Page 40

Shitty Timing

G rizz

I shut the door to church behind me as I followed Sabre into the room. We’d come back to the clubhouse to grab a few hours of sleep after visiting Gerry, but now it was time to end this round of bullshit.

Sabre took his chair, and I followed, letting him command the room.

He lowered his eyes to the table, collecting his thoughts, but when he raised them a few seconds later, he was all business.

Setting the tone, there were shifts around the room, brothers sitting up straight, arms crossing, knees bouncing.

“You’re probably wondering why you’re here. I don’t know if we’re being watched, so I made sure Pretty and Grizz told the rest of the brothers that we were having an emergency church. They need to protect our businesses, but they don’t have tactical experience. The rest of you do.”

The tension in the room tightened at the word tactical.

Only the brothers with military experience, plus our executive team, had received personal invites to this meeting.

We would notify the other brothers once the plans were close to being completed, in case anyone had any last suggestions, but there was no point in bringing everyone in.

“Grizz, Pretty, and I visited Gerry last night. The cartel is putting him up in one of the fancy hotels downtown.”

Wreck jerked his head toward Pretty, eyes wide and lip curled. It was obvious he hadn’t known about the excursion. Pretty shrugged him off, which made Wreck angrier, but neither one said a word.

There was a low roar as the brothers talked amongst themselves. Insults like fuckface , fucking shithead , and fucking idiot floated around the room. It felt vindicating that I wasn’t the only who believed the world would be a better place without Gerry.

“I need you to keep your cool, Thunder.” Sabre leaned forward in his seat, crossing his arms and laying his elbows on the table.

“What did that fucker do?” Thunder boomed.

Sabre shook his head. “He turned Aunt E’s past into the cartel.”

The low roar turned into a ruckus, everyone talking above the next person. Thunder shot from his seat and if Chef hadn’t grabbed a hold of him, he would have walked out the front door, paying Gerry a visit of his own.

“Calm the fuck down.” Sabre slammed his hand against the table.

“We should have buried him alive when we had the chance.” Thunder wasn’t giving up, but he took his seat, the steam practically rising from him.

“I offered to dig the hole, but no one took me up on it.” Twig unscrewed the cap off a water bottle, taking a long swig.

“Look, we all know Gerry’s on borrowed time. He’s made too many questionable moves,” Sabre said, looking at Thunder. “I won’t protect him, and this club won’t go to bat for him either. However, he was a little useful last night.” Sabre detailed the events of our visit.

“She dedicates her life to making his easier, and this is the fucking thanks she gets?” Thunder was still fuming, his leg bouncing rapidly underneath the table. Every so often, his knee would hit the underside, causing all the drinks to shake.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s already done, and Gerry’s a fucking douche if he thinks Diego Lopez is only going to use Liz’s name,” Slate said, rubbing his bottom lip.

“Revenge is always better if it’s served cold,” I said. I was picking up my wife’s habit of thinking out loud. “Hypothetically, if I knew I could get to Aunt E, and it would deliver a bigger blow to my enemy, I’d do it.”

There were several head nods around the table.

“Yeah, but we didn’t think Aunt E was a part of this equation until recently. She’s the only one who leaves the clubhouse, and we only doubled her security after the jail incident.” How was the first one to say what we were all thinking.

Cyph cracked open an energy drink, the popping sound noticeable as he lifted the tab. “I’m the computer guy,” he started.

We all cracked up laughing. It diffused the tension that had been mounting since the door had been closed.

Cyph took a huge slug from the can, waiting until the room quieted down. “You can tell me if I’m wrong, but the shipment is the decoy in all of this, not Aunt E or the women.”

Sabre nodded for him to continue.

“I feel like Diego told Gerry about the shipment as a distraction for us. I can pull up every warehouse associated with them. We can sit here and go through all the possibilities until we get it right, and we will. Only because they will let us.”

“I don’t think you’re wrong, but what makes you say that?” Sabre asked.

“If I know anything about the Knights, they don’t sit on free money. We handed them the whole Lopez operation on a tablet. So why are the Lopezes bringing in another shipment when they’ve lost their customers?” Cyph ran a finger around the rim of the can, staring into space.

“Are you saying they expect us to grab this new shipment, and while we’re out, they’re going to hit the clubhouse?” How’s eyebrows shot up so high they nearly disappeared into his hairline.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Cyph confirmed, shaking his head before he focused back on the conversation.

“Does anyone else think this is plausible?” Sabre asked, still hunched over the table.

There was chatter, but nothing distinctive in either direction.

“If the shipment is a decoy, I’m okay with offering it to the Knights for a cut.

It’s more free money for them, and I’m not enthusiastic about finding a buyer.

There’s a lot of background checking that goes into it, and we’re running thin as it.

Let them take the risk,” I said, rubbing at my eyes.

“Where do we even start protecting this place?”

“You don’t want to send them away either, do you?” Sabre and I shared a look.

“Where would they go? That’s assuming they would even leave.”

He shrugged, knowing I was right.

“If we’re going to defend this place, we need to section it off into quadrants,” Op said. “Permission, Prez?”

Sabre waved him off.

Most of the military brothers looked to Op to lead when needed, and he naturally took over. “Section one is the front. Two is the side where the fire pit is. Three is the trees, and four is the back. When we get a map of the property, we can actually draw boundaries.”

“Is there a way to make them come at us from the trees?” Zook asked.

“You need to stay away from the trees.” How’s eyes widened, not realizing what he’d said until it was out in the open.

The brothers had been teasing How relentlessly since the pizza dinner night, and as much as he let it roll off his back, it was getting to him.

It didn’t help that it wasn’t hard to figure out what Zook and Emily had been up to in the trees during Christmas.

Ransacked hair, dirty knees, and enormous smiles did that.

“They’re probably still traumatized by my piercing.” Zook smirked, waiting.

Count was the first one to throw his head back and laugh. The room exploded, and the only person not having a good time was How. His face turned a shade of green I’d never seen before. I had to hand it to him, though. He didn’t take off running for the nearest bathroom to hurl.

The laughter was dying down when Op asked about the front gate.

“Do you think they can pierce the gate, or will they need to ram it home?” Pretty couldn’t contain his chuckles, and he laid his head against the edge of the table.

“They’ll need to batter the fuck out of it.” Cyph smirked.

“What about the fence?” Op asked, trying to get everyone back on track. If they didn’t settle down soon, Sabre would step in. This was extremely important, but a few wisecracks were nothing.

“It has sensors, but it’s not strong enough to withstand an SUV,” Cyph answered again.

“Could we strengthen the stakes?” Dead asked.

“Not unless we put up poles every six feet. If this drop is going down this week, we don’t have enough time,” I said. The real problem was we didn’t have enough manpower.

“Guess what we’re doing after this?” Sabre asked, and there was a collective groan.

“There’s a shit ton more of us than them. What if we gave everyone a position to maintain? Depending on where you’re assigned, we could easily collapse the grid, trapping them in between us and the clubhouse.” Chef wasn’t normally a talker, but I couldn’t see anything flawed in that logic.

“We could make my room a command center, and I feed you information. I’ll wire up a network system with ear pieces,” Cyph offered.

“Kevlar. I’m buying it.” Count’s eyes fogged over as he calculated where the money would come from.

There were a few more suggestions tossed around, but at the end of two hours, we had a plan. It was the first time I felt like our cartel problem was going to end.

***

Sabre and I were the last two to exit the emergency church. Heading towards the main room, he slapped my shoulder in camaraderie.

“I’m not looking forward to this,” he said.

“It won’t be that bad. Even if they want to stay, they have children to protect. It’ll make it easier for them to see reason.” I wasn’t sure if I believed my line of bullshit, but it sounded good for right now. One glimpse at Sabre, and I knew he didn’t believe it either.

I walked into the main room, and one look at Meredith’s face told me I wasn’t fooling her. She might not have known what was going on, but she had an idea who it involved. Please let her see reason. Just this once, please.

I didn’t grab a beer, even though I wanted to.

Instead, I whispered good luck to Sabre and headed towards my wife.

She was sitting on one of the couches with Pumpkin in her arms. Dead was sitting on the other couch directly in front of her.

He locked his hands behind his head, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Fucker.

I said nothing as I sat next to her, reaching for Pumpkin. She was sound asleep as I leaned down to kiss her forehead. I tucked her into the crook of my arm and slung the other around Meredith. I took it as a good sign when she curled up at my side.