Jet gives me a reassuring smile, but I can see the tension in his jaw. “Fine, everything is fine. I have it nailed down to two planners. The rest are assholes who don’t like bikers. I’m gonnaspeak to Keys about them, maybe he can put a review on their website.”
I pat Jet’s shoulder and walk away. I reckon I know where this could lead, and with Tank laughing his ass off as he’s standing behind Jet, I think I’m right. Maybe, just maybe, I need to speak to Keys too.
The day passes quickly, and Mason picks me up from work. Jet following behind on his wreck of a bike. “Why is Jet’s bike so old and obviously needs to be scrapped?” I ask as I watch Jet through the rear-view mirror, that I twisted around to Mason’s annoyance.
“We all start with old bikes. It’s a case of not having the cash to buy a decent one. He’ll get one when he is a full brother and earning more,” Mason replies as he twists the mirror back into place.
“Hmm, I don’t think that bike is safe,” my comment is met with silence. I’m going to check out the condition of the other prospects' bikes, and I don’t care if Mason likes me doing that or not.
When we enter the common room, we both come to a grinding halt because Tracker is standing in the middle of the room red-faced, sweat pouring down his face. His muscle shirt is sticking to his body, and it looks like his hands are trembling where he has them holding his knees. I say holding his knees, but it may be to stop himself from collapsing onto the floor.
Scalpel is standing with a huge grin on his face but drops it as Tracker looks up at him. He does, however, berate Tracker about his fitness. “You have to get out of that office more. Fitness you have ordered for all brothers, means you too, Pres. Every day I expect to see you doing something for your health, and fewer carbs in your diet too.”
“Fewer carbs, are you for real? I love carbs, and I’ll not stop having bread, cakes, pasta, or other shit. I’ll do an extra set in the gym if I need to,” Tracker is put out with the suggestion of cutting carbs, and I don’t even try to stop the giggle that escapes. “What are you laughing at, Cilla?”
“You. I’m laughing at you. Who in their right mind would want to do more exercise just to eat pasta? I mean, come on, Pres...” I’m laughing more as I step closer to him. “You gotta be fit if you are going to be the Godfather to this baby.”
Shit, I blurted that out before I confirmed with Mason that we would ask Tracker to be a godparent. My eyes flick to Mason, and as he’s smiling at me, it’s obvious he is okay with the idea.
But when a large, sweaty Tracker grabs me into a hug, I squeal with disgust. “Let go of me, you stink.”
“Oh, I stink do I?” Tracker laughs, then rubs his forehead against my neck. Mason isn’t helping even a little, as he’s laughing his ass off at the spectacle. I’m not as amused as I was since I now stink too!
Chapter 28
FINGER
After leaving Cilla at the diner for her morning shift, I head out to the compound. I need to drop off the truck and grab the club’s van. I am going hunting, and if I find that cocksucker Byron, he’s going to be in the back of the van hogtied.
Grabbing the van keys from Books office, I head outside. Hot Rod jogs over to me when he sees me heading toward the van. “Where are you heading, Finger?”
“Campus. I’m going to talk to a few students. I’ll find that fucker even if it kills me. I’ve no fear of dying. I’ll be with mybrothers and haunt all your asses.” I unlock the van and climb inside. Surprised when Hot Rod climbs in the passenger side.
“I’m coming. The prospects knew one kid in college, but the poor fucker is in hospital after a drug overdose. Spencer said he didn’t understand that as the kid never did drugs.”
I turn to look at Hot Rod as my gut churns. That sounds like the kid heard something, saw something, or tried to stop something, and this was a way of shutting him up.
We spend an hour walking around the college campus speaking quietly to the students who were brave enough to spend a while speaking with us.
“Mister, if you are looking for the man that sells drugs, he is usually here first thing in the morning, and when certain people finish for the day.”
Turning without being too obvious I flick my eyes to the teenage girl who is digging around in her school bag. Doing her best to look as if she’s not speaking to us.
Hot Rod drops his phone onto the grass, and as he bends to pick it up mumbles ‘Thank you.’
“He won’t be here today as he comes on Mondays and Thursdays.” The teen says nothing more. She walks away, and we look at each other before making our way back to the van.
“Is there any point in visiting the hospital?” I ask Hot Rod, and the shake of his head tells me it’s a non-starter. “Okay, so we don’t get information from that source. So, let’s go take a ride around the East Side.” I unlock the van and we jump inside. It doesn’t take us long to cross town and park the van in a disused gas station.
“Let’s check one place at a time, Finger,” Hot Rod states as he climbs out of the van.
We walk around the gas station and remember things about the place when it was open and part of the hub of the town. “I reckon we should propose re-opening the place. What do you think Hot Rod?”
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea. If we ditched the place that we rent for the recovery business, we could run it from here. There is more than enough space around the back for all the vehicles.”
“Another business for any new brothers too, and we have five prospects that will need a decent job once they are full brothers. We don’t have to worry about Scribe as he has the tattoo business. It’s just the others and I don’t reckon the recovery or the roll-off can use more brothers than is already working them.” I point as I see a junker pull into the warehouse across and down the road some. “I think we may have just got lucky.”
We both chuckle before taking off running towards the warehouse. Cutting onto the grass to dull our booted steps. Hot Rod points behind the building, and I veer that way as he heads to the front. Covering all bases, we should be able to grab this cocksucker and have him in the shed before lunch ends.