Benz

Church. I’d been to these votes too many times to count. It was how we kept The Dark Saints running.

We all had tempers. We all had opinions. We all had blood, sweat, and tears in this MC. And we all wanted it to go on.

We all put the club before ourselves.

So this was going to be an uphill battle for me. They were going to think that I was thinking with my cock. E.Z. had said as much. They were going to believe that a narc had head fucked me.

I knew it. But Jen Guffy’s connection with the cops was hopefully what would save her.

I walked into the club and there were the family faces. Axle, Zig, Shep; they were my crew. I headed toward the board room and they followed me. I was one-hundred percent certain that The Saints I came up with would be in my camp. Kade had let me know who stood where and I was feeling okay about that. But it was Bear and E.Z. They could fuck up a man’s life with the pound of a gavel.

I had a seat at the table as the Sergeant at Arms. Kade was already in there. His lower lip was cut from where I’d hit him. He nodded to me, but didn’t greet me with the chest bump of brothers. Kade had helped me get Jen out, and if I could help it, no one would know that.

If they thought I was a traitor that was one thing. I didn’t want to bring anyone else down with me.

Finally Bear walked in. He was named right. The word burley was invented to describe him. He was never a warm fuzzy type, but he protected me. He took me in when my fuck up father tried to destroy the club. He never held it against me that Kenny Bass had acted in the name of The Saints even though he never had the patch.

“Alright. We all here?” he said. And we were all present and accounted for, enough for a vote anyway. We were crowded in, but we fit.

“All but Bo I see, and we know why. I had E.Z. get him up to speed. He has Bo’s proxy. Here’s where we are. A woman by the name of Jen Guffy fucked up our plans two nights ago. We were allowing a shipment of New Jack Swing to be delivered into Port Az. We were hoping this was a pipeline to whoever’s trying to pollute Port Az. You want to tell ‘em what your jobs were?” He looked at me.

“Kade and I were lookouts. Just to be sure we had Bo’s back with whoever was making the buy.”

“Kade. Why don’t you describe what happened after that?” Bear said and Kade recounted the mess that followed.

“And who had tipped off the cops?”

Kade hesitated. He didn’t want to burn me any more than I would want to burn him, but what happened wasn’t in dispute.

“It was Benz’s new old lady. She had called the Port Az Police, teamed up with a rookie there. She’s some kind of librarian doing history and then all of a sudden she’s snitched to the cops. The wrong cops.”

Bear nodded. “I have ordered Benz to get rid of this singing little librarian, and as you all know, instead, he punched Kade and took off with her. That was my order and he fucking did what he wanted. That shit hurts us all.”

“I called for a vote and so did Kade. An order like that needs a vote.” E.Z. chimed in. It was a strange position to be in, aligned with E.Z.

“I disagree. But here we are in Church. What do you have to say that is going to make anyone in this club think we shouldn’t handle this my way?” Bear looked at me. This was the same man who’d given me a place to live for the last ten years. Who’d given me a future when my own old man had shit all over it. I realized that I’d hurt him when I’d chosen Jen over him. But I wouldn’t change it.

This was it. This was my chance to do everything I could to save Jen.

“She’s a cop, she’s not a librarian. She’s a cop. Well almost. She works for the Department of Public Safety. She wants to be a Ranger.” Several of the men at the table had Rangers for Granddads. That I knew. I might be the product of a bunch of shitty criminals, famous ones even, but they had Ranger blood in their veins. I hoped that meant something to them now.

The air had definitely shifted in the room and I had their complete attention.

I spilled what I knew. I told them everything.

“Jen Guffy’s father, Ranger Gary Guffy, killed my Daddy, who you all know was a slimy wannabe Saint. When Kenny Bass robbed the Port Az Bank and got into the gun fire battle with the Texas Rangers, it was Jen’s Daddy. They shot each other. I didn’t know a damn thing about this when I took up with her. But I’ve since learned all she knows of us is from that. And she’d gone to the law because she thought we were all like my Daddy.”

“He was such a piece of shit,” Tuffy said. Tuffy was of Bear’s era and remembered it all.

“No offense,” he added in my direction. I nodded. I knew Kenny Bass was a piece of shit and I knew he was never a Saint.

“Anyway, if you have me or anyone lay a hand on her, it will be hell fire from the law. They’ll crawl so far up our asses, we’ll be spitting Texas Ranger badges out our throats. If you have us kill her, not only will we lose control of Port Az, we’ll lose this club. You don’t go killing the daughter of a Texas hero because you’re pissed how one stupid night went down.”

Bear readjusted in his seat. He let my information settle in. It really was all there was to it. This club would rightly get the blame if anything happened to Jenny Guffy. The newspapers alone would fry us. Her Daddy was a hero. My Daddy was why. If I killed or the club did, we’d have state and fed law down on us. It would be a kind of heat we’d never seen.

“Let’s put it to a vote,” E.Z. said. Bear nodded. I hoped they all saw what I saw. I hoped I’d said it all the right way.

“All in favor of disposing of Jenny Guffy say ‘Eye.’” The room was silent. I wondered how many hands would raise. I wondered if I could forgive The Saint that wanted her dead. I suspected I couldn’t. That would eat me alive. I almost didn’t want to see who voted in favor of killing her.

I looked around. Not one Saint moved a muscle.

They didn’t want to kill her any more than I did now. It was fucking unanimous.

Bear was wrong to order it before he had the facts and The Saints were on my side.

“Oh, and Bo is a no, too,” E.Z. said. He had a shitty smile on his face.

He was enjoying Bear being wrong more than he gave a shit about Jen. I didn’t care why though. I only cared that the vote was my way. Totally my way.

I was ready to stop bullets for her. It looked like now I wouldn’t have to. But maybe I’d ruined my trust with Bear forever. I’d have to gnaw on that for a while.

“Fine. The girl lives. But I do not want you seeing her again. She is clearly a rat. She is clearly your blind spot. Cut her off.”

I didn’t say anything. I wanted to tell him to fuck off. I wanted to ask him if ever, in a million years, he would quit on Mama Bear?

I knew he wouldn’t.

But I swallowed all that. I’d work on him through Mama, maybe.

I wanted out of this meeting. I wanted word spread right now that there wasn’t a mark on Jen’s head.

I wanted Saints and Hawks and cops to know how much trouble they’d be in if they touched her. That meant getting out of here and getting it on the street.

“Meeting adjourned.” Bear pounded the gavel. Saints dispersed in several different directions. Some of my tightest crew came up to me.

“It’s for the best, man,” Zig said to me.

I nodded again. I was not onboard with getting rid of Jen from my life. But one problem at a time. Zig didn’t know how this was. He didn’t have a woman in his life right now. Axle, he understood. He’d also voted my way, without even a conversation with me. He heard the evidence and knew it was good for the club to keep her alive.

I knew he’d die for his old lady, too. But Axle wasn’t the one asking me to leave Jen.

I made my way to Mama Bear. She was in the office again and smiled when she saw me.

“Well, you show up the old man?” A smirk played across her lips.

“I didn’t want to show him up.” It did pain me to go against Bear.

“It’s okay, honey. I’ve disagreed with him on every single thing in our lives from the fucking bath mat to how to drive to Oklahoma. We fight. But he’s still here. And so am I. He’ll get over it.”

“Mama, he wants me not to see Jen ever again.”

“Well, that’s a different thing isn’t it?” She took off her reading glasses and looked at me.

“You obviously love the hell out of her. How that’s gonna work is something you two have to figure out. You know?”

“Yeah, just work on him for me, okay?”

“I’ll do my best.” I came over and hugged her. I knew she would work on Bear’s soft side. He had one and she had the keys. But she was also right about working out my life with Jen on my own.

I had to trust her and she had to understand me.

I didn’t know if she’d ever be hanging out at the MC and knocking back drinks with me and the other old ladies. But there had to be a middle ground. A way for her to live her life and me to live mine, together.

After a few more hugs from guys at the MC I went outside to my bike.

I had hated even the thought of not being a part of this and, at least for now, things were better. They were settled.

I was going back to Jen’s. I wanted to be by her side as the word got around. I didn’t want some idiot to think it was still Bear’s order to kill Jen Guffy.

For the first time in two days I felt a little weight lift off my shoulders. I wasn’t fucking supposed to kill the woman I loved and I didn’t have to kill one of my brothers for acting on Bear’s orders.

That was a scenario I feared almost as much as my worry for Jen getting hurt.

I drove through Port Az.

As I did, a powder blue, a VW Bug, caught my eye.

It was Jen’s car. What the fuck?

She was at the Port Az Police station?

I’d asked her not to go anywhere. I’d asked her to stay put. And here she was again. At the damn cop shop. She hadn’t learned one fucking thing in the last two days. My guts were on the table back there and she was at the cop shop?

It was then I realized that Bear was right.

I loved her. Totally and completely. She was the only woman I wanted to see. The only one I wanted to be with.

But she was dangerous as hell for my club. I kept driving. I had just saved her. I’d been willing to give up my club and my life to do it.

And I’d asked her to do one goddamn thing.

It settled in, what I had to do. I felt like I might throw up or run my bike into a wall at top speed. But doing the hard thing was the right thing and I knew it.

As wrong as Bear was about putting the hit out on Jen, he was right about us being together. I didn’t know what the fucking shit she was doing at the cop shop, but none of it mattered.

I’d told her not to, because she could have been whacked at any moment. I’d trusted her too quickly. The second I left her alone, she’d done the exact fucking opposite thing I’d asked.

I drove to the little hotel. I made a quick stop at the front desk for a pen and paper.

I had no idea how long Jen Guffy was planning to hang out with Port Az’s finest, so I made it quick. I knew seeing her again would only shake me. I had to do this fast. I had to do this now.

There were a million things I wanted to say to her. I was hurt. I understood. I didn’t understand. All of it was in there.

All she really needed to know was that I’d got the hit off her.

The smartest thing for her to do was to get out of our town. She should get out of Port Az as fast as her Bug could take her.

I hope I made that completely clear.