Chapter 3
1919 Words
Chapter Three
TYSON
Jaxon was the President of our chapter. He got the position younger than most. He was tough and capable, but most importantly, he was reliable and not impulsive. The kind of people clubs attracted weren’t always suited to leadership. The lifestyle, the partying, the dark underbelly… having someone stable was a good thing. When it’s boring it means that business is good and everything is humming as it should.
Rafe was our Vice President. The man was impulsive. Whereas Jaxon was like the magma that flows beneath the ground, hot but steady, nigh eternal, Rafe was a forest fire raging uncontrollably. He was cocky and hot-headed, but he was the kind of man an MC needed as VP, because things inevitably got messy, and when they did you needed someone capable of taking out the opposition.
Jaxon cleared his throat and everybody fell silent. He was at the head of the table, then on either side of him were Rafe and myself. Beside me was our newest member, Malachai. He was former military, would make a good enforcer. He was a man of fewer words than most, but when it came time to ride or die, I’d be damn fine with him riding next to me.
Opposite him sat Doc, our club treasurer and pulled double duty as a wise man, our chaplain. The man could stitch you up and talk you down from the ledge at the same time. Another indispensable member of an MC. You needed some calmness, some spirituality to make a bunch of tough, mean bastards work together successfully.
“So, at Tyson’s request,” Jaxon said, gesturing at me. “We’ve moved church up to tonight. As it stands, not all of us are present — which is against our chapter’s policy — but I’ll let it slide this time since, from what Tyson has told me, it is an urgent matter.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, nodding at Prez. “But I also know there’s club business. Now Az and Gray ain’t gonna show tonight but they always vote with Doc. So, I figure we can do club business first and if need be take a vote.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “It’s only right.”
“Fair enough,” Jaxon said. “Onto business. The Pinto cartel is in town.”
“No s**t,” Doc murmured. “That’s trouble.”
“Ever heard of Antonio Pinto?”
We all looked to Doc, the oldest and most experienced of us. “No,” he said. “But if he’s a Pinto, it means he’s trouble. That cartel, that family, they’re all fireworks all the time. Ain’t nothing subtle or quiet about them. If there here in our town, that means there’s trouble brewing. That means things could get messy. Hell, that means things will get messy. I don’t think we want to get involved, to be completely honest.”
“f*****g pieces of s**t,” Rafe spat. “Not even giving us a courtesy call to let us know they’re gonna be operating in our back yard.”
“Relax,” Jaxon, said, putting out a hand and gesturing to simmer down. “I did get a call. Can’t say I liked the attitude much, but at the very least they remembered the code.”
“Yeah?” Rafe asked. “And?”
“They just let me know that they’re planning on passing through.”
“Bullshit!” Rafe was steaming. “They’re moving weight through here, no doubt about it. We should get in on this. Tax them. They want to do business, they gotta do it through us. There’s a code.”
We all sat silently for a moment, thinking about it. Then Jaxon sucked in a deep breath. “I got the impression they’d be amenable to a deal. After all, we can provide guarantees. We have fingers in a lot of pies here.”
“Nuh-uh,” Doc said, shaking his head. “We already do good business. We don’t need to get involved with this s**t. I thought we were moving away from that?”
“We’d just provide intel and escorts,” Rafe said. “It’s not like we’ll actually touch the stuff ourselves.”
“You couldn’t pay me enough to f**k with the cartel,” Doc said. “They don’t mess around. And I don’t trust the Pinto’s one bit.”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid,” Rafe said.
“How’d you think I got to be this old?” Doc asked. “I don’t take risks I don’t have to. We’re doing good business and the money is flowing at the moment. Why do we need to get involved with this s**t? You can bet if they’re moving weight, then the feds are on em.”
“Alright, alright,” Jaxon said. “Let’s take it a notch or two down. Malachai, you heard about them when you were serving?”
“Bits and pieces,” he said. “Bad news all around.”
“Tyson?”
“f**k man, I ain’t interested. We can parlay, do the niceties, but I don’t want to get into bed with them. I’m liking how things have been lately. All that bullshit of the past is done with now. Hell, I want to go clean.”
“Don’t think we need to vote then,” Jaxon said, looking at Rafe. “Your vote, however, is noted.”
Rafe looked around at all of us before nodding. “Look, I’m fine either way,” he said. “Just I see no sense in pissing away easy money. But if you all don’t want this, then I ride with you. That’s how it is in the Infidels. We ride together, always.”
“Right on, brother,” Jaxon said. “We can assume Az and Gray will vote with Doc, as per usual. They look up to you a great deal, old man.”
“I spin a good yarn,” Doc said with a chuckle. “Them two kids hang on my every word.”
“Means they ain’t cut out for leadership, ever.”
“Not everybody is, boss. Not everybody is.”
The table fell silent, and they all looked to me after a moment. I cleared my throat. “Sasha’s back in town… and she’s in trouble.”
“You sure know how to pick em, man. What she need, money?”
“No,” I said. “Someone kidnapped her three year old daughter and is holding her for ransom. Cops are telling her not to pay.”
The table collectively gasped. Cuss words were thrown around. “What kind of a limp d**k motherfucker kidnaps a kid?” Rafe said, fire in his eyes.
“The worst kind,” Malachai said. “Ain’t nothing more heinous than a man who hurts children.”
“Name’s Lester Martins,” I said. “Anybody heard of him?”
Everybody shook their heads, and then Jaxon said, “If Doc don’t know him, he’s small time.”
“Well he’s in town, and my gut is telling me that if the cartel is, too, it can’t be a coincidence. She says the kids father was into this guy for a lot of money, that’s why Martins took the kid. Old debts.”
“Sins of the father,” Doc said with a sigh.
“We’ll keep an eye out,” Jaxon said. “Everybody in here, Tyson’s our brother, and we ride with him. Feel out your contacts, put your ear to the ground. Let’s see if we can find this sick fuck.”
“And liberate him of his life,” Rafe added.
“Thank you, brothers,” I said, hand over my heart. “It means a lot to me.”
After a moment had passed, Doc said, “I’m surprised you’re willing to help her after what she did to you.”
I smirked. “What can I say? I’m loyal to the bone.”
“Careful she doesn’t drag you into a pit you can’t climb out of.”
“I can climb out of anything.”
He chuckled. “She the one that got away, then?”
“Nah,” I said quickly. “Just want to make sure she gets her kid back.”
“Okay, okay,” Doc said, nodding knowingly to himself the way he did sometimes.
“Alright then,” Jaxon said. “That does it for tonight. It’s late and my old lady’s not gonna like me getting home this late. She’s been waiting for me, no doubt.”
“f**k no,” Rafe said. “Mr. Hitachi got to her first, so she doesn’t need your sad excuse for a d**k anymore.”
The table erupted into laugher, Prez included, and he gave Rafe the middle finger.
I left the room and went outside to find Sasha. She wasn’t in the clubhouse, so I guessed she was still outdoors. I didn’t exactly have good news to tell her, but hell, we were on it, and that meant that sooner or later we were gonna find this bastard, and get Selah back.
“The boys don’t know anything,” I said, approaching her outside. She was still standing by my bike. “But we’re gonna put our feelers out. We’ll know something probably by lunch tomorrow.”
“I can’t wait that long,” she said, frustrated. “Damn it, he’s got my daughter, Tyson.”
“Look, there’s some things going on that might be a coincidence, might not be.”
“Yeah? What?”
“A big time cartel is in town and from what we guess they’re fixing to move weight. That means cops are gonna be drawn here, feds. There’s no doubt about that.”
“f**k,” she said. “Is Lester More connected?”
I shrugged. “No idea. But it’s a mighty large coincidence.”
“Oh my God,” she said, her hand on her forehead. “This is turning into even more of a nightmare. I… I think I need to call Detective Bradley.”
“That the lead cop on your case?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Just hold off on that, okay? He’s not federal, Steelbarrow is not even his jurisdiction. Let’s see what me and the rest of the Infidels can find out, okay?”
She bit her lip. She looked so vulnerable, so scared. Her hands were trembling. I had the sudden urge to hold her hands in mine, to draw her in, to hold her and comfort her. To smell her hair the way I used to…
But then I remembered the way she left. I remembered why she left. Those impulses drained way like rainwater into the gutter.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll hold off for now. But you and your boys better come up with something.”
“We will,” I assured her. “Nothing going on in Steelbarrow that we don’t know about.”
“Well you didn’t know this asshole Lester was here.”
“Sure, he’s small time,” I said. “Had no reason to go looking.”
She shook her head, and then looked up at the sky. The stars glittered, but I knew she’d find no peace there, no solace.
“You got a place to stay, Sasha?”
“No,” she said. “Maybe just a motel or something.”
“You got a particular place in mind?”
“No. And I don’t just want to sit in a room.”
“Then what do you want to do?”
“I want to look for my daughter.”
“Then let’s look,” I said. I patted my bike. “Hop on. Let’s ride the streets.”
She sighed, and ran her hands through her hair. “What are the chances?”
“Your only other option is to pound pavement.” I looked down at her feet. “Bet they’re sore already. You look like you haven’t slept for a week.”
“I feel like it.” She turned around on the spot, hands on her hips, looking down the empty road leading away from The Road House. “Fine, let’s ride around. Who knows, maybe we’ll spot her.”
“Maybe.”
We rode for a couple of hours. She wasn’t holding on to me, not like old times, but she was comfortable still on the back of a bike. Not scared, not jittery, kept her weight even which helped me out.
We looked, rode up and down dark alleys, inspected people we passed, but we saw nothing, found nothing.
It wasn’t long until the sun came up. Sasha wanted to keep going. She was determined. I couldn’t blame her. There’s that famed strength of a mother. She would lift a damn car to save her daughter, I could see that.
“You gotta eat,” I said after a moment. “And get some water in you.”
“If you’re hungry just say so.”
I laughed. “Alright, Sasha. I’m hungry.”
“Me too.”
“Come on,” I said. “I know a place.”
“If you know it, I know it, Tyson, remember?”
“How do you know it ain’t a new place?”
She scoffed. “Nothing new comes to Steelbarrow.”
- Writer
