” Mav chuckles along with most of the brothers.

“Seems so,” I agree, smirking as I remember him watching Nell out of the corner of his eye when she wasn’t looking. “She was taking it as serious as you would expect. The getting rid of evidence I’m talking about. I saw a fuckin’ bucket with fingers, toes, ears and a nose in it.”

Brothers either groan in disgust, laugh at the comment or just sit, waiting for what I’m going to say next. But nothing will change the situation. They were tortured before they were put out of their misery.

“Forest took a few and has charged them, and with the evidence he was able to collect along with the confessions they made, on video I might add, they are not going to get light sentences. I’ve also heard from Death. He did a sweep of the area he heard had a new brothel opening. One of his officers found the truck by happenstance. After that, they grabbed what men were involved, then took the women from where they’d been placed. Death, as you would expect, eradicated the assholes in the desert, never to be seen again. He arranged for the women to get back to their homes, if that’s what they wanted. He also found Maggie Benson amongst the women. She’s not wanting to come back to Utah, she’s staying in Nevada and Death made sure she was set up with a place to live and a job.”

“I’m glad she was found, and if she’s happier in Nevada, then all is good. I can imagine it would be shit to come back to a place you’d been abducted from,” Sentry says, getting nods and grunts of agreement.

“Death said he offered every one of the women somewhere to live and work if they didn’t want to go back to their homes. He had four take him up on the offer. That’s when he purchased a block of apartments and put a woman in one each, got them a job and told them he’d see them once a month until they felt they could manage without being watched over.” I know he’ll still watch them, but they won’t need to know that. He’ll have brothers passing the apartments and workplaces being discreet, well, as discreet as you can be on a hog.

“Did we grab all the gang?” Colton asks.

“Some are deceased, some are in custody, and from what is filtering back to us from the townsfolk, others left town so fast it was like watching Roadrunner from the cartoons. Nell told me Vitale drove around the town letting everyone clearly see who they all were, stopping and getting out of their Escalades, making sure his men in their black suits walked around and spoke to people. I would have loved to have seen that.” Tapping my finger on my bottom lip in thought, I continue, “I reckon the town is clean and will stay clean. Let’s face it, who would want to fuck off the mafia?” I change the subject as I want to move on and get the meeting done. “Tomorrow, quite a few of you are on the road trip for the week. Rock will travel from one business premises to another. He will make sure that nothing is amiss. Specs will also watch the feeds, but make sure everything is locked up tight before tomorrow when you leave.” My mind is trying to cover what is left to discuss. Being President isn’t always easy, and you have to have a good memory.

Excitement buzzes around the room. It’s been quite some time since the brothers had a road trip and I know Beer has put a lot of time and effort into making this a good one. I just hope they all keep their noses clean and we have no comeback on any shit they cause.

“Anything anyone wants to cover?” I ask.

Web shuffles forward in his seat. “Yeah, we have the delivery of the new recovery truck tomorrow. They rushed it through because I told them we’d go somewhere else if they didn’t move their asses.”

Grunts, and comments such as, ‘too right,’ ‘for sure,’ ‘fuck yeah,’ follow his statement, and I have to agree, we are paying a huge amount for this new recovery truck, and we don’t want to be waiting weeks for it.

“Okay, that’s good news. I know you are running a large business now, but don’t overstretch yourselves. You have lives away from work, remember that. It wouldn’t have hurt for you all to go on the road trip, but I understand why you decided not to.” The recovery business is one that can be more than a little demanding, and I don’t want these young brothers burning out because they are doing too much.

“We will be careful, Pres. We have the new man onboard, which will give us a little more downtime, too,” Mensa responds.

“Any news on the diner, Pres?” Rock asks.

“Yeah, actually, I forgot about that. Liam said it’s done. Customers flocked back in. They are seeing a flow of customers that will easily give us a monthly profit if we want to keep it, even with the two cooks and serving staff he’s taken on. But what is very interesting is that Shar and Sharp have been in, asked a lot of questions. Liam thinks they’ll reach out to me to buy the place. Now, if that happens, you all sure you want it sold?” I look at each brother and receive a nod and ‘Aye,’ “So that’s it then, we sell.”

Brag taps on the table, gaining my attention. “I’ve heard from my friend. Garrett will be up for his case to be re-looked at by a new judge. There is a strong possibility he’ll be walking out of there. Depends on when they can fit it in next week. My friend said the whole thing shows the arrest wasn’t made correctly, and it should never have gone to court. Also, with Stone now dead, presumed missing, he can’t mess with Garrett’s case.”

“Okay, let’s hope justice is done and they free the man. Honestly, it’s not right you save your wife from being abused by some asshole and you end up on charges.” I shake my head at the thought, but I would have got her out of there, then bided my time and took the fucker out with no prying eyes to say jack-shit about it.

Reuse lifts his hand to get my attention, and brothers snicker as he looks like a kid in class. “Pres, I’m thinking we need another tattoo artist. Hashtag has his book filled, and mine is as bad. We are still getting inquiries about having work done. I’m thinking if we could find someone who’d be willing to do part-time, and come in as and when we need them, it would take the pressure off. Does anyone know someone who’d be up for it? I know Buzz doesn’t want to do anymore, and we appreciate what he has done for us.”

Krylon nods. “Actually, Siggy, our paint supplier, is a graffiti artist, but she’s also a qualified tattoo artist. She wants to open her own tattoo parlor but hasn’t enough green at this point in time. How about asking her? What do you think Rock?”

“She is reliable, friendly, and from what Splash has told me, a fuckin’ talented artist. She’s helping Splash paint the door on the cages side of the business this morning. I can speak to her if you want me to, and if she’s interested, she can contact you, Reuse,” Rock responds.

“Sounds good. Yeah, do that Rock, thanks.” Reuse is always polite, and although we won’t ever know his full history, we know enough about his personality to know that he’s as honest as you can get.

“Okay, all of you on the road trip, make sure you don’t bring trouble back with you. Let’s call it done for today, and we’ll meet again next week.” I slam the gavel down and call it done.

Walking back into my office, my phone is ringing where I’d left it on the desk. Picking it up, I see it’s Ryker…Fuck, what’s goin’ on now?

“Yeah,” I snap as I take the call.

“This fuckin’ woman, I’m about sick of her already. The bitch was only caught fucking the new prospect behind the clubhouse. He’s been thrown out the club, but what I wouldn’t give to ditch this bitch, she’s nothin’ but trouble,” Ryker snarls.

“For fuck’s sake. She’s married, has a kid, and she’s acting like a club whore. She been with any of the patched brothers?”

“No, we all know a whore when we see one. We also know not to mess with anyone that’s a guest, and that’s what she is, a working guest. But, man, she’s not worth shit. I hope when her man gets out he gets rid of her because she’s no good to him, or her kid.”

“Garrett’s a good man, and Jessica, their daughter, is great. She’s damn clever, too. When she talks, you’d think she was grown up and not seven. I’m going to speak to Rock about her going to a school for gifted kids, because she could be a scientist or something.” My mind wanders to Mia, telling me how clever Jessica is and how knowledgeable she is about food. Talking about taste, texture, spices and shit left me thinking, ‘give me a burger.’

“If she is that clever, then I agree. Gifted kids need stimuli. She needs her IQ tested.” Ryker sounds excited about Jessica being clever. “Let me know if he does, ‘cause I’d be interested in knowing. Knew a Marine who was that bright, and he could get us out of a tight spot with just being able to plan an alternative route faster than any of us.”

“I’ll speak with Rock as I said, as his woman is Jessica’s aunt. She has the kid at the moment, so she’ll speak with Garrett about it, I’m sure. But I’ll let you know if they get her tested and what happens.”

Wonder how bright my kids are? Maybe I should do a little testing of my own, when Mia isn’t around, mind you. She’d bust my balls if she caught me doing shit with them to see their reactions. I reckon I could get Meat on board, and let him take the busted balls instead of me!

Now I best go check what that fucker Wings is doing in the compound. I know he's dug a fuckin’ great hole in the front garden area. Mia will go ape if he’s doing something dodgy. She had the entire front of the clubhouse landscaped so it looked decent to people passing. Why? I don’t know, ‘cause none of the brothers give a shit what anyone thinks.

Walking out the front door of the clubhouse, I come to a stop. In front of me is a flagpole, and on it is flying the Stars and Stripes. Now that I can live with, and I feel proud to see it. Now it’s up. Let anyone try to take it down. We will die to protect it now that it’s here.

Wings walks around the building with his arms full of flowers. He’s going to plant them around the base of the pole, I’m sure. “GREAT JOB, WINGS. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!” I shout and get myself a salute in response. As prior military, I can’t help but salute right back and do it with pride. Maybe Wings is about as crazy as Meat, but he’s our crazy fucker and that’s all that matters.