Page 46

Dante

“Glad you could join us,” Crash said sarcastically as Macbeth waltzed into church as though he hadn’t kept the club waiting for him.

“Excuse me, I was cleaning up the mess Dante left behind.” he shot a nasty look my way as he took his seat at the table. “Interesting old lady you have there.”

“What happened?” I snapped.

“It’s a surprise,” he grinned at me. “So, what’s church in session for to—”

“I already know about the clothes. What else?”

“If you already know about the clothes, then you know everything.”

“Ha. You wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire, never mind clean up my clothes. What else?”

“Macbeth…” our dad sighed in frustration. “Could you stop behaving like a child that got the last sweet and just tell him so we can get on with this fucking meeting?”

“Jeez, everyone is so tense around here.” I growled at him, and he held his hands up in surrender.

“Okay, okay. It seems Rachel wanted to take Bee for a walk around the village. Bee was offering to show her all the sites. Mother wasn’t happy about it, especially as she was already trying to put the fire out – which she did, by the way, but she’s refused to clean it.

Good luck getting the smell out of everything else. Your bed is black with smoke.”

“Yeah, I figured it would be. Leather tends to do that. I still don’t get what the problem is. Why shouldn’t Rachel and Bee go out?”

He shrugged. “Beats me. Mama was kicking off something rotten. Tried to get me to lay down the law. I didn’t, before you start growling again. I told her she could go, and if you weren’t happy with it, you would deal with it when you got back.”

“Thank you,” I said begrudgingly. “And that’s it? Nothing else happened?”

“Not that I can think of,” he said innocently. I eyed him suspiciously, but kept my thoughts to myself. Things were never that simple when it came to Macbeth. I’d have to wait to get Rachel’s side of the story.

“If we’ve finished gabbing like a bunch of women, can we get this meeting on the go?” Tools said. “I’ve four cars booked in today, and from the sounds of it, Crash ain’t gonna be there to help. Time is money.”

“He’s right,” Crash nodded. “Since everyone is here, I’ll begin,” he banged the gavel off the table. “I’m sure you’ve all noticed the absence of one of the prospects.” A couple of eyes drifted to the end of the table, noting Noob’s absence. “Dante… do you want to explain?”

I took a cigarette from the packet and sparked it up, taking a long, deep draw before I began.

“You all heard at the end of church last time that I asked Noob to give Rachel some food. It was her first night here, and she was a bit… bad tempered. I wanted to give her some space. He took her the food up. And I’m not a hundred percent on the details, but it seems as though there was some flirting going on.

He says one thing, she says another. I left it there and moved on from it.

However, something else happened, and, without going into too much detail, I lost it with him.

” I paused a moment and let them all digest what I had said.

They probably knew where this was going.

“I beat him in the middle of Rachel’s room and made her watch. In my mind, it was justified. Looking back, I realise I probably went too far. But I’m sure you’d all do the same if it was your own old lady.”

“So where is he now?” Sunshine asked. Sunshine worked part time at the garage. He should have retired years ago. He was a grumpy old cunt, but he was as permanent as the furniture at this point.

“Away,” Crash answered for me. “And I’d prefer it if Dante didn’t know where ‘away’ was at the moment. What I need from you all is an answer to what we do with him.”

“Do you want him patched out?” Hacksaw asked.

“No,” I said slowly. “If he wants to come back, then I’ll be happy to accept him.

He can stay the fuck away from Rachel, and we won’t have a problem.

Let him see out the rest of his prospect year, and we can decide what to do with him from there.

What I want to know is, what do you guys want to do with me? ”

“Dante…” my dad began.

“No. We vote. That’s the way we’ve always done things. I might be VP, but I’m not above the club laws.”

“Dante…” Zach said with a small pause. “There’s nothing to vote on as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve been a member of this club long enough to remember having to break up more fights than you’ve had hot dinners.

Fuck, you and Trent here used to be little fuckers for fighting and bloodying each other up. ”

“Be that as it may,” I said, taking another draw of my cigarette. “I’d like to hear it from everyone else. I’m going to be the leader of this club soon enough. I should know better than to lose it like that.”

“We’re all guilty of it. Like you said, we don’t think straight when it comes to the women,” Sunshine said. Every man around the table murmured their agreement.

“I respect you telling us,” Shark said. “But what happened between you and Noob is between you and Noob. Neither of you are dead, and I’m sure the two of you can talk it out if he decides to return.”

“If that’s decided…” Crash said, pausing with the gavel hovered in the air, waiting for any objection. “We can move on,” he slammed the gavel down and then sighed heavily.

“It’s time to discuss the Rough Riders. Ven, do you want to take this one?”

We listened as Vienna told us what he had found out.

He had a contact close to the Rough Riders, and he had said that he’d heard that a man from out of town had been paid – very handsomely – to kill Mickey.

He was supposed to use the money to disappear, and it seems as though he had succeeded.

Last the contact had heard, he had boarded a ferry to France, and had no intention of returning.

Meaning we had no way of interrogating him.

The Rough Riders had covered their back’s, and as far as the law was concerned, the man had left enough evidence to make sure the crime couldn’t be pinned on the club.

Not that we would be using the police to deal with this, but it made our life more difficult.

The police tended to stay out of club rivalries, and often brushed crimes under the table, so long as there wasn’t a public uproar.

However, officer Bradley was up our asses lately. If we went and killed a member of the Rough Riders, it would seem completely unprovoked.

“So what do we do?” Zach asked.

“I say we stick to the original plan. An eye for an eye,” I said firmly. “We can’t let them walk all over us. They’re already taking fucking liberties selling on our patch. We need to nip this in the bud before they grow any bolder. We need to take a stand.”

“Agreed,” Crash said. “Ever since their VP took to the head of the table, they’ve been unpredictable.

We need to show them that we are not pushovers.

That we are willing to go to war if need be.

And yes, I know it was only a prospect they killed, but I’ve been thinking over this the past few days, and prospect or not, we should be going to war to defend our brothers. ”

“We do it today,” I said, looking at Crash. “We can’t risk them hearing about this somehow. We need the element of surprise.”

He nodded, understanding what I meant. We still were not sure if there was a rat amongst us. The sooner we did this, the better.

“If everyone is in agreement…?” He got the affirmation of everyone else as they went around the table one by one, giving their approval.

“Ven, Crash, Zach, and I will go and deal with this. Shark, I need a favour from you.”

“Anything, brother.”

“I want you to stay here and keep an eye on Rachel and Bee for me. Make sure my mother is staying out of their way, and that they’re not getting up to no good.”

“On it. If she sees me, I’ll tell her I went to see Jenna.”

“Keep her nearby when you find her. Don’t have them wandering everywhere.

Not until Rachel has been formally introduced.

People are bound to have questions for her, and I don’t want her dealing with them unprepared.

Fuck knows where that will lead.” I rubbed a tired hand over my eyes.

“Plus, as beautiful as she is, she looks a little… worse for wear compared to when she arrived. Hey, here’s a thought.

Do you think Jenna will have something she could wear? ”

“She has no clothes?”

“They’re in America.”

“Take her clothes shopping, then,” Zach snapped.

“We all know she wouldn’t accept my money, Z.”

“I’ll sort it,” Shark promised. “I’m sure Jenna will be happy to help.”

“Perfect. Oh, and Shark? Don’t be drawn into an argument with her. She’s got a vicious fucking tongue on her.”

“Oh, believe me, I’ll be avoiding talking to her at all costs. I like my patch,” he grinned.

“Okay. Let’s get to work, brothers.” Crash said, banging the gavel. “We’ve got a prospect to find.”