Chapter Seven

 

Maddox

 

I’m strolling down the boardwalk collecting garbage in a trash bag, wasting time and thinking about someone I shouldn’t be when my phone starts ringing in my cut pocket.

“Shit,” I mutter to myself.

Tossing the garbage bag down, I pull the phone out and glance at the screen.

Usually I answer as soon as I see War’s name, but after sleeping with his sister for three days, I’ve been trying really hard to avoid him since I got back to Emerald Isle. He thinks the two of us were in Raleigh because I lied to him. He would kill me if he knew that I stayed in bed with his sister during the hurricane after the entire coast was evacuated.

When the phone stops buzzing for a few seconds before it starts up again, I cave and finally hit the green button to take the call.

“Yes, sir?” I answer.

“Where the hell are you?” War snaps. “I thought you were back in town.”

“Ah, yeah, I am back in town.”

“Then get your ass to the clubhouse!” he shouts through the phone line. “You’re holding up our meeting.”

“What?” I ask in confusion.

“Our meeting was supposed to start ten minutes ago, and we’ve been looking for you!”

“A Savage Kings’ meeting?” I ask for clarification.

“No, Mad Dog, our Girl Scout meeting,” he huffs. “We’re counting to see who sold the most cookies.”

“Huh?” I mutter.

“Get your ass to the chapel!” he yells before hanging up.

That’s when I realize War was being sarcastic, making a joke. He never makes a joke. And I very rarely get invited to a Kings meeting.

“Fuck!” I shout as I take off running as fast as my legs can carry me back to the Savage Asylum. Is today finally the day I’m gonna get my patch? If so, I picked the worst fucking day to go wandering off just to avoid facing my sponsor.

I rush into the bar, punch in the code to get to the basement, and hold on to the railing to take the steps three at a time to get to the bottom. Then, it’s just a quick sprint to the open door, where our VP Chase Fury is waiting with a bucket in his hands.

“Phone,” Chase says as soon as my boots skid to a halt in front of him. I lower my eyes from his face after staring at him for a moment. I don’t want him thinking I’m into dudes when I’m just looking for any family resemblance…

I raced over with my burner still in my hand, so I toss it into the plastic container.

“Get inside,” he tells me. “Everyone’s waiting, and we all have shit to do.”

“Right, sorry,” I say, as I enter the room I’ve only been inside a handful of times. I look around at the long wooden table where all the brothers are waiting with their angry gazes on me, especially War. And I’m a little disappointed that there’s still only one empty seat, which belongs to Ian, their brother in prison, not me.

“Sorry,” I say to everyone again.

Damn. Does this mean I’m not getting my patch? Wait, did War find out about me and Audrey, and tell the MC? Am I here for some type of punishment?

“Find a spot against the wall so we can get started,” Torin, our president and my unknowing cousin, says to me as Chase comes into the room and shuts the door, leaving the phone bucket outside. The guys take their privacy seriously.

“Yes, sir,” I agree, going over to the wall on the far side of the table to prop myself up out of the way, anxious to find out what’s going on.

“We’re gonna sandwich in the bad news between the good,” Torin starts, then a smile splits his face. “So, first of all, thank you all for asking about Lexi and my new daughter, Kensi. They’re both home and doing great. It was Lexi’s idea to give her part of Kennedy’s name and her own…”

“Glad to hear it,” Coop says, as all the guys cheer and slap their palms on the table.

“Congrats, boss, that’s great news,” Reece tells him.

“Thank you, brothers,” Torin says with a nod. “And let’s also congratulate War on his win in court yesterday.”

“Congrats, man,” Chase says, offering him a fist bump across the table, and the other guys follow suit.

“All right,” Torin says. “Now, before War gives us the bad news, I want to ask everyone to stay calm.”

Muttered curses can be heard around the table at that dismal warning.

“War?” Torin says. “Tell them what you know.”

“Yeah,” War agrees with a nod. “I hate to be the one to break this news to you, but I’ve just learned that the feds have launched an investigation into the Kings.”

Oh shit.

“What the fuck?” someone shouts, most likely Chase, immediately followed by more curses.

War holds up his palms for silence before he goes on to say, “I don’t know much more than that, but I don’t need to tell you all that this is some serious shit. We don’t have details of what they’re looking for or plan to accuse any of us of, but everyone needs to keep their noses spotless over the next few months. Be extremely careful about what you say and where you say it. Burner phones are a must for all club business. If you’re a felon, don’t even think of carrying a weapon other than your knife. Hell, you all need to even do the speed limit. Let’s not give them a single excuse to take one of us in.”

Torin jumps in, “Does anyone need a business card for the club’s criminal attorney? I have a few extra, if so. Keep it on you in your wallet at all times. And if you get cornered or taken in, remember the cardinal rule, don’t say a fucking word about anything to anyone. You ask for our lawyer, and that’s it.”

Everyone mutters their grumbled agreement.

“We’ll let you know more as soon as we find out,” War tells the brothers. “Reece will be working his magic, hopefully coming up with more info.”

“I’ll do my best, brother,” Reece agrees with a tilt of his chin.

“Now, on to better news,” Torin begins. “It looks like we may be losing our prospect soon…”

Everyone’s head turns to look at me.

“Maddox, you’ve served long and hard for the MC, and we’ll be taking a membership vote soon if you’re still interested in joining,” Torin declares.

“Really?” I ask. “Of course I want to join.”

“Even with the federal shit hanging over our heads?” War asks.

“Fuck the feds,” I say without hesitation, receiving a chorus of cheers for it.

“But if we lose our prospect, who’s gonna wash our bikes and do all our grunt work for us?” Dalton asks with a smirk.

I flip him off with a grin of my own.

“That’s why we need Maddox to work with Reece to find us a suitable replacement prospect or two. There’s a list of hang-arounds for you to go through and choose from,” Torin informs us. “I want them thoroughly, and I mean, thoroughly vetted, Reece. I want to know everything about them, including every thought in their naïve little heads.”

“You got it, boss,” Reece agrees. “That polygraph machine is gonna come in real handy.”

“Damn right,” Torin says before he looks to me. “And Maddox, we want you on training duty. You won’t be sponsoring these boys, but you will be in charge of overseeing our new recruits for the first few months. That will be your only job from now until the end of the year,” Torin tells me. “I want you to haze them twice as hard as we hazed you, you hear me? See how much they can take and then give them some more. When they leave here, I want you up their asses, seeing where they go and who they know. You snoop through their phones, you listen to their calls, you pat them down head to toe for wires before they step foot in this clubhouse. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” I reply.

“Once we have our new prospects, we’ll see about finding another chair for this table,” Torin declares.  

Thank fuck.

As soon as Torin slams his gavel down, adjourning our meeting, everyone gets up and starts filing out. Everyone except for War, who comes toward me.

“I know it’s taken longer than you wanted to get here,” he says while I try to force the eye contact, even though I feel awful for keeping such a huge secret from him. “But it’s been chaos around here lately, so the guys are a little more cautious about who they trust. You should be too when it comes to the new prospects.”

“Right, of course,” I agree. “I’ll make sure to do that.”

“Good, that’s good to hear,” he says. “I have some…things to take care of over the next few days, but let’s catch up over the weekend. There’s something I want to discuss with you.”

Gulp.

“Okay, sure,” I agree.

With a slap to my shoulder, he says, “See you then.”