SEAN

 

Needle always had that stupid fucking look on his face. His lips twisted like he was chewing gum even though there was nothing in his mouth. A habit from all that cock he sucked.

“What are you waiting for?” he said. “You in or you out—”

“Just shut the hell up, okay?” I responded. “I’m thinking.”

I looked down at my cards and saw the two and three. I looked down at the table. A king, an ace, a queen, a seven and a two.

A pair of twos… A pair of fucking twos…

It wasn’t much but it was something. The question wasn’t whether or not I had Needle beat. No, the question was whether or not Needle had any balls.

“He’s bluffing.”

“He’s not bluffing, I know that for sure.”

“I think they’re both bluffing. These two wouldn’t know how to play their hands if they spent a million years practicing.”

I ignored the comments from around the table. Right now, the only thing I was focused on was Needle and the stupid look on his face.

I glanced up from my cards and into his eyes. He raised his eyebrows at me. I knew he was going to whine about me taking too long.

“Are you in or are you—”

“I’m in,” I interrupted him. “I’m all in.”

I pushed all of my chips into the center of the table.

“I call,” Needle responded.

I watched as he tossed his cards onto the table. A king and a two.”

“Two pair!” he exclaimed. “I know you don’t got that beat!”

I clenched my jaw to avoid leaping over the table and grabbing him by the collar. But it wasn’t enough to hide the look on my face as the rest of the table all chimed in with their smart ass comments.

“Oh, Brash! What are you doing?”

“Needle, you’re such a shithead.”

I rolled my eyes and mucked my hand onto the table. Needle stared at me with a satisfied grin on his lips as he swept all of my chips toward him.

“You’ve gotta learn,” Needle said. “I never bluff. I’ve always got the best hand.”

“The only thing I need to learn is how lucky you are,” I responded. “That’s how it’s been this whole day. I don’t even know why I bother wasting my time.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you tonight. I know you’re struggling for money. I would never celebrate at another patch’s expense.”

He winked at me with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.

Fucking prick.

I rolled my eyes again, lifting my hand up and giving him a finger.

The rest of the table resumed playing and the cards were dealt. I couldn’t sit there.

“I gotta take a piss,” I sighed.

After using the bathroom, the table was all fun and games with Needle being the center of attention. He had most of the chips so he had every reason to smile. I leaned up against the wall with my arms crossed and watched them.

A sudden hand on my shoulder surprised me.

“What’s wrong? You not playing?”

I turned and looked at the man standing next to me. It was Garnet.

“Nah,” I said. “I’m done.”

“You should know better than to play cards when Needle is at the table.”

“Oh, yeah? And why’s that?”

“Because I taught him everything he knows.”

Garnet winked at me.

He was a few years older than me but not by much. Still, I looked at him like a mentor. He was a father figure, so it was easy for me to respect him. He was the one member of the club I wouldn’t mind losing money to.

“So, why don’t you play?” I asked. “Show him and the rest of the boys how it’s done.”’

“Small fish,” Garnet said. “We’ve got bigger issues to deal with.”

“Bigger issues? Is something wrong?”

“It’s not that serious but it is something we have to handle. I need to call a meeting right now.”

“I don’t think Needle will be too happy about that…”

“Needle can suck my dick.”

I laughed at Garnet’s blunt response. He walked up to the table and clapped his hands to get everybody’s attention. They all shut up and turned toward the president of the club.

“All right,” Garnet said. “Everybody listen up. Club meeting.”

“What?” Needle exclaimed. “But I was just—”

“Club meeting. Everybody in the chapel.”

“Shit,” Needle sighed. “I was on a roll, too…”

He muttered to himself as everybody got up from the table. We all moved from the small room and headed toward the chapel where we conducted all of our meetings.

Everybody was inside with the door shut. Garnet stood at the head of the table with everybody else sitting around it.

Needle.

A real prick.

Ghost.

Like a brother.

Brawn.

Don’t fuck with him.

Petey.

A good man.

“Okay,” Garnet said. “We’ve got some business to discuss.”

“Business?” Needle said. “This is the first time I’m hearing about it.”

“I know. That’s why we’re having this meeting.”

Garnet rubbed his hands together as he continued.

“Business is down,” he said. “The bar’s not making as much money as it used to. Something is happening in Ivory and it’s affecting everybody. We have to do something about it.”

“So, what do we do?” I asked. “Do we make some changes to the bar?”

“No,” Garnet said. “The bar will be fine. The weather is bad and we’ll be back in the black in a little bit of time. But the rest of our business is suffering. There’s something else going on in Ivory and it’s affecting our other sales.”

“I don’t see what the issue is,” Needle chimed in. “There haven’t been any reports of the Sheriff’s Department cracking down on anything. Shit, if anything, it’s like they gave up.”

“Exactly,” Garnet said. “It’s like the cops aren’t giving a shit. That means more traffic is moving through this city. More traffic means more competition. More competition means we’re not moving as much weight as we used to.”

“So, what do we do?” I said with a shrug. “Do we eliminate the competition?”

Everybody turned and looked at me. Fuck if I knew why the hell they were giving me such sarcastic looks. Maybe Needle was rubbing off on all of them.

“Brash,” Ghost said to me. “Is violence always the first answer with you?”

“No,” I said. “But it’s usually the correct one.”

Ghost laughed softly to himself. The man was about my age but he’d been a member of the Reapers a few more years. Outside of Garnet, he’d been with the club longer than anybody else. I respected him just as much as anybody else.

“That’s not what we’re here to discuss,” Garnet said. “That option is only on the table as a last resort. We’re here to talk about moving product.”

“More of it or different types?” Needle said.

“Both. It’s no secret that the Cobras and the Devils are moving some hard shit. It’s coming in from the south and they’re doing their part to bring it up to the big city. They’re getting well-compensated for it.”

“That sounds like a good deal,” I said. “We should get in on that.”

“I don’t know,” Ghost said, some hesitation in his voice. “Cocaine. Heroin. Opiates. All that heavy shit… I don’t know if that’s cool.”

“Who gives a shit about cool?” I said. “How much money are we gonna make pushing weed? That shit’s too light. Teenagers are growing that shit in their backyard. There’s too much competition for that.”

“You’re both right,” Garnet said. “We’re not making as much as the other clubs because we’re not in on the business. But the heavy shit is called that for a reason. Heavier side effects. Heavier traffic—”

“And heavier money,” I said.

“Not to mention heavier mandatory sentences,” Needle said to me. “You should know that better than anybody.”

Needle wasn’t smiling at me like he usually was. Still, I wasn’t interested in being talked down to.

“You guys don’t have to decide now,” Garnet said. “We’ll take a vote in a few days. I have a connect. A few of the other chapters can put us in touch with some people. You can decide whether or not you wanna take the risk. I want you all to think about it. Meeting adjourned.”

Garnet excused everybody from the chapel. Some of the other members dispersed back to the table where they were playing cards.

I made my way over to the bar counter and took a seat so I could enjoy a smoke. As I stared forward at the racks of alcohol in front of me, I saw Ghost take a seat next to me from the corner of my eye.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked.

“Me? Nothing’s going on. I’m fine.”

“It’s only been a few weeks since you got out. How you feeling?”

“That shit was easy.”

“Don’t give me that tough guy shit. Time in the pen is never easy. You know you can talk to me, brother.”

I looked over at Ghost.

He was indeed a brother to me. Not a biological brother but as close as you could get. He and I had been through some shit. He’d always been there.

I lit a cigarette and held the smoke in my lungs for a second before exhaling.

“Shit’s weird,” I said.

“What is?”

“Going back to all of this. When you’re locked up, you do the same shit every day. You wake up, you eat, you train then you go to sleep. Then you do the same thing. Every single fucking day.”

“I know how it is. I did time, too. We all did. Not as long as you but enough to understand what it’s like.”

“Now that I’m out… It’s like I got all this freedom but I don’t know what to do with it. It’s like I’m trying to figure out how to get that routine back.”

“You’ll be fine,” he said as he patted me on the back. “All you gotta do is find a place to blow off some steam. Then you’ll realize how valuable your freedom is.”

“You know what would really make me feel free?”

“What’s that?”

“Punching Needle in the mouth. I hate when he fucking beats me at poker.”

I shared a laugh with Ghost. He patted me on the back again.

“That’s not like you,” he said. “That’s just the frustration talking. He’s your brother. We all are. And we’re all here for you.”

“I know, I know. I know you and Needle and the others got my back. I think this is just some shit I’m gonna have to figure out for myself.”

I stuffed the butt of my cig in an ashtray and sighed a deep breath. I shook my head at the thought of the frustration I couldn’t explain.

“I’ve lived in Ivory all my life,” I said. “I never imagined it would feel like a foreign land to me.”

“It’s home,” Ghost said. “It’ll always be home. You might have been gone a long time but it hasn’t changed.”

“Yeah, you’re right…” I sighed.

“Hey, me and the boys are heading out tonight. You riding with us?”

“Shit, yeah. You know I’ll use any excuse to take my baby out. Where we heading?”

“Just heading out for some drinks. We need a little change of pace from the clubhouse.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Ghost stood up from his seat and looked over into the other room where the other guys were playing poker.

“You wanna play another hand?” he asked me.

“I don’t have any more money,” I said. “Last I checked, the club wasn’t doing too well either.”

“I’ve got a bit. Come on, brother. Let’s wipe that smile off Needle’s face.”

“Sounds good to me.”