Page 16 of Defended by Bama (Royal Bastards MC: Mobile, Alabama #1)

Bama

After getting ready for the day, Brooklyn decided to stay put, so I headed to the clubhouse and sent a member to hang out. Hammer told me to meet up with some guys with Butterbean and to be ready later tonight for the prospects.

I ran into Glenda in the hallway, and she asked about them, so I told her she was welcome to go by. It made sense Brooklyn didn’t want to bring Sadie to the clubhouse. Hopefully when this round of prospects was settled, things would simmer down.

“Hey, fucker,” Butterbean said as I headed to the bar. His brown hair was covered by a black bandana. It was pretty dead at the clubhouse, only a few guys hanging around because most were at work.

Some of the members had jobs at our bar, and we had a mechanic’s shop as well as a tattoo shop.

I was handy with tools so I could work on bikes, cars, or do work around the businesses.

A few of us were handymen like that. I could even mix a few drinks, so I just filled in where I was needed or did jobs that came up.

“Hey man,” I said as I slapped his shoulder. “Rogers around?”

“Right here,” Rogers called from the doorway. “Thought I saw you. Was in there with Breaker.”

Breaker was our IT guy. He had a little setup for surveillance and trained a few members to take turns watching.

“Any updates on Brooklyn?” I asked as I waved down the bunny behind the bar. “Sweet tea, please.”

“Wiped. Both of them. They work fast. It’ll take a little longer to get them new identities. But shouldn’t be too long. Has she mentioned any places she’d like to go?”

“Nope. Does she need to think about that?” I didn’t want to think about that.

But if she had a place far away that she wanted to go, I’d get her there.

It wasn’t clear to me why the hell I was trying to make them feel so at home.

When I went to the store, it just made sense to get the bed and all the clothes.

As far as food, I had to eat anyway; I just got a little extra. At least that’s what I told myself.

“She can’t stay with you forever. She can choose anywhere, really. Driving would be best. They’ll have what they need, but flying raises red flags for anyone.”

She couldn’t stay with me forever. He was right. I just met her. It was fucked that I felt like I had some sort of claim to her. Even so, I did.

“I’ll ask her tomorrow. I have some shit to take care of today for Hammer and told me to plan to head out with the prospects later.”

“I may be there tonight,” Rogers said.

My tea was placed on the bar in front of me, so I took several big gulps then put the glass down. “See you tonight.”

Butterbean and I went to scope out the potential new buyers that Hammer was working on.

We were meeting the runners and making sure they were legit.

We also had to set up a spot to meet. We were close to the water but had to move around to keep the heat off us.

We had some local guys in our pocket, but there was only so much they could do if anyone needed to break a case to save their ass.

We pulled into a local furniture store around back. As I pulled my helmet off, I asked, “We early?”

As if on cue, a large shipping door rolled up and two men stood, waving us over. Butterbean gave a nod, so I climbed off the bike and followed him over.

“Come on inside,” one of them said.

I looked up at the door. It was made for delivery trucks to back up to and there were no steps. Butterbean rolled his eyes and we both gripped the top, pulling ourselves up. As soon as we were up, we stood quickly and sized up the guys.

After we all proved we had no wires, we got down to business. “We got a spot near the docks. The patrol on Thursday is friendly,” Butterbean said.

“You can deliver here,” the larger of the two men said.

Shaking my head, I said, “Nope. Not part of the deal. Neutral location. You understand.”

“That’s not very convenient. What happened to customer service?” the smaller guy asked.

“You want customer service, go to Bass Pro Shop. You want the address or not?” I said.

The two men looked at each other, the larger one nodding. “Fine. Thursday night.”

I handed him a card with nothing but the address on it and we jumped down and got back on our bikes.

We had a few stops to touch base with some regulars. We also patrolled around for a while and went to scope out a few of our meeting spots, stopping to grab a bite. Afterwards, Butterbean headed back to the clubhouse, but I wanted to stop at the house and drop some food off.

Ollie was hanging outside, just like he was told, but I waved him down the long driveway.

He was an older member, but one of our best. When I parked near the front of the house, he was pulling up behind me.

Ollie was one of the older guys. He’d been a nomad for years but when he heard we were setting up a chapter in Mobile, he wanted to patch in.

“Hey, man. Didn’t expect you to sit by the road all fucking day. Here,” I said, holding a bag out. “Glenda come by?”

“Nope. I stayed outside because I didn’t want to scare the little ladies,” he said. His voice was gravelly from years of smoking and partying hard.

“I appreciate that. Come on in. I need you to stay a while longer so you can get acquainted and hang in the AC.”

We both stomped up the few steps that led inside and I announced myself. “It’s me and a friend.”

Sadie was on the couch, doodling on some paper and Brooklyn poked her head out from the kitchen. “Oh, hey.”

She was sizing up Ollie, but he walked right over to Sadie and knelt down, holding his hand out. “Hey there little lady. I’m Ollie."

Sadie took his hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you. I’m Sadie.”

“I’m Brooklyn,” she called from the kitchen. She reappeared with two drinks. “I was just about to walk down and see if you needed this,” she said as she passed one to Ollie.

“Thanks, Sweetie.”

I handed her the other bag I was holding. “Grabbed some food while I was out for you two.”

She looked at the bag, her eyes only flitting up to mine briefly before she grabbed the food. She made sure not to touch my hand, grabbing from the bottom. “Thanks. Was just poking around in there to see what I was going to feed her.”

She headed to the table and called Sadie over. Ollie was standing with me still, so I nodded for him to go sit down.

“I gotta go and I’ll be back later. Ollie’s gonna hang around until I get back so I figured he could hang in here some. Glenda may be by later.”

Sadie smiled at Ollie and Brooklyn nodded, smiling at him. “Oh, that would be nice. And I’ll warn you, Ollie, she’ll talk your ear off.” She pointed at Sadie with a smirk.

She busied herself, never looking over. Checking my phone, I said, “Well, y’all have a good one. See you tomorrow.”

After shooting a quick text on my way out to Ollie to remind him to still check the perimeter occasionally, I climbed on my Harley and headed back to the clubhouse.

Normally when I was riding, my mind was clear or at least focused on the task at hand.

But the short ride back only confused me.

I was bothered. Not sure if I’d call it mad but definitely not in a great mood.

It rubbed me the wrong way that she wouldn’t even look at me. Yet she could joke with Ollie.

Trying to shake it off, I pulled into the parking lot and headed inside. Hammer hadn’t given me instructions yet, but I needed to be ready for anything for the test tonight and I couldn’t be thinking like a butthurt little bitch.

“Hey, Bama,” Rogers said as I walked inside. A few members had trickled in and some of the bunnies were wandering around, but no partying was happening.

“You coming later?” I asked.

“Not this one. Hammer decided he’s going with you.”

Nodding, I sat down. It was good that he was coming along, and I wasn’t feeling so bad about my little chat with him.

Regardless of what I thought, he was the president, and I joined knowing that and vowed to honor it.

He was a good leader; he just needed to get his head out of his ass.

I didn’t speak to him as an officer; I spoke to him as a friend.

Apparently, it was the right thing to do.

We were joined by Butterbean and Froggy. Froggy and Rogers ate while we waited around. Finally, Hammer poked his head in and whistled. “Church in five.”

We stood and made our way to what used to be the boardroom at the casino. Now it was where we handled important club business and decisions. A lot was discussed in the old casino, but shit for the officers and senior members was kept in this room.

Because it used to be a boardroom, it looked like one.

A sprawling wood table took up much of the space right in the center of the room, surrounded by large, comfy executive chairs.

A few wooden cabinets lined the walls, and we left the classic pictures hanging, adding a few of our club touches like a drape of our patch on one of the walls and a few pictures of rides or events that some of the bunnies had framed.

Hammer sat at the head of the table. Butterbean, Froggy, and Rogers came in with me. Fox, our Secretary, Dega, our Tail Gunner, and Bruno, our Treasurer, weren’t far behind.

“Bama and Butterbean had a little bit of a nuisance on their last run. I did some digging and discovered the Bloody Scorpions have been camping out near Pensacola.”

Rogers asked, “Think those thugs are moving in closer? New chapter?” They weren’t a club like us. Sure, they had bikes and wore their colors, but they had no code. No honor. Just a bunch of reckless, opportunistic fuckers.

Hammer answered, “That’s unclear. But we think we know where these fuckers are set up. Our prospects will go in and confirm…tonight.”

Fucking Scorpions. “I knew something was off with Benny. What’s the plan then?”

“We ride out, take Skeeter and Runt. If it’s not packed or empty, scope it out.”

“And if it is packed?” Froggy asked.

Hammer leaned back, wiping his hand down his face. “Then we know they’re moving in. We don’t need to make a scene without giving Jameson a heads up. But we need to find out if they’re just dicking around and being little shits or if we need to let him know something.”

“Doesn’t sound like much of a test,” Butterbean said.

“If we don’t move inside, we’ll think of something for them to prove their loyalty,” Hammer said. “Let’s go, brothers.”

The last thing we needed was those assholes nearby. Hopefully it’s just a few of them, but if not, we’d handle them one way or the other.