Bubbles

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My alarm went off at ten fifty. I didn’t want to wake up for church, but sleeping in wasn’t an option. I shushed my Half-pint back to sleep when I got out of bed and slid into jeans — and didn’t bother with a shirt or shoes. Or a shower. I smelled like I’d fucked most of the night, but so would most everyone else.

A prospect was in the hallway to make sure everyone stayed put. I’d warned Lexi the night before that if she left my room while I was at church, she’d have to go to the front room and wait for me to come get her. I didn’t think she’d wake up though, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Most of us had stayed at the clubhouse, so we stumbled to the subbasement without being fully awake. I wasn’t the only man in jeans and a cut without his shirt.

I’d left my phone in my room, and noted most everyone else had, too. My wolf felt the EMP that would fry anything electronic, and Duke brought the meeting to order.

“Bubbles asked to speak, so he gets the floor first.”

“I’ve ordered a prop vest for Lex. I’m hoping ya’ll will vote so I can give it to her when it comes in. Also, it’d be nice if she can bring her pepper spray.”

“I’ll vote for both right now,” said Viper. “I’ve known her a few months and she’s good people.” He looked around the room. “She’s Betty Boop’s sister.”

Duke looked to Brain, who said, “She checks out fine. Grew up in the old Harriet Tubman projects, and went into foster care at fourteen when her mom got busted for drugs and prostitution. She graduated with a three-point-two GPA from Hixson high, and is back with her mom in government funded housing. She’s making good grades in Chatt State’s cosmetology program — she has to pay for her supplies, but tuition and books are covered with a grant. She works with Viper, office stuff, and her finances are as you’d expect. No payoffs, no big purchases other than her car. Her foster parents made her save money from her fast food job, so she bought her car outright after she was out of the system. She has no debt.”

He turned a page on his notes. “She connected to our network from Bubbles’ house, so I’ve been through her email, the files in her cloud, her phone, her Chromebook. Everything is as I’d expected.” He looked up from his notes. “Her mom works indirectly for the cartel. Seems to be their local expert at knowing how to mix whatever arrives so it’s consistent with previous batches. From what I can tell, the mother didn’t shield either sister.”

I went through the story of her sister calling Slick, us rescuing Lex, and everything that’d happened since. Duke picked up with his thoughts on Marlin, though Brain added some points here and there.

It took a while, but the entire club was in agreement we no longer took Marlin at his word.

I told them what I’d paid Gavin to do, and Duke told them, “I had my own conversation with Gavin last night. Offered him six grand to take care of Fury, and another two grand per person in the house to make them forget they’re pissed at the MC. A female called Gen and we needed to get that shit stopped. Gavin verified for me early this morning that the female won’t be a problem again.”

“In both cases, it was personal,” said Brain, “and both Bubbles and Duke used their own money for the payoff. However, we need to agree on the club’s stance.” He looked around the room. “When Marlin comes to us demanding to know what we did to his people, I believe we should claim ignorance and say we assumed this was him taking care of the situation.”

“Agreed,” said Duke. “I’d like the official MC stance to be one of bewilderment. We have no idea how the Playas pulled it off, but we aren’t complaining that Marlin handled his people like he promised. None of us wanted to see another war in the streets.”

“Same answer for everyone, not just LEO.” said Bash.

We discussed the pros and cons. We didn’t like admitting we let someone else take care of a problem, but as long as it was handled and LEO wasn’t breathing down our necks, it was all good. Once we’d voted, Duke said, “The next problem may not be resolved today, but we need to talk about how to handle Marlin long term. Thoughts?”

No one said anything, and we all looked at Brain. “Snake’s negotiations seem to have more bite. We need to think long and hard about who we want in Marlin’s place, and then work towards makin’ it happen. I’m leaning towards Snake, but not convinced he’s the best option.”

Another twenty minutes talking about them, and Duke closed the discussion without a vote. He told everyone about Davy, but only said he’d been inside with me. Brain went over August’s receipts and expenses for each establishment, and we all got a stack of cash.

Duke looked over his notes. “We never voted on Lexi. I want to see her in a prop vest, which automatically means she has access to the back of the clubhouse. She handled herself well last night, but let’s leave weapons off her for now. So, that’s a yes and a no from me.”

We went around the table and everyone voted yes for the prop vest. Not enough voted an okay for weapons, but that was okay. This was happening fast and I was relieved everyone accepted her.

Finally, Bash reminded us of our weekend ride into the mountains of North Georgia in two weeks, timed for us to see the fall colors, and the meeting was closed.

Gonzo and I were in the outer chamber discussing some details for our upcoming color cruise when Duke came out and checked his phone. “Fuck. LEO’s working on getting a warrant to search the clubhouse. Someone sent the warning codes from a burner phone. Not sure who, but only the cops on our payroll know what they are.”

“Everyone on parole needs to clear out,” said Brain. “Get your ol’ladies and go. Now.”

I didn’t argue. Lexi was sitting up, on the phone with her sister, when I walked in. “We gotta go. Tell Betty you’ll call her back when I get you home.”

“What’s happened?”

“This is one of those times you just get to movin’ and don’t argue, Lex. Cops are on the way and I’m on parole. We should be gone before they get here.”

She got off the phone, twisted her hair and put a thing around it so it was in a little bun, put her clothes on from the night before, tied her tennis shoes, and grabbed her purse. I had a shirt on and one boot, so she was ready to go before me.

I tied the second boot, grabbed my keys, and we were out of there. I had around six hundred bucks in my sock drawer, and absolutely nothing incriminating. A parolee’s residence can be searched at any time, which meant those on parole can’t have an official bedroom at the clubhouse. We all have one, we just have to be careful about it — I had some clothes here, but none had my name in them, and Dozer could fit into them. They were big on him, but didn’t swallow him whole. If asked, he used this room to bring girls to since his stayed so messy on the other side of the bathroom.

When Lex moved some clothes in, she’d have to be careful nothing could be identified as hers.

We don’t keep anything incriminating at the clubhouse, ever. You don’t shit where you sleep. Brain has the control room set up so nothing on the premises — nothing on a physical hard drive — will give them shit. Anything illegal, like hacking codes, or financial information, or blueprints to a house we need to get inside, are encrypted and kept on a server farm elsewhere. One safe has a burner phone with the Drake app, as well as a USB to be plugged into the control panel if someone needs to run it who doesn’t know what they’re doing. Just touching the safe’s handle the wrong way will make an EMP burst wipe everything inside the safe clean, and putting the wrong code into the safe to open it will wipe the entire control room — including any phones that might be in someone’s pocket, any police radios, and all bugging devices. Basically, it kills anything with an electronic circuit unless it’s military grade and designed to hold up to a strong EMP.

Forcing open the door into the control room also wipes everything.

So no, we weren’t worried about the warrant, other than to get everyone on parole out of there, since any run-ins with LEO have to be reported to our PO.

I pulled out of the parking lot slowly, taking it easy the Sunday morning after a wild party. The day was already beautiful, and I hit Missionary Ridge so we’d have a nice ride into Georgia. I was starving, and pulled into the Biscuit Barn in Fort O, and hoped Lexi would be okay with eating out when she hadn’t had time to get ready.

My little half pint never said a word — went inside with me, ordered, and ate like it was nothin’. I suddenly needed to tell her I loved her, but I didn’t want to say it for the first time in the Biscuit Barn.

“What did your sister have to say?”

“She just wanted to know what one of your parties was like. I didn’t tell her about Gen.” She shrugged. “Until it got wild, it was more like a church social than a biker party.”

I chuckled. “But then it got dark and the kids went home.”

“Yeah, and it was more like a free-for-all porn show. I never got around to meeting Dawg, but I think he had at least three women on him all night — and not the same three women!” She shook her head. “I’ll never be able to look the waitress at your restaurant in the eyes again.”

I couldn’t help my smile. “It’ll be fine. You’ll get used to it.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’ve done her, haven’t you?”

“I’ve done all the sweetbutts, more times than I can count. Already told you that. I also told them I’m spoken for as soon as I realized how serious you and me are.”

She gave me an almost evil smirk. “So, you practiced on them, to make sure you were at expert level when you met me.”

Just like that, it didn’t matter if we were in the Biscuit Barn, she needed to hear it. “I love you, Half-pint. Lock, stock, and barrel.”

Her eyes grew a little misty, and she nodded. “I love you too. Still scares the fuck out of me, but I do.”

“Why’s it scary?”

She lifted a single, sexy little shoulder and let it drop. “We had to leave fast this mornin’ to avoid the cops. It isn’t the way I wanted my life to go, but I love you, so I’ll deal with it.”

I rubbed her arm from across the table. “We only had to leave because my parole officer has to be notified anytime I have an official run-in with LEO, and too many times looks bad. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but we got a heads up on a warrant, so Duke ordered everyone on parole to leave. Ain’t nothin’ for anyone to find. No one’s worried. Everyone’ll be sitting in the main room watching football or playin’ video games when the cops arrive.”

“What’s in the bag?”

Ah, she’d seen me stick it in my jacket before we left. No biggie. “I’ll show you when we get home. Nothing illegal.”

We went quiet when the waitress approached, and while she topped off Lexi’s coffee, my Half-pint asked, “I don’t suppose you could give me a few squirts of chocolate?”

“Sure thing, darlin’.”

“You aren’t hung over?” I asked. She’d put away an impressive amount of beer once we’d let her know it was safe.

“A little shaky, but no headache or anything. What are the odds you’ll drop me off at Etta’s apartment for a few hours? It’s time for me to trim her hair, and we just need to talk.”

“Install an app for me so I can track your phone, and promise to keep it on you, and I’ll drop you off, run some errands, and pick you back up a few hours later.”

Her scent told me I was about to hear something indignant, probably about me not trusting her, so I said, “If someone absconds with you, I need to know where they take you. It isn’t about trust.”

And yeah, Brain supplies the app, and I’d be able to hear anything she said if I wanted to listen in, and even see whatever the camera picked up — though that drains the battery fast so you can’t do it much.

But she only needed to know I could find her if someone grabbed her.

“Okay. You’re just trying to keep me safe. What happened with Matty and Dozer?”

“Long story. Another time. Dozer’s paid for it ten times over and we’re all good, but it was messy for a while.”

Lexi

---

I was so damned sore, but I was afraid Bubbles would go another three or four days without foolin’ around if I complained, so I didn’t say a word about it. We hadn’t gone to his room until probably three in the morning, and then he’d kept me up for hours giving me orgasm after orgasm — and he’d made me wear a damned butt plug, but I’m pretty sure it only made the orgasms better. I hated the plug, and yet… it’s possible I was starting to kind of like it.

I didn’t think he’d had more than four or five hours sleep before he left for his meeting. I’d slept another couple of hours, and hadn’t been awake long when he returned. What had they needed to talk about for so long?

I didn’t expect Bubbles to show me whatever was in the bag until he’d had time to remove some items, but he showed me as soon as the garage door closed behind us and we had our helmets off.

I stared at the bundles of cash, dumbstruck. There had to be ten or fifteen grand, at least.

“We got our September bonus this morning.”

“If everyone has that much money…” I was suddenly scared for the club. Doesn’t matter if you get caught with drugs, just gettin’ caught with too much cash is enough to get you in loads of trouble.

He settled his hand on my shoulder, and the warmth helped ground me. “You want to be friends with the cops, but you were raised to fear them.”

I nodded. He was right. I knew he was right. Didn’t matter how many times they came around the fosters and were helpful, I was always wary.

He pulled his hand back and we went into the house together.

“Won’t be any cash for them to find. Couple hundred dollars here and there. Nothing big enough for them to question.”

I’d seen how the cops can go through a place when they have a warrant. They trash it. No stone unturned. They’d done it to our place plenty.

He’d been around too, though. Maybe the club had found a way to keep LEO from finding hidey-holes. Mama had never figured it out.

While he was being talkative, I asked, “The restaurant, the bike shop, the hotel where Etta works, the laundromats. Is there anything else?”

“I can’t work in the gun store, or even provide security outside. It’s totally aboveboard and legal. There’s a shootin’ range you can go to, and self-defense classes across the street. We probably need to see about getting you into some classes.”

“Razor said he teaches them and that I just need to learn better technique and I’ll be fine.”

“Agreed. You fought back somethin’ fierce. Who taught you?”

“Mama’s business partner taught me to shoot a gun and some basic self-defense. Said I needed to be able to protect us when she was stoned to hell and back, or out cold. He taught me and Etta. Also showed us how to break the guns down and clean them. I have a few at my mama’s. Not mine exactly, but I’m the one who makes sure they’re clean and loaded.” I looked back at the stack of cash. “Members all own a portion of the businesses, and you get a cut of the profits? That’s a lot of profit.”

He turned the television on in the bedroom, navigated to a radio station, and tossed the remote on the bed.

“We get a portion of all profits, and a slightly bigger cut of the business we work in, plus I get extra for being an enforcer.”

He spoke slower than normal, as if he were considering his words.

“That’s a secret thing, right? Something you could get in trouble for telling me?”

“Won’t be in trouble unless you tell, but yeah, it’s a club thing — something only members are supposed to know. It isn’t illegal, but considered club business.”

“But you need me to trust you, and to see you as a mostly law-abiding citizen?”

He chuckled and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m in a one percenter club and you aren’t stupid, so I won’t try to convince you about the law-abiding part, but I want you to understand my moral code keeps me from being a bad guy. Yeah, I cut someone’s dick off, but he was going to rape you and I needed to make sure that never happened. I handle shit myself and don’t call the cops.”

There was so much I could’ve argued with him about over that paragraph, but I understood what he was saying. He lives by a moral code and isn’t like some crazed serial killer — when he does bad things, it’s for a reason.

“I asked Etta about birth control. She said she’d call Monday morning and make an appointment for me, and will try to get it for three or after, so I won’t have to miss class.” I met his gaze and tried to look firm. “You’ll need to get tested before we stop using condoms.”

Instead of arguing, he nodded. “Okay. It’ll probably be at least a few weeks before she can get you an appointment and then it takes another couple of weeks to be safe after you start taking the pills. I have a little time, but I’ll make it happen.”