by Blair Grey
I’d grown up with my father being a member of an MC. I knew nothing they did was legit. “Yeah. Well, that makes us an easy target.”
“Not really.” He closed the door then tapped the code into the keypad to lock the building back up. “Most people wouldn’t fuck with us. But we know who will, don’t we?”
I didn’t want to get into that with him again. “Okay, who has the security code to be able to get into this place?” Heading up the stairs, I had the number to the security company in the desk. “And I’m going to call to find out what time the code was used to enter the building after you closed up last night. We might not have our own cameras, but there’s a convenient store across the street that has outside cameras that focus on their gas pumps. We might be able to see a car leaving our parking lot. And if I can give them a specific time, it’ll make it easier for them to find that footage.”
Axel came up behind me, his hand pressed against the small of my back. “That’s the smart girl I’ve come to know. We’ll find out who did this and then there will be hell to pay for fucking with us. The Iron Cobras can be just as ruthless with those who want to play that way.”
A small part of me began to worry that it might be one of the girls who’d come to work for us who was behind this. But I didn’t want her punished by my father’s MC. Their brand of justice was a bit harsh to me. “Axel, can’t we just turn this over to the police?”
Laughing, he unlocked the office door, pushing it open to let me step inside. “No. Did you notice how the firemen said this wasn’t arson?”
“Yes.” It had just happened, so of course, I had. “So?”
“That’s because they know we don’t want an investigation opened. They made sure I knew there would not be an investigation. That’s because the authorities know we take care of our own shit, baby.” He walked to the window and looked out of it. “I don’t know if that guy who owns the store across the street will want to let us see his videos or not. I’ve never even been in there. And for all I know, those cameras might not even be real.”
“I have been in there and they’re real. You can see the monitors behind the counter.” I found the paper with the security company’s phone number on it and made the call. Fifteen minutes later I had the time the code was used to open the front entrance and the time it was used to lock it up again.
Axel looked at me as he ran his hand over his long beard over and over again. “So, this mother fucker came here in broad daylight and set the fire. Do you see how ballsy these people can be now?”
“Who knew you were taking me to meet with the Iron Cobras council this morning? And who knew that at nine o’clock we’d both be at their bar?” My opinion of who was behind this had begun to switch from one of the girls I’d hired to one of the men my father and Axel called their brother.
And by the way Axel’s brows raised, I was pretty sure he was thinking the same thing I was. “You know, all the security codes to every place owned by our MC are kept by the treasurer. You have the code to this place, and so do I. The only other person who has it is Steve McDonald - the Iron Cobras’ treasurer.”
Seems the Iron Cobras might have trouble from within. Won’t Daddy be surprised?
Chapter Fifteen
Axel
Just as I was about to call Carl to let him know about the fire in his kitchen, my cell rang, and it was him calling me. “Yes, boss?”
“Cane Brumley is the man whose name is on the ownership papers of Horney’s Babes. And he doesn’t want the girls back at all anymore. He said they’re no-talent sluts who were lucky he let them wiggle their ugly asses at his place. But he does want compensation. You have to have Sarah fire them all since she’s the one who gave them the idea to leave his establishment in the first place.”
“Can do.” I had no issue with that. “What about the shit he asked your daughter to do for him?” That was what I had some real issues with. If I had my way, we’d pick that fucker up and cut his fucking tongue out, then use a rusty knife to cut his balls off. We’d leave the fucker alive though. Death was too easy for the likes of a dick like him.
“No one in the Irish Reapers knew that the woman who was talking to those strippers was my daughter. Their president and council members assured me that if they would’ve known who she was, no one would’ve been allowed to talk to her at all.” He sighed heavily, and I knew that meant he wasn’t entirely happy with the deal he’d made with them. “Cane offered me his apologies as well and asked if I would let Sarah know that he’d done so.”
So, mutilating the fucker is out. Damn. “I’ll tell her to get on that right now then.”
“Wait, there’s more I’m afraid. And she’s not going to want to do this.” He hesitated before going on, “She’s got to go to all of the other strip joints in town and tell the owners or managers or whoever is in charge of hiring that these women are blackballed from the adult entertainment industry in Baltimore. They’re not even to be given jobs cleaning the toilets in any establishment that serves to entertain people in a sexual manner.”
I thought that to be kind of ridiculous. “And how is she to stop anyone from hiring them?”
“She’d better make sure they clearly understand her. The president of the Irish Reapers said that if things didn’t go with the strippers that left them, the way they said had to be, then our MC and their MC would have real problems. And you know none of us need that. I can count on you to help my daughter understand that, right?”
By the way Sarah stood with her hands on her hips, staring at me with her jaw held tight, I knew it wasn’t going to be a picnic. But I knew what I had to do. “Will do, boss. You can count on me. But I need to let you in on some bad news about your kitchen here at the club. Someone came in here about nine this morning and started a fire. You should come on down, Sarah and I are here now.”
“Goddamnit!”
With the call ended, I put the phone down and got right to the point with Sarah. “Okay, you’re getting off easy. Cane Brumley is the name of the fucking asshole that gave you the ultimatum night before last. He didn’t know you were Carl’s daughter and that alone got his ass off. He apologized to your father and asked that he extend that apology to you. But I might fuck him up anyway. I’m not sure about that yet.”
Smiling, she winked at me. “Why is that, Axel? Is it because you didn’t like him telling me that he wanted to make me his sex-slave?”
“Duh.” I couldn’t believe the woman. “Anyway, I’m not talking to you anymore about that. I’ll do what I think is right and you’ll never know.”
She took a seat on top of the desk, leaning back on her hands to try to entice me as I sat in my desk chair. Pink lips pouted as she gazed at me. “So, we’re all good now?”
I got ready for her mood to change. “As soon as you fire all the girls that you hired that came from their strip joint.” She bolted upright, about to start shouting. But I held up one hand to stop her. “Hold on. There’s more. You’ve also got to go in person to each strip club in Baltimore and make sure they understand that not even one of the girls can be hired by them for anything – not even scrubbing the toilets.”
As ready as I was for the fit I was sure she would throw, I wasn’t ready at all for the sob that came out of her mouth and the tears that flowed down her cheeks. “I’ve ruined their lives!”
Getting up, I picked her up in my arms, cradling her like a baby against my chest. “Come on now, this isn’t bad news. I mean, you’ll be in the clear as soon as you get this done. It’s a lot better than I had thought it would be.”
“Because you don’t care about any of those girls the way I do.” She buried her face in my chest, sobbing loudly. “You didn’t get them to leave that place. You didn’t bring them to a good working environment. I did all that. And now I’ve got to be the bad guy and not only fire them but ruin their chances of working anywhere else in Baltimore too. What are they supposed to do, Axel?”
Kissing the top of her head as her
body shook in my arms, I reminded her that there were many more places to work in our town. “Baby, stop crying. Those girls are just blackballed from strip joints. They can still go work at fast-food restaurants, or convenient stores, or do whatever else they want. They just can’t be hired at any strip club to do anything is all.”
“But they don’t know how to do anything else, Axel,” she sobbed. “Can’t you see that. If they knew how to make money doing anything else, don’t you think they would’ve done that by now?”
“No, they wouldn’t have. With no education, they can only make minimum wage. At strip clubs, they can make way more than that. And that’s even with the place they did work at, taking half their money.” She really had no clue about why women took their clothes off for money.
“Oh, God!” she wailed. “They’ll all be broke, and probably homeless too. What have I done?”
“Look, you need to pull yourself together, baby. Your dad’s on his way here now. We’ve got to deal with the fire thing too.” I felt like there was so much to do if we were ever going to get things straightened out. “At least we know that the Irish Reapers aren’t responsible for the fire. But now we have to deal with why the fuck one of our own would do a thing like this.”
“Shit.” She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. “This blows.” Sniffling, she sucked it up. “Put me down. I’ll go to the bathroom and gather myself.”
“It’s best if you make yourself scarce while your father’s here anyway. I don’t want you to know about anything we say. It’s better for you that way. Stay up here in the office until I come back. Promise me, k?”
Nodding, she promised, “Yes, I swear I won’t try to listen in on anything you guys talk about. Dad did manage to teach me that much.”
Still holding her, I couldn’t put her down without doing one more thing. Kissing her quivering lips, I tried to make her feel like things would get okay very soon. “We’ll get through this. We can get through lots of things.”
“Can we?” She smiled weakly. “Do you really think so?”
“I do.” Putting her feet on the floor, I hugged her. “In no time at all, this will all be a distant memory. You’ll see.”
“I hope so.” She looked up at me, then wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me in for another kiss. As our lips met, I couldn’t recall a kiss ever feeling exactly like this one. No passion, no heated lust - just comfort.
My cell buzzed and I let her go to see who had texted. “Ah, your dad’s pulling up now. I’ll be back.”
“Okay. I’ll be up here, trying to figure out how to say the things I have to say.” She sniffled as she walked away. “This will teach me to try to help people.”
I hated that she had to learn that lesson the hard way. And I really hated myself for letting her do it in the first place. When those girls started showing up, I should’ve asked her about that then.
Hindsight - what a bitch.
Meeting Carl at the front entrance, I let him in, then locked the place back up so no one would sneak in on us. “The damage isn’t that bad.” I followed him as he went to the kitchen.
“But who did it and why is what’s got me worried.” He pushed open the swinging doors to the kitchen and groaned, “Damn. This is a real mess that’s going to have to be cleaned up right away. And a new stove will have to be brought in so you can serve food tonight.”
“You’re in luck. It’s Sunday. We’re closed on Sundays and Mondays. So there’s time to get this all cleaned up and a new stove brought in.” I leaned back on the counter. “But the real kicker is that someone used the correct code to get into this place around nine this morning and the right code to lock it back up. Those are two different codes.”
“What members of your staff have them?” He walked around, checking for any signs of damage.
“Me, Sarah, and no one else who works here.” I didn’t know how to broach the subject but knew I had to do it. “And one other person.”
He stood up after looking underneath the sink. “Who would that be?” Then he shook his head as he knew who that was as well as I did. “No.”
All I could do was nod. “Neither I nor Sarah gave the codes to anyone else. And they’re not written down anywhere either. We’ve got them on our notes on our cell phones. We thought that the best way to keep them from getting out. But I did write them down. I put the paper with that on it in the envelope with the first set of reports I gave him.”
Carl ran his hand over his beard. “Do you remember what day that was and where you gave them to him?”
“At our bar and on the morning we went on the club run.” I didn’t want to believe Steve would do a thing like this any more than Carl did. But the facts were the facts. “I think I can get some evidence of who actually came here since there was no possible way that Steve came here at nine this morning. But we both know he had to be behind it. Why is what I’d like to know.” And why my place?
If Steve was out to hurt our MC for whatever reason, he had the codes to all the businesses we owned. Why single out the one I’d just opened?
“Don’t say a thing to anyone else.” Carl looked at the floor, instead of at me. “Did you and Sarah talk about this?”
“I’m afraid so.” I had to take the blame for that. “We were kind of talking it out, trying to figure out who had the codes and his name came out of my mouth. It was stupid of me, I know. But she knows the rules, boss. She won’t say a thing.”
“And I’ll make sure she knows not to talk about it as well.” He sighed, looking around at the mess. “For now, we’re all going to say it was an accident.”
“There was a dishtowel on top of the stove that the firemen blamed. They said the pilot light of the burner it was closest to ignited it. And then the fire spread when that blaze lit up the rest of the pilot lights and that’s how the whole thing happened.” Although plausible, it wasn’t true. “See, I did a final check last night after everyone else left. There was no dishcloth on the stove. Someone had to have put it there this morning.”
I could see that Carl didn’t want to believe his treasurer had anything to do with the fire. “But you might be wrong, Axel. It was late. You were tired. You could’ve just not noticed a cloth being on the stove. I’m sure the lights were off.”
Nodding, he was right. “Yes, they were off. I did turn them on for a moment to inspect the kitchen though. You know, just stood at the door and looked around before turning them back off. But I suppose I could’ve overlooked something like that.”
“Yes, you could have.” He turned back to look at the stove. “Things can happen.”
“But someone did use the code to get into the building at six minutes after nine this morning. And at twenty-four minutes after nine, they used the code to get back out and lock the place back up. So, who was that? And why did they come in for such a short amount of time?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head slowly. “But I do know that I’m not going to anyone in my club with accusations until I have all the facts.”
“I’ll see if I can get some proof of the vehicle that came here from the store across the street. Or even if whoever worked over there this morning saw anyone over here. I know we have to get the facts straight before we say a thing, boss. Don’t worry about that.”
“Yeah, you know the rules. So, we’ve had a little accident, is all. At least for now.” He huffed as if clearing that off the slate. “And how is Sarah doing with what she has to do to right her wrongs?”
“She’s not happy about it. But she knows she has to do it. And I’ll make sure she does it.” I followed Carl as he headed out of the kitchen. “And I’ll get people cleaning this up and putting the kitchen back in working order right away too.”
“Thank you.” He stopped at the entrance. “We will get to the bottom of this, Axel. I don’t want you to think I’m going to let this slide.”
“I know you won’t. See ya later, boss.” I punched in the code to let him out. “Try to ha
ve a nice day.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of out now.” He left, shaking his head, feeling as perplexed as I was about why anyone in our MC would do this.
But I will find out.
Chapter Sixteen
Sarah
There was no way in hell that I was going to go to the seven girls I had to fire and just ruin their lives. I had to come up with an alternative plan. Sitting in the office, I used the computer to get on my social media accounts to see what any of my old friends from school were doing.
I had the idea that if any of them were in positions where they could hire the girls, then I would at least ask if they could help me out. As I went down the list of friends in Baltimore, I found a woman I’d been more like acquaintances with rather than real friends.
Casey was now the supervisor over the laundry department at one of the hospitals in town. And a supervisor might be able to hire. So, I messaged her, asking her how things were going.
I kept looking though, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to hire all seven of them. Another girl I’d known in school, owned a small café. So, I messaged her too. All in all, I’d come up with four possibilities. Now all I had to do was go make some visits to my old friends to talk to them in person about what I’d gotten myself in to.
Axel opened the door to the office, looking grim. “Okay, the cleaners are on their way now.”
“Do you think you can run me home really quick?” I hopped up from the desk, closing the laptop. “I’ve got some errands to run.”
“You’ve got some soon to be ex-strippers to call first.” He gave me a stern stare. “So, get to that. I promised your father I would get you on that right away.”
“Well, I’ve got to come up with something else for them before I tell them the horrible news. At least I can soften the blow if I have people they can go to, to get another job.”
