Page 18 of Bullet
“Yeah, I’ll meet her. There’s a lot going on at the club right now, we just got a bunch of new prospects, but as soon as new officers are in place and stuff, things should calm down. Can we do it then?”
He nodded. “Of course!” A wide grin crossed his face as he took his phone back and looked down at the picture. “I can’t wait.”
Chapter Six
Bullet
It was annoying the way all conversation ground to a halt as soon as I walked into the warehouse for my meeting at Hoppa’s the next day. The sparse remaining officers were situated around the table and all zipped their lips as soon as they saw me. All that could be heard was the echo of my steps as I walked over to the table and sat down, and when I sat, Avery leaned over toward me.
“Hey, man, you okay? That was a rough show the other night.”
“I’m fine,” I replied. “Seneca…” I let what Cameron and I had talked about and the idea that my missing younger sibling was a little girl weigh heavy in my mind. “She was right to respond the way she did toward me. I wasn’t fair to Tess.”
“What?” Bucky barked. “Did you just… agree with her?”
“Yeah,” I snapped, “got a problem with it?”
“No.” Bucky looked over at Nick who shrugged and looked toward the rest of us.
“Well, thanks for coming, guys. I know you’ve been waiting for me to make some decisions about how things are going to go around here, and with the new prospects looking good so far, I think I’m ready to let you know exactly what I’ve been planning on.” He reached under the table and pulled out a long piece of legal paper, which he laid out on the table and appeared to have a hierarchy tree, similar to the one that Tess had created in her book.
“Whoa,” Avery said. “There’s a ton of open spaces. Are we really that short?”
“Well...” Nick looked across at me. “This is an expanded plan. I don’t just want to fill our empty spots, I want to start expanding. We’re growing and I want to meet that growth head-on. This new plan will give us ten officers, plus two new titles, Friendly, and Regular. These titles will be applied to people who are associated with us and Hoppa’s Taphouse, but don’t have any pull in the club.”
“Using the city to fluff ourselves,” Bucky said. “That’s sick.”
“Exactly. That’s the way the Unchained Dogs helm their entire city. I want all of Hoppa under our umbrella. Here’s what I’m thinking.” He flipped the page over and it was the exact same tree but with all the boxes filled in. He looked across at me. “I wanna nominate Harry to VP.”
Bucky and Avery both turned to look at me and my jaw dropped. “I… said…”
“I know what you said. We’ll talk about it more. Let’s just move on for now.” He pointed back at the paper. “Harry for VP. Bucky,” he looked over at him, “I’m nominating you for Sergeant at Arms.”
Bucky smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah. I think you and I both know that’s what it should have been anyway. You had to babysit Taylor a lot, and I know you know the bylaws. I think you’d be good for it.”
Bucky nodded. “Thanks, Squared.”
Nick looked back at the paper. “Bullseye, you’d stay in the treasury position, overseeing Seth as the new bookkeeper. He’s got experience in accounting and is good with numbers.” Something about hearing someone else’s name associated with bookkeeping made me immediately uncomfortable, but Ididlike Seth. We were very similar. “I’m thinking Jonesie will replace Bucky as the Road Captain, and Small Fry would be the Secretary. That man’s got a memory like I don’t know what.”
“Yeah!” Avery yelped. “I’ve noticed that. He’s weird that way.”
“Then we need an enforcer, and I think you all know who I’m thinking for it,” Nick said.
“Texas,” we all said in unison.
Nick laughed. “He’s a fighter, and he’ll keep us in line for sure, and I’ll fucking hunt down Father and see if he still wants to be Chaplain.”
“He didnottake well to all that crazy shit going down when CJ was here, did he?” Bucky said.
“No, he did not.” Nick pointed at a lower box. “Then Vil will be in charge of whipping the prospects into shape and keeping track of the Friendlies and Regulars.”
“This is a solid plan,” Bucky said. “I like it. A lot.”
Avery looked over at me. “Given Bullet goes for it.”
How was I, all of a sudden, the wrench in the plan again? Nick, Bucky, and Avery were all staring at me patiently and I didn’t know what to say. I tried a couple of times to come up with something, but nothing came out.
