Page 65 of Flyboy's Nightingale
Duck stands and goes to the door, commanding, “Yo, prospect, get your ass in here.”
I place my hand over my mouth to hide the smirk at Duck acting as if Noah did something wrong. Noah comes through the door, and I’m impressed with the fact that he shows no fear, only indifference. He looks around the room, eyes narrowing on Smith, who raises an eyebrow as if to imply,“Got something you wanna say?”
Steel walks over to Noah, placing a solid hand on his shoulder, wearing a look of disappointment on his face. Noah’s eyes narrow further before he steps away from Steel, standing tall.
“If I’m standing in this room, that means nothing good. So, before you strip me of my patch and send me on my way, mind telling me what the fuck I did?” Noah’s voice is strong, not giving the implication that he might be nervous.
“Well, have you done something that would warrant your patch being stripped?” Steel wonders, turning away to hide his own grin.
“According to the brothers, I don’t know when to sit down and shut up. I have a bad tendency to call people out on their bullshit. That tends to get me knocked down to the bottom of the hierarchy, and my time started over.” Noah drops his head for a moment, before standing to his full height and squaring his shoulders.
“If I was a betting man, that’s never going to change,” Coin chuckles.
“Somebody around here has to be brave enough to call you jackasses out on your bullshit. The thing is, if I’m being completely honest, with everything I’ve witnessed in the year and half I’ve been prospecting, I’d be okay with my cut going away,” Noah says. His words say one thing, but his body language says another.
Pretty Boy jumps to his feet, moving to get in Noah’s face. “What gives you the right, as a prospect, to have an opinion on anything a brother does in this club? Maybe, you're right! We should let you go on your merry way, and let you forget that this place ever existed.”
“Looks like we’re throwing temper tantrums like always,” Noah spits out before stepping around Pretty Boy and going over to Steel, as he slides his cut off his shoulder. When he makes it to where Steel is standing, he holds the cut out, shocking the shit out of everyone. “I’ve wanted to be a part of Hell’s Sacrifice since one of the original members saved me and my mother from a bad ordeal. To know that the club that the man talked about held nothing but good guys who respected and listened when needed. Men who understood that having brothers at your back, to stand with you and call you on your shit was what it was all about. This shit that’s going on, isn’t what he described. I want no part of it. I appreciate everything, Prez, but I think it’s time I take my leave.”
Steel’s face is unreadable. Neutral. They stand there, watching each other, neither willing to be the first to back down. The tension rises in the room until we’re nearly choking on it. Steel finally cracks a smile before pulling three brand new patches from inside his cut.
“Son, I hope the only reason you took that cut off in church was so you could see the back one last time before these areadded to it.” Steels face grows serious. “We’ve voted you in. As of today, you’re a fully patched brother of Hell’s Sacrifice MC.”
We all start clapping, whooping and hollering with unadulterated excitement.
Steels raises his hand, bringing us all to silence. “I will say this, you are not wrong about what we stand for and what we have here. It takes someone to be the peacekeeper, along with the one willing to open their mouth and call us out on our bullshit. Keep doing what you’re doing and remind your fellow brothers of what’s right.”
Steel turns, wrapping his arm over Noah’s shoulders. “Brothers, I would like to introduce to you our newest brother, Mouth Peace. May he always continue to give us the truth and remind us that just because we can be jackasses, doesn’t mean we should!”
The room explodes in cheers as we get up to congratulate our brother. He’s passed from one brother to the other, and when he gets to me I pull him into a man hug, speaking low in his ear, “Thank you, brother, for being the friend my Ol’ Lady needed, and always being there to make sure the ones we cherish most are safe!”
“It’s what I do,” he says before turning away. He makes his way to the back of the room as we all get back to our seats, so we can get the second thing on the agenda underway.
“Alright, boys. We’ve done the happy shit, now, let’s get the pest problem dealt with. I’ve had another conversation with the president of the Dazed Monkeys MC, and once again, he has reassured me that we’ll see no blowback from them by taking out the two rogues that are currently camped out in our territory,” Steel states, looking pissed.
“I don’t trust it,” Wesson throws out, not looking happy.
“Neither do I,” Mouth Peace says. “He knows they’re here, so he’s aware they’re here to cause trouble for us. We’ve got to play this smart.”
“What do you have in mind, boy genius? Been here five seconds, and he acts like he knows what we’ve been dealing with,” Pretty Boy snaps, glaring at Mouth Peace.
Mouth Peace leans forward, placing his hands on the table. For the first time, since he came into the club, the all-American boy is gone and, in his place, is a man that hell itself would spit out. “If you’d spend as much time listening to what is said around the club and pay attention to the Ol’ Ladies when they speak as you do throwing around attitude, you might learn a few things.”
“Alright, Mouth Peace, tell us what you’re thinking,” Torch cuts in.
“After we take care of the issues at hand, we take a trip out to their neck of the woods. Sit the man down and make this a situation where if he tries to turn it around on us, we’ve him agreeing to whatever it is we need to do.”
“What about protecting the clubhouse if we go to Texas as a whole?” Duck wonders, no doubt, thinking of his pregnant Ol’ Lady.
“Once the issue we’re having now is dealt with, we won’t need all the brothers here on protection detail. Then we can go in, with just enough force, to show them that we’re not to be fucked with.” Wesson’s tone tells us that he’s not seeing a downside to this plan.
“Does everyone agree that we handle these asssholes that way?” Steel asks as he brings it to a vote.
It’s a unanimous yes, from all of us.
“Now, onto our little pest problem. I want Torch, Razor, Smith, and Pretty Boy to be on retrieval with the two prospects. Flyboy, before you say a word, I want you here to get thespace ready for our guests. This information and termination gathering is yours to do,” Steel says as he cuts off the rebuttal on my lips when it comes to staying behind.
A smile stretches across my face as an idea starts to form in my mind on how I plan to deal with these special guests. “I’ll be ready when they get back.”
