Chapter 24

Eagle

Night had fallen hours ago, and it was time to get this shit over with. Once the snipers had called in with an all clear that we weren’t walking into a fucking ambush, we all filed out of the clubhouse and saddled up to ride out. I helped Silk onto the rear of my bike before I climbed on in front of her. She could have taken her own bike, but she seemed to understand I needed her closer than that tonight.

Scout took the lead when a couple of prospects opened the front gates and we all followed. I was in the middle of the group, as Silk was the main focus of our protection. I didn’t have the tingling down my spine to indicate things were going to go to hell, but I was still nervous. I’d have preferred to have Silk locked down with the other old ladies back at the clubhouse, but I hadn’t even tried. Scout had been correct when he said she’d have just snuck out and followed us if we even tried to stop her.

My woman was strong and brave, and would never sit out a fight–one of the many reasons I loved her so much. Except when the fight was with a fucking dangerous mobster, then it annoyed the shit out of me.

We all rolled in to the old quarry and parked in a line, me still in the middle, with Nitro pulling in behind us, in the cage. Fitting three frozen bodies in our saddle bags wasn’t really an option.

Opposite of where we pulled up were two sleek black Escalades. The moment we turned our engines off and moved off our bikes, the doors opened and Sabella stepped free, along with five others. I figured with the fact the drivers’ doors didn’t open, that made it seven men with him. We had a dozen here in the open, plus the four snipers. We were as safe as we could be, given the situation. The fact none of Sabella’s men were holding weapons out in the open had me relaxing a little too. By the time any one of those bastards reached a gun or knife, they’d have a bullet in their skull. Probably more than one.

Silk unzipped her jacket and pulled the ledger out in clear view of them.

“Ah, my dear Claudine. You are looking well. Is that for me?”

She scowled at him. “No thanks to you. Here’s the ledger you were offered. Now you can leave me the fuck alone for good.”

Sabella raised a single brow at her. “Really? Such language. And what of the money of mine that your father left you?”

“There wasn’t any money. Just a book, handgun and a short note telling me to run away if I was with you. Be grateful Eagle was there to knock out your goon in the bank. If not for him, I’d have shot him to get away.”

Sabella frowned as he tried to stare down Silk. He wouldn’t spot the lie, because thanks to his stupid word choice, she hadn’t really lied. That money could have been from any number of people her father had ripped off.

“About these books–it seems the FBI has gotten a hold of the one you gave me at the airport. How is that possible?”

Silk shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. There was a copy of it in the box, but it’s been locked up tight and no one got to it.”

I held my wince in. I wasn’t sure how the fuck we were going to cover up Mr. Smith’s fuck-up with that one. Before I could think of anything, Scout stepped forward.

“We believe we’ve solved that issue. We had a rat who was reporting back to a rival club. I can only assume he got hold of the ledger at some point, at least long enough to snap a few photos of it, and passed that onto the other club.”

Sabella turned his gaze from Silk to Scout and I took the opportunity to grab her hand and pull her back behind me.

“And you’ve dealt with your rodent infestation?”

Scout grinned in an evil way. “Of course. We actually had a few pests rear their heads recently. I think these three belong to you.” He indicated to Nitro, who, along with two other men, opened up the trunk of the cage and lifted out three bodies wrapped in black plastic.

Sabella’s face paled as he cussed in what I assumed was Italian when the bodies were dumped at his feet. Scout moved to stand nearly on the man’s toes.

“You chose to ignore our warning back in L.A. Let me make it crystal clear for you. You come anywhere near Claudine, or anyone else involved with the Charon MC, again and you will not live to regret it. Got it?”

Sabella nodded in a jerky way that had a few of the club chuckling.

“So glad to hear it. Now, take your trash and go home. And don’t try anything stupid. We have several snipers watching your every move. Wouldn’t want one of them to get trigger-happy now, would we?”

I kept Silk firmly behind me until Sabella had his men load up the bodies and drive off.

“Can we move out? I don’t want to risk him coming back, loaded for bear.”

Scout nodded to me. “It’s a plan. Let’s get out of here. Nitro, hang back and cover the boys. We’ll see you back at the clubhouse in half hour or we’ll be back here looking for you. Understood?”

“Yes, Pres.”

I’d never put Silk’s helmet on so fast. I wanted to be out of this place and have her somewhere safe. In under five minutes we were ready to roll and to the roar of twelve sets of pipes we headed back to the club house.

An hour later, we all sat back in church, ready to wrap shit up for the night. Sabella hadn’t tried to come back at us and had been spotted driving out of town minutes after leaving our meeting. Seemed the bastard finally learned you didn’t fuck with an MC and get away with it. Before Scout could slam down the hammer, Mac indicated he wanted to speak. Dammit, didn’t the man realize I needed to get back to my woman already? She was waiting for me up in our room. Yeah, we now shared her room here at the clubhouse and I was going to move into her house as soon as I could. Living full time here at the clubhouse in the prospect rooms because I had nowhere else to lay my head, was, thankfully, a thing of the past now I had claimed my woman.

Mac

All eyes were on me now, and Eagle was about to burn a hole through me with his nasty glare. But the man could wait another five fucking minutes to go ball his woman. This was important.

“What’s up, brother?”

I couldn’t hold in the grin at Scout calling me brother. You didn’t get that honor until you were patched in.

“I’ve been thinking about our women. They’re the club’s most obvious weakness, and with what’s happened to Silk recently, it’s clear others aren’t always going to respect they’re off limits.”

I cleared my throat when Scout’s beefy arms crossed over his chest and his stare turned glacial. “Where you going with this?”

“I was going to ask about setting up some self-defense classes at the club gym. We’ll gear some to men and others to women. Family gets first priority, but getting the girls in town able to take care of themselves is only going to help us keep our town safe, right?”

The tension in the room drained away and I took a deep breath. Fuck, for a second there I thought Scout was going to have me beaten for simply pointing out a fucking weakness.

“And you’re able to set this shit up? Oversee it? Because I don’t know shit about self-defense, other than making sure I hit hard enough the other guy doesn’t get the fuck back up.”

That got a few chuckles. “Yeah, I’ve got the knowledge. I’ve done my share of rounds in a cage to work with the men who want to go further with it, too.”

Scout nodded and turned to face a man I’d not met personally before.

“Chip’s in charge of the gym. You work with him and let us know what you need. Take your boys with you. I’ve seen how well Eagle can fight, and if Taz can fight half as well as he fucks, you’re all set.”

Even I had to laugh at that one. We’d been here for just under a fucking year and Taz already had a reputation.

“All right. Settle down. Look, we all know you’re right. The days where the women were off-limits are over. Especially with what we now know about what the Iron Hammers have been doing. Still haven’t heard shit from them about whatever the fuck Runt told them, and we’re still tracking down a fucking VCR player. Didn’t want to have to buy a new one just to watch this shit, but it’s looking like that’s what we’re going to have to fucking do.” He shook his head on a huff. “We need to set up some weapons training, too. If we let it be known our old ladies are licensed to carry and know how to use that shit, that’ll be good for us too.”

Taz spoke up. “Let me handle that. Mac and Eagle will have the gym covered, I’m happy to help with it too. But I’ve already been hanging around down the gun range here in town. Old Gus gets a buzz out of having a Marine sniper hanging around, and he lets me shoot for free. I’m sure I can sort out running some female-friendly gun handling classes with him.”

Scout eyed Taz in a way that had me slightly concerned for my Marine brother.

“We need to find a way to own that place. Silk’s paid us out so she owns her shop clear, which we always knew would happen. That leaves us with the bike shop, the gym and the bar. The gym doesn’t bring in shit as it is. We need to start making some more green, men.”

I spoke up again. “These classes will bring more people in to the gym, Scout. We spruce the place up a bit, make it female-friendly, you watch the memberships rise. Ask any large gym anywhere in the US, women are their bread and butter at the moment. We can keep the back room as is for the old boys that don’t want women around. Keep them happy with their own entrance back there. It wouldn’t take much to renovate it all.”

I’d been in the gym a number of times. The back room was where an old ring was set up, with the old-school punching bags and other shit around it. The front rooms were used for storage and office shit. It’d be a piece of cake to clear that crap out and set it up as a modern gym. Especially using the club’s manpower to get it done.

Scout stood and moved to lean against the front of the table as he continued to frown in thought. He turned to Chip. “What do you think?”

The older man shrugged. “The place is fucking dying, that’s been clear for a while. Not many of the old boys still around. As much as I hate the idea of change, I can see the logic behind it. And hell, it’ll certain make the scenery at work prettier to look at. So long as we keep Taz on a fucking leash, the rest of us might get some pussy out of it.”

Scout shook his head on a chuckle when I stood, fists clenched with anger. “The classes we’re setting up are to protect women, not to set them up to be treated like fucking whores.”

“Settle down, Mac. Chip knows that. Every man here knows if they want a whore they come grab one of the ones here that know the score. Any man, club or not, that gets caught mistreating a woman in this town gets dealt with, don’t you worry about that.”

Taking a breath I nodded and sat my ass down.

“And just for the record, I only screw the club whores. I know how fucked up my needs are. I wouldn’t ever try to force that shit on a woman that didn’t know the score going in.”

Taz spoke in a low voice, but it traveled, silencing the room. At least half the men here had been in some form of military service. Hell, there were two Charons I knew of that were out on deployment at the moment. War could change a man, change his needs. Roughen his edges. And sometimes what we needed to smooth that shit out wasn’t what polite society could accept. It was one of the reasons I’d been so quick to jump at joining the Charons in the first place. It had nothing to do with what that bullshit FBI agent Mr. Smith was selling us. Nope, it was that an MC, a true old-school one, would be a safe place for me and my men to call home, where we wouldn’t be judged for what we needed now we were on home soil again. Sure, the brothers would give us shit for those needs, like all the ribbing Taz got for his sex life, but they accepted it.

The sound of the hammer landing brought me out of my introspection.

“Done. Chip? You sort shit out with Mac and Eagle and let me know what you need. I want the gym renovations done fast. Taz? Tomorrow I want to go with you out to the range, chat with Gus and see what he wants for the place. Church is done. Get your asses out of here.”

I rose slowly, feeling good about this new direction. Setting up the gym would fill my time and give me focus. Just the distraction I needed to keep the memories buried. I smiled as Eagle burst out of the room, clearly in search of Silk. I was happy for him. He’d found his home. I eyed Taz as he smiled and ribbed at one of the other younger guys. The happy-go-lucky act he put on was just that. An act. I hoped he could find his place here at the club, too. And for something more than being good with his dick.

This thing with the gym would be my new beginning. My safe place where I could be who I now was. And maybe, if I was lucky, I’d find a woman who didn’t mind having an overbearing, super protective caveman in her life.

If I was lucky.