“Well, boys, your fearless leader tried to turn down the Demons’ demands,” Cyril began as the door to the Court Room closed behind Traunch. He pinned Vince with a deadly glare. “But someone promised those bastards we’d bring those demands back for a vote.”
“Vince saved your life, Cyril, and the rest of us, too,” Dustin argued from the other end of the table. He knit his brows. “You got cocky and didn’t think about the safety of your crew. Vince had to do that for you.”
“What did you expect me to do?” Cyril bared his teeth. “We voted not to negotiate.”
Vince shook his head. “Maybe, but we didn’t vote to have a gun fight last night. We voted to talk to the Kingsmen, which we haven’t even done yet. Even if we go with the original plan, we needed to buy some time. If you insist on going ahead the way you want to, we’re wasting time. We’ve got to get to the Kingsmen and back in two and a half days now.”
Kentucky stood up and paced back and forth by the door. “Let’s cut out the arguments and talk about what they want. How much are they asking?”
“Fifteen percent,” Pound and Dustin chorused.
Vince sat forward. “Look, for $75,000 a run, we can buy our way into Demons territory, cut the risk in half, and keep the peace. We don’t have enough businesses on our payroll to launder what we’re buying into anyway. We were already on board for fifty, what’s an extra twenty-five? It still gives us 1.7 million a month, which is triple what we had before.”
“And it’s smaller bills, so we can probably buy our way into another business or two,” Pound piped in.
But Scat slammed his fist on the table. “It’s not about the cost or the safety. It’s about letting those assholes get a line on us. If we compromise with them, they’ll just want more, and word will get out that we’re pushovers. We’ve got to stick to our guns on this.”
“Maybe we should weigh the cost of using the Demons against the cost of guns from the Kingsmen,” Dustin interjected. “It’s a longer trip to Wyoming, and we’ll likely have to give them a much larger cut to keep the ammo coming.”
“Then we lie about our income,” Scat suggested.
Pea scoffed. “They’ll ask why we have such a problem working with the Demons if we lie about our profit.”
“Then we tell them the truth,” Cyril grunted. “And we tell them we’d rather cut them in for the ten percent the Demons are demanding because we’d rather work with the white boys and get rid of the scum. They’ll eat it up. It’s a much better lie to tell. Much more beneficial.”
Vince couldn’t see any benefit. “If you’re worried more about the financial cost than the human cost, your priorities are off. If we do this, we’re going lose men. There’s no way to avoid that. I’d rather pay the money and find a way out of it later, before they decide to completely extort us, than lose a single one of the Claws.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Raw spoke up. “We get enough guns, and we can call on the businesses on our payroll to back us with some of those guns. These guys have been making money off us for a long time, and they’re about to multiply their own income off our work. They owe us their loyalty.”
But Vince couldn’t see it. He refused to willingly drag anyone else into this mess. Those businessmen were already taking legal risks; when it came to spilling blood, they were innocent. They didn’t deserve to stand in the line of fire because the club feared losing too much money or looking weak. That would be the same as telling Ariana she had to ride with him on a money run because she’d entered into a sexual relationship with him.
And thinking of her brought home the need to protect the innocent. “If we did that,” he said to Raw, “we’d be the ones to blame if any one of them was hurt or killed. And we’d also still be looking at a war on our territory. It would be selfish to put the entire damn town in danger just because we didn’t want to give up a little extra cash. It would be different if we couldn’t afford it, or if they were asking for more. But I would rather protect this club and all the innocent people around us than worry about getting bent over for an extra five percent.”
“Enough,” Cyril called out. “We’ve laid everything out that needs to be considered. It’s time to make the call. I vote no on fifteen percent.” He turned to the right, where Traunch sat, but Vince shook his head.
“I’m putting my vote out now. I vote yes.”
The vote went around. Pound, Raw and Pea also voted yes. The decision hinged on Traunch. Vince looked back and forth between Traunch and Cyril, hoping that he’d make the right decision.
With a sigh, Traunch looked down at his hands and said, “No.”
That was it, then. Vince stood, wanting nothing more than to jump Cyril and beat him until he was black and blue. He glared at his leader. “I hope you’re happy.” He started to leave the room.
“Wait,” Pound called, and he turned to stare at his friend. Pound shifted uncomfortably. “If we have to do it this way, we’ve got to form a plan, fast. Like you said, we have to get to Wyoming and back before the Demons come looking for an answer.”
“Not that anyone else seems to have stopped to think about it,” Pea said, twiddling his thumbs, “but it is practically impossible to get out there with a truck that can carry back the weapons, negotiate business with the Kingsmen, and get back here in time to confront the Demons in time. Even if you’d gone straight from your meeting last night, we wouldn’t have been able to turn it around fast enough.”
Vince’s rage built as he realized Pea was right. They’d have to make their first stand with the weapons they had, and that wasn’t much. “So I guess we’re putting the trip on hold. We need every member here when the Demons come hunting.”
Cyril rubbed a hand down his face, but Vince knew he wasn’t concerned; his eyes were bright, and his lips curved up at the corners. “We’ll be fine. Everyone in the club has fire power. We’ll scare those bastards off long enough to get more.”
Vince hoped so. He didn’t like this one bit, and despite the fact that he needed to be here in case something happened, all he wanted was to go home. “I’m going out for a while. I’ll be back later.” He threw open the door and strode out to his bike, lighting a cigarette and smoking fast. Pound was already on his tail, and he didn’t want to talk about this with anyone else, or he might just blow a gasket.
“Hey, Larson, hold up!” Pound called as he came toward Vince. Stopping next to him, he spoke in a much quieter voice. “This is bad, man.”
“No shit.” Vince shook his head. “I didn’t sign up to put my life on the line for the whole damn town.”
“Neither did I,” Pound sighed. “What do we do now?”
“Keep our eyes open and, starting tonight, no one rides alone, or without a gun.” It was the best they could do, and it wasn’t good enough. He needed some time to think, to see if he could come up with a better solution. “I’m going to spend some time at home. I’ll be back early evening. You should suggest that the entire crew get back here by then so we can partner up somehow.” He tossed his cigarette and started the engine. Pound gave him a lazy salute, and he pulled away. He’d figure something out, if he could just go somewhere private.