JON

 

Every Reaper had a tell.

Needle was always smirking but his lips would twitch when he had a big hand.

You had to watch Sully’s throat. Watching his Adam’s apple bob up and down meant he didn’t want you to call him.

Petey’s was subtle. He’d scratch his nose when he was bluffing.

And then there was the big man. Brawn was the worst out of everybody. I’d seen this guy get outnumbered in brawls and not break a sweat. But when it came to playing cards, he had the worst poker face of them all.

All of them, at one point or another, gave their hands away. I never told ‘em what they were doing. Shit, I figured it was only fair. You’d think I would’ve taken all their money but all I did was break even with the amount of luck each of them had.

Needle would tell you he was the best player and he didn’t need luck. Of course, that meant he was full of shit. He was the luckiest man in the club when it came to poker.

Tonight wasn’t any different.

“Read ‘em and weep, boys,” he announced.

He tossed his cards onto the table.

“Full house.”

He cackled like an obnoxious asshole as he swept the chips on the center of the table to himself. Brawn angrily tossed his cards on the table. Petey shrugged like he was used to it. Sully gave a disapproving glare. All I could do was roll my eyes and try not to fall out of my chair.

“It’s my night,” he said. “It looks like lady luck is finally giving me some attention.”

“Speaking of ladies, shouldn’t you be taking care of Katrina right now?” Sully said.

“He’s right,” Brawn added. “You’re just gonna let your old lady just take care of your baby girl all by herself?”

“Katrina’s a strong woman,” Needle said. “She can handle one night with the baby. Besides, she’s hanging out with her brother tonight. The last thing I wanna do is hang around a fucking snake.”

Everybody had their eyes on Needle as he stacked his chips in the most obnoxious way possible.

“Stop trying to make excuses,” he said. “Ante up.”

The club seemed reluctant but eventually tossed their chips into the center of the table. I sighed and pushed my chair out.

“I need a drink,” I said.

I headed over to the bar.

It was a regular night at The Grindhouse. Friends of the Reapers and some other MCs were out to celebrate nothing at all. It wasn’t a rowdy scene but there was enough for everybody to have a good time.

I leaned up against the counter and stared at the shot of whiskey the bartender poured in front of me. I pounded it down and the bartender followed it up with a mug of beer.

“Don’t get too crazy tonight.”

Garnet greeted me with a pat on the back before I could sip on my drink.

“What’s up?” I said. “We got any business we need to take care of tonight?”

“There’s always business we need to take care of. That comes with the territory.”

“Just another beer. Not that big of a deal.”

I took a huge gulp and stared forward. From the corner of my eye, I saw Garnet looking me up and down.

“You don’t usually drink that much,” he said.

“Yeah, well, maybe you haven’t been paying close enough attention. It’s just a beer.”

I looked at him and smirked. He gave me another hard thump on the back and laughed at me.

“I talked to her,” he said.

“Who?”

“Who do you think?”

He widened his eyes at me. I sighed and shook my head at him.

“Shit, man. What are you doing—”

“Don’t worry, brother. She’s not mad or anything. She knows you didn’t send me. I just wanted to have a friendly conversation with her. She’s a friend of the club.”

“She was a friend. After that shit that went down at the shelter, I can see how she doesn’t want anything to do with us. Shit, that’s why she left Ivory in the first place. She didn’t come back just to get involved with more shit.”

“Maybe not. Just give her some time to think about it. If she’s the woman I think she is, she’ll figure it out.”

Garnet seemed nonchalant about the whole situation. I knew he cared but he acted like it wasn’t a big deal to him. I was jealous that he was able to maintain his composure for once.

“We got bigger shit to deal with,” he said.

“Oh, yeah?”

“I just talked to Lin. The Chinese aren’t happy that the Corps are still around. They’re fucking with us but they’re really pissed with the Triads.”

“They could just be using us to get to the Chinese.”

“That’s what Lin is thinking. The problem with the Corps is that they’re all ex-military, so they’ve got the right kind of training to cause all of us some serious issues.”

I took another gulp of beer and sighed through my nose.

“All right, Pres. What’s the plan?”

“For now? Lin will have another shipment up and ready pretty soon. We lay low and watch our backs until then.”

“You know, it’s not just me. Needle and Sully… They’ve got old ladies they’ve gotta worry about. Even you with Michelle might be a concern.”

Garnet shook his head.

“They targeted Anna because they saw you with her that night. You were the first man they spotted. They don’t know shit about Needle. They don’t know shit about Sully. Their old ladies are fine. Michelle is fine.”

“Then I guess it was just bad luck that Anna got caught up in all of this shit.”

It was slightly reassuring to hear that none of the other old ladies were having problems. But after everything they’d been through, I knew they were strong enough to get through a situation like this.

Garnet put a hand on my shoulder and looked me right in the eye.

“We’ll handle this shit,” he said. “We’ve been through tougher situations before. This’ll be the same as that—”

Garnet was cut off by the front entrance doors booming open. Everybody in the clubhouse turned and looked at the men walking in.

Fatigues. Shaved heads. A bunch of steroid-ridden freaks with psychotic looks in their eyes. A half-dozen of them marched forward with the attention of the entire bar on them.

Garnet didn’t give a shit that he was outnumbered. It didn’t matter if a million of them walked in.

He walked up to them with his hands out and a grin on his face.

“Gentlemen,” he said. “Welcome to The Grindhouse. How can I help you?”

The lead man took a step forward and looked Garnet right in the eye.

He looked slightly crazier than the other guys, if that was even possible. He wore a white undershirt, so I could see how bulging his biceps were. The veins on his arms were almost as thick as the veins on his temples.

The man clenched his jaw as he breathed through his nose.

“Who are you?” the man said.

“Garnet. President of the Black Reapers. You sure you’re in the right place?”

“Oh, I’m in the right place.”

The rest of the club finally realized something was up and walked out toward the bar. I stood behind Garnet along with them.

“There’s no need to make a scene,” Garnet said. “We can discuss this like gentlemen.”

“…Don’t even think about trying anything.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

The man turned around and nodded to his cronies. They all left as quickly as they’d appeared.

“This way,” Garnet said.

“You,” the man said as he pointed at me. “I wanna talk to you.”

I nodded to him.

“Get back to your game,” I said to Needle.

Needle and the rest of the boys returned to the poker table in the back. The other patrons in the bar went back to their conversations.

I walked behind the man as Garnet led him into a backroom where we could talk. It was small without much inside of it. It was just enough to get the job done.

The man stood across from me, glaring at me like I ran over his dog or something. I crossed my arms and stared right back at him.

“All right,” Garnet said as he put his hands up. “What’s your name, brother?”

He hesitated for a moment.

“I can find your name out if I need to,” Garnet continued. “It wouldn’t be hard for the Chinese to get that information—”

“Harvey. My brother is Abigail.”

“Who the fuck is Abigail?” I said.

“You punched him in a fucking barn and the police locked him up.”

“Oh… That guy.”

“Don’t get smart with me, motherfucker. Gail’s out on bail. You know what that means? You can’t hide behind the cops in this town for much longer.”

“I never hid behind a pig in my life.”

Harvey balled his fists and took a step toward me. Garnet put his hands up to try and ease the tension building in the room.

“Hold on,” Garnet said. “Take it easy…”

“I can make this quick, Pres,” I said. “I’ll knock every one of these motherfuckers out.”

“Tough talk from a man hiding behind his club president!”

“Step aside, Garnet—”

“Shut up, Ghost.”

Garnet looked at me, his eyebrows raised. He knew better than I did that I would’ve decked Harvey right then and there.

He turned back toward Harvey and sighed.

“What the fuck do you want?” Garnet said.

“Besides all of your heads on spikes? Not much.”

“You came to my club just to threaten me?”

“Not a threat. A warning.”

Harvey took another step forward and looked Garnet right in the eye.

“Back out of the deal with the Chinese,” he said. “Or else.”

“Or else what?” Garnet said.

“Or else you’re gonna learn the difference between the Corps and an MC.”

“How about I just put a bullet in your head right now?” I said. “Nobody would miss you—”

Garnet put his hand up and stopped me, his attention focused on Harvey.

“You do what you have to do,” Garnet said. “And we’ll do what we have to do.”

Nobody said another word. Garnet opened the door and held it for Harvey. Harvey stared at me with that look in his eyes before leaving. Garnet and I escorted the man out of the bar. We watched him the entire time as he got into his truck and sped off into the distance with the rest of his boys.

“That motherfucker’s capable of anything,” Garnet said.

“No shit. He just came to the club and threatened us without blinking.”

I looked at Garnet.

“We gonna back out of the deal with the Chinese?”

I asked him a question I already knew the answer to. We’d been through tougher situations than this. The Corps was just another group of punks we had to deal with.

Garnet seemed to give even less of a shit than I did.

He put a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me.

“Why don’t you go inside and have another beer?” he said.

“You think that’ll help me figure out how to handle those motherfuckers?”

“You put three of them in the hospital. I don’t think there’s anything for you to figure out.”

Garnet patted me on the back as we headed back inside.

Just another night at The Grindhouse.