“I’ll deal with them. You go inform Rides and Hot Rod to have everything ready to blow this place.”
I look at Bowie and as I’m about to argue he flashes his Bowie knife at me. I quickly hold both hands up, showing him I surrender, and take backward steps. I watch as Bowie enters the room and wait. It only takes a couple of minutes before he’s walking out of the room, blood down his front. I imagine that is arterial spray, and he’s killed them faster than you can bite into a sandwich.
“What are you doing here? You were supposed to go tell Rides and Hot Rod to be ready.”
“I know, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. I was having your back,” I snap, but honestly, it sounds ridiculous even to my own ears.
“Fuck off. You think I need you to take out two idiots that were asleep instead of watching for any of ZeBach’s men coming for them?” Bowie storms past me giving me a dirty look, but I shrug it off. “We are done, blow the fucker and let’s gohave lunch,” Bowie tells Rides as he walks past and out of the warehouse.
“Well, that was an anticlimax, wasn’t it?” Hot Rod states looking pissed that nothing happened.
Back at our bikes, Rides takes out his phone, taps out something, and the bomb goes off in the warehouse. “Okay, that’s it, let’s go.” Rides straddles his hog, fires her up, and we all follow him home.
Arriving back at the clubhouse we all point at Hot Rod who is delegated to update Pres on what has gone on. That the threat from the idiots is neutralized. But I can’t help but think they were no threat at all and they should have stayed home watching Netflix.
Walking into the realtor’s office after lunch, I quickly asked the man about the tattoo shop building. He informs me that Lulu is asking too much for the place and she is not going to sell it anytime in the near future unless she drops the price.
Now that I have confirmed what Coin told me, I make my way to Lulu’s house. Whistle is with me as we are not to be out of the compound on our own, and he wanted to get out of there for a while. Whistle usually works inside the container business office, but having time away is getting to him.
“Where now, Finger?”
“We are going to visit Lulu and put her straight on what greedy ass bitches get when they try selling a property for more than it’s worth. Call Coin and ask him to speak to Scribe about leaving the shop empty so no rent will go to Lulu. That will lighta fire under her ass. Then we need to speak to some townsfolk about nobody putting an offer on the place.”
My mind is racing now with scenarios of how to get the building at a fair price.
Knocking on Lulu’s door, I turn my back to it and wait. It’s a pleasant street and I would be happy to purchase a house here if I wanted to be off compound. My thoughts were wandering when the door opens and Lulu sighs. “What do you want?” she snippily asks.
“Well, hello to you too, Lulu. You know why I’m here. You’ve already spoken to Coin. Now, let me just tell you a few facts. One is that we will pay the going rate on the building. Two is nobody is going to be paying you rent on it from this point onwards, as Scribe has stepped out with all his gear. Three is the fact that nobody in town is going to offer to buy the place. So you can sell to us for the going rate, or you can sit on an empty, useless building. Your choice. Now good day to you.” I steadily walk back to my hog, fire her up and pull away from her house without giving her an opportunity to converse with me. Whatever she said, I didn’t hear as I wasn’t listening.
Back at the clubhouse I inform Coin and watch as he smirks, understanding that Lulu is sitting on a building that is going to give her nothing. No offers, and no income from rent. Perfect.
Sitting in church after supper, I wait for the usual reports to be read. Then listen to Coin fill in what we have started regarding the tattoo shop and Lulu. The brothers are amused that we are locking down anyone purchasing the place. My afternoon had been spent making calls to everyone who would help, and theywould spread the word. Nobody is going to put an offer on that building. As far as Lulu is concerned it is now a white elephant.
“Good work, brothers,” Tracker grins. “We’ll get the building, but what about Scribe?”
Coin speaks out, “I’ve spoken to him again, and he is good with becoming a working prospect. He works a lot of hours and said if we had a room here he could continue working while we get the shop purchased.”
“What about giving him the place Avery has empty? It was a clothing store, a fairly large building. I’m sure she’d allow Scribe to use it for a small cost?” I suggest and rub my chin while I’m thinking.
“Actually, that is a good idea, and I’ll ask her because I’ve helped her out a couple of times when she’s needed a pipe swapped and things like that,” Bull states.
“Okay, you deal with that Bull, and if it’s good, a few of you can move Scribe's stuff and get him set up. Coin, work out what percentage of the shop Scribe should get. Make sure it’s appropriate because we don’t want to undercut him. We are good at taking a smaller profit until the place has paid for itself. Then we can re-evaluate.” Pres looks at me with that smirk that everyone knows we either do what he wants or we could get a bullet.
Books bends down, and picks up a box, tossing it to me. I catch and open it. Grinning because, hey, it’s Cilla’s property cut. Handing it back, I ask him to hold on to it for now.
“Did you all vote without me asking?” I try to sound shocked, but it comes out more like a snarky laugh. The room rings out with the wordAYE,and I chuckle while giving everyone a thank-you nod.
“We have our first official old lady in the club,” Pres grins, “make sure you all keep her safe. You’ll have to put up with the spooky shit and don’t make her feel uncomfortable because of it. If I hear one word in the negative about her or toward her, you can meet the acid bath, and before you’re fucking dead.”
“Pres, what are we going to do with the $5 million that Georgie gave us? You said something about demolishing the warehouse, but I’ve been looking at the blueprints for the clubhouse and we could easily make suites instead of bedrooms. It would be a hell of a clubhouse if we did that,” Demon states as he leans forward while giving Pres a solid look.
“Draw the plans, let me see and we’ll bring them back to church. The money has gained a lot of interest, and we can still use it for creating new businesses. But since we offed some of the trash brothers, there are not so many of us. It means we need to stay fit and always ready,”
Pres leans back and looks around at us. “How about adding a gym, with a sauna and shit? We could also add a swimming pool. We can make sure we stay fit. Even Scalpel can monitor our fitness. You know, Brewer, you could do to get rid of that pregnant look you have going on...”
“Fuck off, Pres. I have a fucking six-pack under here,” Brewer laughs, knowing Pres was keeping the meeting light.
Cap speaks next. “We have to get ourselves ready for moving on ZeBach. Time is running out. He’ll know that his men have lost Cilla and are dead by now. That may have them making a move earlier than stated.”