Page 11 of Archer (Dirty Misfits MC 3)
I didn’t want to be responsible for the deaths of more of our members.
I still owed Josie an apology, though. She needed full-time, around-the-clock care, and I had walked out on her for purely selfish reasons. However, I also couldn’t just take time off. There was no “vacation time” in the life of a crew member. There was no “getting away from it all” whenever we needed to hang up our jackets for a little bit.
Once we took that pledge, we understood that we’d be on-call twenty-four-seven for the rest of our lives.
Once we took that pledge, we understood that we’d be at our president’s beckoning call until further notice.
And once we took that pledge, our lives were sold to whatever Devil people believed in.
We turned into the things our parents feared.
Still, after taking a few sharp corners and working out some aggression on the empty back roads of inland Santa Cruz, I made a U-turn in the middle of the road and headed straight for the clubhouse. I knew myself and the guys had a lot to talk about, and even more to coordinate in the coming months. There was a storm brewing, and not the thundering kind seen off the coast.
A blood storm was coming.
And it would result in heartache for all if we didn’t step properly.
I eased into the gravel parking lot of the clubhouse and noticed that bikes were still there. I figured everyone would have dispersed until some of the heat died down from finding Josie, but it seemed everyone had the same idea as myself. I parked my bike next to Brooks’ and made my way inside, only to find him, Cole, Porter, Tanner, and Finn staring at the front door.
“We were wondering when you’d come back,” Brooks said.
Cole tossed me a beer. “How’s Josie?”
I caught it on my hand and cracked it open. “About as well as can be expected. I’m sure she’s asleep by now. She took her pain pill and had some food before I left.”
Finn, our newest prospect, nodded. “Sounds like it’s for the best, for now.”
Porter cleared his throat. “So, we just gonna sit on our asses and act like The Black Flags haven’t done what we know they’ve done?”
Brooks snickered. “Fuck no. I was just waiting for this half-wit to get back.”
I blinked. “Thanks.”
Brooks winked playfully. “Anytime, suga.”
I barked with laughter before I took a massive pull from my drink, then we all sat around a wooden dining room table that desperately needed to be re-sanded and refinished. I leaned back in my chair and kept sipping on my drink, teetering the damn thing on its back two legs. An impromptu meeting would certainly take my mind of shit. But it wouldn’t stop Josie’s barrage of questions over the coming days.
Especially now that she knew there was something beneath the surface to poke at.
Why do women always do that shit?
“So,” Brooks said, “Finn did a bit more digging into some stuff while you were gone, and it turns out that this isn’t the only attempt to buy up a strip club The Black Fucknuggets have tried.”
My eyebrows rose. “Really now? What else did they try to buy?”
Finn pulled some rolled-up papers out of his leather jacket and tossed them onto the table. “According to what I could do via internet and a few phone calls, there are at least four different strip clubs that recall these men walking in with a bag of money at their side wanting to buy their property.”
Cole clicked his tongue. “Did they purchase any of them?”
Finn polished off his drink. “Two told them to get fucked, one is still considering their offer, and the last strip club is currently in the process of selling off their place to these guys.”
“Fuuuuuuck,” I groaned.
Tanner sighed. “Is anyone else thinking what I’m thinking?”
Brooks eyed him hotly. “That The Black Homewreckers are trying to use these strip clubs for more than simple stripping?”
Cole paused. “Uh, since when were we under the insinuation that these assholes were just doing strip club shit? You know damn good and well that they’ve got ulterior motives that haven’t bubbled to the surface yet.”
I finished my own drink. “And my biggest concern is that, before we can blink our eyes, Santa Crus is going to be another massive hub for the sex trade and human trafficking syndicates that have been fighting their way into this part of the state for years.”
Brooks pointed at me. “Exactly. They’ve been battling us over our turf now for damn near a decade. And all of a sudden, they pivot to buying up strip clubs? I mean, where the fuck is their money coming from in the first place? They’ve already undercut our prices and made it difficult enough for us at the mechanic-slash-chop-shop.”
But as we all gazed around the table at each other, none of us had answers to any of his questions.
