Page 30 of Risk (Mayhem Makers: MMM #3)
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
Risk
Church is usually more lively than this, but at this current time, we’re waiting on Kodiak and Conan to come out from behind closed doors where they’re having a conference call with the three reigning leaders of the Trifecta.
“How’s Kenna handling things?” Hemi asks me from across the table.
Releasing a pent-up breath, I answer, “Better than I am. For her, this is typical. She’s had years to wrap her head around the situation whereas I’ve only had a few weeks to let it sink in.”
“She’s a trooper,” Rev states. “You could see she was worried when we walked into the clubhouse without you.”
“She’s always put everyone before herself,” I add. “There were times when we were nomads that I worried she’d burn herself out.”
“How’s Isla?” I ask, turning the tables on Hemi so he’s under the spotlight. I’m still coming to grips with things and how this entire thing has turned out and need someone else to pay tribute and have eyes on them.
“A giant pain in the ass,” Hemi says, rolling his neck. “She’s bored, asked if there was something she could do around here to eat some time.”
“Eat some time?” I ask, my brows raised high into my hairline—never hearing that expression come from a woman before now.
Women’s grasp on the human language is usually more proper and eloquent in their verbiage as opposed to us who are more brash and use alternative words to get our point across.
Yeah, the old ladies cuss and have adapted to our lingo, or macho-isms as they refer to it as when they’re trying to rile us up, but outsiders, they don’t usually adapt or mimic us and our speech patterns this quickly.
Hemi raises his hands in the air and says, “Her words, not mine.”
“That little shit has fire,” Regulator asserts. “According to Conan, who was complained to by Demi, Isla wanted to go into childhood development and has invaded their homes and has made it her mission to start her own little daycare.”
“I bet Demi’s loving that,” I snort.
“She actually likes it,” Conan says, joining the conversation as he and Kodiak step into the room. “It’s given her a chance to catch up on some of Luna’s marketing that she’d gotten behind on.”
The room falls silent as we wait for them to take their seats and Kodiak to bang his gavel on the plank. When he does, you could hear a pin drop because we’re all anxiously tuned into him, fearing the worst.
His eyes meet mine and I can see the stress radiating from him by his look alone. “That bad?” I inquire.
He bobs his head and says, “We may have to go to bed with the devil if we want to free not only McKenna, but the lot of them.”
“Meaning what?” Regulator asks, crossing his arms across his chest with a scowl on his face.
“They’re willing to release all of the girls, kids, and men they’ve taken for one reason or another, as long as they were innocent in the beginning, but we’ll be responsible for them… all of them, guys.”
“What does that mean… the innocent in the beginning part?” I probe, not liking that little tidbit in the least. But I know there’ll have to be sacrifices made on our part to give these people their freedom back.
“I’m more interested in hearing about the responsible part,” Rev interrupts. “That needs to be expanded on before I’ll be willing to vote.”
“I’ll answer them both,” Kodiak says. “The innocent in the beginning means that they weren’t taken due to compensation or because they were backstabbed by the party involved.
So if they were like Kenna or Isla, they’ll be set free if we agree to their terms. I’ll get to that in a minute and tell ya what they want from us.
For now, y’all need to know these two key things before we get into that.
The responsible part means that if they go to the authorities and talk, we’ll be held accountable and end up paying the repercussions for running their mouths.
That’s the part that has me hesitant because we don’t know what numbers we’re looking at and if it’s a large amount, how do we manage to keep all of their mouths shut? ”
“We can’t,” I blurt out. “It’s nearly an impossible task to meet. And I’m sure that’s what they’re counting on.”
“Which means they’ll need a gatekeeper,” Rev tacks on. “But who do we know that can manage something that consequential?”
Needing to know how big the pile of shit we’ll be stepping in is if we agree, I ask, “Is that the only deal they’re willing to make, Kodiak?”
“That’s it. It’s all or nothing with these fucktards,” Kodiak responds.
“For the first time since taking over, I’m not sure what to do.
If we don’t say yes, Kenna will never be free, but if we do, we’ll always be wearing a monkey on our backs.
The legit way we wanted to live when we laid down these roots will be no more. ”
“What aren’t you saying, pres?” Hemi leans forward and asks, placing his elbows on the table to prop up his head. He may come across as bored, but this is him preparing for the fallout.
Kodiak hangs his head as he tells us, “We’ll be their runners. Warning you now, if we say yes, it’ll paint a giant bullseye on our asses. We’re talking the FBI, CIA, and ATF.”
“The alphabets don’t scare me,” Regulator says, turning his head and looking at me. “Kenna’s worth the risk. She’s one of us.” Choked up that he’s willing to put his neck on the line for her, I nod my head at him, showing him my appreciation.
“She is,” Conan agrees. “But there’s more than just her to consider. We have kids here that depend on us to keep them safe. The biggest question I have is can we do that if we agree? We need to go into this with our blinders off.”
“We can’t make this decision with our hearts, it has to be made with our heads,” Kodiak supplies.
“I’m not sure if this needs to be said now or not, but if we vote against this, I’m going to take Kenna, Phoenix, and my mother-in-law away and go into hiding.
I’ve already put some feelers out there and have heard back from a few of those who are willing to conjure us up some new identities and give us a traceable background.
That may be the better alternative here so the club isn’t forced to do the Trifecta’s bidding. ”
Conan bangs on the table with his fists, barking, “That’s not an adequate alternative, fuckwad! Family doesn’t abandon family. We don’t take the easy road and lose one of our own so we can take the easy road. It’s not happening, feel me?”
“But family also protects family, Conan,” I argue.
“I can’t ask you to put everyone’s life at risk.
As you’ve stated, we have kids that need us to keep them safe.
We can’t do that if we’re running drugs and guns.
” Twisting in my seat I angle my body to where it’s facing Kodiak and ask, “That’s what they want us to do, isn’t it? ”
Kodiak’s eyes are shiny because he knows before he answers that I’ll veto it when it comes time to vote. We vowed to never get involved with drugs, guns, or skin trading when we left the transient lifestyle. “That’s exactly what they want us to do.”
“How long do we have until they want their answer, pres?” Midas asks.
“Two days,” he replies.
“Then I think we need to take those days and talk this shit out before we vote,” Conan suggests. “I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I’m not willing to lose my brother and sister because we made a rash decision.”
“There’s no time like the present. Let’s start that now,” Kodiak orders. “And just so you know, majority rules. Now that Risk has laid down his cards, I’m not going to make this a unanimous vote.”
My eyes soar up to his and they widen. “Pres.”
“No, Risk. You made your point known, now I’m calling your bluff. I’m not letting you go without a fight.”
“That’s not fair, Kodiak,” I say through my gritted teeth.
“Life’s not fair, Risk,” Kodiak remarks. “Now let’s go on with this discussion. We have a lot to go over.”
I slump down into my chair in defeat. Thoughts of leaving the brotherhood is strangling me, but if I have to choose between them, Kenna, and Phoenix, my boy and wife are going to come first. They’re the axis of my world, they keep it spinning and I’m not going to do anything that takes that orbit away from me.
I put her last once and lost her, I won’t be doing that again.
I won’t survive if I lose either one of them. The brotherhood will, they’ll keep living a free and happy life if we aren’t here to bring them down.