"They should want you to be here because you’ll keep their kids safe from the fuckers who try to come in selling dope and shit. We’re their first line of defense. Better than a goddamn sheriff and his deputies." I scrubbed my chin. "This might be a good way of rubbing shoulders with the locals without getting their backs up."
SL’s brow had grown progressively more puckered throughout my short speech, and when I was done, he muttered, "Huh."
I shot him a look. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I get it. I never did approve, but Butch was a fucking head case, so it wasn’t like you could say no. The deeper he got into the coke, the more volatile he was."
"Was coke his only vice?"
I couldn’t judge the fucker for being hooked on snow, not when I’d been there, but the shit he’d pulled told me he’d been one of those dumbass jocks all his life. Too busy playing pranks to sniff the daisies.
"Yeah. In over his head with it. Spread the infection to a ton of brothers and clubwhores. That’s why our numbers are low. We lost a lot to the cull."
"The cull? That’s what you guys are calling it?"
"It’s why the West Orange chapter ain’t all that popular right now."
Then they were going to love my bringing Digger on board…
I grunted. "Well, heads up. I asked Digger if he’d like to take the place as Enforcer on the council. He wants to move down here anyway, and he’s a good man. Got a great nose."
"There’ll be rumblings," SL warned, but that was as much as he said.
"I’ll need you to smooth shit over."
"Call church. Warn them yourself. I can only do so much because they wanna hear from you. You’re their Prez. Not me.
"Plus, before, I was nobody, man. They don’t trust me, and they don’t trust you for picking me as your right-hand man, you know?"
"Then it looks like we gotta prove ourselves." I pursed my lips. "The diner… you know Fred well?"
"Everyone in Coshocton knows Fred, but yeah, more than most. I used to live next door to him when I was a kid."
"Make the call, tell them we’ll pay the full asking price."
"What about the stipulation at the end?"
I shrugged. "What’s five percent?"
"A lot. You should go to the diner. See what it’s like. Try the pies before you buy. They’ll make a believer outta you."
His dry retort had me smiling. "I’ll take the fam tonight."
SL nodded. "I’ll leave you to the others."
"Three businesses? You and Slayer have been busy," I said, opening the other two files up.
"Well, I wanted to impress you, I guess. I’m sick of being Sweet Lips, the guy everyone dumps their shit on. I’d prefer to only have to answer to you, so I’m gonna try not to fuck this up."
"We all fuck up," I told him softly. "It’s how we fix our mistakes that defines us."
"Yogi Berra say that or something?"
"Not as far as I know." I tipped my chin at the door. "Thanks for this, SL. You’ve done a good job."
He grinned at me, his pleasure at the validation clear as he joked, "Don’t thank me yet. Thank me after you try the pies. I almost hope we buy it just to get my hands on their peach pie recipe."
"You living up to your name?"
"Hell, yeah."
"Where the fuck do you put it? You’re as skinny as a toothpick."
"High metabolism. I’m blessed, what can I say?"
I snickered as he wafted a hand in farewell and left me to it. As I poured over the information Slayer and he had collated, I had to admit to being impressed. I was also curious if Techie had got involved because I was pretty sure some of these figures came from a bank account, and I knew for a fact that the records filed with the IRS definitely weren’t something I should be seeing.
Still, it let me know that the diner was the real deal. Let me know we had a decent hacker on board as well.
The second business was a local hair salon. Definitely not MC territory, but I could see why he’d chosen it for me to look at. Low to medium turnover, but he’d included their page on Yelp which had a ton of bad reviews on it. It was on the Main Street, great location, just shitty owners.
As for the last, there was a motel. This one’s file was a little thinner, and I understood why—the owners did a lot of their business under the table because if people were riding into town to visit Wilma and Fred’s diner, it was unlikely that they weren’t spending the night here.
There were six hotels/motels in the area, and this one was near a place called the Historic Roscoe village, and also closest to a park and a couple of lakes. With their Yelp page streaming with reviews—all good—there was definitely something funky going on with the IRS records.
Humming at the thought, I grabbed my cell when it rang. A quick glance revealed it to be Keira.
"Hey," I said huskily, surprised she called. It was the first time in, well, months that she’d reached out to me, not the other way around. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah. I’m just disappointed."
My brow furrowed as my shoulders straightened. "What? Why?"
I knew she was heading to the state college to enroll, but I wasn’t sure why she sounded so defeated. Wasn’t sure why she was coming to me about it either.
Not that I was about to complain.
Hell, this was exactly the step forward I was hoping for. If not as man and wife, friendship was just as important. I’d missed her so fucking much.
"I was hoping I could just sign up, you know? But not only do I have to apply in March for a fall start, I have a ton of credits to earn." She heaved a sigh. "I guess I didn’t think about the fact I’m ancient when I got this crackpot idea of mine."
"It’s not a crackpot idea. You want it, you go get it."
Her voice was soft. "What if I’m not good at it?"
"You won’t know until you try, will you?" was my calm reply. I rocked back in my seat, trying not to be happy that she’d called me about this.
"It was stupid of me to think I could just dive straight in."
"Why was it stupid? Short-sighted, maybe? But they have courses starting up all the time, right? Is there something you can try out, just to see if it suits you?"
She was quiet a second, and she didn’t have to be sitting opposite me for me to realize that she was biting her bottom lip.
"K?"
"I guess."
"You guess?"
"I guess," she repeated, but she didn’t sound like she believed it. "Cyan got into the academy all right. Wish it were closer but it is what it is."
"We can take turns driving her."
"Wonder how she’ll settle in?"
Keira cleared her throat. "I’m not jinxing it, but I saw those girls. They reminded me of me when I was their age," she said wryly. "Cyan is nothing like me when I was a kid."
My nose crinkled. "I’m not sure if that’s good or not. You were ripe for rebellion."
A soft laugh escaped her. "True. You’re living confirmation of that, hmm?"