Page 29 of Sweet Pea

“He wasn’t a Spider,” I said.

“I’m betting Char was smart enough to recognize that no one within the Spiders’ ranks would best serve his purpose, so even though Wolf was a Saint, he lured him away with bait he knew Wolf couldn’t resist.”

“What?”

“Power,” he replied.

“Wolf definitely wants to be The Man, but how is making him acting president smart on Char’s part? I mean, why have a power-hungry employee mind your store while you’re gone?”

“Because power is blinding, and Char has been around long enough to know that. He can use the club’s presidency as the ultimate carrot to motivate Wolf.”

“What if Char’s wrong and Wolf tries to overthrow him?”

“Then I’m sure he’ll have no problem switching from carrot to stick. Char’s dug more graves in the Eastern Oregon desert than he can remember. Either way, this is Wolf’s first test as acting president and how he handles it will be crucial to his survival within the Spiders’ ranks.”

“Char is dead,” Clutch said.

“Tough talk isn’t worth shit right now, Clutch,” Minus snapped.

“No, I mean Char is dead,” he said pointing to his phone. “Eldie just texted me a news article.” Clutch slid his phone across the table to Minus.

“Holy shit,” he said, reading a portion of the article out loud. “The president and founder of the notorious biker gang, the Gresham Spiders, Harrold “Char” Carsen, was found stabbed to death in his Multnomah County prison cell late last night. His cellmate, George Yonko, is being held in solitary confinement as the chief suspect of the gruesome murder. The motive for Mr. Carsen’s killing is currently unknown to authorities.”

“Holy shit,” I replied.

Minus sat silently stroking his beard.

“What are you thinking, Prez?” Clutch asked.

“I’m thinking Wolf and Char had a disagreement on how to handle our dispute, and Wolf found a way to deal with it.”

“You really think Wolf would do that? Kill his own club’s founder? That would be suicide,” Clutch argued.

“Only if he didn’t get support from within the Spiders’ ranks. But what if he did? For all we know, their club is filled with guys that would love to put a knife in Char’s back themselves. He wasn’t a good guy, not even to his own people, so who the fuck knows? If Wolf is behind the assassination, we can only assume Char wanted to make peace and Wolf has other ideas.”

“He probably paid off or threatened Char’s cellmate to do the job,” Ropes said.

Clutch chimed in. “Fuck Char. He was a smut peddling piece of shit and the world’s better off without him.”

“That’s true, but he was the only one holding Wolf’s chain. Without Char’s leadership and restraint, the Spiders are now at the complete control of a pissed off, blood thirsty lunatic.”

Just then, Doozer came through the door. “Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“What’s up, Doozer,” Minus asked.

“There’s someone at the gate for Sweet Pea,” he said, then addressed me personally. “She said she’s your lawyer.”

Clutch shot me a look, that if weaponized, could easily take care of our Wolf problem.

“We keeping you from something important, Sweet Pea?” Minus asked.

“Shit. I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ll be right back.” I slinked out the door, right behind Doozer, into the hallway.

“What the fuck? Never interrupt church unless it’s life or death,” I said, backhanding his chest.

“I know, but I figured it was important. She said she was your lawyer and that you told her to meet you here. Here, she gave me this,” Doozer said, holding out one of Callie’s business cards. “Sorry, Pea. I didn’t mean to jam you up with Minus.”

“No, it’s okay. Where is she?”

“She’s still outside the gate. No one gets in without officer approval right now, that’s why I came and got you.”

I arrived to find Callie outside the gate with Socks, who was currently on guard duty. Callie was holding a large pink baker’s box. It was opened wide and Socks was currently peering inside.

“Sorry I’m a little early. I brought pastries,” Callie said with a smile as I approached.

“Get your ass back in that guard tower,” I bellowed at Socks, who quickly grabbed something covered in chocolate from the box before returning to his post.

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