“Help me Leo. My leg, it’s broken bad,” Ron begged.
“Like you helped Tuck, Two-Tone, Will, and Wade? Like you helped Boggs? That the kind of help you want?”
“I’m sorry, Leo. I messed up. I see that now. I’m really sorry.”
“Why? Tell me why, Ron.”
“Money. I’m almost sixty years old and I’m broke. I’ve got nothing. I just was trying to cash out before it was too late,” Ron gasped.
“You sold the club out for money?” Leo raged. “For fucking money?”
Copper rolled to a stop. He dismounted a little slowly, but seemed to be moving okay.
“Damn, Ron,” Copper drawled as he stepped up beside Leo. “That looks like it hurts. A lot.”
“Copper help me. Please, won’t you help me? You and I, we were part of the founding fifteen. Remember?”
“Yeah. I remember. But that was before you fucked the club Ron. Before you started killing brothers. Now, you’re nothing but a pile of shit I need to scrape off my boot.”
“You’re finished Ron,” Leo said as he pulled his weapon. “You’re out of the club.”
“So just like that, you’re going to shoot me?” Ron sneered. “Then you’re no better than I am.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Ron.” Leo emptied the nine shot magazine of his Glock into the engine on Ron’s Harley. “I’m not going to kill you. I don’t have to. You’re dead already.”
Ron went even paler. “Wait! You’re going to leave me here? You can’t do that! There are cougars!”
“Yeah. And I bet you smell good the way you’re bleeding.”
“Copper! Don’t let him do that! Better to shoot me!”
Leo pointed his gun at Ron’s head and pulled the trigger. Click. “Sorry, Ron. All out of bullets. But if you can get that bike off of you, and drag yourself out into the road, maybe someone will come by before you’re cat food. Or maybe not.”
“You mother-fuckers! You don’t deserve to wear the colors! I swear to god I will fucking kill you both! You will have to watch your backs for the rest of your fucking lives!”
“Meow,” Copper said with cruel smile before he and Leo turned their backs on him and strolled to their bikes.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” Ron screamed, then screamed in pain, probably from trying to get the bike off of himself.
“You okay to ride?” Leo asked.
“Brother, I feel better right now than I have in a long, long time.” Copper slapped Leo on the shoulder, grinning as the dust puffed from the impact. “Come on. We’re missing a party.”
EPILOGUE
Sunday afternoon Jamie was standing beside Leo in the shell of the new clubhouse with a grin so big her face hurt. Everyone was in a festive mood. Ron and Gigolo had gone missing. Michelle had gone to the cops, and even though there were a lot of questions, the four men that had given chase had sworn they had been unable to catch them.
While Ron and Gigolo were dealt with, the rest of Ron’s men were quietly stripped of their colors and sent on their way with the warning that if any member saw their face, or the face of their old ladies, anywhere in Lima 6 territory, they too would go missing. They had until midnight Monday to get their affairs in order and get out. Lima 6 had put a detail on each of the seven men to make sure they understood their guarantee of safe passage was a limited time offer.
“Considering that all the current officers are either missing or busy, as the highest ranking former member of the board, I present these colors to you, Lionel Franklin Graves. Wear them with honor,” Copper concluded after Leo had taken the club oath. “Welcome back to Lima 6.”
Leo took the colors and slipped them on. They fit perfectly, as they should, since they were the colors he had been wearing for three years when they had been taken from him. “Thank you. It’s damn good to be back. Look, it even fits!”
“I think the first order of business is to elect officers. I need a second,” Copper said.
“Second,” Fitz called.
“For the office of President I nominate, Leo Graves,” Copper continued.
“Second.” Fitz said almost before Copper had finished.
“All in favor?” Copper asked before the echo of the second had died.
“Aye!” the entire room roared.
“Motion is carried.” Copper said formally, then handed Leo the President patch he had hidden in his hand. The entire process was done in less than five seconds.
Leo was floored by the outpouring of goodwill and didn’t know what to say.
“This is where you say thank you and tell us how you will do your best to serve the club,” Copper suggested.
“I… uh… Thanks. I will do my best to do what is right by the club,” Leo stammered, still in shock at what was happening. “I need a second. I would like to nominate Richard Copperton.”
“Second!”
“All in favor?” Leo called.
Once again the walls shook with confirmation.
Fitz was nominated for Sergeant at Arms, but declined, so that duty was passed to Matt, and Fitz resumed his duties as the club’s treasurer.
“One more thing,” Leo said after Fitz had been confirmed. “As my first action as President of Lima 6, I am dissolving the board. Never again will this club be held hostage to a few men. We are all brothers, and as brothers, we all should have a say in how this club is run. All in favor?” The room was quiet for a moment, the members caught by surprise and unsure of how to respond to the radical change in how the club is structured. “I said, all in favor?” Leo roared.
“Aye!” the brothers called back.
“Motion is carried. From this moment forward, every member of this club has an equal say in how it is run.”
“You realize that the board was put into place as a way to cut down on the petty squabbling?” Copper said quietly.
“Better that than what we just went though.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
“Hey! Does anyone know what time it is?” Jamie asked as she stepped up in a chair.
Everyone looked to her. They knew the drill, but they didn’t know the surprise that she and Leo had worked up last night. Jamie looked back at them in mock disgust. “What are you, deaf? I said, ‘Hey! Does anyone know what time it is?’”
“It’s time to—” Leo began.
“Party!” the rest said, completing the ritual, but without the enthusiasm they normally showed for the line.
“In that case, I declare this bar… open!”
She hopped down from the chair and strode over to a table sitting with a black cloth draped over it where the bar would be. She and Leo had wrestled a keg system from her bar last night after she closed and brought it to the clubhouse. It was a lot of hassle, but today was worth it. She reached under the table and pulled out a tap and flipped a cold mug from a cooler onto the table.
“Who wants a beer?”
There was a moment of stunned silence before the cheers began.
***
“Do you think we can ever regain the trust of Vallecito de Grande?” Leo ask as he and Jamie shared a beer. They hadn’t brought enough mugs to go around so a few had to share. He didn’t mind. He would share all he had, all he would ever have, with Jamie.
“I think so. You have turned out the trouble makers and I will make it clear that Lima 6 is once again welcome in my establishment. If I can forgive Lima 6, anyone should be able to.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am. Just give the town a little time to see that Lima 6 is once again our gallant knights.”
Leo smiled. “Thank you, Jamie. Thank you for all you have done for the club. And for me.”
Jamie smiled then sat the mug on the floor. She pulls him down for a soft kiss. “I think it’s a pretty good trade. All women want to win the heart of her knight. Speaking of which.”
Jamie rose and walked to the table where the keg was set up and pulled her purse out. She smiled at Leo as he watch
ed her dig in her purse. She then sat the purse back on the floor and sauntered over to him.
“I have something for you. I picked it up when I went to El Paso the last time.” She opened her hand to show him a stylized knight on horseback with a jousting pole. The silver pin sparkled in the light. “A little something to help you remember who you are and what you mean to me… and to Vallecito.”
Leo picked up the exquisitely-styled pin. He wasn’t given to wearing jewelry, but for some reason this pin spoke to him. “It’s stunning,” he whispered. “Thank you.” He pinned it to the breast of his colors. “I will wear it proudly.” He kissed her again, softly, slowly, then pulled back and stared into the infinite depths of her eyes. “I love you,” he mouthed.
“I love you,” she replied in kind.
She leaned into his side as his arm went around her, holding her snug as he tipped his head over and laid it against hers. The first order of business when the club met again would be to vote on making that pin the symbol of their club, to remind them all of who they were.
THE END
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