Page 10 of Lost Soul

“We could keep any product for ourselves, enjoy a night sampling what we missed out on,” Tac suggests.

“Fuckin’ party ehhhhh kid.” Squealer grabs Grimm by his shoulders, shaking him roughly, trying to evoke even the slightest reaction from him. But the cold expression doesn’t leave Grimm’s face, only his eyes flick sideways to eyeball Squealer before he rolls them away again.

Grimm is only a year older than me, but he looks so much younger. His frosty-blue eyes contain a good helping of psycho, he chooses to stay pretty much silent, but unlike Screwy, Grimm will speak up when it’s necessary. I guess he just never has all that much to say.

Conveniently, Grimm has a condition called OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder. It works to our advantage and has earnt him the role as leader, master, and fucking king of the clean-up crew. The kid is insane good at cleaning up the nasty shit that club business sometimes leaves behind, and guaranteed, there isn’t anything Grimm wouldn’t have thought of and erased all traces of before he leaves a scene.

“That will be a start,” Prez nods his head at me. “Skid, get Rogue to do some listening around town, see if she can find out some names of dealers. If she insists on hanging around here like fuck warts on a whore, she might as well make herself useful.”

“I’ll talk to her boss,” Skid tips his chin. Rogue means a lot to Skid, none of us know much about her other than the fact she’s a hard bitch who can fix an engine better than most the men in this room. She’s been helping out Skid and Chop at the garage since she was a kid.

“Tommy could ask around too,” Chop adds.

Yeah, you heard that right, Tommy too good to be a fucking Dirty Soul himself became a prospect last month.

Tommy is Chop’s son, and Chop is one of the oldest members of this Charter, he’s a no shit kinda guy and despite coming off as an ass most of the time, is respected by everyone. That went a long way in making the decision to take Tommy on as our newest prospect, not what he could actually bring to the club.

It’s obvious to most of us that Tommy doesn’t have an ounce of Dirt in him. I reckon we’d have come off better offering Rogue the prospect Jacket, and if she’d been born with a dick we would of.

We already have Nyx, he’s been prospecting over a year now and would be getting his patch before long. We needed someone to take his place, and as Tommy was already trusted by the club, it had seemed a better option than letting in an outsider.

“I’ll get Nyx to speak with some of the fresher’s when they come in the shop,” Tac goads Chop.

Tac is Nyx’s sponsor. It means he’s responsible for him. He’d brought Nyx to us after he’d taken him on as an apprentice at the tattoo studio. Despite the chip Nyx has fixed on his shoulder he’s a good kid. He gets shit done, which is more than could be said for fucking Tommy, who in my opinion might as well have a pair of tits.

“Nyx. Really? Kid ain’t got no friends, no fucking respect either if you ask me,” Chop sniggers back at Tac, and the look on Tac’s face says just about what everyone around the table beside Chop is thinking. Sure, Nyx is another quiet one, no one can ever entirely be sure what’s spiraling around in his head. He’s a little reckless, and doesn’t let anyone talk down to him. But no one doubts his reliability. He’s proven his worth to this club on more than a few occasions.

“They can all put the feelers out, ain’t gonna hurt. See which of them comes through for us,” Skid says aiming a smug look right at Chop. He’s laying down a challenge, and my bucks are on his little protégé being the one that pulls through. That bitch is savage. Skid’s eyes are set like concrete, and I swear I hear Chop hiss under his breath.

I have no fucking idea what’s going on with the two of them, but it’s taking sibling rivalry to a new extreme.

“Settled.” Prez slams down the gavel, and one by one the brothers make their way out of the large oak door and into the daylight.

Church finishes up, just in time for me to get in my truck and drive to pick Hayley up from college. With her dad being president of the club, money is never set to be a problem for her, but she still insists on getting herself a good education.

I always pick her up on a Friday and we grab something to eat at Bernie’s. It’s our thing. Not something Prez has ever asked me to do, but something I do because I want to.

Hayley’s turned in to a sassy thing since moving to the club, and although she still pisses me off like a bratty little sister, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy hanging out with her.

Prez never spoke about anyone else taking over the job of looking out for her. Neither of us had to say it out loud, we both knew it would always be me. Way I see it she’s as much my responsibility as she was the Prez’s and as annoying as she can be, I love her for it.

I wait in the truck, outside Pine Peaks College, watching her skip excitedly down the steps when she sees me. She swings open the door and hops inside, leaning over to peck me on the cheek before I pull off.

“You’re in a good mood, pretty girl.” I smile, Hayley always cheers me up when shit gets too much, so she is just what I need after the intensity of church today.

“I got invited to a party tomorrow night,” she tells me, clapping her hands together like a performing chimp.

“And… you know your daddy ain’t never gonna let you go to it,” I remind her, feeling bad for having to burst her ecstatic little bubble. Though her smile doesn’t drop like I expect it to.

“Well, I did worry about that, but then I had an idea…”

“Shit that sounds dangerous.” I side glance her and wait for one of her snappy responses.

“Oi.” She punches my arm. Hard. It makes me proud, I obviously taught her well.

“Come on then out with it, what’s the plan?” I give in and ask.

“I was thinking that he might let me go if someone he trusted agreed to come with me.” The way she looks up at me, doing that cute as a fuckin’ kitten thing she does with her eyes pre warns me for what’s coming next.

---