Page 2 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
Fuck.I plastered a smile on.He called him Walt, not his road name—Disney.If he was that tight with the chapter on my southern border, I was screwed.“Then I’ll get you some primo weed.Sprout’s holding.”
“What did you do to piss Nonno off?”
He wasn’t one for extended small talk.Luckily, I had a quick and honest answer.“I let Wolf marry his niece.”
G’s head snapped sharply left to the table where Wolf sat.“Niece?That chick with the—” He held his hands out in front of his massive chest and got the size about right.
“Yup.”
“Huh.Poor guy.You don’t buy the cow just cuz it’s got big udders.”He leaned in and lowered his voice.“It isn’t just that, though, is it?”
Damn it.I couldn’t lie to him.Such a thing would bite me in the ass.I’d been protesting a rate hike in our monthly dues.“Skilletsville isn’t exactly a hotbed for intrigue these days.I pay my shit on time, fully.Nonno’s got nothing to bitch about.”And that was the truth.Just because we were pulling in more scratch legally than illegally shouldn’t be an issue.The bigger issue was the vacuum between Nonno and our club, which had no buffer.We needed a Regional President to bitch at, instead of going directly to the fucking top.That was bound to get old soon.
G’s smile cracked just a hair wider.“He’s upping your payments, isn’t he?”
I nodded.Inflation sucked balls.
“Can you afford them?”
I glared at him.“Affording isn’t the question.It’s a matter offairness.We pay what everyoneelsepays, not more.You’d do the same.”
He leaned back in the chair, pondering the situation.Hopefully, he was trying to see it from my point of view.Just because my membership had three millionaires on paper, and one skyrocketing multi-millionaire, it didn’t mean the chapter had to eat Nonno’s shit.G wasn’t a poor man.He had almost as much, maybe even more than Sprout.All of it skimmed from wallowing in the cesspools of Chicago’s crime money.The trouble was that Sprout’s money was all legit.Filed on tax forms, making headlines, and every son of a bitch from here to Timbukfuckingtu wanted a piece of it, especially the new national president for the Destroyers MC.
“How many did you bring on this trip?”
He was asking about my men, members, and liabilities.“Half,” I begrudgingly replied.Besides Wolf, Sprout, Griz, Skinner, and Bear; Baldy and Sketch rode with our enclave.We had three RVs, two of them pimped to the fucking nines, and three old ladies with us.The rest of the crew—Trout, Poke, Cutty,Coop, Rocket, Big Joe, and Hickey were back in Pennsylvania making money to replace the scratch flowing out on this stupid trip.But it was one we had to make.If I wanted any shot at being a regional president, attendance was mandatory.Failure to appear would be seen as treason.I’d lose not only my chance but possibly my life.
Big G finished musing.“That was a mistake.”
No shit.“Got businesses to run.”Too fucking many, but that wasn’t my fault.
G set his hand on the table slowly, warning me he was controlling his temper, but only barely.“You’ll pay the extra this month for that.”
“And next month?”
G shrugged.It was too early to breathe a sigh of relief.Next month would be a whole new set of shit.Movement to my left had Bear shifting his bulk to shield me from whoever was approaching.
G’s man stepped forward, too.Interesting.We were all brothers here, but like any fucked up family, we hated each other more than anything else.In my small window of blindness, I searched G’s face for clues about who it could be.
His eyes squinted in displeasure, and his usual scowl deepened.He saved me from having to look by saying, “Did you bring me a present, Shock?”
Ah.The biggest asshole in the room.Considering I was present, that parsed things closely.I shifted in my chair to see what had caught G’s interest.
She was a little thing.If I had to guess, given the location, company, and Shock’s proclivities, she was barely seventeen.Sweet little C-cups and freckles she tried to hide with goop.But the heat and closed barroom melted that shit, and those little brown specks stood out against her pallor.Besides liking them young and freckled, Shock liked ‘em scared.She fit the bill nicely.
“Meet my wife.”He shoved the girl forward.
Lying asshole.“Which one is that?Number twelve?Or are you still searching for atwelve-year-old?”I should’ve kept quiet until I was on my feet.
Bear went down, and the girl went somewhere screaming and scrambling under his feet.
Shock barreled through the pile and knocked me, my chair, and the table in front of G to a broken mess on the floor.
Beer, whiskey, and blood flowed.Shock landed on top of me.His fist broke through my block and clipped my jaw.
That was just fine with me.I pummeled his head with jabs and elbows.I locked his brace leg with mine and kicked his balance point loose.The bulk of him squashed me, but I was already moving, pulling, shifting, and twisting.Once I was on top where I belonged, I locked him in place with an arm bar and wrenched it hard.
With the momentum of the move, I slipped a hand free and locked it around his head.My whole body worked to pin him in a choking headlock, and if I was lucky enough, one twist and all my troubles would be over.
