“Somebody get that asshole out of here,” Colt muttered. They had put down their weapons, but everyone was still on edge. “I told you I would handle it!” he snarled at Gunner as Fletcher and Harrison wrapped up Paul’s body and began to haul it out.
“I had to do it, Colt. I owed it to Anna.”
“You know you’re a murderer now?”
“You would have been had you pulled the trigger, so what difference does it make? Besides, if you had done it, everyone would have known it was personal.”
Colt fumed, having to eat his own words. “Okay. Just don’t do that shit again.”
“No reason to now.”
“Anybody who has a problem with this is free to go,” Colt said to the crowd. “Nobody will try to stop you.”
“You think we’re going to stand by while you take over our club? You’re crazy,” Dom said, his voice as cold as an artic wind. “I’ve been here since the beginning and I’m not going to have some snot-nosed punk that thinks he knows everything change what this club was built on.”
“You mean all the fighting and fucking, drugs, theft? Is that what you’re talking about?”
“Fucking yeah! We’re the baddest of the badasses. We take what we want and fuck the rest!”
“Or,” Colt said, “we can go straight and not have to spend all our time looking over our shoulders. We can pull together as a team to make this club great, to make some real money, or we can do as Dom suggests and keep going the way we are going until DVMC collapses. How many here think Sierra is getting a raw deal?” he asked. Not quite half the hands went up. “How many think she is getting everything she deserves.” The remainder of the hands went into the air. Colt snorted. “Seems like we have about an even split. We’re never going to get anyplace so long as we are two clubs. We need to pull together, as one.”
“What’s the plan?” Chains called from the back of the room. “We know you have been cooking something up.”
Colt grinned. “I want to go with what we know, and what we know is how to do fuck. So…I want to open a brothel, but not just any brothel. I want to open a themed brothel.”
“A whorehouse?” Chains asked, incredulous.
“But with a twist. I want to give customers an experience they will never forget. Three days in an outlaw MC. I’ve done the research and there is nothing else quite like it. They pay $5,000 a day and, for that, they get to ride, and steal, and, most importantly, fuck like real badasses. We provide the complete experience. DVMC runs the operation and everyone who works gets a cut of the profits.”
“No fucking way!” Rocks called. “I’m not having a bunch of posers in my club!”
“No!” Colt shouted over the roar of support Rock’s statement generated. “DVMC runs the brothel, but we set up front clubs for the customers. We can work out the names but we have been tentatively calling it the SSMC, the Sons of Sin Motorcycle Club, and their subchapter, the DSMC, Daughters of Sin Motorcycle Club, if women want to be in a club of their own. We provide the colors, the bikes, the works.”
“Then what?” Steve asked.
“Then? Then our clients pay us a shit load of money to ride our bikes, drink our booze, rob our store and fuck our women. Or men.”
“You think this will work?” Vicki asked. “You’re not expecting the women to lie on their backs for this are you? We’re not all Skye, you know.”
“Fuck you, bitch,” Sky muttered.
“No, absolutely not. There are plenty of jobs that will need to be done that don’t require you to fuck. Security, for example. You and Chains could be part of the SSMC, and you could be his old lady, just like you are now. We would hire men and women to provide the more personal services.”
“But if we wanted to fuck one of the customers?” Steve asked.
Colt shrugged. “So long as the customer wanted to, why would the club care? Just remember, the customer is always right.”
The room was quiet a moment. “How are we supposed to pay for all of this?” Monica asked.
“We have been saving for seed money,” Colt replied. “The club would kick in what it has, about six-hundred thousand. The rest we apply for a business loan, just like anyone else.”
“I think this is fucking ridiculous,” Skye called loudly. “What if we don’t want to risk the club’s money on your harebrained scheme?”
“You’re free to leave,” Nic chimed in.
“This is my fucking club, too!” Skye shouted.
“This will work,” Colt said loudly. “Give me a chance to show you the numbers. Then we’ll vote on it. Every members gets a vote.”
“With you in charge?” Dom asked.
“We’ll vote on that, too. Until then, Nic, Harrison, Fletch, Gunner and I, along with Bobbi, Perri, McKenzie and Sierra, will act as a council. We—”
“That’s just fucking great!” Mayla interrupted. “Your little clan gets to call all the shots! And Sierra! In the club two fucking days and she is already top bitch! This sucks, Colt!”
“Sucks to be you,” Colt said. “We’re not interested in fighting with anyone. That’s why anyone who wants to is free to leave. But if you stay, there are going to be some changes.”
“Like what?” Todi asked.
“Harrison is burning all the drugs as we speak.” A roar rippled through the crowd. “Shut the fuck up!” Colt roared. “This is the way isn’t going to be! No drugs! It fucks people up and we can’t be a legitimate business if we’re using drugs!”
“You have no right—” Mayla shouted.
“I have every right!” Colt bellowed over her. “Until the vote, the council runs the club and we agreed, no drugs!”
“I say give him a chance!” Vicki called loudly. “He’s right. This club is fucked up, and getting more fucked up by the day. We needed a change, but Colt was the only one with balls enough to step up and make the change.” She paused and met his eyes. “But if we don’t like your plan, then what?”
“Then we’ll come up with another plan, together, something we can all agree on.”
“And if we don’t elect you, or one of your supporters, as President, you’d be okay with that? You won’t cause trouble?” Chains asked.
Colt snorted. “Not only am I okay with that, I’m not even running. I think Fletch should be our next President.”
“Colt or Fletch,” Monica sniffed. “A choice between twiddle dumb and twiddle dumber. Will you let Dom run for President?”
“Anyone can run,” Colt said. “If he can get elected, more power to him.”
There was a long silence. “I think we’re in,” Chains finally said in the growing silence. Show us what you got.”
Colt sighed in relief. “I’ll put something together for tomorrow. Dom, Chains, I want you to sit in with us. I want to draft a new charter for the club, and I want your input.”
“Mine?” Dom asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
“Yeah. I won’t promise I’ll take your advice, but you seem to be the leader of the opposition, Chains of the undecided. You should have a voice in how the new club is built.”
Dom looked at Monica, who was nodding. “When?”
“As soon as everyone gets back. If we’re going to function as a club, we need to know what we stand for.”
“You did good,” Colt whispered to Sierra several hours later as he handed her another beer. He’d destroyed the drugs, but the bar was still open. They had hammered out a set of bylaws for the club to vote on the next day to give the council some guidelines to work from until a new set officers could be elected. The most significant changes were that formal challenges had been eliminated entirely with club disputes to be brought before the officers for a vote, and individual conflicts could be settled by the members as they felt appropriate.
It was also decided that the club still supported the free sex lifestyle, but it was no longer required that members make themselves available for sex, though it was understood that members wouldn’t remain members long if they withheld their sexual favors regularly. Sierra thought it a good compromise between the life, as the long-time members called it, and allowing people to choose their partners without fear of retribution.
“I still think you could have told me what you were planning.”
“I told you,” Colt said in exasperation. “I was making it up as I went. I didn’t have a plan until Rocks forced my hand. Even my crew wasn’t sure if I had shot you or not.”
“I thought you were really going to do it.”
Colt smiled. “Good. That’s what I needed you think so everyone would believe it. You bursting back in like that gave us the time we needed. Nice line by the way. ‘You assholes can’t kill me that easily?’ When did you come up with that?” his voice lilting up as he teased her. “But I wouldn’t, couldn’t, do it, Sierra. Not for real.”
Sierra giggled. “I practiced that line entire time I was out there.” She paused, growing more serious. “Not even for your club?”
“Not even for the club. DVMC is important to me, but not that important. I would’ve walked first.”
Sierra stared at him a moment. “I’m not sure I believe you.”
Colt snorted a laugh. “I can understand that.”
Sierra sipped her beer. “Monica, Skye and Mayla paid me a visit.”
“What did they want?”
“They’re not happy about how things have turned out. They just wanted me to know they hadn’t forgotten about me.”
“I should just kick those bitches out. They do nothing but stir up trouble.”
“If you do that, people are going to see it as a purge. I can handle them.”
Colt woofed out a chuckle. “Yes you can.”
“I’m exhausted. You coming to bed?”
“Right behind you,” he said, setting is almost empty mug aside.