by A. J. Downey
I nodded. “As much as I love you, I do not enjoy shoveling goat shit,” I agreed. “But you gotta do what you gotta do and you’re keeping me in good with the parole board.”
“I honestly don’t think it would take much on that score after what your P.O. did,” he said. “I think you might be her class favorite.”
I chuckled and nodded. “I do what I’m supposed to when I’m supposed to do it. You’d be surprised at how many of these guys can’t seem to do even the bare minimum.”
“No, no I would not,” Fen said, shaking his head.
We both had a laugh at that.
“You really think it’d be worth fixing up Raven’s place?” I asked.
“Okay, you really think this was my idea?” Fen asked, giving me a look like “bitch, please” and I smiled wryly.
“Mav?” I asked.
“Yup. He just asked if I’d bring it up.”
“What’s he thinkin’?” I asked dryly.
“Cut a deal with the landlord, fix up Raven’s place for you and her, bring that shit up to code, fix up the other three units up there, pay the dude to keep his fuckin’ mouth shut and have a place for brothers to crash that’s not at the fuckin’ club. Off the radar of LEOs.”
“Not bad, not bad.” I nodded along, picturing things.
“Could definitely be some help if we’re going to start a war,” he said, and I raised an eyebrow.
“You really think this is going to be some kind of war?” I asked.
“A bunch of tweaker freaks?” Fen asked. “Shit no, it’s going to be a slaughter, but no telling how ugly it’s going to get. You know what I mean?”
I nodded. “That I do, bro. That I do.”
We liked to do things quiet like, as much as possible. Mass murder in one fell swoop wasn’t something you could pull off easily, but by the same token, doing shit quietly and in such a way that you kept your ass from getting caught? That left room for retaliatory maneuvers on their part. If they could fuckin’ even get it together to pull that shit off.
Dealing with a bunch of fuckin’ tweakers could make that complicated.
“Think while you shovel, dude. We got other shit to do.”
“Right, sorry.” I went through the rest of the day of chorin’ doing a whole lot of thinking.
“Hey!” Raven greeted me like she was startled to see me in her bar. I smiled and slipped up onto the same barstool, at least I think it was the same one, as the night we’d met. There was a whole lot about that night that was hazy, and a whole lot more that I wished I could forget, but watching her perfectly toned ass as she walked the length of her bar to serve other customers? Nope, I wanted that memory burned into my brain for-fucking-ever.
“Hey, baby,” I greeted her. “Gimme whatever’s on tap that’s good.”
She smiled and bit her bottom lip and pulled me a beer from the multitude of taps, bringing it over.
I slid a twenty at her and winked. She frowned and pushed it back and said, “Fuck that, no! On the house.” She leaned way over the bar, holding herself up on her arms and leaning forward to present her lips for a kiss. I kissed my girl to a rowdy compliment of cheers from a bunch of the asshole grizzled fuckin’ longshoremen littering up the joint.
A few shouted lewd suggestions later, but they settled down and smiling happily after rolling her eyes, Raven lowered herself back to the floor on the other side of the bar from me.
“What brings you in and so early at that?” she asked.
“Oh, just thought I’d swing by before church,” I declared, and she nodded.
“Meeting up about that thing with Tic?” she asked, and I didn’t say anything, I wasn’t supposed to, but she was turning into a keen ol’ lady and she knew how the street worked, so I just nodded.
“Be careful,” she cautioned and gave me a raised eyebrow in warning that I’d better watch my ass. I smiled and sipped my beer.
“As a virgin on her wedding night,” I declared, and she laughed.
“Be right back.” She wandered up the bar to a beckoning customer.
I loved it when she was “on” and her insecurities weren’t raging. It was like she stepped into this role, and it was hot. Likewise, though, I loved it when she was vulnerable with me. I may not always know what to do in the face of her vulnerability or insecurities, but goddamn did it make me feel like a man, like the only man for her, when I got it right.
She came back this way and wiping down the bar asked me, “To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”
“Oh, now see, that just tells me that I don’t come and see my lady where she works nearly enough.”
“You’ve had some good reasons,” she said, letting me off easy.
“Not anymore I don’t,” I told her. “So, how’s about I walk you home tonight?” I asked.
“Staying over?” she asked, and her expression was hopeful.
“I’d stay with you forever if I could,” I said. “How would you feel about me maybe making that happen?”
She cocked her head curiously and said, “I’m intrigued.”
“Talk about it more tonight?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” she said.
I watched her work for a while before I had to git to make it to church on time. As I sat there, I realized, I couldn’t wait to take her on some adventures on the bike. Just her and me… and I wasn’t talking to Black Diamond Bakery or anything as pedestrian as that. I wanted to take my earthy fire maiden witch girl places like the lavender fields in the summertime, and out to the beaches on the coast. I wanted to get her out of the city and make love to her under the stars high in the mountains.
I wanted to go places with her, show her things that she’d probably only dreamed of. Introduce her to things and places, people like us – free spirited and the like.
I wanted to grow old with her, watch her hair turn white, give her a house with a garden for her to tend like she’d told me she wanted in her twilight years, where she could make things and sell things at a little roadside stand.
I got up, left the twenty pinned under my empty glass on her bar, and she waved at me from where she was taking a food order and blew me a kiss. I caught it with a wink and tucked it inside my jacket and cut near my heart and left.
The ride to the club was short, but with sufficient enough wind to carry most of my troubled emotions away. The little anxieties of just how I was going to manage to pull a bunch of shit off. I felt like I had a weight on my shoulders balancing more than a few things like a house of cards, but then Mav met my gaze off the back porch and gave a nod and the rest of those little worries and penny ante shit just fell away.
I didn’t have to do shit on my own. I wasn’t locked up anymore. I was free, and I had the love of a good woman and my club to help me. I needed to remember that. I needed to let some of that shit go.
I went up the back step and Mav blew out a fragrant cloud of green smoke and held out the spliff to me. I took it and filled my lungs, holding it and nodded, handing it back.
“You good?” he asked, and I nodded, holding it some more. Finally, I blew it out in an explosive exhale, my tight shoulders starting to relax some.
“I’m good, man.”
“How’s Raven?” he asked, and I nodded.
“She’s good, too.”
“Fen talk to you?” he asked.
“He did.”
“Thoughts?”
“I’m on board, just tell me what you need.”
“Landlord’s name and number to start with,” he said.
I nodded. “I got you,” I declared.
“Good deal.”
I went in the back door and into the chapel which smelled strongly of disinfecting cleaners and under that, still the coppery tang of Tic’s blood. At least to me. Maybe it was my imagination, but there was really no telling.
I went around the table and took my place.
“Dude, Mace, you give up your phone?” Sauley asked from the doorway.
“Oh, shit. I’m losing my mind,” I declared and pulled it from my pocket and tossed it across the table to him. He caught it one-handed.
“No big deal this time,” Mav said, edging in around Sauley and going to the head of the table. “Nothing’s started, yet.”
“Thanks, man. Good looking out,” I called to Sauley, and he nodded and went around collecting the other brother’s phones.
When everyone had arrived, Mav shut the door to the chapel, and called shit to order.
“So, this is what happened…” Glassjaw filled us all in.
Seems that a local gang of white supremacist tweaker fucks were getting some big ideas about moving out of Des Moines and into Rat City just sort of skipping Normandy Park all together in their march north. Tic was out back when a few of them slow rolled it on by, talking shit and one of them jumped out the back of their fuckin’ pickup, opened up a knife, and went to gut our boy, stabbing low and going for his junk. Tic’s version of events was he twisted and raised a leg and the dude got him in the hip. I think that metal cage he wore to get off or whatever the hell it did for him might have had something to do with deflecting the blow, but fuck if I was going to say any of that shit out loud.
Tic-Tac’s extra circulars were Tic-Tac’s business and nobody else’s.
At any rate, these fuckin’ tweakers had done fucked up by pulling such a ballsy move. It wasn’t going to end pretty for them, but we had to play our cards right. Doing something big and flamboyant wasn’t our way. That’s how the cops got involved and not to put too fine a point on it – fuck the police.
“I know we want some heads on some fuckin’ pikes, gentlemen,” Maverick said. “Nobody wants that shit more than me, but like I always keep telling you – order of operations, boys. Order of operations.”
“How we playing this, then?” Dump Truck asked. “Gonna let ‘em think they scored a blow? Let ‘em think we’re scared?” He grinned, and it was fairly savage, but it didn’t have shit on the smile plastered on Fenris’ face. Fen looked like he was a kid in a fuckin’ candy store.
“You’ve got the right of it,” Maverick declared. “And don’t you worry, Fen. I’ll be letting you off your leash, eventually.”
“Reconnaissance then?” Cipher asked.
“You got a toe in that world based on how you came up,” Maverick said and there wasn’t any reproach to his tone, just a matter of fact.
“Unfortunately,” Cipher said nodding, and he sucked his teeth distastefully. “I’ll put out some feelers.”
“I know you and your bro ain’t close and I hate for you to put yourself out,” Maverick said, and he sounded sincere, but Cipher stopped him with a raised hand.
“I appreciate it, Mav, but if ever there was a time to put myself out, this would be it. I mean, fuck…”
Mav nodded.
“Glad we’re on the same page, brother,” Glassjaw murmured. Cipher nodded.
“Opportunistic scraps?” Squatch asked.
“Have at,” Mav said. “We don’t have any control over that shit but if it comes up, you fuckers better make it fucking count.”
There was a ring of chuckles sweeping around the table.
“So, holding pattern,” Nine said and didn’t sound one hundred percent happy. That made all of us, but it was what it was.
“Order of operations,” Mav declared.
“Don’t you worry,” Glassjaw said. “There’s enough of these fuckwits to go around. Everybody’s going to get a piece.”
Nine nodded, and I smiled. I wanted my pound of flesh and pint of blood just as much as anyone else around this table.
“What other business have we got?” Major asked.
“Why, you got someplace else to be?” Glass asked with raised eyebrows.
“I ain’t saying that,” Major said. “I just want to know what’s up – damn.”
“No, you’re right, there’s other shit in the works. An opportunity’s come up, but it might stretch some of our resources,” Mav declared.
“Oh, yeah? What you got?” Derry asked, curious.
“We’ve had two major medical emergencies inside the last quarter or so,” Maverick said. “Lucky for us, both times, Raven – Mace’s new woman – was there.”
“What you thinking?” Cipher asked, brow crushing down.
“He’s thinking she’s taken care of us in our time of need, maybe it’s time we take care of her back a little,” Glass said.
“What’d you have in mind?” Dump Truck asked, leaning back in his seat.
“Most of you have seen her place,” Mav said.
“Fuckin’ shithole,” Fenris declared.
I nodded. “It is that,” I agreed.
“Now, we still have to get in contact with her landlord or whatever,” Maverick started, and Fen snorted.
“Slumlord is more like it.”
“All that aside,” Glass said firmly and shot the big man a look. Fen grinned a twinkle of mischief in his bright blue eyes. I grinned and hung my head to hide it some.
“I’m thinkin’ we fix up her place for her and Mace – it’s nice and close to the club, and then we fix up the other three units up there to rent out as a crash pad. It’s within walking distance of the club and they’re not bad little units all things considered.”
“Use a shell corp to rent ‘em out, make everything on the up and up.” Cipher nodded, and I could tell he was a million miles away running the numbers through his brain like grains of sand through a normal guy’s fingers.
“Not bad, not bad.” Dump Truck nodded. “All but invisible from law enforcement, those other three units. Like hiding in plain sight.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Mav said, leaning back in his chair.
We sat in silence for a while letting the idea soak in for all the other brothers. Nods started appearing and Mav asked, “Shall we put it to a vote then?”
“I second,” I declared.
It was unanimous. Dudes were willing to put in the time and effort, might even get some skilled labor in from some of the surrounding chapters. I mean, it would benefit them too.
There was some other random loose shit to cover, but that was essentially the bulk of the fucking meeting.
By the time we were out, it was still some hours yet before Raven would be free, but I bounced anyway, preferring to spend my time at the end of her bar than with the rest of the boys hashing over the same ol’ shit. Raven was much more interesting than bitching about a bunch of tweakers.
About the only thing I gave a fuck about right now was how Tic was doing and the answer to that was resting comfortably at Dahlia’s in a drugged-out stupor for his pain, healing up as fast as his body could repair itself.
When I swept back into the bar, Raven’s smile said it all. I couldn’t wait to talk to her about what the club wanted to do. No more secrets, nothing behind her back. I wanted to do this one right.
“Welcome back, lover,” she said with a kiss and a wink before she went to pull me a beer.
“It’s good to be back, baby. You have no idea.”
“I have a few hours yet, you good to wait?” she asked.
“Sure am, you think you got a minute for me?” I asked.
She looked around.
“It’s pretty dead, now. Everyone’s got work tomorrow. Let me come around.”
She came around the bar and hopped up on the stool next to mine.
“Everything okay? How’s Tic?” she asked. I absently put my hand on her knee and massaged up and down her thigh.
“Tic’s good. I wanted to talk about you and me,” I said.
“Oh? What’s up.” She leaned back subconsciously, and I grinned.
“The club wants to say thank you, for everything you’ve done,” I said carefully. “We’d like your landlord’s name and number to see if he would be amenable to us fixing up your place. Professionally. Not any half-assed janked repairs, or anything. A bunch of us know what we’re doing. We want to see if he’d let us fix up your place
and the other three apartments and let us rent ‘em out from him. Raise his property value a bunch, give him a fair rate, all of that.”
“Really?” she asked, bewildered.
“Only catch is, he doesn’t raise your rent any. You get a lifetime lease if you want it.”
She looked thoughtful and shrugged. “What’s the worse he can do? Say no?” she asked.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I agreed.
“Well, I guess he could kick my ass out,” she said and smiled.
“If he did, I would have us in a better place in nothing flat,” I vowed.
“Can I think about it?” she asked.
“Sure can.” I nodded.
She smiled then and said, “Thank you.”
“For?” I asked.
“Telling me. Talking to me and not trying to go behind my back.”
“I learn from my mistakes, baby,” I said and leaned forward, kissing her cheek.
She blushed prettily and smiled at me.
“I love you,” she said, and I grinned.
“I love you too.”
“What about that other thing?” she asked, her stormy steely blue eyes clouding over with worry.
“That I can’t talk about, just know that it’s being handled.”
She nodded carefully. “You’ll be careful?” she asked.
“With my current status as a watched man, I’ll more than likely be out of it for this round until the heat is off of me.” I scowled.
Her expression softened. “I can’t say that’s too upsetting for me,” she said honestly, and I nodded.
“I figured you wouldn’t have much to complain about there,” I said wryly.
“Can we go somewhere?” she asked me suddenly after a silence.
“Just the two of us, for a day or two? No club, no bar, just you and me?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
I grinned.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
30
Raven…
“Now please, don’t anyone get stabbed, or shot, or beat up, or otherwise need any medical attention for like the next three days!” I called to the track of masculine laughter around my apartment.
