Page 38 of Vortex

“Thank you, Julia. That was very thoughtful of you,” Pres calls as she reaches the door. She turns at his words, and the pleasure from his comment is plain to see.

“You might want to take a break, Pres. These pastries are still warm and they smell delicious.” I look at him hopefully, and when he looks at the chief, they seem to reach the same conclusion without words. Pres pours coffee into cups while I deal with the pastries. There are paper plates on the tray, the ones we usually use for barbecues and other outdoor events, so I put two on each plate and pass them around.

We all eat in silence, not because we have nothing to say, but because we are savoring the taste of the food. These aren’t something store-bought and warmed up, these are freshly made and stunning. Another tap on the door and Pres can’t shout enter as his mouth is full, so he nods at me. I call “Enter,” and Julia pops back in with some paper napkins.

“Sorry, I forgot to put these on the tray.” She blushes and Pres waves his hand at her while trying to swallow the last of his mouthful.

“Don’t apologize, Julia. I give you permission to interrupt me at any time, day or night, if you are bearing gifts like these. Did you make these yourself?”

Blushing even deeper, she nods. “I found an old recipe book, you know the type of thing that has recipes from grandma’s day? Allegra and Anya helped me try them out and then I hate to admit it, but we sort of modernized them a bit. We tweaked the flavors to make them more like the sort of thing you’d get nowadays.”

“Well, you have a talent for it. I may make a request for some of these every day from now on,” Pres tells her.

“I might have to come calling, too, if this is what’s available. I think my doughnut dunking days are over.” The chief gives Julia an appreciative glance that takes in more than her culinary skills, and causes her to dash from the room.

“I knew there was something going on around town, I had that gut feeling, but I didn’t know it was this serious, or on such a scale. If it hadn’t been for you guys stumbling onto this, Cottonwood Glades could have become established as one of, if not the, biggest money launderers this country has ever seen. I can’t deal with this on my own, so I’ll need to get in touch with other agencies. Homeland, FBI, Treasury Department. I suppose they’ll be fighting over this, trying to get involved and take the credit. Crap.” He wipes his hands down his face, and I can almost feel his pain. Agents swarming through the town, probably getting in each other's way and muddying the waters.

“I’d hold off on notifying anyone just yet, Mitch. We have someone with ‘connections’ in that field of expertise, and she’s going to reach out and see what she can do. If it can be helped, we want as little involvement as possible. You should know that the mayor was more than on the sidelines. She gave us this evidence after a little persuasion of our own. We promised to keep her out of it as much as possible in return.” Pres looks a little uncomfortable with this revelation.

“You know that one of her first ‘duties’ as mayor was to storm my office and try to get you and your club made ‘persona non gratis’. She wanted you out of the county, and the state if possible. Don’t be too mindful of her feelings.” The chief looks a little uncomfortable this time.

“Oh, we knew all about that. Any skeletons from our closet have long since been removed and dealt with. We’ve been clean ever since I took the presidency, and we only take out the trash when we are left with no other option. If we can hand anything over to you guys, we do so gladly.” Pres grins and it doesn’t look like I think he meant it to. It looks more evil than friendly.

“Yes, I had a tough time believing my officers,” he looks at Twang, “when they told me what they had found at Stephan Haroldson’s ranch. We found a camera feed that showed you guys turning up after the party, so to speak. It was of no use identifying those that came before you and served no purpose putting you there after the fact, so it conveniently got misplaced and then forgotten about.”

Twang looks at every part of the room, but not at any individual, as the chief tells Pres this.

The meeting winds down, and the decision is made to wait and see what happens from Mary reaching out. Pres has been careful not to mention who is doing the reaching.

Sitting in the compound with a coffee, I’m mulling over everything that has happened in so short a time. After talking with Allegra last night, I was surprised that she isn’t in a hurry to get married. I had no issues with her being my wife, and the recent old ladies have all been keen to be wives as well. She wants kids, but not until we have a home established in which to bring them up. Well, the ranch should provide that, and we are both young enough that we can wait a while.

I need to find myself a steady income, more than just what I’m getting for being a gofer for the club. I’m not going to be a rancher or cowboy, as much as I don’t mind helping and supporting Allegra, but I don’t know what I want for myself. I see my hog sitting out back, and it makes me smile. God, I love that bike. She wasn’t cheap, and I had a hell of a time finding what I wanted. I had my list of requirements and wasn’t prepared to compromise. In the end, I had to get a professional ‘bike hunter’ to find her. He wasn’t cheap either.

A hand on my shoulder almost has me drop my cup. “Hey, Vortex. You look as if you’re somewhere else. Something bothering you?”

“Hi, Mateo. No, just woolgathering. Wow. That’s an old term. Not sure where that came from. What can I do for you?”

“I was wondering if we could pick up on the knife skills you were teaching me. A lot has happened and we’ve sort of let the training slip.”

“Sure thing. You should come out to the ranch, and we can set something up out there away from distractions. Bring Spirit, and she can get better acquainted with Allegra. I bet they’d enjoy each other's company.”

“I’m not sure I’d want them teaching each other stuff, though. Christ Almighty. They are two of the toughest women I know. If Spirit started teaching Allegra some of her survival skills and Allegra boosted Spirit’s confidence, we could both be in big trouble.” Mateo’s eyes are wide as he thinks on this, and I have to say, he has a point.

“Allegra constantly surprises me with stuff she knows. Her brother, God rest his soul, taught her some fancy moves and how to handle weapons. I was watching her in the kitchen the other day at the ranch. She was preparing sandwiches for lunch. She was humming away, dancing, and spinning a chef’s knife in her hand like it was a kid’s toy. She can do it faster than I can, and she didn’t know she was doing it.”

“Did you say anything to her about it?” Mateo asks, still wide-eyed.

“Fuck me, no. I wasn’t about to make her jump while she had that knife in her hand. Do I look stupid or something?” I give him my own wide-eyed look.

“Well, putting it like that. Spirit is handy with weapons. Her dad taught her a lot from a tender age. We sure know how to pick ’em, eh?”

“I guess we’re stuck with ‘em.”

“How do you mean?” Mateo goes from wide-eyed to a frown.

“Are you going to tell Spirit you’re dumping her?” I laugh at the mere thought of trying to be the one to break off a relationship. “I know that’s not on the cards, but really? And you have those damn dogs to consider. Ha, try to break up with Spectre, too.” That thought has me laughing out loud. That Malinois took a shine to him quickly, much to Spirit’s disgust.

“Yeah. I guess I’d be better just jumping off a cliff. Quicker and less painful.”