Page 61 of Walker

“She had both men on the hook for the same kid?” Giovanni asked.

“From what I’ve managed to put together, that seems to be the case. That was when your man loaned Josh $30,000 to gamble on making more, so that he could pay off the child support debt he owed to Joey. That was $432,000 of the debt you quoted earlier. It wasn’t your debt. Joey was the dipshit paying support for a kid he never had tested. That money is on him. As for the $30,000 that was borrowed by Josh Ambrose, your boy had him killed and set it up to look like he died on the fucking job two damn years ago.”

“I don’t understand. Last time I spoke with Joey, he assured me that the wife of Josh had received a hefty payout of insurance.”

“Boss, the bitch who told Joey that lied,” we heard a man say from Giovanni’s side of the call before the other side of the conversation was muted temporarily.

When the call was reconnected, Giovanni Martinelli shocked us all by apologizing. “You have my condolences on those lives that have been lost. My apologies for the misdeeds of a man whose actions fall on my shoulders at the end of the day. What I cannot do is pull my men from the racket they have set up in North Carolina. I have it under good authority that both motorcycle clubs are located in Georgia.”

“Less than an hour from the casino you’re operating around,” Ghost clarified.

“That does not matter. We were invited there by one of the MCs in question and that invitation has not been rescinded.” He chuckled. “It wouldn’t matter if it was. The deal has already been struck.”

Ghost glared down at the phone knowing he couldn’t explain his daughter’s condition as it would weaken both MCs to do so. “The Flaming Irons MC is located in your area. They have several chapters throughout Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Wyoming. We’re looking to join patches with them to bridge the gap between our other chapters and the one we have in the Dakotas.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s so. I think you’ll find that you’ve spread your interests a bit too thin and when push comes to shove, it will only take a little puff of air to knock over your throne. Rethink your answer. You have one week to close shop and get your men the hell out of the south. This territory is ours. If you fight me on it, your territory in Chicago will also belong to the Aces High MC. Don’t fucking test me. This whole fiasco was one man’s vendetta that turned into a shitshow with a good woman dead and her two kids now growing up without a mom. We will not let that go unanswered.”

There was silence on the other end of the line for so long that I thought the asshole had hung up. Finally, he spoke up. “A delivery will be made to your clubhouse within the hour. Do what you will with the package. We will consider the slate wiped clean. I will analyze the situation there and give you my answer about closing shop at the end of the week.”

“I don’t want an answer at the end of the week. I want all your men gone,” Ghost demanded.

“I don’t take kindly to threats made against me and my establishment.”

“And I don’t fucking handle our women being killed at all. You’re lucky you got a fucking courtesy call from us, and you only got that because I thought maybe your man had gone rogue. You should probably take the out you were given, or things are going to get excessively bloody in your neck of the woods.” Ghost hung up the phone then and turned his attention back to the rest of us.

“We’re staying for Tash’s funeral. If they haven’t made a move here by then, they probably aren’t going to. I want someone on top of this situation when I’m gone.”

“Is Quickshot going back with you?” Snake asked, clearly having not been in the loop about Angel Girl before.

Quickshot was the one to speak up. “No. I’m going to say my goodbyes here. My woman and I are now both in charge of the MCs and we can’t abandon them, especially when we all need to recover from the damage that was done.”

“No one would blame you for taking some time.” I told him.

“I would blame me. Part of taking this position is knowing that the club comes first. If Angel-Jamie was all there right now, she would understand that, too. I took over from Sweet too recently for someone else to have to step up and take over for me.”

I admired Quickshot’s dedication to the club because it would cost him the prolonged goodbye he needed with his lifelong friend.

“We need a man on Spike every day between now and the funeral. Probably afterward too. He isn’t handling Tash’s death well.” My heart cracked open in my chest.

“He probably blames himself for tossing her Reesa’s keys that day.”

“Whatever the reason, we need someone to be there for him and someone to take his kids in.”

“I’ll talk to Reesa. She’s already had Griff and Diesel with her this whole time and D seems comfortable with her. Plus, he’s just a year older than Josh Jr.”

“That’s settled. The kids will stay with Reesa and Walker until Spike pulls it together.” Ghost turned my way. “Is her house big enough for all of them?”

“I’m sure we can make it work as long as the threat has been eliminated.”

“Every one of those motherfuckers is about to die,” Ghost promised. He hadn’t been idle in his promises, because an hour later, Joey fucking Farina was brought to the clubhouse beaten, bloody, and about an inch away from death’s doorstep. He didn’t even make it down to the cells before Quickshot drove home the deathblow that took the man out for good.

21 - Cramped Quarters

The clubhouse was on lockdown. It meant that all the club brothers, their families, and even some of the club’s whores were all piled into the clubhouse together. Since it used to be a factory space, it was large, but not quite large enough to house all the people who were there. The only people who were not forced to be on the property were brothers out handling business, and even then they had to travel with two to three members minimum before they could leave the compound. The other exception was the old ladies who ran the S.H.E. MC.

Steel had his kids at the clubhouse because JoJo, Keys, and the others were busy handling things at their own club. They would take turns coming to the clubhouse at night, but one of them had to be at the S.H.E. MC clubhouse every night to make sure things ran smoothly there as well.

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