Page 19
Story: Property of Bigfoot (Kings of Anarchy MC: New Mexico #1)
19. CROWDED HOUSE
BIGFOOT
Sammy was off on one side of the clubhouse playing a game with her brother and my son. The boys were only about a year apart in age and, thankfully, got along well. I was trying to do some online research about what might be wrong with our mushrooms, but I if there was one thing I sucked at worse than growing the fucking things, it was research.
“Have I mentioned lately how fucking much it sucks that Twitch went on that ski trip and ended up dead?” I growled.
“There has to be someone who knows something about mushrooms.” Baffle was just as exhausted as I was. We had been pulled in several different directions all at once non-stop lately and it was getting old and wearing us all down fast.
“Why do you need to know about mushrooms?”
I turned to see Sammy’s Uncle Josh standing there.
“You guys made good time getting back,” I announced to change the subject.
“Yeah, not playing around with Lis’s safety, and if I’m in danger because I’m a Morton, that puts her in danger by being with me.”
I nodded my head. If he’d put his woman ahead of himself like that, then there was hope for them and for me not killing him for being an asshole stepfather to my son.
“So, what was it you needed to know about mushrooms?”
“Say you have a bunch of mushrooms growing in an enclosed space, and a batch of them has either a weird web-like substance growing around them or there’s a fine powdery substance and the fuckers are starting to turn pink and brown in spots. What do you think that could be?”
“Sounds like Cobweb Disease, but I’d have to see it to know for sure.”
“Cobweb Disease?” Baffle asked. “That’s a real thing?”
“You can look it up.” Josh nodded to the phone in my hand. I did just that and turned my phone to show Baffle a picture that looked a lot like what was going on with our shrooms.
“You need to come with me,” I ordered as I stood up. “And keep in mind that this shit does not get back to Lis. If I find out she knows, it will be your ass on the line.”
“Whatever you say, Bigfoot,” Josh tossed out on a defeated sounding sigh.
“Anything else, we’ll come to a compromise on. This is club business and I’m trusting you with it solely based on your connection to my woman.”
“Melissa isn’t your woman!” he growled it out like the threat it was meant to be.
I laughed at him. “Nope, she sure the fuck is not. Your niece, however, is my woman.”
“Since when?” Josh asked.
“Since the moment she saved my bacon on the side of the road.”
“Dammit, Lis is not going to like that shit.”
“Don’t really give a damn what she likes. She can get over it.”
As soon as we got Josh downstairs and he saw what I did, he grinned. “Looks like you already took the right steps. Air-tight isolation until you can get this shit cleaned out. Be sure you don’t unseal the plastic until you have this whole section cleaned properly though, the spores, or whatever the fuck they are linger on everything.”
“The problem is that the next section looks to be infected too. It was just a little behind this one, so we didn’t notice the webbing in the soil.”
“Damn. Let me through to see, then. We’ll see what we can salvage and how much needs to be culled.”
“There’s no saving them once they’re infected?”
“Nope. As you have learned, the shit spreads fairly easily, especially in an enclosed space where the powdery shit has nowhere to blow but to the next section. Every time someone walked by one section to the next, some of that powder probably went with them either on the smallest breeze kicked up by walking by, or it may have clung to their clothing.”
“How the hell do we even get something like this down here?” I asked.
“Someone might have brought it in from the outside.”
“Sabotage?”
“I didn’t say that.” Josh was quick to point out. “It could have been as innocent as walking by an infected mushroom. Some of the powder might have been trapped on clothing, in hair, or on someone’s shoes when they came down here, just enough shook loose that it was able to start infecting the mushrooms you have growing. I don’t know who your grower is, but they should have known and been able to catch this quickly.”
“Our genius behind this operation took a ski trip and got himself killed. We thought we could handle growing them ourselves, but obviously there are things we weren’t aware of that are causing a major setback now.”
“I’ll see what I can do to salvage some of your crop down here. Do you have more of the plastic?”
“We do. I’ll send our guy down that helped me with it last time. He can show you where everything is.”
I left Josh downstairs to deal with our shroom problem and made my way back up to confer with my VP. “Think it’s time to let Big Daddy in on the bullshit we have going down?”
“Yeah, put in a call to him. I talked to Rio, since he’s Prez of the West Texas Chapter, and they’ve been having their own issues with the assholes.”
“When did you do that?”
“While you were taking care of Hawk. They believe the Mojave Devils are trying to expand into their territory to aid the cartel too, but I don’t think they’re after the land for the same reasons there. They’re not aware of any precious mineral deposits on the land. We think it’s more about getting rid of the competition.”
As soon as I got in touch, Big Daddy assured me he would put the rest of the clubs on notice about the Mojave Devils and the Rivera Cartel. It was the best I could do for the other chapters while I worried about what was going on inside my own.
When I got back to the main gathering area in the clubhouse, all I wanted to do was wrap my woman up in my arms, check on Hawk, maybe grab some food, and then take a fucking nap. Unfortunately for me, that shit was not in the cards. The minute I stepped foot in the common area, my eyes tracked straight to Sammy and in doing so, Melissa as well. She was running her mouth to my woman, and I wasn’t having that shit. I double-timed it across the space and stepped between the women.
“What kind of shit are you lying about now, Lis?” I may have said that a little too loudly.
Sammy tugged on my arm and shook her head once then used her eyes to tell me quietly that there were little ears who heard me. Dammit.
“I swear to you, Travis, I was just telling Sammy that I was sorry for being mean to her when we met in the hospital. It was a mistake on my part, and she already knows why.”
“Mom was keeping secrets about her boyfriend,” Hawk said to me.
“Is that so, little man?”
“Yeah, she told me to keep it a secret too.” His lip poked out and wobbled a bit. “I didn’t want to lie. I’m sorry, Dad. You don’t hate me, do you?”
“Never, buddy. I could never hate you.” I glared up at Lis, though. “We’ll discuss that later,” I promised her. I’d be damned if she was going to train my boy to lie to me and make him feel like shit for it.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“Not good enough,” I muttered as I held my son to me. “Why don’t you go play with Ryan while he’s still hanging out with us?”
“Okay. I’m not in trouble?”
“Not this time. No more lying to me, though. Lies are what get people hurt and in trouble.”
“Yes, sir,” my boy said, and then, because he was smarter than I was at his age, he took off like lightning across the room toward his new friend.
“Why don’t you go take a load off, big guy. You look worn out.” I leaned down and kissed Sammy on the forehead.
“My parents are here,” I said as I clocked them coming in the clubhouse.
“Go say hi. I’ll be over here for a minute. Melissa and I weren’t done with our conversation before you interrupted and I was just about to tell her the secret to handling Uncle Josh.” That surprised me. It really had looked like Lis had been giving my woman a mouthful of attitude, but I supposed it could look the same as her bitching about her man doing something she didn’t like.
I gave my mom a hug, but she didn’t stick around to speak with me. Instead, she bee-lined for her grandson and wrapped him up in a big hug. I smiled as my dad ambled up to my side. “That your new woman over there with your son’s mom?”
“It is.”
“Looks a little intense,” he mentioned as he snagged a beer from behind the counter.
“I just learned my lesson not to get involved. Sammy can handle herself.”
“Son, I have no doubt because there’s no way you’d ever land yourself a weak woman.”
“Hey, Crutch, welcome back!” Baffle called out as he made his way over to us.
“Hear you boys have been busy,” my dad said.
“Too busy of late.”
“So I hear. Now tell me what the fuck’s been going on with the club that Punchy had to call me and give me a head’s up that we might be going into lockdown.”
“Fucking Punchy,” I groused. The man was once the VP of the club when my dad was president. Whereas Crutch was all too eager to give it up and hand over the gavel to the next generation, Punchy had not been. Dad had my mom as the driving force on his retirement. I don’t think Punchy liked his ol’ lady much anymore, if he ever did.
After I filled my dad in on everything, including the update we got from Josh that we might need to harvest the crop sooner than later if we planned to have anything we could sell, Crutch offered up a clever suggestion.
“How’s about Punchy, me, and a couple younger members or prospects take the product to our distributors. We can make it sound like the older generation is out there training the baby bikers to ride better. The law ain’t gonna look to the old guys and non-patched as potential targets or mules. We can get the product out on time while you deal with all the other bullshit going on.”
“Sounds like a solid plan,” Baffle agreed with him. “It would free up some of our time to get other shit in order.”
Dad winked at me and then grinned at something over my shoulder. “Your mom might kill me for going, so we might have to sacrifice your new woman to her. Keep her from thinking about the risks I’ll be taking.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Ah, fuck that son. This is still my club. I’m still a member. I ain’t fucking slacking on my duties just because I don’t wear that President’s patch anymore.”
“Fine. You’re the one who has to tell mom, though.”
He shook his head. “I was thinking you could pass that information along after we leave.”
I laughed at the old man. “Coward. I’m not doing your dirty work for you.”
“See if I ever volunteer to do you a favor again,” he said as he walked over to where my mom was talking to Sammy while they watched the boys play.
“You not going with him for backup?” Baffle asked.
“Fuck, no. I’m not stupid. I won’t get within distance of her throwing arm when he tells her he’s going on a club run.”
Baffle laughed. I didn’t. My mom was capable of a lot of shit, especially when she was pissed off. Her vacation with my dad to see friends in Montana had already been cut short thanks to Hawk’s accident. She wasn’t going to be happy when she discovered my dad was going to head off without her for a bit.
“Looks like your woman might be smoothing shit over for both of you. Crutch looks like he just fell under Sammy’s spell, too.”
I chuckled. “I don’t know if I should wait of the other shoe to drop or thank my fucking lucky stars that they’re all getting along.”
“The kids are glued to the TV, Trav. You should probably let Lis look after them while you go save your woman from being the referee for your parents. Maybe sneak off and make sure to thank her lucky stars as you create them.”
Finally getting Sammy beneath me sounded like the best plan anyone had presented me with in recent months. I wasn’t going to say no to the opportunity. “Make sure they know that the boys need looking after once we’re clear,” I told my best friend.
“I got your back,” he said as I took off and tugged my woman away from my family.