Chapter Thirty
Clint
Tate’s directions had been crystal clear. The Silver Souls had a private bar on the second floor of a shitty casino in the slums of Reno. The door was unlocked, so they’d been expecting us. I peered through the cigar smoke to assess the situation. Much smaller than our clubhouse; I got the feeling they had cash-flow problems. The vinyl on the booths was torn and most of their pool cues were snapped in half. Classy.
There was a group of guys sitting at a booth. They all looked up from their beers, but only one of them stood up. He had wiry gray hair and a scowl.
“Clint, Demon Horde,” I said, offering up my hand for a shake. “That’s Rip and Roach.”
“I’m Buffalo Bill.” He smiled and we shook hands. The patch on his cut said he was the president. I was surprised. Tate had given us a rundown on the Souls before we left. Apparently Buffalo Bill and Tate had a falling out years ago over a woman, so I’d assumed they were about the same age. But Bill was ten or fifteen years older than Tate—he had to be in his sixties.
Bill pointed at the four other guys in the room. “Snake, VP. Traveler, sergeant at arms. Charley, treasurer.”
They were younger than Bill, but not as young as some of the guys in our club. Definitely an aging MC, with an older leader. That was a dangerous dynamic. Leaders over the age of sixty meant weakness and were seen as easy pickings by other clubs. That was probably why the Riot Riders had set up shop in Carson City. They were just waiting for this club to implode and then they would swoop in and pick up the territory.
Even with the Souls’ obvious age, we were still in a bad spot with them. We’d tried to reach out, but as soon as Bill heard Tate’s voice, he’d hung up. So we were running cars on their turf uninvited. It wasn’t how the Demon Horde did things. My plan of attack was going to be to offer them a cut. Start treating them with respect from this point forward and make them a partner. It would be a little late, but at least we would try.
“Should we do business here?” I asked, looking around. Rip and Roach were standing behind me, but this was my operation. I wanted it to go well, but frankly I wanted to get the hell out of here and go back to Jo. I knew Rip and Roach had plans of their own. We all wanted to get this show on the road.
“Why don’t y’all sit and chat?” Buffalo Bill pointed to three bar stools. “Let’s get to know each other a bit.”
The three of us sat on the stools and faced the open room. Rip gave me an annoyed look and crossed his arms over his chest. He wanted to get the hell out of here and I didn’t blame him. But I also didn’t want Buffalo Bill to feel disrespected and get pissed.
“If you don’t mind,” I said, reaching into the pocket of my cut. I pulled out a thousand dollars and handed it to him. “We’ve been on the road a while, and we’d like to get some shut-eye.”
“Fine, then.” Buffalo Bill grabbed the cash and proceeded to count it right in front of us. I ground my teeth. He was being rude as hell and doing his tally while we watched. So much for us all respecting each other.
“You don’t trust us then?” I asked as Buffalo Bill lined up the bills in neat stacks on the bar. I took a deep breath. He was trying to piss us off and let us know we were second in his territory. Fine by me. I just wanted to get the hell out of there.
“I don’t trust no one going through my turf.” He shrugged and kept counting. “Y’all could have called me about this deal. I don’t like that kind of bullshit.” He looked up from his money and scowled. “There’s only a grand here. Where’s the rest?”
“That’s more than enough for pass-through money.” My heart began to pound. Time to dangle the carrot in front of this guy. “Unless you want to talk about a more permanent agreement. If we had more business in this direction, we might be able to cut you in for five percent.”
“Five percent?” Bill screeched, his dentures whistling. “You disrespect me and come through my town and you offer me a measly five percent?”
“With all due respect, we called you—a couple of times,” I informed him, crossing my arms. “You hung up on us. This is the last time we’re gonna reach out.”
I stood up, and Rip and Roach did as well. We meant business. I knew Bill wasn’t just gonna let us walk out the door, so this was about to get ugly.
“Fucking drop it,” said a guy with long brown hair from the back of the room. It was Snake, their VP. “Take the deal, Bill. Five percent ain’t bad for not doing nothing.”
“No.” Bill whipped around, advancing on his VP. “I founded this goddamn club and I’m the president, and it’s damn time that Tate Hasslebeck respected me.” He turned back to us. “I want everything, all the money that you got for that Lamborghini. What was it, thirty thousand? At five percent, you should give us fifteen hundred.”
The cost of the car was actually sixty thousand and most of it was already stashed in secured boxes at the hotel, but I wasn’t about to tell this crazy fucker. He was too focused on the dollars in his hand to see the potential.
“Look,” I said, trying not to sound pissed. “Here’s your thousand for the pass-through. We’re headed back tomorrow. You can call Tate and talk it out, or you can take my deal. I can guarantee you, that’s the most Tate was willing to give you.”
That was when it all went to shit. Buffalo Bill pulled an old-fashioned revolver out of a shoulder holster. It didn’t have the firepower of my 9 mil, but it would get the job done. We all put up our hands.
The rest of the Silver Souls in the room concentrated around Bill’s back. Snake was shaking his head and two other guys were rolling their eyes. Interesting—not everyone agreed with their leader. Maybe I could exploit this.
“We don’t want no trouble,” I said, calmly. I caught Snake’s eye and tried to appeal to him. “We’re just trying to make you guys a fair deal, man.”
“Don’t look at him, look at me. I’m the president!” Bill howled. His arm was shaking by now, from the stress or lack of strength to hold the gun up, I wasn’t sure. But either way, he was losing control. “You’re trying to screw us, just like you did twenty-five years ago. You disrespected me then and you’re goddamned doing it now, Tate. I won’t stand for it.”
I stepped back. Fuck. The old man was confusing the lines between past and present. I wasn’t about to try to reason with him. We could take on Bill in a fight, any one of us. But there were five of them and three of us. Not all of them agreed with Bill, but they might all defend him. This was turning into a fucking powder keg.
“I was gonna give you my daughter as an alliance,” Bill rambled, pissed. He took a trembling step toward us. “She was a nice piece of ass back then. Big tits, hot ass, she would have made a great alliance. But you thought you were too good for her. Didn’t want an alliance with me, did you? Fucking asshole. So, tell me why should I let you do business on my turf now? You’ve been disrespecting me for the last fifteen years.”
“Shut up, Bill,” Snake said. He put his hand on Bill’s shoulder. “This stupid rivalry has gone on long enough. The Horde ain’t done shit, and back when they were the Storm Kings, they didn’t bother us either. Take their money. It’s a solid deal. Let them move on.”
“Shut the fuck up, Snake.” Bill turned the gun on him. “I should have never made you VP. The whole damn time you’ve been trying to take my patch.”
The other guys in the room erupted in an argument. This was my chance, I pulled my 9 mil from my shoulder holster. In no time, I had it cocked and pressed up against the back of Buffalo Bill’s head.
“Shut up!” I yelled. The crowd stilled and looked in my direction. Grabbing the back of Bill’s vest, I hauled the old man back toward me. “Looks like we came at the wrong time. So, we’re gonna get the fuck out of here. No harm, no foul. Got it?”
Bill tried to wiggle out of my grasp, but Roach caught his ear and held the old man bent over and whining like a naughty kid.
“All right, all right,” Bill groused. “You can go.”
Someone knocked on the door. All eyes turned to the front of the club as a tall, beautiful woman stepped inside.
“Jo,” I whispered, trying to think of some way to get her to leave without tipping off the rest of the room that she was with us, but it was too late. I had said her name. They knew she was with us somehow.
“Get her!” Bill shrieked.
The room erupted into chaos again. I lunged for Jo, and Bill leaped away from me. Snake grabbed Jo’s arm and hauled her up against him. It was like a slow-motion symphony as we all scrambled to have the upper hand. Once I saw that Snake had a hold of Jo, I found Bill in the crowd and put my gun to his temple.
“Stop!” I yelled. “Everybody fucking stop!”
Jo was caught against Snake, his arm encircling her waist. Fuck. I had their prez and they had my girl. I had to think fast.