Page 35 of New Beginnings
“He’s not a member of any club. He’s a prospect,” J.D. said from behind me. “If this club of his is involved, I’m not sure it was a sanctioned hit.”
“What does that mean?”
“Without getting into details of club business, we follow a hierarchy. A prospect is not officially a member of the club. They do small errands for patched members.”
“So, their auditioning to become a member?”
“You could say that. Everyone goes through the process. Anyway, this guy’s cut has no identifying markers except for the prospect patch. It’s where his road name should be if he were a full patched member.”
“Okay, he’s a prospect, but why wouldn’t this be a sanctioned hit? I’m not understanding. He’s definitely trying to become a member of some club, right?”
He nodded. “He’s trying to become a member. That’s what prospect means.”
“Then explain how this guy could be involved if the club isn’t?”
“A prospect wouldn’t be used to handle this,” he said. “This would be on the scale of club business. Which means you have to be a part of the club to take part.”
“And you’re saying since he’s not a patched member, it means he wouldn’t be used to handle a sanctioned hit?”
“Exactly,” he said as we watched the prospect slide an envelope over to Earl Daniels.
“Then someone has gone rogue,” I said.
He didn’t agree or disagree but that was essentially what he said. A rogue faction of some motorcycle club was involved in the death of his wife and child. The question was what club and why?
Earl looked around the restaurant, then grabbed it from the table. The prospect said one last word to him before he got up and left. Earl opened the envelope, took some of the money from it, and stuffed the bills in his pocket then left the envelope on the seat of the booth.
“Shit! I can’t believe I missed that,” I said.
“Did you watch the rest of this?” he asked as we continued to look at the footage from inside the diner.
“I didn’t. I didn’t see him leave the envelope, so I followed them out of the diner.”
Not too long after the biker and Earl left an older man sat down at the booth and grabbed the envelope.
“Who the fuck is that?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll get my guys on it. We’ll have answers soon.”
The older man stuffed it inside his pocket. We watched as he rose from the booth and walked towards the back of the diner instead of leaving through the front.
“Is that all the footage?”
“It’s all that I could find. Earl just goes back towards the police station and the biker leaves in the same direction he arrived.
He stepped away from me. “Goddamn it!” he shouted. “I’m so fucking ready for all of this to be over. What the hell happened! Why the hell did this happen!”
I stood and walked to him. Once I reached him, my fingers reached out to touch him, offering a small gesture of comfort. When I cupped his face, he closed his eyes, the leaned closer to me.
“We’re getting closer, J.D.” He gazed into my eyes. “I know it hurts but we are getting answers.”
“I know, but I’ve been dealing with this shit for a long time, Rebel. And the more questions we get answers to, the more questions we have. I just want closure for my family.”
“And I’m going to help you get that closure. We’ll figure it out.”
He leaned forward and rested his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes relishing in his closeness. “Thank you,” he whispered, before he kissed me.
The kiss was slow, thoughtful, and sweet. Very different from the intense man I knew. When he pulled away, his eyes held so much emotion.
