Tanner
Tanner and Star stood at the front of the room, beside Blade. Together. He never would have imagined him and her like this, not in a million years. And especially not under their current circumstances.
“Alright, you boys,” Blade bellowed from the front of the room, “we're calling this shit to order, now. So y'all settle down.”
The previously bustling room, full of whispering conversations and loud horseplay, came to a complete silence. All the men, most of them wearing their patched vests, turned their eyes slowly to the acknowledged leader of the Blood Warriors.
In the crowd was Brendon, who'd finally joined back up as a recruit, and Cam, who had renewed his vigor and dedication to the club. Seeing them both made Tanner's heart swell with pride that they still wanted to be in the MC.
“Now, you boys know that over the last couple months we've been having problems with the Roaming Wolves coming onto our turf and messing with some of our boys.”
The crowd nodded and grumbled in ascent. On this, their hatred of the Roaming Wolves, it was as if the whole group was one, pissed-off person.
“That they went after Tanner's family first,” Blade said, nodding to Brendon in the crowd before he continued on, “then, after the Old Crow, which is ours.”
The assembled bikers mumbled about the cowardice of the Roaming Wolves. Cowardice at them getting the cops involved, at trying to get the boys-in-blue to fight biker battles. It wasn't right, and they all knew it.
“Now, we keep everything clean around here, but they wanted Tanner again on that one. Luckily, nothing came of it. But, then, that same night, they went after his ol' lady -” Blade stopped and turned to Tanner, “- wait. I can call her that, right?”
Tanner put his arm around Star and pulled her into his side, clearly and for all to see. “I don't care, old man.”
Beside him, Star shook her head. “I don't care either.”
Blade nodded, smiling despite the issue they were there to discuss, and turned back to the other men. Tanner noticed that the other guys nodded approvingly when he finally admitted what he and Star had been feeling for a while now, aside from the hiccup that was the last few weeks.
“So, now, we clearly got Star back, and everything's squared away. Now, though, we gotta get back to basics and find this fucker.”
The guys murmured their agreement. They wanted this shit to be over and done with just as much as Tanner and Star did.
Blade turned his attention back to Tanner and Star. “You wanna tell 'em about everything else?”
Tanner nodded and took his arm from around Star. He stepped forward and addressed the club. “Alright, guess I should start with what we know so far. This guy Aaron's an old buddy of mine, from way back when I was a kid. Some of the younger guys, you may recognize him, or you might not. I sure as fuck didn't when he whacked me with a fucking baseball bat. That's for sure.”
The crowd laughed, despite the circumstances.
“But, we've been trying to nail this guy down since he took Star. We know his name, we know his club, but that's about it. He doesn't really have a fixed address, just kinda blows around in the wind. Some people say he's staying out at one of the hotels outside of town, but there was nothing to find there. Others said he was laid up with some club girl, but that didn't pull anything either.”
“Hell, we rolled over a couple Wolves last week,” Tyke added in from the middle of the assembled bikers, “but they didn't know shit. It's like this motherfucker's a ghost or something.”
“He ain't a ghost,” Tanner said, his voice adamant. “He's a coward who's been preparing for this for a long time, that's all. He's got his boltholes set up, his places to go run and hide. Hell, he might even be staying out in the woods for all we know, or sleeping most nights in the Wolves clubhouse. We just don't know because we can't lay eyes on him.”
“So what's the plan, then?” Cam asked from the side of the room.
“Simple,” Tanner said. “We stake everything out, we wait for him, we pounce. Nothing big, nothing fancy. Guy's gotta turn up sometime.”
Tyke and the rest of the guys nodded.
“It ain't gonna be easy,” Tanner said. “But, it's gotta be done, or our name ain't shit on the street. Got it?”
All the guys nodded again. “Yeah,” Tyke said, “we got it.”
“Alright,” Blade said, “we'll start divvying up who goes where, with who. This guy's big, and crazier than a badger on PCP. I want you to stay with your partner while we're looking for him, and work as a team to bring him down. We'll bring this fucker in, and we'll deal with him the way he needs to be dealt with. Got it?”
“Got it,” they all agreed.