Duke (2 page)

Duke saw Aaron’s mouth twitch. Violet happened to be an actual Sprite, so the nickname fit. She’d had a tough start in life and the men were very protective of her. If the move to Chattanooga looked like it’d go smooth, she’d be making the change with them because it would do her good to get away from bad memories in Atlanta.

Duke looked around the clubhouse as he led the group in, once again seeing it as a stranger might. It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust after the bright sunlight, but when they did, the paneled walls, hardwood floor, and multiple sofas came into focus. They’d bought a nice old wooden bar from a downtown restaurant before it was demolished, and it looked great. However, he walked them to one of the larger tables, where some Chattanooga maps were already spread out. The men sitting at the bar joined them, and Duke made introductions.

“
This is Bud, our president. Next to him are Tiny, Dozer, and Bash. Dawg and Brain are headed in. I wanted to keep our numbers low out of respect, but the six of us, not counting Bud, will be your main contacts and I felt it important you meet us all. For the purposes of the meeting, it’ll be mostly me, Bash, and Brain talking.”

The door opened and two waitresses walked in, their arms loaded down with food. Duke explained, “I asked Sprite to send over some wings and other munchies. We have beer on draft at the bar, as well as sodas.”

The waitresses asked everyone what they wanted to drink, and brought it to them as Duke got everyone seated around the table and spread the maps so the men from Chattanooga could see.

He lifted the overlay from another table and settled it over the largest map as he said, “We’ve already been in some negotiations and talks, and the blackened out areas are where we’ve agreed to stay away. That’s all your tourist areas except a portion of MLK, and most of the UTC and Erlanger property.”

He took a drink and ate a wing as he gave the men a chance to take in the dark areas. “The red hashed areas are your highest crime sections, the purple hashes are where most of your murders have happened. A lot of intersection there.”

Sheriff Beauregard pointed to one of the green sections. “I take it green represents property you’re considering?”

“
Got it in one.”

Chief Keller asked, “We here as consultants, or are you asking permission?”

Aaron opened his mouth but Duke held his hand up as he considered the question. “A little of both, but this is mostly about respect. We intend to come to Chattanooga, and we’ve done our homework, but it’s your city and if any of you have an opinion, we’d be happy to hear your reasons.”

“
The business you run here, you going to repeat that in our town?”

“
Right now we’re lookin’ at the bike shop and a bar across from wherever our compound ends up. Possibly another bar on the outskirts of the Hamilton Place area, but we’ve agreed to stay away from The Billiard Club, so that’s still up in the air.”

“
Not talkin’ bout your legal ventures,” said Sheriff Beauregard, his already rough voice even more of a growl.

Duke had been standing, leaning over the table, and at this, he pulled out a chair and sat. “Whatever neighborhood we move into, we’ll take care of it. We don’t ask for protection money, but we do ask for respect. There are three pawn shops on our street here in Atlanta, and the owners of all three are careful to turn down hot merchandise. Some things occasionally filter in, but they make an honest effort to steer clear of it. None of them have been broken into since a few months after we moved in. Unlike a lot of MC’s, we don’t care what color you are. This means the automatic hatred between the MC’s and the gangs doesn’t have to happen. Does in some cities, not in others. We’ll do our best to make friends as we move in, but we’re gonna make some people unhappy when we claim territory, no doubt about it, and it might get worse afore it gets better. Won’t lie.”

“
I take this to mean you’re gonna peddle women in our town, too.”

The door opened and two more men came in, and Duke smiled inwardly as the Chattanooga group looked Brain over with surprise. He didn’t look much like a biker — tall, thin, and lanky. He was their hacker extraordinaire, but he also threw a helluva punch.

“
Sorry it took so long. I’m Brain and this is Dawg.” He pulled a chair out, flipped it around, and sat beside Duke facing the chair’s back. He leaned forward, pointed to the map, and started talking. “From a purely retail point of view, the Third Street / Orchard Knob area plays best.” He moved his hand. “Couple properties on twenty-third look promising, but there’s a wooded lot on Bailey I really like, though it would throw a wrench in logistics when it came to the bar and bike shop because they’d be a few blocks away. Good retail location could more than make up the security expense, though.”

“
You’re sharing an awful lot.” Chief Keller’s face was closed off. Not pissed, not as cold as he’d been earlier, but still rather unhappy.

Duke let Brain talk. “No reason not to. Don’t wanna appear we’re invadin’ your city. Our bikes are loud, and we like to take in the needs of the neighborhood for the noise as well as our partying. Our bar will draw lots of people, and when we throw a party at the compound, same thing. We offer rides for those who drink too much at our parties, and we keep drugs out of our territory and especially our places of business. We try to be good citizens, but you gotta know we’re gonna be loud, and up at all hours of the night. One house with a family, we’ll help fund their relocation if it doesn’t work. Ten houses with families, maybe we shouldn’t move there.”

The Fort Oglethorpe chief had been mostly silent, and now he sounded skeptical. “You’d worry about disturbing families?”

Bud spoke up at this. “Family’s everything. Whether it’s the brotherhood of our MC family, or my kids and old lady, or your wife and kids. Family is
everything
. We find we’re causing problems for one in our neighborhood, we’ll work with the head of household to fix it. If that means us stepping up to help them relocate, we will. If it means soundproofing the kids’ rooms because the single mom likes the protection we offer by being right next door, we’ll help make it happen.”

Aaron wasn’t sure they were heading in the right direction, so he interjected. “The compound has a wooded area, and there’ll be a paintball battle tonight. Three teams. Neighborhood and MC kids on one team, MC and law enforcement on another, and a team of kick-ass women on the third. Tonight it’s kids against the men, and the winning team takes on the women.” He looked at the three men he’d brought down. “I’d like to see the three of you team up with these guys, but you gotta understand, a month ago the women won, so ya’ll need to head out back and get to know each other, the lay of the land, and talk strategy. This is serious business.”

“
Who are the women?”

Bud sat back with a grin. “My old lady, her best friend, the woman who lives two houses down, a schoolteacher from the elementary down the street, and a few MC girlfriends. We got several teams of between eight and twelve, depending on who shows up. Sometimes we let the kids choose two teams, and they play to find out who the best team is, so that team can play us, but as of now it looks like we’ll just need one team for the kids.” He sighed. “One girl on the team, she’s trying to get together a girl posse to take on the boys. I like they’re learnin’ skills, but I worry for the rest of us.”

When Gen’s tears grew to the point she couldn’t see, she pulled her car over and called Frisco.

His voice was just what she needed to hear. Her big brother would always take care of her.

She stuttered as she tried to say his name, but he knew it was her.

 “
Gen, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

“
Can I come to your house?” She managed through her tears. God, her heart felt as if it were breaking. “Maybe stay in the apartment over the garage tonight?”

“
Where are you now?”

“
I just left my house but I didn’t make it very far. I pulled into the Northern Tool parking lot because I can’t
freaking
see. I hate crying.”

“
Isaac and Cassie are at the club. I’ll see if they can come to you, one of them can drive you here in your car, and the other can drive Isaac’s. Okay?”

“
I can drive. I just need a minute to get myself together.”

“
Okay, Gen. Just talk to me a few minutes before you go anywhere, then. Mom told me you might have a buyer for an entire block of property you have listed downtown, and they don’t have their own agent. That could mean big bucks, right?”

Gen smiled through her tears. God, she loved her big brother. “Yeah. I could get a twenty thousand dollar pay-day out of it, if I play my cards right.”

“
Any idea what they’re gonna do with it?”

“
No, but this isn’t another Volkswagen or anything. These guys are rough. Motorcycles and leather jackets, some have lots of facial hair. I could be wrong, but I don’t see them creating a lot of jobs on this property.”

“
Not sure I like the way that sounds, Gen. You want me to come with you the next time you show them property?”

“
Oh, no. They’re perfect gentlemen. I’m not in the least scared of them. If anything, I feel safer around them, like they’d never let anything hurt me. Since Isaac taught me to shoot and I got my carry license, you know I have it with me when I’m out. I met with two of them this morning, and they’re bringing some more people up from Atlanta tomorrow so they can all look at it. There’s another property just down the street they want to see, and they asked if I could arrange to show it to them, even though it isn’t mine. Guy introduced himself to me as Brain, but his signature and ID said his name is Thurston. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. He’s a bad-ass biker and his name is Thurston!”

Gen saw a car coming at her and recognized Isaac’s shiny black Shelby. “You had Cam call them while we talked, didn’t you.”

“
That mean they’ve arrived?”

“
It does. Thanks big brother, even if you
are
a pain, I know you’ll always have my back.”

Isaac opened her door and she said goodbye to Frisco, and let her brother’s massive, muscled, totally hot boyfriend draw her into a hug. She melted into his chest, let him hold her, but found strength in his arms and took a breath to say, “I’m gonna be okay, Isaac. Mike’s a butthole. I’ll be okay to follow you.”

Isaac chuckled. “Cassie’s all fired up about getting to drive my car. Let’s get you in the passenger side and I’ll play chauffeur. I stopped in the storeroom and grabbed the good stuff, so you can have rum and Coke until you pass out, if you want.”

Isaac kept the subject to lighter matters on the way home, and Gen walked in the door to her brother’s gourmet cooking.

Never one to do things the easy way, Frisco had two boyfriends and a girlfriend, and they all lived together. All three guys were bisexual, and Cassie was one lucky girl, as far as Gen could tell. She adored all of her brother’s partners, and loved spending time in their beautiful house. Before Frisco had came out to his family, he’d made them all believe Cam was renting the apartment over his garage. Now, Cameron lived in the house, as did the rest of them.

Frisco didn’t waste any time — the second she stepped into the kitchen her big brother demanded, “What’d he do?”

Gen froze and just stared at him. She wasn’t ready to talk about it.

Cam touched Frisco’s arm and said, “Give her some time. She’ll talk when she’s ready.” He stepped to her and drew her into a hug, and she once again considered how lucky Cassie was. Cam was a dancer, with the body of one. He moved like liquid sex, and his hugs made you feel as if at that moment, nothing in the world mattered except his desire to see you happy, safe, and protected.

Dinner stayed casual and easy, in part because Isaac made sure her rum and Coke never went empty.

It wasn’t until an hour or so after dinner, sitting in their living room relaxed and talking, that she broke down and told them what happened.

“
I was supposed to have a closing this afternoon, but everything fell apart at the last minute. I’m gonna be able to salvage it, but not tonight, so I headed home.” She looked at her brother, rolled her eyes. “Mike’s been at my place for months. I can’t move him in officially because mom will throw a hissy-fit, but his furniture’s in storage and his clothes are in the biggest guestroom closet. I make him keep his razor and deodorant and stuff put away, so mom won’t figure it out when she visits.” She rolled her eyes. “God, the woman snoops. I can hear her in my bathroom upstairs, looking through stuff. I
know
she’s looking for evidence he’s spent the night.”

Isaac put his arm around her and pulled her into his side. She snuggled in and looked around. Cassie was leaning into Frisco, and Cam was sprawled on the floor at Frisco’s feet. They looked so natural, comfortable.

“
Am I messing up your evening?”

Isaac’s arm pulled her a little tighter for a second, and he kissed the top of her head. “Not even a little. You’re an adult, if you want to live with someone you should be able to. Good to know it wasn’t just Frisco terrified of your mom, though.”

She grinned at her brother and then her face went sad again as she continued the story. “I wasn’t planning to be home for another two hours, because I was going to get some paperwork handled in the office and then head across the street for the closing, but with it falling through, I was tired and decided to go home, thinking I’d surprise him.” She took a stuttering breath, determined not to cry again. “Unfortunately, I surprised both him and the new rookie in his division — in my bed, with him doing her up the
ass
.” She discovered she was drunk enough now, she wasn’t sad, just pissed. “New sheets aren’t going to do it. I’m going to need a new mattress.”