Walking into the clubhouse, his demons still haunted him. Maybe if he could get one person he had wronged to forgive him, he could start to forgive himself and move the fuck on with his life. He doubted it, but he knew it was time to do something. The booze, parties, and women his new lifestyle provided weren’t cutting it any longer. Addison was a good place to start. She’d said she loved him once, maybe because of that she could forgive him. He knew the love was long gone, but maybe she could like him enough to give him a little peace and forgive him for dragging her down to his level back then.
Whisk shook his head trying to dislodge the thoughts that seemed to be plaguing him he needed to get into the game and on club business. Looking around the clubhouse Whisk noticed the place was in need of a serious cleaning. The Puppets and the Prospects weren’t doing their jobs. The Club provided them with room and board with the understanding they were to keep the place clean and tight.
The Puppets had other duties, mainly keeping the Brothers happy and stress free, which included copious amounts of no holds bar sex. They always had the choice to either do as they were told or leave, no one was ever forced to do anything they didn’t want to do. Most of the men in the RBMC didn’t have old ladies, so the Puppets took care of business on their backs or any other way the Brothers wanted them, but it was always their choice, and they knew where the door was if it all got to be too much.
The Prospects had to do whatever nasty jobs the patched members came up with. They needed to earn their place within the Club by showing their loyalty and commitment. Three of the four Prospects were good as far as Whiskey was concerned. The fourth, Digger, was a lazy son-of-a-bitch. He did the bare minimum just to get by while the other pulled hours of guard duty and spent the rest of their time bartending or any other task put to them. It looked like all of them needed a little wake up call. He would be embarrassed if an ally Club stopped by and saw the state of their Clubhouse.
Whiskey didn’t want to think about if another Club were to see the shit he was seeing, they would think the RBMC couldn’t keep their shit tight. Motorcycle Club’s didn’t have the best reputation and cleanliness wasn’t even at the top of that list, but control and structure dominated their world. If they couldn’t control their little slice of the world, then there would be issues. Other Clubs might get the idea they weren’t as Ruthless as they really were, and that couldn’t happen.
Walking into their inner sanctum, the place they held Church, Whiskey took his seat by the wall. He was a patched member, that meant that he had earned the respect of the RBMC by showing his loyalty during his Prospecting days, but not one of the officers. Only officers or old-timers sat at the table. He watched as his Brothers filed in and it looked as though none of them knew what was going on. If they had a mission that shit was prepped and prepared for days if not weeks in advance. There were rare occasions that a mission would come up at the last minute, but Link was usually in charge of that shit, and he had been at the diner with him, so he doubted that was what was going on now.
Tuck, the President of the RBMC, walked in and took his place at the head of the table. It only took seconds for him to pound the gavel down on it to get everyone’s attention.
“I won’t drag this out, we have a problem in Defiance. Hank James came to me a week ago and informed me that Addy Sinclair has been having problems at her farm for a while now. First, it was just kids’ stuff, broken fence lines, and property damage. Now, it has turned into straight out vandalism and threats. She hasn’t come to me with any of this, but about an hour ago she called and offered the farm to RBMC for half its value.
“I tried to get her to talk about everything that was going on, but she wouldn’t listen, just kept on sprouting off some shit that it was just time, and she wanted a change. The thing is, she’s adamant about only selling to us. When Hank first brought this to me, I had Link look into it, but he didn’t come up with anything.” Tuck looked at Link with a look of disapproval in his eyes. Link was his brother, and Whiskey knew the man was good underneath his pissed off and pumped up exterior; he also knew Link had always had it out for Addison. Whiskey had to wonder if Link had purposely not looked into Hank’s claims because she was involved. He wanted to doubt it, but where Link was concerned, Addison had always been bad news. He wanted to believe Link would put his personal feels aside and follow his President’s orders.
“So, I called in a few favors and have learned that Addy is getting the hard push from someone to sell. She owns the farm outright and has for a couple of years, but within the last six months she has received ten liens against the property for everything from delinquent taxes to personal injury from some fucker that lives in California. From what I can tell, he hasn’t even stepped foot in Defiance or anywhere near Addy’s farm. There are also contractor’s liens for work that hasn’t even been done. Jinx’s is looking into the liens and there’s only one common thread; all of these fuckers are from out of state and have links to over the border. They also have ties to one of our recent cases, Satan’s Vultures.”
Son-of-a-bitch, this wasn’t good. Those fuckers were into everything, drugs, guns, women, and extortion, and that was only the tip of the iceberg. RBMC had been sent in to get three little girls that had been taken and held for ransom a few months back. None of them had been over the age of seven, and the stuff those sick fucks had done to them turned Whisk’s stomach.
“Here is the problem we face, the RBMC can’t in good faith agree to buy the farm from her when we know Pop would turn over in his grave at the thought of the place going to someone other than family. We also know Addy had no plans of leaving until recently.” Tuck said looking right at Whiskey with that same disapproval he had given Link.
“Bring her in and make her talk, if these fuckers are threating her, then we do what we have to do. She might not be family, but she is an ally to this Club,” Tank said.
Tuck held up his hand before any of the Brothers could speak, looking around. Whiskey noticed that Talon and Tank were about to jump out of their seats. He knew both of them had ties to Addison and that bothered him more than he cared to admit.
“Before you get you panties in a twist,” Tuck said looking to Talon, himself and Tank. “We have another problem; she isn’t and has never been Club property. RBMC has been taking care of the Sinclair family for years because their property butts up against ours, but Addy has made it clear she wants nothing to do with the Club other than for us to buy her out. She will run and try to lay this shit in our unprepared laps. I’m cutting her some slack because of Pop and our long-standing relationship, but if it were anyone else, we would have already had her tied up out back.
“Addy is a good girl, but she is trying to play in a world she doesn’t have a clue about. She thinks if she cuts and run, it will all be over with, at least for her. I asked her for twenty-four hours and she agreed. In that time, I want all hands-on deck; we need to figure out what is going on and how to prevent any further fall out. If my feelings are right, Addy is just the way in for Satan’s Vultures to get to us. We have brought our problems to Addy’s front door and no amount of running will deter them, that is what we need to make her understand.
“Tank and Talon, I want you two to talk with her, she is closest to you, try to get her to open up about what is going on. I don’t care what you have to do, fuck her, buy her chocolate, or wine and dine the shit out of her, your choice, just get it done. I want her locked up here at the Clubhouse by the end of the tomorrow, your choice on how to make that happen.”
Whiskey walked out of meeting pissed the hell off. No way was either of those two fuckers doing anything with Addison. They had unfinished business, and he would be the one that brought her in, whether she liked it or not. Before he could make it to his bike, Link stopped him by grabbing his arm, making him turn around.
“Don’t do it asshole, leave the past in the past where it belongs. Addy isn’t yours and hasn’t been for a long fucking time. Too much water under the bridge for that shit to happen now. Follow Tuck’s instructions and let Tank and Talon handle it.”
“Fuck off, Link. Addison is and always has been mine. You understand me, from the day I popped that cherry to now, she is mine. I don’t give a fuck about the fucking water under the bridge or any of that shit. Addison will come in because I will make her, no one else.”
“Fuck, listen to yourself. You haven’t even laid hands on that women in ten fucking years. She isn’t yours, and she sure has hell isn’t going to bow to your will. Fuck man, she runs every single time she sees your ass. Leave it, grab a Puppet, a bottle, and find a place to lay low. I didn’t do the shit I had to all those years ago just for you to throw it away now.”
Whisk yanked his arm out from Link’s hold. He didn’t know what Link was talking about and he didn’t care. The one thing he knew, he needed to get to Addison and make her do what he wanted, didn’t have time to deal with Link, right now. Talon walked up and Whisk braced for another fight. “Let him go Link, it isn’t your place to hold him back.”
“Like fuck, it isn’t. I am the head of this family, and if that isn’t enough for you, I am also the motherfucking VP of this Club. What I say goes.”
“That’s the thing, Link, your say only goes as far as Club business, and Tuck just said Addy wasn’t Club property. If Whisk claims her, problem solved, he can bring her in and we can get the answer we need. I think it’s time you kept your manipulative ass out of his personal life. Hey, while you’re at it, consider mine off limits, too.”
Whisk got on his bike and revved the engine, he couldn’t have said it better himself. But he couldn’t leave without a final shot at his brother, “You have my loyalty and respect as far as the Club is concerned, but don’t pull that big brother shit, again, asshole. I’m not a punk-assed, little kid, anymore. I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions without your help or influence. You don’t have to agree with them, either.”
Yeah, that came out a little more childish than he wanted, but damn, Link was like a damn mother hen when it came to him and Tal. He never knew when to just let them be. Whiskey was also thinking Link may have had a lot more to do with what happen ten years ago then he ever thought, and if that were the case, he and his brother would have it out once and for all.
His older brother, Link, had planned their lives out to the smallest of details and at eighteen Whiskey had been all for it. Serve his country for a term, then come back and join the Ruthless Bastards MC. Simple—live hard and ride free were words that had speared him on, but as most things in life, the older he got, it changed for him. Link’s constant rules and orders for his life pissed him off. He was a free man and an adult, but every time he decided for himself, Link would push harder for him to follow his plan. After years of putting up with it, Whiskey just stopped talking to him.
It was a little hard now he was back in Defiance. Link was the VP of the RBMC, and he had to take orders from him as far as the Club was concerned, but that was as far as Whiskey was willing to let that shit go. When Whiskey became a full-patched member, the President of the Frankfort chapter gave him a choice; stay at the Mother chapter, or come home to Defiance. Whisk chose Defiance and every day since, questioned the decision. He was loyal to the Club, but his blood brothers were another matter.
Link never stopped trying to treat him like a child, and Talon just ignored him. Whiskey couldn’t blame Talon, he and Link had left him when he was only sixteen, and although they came back from time to time, it was never the same. Talon had pulled away from both of them as Whiskey had pulled away from Link. He wanted to fix it with his younger brother. They had another brother, Sebastian. He wasn’t a part of their MC world, but he was also the only one who still spoke to all of them regularly. Maybe it was the distance that helped that along, or that Bas never once tried to do anything but help and offer advice. He didn’t intrude or demand anything from any of them. He also didn’t come around that often, but called as much as he could.