Chapter 22
Commando
“I feel alive!” Slade shook his head wildly, while Mom stood in front of him, with a needle and thread in her hand. She was losing patience but her motherly feelings towards the members of the MC was shining through. King was sitting behind Slade, trying to keep his head still while she stitched the wound on his forehead.
Slade reached for the shot of whisky Big D had placed beside him on the counter. He tipped his head back and chugged it down.
“Wooohooo!” he cheered, his eyes wild with the pain and the drugging effects of the whisky. This was his third shot.
“Be still or I tell Big D to hold the drinks!” Mom snapped at him.
“You need to get stitched up brother,” King tried to pacify him but Slade snapped his fingers in the air again, trying to get Big D’s attention. I could see Dad and Crawford in the background talking.
“Hold fucking still, Slade!” I barked at him and he smiled toothily at me. King held down his shoulders while Mom brought the needle to his eyebrows.
“I’ll tell ya, this is going to hurt,” she said and pierced his skin with the needle. Slade clenched his jaws and I saw him gripping the edge of the counter, but he wasn’t going to scream. No matter how painful this was.
“What happened?” Elwood had appeared behind him now and Slade tried to crane his neck to see.
Mom smacked his cheek, as hard as she used to smack mine when I was a kid and Slade looked back at her apologetically.
“They jumped me,” he said.
“Who?” Elwood asked him, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Black Skulls. I was at The Pussycats, collecting the dues from Mac,” he said, in a more sobered down voice now. I could see that he was reliving the moment.
“Dues? Our dues?” Elwood asked and Slade nodded his head. His movement made Mom flick her hand on his cheek again, and he held still.
“Were you alone?”
“I was at the back, leaving. Mac had just handed me the dough,” Slade said, his eyelids fluttering with pain while Mom dug the needle into his skin again. He gritted his teeth to stop from crying out and Elwood exchanged looks with me.
“How many of them were there?”
“Three. Those three motherfuckers from the warehouse,” Slade said, looking at me now and I clenched my jaw with rage. King was shaking his head behind Slade. I knew what he was thinking. We should have popped them when we had the chance. But we didn’t have a chance. We were fucking outnumbered!
“They took the money, of course,” Slade added and I heard Elwood grunt under his breath.
“There. You’ll be good as new in a few days,” Mom said, stepping away from Slade now to admire her handiwork. Slade reached for another shot of whisky in reaction and downed it and smacked his lips.
“Didn’t feel a thing,” he said and Girth let out a bellowing laugh.
“You might want to wipe the tears from your cheeks first, brother. It’s ruining your makeup,” he said and King laughed too. Slade was still smiling. This smiling motherfucker!
“Come back to me in seven days, Slade. Those stitches need to be removed before they start messing with your skin,” Mom said and wiped her hands with a rag.
I watched as she patted Elwood’s shoulder and threw me a look and nodded her head. No matter how much she disapproved of our lifestyle, she was always going to be there for her husband and for the boys. I smiled at her reassuringly, but she was straight faced. She didn’t find the situation as amusing as Slade did.
“I’ll see you at home,” she said and Dad leaned in to plant a quick kiss on her cheek and then slapped her behind when she walked away from him. I rolled my eyes and looked away.
“This needs to end,” King was wiping his bloodied hands on a rag now and he stood up from his chair. Some of the guys had already started a match with Slade, they were downing whisky shots and bets were being placed. King and Girth came up to Elwood and me and Crawford joined in.
“Yeah, this needs to be handled,” Crawford said and my father was nodding his head.
“Kill any Black Skull member you find on our territory,” he said, after a moment silence. King and I exchanged looks.
“Is that an order?” Girth asked and Elwood stared at him and then nodded his head again.
“Yes, do it,” he said and then turned from us and walked away, Crawford close on his heels.
King, Girth and I stared at Slade downing shots at the counter, jostling the other guys.
“We need to put the bastard to sleep,” King said and I shook my head.
“Jewel has pumped enough pills in him. We don’t have to make him do anything,” Girth said.
We watched Slade for a few minutes longer, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Elwood had given us the order, shoot on sight. This was the beginning of a war, which meant that anything could happen.
Slade’s eyelids were beginning to droop as he held up another shot glass to his lips.
“Should he be mixing alcohol with the pills?” King asked and Girth shrugged his shoulders.
“If this doesn’t kill him, something else will,” he said and we looked at each other. He was right. War with the Black Skulls meant that any of us could die, but we had our orders and we had to carry them out.
Slade’s head bobbed once and then he crashed, face forward on the counter and a loud Whoa erupted around us.
“C’mon. Bed time for you, little man,” Girth said and grabbed Slade by the back of his collar, while King and I caught his legs. We carried him upstairs to the bunk room where we deposited him for the night.
xxx
We were on our bikes. King, Girth and I were out to scan the territory. It was the middle of the night, but my mind was buzzing. Too much had happened in one night. The Black Skulls had just beaten up one of our brothers, on our territory.
There would have to be consequences.
“I’ll go north,” Girth called out to us over the sound of our roaring engines and I nodded my head in agreement. King and I rode south. We were not going to give those weasels an opportunity to shake down or rob a business again. And we were definitely not going to give them an opportunity to beat up any of us again. This was going to end and we were going to win.
Gripping my bike tightly, King and I rode together, our eyes scanning every road and every corner that we rode past. I tried not to think of Ava and her ex, that would have to wait another day. At least she was safe for now. But it was difficult to separate the two feelings. My rage against her ex was fueled even more by what had happened to Slade; even though the two things were not connected. If the Black Skulls hadn’t messed with Slade, Blaine Salzburg would have been dead by now.
I was riding with King beside me and the sound of a gunshot alerted us.
“It came from the north!” King roared out and we both made a U-turn in unison, picking up speed. The gunshot had come from the direction that Girth had gone. Another shot was fired and we rode even faster.
In the distance, we could see Girth, standing on the pavement. He was clutching his shoulder, while his Harley lay flat on the ground. He had jumped off his bike at some point.
His free hand was pointed straight at the head of a Black Skulls member. The guy was pressed up against a run down brick wall, with his hands up while Girth stood in front of him. This was quickly becoming a common occurrence and I suppressed a smile.
King and I jumped off our bikes.
“You hurt, man?” King yelled at Girth, while I slipped my gun out of my jeans. We joined Girth, pointing our guns at the asshole against the wall.
“Just my shoulder,” Girth grunted, and there was blood streaming from where he was clutching it with his other hand. I could see that arm shaking a little, and I met his eyes and tipped my head.
“We got this,” I said and Girth lowered his gun.
I stepped towards the guy, who was snarling at us. He looked like a caged wild animal, but he was outnumbered now, so he couldn’t really pull anything.
There was a backpack lying on the ground beside him.
“What’s in that?” I growled at him and kicked the backpack with my feet. It felt heavy, like it was filled with something metallic.
The guy said nothing and I heard King click his gun, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. I crouched down and unzipped the backpack.
It was fucking full of guns. I exchanged looks with King and Girth.
“You thought you could ride through our territory, with a bag full of fucking guns?” I barked at him, and the guy spat at my face. I grabbed his collar and then punched my knuckles into his jaw. He shuddered, but took the punch well. When I stood up, he was wiping blood from his nose.
“Who said it’s yours motherfucker?” I heard him say, as I pulled the backpack up and swung it over my shoulder. There had to be at least a dozen of them in there!
I turned to him, shook my head and then turned back towards my bike. This was not going to end well for him.
“Gonna go deposit it at the club. Girth, go back and get stitched up. Call my mother,” I said and then thumped him on his back. “Damn she’s gonna be pissed, two shots in one night.”
With the backpack on my shoulders, I jumped back on my bike and revved up the engine. When King and I exchanged looks, I nodded my head.
With my helmet back on, and my engine roaring, I rode away, back in the direction of the Lucky Lady; but I heard the sound of the gun fire crisp and clear in the air. Two birds had just been killed with one stone. Elwood’s orders had been carried out, and King had just got his way.
What do they say about love and war? Anything is fair…