Chapter 3
Daredevil
Beasty and Ace were with me when we entered Mr. Hill’s pawn shop. Over the years, our MC had formed a perfectly peaceful working relationship with most of the local businesses. They gave us money and we provided them with protection. We were one of two shifter MCs in the area, and if they weren’t getting protection from us, they were getting ransacked by the other. Bastards.
“Daredevil!” Mr. Hill was behind the counter, polishing a pocket watch which definitely didn’t look vintage. He had his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and pulled them off when I walked towards him.
“Mr. Hill,” I said and placed my hands on the glass counter, peering down to look at his latest wares. The kinds of things people pawned for cash was nuts.
“You have the cash?” Beasty spoke up. He had no patience for small talk and Mr. Hill nodded his head vigorously.
“How’s business?” I asked him instead, as he wiped his grimy hands on a rag before walking around to his desk, where we all knew there was a secret compartment he used to stash money.
“I can’t complain about business, but the Claws are something else,” Mr. Hill replied, stuffing dollar bills into a plastic bag. Ace was going to count them when he handed it over to us.
“What are those idiots up to?” I asked with a laugh, and I heard Ace and Beasty give out a little laugh behind me as well. Mr. Hill however, didn’t appreciate my use of that choice word.
“They’ve visited me twice this past week,” he said, with a sour expression on his face as he handed over the thick wad of cash to Ace, who started counting it.
“This isn’t their territory,” I snapped and Mr. Hill sighed.
“They scared my shopgirl shitless yesterday,” he said and I was surprised to hear him use that word. I’d always considered Mr. Hill to be a gentleman.
“Lancey, over at Mahoney’s pub told me the same thing. The Claws paid them a visit recently as well,” Beasty said and I turned to him with narrowed eyes.
“They’ve been trying to shake down a lot of us in the area,” Mr. Hill complained and when I looked at him, I could see that he was more than just annoyed.
“What did they do?” I asked him and I noticed how he was refusing to meet my eye. My tiger growled just beneath the surface. Our territory, not theirs. It was enough to set any shifter off.
“They took some stuff,” he replied in a smaller voice and my fists banged down on his glass counter instinctively.
“Why didn’t you get in touch with me?” I barked at Mr. Hill and he seemed to cower and I cleared my throat.
“We’ll keep an eye on this street,” I added in a gruff voice and he nodded his head.
“I wasn’t sure what to do,” he replied and I reached over the counter and grabbed his shoulder and gave it a shake.
“Beasty will stick around and watch over the shop,” I said to him and he nodded his head again.
“It’s all there,” Ace told me. He was done counting the cash and I gave Mr. Hill a quick nod.
“You don’t have to worry about the Claws,” I reassured him again and then turned around and walked out of the shop with Beasty and Ace behind me.
Outside, I slipped a cigarette out of the box and stuck it to my lips. Ace brought out his zippo and presented the burning flame to me which I used to light up. I took in a deep drag, allowing the smoke to fill my lungs. It was this or I needed to break out, let the tiger run wild. And in the middle of the day downtown, that wasn’t happening.
“Screw ‘em,” I said, while Ace lit Beasty’s cigarette and then his own.
“What gave them the balls to start doing this shit?” Beasty said, pulling on the smoke of his own cigarette. I flicked ash from mine onto the pavement and shook my head.
“Does Hunter know about this? You should have told us about Mahoney’s the moment you heard about it,” I clenched my jaw.
“Yeah,” Beasty replied.
“Things can get out of hand if they start encroaching. They need to be kicked back into their caves,” I said, Ace and Beasty nodded their heads aware that this was a serious matter.
The Claws and the Roarin’ Rebels had a long history of rivalry, but when Dad took over as President, a very clear boundary of territory had been set up between us. We had emerged victors of our last major war which meant that our territory was larger. Our rules applied, and the local businesses operated under us. No trade took place in the area without our knowledge and without us getting an appropriate cut.
In the last couple of years, there hadn’t been any major outbreaks and the Claws seemed to keep a low profile, keeping out of our way. But if they were beginning to shake down local businesses, it meant that they were planning on making an appearance again. God damned wolves. Always thinking they’re better than they are.
“You guys stick around here,” I said to them and decided that I needed to speak to Dad. I walked over to my Harley and started the bike with the last inches of my cigarette dangling from my mouth.
I knew where he would be, The Shifter Shack.
My mind was still occupied by the Claws when I pushed open the doors of the bar and walked in. We needed to figure out what the idiots had been up to and which other businesses they were trying to steal from and shake down. We needed to amp up our man power at these places and if there was no other choice, another war would have to be declared.
That was when I saw her behind the counter, where Big D always stood. She was polishing glasses with her head bent low over them and looked up at me when I walked towards her.