by Brook Wilder
“Your boys still on lockdown?” Hammer marveled at the balls on this kid. Even his own crew didn’t talk to him like that.
“They’re men, but yes. Our club stays that way until we get the job done. You mentioned that Miguel has Hawk. Is that Jaden’s club name? I can see why. My boy doesn’t miss much.”
Trevor stared at him stubbornly.
“I can always just beat it out of you.” Hammer offered nonchalantly.
Immediately the room shifted and fifteen kids all shifted in their seats uncomfortably. Hammer stared at Trevor. The boy’s hand landed on the hunting knife strapped to his waist as his eyes narrowed.
Hammer shifted his approach.
“When did I get to be the enemy? Thought we were friends?”
Trevor didn’t respond. Regardless of his tough words earlier, he looked scared.
“You VP, Trevor?”
Trevor jerked his head one time, acknowledging it as true.
“Name’s Bull Dog.”
“Well that fits. You’re the most stubborn person I ever met. Look Bull Dog, while your president is out of commission, the club is relying upon you to make the tough calls.”
“It doesn’t take genus to work that out.”
“I’d like to offer a temporary solution. Just until you get your president back.”
Bull Dog eyed him suspiciously.
“Honestly, our bylaws state that in a time of crisis the president can offer temporary patch overs of allied clubs. If your members vote to accept my offer, we’ll do the heavy lifting.”
“What do we do, just sit around and wait?”
“Well, those dirt bikes outside won’t keep up with a Harley and your parents would be pretty pissed if I get any of you killed. You provide information and we’ll get Jaden…I mean Hawk back.”
A kid with jet black hair spoke up.
“I call for a vote on accepting the offer of a temporary patch over by the Kingsmen.”
A dirty kid with disheveled red hair spoke. “I second Crow’s motion.”
Hammer couldn’t believe they were buying that load of crap.
Bull Dog sighed. “All in favor say aye.”
Five of the fifteen spoke. Hammer could feel his anger rising at the ten who didn’t agree.
Bull Dog stated flatly. “The ayes have it. Let the records show Crow made the motion, Copperhead seconded it, and all five fully patched members voted the motion up.”
Hammer gasped, “You have ten prospects?”
Bull Dog responded shortly. “It’s been a busy week.”
“What do you have on Jaden?”
“Hawk went missing late last night. Someone shot out our main camera. Back up camera caught images of Grim colors. We can’t afford high resolution equipment like your club has so we make do with what we can scrounge. Most of our equipment is ten or more year’s old and low resolution. Couldn’t make out any of their faces. Hawk keeps all our club information locked in a cloud. I can pull it up for you.”
Hammer pulled out a business card. “Send the cloud address and password to this e-mail address. I have a team of geeks working on it.”
“We know.”
Hammer’s eyes followed Bull Dogs to a skinny boy with dark hair and a nose ring. He looked to be about fifteen and was clutching a lap top to his chest. Pointing at him, Hammer state. “You’re coming with me, little dude. We got a space for another geek. Don’t worry, I’ll get you home in time for dinner.”
The young man stared at him with huge eyes for a long moment before nodding his agreement.
“Non is a good hacker, but he goes to the shelter every night.”
“Well that just fine. He can stay at the clubhouse until this mess blows over.”
Hammer spoke up. “Load up men. We’ll meet up back at the clubhouse. Bull Dog, you’re with me. My VP will want to talk with you, Copperhead too. The rest of you head home and wait for information from you VP.”
Bull Dog nodded and the other kids began to leave. “Yes, Sir.”
Hammer dropped to the ground as kids began pouring out of the tree house. Taking out his cell phone, he dialed his VP. “Marlow, I need you to get the word out. Jaden’s been with his friend until last night when he got grabbed by the Grims. We just shoved some information into the cloud. Get the geeks on that shit right goddamn now.”
“You got it boss. Anything else.”
Hammer took a deep breath. “You were right about Jaden. He started his own club. They’re pretty serious little shits to be so young. Most of them look to be around fourteen or fifteen. Jaden and his friend are probably the youngest. They weren’t coming off any intel. I offered a temporary patch over. There are fifteen of the little fuckers but only five full members. I’m bringing three of them with me. One is good with computers. If they give us any shit whatsoever, send them home to their goddamn mommies.”
Marlow’s shocked voice sounded off. “Roger that boss. I’ll let them know at the gate. That’s some crazy ass shit.”
“Fuck me sideways.” The voice came from behind him. He turned to see the stunned expression on Decker’s face. Hammer wondered briefly if his own face held some glimmer of the same emotion. Realizing Marlow had hung up to attend to the duties he had assigned, Hammer turned to Decker.
“That’s exactly what I thought. Unless I miss my guess your counterpart is a kid with red hair. They call him Copperhead. He looks homeless and tough as fuckin’ nails. Was carving on his hand with a prison shank in at their version of church.”
“I’ll get with and try to figure out what, if anything, he knows.”
Chapter 13
The Girl’s The Problem
He watched Alina’s eye’s grow huge as person after person dropped out of the tree house. They headed for their dirt bikes and fired them up. Hammer’s best guess was that even the oldest was just shy of meeting the age requirement for obtaining a motorcycle license, which would explain why they were riding dirt bikes. Fuck, what had Jaden been into?
As they climbed into the SUV he asked. “How long you boys had your club.”
“Hawk, Copperhead and myself got together about a year ago. Fought like cats and dogs over the bylaws for months before we signed it. We got Non about six months ago and our fifth a couple of months ago. Hawk was really frustrated when you put the clubhouse on lockdown. Don’t know how you expected him to run a club when he can’t leave home. We have important stuff to do. Can’t do that with our prez sittin’ in his room every weekend staring at the ceiling.”
“What the fuck do you guys do that’s so important, that my son has to bust outta lockdown for it?”
“That patch over bought you more information than I want you to have.”
Copperhead’s head swiveled between the two of them then he spoke. “We don’t do much that is isn’t above board. We run errands for a couple of local business, mostly dropping off flowers and bakery shit. Seven stores in the area give us their outdated comic books and magazines instead of throwing them away. They have to tear the covers off them to prove they weren’t purchased, then they can be destroyed or even donated. We have prospects that pick them up every month like clockwork. We sell all the covers to a local crafter who makes comic book buttons and jewelry and shit like that. It’s totally legal. Then we take all the magazines and sort them. The ones we think we can sale at a discount we keep, the others go to local homeless shelters. We ain’t really supposed to sell them but kids don’t squeal on the only cheap source of comics around. We also have a subscription club. Guys pay five bucks a month and can read as many as they want, as often as they want. Mostly they come on the weekends. People like that idea because they can hang out around the clubhouse and they don’t have bunch of comics cluttering up their rooms for their moms to ride their asses about. We like it because we set up a snack bar and sell sodas and the day old bakery items we get for free because we deliver for the bakery. Hell, even the girls come out to read and eat cream puffs. Course we don’t let them in the c
lub but they hang around outside and gossip and giggle. They’re a nuisance but their money’s green. That what Hawk always says.”
“Good. I worried you all were doing some stupid shit.”
The red head shook his head. “That ain’t all we do. We got a similar deal with the inserts from the local newspapers. We pick up leftover papers at a couple of dozen stores. Those coupon bitches are off the chain. They pay us for every intact coupon insert. We take the rest to the recycling center and get some chump change for the trouble. We’re thinking of making newspaper logs to sell this winter. We figure if the boy Scouts can do it, we can. It’d be a good job for prospects. Basically just stuff like that.”
“Busy little fuckers, aren’t you? You must be rolling in the dough.”
Bull Dog responded. “None of it is a lot of money on its own but we found it adds up. We all pay dues, buy our supplies in bulk. Hawk’s smart like that. He’s always adjusting the prices on the things we sell, things to make us more money. We’re saving for a real clubhouse, like yours. Hawk’ girl keeps all the records for us.”
Copperhead stopped digging at his nails long enough to shoot his friend an annoyed look.
Hammer turned in his seat. “My son has a goddam girlfriend?”
Copperhead responded quickly. “It ain’t like that. We just look out for her. Like me and Non, she ain’t got nobody. She helps out with girl stuff and we keep her safe and clothed. Hell, most of the guys we hang around with still think girls have cooties.”
“Wait, she’s homeless?”
Copperhead stared out the window and nodded his head slightly.
Bull Dog spoke up. “We got one of the women who makes jewelry to let her crash on her sofa. The girl helps her make stuff and they sell it at swap meets. The two of them get along real good. She baby sits on the side sometimes. When they go to swap meets, the club provides refreshments for her to sell. We make money and keep her safe. Everyone’s happy. Hawk’s big on win-win scenarios, as he calls them.”
Hammer grumbled, “Boy reads too much for his own fucking good.”
Alina gasped. “You do realize she’s not your pet, right? You can’t just arrange her a place to stay, food, and clothes and that makes everything’s alright. What about school? What about her family?”
“Her family’s dead and she ain’t going to school.”
Hammer shook his head. Jaden apparently had a whole entire life he knew fuckin’ nothing about. He could easily see his son just sitting around thinkin’ this kind of shit up all the time. Modeling it all of the Kingsmen.
“Jaden is with me most of the time or at school. Where does he have time for all this?”
Bull Dog shrugged. We stay connected electronically. We text a lot. Jaden visits me about every weekend. We meet almost every day at school during lunch. They let us eat outside. Other kids know better than to bother us when we’re having church.”
Hammer sighed. This day was just getting better and better. Worrying about his son’s little Mickey Mouse club shit was among the least of his problems. His worst nightmare had come true. The Grims had his son. He’d been grappling with that possibility since Jaden went missing. The Grims would keep him alive because he was leverage. That did not make him safe by any stretch of the imagination. He needed to get back to the clubhouse and begin piecing this puzzle together.
Alina’s hand came out to touch him on the arm. He glanced over at her worried face.
“You did real good, Doll. If I’d let you in a minute sooner, we might have got to him in time.”
She looked so lost. He put his arm around her and pulled her to his chest. Looking over the top of her head he saw all three boys looking at him strangely. Hammer couldn’t imagine what the kids were thinking, seeing him with his hands on their teacher. It must be doing their little heads in. The boys were smart enough not to say a word. Copperhead went back to carving away on his nails with the prison shank, deep in thought.
Hammer asked quietly, “How do the two of you go to school if you’re homeless?”
Bull Dog answered. “Back in the day my dad thought it would be funny if my tree house had an address. He filed a form with the post office. I’m 223 ½ Elm Street. They have an address. They shower at my place, eat out a lot and Copperhead sleeps at the clubhouse. Non has an older brother. They both stay at the shelter.”
Hammer already knew their state had tried to save money but butting the new junior high school up against the middle school. Though there was an age difference, he could see them getting together outside for lunches and such. Fuck, Jaden and Trevor were a pair, with one being super smart and other being incredibly stubborn. They bungled through just coming up with one work around right after another for problems as they cropped up. It would have been impressive, if not for being downright scary.
“What’s this girl’s name?”
Bull Dog looked away. Copperhead stared at him. Hammer almost smiled at the overly protective pair. They hadn’t established that kind of rapport yet. Still, he needed to know everything. “She’s part of this club. I want to meet her.”
Copperhead spoke. “Not alone and not at your clubhouse.”
“Maybe we can visit her home.”
The two boys looked at each other before intoning in unison. “No.”
“I’m now your temporary club president. Are you actually telling me no?”
Finally Bull Dog spoke. “Twinkie doesn’t know he’s missing. She freak the hell out.”
“I want to meet her.” Alina’s soft request, got to them in a way that Hammer’s demand hadn’t.
Finally Bull Dog responded. “I’ll arrange it, but not until we have Hawk back.”
It occurred to Hammer to wonder if the girl was somehow caught up in all this.
“How is she involved in my son’s disappearance?”
Both boys froze and didn’t look at each other. Their gazes landed squarely on Hammer. That’s when he knew something was up. “Might just as well tell me what I want to know. If you don’t, I’ll track her down myself.
Copperhead spat, “Touch her and I’ll kill you.”
Bull Dog shook his head. “You won’t have to. If you bring anymore misery on that girl, Hawk take care of you himself.”
Hammer snorted a laugh. “I’m his dad. He ain’t gonna do nothing to me. Stop being dramatic.”
“You’ve been assuming this whole situation has anything at all to do with you. That was your first mistake. The Grims might hate you and your MC, but right now they hate your son a whole lot more.”
“What the fuck are you saying?”
“Twinkie is their crazy VP’s daughter. He killed her mother and sister. If Hawk hadn’t grabbed her when he did, she would have been next.”
“What?”
“We were delivering flowers to some old lady who just turned a hundred or some such shit. She got so many orders from different relatives that it took all three of us to deliver them all. While were there, a commotion broke out next door. A man with a Spanish accent was yelling and women were crying. This girl came out the back covered in blood. Jaden just grabbed her and we got her the hell outta there. Took her to our clubhouse. She took a shine to me, Hawk and Copperhead right away. Wouldn’t let anyone else near her. Turns out the blood wasn’t hers but it took her days to talk about what had happened. She’d start screaming every time we talked about bringing her to see grown-ups.”
“How old is she?” Alina’s query drew both boys’ attention.
Copperhead answered. “She’s twelve but she acts about thirty. Mothers the hell outta us. If you plan to go talk to her, be sure you’re all cleaned up and you’ve washed the back of your neck. She notices that kind of shit. She doesn’t like it when we curse and we had to stop dinner to get napkins once. She’s real civilized like.”
Hammer’s shocked voice cut though Copperhead’s inane ramblings. “He thought he was drawing them off our club when he left, didn’t he. He was trying to keep us safe.”
&n
bsp; Bull Dog tilted his head slightly. “And he didn’t trust you. Swore you’d give the girl back to get them off his back. Said to let him crash and burn before allowing her to go back.”
“Where the fuck is she?”
Bull Dog looked at Copperhead who was staring out the window.
“Our Sergeant at Arms is the only one who knows. I know you think that you can just beat it out of him, but you can’t. A couple of the Grims already tried a month or so ago. They caught him in an alley and if a patrol car hadn’t happened by, he wouldn’t have made it out outta that alley alive. It didn’t work. Copperhead’s been through so much in his life. When the pain starts, he just kind of checks out in his own head. Doesn’t feel any of it. You can literally cut off pieces of him and it won’t matter. Once he checks out he won’t come back for days after it’s over.”
