One Night in the Outlaw's Bed (15 page)

Maggie didn’t know what to say, because for how smart
mouthed and easygoing Mora had always been, right now she spoke with
determination in her voice.

“Of course this will be a shock to him and your dad,
but everything will work out, honey.”

They sat there for another twenty minutes, but they
didn’t really say much else. Maggie’s food tasted bland, she felt hot and
nauseous, and all she could think about was sitting her dad and Diesel down—of
course not at the same time because that was just a war waiting to happen—and
actually telling them. She wanted to believe Mora’s words, that everything
would be okay, and maybe there was a part of her that did know that. But there
was also a part of her that couldn’t help but worry that she would have to deal
with this on her own, because sometimes life just didn’t work out the way
people wanted.

Chapter Eleven

Diesel wiped the grease from his hands on an equally
filthy rag. The sun was beating down above his head, and parts of the bike he
was trying to restore were around him. This was definitely a work in progress
seeing as the engine needed to be totally rebuilt as did the entire frame, but
this was a passion of his and any other Grizzly MC member. It helped take his
mind off the less pleasant things that happened in his life, and also helped to
steer his thoughts away from Maggie.
Not that he didn’t want
to think about her,
but every time he did he got harder than a fucking
steel pipe, and shit was that uncomfortable when he didn’t have her around to
help ease him.

He grabbed a wrench and started loosening some
bolts. Drevin and Stinger were looking under the hood of the Dodge, and Court,
Jagger, and Dallas were inside. The sound of Harleys in the near distance had
him stopping what he was doing and rising. He heard at least four coming toward
the clubhouse, but there shouldn’t be any since the only member missing was
Brick and that was because he was spending time with his old lady. Instantly
his bear rose to the surface, and he sensed the other club members’ animals
rising, too. The clubhouse was more toward the edge of town with the thick
evergreens on three sides of them, and the growth of the town in front of them.
They had erected a fence around the perimeter of the building, but the front
part was left open for everyone to come and go. Four Harleys pulled up to the
gate, and a couple prospects looked over to the patched in members for
permission to let them enter. Diesel looked at the patched in members behind
him, and once they gave their nod of approval he did the same to the prospects.
The gates were open, and the bikers drove up the driveway and parked when they
were only a few feet from the entrance. As it was the actual clubhouse was like
a damn fortress made of cement and wood on the outside. It kept everyone safe,
for the most part because they did have that incident with Trick, the President
of the Wolverines, busting in. But they had reinforced everything, patched up
their weaknesses to make them stronger, and were now ready for anything that
was thrown their way.

All four bikers dismounted and removed their helmets
before making their way over to Diesel and the other members now standing behind
him. Diesel recognized the man that led the other three bikes as the same one
he had seen at the fight a few weeks back—The Brothers of Menace. The President,
whom Diesel now knew was named Lucien, led his little pack toward Diesel and
the other Grizzlies. He stopped a few feet away from Diesel, and the sound of
the clubhouse front doors opening and closing told him that Jagger and the
other members were heading their way.

“Who the hell are you, and what the
fuck are
doing in our town and at our clubhouse without
giving us a heads-up?” Jagger stepped forward and stood toe-to-toe with Lucien.

“You know who I am,” Lucien said, but Jagger didn’t
respond. “You and I both know you had some of your boys in River Run asking
about us, checking up on what we have been doing and why we are here.”

Again, Jagger didn’t say anything.

“And yet you have the balls to ask us what we are
doing in your town without letting
you
know?” Lucien chuckled, but it wasn’t filled with humor, but instead had this
almost sick satisfaction in the sound.

“I’m going to ask you again, and if you don’t
fucking tell me why you and your damn crew are in my town, and standing in
front of my clubhouse, I’m going to unleash my bear on your ass.” There was a
collective shifting behind Diesel as the other members grew excited over the prospect
of letting their animals out. These men were humans—huge for their fucking
species—but they were still humans and no match for a shifter when in their
animal mode.

“Listen, we didn’t come here to start shit.”

Jagger crossed his arms over his chest. Diesel took
a step forward and eyed the bastard.

Lucien grinned at Diesel. “You were at that fight,
right?”

“Just answer the fucking question before we take out
all four of you and hide your bodies in the woods behind the clubhouse.” That
should have scared the shit out of these assholes, but instead there was
absolutely no emotion that came from them. The scent of fear was absent. Yeah,
these guys were cold motherfuckers.

“Well, you already know who I am, but I’ll properly
introduce myself as gentlemen do.”

Diesel growled out. “I didn’t see any fucking
introductions when you showed up at one of our fights.”

Lucien grinned, but didn’t respond to what Diesel
said. “I’m Lucien Silver.” He pointed to his President patch like they were
fucking morons. “And this is a small part of The Brothers of Menace.” He
grinned and started naming off the three members behind him.
“Kink,
Malice, and Tuck.”
Two of the patches on their cuts read Sergeant at
Arms and V. President. The other guys looked like damn linebackers for how damn
big they were. “I have a proposition for you and your crew, one that I can promise
will make you a nice wad of cash.”

Diesel looked over at Jagger.

“And all you have to do is help a fellow MC out.” He
grinned, but it looked far more wolfish than welcoming.

“We already have our hands full as it is, and taking
on anything else isn’t that appealing.”

Lucien didn’t move or respond right away. He looked
between Jagger and Diesel. “What if I told you that your club doesn’t have to
do anything aside from allowing me and my crew to use the main road that runs
through Steel Corner?”

“All you want is the main road?”
 
Jagger sounded suspicious, but then again they
weren’t so stupid as to think what this MC was transporting wasn’t illegal. Lucien
nodded in response. “What are you hauling?”

Lucien turned around and looked at his guys. He
turned back around to face the Grizzlies. “We have some precious cargo that we
need to get into our town. All the access roads that go into River Run are
intersecting with the highway, which is monitored by the Highway Patrol a
little too heavily for our taste. But there is a back road that runs through
three smaller towns, avoiding the highway altogether, and eventually moves through
your town and into ours.”

“You still didn’t answer what you’re hauling.”

“You afraid of being associated
with a little illegal activity.”
It wasn’t
phrased as a question, because of course he knew that they did illegal shit. If
he didn’t know that then he wouldn’t have been at the barn. Lucien laughed, and
it was filled with amusement this time. “But we all know that our clubs thrive
off the illegal shit.”

“We don’t associate with trafficking humans.”

Lucien slowly sobered. “Neither do
we
.”

Jagger looked over at Diesel before turning his
focus back on the bikers in front of them. “When you talk about precious cargo
I doubt you mean drugs or guns. So the only other thing that comes to mind is
you’re in the sex trade business, and the Grizzlies don’t mess with that shit
either.”

Lucien grinned again and tipped his chin in
acknowledgment.

“No, we aren’t in the guns and drug business, but we
also don’t deal with human trafficking.” Lucien looked behind him, but they
were far enough away from the main road that no one could hear. “Our girls are
with us willingly, but we have a piece of property in Bainsworth that we take the
girls to so they can meet up with high paying clients.”

“What kind of men are these high paying clients?”
Dallas jumped in, but it was a question they would have got to eventually.

“Senators, judges, cops.
High profile professions.
You name it, they come to
us. But they are ones that don’t want to be seen in River Run or associated
with the club.” Bainsworth was two towns over from Steel Corner, but it was an
older town that had turned down having a turnoff to the highway. With that
being the case it was more on the outskirts, so it was a smart move building
their little “establishment”
there.

“So you pimp these girls, and need our road to
transport them to your little whorehouse?” Diesel asked.

Lucien turned his attention to him and nodded, but
there was a spark of humor in his eyes. “Yes, if you want to put it crudely.”

Diesel grunted. “Why sugarcoat what the fuck you’re
doing?” A dark mask covered Lucien’s face, and Diesel grinned. Now they saw the
real Brothers of Menace President.

“You just got out of coke hauling, right?” He didn’t
wait for an answer. “We haul willing pussy instead of drugs. Our girls are
treated like gold, they are protected, and no one fucks with them, or they
answer to us.” There was a growl in the human’s voice, reminiscent of the
animals the Grizzlies harbored inside.

 
“What
percentage are you offering?” Jagger diverted the clear anger that was brewing
inside of Lucien. The human turned and looked at Jagger, but his annoyance was
still visible.

“We do a run every Friday night. That is when the
majority of the high rolling clientele come in. Your cut for just keeping out
of our fucking way on those nights will be ten grand for the month.” Stinger
whistled behind them. That was a lot of fucking money to just turn the other
way and not bust their balls for using their road. “You’ll get paid on the
first of every month. There might be a few times we might need to make special
trips during the week, but these are usually done in the middle of the night.”
No one said anything for several seconds. “For those special circumstances I
don’t have much time to give you a heads-up, but you don’t need to know about
that anyway, right?” Lucien smirked. “You’ll get two grand for those times, but
that also is for all the girls that are taken back and forth on that night.
Sometimes it is only one, and sometimes it is ten different trips. Your town
won’t be bothered, and won’t even realize that we are passing through. We just
need the asphalt and space to get our shit done.”

“It isn’t my call to make. We have to take a vote,
you know that.”

Lucien nodded slowly.
“Yeah.”
He reached into his cut, took out a pen and a small slip of paper, and wrote
his number on it. “I have my girls settling in over the next two weeks, so you have
until then to decide.”

“And what if the club votes it down?” Diesel asked.
“You do know you’ll be fucked or have to use the highway.”

Lucien stared at him for a long fucking time, but he
didn’t say anything, just tilted his damn chin again, turned with the rest of
his boys, and got on their bikes. No one moved as they watched them start their
bikes and leave the clubhouse property, but when the sound of their engines
faded in the distance Jagger turned and eyed all of them.

“Well, I guess we should vote on this shit since
everyone is up to speed, everyone aside from Brick, but I’ll give him a call
and have him head up.” Jagger didn’t wait for anyone to respond, just turned
and headed into the clubhouse. There was a moment when each of them looked at one
another, and then everyone followed suit.

Twenty minutes later they all sat around the meeting
table, Brick included.

“You all heard what The Brothers of Menace MC was
offering, and Brick, you’ve been brought up to date.”

Brick nodded.

“They want nothing but clear passage for their
whores.” Jagger looked at each of them. “Do you want to let them travel Steel
Corner to get to Bainsworth, or tell them to fuck off?”

Brick sat there silently, Court ran his finger over
the table, Stinger and Dallas had their attention on Jagger, and Drevin was
lighting a cigarette.

“Well, let’s hear it, brothers.” Jagger leaned back
in his chair.

One by one they said their vote, and when it got to
Diesel all eyes were on him. “Yeah, let’s go for it.” The vote was unanimous,
but no one showed their excitement in gaining a shit-ton of money for doing
nothing. Even though this seemed easy enough, Diesel knew that nothing ever
came for free. At some time he knew shit would hit the fan, and when it did it
would be one big
clusterfuck
.

Chapter Twelve