Page 15 of Mac
"All right.This wasn't a planned meeting but as long as we're all here, lets cover a few things, sound good?"He waited for anyone to say anything opposing him, but the room stayed relatively silent.There was the quiet rustle of clothing, the clink of ice against glass, but no one spoke."Good.Giz, give us the status of the next shipment of arms."
"They're due late this week.We'll do like we have been doing, unpack, inspect, and bug them then repack them before moving them on to the destination."
"I want to renew my reservations about being a part of this," Lurch spoke up."I don't like that we're part of selling weapons to the cartels."
"I'm not real fond of it either, Lurch," Tuck said."But by being part of the chain we can know exactly who's hands these guns are landing in and be sure it's not someone worse than the Blanco Brujos.And as much as we don't want to help the Blancos, there are worse people they could be going to."
Lurch frowned but nodded and sat back in his chair.They all had a voice in the things the Souls got mixed up in.They had the right to have their say, and to vote how they saw fit, but the only one with veto power was the president, and they'd elected him.
"How many in this shipment, Giz?"Tuck turned back to the tech sergeant.
"Supposed to be two hundred."
Tuck turned to Ghost, their weapons expert, and the Souls Sergeant at Arms."How much time do you need to do your thing with them?"
Ghost shook his head."That many will take me upwards of a week unless I get some help.With a couple good men to pack and unpack, we can cut that by a couple days.If I had someone to help me disassemble and reassemble, on top of the men to pack them, we can probably do it in two days, three tops."
"None of us are as good with the weapons as you are, no one nearly as fast at it."Tuck sighed and scanned the room for volunteers.
"Can we trust Savage enough to have him help?"Mac spoke up.
Tuck frowned."What makes you think of him?"
Mac shrugged."He was a SEAL.He should know the weapons almost as well as Ghost."
Tuck's brows lifted up his bald head, making his forehead seem smaller."He's not wrong."he said to Ghost."What do you think?"
"Give me a day or two to talk to him, maybe see what he's got in the way of skill and I'll get back to you."
"Sounds good."Tuck turned back to therest of the men, as they sat surrounding the conference table."We've also got a shipment coming up from the south.This one's pretty easy, it's not breathing.This is supposed to be coke, but there may be a little H too.We don't have all the details yet, but I want at least six, ten would be better, bodies on this one.The bigger the party, the better.We'll break it up and put it in saddle bags and move it north.I want it to look like a club out for a ride.We can have a crew do the pick-up and more join them once the pick-up is done.If you'd like, the ones that join after the pickup can have women with them.Or anyone picking up can stop and pick up a girl.Women will make the ride look more casual and less suspect as a transport run.None of you are new at this, you all know how it works."
Around the table several heads nodded.
"I'll assign men to do the pick up when we have a set date and approximate time for the exchange.No point in trying to do it now when we don't know what's going on."Tuck fell quiet as he scanned the faces around the table."Is there anything anyone else wants to bring up?"
Dumbass leaned forward."I kind of hate to ask, but are we going to keep Holly on to work the bar here?I wouldn't normally ask, but we've got three prospects now and even with Sackett working with Gizmo, there was only ever the two of us before.She likes the job.I would like to know it's coming so I can be prepared if she's going to lose it any time soon."Ruger was shaking his head before Dumbass finished talking.
"We have no intention of letting her go.I think she's done an amazing job, even with the unreliable help of the prospects.I'm not yet sure what we'll do in the way of scheduling, but she's in charge of the bar and kitchen here and the prospects will be working for her when they're on bar duty."
"Good to know," Dumbass nodded, "and thank you."
"We gave her the job because we were shorthanded when we patched you in.But she's done so well at it, that we'll keep her on."Tuck leaned back in his seat and watched Dumbass."That doesn't mean you can tell her what we really are or let her in on our secret, or even yours."
"I know and I won't.She's okay with not knowing everything and at least for now, I think I don't want her to know.Knowing only puts her in danger."
"Tell me about it."Ruger scowled form his seat but didn't say anything more.
Mac hadn't thought much about it either way.He'd not had anyone he'd ever consider telling.Ruger had gotten the club's permission to tell Krissi, and at least so far, they hadn't regretted giving it to him.But as far as Mac knew, she was the only one of the women attached to his brothers who knew what they really were.Not the criminal motorcycle club they appeared to be, but actually an undercover unit, put together with all kinds of law enforcement, working together to catch the people like they pretended to be.
Okay, so pretended was a strong word.They did all the criminal stuff, they had to in order to maintain their covers.But it was different.They transported weapons for illegal trades...but planted tracking devices so they would know exactly where they landed.They moved drugs, and let their agencies know who and where they'd picked up from and delivered to.They helped smuggle people into the country, but they did background checks and made sure the criminals were turned over to the right authorities, and a couple times they'd found missing people and made sure their families knew where to find them.On the surface, much of what they did was illegal, and it was, but they had good intentions.
That's not to say they weren't a rough crowd.They were loud and crud like most clubs were.It was part of their cover and part of the lifestyle they'd had to cultivate in order for the element they dealt with to accept them.Some couldn't handle it.They were the prospects that never got patched in.They didn't stay in Tucson.
"Do we have anything else?"Tuck looked around again.No one spoke up."Then I guess we'll adjourn.Remember, we've got a scheduled meeting tomorrow night for normal business.I'll see you all then."He nodded to Dumbass who unlocked the door and left first.
Mac poured himself another drink and stayed where he was.He'd decided on the way over he'd just stay here tonight.It wasn't how he'd planned to spend his evening, but neither was the meeting.And staying here would stop him from doing anything foolish.Well, maybe not anything but it would keep him from propositioning his hot neighbor, and possibly making an enemy of someone he'd rather be friends with.Friends with benefits, at least.He'd like a whole lot more than that but didn't think that would happen.She was too young and too sexy to want anything to do with a dirty mechanic at least ten years older.
"Something wrong?"Ruger's voice pulled Mac back to the present.
