Page 11 of Colton (Raging Barons MC #17)

-:- COLTON -:-

Saturday morning, and I’m enjoying some relaxing time in the common room. Lincoln, Arrow, Bones, Garth, and Knuckles are sitting with me drinking coffee and eating cinnamon rolls that the Three Stooges made. They can be a pain in your ass, but they sure know how to cook and bake.

Arrow places his mug on the table before speaking.

“I like the fight club idea, but you’re right Knuckles, you need to be fully qualified to keep everything legitimate.

Then you have to decide how many trained people you need, and in what capacity they would work, or should I say which martial art style would they teach.

“Then you have all the licensing that would have to be covered, plus a suitable building. It’s going to take more than a year to pull it together.

I suggest we all step up and do the training that is needed, keeping to our individual styles.

Make a plan how we can do this before we put it in front of the brothers.

Well, your brothers, because Bones, Lincoln and I are not actually part of the club. ”

“Yet!” Garth chuckles.

“Well, we’ll see. We have to be able to commit to some form of usefulness or it won’t work,” Arrow responds.

“I’d be good with joining the club if I’m being honest with you all.

From what I’ve seen, it’s clean, and I mean not into stuff that could get us put away or killed.

We have skills we can use if needed, and Jo’s idea that we start a full security company I think is good.

We can do cameras we monitor twenty-four-seven, and if necessary, patrol checks on business perimeters,” Lincoln states, and I nod because we are doing some of that already .

“We need to put plans together for the training club and the security business. Then we can put it forward properly to Axel and the brothers.” Knuckles leans back in his chair and we are all agreeing with him, by nodding our heads or giving a ‘Yeah,’ response.

“Colton…” Garth starts to speak.

“No, you all sort it. I’ve enough to do with running with Mia, working the doors at both clubs, and helping around here.

I don’t have time to do more. You all have more time, so you all put it together.

I’m all for backing whatever you think is best.” I quickly stand and move away because I don’t want more to do, especially as Mia has mentioned fucking yoga classes again.

“Are you okay, Colton?”

Turning to see who’s speaking to me I give Jo a nod. “Hi, Jo. Yeah, I’m fine. I have a lot to get done. How are you?” Pleasantries! Who would have thought I would be doing that? The boy not wanted and dragged up, who ended up here and finally having a family.

“I’m good. I’m releasing my new book, and I hope it goes down well with my readers.” Jo nibbles a fingernail.

“How could it not go down well with your readers? Christ Jo, you sell out on the first day,” I snort.

“It’s a worry thing. No matter how well they sell I still worry the next one won’t be as good.”

Wrapping my arm around Jo’s shoulders, I give her a hug. “Jo, you are a bestselling author. Stop worrying and just do what you do best. ”

After giving me a small smile, I give an extra hug, and Jo wanders away to find Knuckles for research purposes. I am not asking, and I’m not going to be around when she finds him.

Lincoln walks into the kitchen where I’ve grabbed myself a bottle of water from the fridge. “We are going to the house. Make a start on cleaning it up. You want to come and help for an hour or two?”

“Hm, I was going to run with Mia…”

Meat appears from somewhere! “Star’s gone with her.”

“Oh, okay then. I’ll give you a hand for a while.” That is how I end up at Lincoln’s place scraping moss, mud and crap from the path that leads to the front door. This place can’t have been cleaned for years! It has possibilities though, as it’s not a small house when you give it a good look over.

My phone rings and I take it out of my jeans pocket and see it’s the realtor. “Hi, what news do you have?”

“Offer accepted, and the paperwork can go through quickly, but I wanted to check you had the money for the deposit on the place?”

“Yeah, I will pay half of it in cash. That way, the mortgage on the place will be much smaller.” I lean against the house wall, getting my breath back.

“Good plan. Okay, I’ll go with half the cost and finish this. It shouldn’t take over three weeks, maybe less, if I can chase up the lawyer that works for us.”

“Thanks for keeping me informed.”

“You are welcome.”

Closing out the call, I remain leaning on the wall for a few minutes and don’t stop the smirk that crosses my face.

Yeah, I’m excited that at last I will have my own place.

It’s a good place too, and will not need a hell of a lot of work done to it.

I’ll modernize it when I’m ready, but I’m not wanting to empty my bank account, as that took a lot of underground fighting to get to the amount I have.

Rubbing the back of my neck before rolling my head around to ease the tension in my shoulders, I consider paying the total cost, but it would leave me with only a small amount of money.

I promised myself I would never leave myself with nothing.

I had done that, as many of the younger brothers have.

Maybe I should ask BS what he thinks I should do?

He’s never led me wrong, and he has a heck of a good head for money, as does TwoCents. I could ask them both and then decide.

Finishing the path, I head indoors to let Lincoln, Bones, and Arrow know I’m leaving. I just realized that it’s the day Meat and Star have the wall climbing competition. I don’t want to miss that. They are so competitive, it’s going to be amazing.

Back at the clubhouse I shower and change. Once I’m ready, I make my way down to the common room where some of the brothers are waiting to head out. Fox and Carrie, Forest and Heather, and Mav along with Blake, are all standing talking. “Are you all going to the competition?” I ask.

“We sure are not gonna miss this one,” Fox chortles. “I’m putting my money on Star.”

“I’m putting my money on Star. Meat will try too hard after losing to her the last time.” I give everyone a chin lift, then head to the kitchen where Roadrunner, Mensa and Web are standing around talking. “Is Cork coming?” I ask nobody in particular.

“No, he has a wine tasting thing going on. I think he’s pissed off none of us are going to attend.” Web shrugs his shoulders, then turns and heads to the back door. I watch them all leave and have a feeling it’s not great to be left without support. Fuck it, I’ll go help Cork.

Parking my hog outside the wine shop twenty minutes later, I’m surprised to see a lot of vehicles parked and with the wine shop door open the amount of people are spilling out to the sidewalk where Cork has placed tables and chairs.

“Cork…I thought I’d come give you a hand. What can I do for you?” I ask as I reach where he’s handing out glasses of red and white wine.

“Oh, I’m fuckin’ pleased to see you. Can you check around the back of the shop? There are some kids hanging around and I have to keep leaving the back door unattended.” Cork gives a bright smile to a middle-aged lady as he hands her a glass of red wine.

“Sure. I’ll go look.” Walking through to the back door, I open it and step outside.

The first thing I notice is four kids hanging around the back of the parking lot.

Leaning against the door frame, I fold my arms and make sure they notice me before I take out my phone and send a text message to Pres.

Colton: Pres. Could do with some brothers at the wine shop. We have kids hanging out back.

It only takes a few minutes for Axel to respond: Sending Wings, Drag and Ruger.

Colton: Thanks, Pres.

Placing my phone away once more, I continue the watch with my arms folded. The fuckers look nervous, but they are making no effort to come nearer. Now, I shouldn’t have envisioned they’d stay away once seeing me because three are making their way towards me, while the other stays back.

“Mister, you know this is our territory now?” Asshole One says.

“Is that right?” I respond.

Asshole Two smirks. “Yeah, you and your club need to leave town.”

Laughing, I straighten up slightly, but remain where I am. “Again, is that right?”

Asshole One speaks again. “We are taking over. Got ourselves a good boss, and he’s gonna make sure we get what we want.”

“Okay, punk, let me tell you something that you can repeat to your boss. You ain’t got fuck, and you ain’t getting fuck all around here. Now, take a walk before I make you,” I snarl and straighten fully from the door, taking a solid step forward as I do.

Bikes are heard, and the fuckers all look at each other, worry crossing their faces. I laugh loudly, before snarling, “Such big guys, you shitting your pants?”

Wings, Drag, and Ruger pull into the lot, quickly switching off their engines and dismounting their hogs. “What’s goin’ on?” Wings asks.

“These little fuckers told us we’ve got to leave town, ‘cause you know, they are taking over. Their boss said that he’d make sure they got whatever they wanted.” I lift an eyebrow questioningly at the closest little shit.

Drag rushes forward and grabs one by the back of his neck and lifts him clear off the ground. Now, the panic and screeches have me chuckling. Oh, no, he’s pissed his pants !

“Oh, dear, so brave!” I pretend sympathy, with some sarcasm of course. “You scared, bro? Gonna run back and tell boss you pissed your pants in fear?”

Scuffling happens behind me, and I know Wings and Ruger are clearing up the mess behind me. Meaning, the fuckers that think they are so tough.

Drag shakes the asshole like he’s a rag-doll, then snarls in his face. “You tell your boss to come speak to us like a man, and to stop hiding behind little boys that piss their pants.”

Oh. No. Did he? Oh. “Drag, he shit his pants now. Drop the fucker before you get contaminated.” Now, Drag doesn’t just drop the little shit, he throws him across the lot.

We all stand at the ready, but they all scamper off quickly.

Wings and Ruger are smirking and high-fiving each other.

Me, I shake my head and go back inside to report to Cork what’s happened.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening I help Cork serve wine, take payment for bottles and some cases of wine. It’s an enormous success, and I can see Cork is proud of the number of bottles that have been sold.

“Axel and the club will be happy with the extra profit we’ve made today,” Cork states as he writes figures in the book he keeps an account of sales in.

With Cork not living at the clubhouse and spending such a lot of his spare time doing extra at the wine shop, I think all that goes unnoticed when we talk financials in church. If I remember, I might drop that in one day, give him some recognition.

“You know if you at any time need some space from the place, I’ll do what I can. I’m not a salesman of wines as you are, but I can serve and take deliveries.”

“Thanks, Colton. That’s good of you, and I may hold you to that.” Cork holds his fist up for me to bump with mine before looking back at the figures, and bagging up the takings.

“If you don’t need me, I’ll head back to the clubhouse. I want to know who won the competition.”

Cork nods, then smirks, “I put my money on Meat so he better have beat Star.”

Chuckling as I head out. I can imagine Meat will be in a mood for weeks if he lost to Star again. He lost the last time they went up against each other. That’s when he walked the treehouse walkaround in a Centurion outfit and snarled at anyone, including Star, if they went near.

Walking into the kitchen of the clubhouse, the Three Stooges are handing out plates of food. No sign of Meat, or Star. “So, who won?” I ask Bitty who is nearest to me.

“It was a draw. The timer gave them the same time down to the last second. Meat is sulking a little. Star is elated. But when Star asked Meat if he wanted to celebrate while giving him, you know, one of those looks, they both disappeared home.” Bitty rolls her eyes and grabs another plate to hand out.

Oh well, we get our betting money back so that’s okay. At least I didn’t lose that. There is always next time to make a profit.