GGS: Good Gaelic Souls A Biker Saga (G.G.S) (17 page)

As they pulled into the parking lot of the Clubhouse, Stax saw an unfamiliar sight. The parking lot was empty except for Slacker's bike. This wasn't right, there was no-one to be seen. She pulled up in front of the door, flipped her kickstand, turned off her bike and dismounted. She didn't even wait for the girls to park and get out of the truck, she went straight to the door and flung it open.

"Where the hell is everybody?" She yelled as she walked in, scanning the room. "Hell-Fucking-Ooo..." Her words trailed off with a gasp, as what she was looking at began to register in her brain. "What the Fuck?" She screamed as Serenity and Lee rushed in and instantly stopped in their tracks, screaming at the sight of Slacker's badly beaten body slumped backwards over the pool table, blood gurgling from a slash across the side of his face. "Call 911!" Stax bellowed, and as Lee ran outside to make the call, Serenity rushed to his side where Stax was already pressing her bandana to his cheek in an effort to stop the bleeding. "Don't try to speak Slacker, just stay calm brother  your gonna be fine,  promise." Stax tried to assure him, until she realized that he was already unconsious.

"The ambulance is enroute," Lee said breathlessly as she re-entered the Clubhouse. "What the hell happened here?" She said looking from one ashen face to the other. They all looked around the room. Tables and chairs had been overturned, liquor bottles and glasses were broken all over the place. Serenity went to take a step forward to go investigate further but Stax stopped her with a whisper "This just happened, this is fresh, someone may still be here!" She gave a hard look at the two wide-eyed women in front of her, "Help me get him outside, now!" she hissed.

Between the three of them, they were able to get him from the pool table to just outside the front door as the ambulance pulled up with the Sheriff right behind them. By the time Slacker was enroute to the hospital, several deputies had arrived and were inside the Clubhouse securing the building. The Sheriff was taking statements from the girls, but they really didn't know anything more than what they saw when they walked in and all three of them were visibly and understandably shaken. Stax knew Sheriff Bob well. He was not considered a club friend, though he was a fair man who appreciated what the HC did in his jurisdiction. He had a tendency to overlook minor infractions that would cause tourist to be fearful of the "rowdy-biker-thugs." This normally happened when they decided to have a night on the town in numbers. Occasionally he would get a call from a bar owner, who would advising him that the "Drunken Gaels have invaded again Sheriff" and he would have to send out a cruiser, mostly to make the establishment feel that they were being protected. The HC looked scary to most, but he knew that they were just blowing steam, for the most part anyway. It wasn't often that he had to make an arrest, but it had happened and he was sure that it was likely to happen again. They were good people, but they were prideful and quick tempered, and they certainly liked their whiskey.

Stax tried to call Strangler, but recieved his voice-mail, so she shot him a text. '
Slacker attacked @ CH'
, it read. She also called each of the Trio, but their voice mails came on immediately too. She sent out a mass text to the club member's next and advised everyone to avoid the Clubhouse until further notice, unless they heard otherwise from Strangler.

She turned to talk to Serenity, who was trying to explain to Lee, that this was not a normal thing in the day to day world of the G.G.S. "Lee, I don't know what happened or what would bring this on, unless Slacker pissed off some girls boyfriend or something. Maybe they were trying to rob us." she was saying, "This is not who we are Lee. I can't fucking imagine what brought this on." It was apparent that Lee wasn't buying it. She wanted no part of this and was ready to haul ass and not look back. The look on her face said everything, as did her body language, as she stood there shaking, looking very much like a scared little girl.

Stax headed back in to check to see if anything of importance was missing. Sheriff Bob told her to wait a few more minutes and that he would go in with her and take note of her observations. He was so very "matter-of-fact" with her today, she had known Bob for years and they had always had a good repore. She didn't understand why he was being so short, but with all that was going on, she didn't have time to dwell on it either. Right now she was concerned with three major issues. Was Slacker going to make it, Where the hell was everybody, and did the people or person who did this, find the safe? She had to get to her father's office, no wait, she had to get to Strangler's office, before she would know the answer to that last question.

"Bob," she told him bluntly, "We called for an ambulance, not the police. This is private property and I don't recall asking you to take notes or investigate anything." The police weren't exactly welcome here, and she saw no reason to change that now." Before he could reply, his deputy came out and took him to the side."

A text came in on Stax's phone, it was Strangler, "
Is PD still at CH
?" it read. She typed in her answer, "Aye." The Sheriff came up and advised her that she could go in now, just as she was recieving another text but she didn't stop to read it, she immediately headed inside. She didn't bother to stop Bob from following her, she had too much on her mind, and the police were already inside."

It appeared, that other than the initial trashing of glass and turned over furniture that they had noticed before, the biggest loss was the smashed in juke-box. It wasn't as bad as she had imagined. Most everything was still on the wall and the memorial shelve and pictures behind the bar were untouched, except for one, Slider's picture had been taken down and re-hung upside down! "What sick disrespectful fuck would do that?" she said aloud, calling it to the attention of the Sheriff, who made an immediate notation and took a picture of the strange positioning of the frame.

She went down the hall and looked in each of the back rooms. Both the men and women's bathrooms were untounched. Next they went into the kitchen, pantry and storage room, but these rooms had been ignored.  She was beginning to think that maybe it was someone who had it in for Slacker personally until they entered the President's office. It had been ransacked. Someone had gone through drawers, filing cabinets, and even pulled the bookshelves from the wall tipping them over spilling their contents. Books and papers were everywhere. The chairs were all turned over and the desk top computer tower was missing, it's monitor smashed on the floor.

Stax looked around the room quietly, trying not to let her eyes rest on anything but the shambles before her. She did not want the Sheriff to notice her gaze lingering over the area where the safe was hidden. From all appearances, it's protective area was undisturbed, so she felt sure that all was well within the secret compartment in the floor.

The safe lay directly under the seven foot long and four foot wide, extremely heavy mahogany desk, which Slider had built soley for the purpose of hiding and protecting their cash and small liquid assets. It took no less than four people to move that desk, which set on top of a 10x12 area rug that was velcroed to the floor to keep it in place. Three matching chairs set on the carpet in front of the desk. Due to the amount of cash they dealt with, they had been diligent in making it as secure as possible. As added protection, under each corner of the desk, recessed back from reach, were four hidden release buttons, each one had a cable that ran down the inside of the legs and would unlatch the four locks holding the desk in place, via locking plates which were secured to the concrete floor below.

Not even Slider himself could remove or add anything to the safe alone. Nor could it be picked up and removed, as it had been cemented into the floor itself.  Other than the original four, Stax and now Strangler, there was only a handful of member's who knew of it's location, and only one of them knew the secrets of how to access and open it.

The Sheriff was still taking notes as she walked over to the adjoining door to the Prez's private bedroom. She looked around the room and saw that nothing had been touched. "Good," she thought as she realized that she had been holding her breath. "They didn't find the gun stash either." There was another safe under Slider's bed, but it was much easier and quicker to get to. In a hurry, two people could do it quickly by removing the kingsize mattress and boxsprings and ripping the carpet along it's velcroed center. This safe held their emergency protection, a few dozen extra firearms and ammo, just in case. Through the years, they rarely had the need to pull them out, but they were well maintained and ready to go if needed.

Stax left the room and went down the second hallway, looking at the two remaining doors. One was the V.P's room and the other was hers. She went to her room first and found that it was intact and untouched. When she walked into the V.P's room, she was shocked to see a forensic team swarming around the bed. She saw blood stains on the carpet and the bathroom door, "Who's been hurt? Where is Strangler?" She demanded loudly, just as the Sheriff startled her into turning around, suddenly appearing  right behind her.

"Calm down Stax, Strangler is fine, I will explain outside," he said gently, "Come with me now Stax." He added firmly as she continued to walk further inside the room. "Stax, let them do their job. I can arrest you for tampering with a crime scene if you don't leave this room, now damn it." His voice became loud and authoratative. She turned towards him to speak her mind and abuptly stopped in her tracks. Turning back around slowly, so that she could focus on what she had caught a glimpse of in her periphial vision, it was her turn to shiver.  "Son-of-a-bitch," she breathed out, as she read the words smeared in blood on the wall. "Patch Over Now!"

When Serenity saw the Sheriff walking Stax out the front door, his arm wrapped around her waist, holding her up, she thought the worse. "Oh shit! Who's dead? Who did you find? Is it Strangler? Samson?" she cried.  Lee, who was sitting in the truck wanting nothing more than to leave and never come back, heard her cry and got out and ran to Serenity. "Oh no, baby, not another one, this can't be happening." The Sheriff who was trying to get Stax to sit down for a minute in the back of his cruiser, had to raise his voice level yet again to be heard over their outburst. Finally he got them to understand that nobody else had been hurt. "Everybody is fine," he told them firmly, "She's just had a shock, but she's fine, she just needs a minute." Then he added, "I need to talk with the three of you again. Ya'll keep an eye on her and I'll be right back." He disappeared inside the Clubhouse and left the women to wait.

Stax was dumb-founded, her mind whirling in so many directions, she couldn't think. "Patch over now?" Where in the hell did that come from, and why would it be such a violent statement? They didn't have any problems with any of the established clubs, everyone was on a friendly enough basis. What the hell was happening to their world? How was Slacker doing at the hospital? Where the hell was everybody? Strangler had never answered her call, she had no idea where he was. "Oh, right!" She remembered now, her phone had went off just before she went into the Clubhouse with the Sheriff. She looked at the text, "
On my way, work with Bob
" it read. "Work with Bob? Why would he make a point of saying that?"

"Strangler should be here soon," she told Serenity. "after Bob talks to us again, I want you and Lee to go to back to the house and wait for me. I'll find out what's happening and catch up with you." 

Serenity looked at Stax and shook her head from side to side, "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what the fuck you saw in there and what is going on with the club." She stated firmly. "Fair enough, but I can only tell you what little I know" Stax said, and she proceeded to tell them about Slider's picture, the office and the V.P's private room, including what was smeared on the wall. Serenity was stunned and Lee was simply horrified. "I want to leave now," Lee told them bluntly, "I'm leaving and I'm not coming back here. You can find me at the motel if you want to see me." She said specifically to Serenity, "I want no part of this shit and I don't want to meet any of -" Serenity put her hand up and stopped her in the middle of her sentence. "Listen to me real fucking good Lee, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. Don't you
ever
disrespect my family, ever. I can totaly understand how this is coming across to you, but my family are good souls, every single one of them would give their last fucking breath to help a stranger. This is not their doing and it's not your place to judge them." She paused to let what she said sink in, "You can go back to the motel or you can go to the airport, that's entirely up to you, I on the other hand will have my families back for as long as-" She was silenced by the Sheriff as he walked up. "None of you are going anywhere just yet, I have more questions for all of you."

Stax stepped out from the backseat of the cruiser and standing in front of the Sheriff, she opened her mouth to speak, just as she heard the thunder. Several minutes later, everyone turned their heads in the direction of the roar coming down the road. As they came into view, they could see over two dozen bikes enroute to the Clubhouse, Strangler in the lead. The sound was deafening as they pulled into the parking lot, their faces like stone. Serenity looked over at Lee and saw that she was standing there shaking again, mouth open and a wild look of fear in her eyes. Serenity reached over and squeezed her hand. "My brothers and sister's," she said proudly. "My family is here, well, some of them anyway. We will be fine."

Dismounting, Strangler headed straight for Stax, with Samson and the Trio in tow. The rest of the crew stayed out of the way while Strangler spoke with the Sheriff.  Stax was so relieved to see that he was physically ok, that she refrained from shouting everything that was going through her mind at once. He leaned down and hugged her so tight against him that she thought he was going to break her in half. "You ok, Angel?" He whispered, concern and fear flickering across his face. "Yes, but I was worried about you." She squeeked, forcing him realize how hard he was squeezing her. He loosened his grip, but didn't let her go. Breathing in deeply, she looked up at him and said "No more silence, you have to tell me what is going on, I can take it, promise." He looked down at her face, realizing that keeping her out of the loop didn't end up to be such a good idea, she was finding out the hard way.