Chapter 1-2
1331 Words
“s**t,” Kinard, the club medic, muttered, shaking his head. “Where from?”
“One of the ‘stans. I don’t remember which one.”
“You recall his name?”
Watt shook his head. “He’s relatively new to the list, so no. If he was one we’ve been watching for a while I could tell you.”
They discussed options for a while, then settled on keeping a guard on the packages and keeping them on lock down for the time being, while they reached out to see how this should be handled. It wasn’t entirely out of protocol, the usually locked down shipments for a period of time, and guarded them, but given who they had, they decided to double the guard, just to be safe, while they waited.
Tuck called an end to the meeting, Gizmo unlocked the door and the brothers started to trickle out. Sadist turned to Tuck.
“Why wasn’t Ruger here?” He watched the president with narrowed eyes. His buddy had been in the room a couple doors down and Sadist wanted to know why he’d been deliberately left out of the loop.
Tuck pulled out he silver dollar he kept in the small front pocket on his kutte and flipped it over the backs of his fingers as he watched Sadist a moment. “I considered calling him in. But he’s still recovering from being stabbed. I’ll give him a few more days to take it easy, before I give him something else to worry about.”
“It wasn’t because you suspect him of anything or that you don’t trust him?” Those were the only reasons Sadist had been able to come up with not to include Ruger, especially when they’d taken the time to wake Sadist.
“Neither of those. I’m getting used to Krissi trying to help, but I’m not ready to let her in on all our secrets. Not yet. After a year I trust her, mostly. But it’s a lot and it’s all our lives on the line if we trust the wrong person.”
allSadist nodded slowly. He felt the same way. He liked Krissi. She’d sided with the Souls in every issue that had come up. Even against her father. That didn’t mean he was ready to let her in on every detail of the club’s business. She already knew much, but some part of him, probably a paranoid part, hesitated to tell her everything when she had nothing at risk. Well, other than her man. A small smile curved his lips as he remembered the sass she’d given him and Ruger, when Sadist had flirted with her early on. She knew how to handle a bunch of loud, obnoxious, and often crude bikers, he had to give her that. She hadn’t flinched away when their business had gotten her hurt. Nor had she gone running to daddy. That earned her points. The way she’d taken it when Ruger had been hurt? That helped too. She hadn’t freaked out and instead went back to tending bar, keeping up appearances while Sadist and Tuck had made sure her man was taken care of.
Satisfied with Tuck’s answer, Sadist stood.
“If that’s all, I’m going back to bed.” He waited for some kind of response from the president and when Tuck gave him a slow, absent nod, he headed for the door. Sadist stopped at the base of the stairs, looked over toward the bar and contemplated a drink before going back to bed.
No need.
He took the stairs two at a time, let himself into his room and fell back across the bed. It took him longer to fall asleep this time but not by much.
Sadist pulled his bike into the narrow alley of his shop, eased it up against the building where it wouldn’t get hit or be in the way, and killed the engine. After being woken in the middle of the night, he’d not slept well, and he’d had a rough time getting started this morning. He shook his head, climbed off, and hung his helmet on the handlebars before letting himself in the rear door.
“Morning, boss.” Steph, his receptionist, greeted him as he stepped in the door. He growled and headed for the break room. In the small kitchen they used as a breakroom he shrugged off his kutte and hung it on the hook reserved for it, opened the fridge and grabbed an AMP without bothering to look at the flavor. After popping the top, he tipped it back and took a long drink then stood still for several seconds while he waited for the sugar and caffeine to hit his system. Taking the can with him, he went to the front desk.
“What do we have today?”
“You’ve got an appointment this afternoon for a back piece, but you’re open until three. However, I’ve had three calls about piercings in the fifteen minutes since I got in, so who knows if anyone will show up.”
“All right, what’s the back piece? Someone I know or a newbie?”
Steph checked the schedule and shot Sadist a narrow-eyed look. “It says Lurch. Is this a joke?”
“No, Lurch is one of my brothers. I know what he wants.” Steph had only been around for a couple weeks, and while she was doing a great job, she’d not met many of the Demented Souls yet.
Sadist took another long pull from his Amp. “Let me know if anyone comes in. I’m going to draw something up for Lurch.”
“Will do, boss.” She turned back to the counter where she had a deck of cards dealt into a game of solitaire.
Sadist left her and took his sketch pad into the break room. He sat at the table and worked on an idea he’d been putting together in his head since talking to Lurch. His brother wanted an eagle holding the club colors in his claws and Sadist was going to do his best to give him something amazing. He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there when Steph’s voice pulled him out of his head.
Sadist blinked then looked up. “Yes?”
“Your appointment is here.”
“Lurch?” s**t, was it that late already? He glanced at the clock on the wall and found it was indeed.
Shit, was it that late already?“That’s what he says.”
“Send him on back.”
“Will do.” She disappeared into the front of the shop and after a moment the slender man he’d last seen around the meeting table twelve hours earlier appeared.
“Hey, how you doing?” Lurch asked.
“Good.” Sadist stood and gave the man a one-armed-hug. “I’m glad you finally made it in to let me work on you. Come take a look at this.” He showed Lurch what he’d drawn up, an eagle mid-flight, with a patch that matched the one on their kuttes clutched in his claws.
“Wow. That looks great. Better than I imagined.” Lurch looked up from the sketch pad. “You think you can put that on my back?”
“If I can draw it here, I can put it there.” He tapped the sketchbook with one hand, then pointed to Lurch. “Come, on, let’s get started.” Sadist took Lurch and the sketch into the other room for the first of several sessions. “Now you get to see where I got my name.”
“I’ve seen enough of your work to understand it.”
“Yeah, but you haven’t seen me work.”
Lurch blinked and took off his kutte, then pulled the white t-shirt he wore under it off over his head.
“That’s about to change.”
- Writer
