Page 2 of Next Level
Samantha is like royalty here. Ever since she was a baby, she’s been running around this clubhouse, getting every member wrapped around her finger.
I snap my fingers to get Dawg’s attention. “Put that shit out. Use your vape pen,” I demand, not wanting the room to fill with weed smoke. He can use his smokeless inhaler pen while she’s around.
“I got you. I already did, brother.”
I should have known Dawg would. He thinks of Sam as if she’s his daughter. I trust all my brothers with her life.
Sitting on the barstool, I take a swig of my beer, watching them banter back and forth.
When Sam’s here, I try to keep the place mellow. I know she’s been here when we’ve had parties, but I try to keep her up at the house when she’s with me.
Our clubhouse is located in the Oakland Hills, where it’s highly wooded and secluded. My great-grandfather purchased the property, and we’ve since expanded and built up on it.
Most of my brothers live in town, only a few minutes away, but they crash here when we have parties.
The house my great-grandfather originally bought still stands. It’s an old cottage located at the top of the hill. A road leads you down to my home, and as you continue down the road, you’ll run into the clubhouse right before hitting the main road. A highly secure fence with cameras surrounds the property at every angle. You need a code or a remote to open the gates at the end of the road.
I hate that Sam doesn’t live with me full time, but her mother used to be one crazy bitch. When Brooke got pregnant, I was nineteen, and I knew she was trying to trap me. Shit, we weren’t even dating. We’d hook up here and there. Then, bam, I was a dad.
Brooke hoped to become my ol’ lady, and that I’d marry her, but fuck that, she was crazy. I did the right thing and took care of them both, even with her craziness. Thank goodness, about five years ago, when Sam was ten, her mom started dating a guy named Mike Baird, which took a lot of Brooke’s psycho focus away from me. She married Mike a year after they met, and since then, she and I have been able to co-parent without fighting.
“Pops, you going to jump in and play with us?” Sam asks over her shoulder as she gets cozy on the couch.
I shake my head. “Nah, you and Dawg have at it. I got shit to do.”
She glances over at me and Christ, the look she gives melts my heart every time. There’s no doubt she’s my daughter, just by looking at her. She has all my features: dark brown hair and olive skin. Brooke has sandy-blonde hair and pale skin. The only thing Sam shares between her mother and me are her blue eyes.
She’s fifteen but acts like she’s twenty-five. Sam has had to grow up a little faster than girls her age, given her surroundings in the club and having a mom like Brooke.
Brooke is a good mom, but she used to be desperate for someone to take care of her. She always wanted to go out partying, trying to meet someone, and would leave Sam with the neighbors. We fought all the time.
Now, though, Brooke’s settled down with a good guy. He’s a suit kind of guy who sells real estate. Samantha likes him and feels safe with him, so that’s all that matters to me.
A buzzer sounds, letting us know people are entering the compound gate. I glance behind the bar, where a TV monitor displays security cameras. I see Zip, our road captain, and Lip, our tail gunner, pull in. They’re cousins, but they look more like brothers.
Dawg hits something, and music blares around the building. “Breathe” by Kasablanca starts vibrating the walls. I laugh out loud as the two of them bounce around, clicking through the system, setting up their people, and getting ready to fight.
The door swings open, and in comes the chaos. Zip’s the first to walk through with a cigarette hanging from his lips.
Zip’s old man, Lazy, is our former road captain. He’s still a member, but he stepped down after a bunch of our members were killed.
Lip’s hands are flying around as he talks his cousin’s ear off about something.
Life is good.
“Did everything go smoothly?” I ask the guys as they approach.
Lip is still gabbing about something but stops when he hears me speak.
“You won’t believe what happened,” Lip says with a big-ass grin.
They had a meeting with the Port Local Teamsters today. We hold monthly meetings to ensure everything is running smoothly. Lately, it has been, so I wasn’t expecting to hear anything new.
Lip moves next to me. “I was telling Zip about Big Betty.”
Zip says, “Listen to this shit.” As he sits down on the other side of me.
I look back over to Lip. “You mean Betty the badass?”
