Page 46 of Biker's Collar: Property of Scrap

It’s a bigger problem now that our mothers have decided to descend on the club for this meeting. We don’t allow them into the actual war room, but it’s bad enough that they’re outside smoking, drinking… and gossiping relentlessly about us.

I’m proud of the group we assembled, but looking around at all their faces, I can’t help but worry that we’ll end up just like our fathers. They all put forth their best efforts to show up here and I’m downright surprised that some of them did.

Ruger got shot in the shoulder and from what I heard, shit got terrible over at Oske’s trailer. Another problem for another time. We have more urgent business now. He sits next to Gideon, who sits to my left with Tamiya seated on his lap.

He refuses to attend meetings without her and frankly, considering the way I’ve seen her fight, I don’t mind her being in the room. No fucking way Anna sits in on a meeting like this. Not with our second kid hopefully on the way. Tanner shares my opinion. Quin is nowhere near this meeting.

Juliette straddles Hunter in the back of the room, pushing him against the wall as she thrusts her ass back and kisses him like he has nicotine-laced Prosecco coating his lips. Ryder and Joslin must have come to a similar agreement to the one I came to with Anna, because he sits alone, casting the occasional disapproving glance at his brother.

Deacon Hollingsworth is the most surprising presence at this meeting, but considering I used his underground casino to expose key members of the Midnight SS, I shouldn’t be surprised that he wants deeper involvement in the decision making behind our warfare against these Neo-Nazi fucks.

We have a lot of ground to cover in this meeting. Ethan and Owen seem agitated with each other and I don’t know why — nor do I care to figure it out. Owen brought that girl from the bust at Deacon’s place up to Missouri, but I wouldn’t take Ethan for the type to grow jealous over a random woman. Their tension must be over something else. Gambling? I put Owen in a fucked up situation and he handled it just fine. Ethan always thought Owen should have custody of his daughter, so I doubt the situation with Waverly and Kaylee-Marie has anything to do with it. Although, that’s not a bad guess.

Ethan thinks because he’s the oldest that heisour dad. Still, he hasn’t let Owen’s dumb ass baby mama drama get him this tense in ages.

That’s not it… My mind wanders back to the woman in Owen’s care. Was her name Veronica or something? He was odd about the entire thing and my wife thinks I should investigate more.

I glance at my brother for a spare moment… Wondering if I should worry about him and this woman. Oske never mentioned any concerns over Owen and the woman. She only seems to be concerned about money and land. I don’t blame her.

The land situation is fucked up.

Owen hasn’t explained his strange request for this woman and I’m up to my nose in shit to deal with, so I don’t have time to deal with Owen’s bullshit. He’s too much of a softie to properly harm a woman. I have to keep believing that. And as for Ethan… The only thing that man loves is the sports betting app on his cell phone. It can’t be a woman getting under his skin.

We’re all here and as Juliette slides her hand inside Hunter’s pants, I take that as my cue to bring the meeting to order. I don’t know what the hell they’re getting up to back there, but considering Juliette is already pregnant with twins, I think all that kissing and clawing at each other can wait until later. I drink as much beer as possible in one sip.

“GENTLEMEN! And the ladies that forced their way in here…”

“I was invited,” Tamiya says. Gideon pinches her thigh and she slaps him across the face. Not my place to intervene.

“Let’s get this meeting to order. We’re here to discuss club matters that have become serious enough to require more urgent action.”

“Warfare,” Hunter says from the back room, remembering at the last fucking second that he was supposed to co-chair this meeting, not get his dick wet in the back of the meeting room. Alcohol had him catatonic. Juliette has him excited and happy all the time… It’s terrible.

“Yes. Warfare.”

“I’m here to find out what you’ve been keeping from me,” Ruger says. “That Indian bitch has complete control over you.”

“Haven’t you been staying in her house for free?” Tamiya snaps at him. She’s the only person who has ever been able to talk to Ruger like that since Doc. I feel strangely relieved that she’s here at this meeting. Ruger flips her the middle finger and Gideon shoots him a threatening glare. I hate to admit that they make an excellent team.

“Oske has absolutely no control over me. Our family and our club owe her and her family a great debt.”

“I need a fucking explanation before I put my life on the line.”

“Your life is on the line because you slept with the most psychotic piece of pussy this side of the Mississippi,” Ryder says. He rarely gets involved in conversations like this and everyone shuts the fuck up once he says that.

“What debt?” Deacon asks. “I don’t mind Oske, but… it would help to know what the big damn secret is.”

I glance nervously towards the door separating us from our mothers smoking and getting drunk on the other side. I can only hope they’re gossiping too loudly to hear what the hell is going on in this room.

“Something that would embarrass my mother.”

“We’re blood brothers,” Deacon says. “We can handle the truth.”

“To be fair,” Ethan chimes in. “We didn’t know the truth until recently.”

He’s right about that. Ethan has done most of the leg work in uncovering the truth — finding proof of the wild story Osketold us. But the proof is there. We’re family and the way our family cheated hers… it just might be why we’re all so cursed. And why that curse seems to be related to gambling. It’s awfully superstitious and the superstition feels more like folk magic than solid Christian thinking.

But life has gone a lot better for the Shaw family since we helped the Indians. And I know doing right by them will help us against the Midnight SS. Oske has helped us and considering how much she could rightfully sue us for… we’re damned lucky.

---