Perfectly Bad: a bad boy romance (41 page)

In the far distance, like through a fog I heard the muffled ‘pop’s of the two more shots. Then Beanie came and put an arm around me. “It’s okay.” He told me, “You did good.”

He got me a wet cloth and a glass of water, but we both knew we couldn’t waste any time. We’d squared the manager and he swore there were no guests in the rooms, but we needed to be gone and fast.
 

I looked at the heaps of sticky mess on the brown carpet. “Doesn’t look like Butcher’s work, Beanie.”

“Don’t worry, Nikka, it will. You just get out of here.”

As I made for the door, he said, “Don’t take Butcher’s gun, Nikka. Leave it on the bed.”
 

I’d forgotten that it was in my hand.

Hurt

Jake leaned his Harley up outside Hell’s Kitchen Bar & Grill. He came into the clubroom in a hurry. Only Cox was there, and Rusty at the bar. Cox didn’t get up. Jake said, “Here it is, man, now come on and let’s make this right.”

Cox told Rusty to give Jake whatever he wanted. “I don’t want anything. I just want you to make the call, alright?”

Cox lifted the case. “Take a while to count, you know. We don’t use those machines like you guys do. We use a thumb, a forefinger and a pair of eyes. Get yourself a drink. Relax.”

Cox took the money from the case, put the ten piles on the bar, got a pad and a pencil from Rusty and started to count.

Jake shifted nervously, fidgeted and told Cox to hurry. Cox said, “Aw, man. Now I lost count,” and he started over. After that, Jake waited. He smoked, he took a couple of shots, had a beer. And he looked at his watch, many times.

When Cox drew a line under the column of numbers on his pad, Jake said, “Come on, man I’ve brought you what you wanted, okay? Now let’s get all of this stopped.”

Cox looked him in the eye, held his gaze there, said, slowly, “Jake, you had this cash all along. You could have stopped this any time that you wanted to, but you had to wait. Don’t ask me why, but you did.”

Cox took his time over a sip of bourbon. “So don’t be telling me now that you’re in such a hurry. If you were in such a hurry, you could have paid us in full on delivery.”

Then Cox put the top sheet from the pad into the case, then each of the freshly stacked piles and snapped the case shut. Then he took it out back.

He returned after a couple of minutes. “Now. Wait while I call Bogart.” Jake was twitching.

“It’s OK, I’ll do it right here, you can listen. Look, I’ll put it on speaker...” he dialed and set the phone to speaker. Set it on the bar between them. They listened to the
brrr
a few times until Bogart’s voice answered. Cox said,

“Hi, Bogart? I got you on speaker.”

“I know, I can tell. I hate the gurgling echo of that fucking thing.”

“Yeah, it sucks. So, Jake’s here,”

“Oh, hi, Jake. How’s it going? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s lovely, Bogart. Oh, all apart from the psycho maniac who’s killing all my friends and blowing up my damn property.”

“Ah, man, that must really suck. Still, how’s the settling of our account coming along?”

“I gave it to Cox. He’s got it all right here.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Jake, I was asking Cox. So, Cox; how’s the settling of our account coming along?”
 

“Yeah, Jake brought a briefcase with him. I counted what was inside it twice, and by my reckoning we’re right on the money. I’d say we’re set square here, bro.”

“Good to hear. Shame about the delay but I guess these things happen. Good to talk to you, Jake.”

And he hung up.

Cox said, “A drink while you wait?”

“Sure,” Jake said, “Maybe one of your girls would like to keep me amused, too.”

Cox looked at Jake hard, “I hope you won’t mind me asking you this but, are you a total fucking idiot? All of our girls have run and hid because of the situation that you put us in, and so now the only girl here is Angelica. I can ask her in to see you if you like, but my bet will be on you coming off a whole lot worse than her.”

“Just a bourbon, then.”

Melt

Bogart was still away when Cox got the call from Jake.

“Man, did Bogart do that to Butcher? That was some medieval shit going down there.”

“Should be the end of the problem for you then.”

“Took us some time to work out it was out there. None of the pieces are too big, you know what I’m saying?”

“Should be easy enough for you to dispose of then, Jake.”

“We could do with some help cleaning him off our parking lot out front before someone sees it, you know? Or before the buzzards get a scent.”

“Yeah. You made the problem, Jake, remember that. That mess out there? That’s the solution. If you don’t like it, see if you can put him back together and we’ll consider giving you your money back.”

“Oh,
maaan
.”

“You have a nice day, Jake.”

Tallyman

And so it was all done. Then came the reckonings.
 

When I wanted those moments together, that closeness, that escape over the edge and into the void for what could be the last time, Cox took me downstairs to the clubhouse barroom.

The bar was closed, and it was empty apart from the big table on the far side. There, Bogart and Hacker waited with Jurgen and Bent.
 

Cox sat by Bogart, with an empty seat beside him. He sat me at the empty end of the table. The two Norwegians were due to leave later that day, and everybody was still reeling from the last thirty-six hours.

Cox was shell-shocked by what had happened to Butcher. “I mean, it was the plan. Sick him on
Los Muertos
until they paid up. We knew that they’d try to fight it out and we thought they’d bring the fight here.”

“Would have done,” Hacker said, “if Butcher hadn’t been such a one man army.” His head shook in admiration. “Whatever you thought of him, he was a whole military machine. Hit them so hard they couldn’t get up. Hit them again before they’d time to regroup.”

“Right.” Said Cox, “And that
was
the plan. Butcher visits mayhem on
Los Muertos
until they can’t take it any more, then we visit mayhem on Butcher and leave him on
Los Muertos’
front yard.”

“So that they learned what we were prepared to do,” Hacker said, “how far we would be ready to go,”

Bogart must have had even more feeling about Butcher. Not only because the grim work had been his own task, but they went a long way back. They rode together for a long time and through hard days. He was quiet a while.

After a breath, Bogart said, “And now,” he lifted his gaze up from the table, “Now that we freed them from Butcher’s murderous assaults, now they are grateful to us.
Savage MC
are the peacemakers, the givers of justice. And they won’t cross us again.”

Jurgen said, “Honestly, Bogart, I maybe shouldn’t say this to you alright, but I like to call things the way that I see them.”

“Go on,”

“I’ve been very impressed by the way that
Savage MC
has handled all of this.” Jurgen looked around the table. This conversation shouldn’t have been happening with me there, none of it, but it had just started up.
 

The events of the last couple of days had shaken everyone pretty hard, and there was a real need to talk. Still, I was surprised nobody moved to take the discussion into the council room, or to ask me to leave that table.

Jurgen said, “The thing with using Butcher, I mean that’s grim and very solemn work, but I got to say that you made a good call. The guy had your money all along, and he was fucking with you, and Butcher had been a problem for you, too. But then, Bogart, after you left Butcher all in pieces, you’re a hero for
Los Muertos
. The
Savage MC
is their savior and at the same time they’re going to stay respectful. That was some maneuver.”

“Needs must, brother, when the Devil drives.”

“Snori and Trols, they were always a problem to control. Even for us they took everything too far.” I felt Cox’s eyes on me then and my breath stuck in my throat.

Hacker said, “That’s saying something, Jurgen.”

“Ja. Well, the reason we brought them on this run was that we were too afraid what they might do back home without us watching over them.” He took a slug of bourbon, shook his head, “We were always clearing up a mess after them.”

Bent said, “What we’re saying is that you guys kind of solved a problem for us,” he looked across at me, “I mean
Butcher
solved a problem, right?” Everyone was looking at me then. Jurgen and Bent, Bogart and Hacker. Cox’s eyes were still hard on mine. I wondered where Beanie was.

That’s when I realized that there could be a reason that I was at the table. Angelica was at the door, showing Beanie in. He came forward, very slowly. Cox pulled out a chair for him.

Beanie’s eyes flicked around the table. Then he looked down again. He sat in the chair next to Cox. Cox made him look tiny, and he was hunching his shoulders together.

Cox looked at me and I felt hot, my heart thumped as he spoke to Beanie, “We asked for you to join us for this part of the meeting, Beanie,” Beanie’s eyes came pleadingly up to mine as he listened, hunching away from Cox as he continued, “and we’ve had Jurgen and Bent stay, as this concerns them, too.”

Now Beanie sat up. Like he’d resolved, whatever was going to happen, he was going to take it as a man. Cox looked at Bogart and Bogart nodded.

Cox said, “Jurgen and Bent, and
Kaos Anarki
of course, lost two of their club members.”

“And two brothers,” said Bent.

“Yes,” Jurgen said, “Whatever else they were, they were our brothers.”

Again Cox looked over to Bogart. Again, Bogart nodded. Cox went on, “It would appear,” now he was looking at me. My heart skipped and I tried to keep my face impassive, but I don’t think that I can have succeeded.

I was so awash with emotion at that point. Emotions of fear, shock and apprehension. All mixed up with exhaustion. And I felt an intense pull toward Cox as I waited for him to go on. He said, “It would appear as though Butcher took it upon himself to deliver vicious executions upon Snori and Trols.”

The air was heavy and the room was silent. Bogart said, “That would have been a decision for the council, not for one member to take alone. Especially not an associate, as Butcher was at the time.”

A slow wave of solemn nods drifted around the table. Bogart said, “A sanction could have been due to him for that.” There was quiet for a moment. Bogart said, “Nevertheless, Snori and Trols would seem to have slain one of our own.”

Bent said, “While they were honored guests of the club, too. That is unacceptable.”

“So,” Bogart said, “
Savage MC
needs to ask
Kaos Anarki
if they are satisfied that justice was done here. Butcher was sanctioned, but not for the killing of their brothers.”

Jurgen looked around the table at each man in turn. And at me. And he said, “With some regret, I have to say that Snori and Trols, our brothers, acted in a way that brought shame to our motorcycle club, and, with even more regret I must say that I think the punishment that they met was just and appropriate.”