11. 10 - The Way of Things

10 - The Way of Things

The last time I had taken things slowly with a woman, it was when I met my ex-wife. Back then, I hadn’t purposely wanted to give her the time to get to know me, but she was young and inexperienced still. There was also the fact that her brother had made certain threats about what would happen if I didn’t treat his sister right. Considering he was a club brother, giving his permission for me to go there with his family, I had to respect that.

I gave my ex slow for the wrong reasons. I wasn’t about to make that mistake again. As much as I wanted to take Reesa home and sink deep inside her beautiful body, I knew sex wasn’t the foundation we would need to build on. What we both needed was to get to know one another and build trust between us before we went there. Tanya interrupting our date was a reminder that it would unfortunately be necessary, especially considering my past.

I didn’t need to fall in love with a woman and have someone throw lies her way that would cause her to doubt me, my intentions, or my actions. So, in an effort to build trust before anything else, I left her on her doorstep with a hell of a kiss that had me hard and aching to tell my new-found principles to fuck off.

“I take it the date went well?”

I glanced up to see Trouble sitting a few feet away. “What the hell do you know about it?”

He laughed. “Brother, I’m not on the attack. Bring the attitude down a notch. ‘Bout fucking time you got back in the game and realized you’re an asset to the people around you.”

“What?”

“They did a really good job of beating you the fuck down. Someone forgot to read the memo where they were supposed to build you back up and make sure you were part of the brotherhood afterward.” Troubles eyes shifted toward the hallway where the offices were located. Sweet stood there wearing his pissed-off face as he scanned the crowd of available bodies.

“Walker!” He yelled my name the minute his eyes found mine. Motherfucker. The asshole made me question my place in the club on a nearly daily basis and I could tell by his attitude that this time would not be any different.

“Whatever it is, we got your back, brother.” Trouble stood and pulled me into a one-armed backslap before he stepped back again. It kind of threw me off because I had grown used to everyone keeping their distance over the past couple years. “That shit ain’t right.” My club brother mumbled as he glared back over his shoulder at our president.

I took my time and put my cue stick back. I had been playing a round of pool while waiting on Spike to get in, so we could get to work on a custom job that came in. I had a new technique I’d been reading up on that I wanted to try for this one, but we were supposed to head to the junkyard to pick up a test car to try it out on first. If it went well, it would mean the car we were working on would have the slickest paint job in all of northern Georgia.

“Let Spike know where I am when he gets here. We have a job to do today, and he was supposed to meet me here with the tow truck.”

“Will do,” Trouble agreed before I walked off toward Sweet.

“Took your fuckin’ time about it,” Sweet remarked as I made my way down the hall behind him.

“I’m not your fuckin’ prospect anymore, in case you forgot.”

“You are my fucking club member and I’m still your President , so watch your fuckin’ mouth.”

“What do you need?”

“Need you to take the run today.”

“How am I up again?”

“Because I chose you and you have shit to prove.”

“No, I really don’t. I already proved my shit and got my patch back. I’m a brother just like all the others out there that wear this patch. We’re all bringing in the same money and I’m the only one doing these runs.”

“You looking for a raise? Looking to get more than your club brothers?”

“Nah, I’m looking to not do three times the work for the same take as the ones who never have to leave anyone behind.”

“You don’t have anyone. That’s why I keep choosing you.”

“Well, I do have someone. I have multiple someone’s. I also have a fucking job. Pick someone else. I have work to get done at my job – the one that pays my bills.”

“The club is your job.”

I laughed. “Your woman’s club might have functioning businesses that keep everyone afloat, but this club ain’t cutting it. If I counted on club money to pay my bills, I’d be starving to death.”

I still lived at the clubhouse for now, but contrary to popular belief it wasn’t free. I was charged my dues like everyone else to be a member, but then I also had room fees to pay to keep a place here, since space was limited.

“You refusing to pull your weight?”

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Quickshot asked after barging into the office. Sweet’s nostrils flared as he clenched his fits.

“Walker refused to go on the run today.”

“As he fucking should. What the fuck, Sweet? We talked about this shit. He’s been on the last two runs – by himself, no less, when everyone else has been going in teams of two. This shit stops now, or I’m going to have to get Ghost involved.”

Sweet smirked. “My father-in-law?”

Quickshot shook his head. “No, our club’s National Prez. Matter of fact, I think that call is long overdue at this point.”

“Fuck you, man!”

“I don’t know what you and Angel Girl have going down, but it has burned its way into the core of our club, and I’m not having it anymore. I gave both of you time to work this shit out. Your shit is running amuck in our club and you’re abusing club brothers who your woman has a vendetta against. This is a new all-time low for the club and it ends now.”

“My woman? I thought she was one of your best friends. Some friend you are, asshole.”

“Yeah, some friend. I don’t want to see our entire club, and hers, implode because the two of you are fucked in the head over something you refuse to talk about. Go get your shit right. You’re officially relieved of duty here until you do.”

“You think you can take my club from me?” Sweet growled the words and looked like he was about to attack his best friend – the club’s Vice President. What in the hell was going on?

“I can,” Ghost said as he walked around the corner and made his presence known.

Sweet fumed as he glowered at Quickshot. “Looks like you already got him involved.”

“Yeah, and I wasn’t the one making those calls, asshole. I just wanted to see if you would change your tune knowing it was a possibility,” Quickshot threw back at him.

“I can’t believe you went behind my back.”

“And I never thought you’d be the downfall of this chapter, but here we are on the brink.”

“We are nowhere near on the brink,” Sweet argued.

“I’ve had six requests in the past thirty days for club brothers from Sierra High to transfer to another chapter,” Ghost stated. That number shocked me. Apparently, it shocked Sweet too because he took a seat, and we all watched as his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Ghost turned to me. “Walker, I have Chief and Smoke down here with me. That gonna be a problem for you?”

“Nope. Not unless they make it one.”

Ghost nodded. “What if I told you Poppy is here with them and so are the kids.”

“Hope they’re doing well, but still don’t see a problem. Listen, I have work to get to with Spike today. We’re testing a new paint method that might just give our custom work the boost and consumer appeal it needs to take off.”

“Good. I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about you lately.”

I gave him a look that said I didn’t believe that at all.

Ghost took a seat across from me and nodded his head. “I get why you’d doubt me, but I don’t make a habit of bullshitting people. I came here because so many of the club members from this chapter were sending me messages.” He glanced back at his son-in-law, as if to reiterate that it wasn’t just Quickshot who had called him there to handle business. “Every single one of them said we were in danger of losing a damn good club brother and that it wasn’t acceptable.”

“Me?” I asked, still not able to believe it.

“You. You’ve been working harder than most, staying clean, sober too – though there was no need for that. Not a single man in this club, outside of this chapter’s President had a negative thing to say about you. That lit a fire under my ass to get down here and find out what’s been going on. Sorry to say you got caught up in some drama that my daughter and son-in-law decided to take out on you. The club owes you an apology. Several, actually.”

“Why do I feel like I woke up in the freaking Twilight Zone?”

“The club, and MC life, is riddled with brothers who couldn’t keep it in their pants. Also full of a bunch of regretful assholes who do stupid shit when they realize what they lost as a result of their own actions. We should have let cooler heads prevail before saying you needed to be punished for checkin’ in on an ex who you still cared about. Not that it was the wisest decision you could have made, considering she had her brother and new old man at her back to do that, but I think we all get that you were coming from a place of regret and protection, not one of disruption.”

“Never wanted her back at that point,” I admitted. “Knew she was better off but I needed to prove that to myself. It would have killed me if I pushed her away and into a situation where she was treated worse. I needed to know she was happy – end of story.”

“Yeah, Walker, we understand that. All of us.” He emphasized. “The thing is, when I spoke to Sweet about things, we decided to make an example of you. Partly, it was to appease Chief and Smoke, who initially thought you were there to try to cause trouble in Poppy’s relationship. Additionally, it was because we didn’t want that kind of bullshit popping up with any other complicated romantic situations involving more than one brother. We dealt with that shit before with Iceman, Carol, and Hopper.”

Ghost stared off somewhere over my head and then blew out a breath. “You were only supposed to prospect for six months before earning your patch back.”

I sat there too stunned to speak, but Quickshot jumped up and looked as though he was about to fly across the room and take his frustration out on Sweet’s face. “What the fuck, man? Every three months for eighteen, we tried to take a vote to give the man back his patch and you always shot it down saying: ‘Leadership isn’t ready to give it back yet’. We all thought you meant that was Ghost’s orders.”

I threw a hard glare at Sweet then and stood. “If that motherfucker keeps his President’s patch, then I’m out. I don’t give a shit what he has going on in his personal life. He made me prospect again for eighteen fucking months under the most demoralizing conditions you can imagine. I’ve never seen a prospect treated the way that I was, and I grew up among the Tallahassee Chapter when they were run by a greedy maniac.”

“I understand and promise you that there is no reason for you to turn in your kutte.”

“What the fuck?” Sweet finally spoke up.

“I suggest you keep your mouth shut until I’m ready for you, Sweet.” Ghost turned back to me and his turquoise eyes looked worn and weary. “You have shit to do, head on out and take care of whatever is on your agenda today. Don’t worry about the run, someone else will be taking it.”

“There’s no one else ready because I had Walker scheduled.”

“Funny thing about that schedule of yours, you just informed me of the run a few minutes ago. If no notice is good enough for one brother, it should be good enough for another one.” I left those as my parting words and strolled out of the office.