by Ivy Black
I flipped through the pages of my books, looking at our trajectory for profit by the end of the year. “We could do this going into next year, Nicky.”
“For real?” he asked.
“For real.”
“How about you head it up, then?”
My eyes shot up to him. “What? Why would I do it? It’s something the new VP should do.”
“Exactly,” Nick said.
There was silence between us for a moment before I plainly said, “I’m not interested in being VP.”
The excitement that had gone into Nick’s face as we spoke about the new plans evaporated in a second. “Fine.” He reluctantly pulled the plans away and tucked them back into the cubby, muttering, “We can’t really expand until I find a second-in-command,” then got up from the table and wandered away.
I didn’t like that it seemed like I added to his stress, but that kind of position just wasn’t for me. My life was fine exactly as it was. Shaking it up never seemed to work well for me, and I was good at what I did, so why change it? We were going to find a VP, and there were several men in the club who’d been there longer than me that Nick could choose from, so why he seemed to have his mind set on me, I wasn’t sure. Whatever the reason, I had no plans of buying into them at all. Even if he went for Avery or one of the younger guys, I was meant to be the Steel Knights’ Bookkeeper, nothing more.
Things got progressively louder over the course of the next few hours, and just as I was finishing my books for the day, I could hear the kitchen firing up as Hoppa’s prepared to open. The other members floated in and out of the warehouse, knowing better than to bother me while I was working, but eventually, Avery walked over and sat down in the chair next to me. He handed me over a band of receipts, with a grin. “The monthlies.”
I added them to my book for reconciliation tomorrow. “Thanks.”
“So, did you see what’s going on out there?”
“Huh?” I was jotting down my last numbers and notes for the day and was mostly not listening.
“Did you see all the people?”
Finally, I stopped and looked up at him. “What do you mean?” It was only then that I realized it was as loud as I would expect it to be at eight or nine at night, but it was still just after opening. “Wait, what’s going on?”
“All that commotion,” Avery said, “is hopefuls.”
My jaw dropped. “What?”
With that, I finished up what I was doing, put my books away in the locked drawer where I kept them, and made my way out to the bar with Avery at my heels. I shoved my way through the swinging doors and when I passed into the bar, I froze.
There were dozens of people scattered around, all talking excitedly.
Nick was standing behind the bar with a wide smile on his face. “They’re all here to pledge?” I asked.
“Most of ’em,” Nick responded. “So, we’re gonna spend tonight whittling ’em down, and you know who I think you should start with, Bullet?”
“Who?”
Nick pointed out and I followed his finger to someone who took my shock away and replaced it with rage. In the center of the bar, mingling with the different hopeful prospects, and in an outfit that unsubtly showed off her assets, was Celia.
Chapter Three
Bullet
By the time the evening had rolled around, Hoppa’s Taphouse was standing room only. Nick had already made Seth and Vil start pilfering chairs from the bar one by one and taking them back to the warehouse because they were taking up too much room, and many of the occupants had poured out into the parking lot. The music was pumping at a louder volume than usual so that even those overflowing outside could still hear it, and inside, the bar was backed up and had already stopped serving any kind of food to ensure everyone who wanted a drink could get one without too much wait.
After collecting all of the members in the warehouse and giving a quick briefing on what to look for, and telling us he would be refraining from nominations as further punishment to himself for what he pulled with Colin, Nick sent us off to mingle with the possible prospects, who were all wearing a silver flag pinned to their jackets, and figure out who might be a good addition to the club. These were still just hopefuls, and no one was ensured membership, but with us already being down so many men and Nick’s expansion plan in the back of my mind, I was thinking that we collectively needed to find seven to ten possible prospects to really fill our new ranks out.
But I was distracted.
First, I wasn’t much of a “mingler”. “Hello,” I said to one of the possible prospects. “What’s your name?”
“Mario Boone.” He stuck out a hand and I took it and gave it a brief shake before letting it go. “You?”
“Just call me ‘Bullet’,” I replied.
“Bullet,” he repeated. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too. So…” I glanced over at Avery and Bucky who were floating through the room without a care in the world, talking and laughing with nearly everyone in the bar. “Uh, why do you want to pledge?”
“I’ve been a bike rider my whole life. Literally, my dad first took me out on his bike when I was just six months old. Ma nearly divorced him.”
I chuckled. “Sounds like my dad.”
“Oh yeah? You two close?”
My throat tightened a little bit. “We were. He died when I was young.”
“Oh, man, I’m sorry,” Mario replied. “I… God, that was stupid.”
“It’s okay. We were very close. I’m also very close with my foster father. He’s still alive, so that’s safe territory.” Mario stared back at me nervously and I chuckled. “Sorry. I have a dark sense of humor. It’s true though, I’m close with him, too.”
“Cool. Does he ride bikes?” Mario asked.
“No, he’s a four-walls, both-feet-on-the-ground kind of guy. He doesn’t even like to fly.”
Mario chuckled. “My dad is a high-risk, high-reward type, so if adrenaline is involved, he’s into it. I inherited it from him for sure.”
“So, you would say you aren’t afraid of a little danger then?” I asked.
He shrugged. “We’re all dying, it’s what we do with the time we have that counts.”
“True indeed.”
The only thing worse than starting a conversation with a stranger, was ending it. Both Mario and I stood in silence for much longer than I would have liked before I finally just decided I didn’t care to be awkward and just walked away. I kept my eyes out for those the other members were talking to and tried to pick out those it didn’t seem they’d crossed, but it seemed like they were covering the bases. Thanks to that, my attention kept getting siphoned by the other distraction present for me that evening.
Celia.
Fortunately, she wasn’t there to pledge, but she was floating around, flirting with all of the different prospects like it was her job. Her long, curly black hair was like a magnificent mane flowing down her back and she somehow kept finding a place to stand that cast a perfect spotlight over her pristine, honey-colored skin. Her hazel eyes flashed every time she laughed at what someone was saying, and every now and again, she would flick out a hand and run it along the arms or chest of whoever she was talking to. It was taking me an active effort not to stand there staring at her like an idiot. She hadn’t so much as looked in my direction since she arrived, yet she was always right in my eyeline when I looked up.
Was she doing it on purpose, or was my brain just betraying me?
That ship had sailed regardless. I’d spent a minuscule amount of time thinking that maybe, just maybe, she was going to be the one who pulled me out of my cage.
Damn, I hated being wrong.
To drag myself away from her, I scanned the room for Avery, planning to join him in whatever conversation he was locked in. I found him, along with Bucky and Vil, talking to one ridiculously tall man, with slicked-back black hair and a thick, bushy horseshoe mustache. They were all so captivated by him, that I had to walk over a
nd see what all the fuss was about. Sifting through the crowd, I eventually came to stand at Avery’s side just as he was finishing speaking.
“The second cow says, “Wow. Good thing I’m a helicopter!” Everyone listening to the guy speak erupted with laughter, except for me, because I missed the joke. The guy in question noticed my lack of response and jutted out his hand immediately. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t see you sneak up on us. I’m Joey.”
I took Joey’s hand and shook it just as Avery put his hand on my shoulder. “Oh, this is the guy I was telling you about, Bullet.” He looked at me. “Joey’s a huge Age of Logic fan!”
My eyes widened. Age of Logic was a lesser-known, Arizona-bred band who played at MiD every year. “No kidding?”
“Aw, yeah, man! I first saw ’em with a bunch of my friends back in high school and I’ve loved them ever since. I went on a huge, cross-country trip last year following them to all their concerts, and it ended with the Steel Knights desert concert. I saw you guys, the fellowship, and how much fun you guys were having, and I said, ‘Shit, I gotta get with them somehow.’ I just moved to Hoppa a couple weeks ago and saw the call for prospects yesterday.”
“Wow. So, you’ve wanted to join long before today?” I asked.
“For like a fucking year!” He smiled. “I’m gonna do whatever it takes to prove I belong here.”
Bucky let out a husky chortle. “Isn’t this guy great, Bullet?”
“Seems pretty great,” I said. “Do you think…”
Behind Joey, Celia walked back into my field of view. When I first looked up, it almost seemed like she was looking over at me, but when I focused on her, she was talking to someone else, not looking in my direction in the least.
“Uh...” Joey chuckled. “Did he run out of juice or something?”
Avery looked in the direction I was staring in and then rammed his shoulder into mine. I cleared my throat and shook my head. “Sorry. I lost my train of thought there.”
“Yeah, booze’ll do that to ya,” Joey said. “Don’t touch the stuff.”
“Really?” Avery asked.
“Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, no judgment or anything, I’ve just seen a lot of stupid people do a lot of stupid shit. I do enough stupid shit without the influence of liquor, so I try not to tip the odds any more than my mama did when she pushed me out.”
Everyone laughed, and even I broke into a chuckle, but I was distracted by Celia in the background once again. “Excuse me for a second.”
“Sure.”
In an instant, Joey turned his attention away from me and went back to entertaining the crowd surrounding him, and I threaded my way through the people until I was able to slip behind the bar, through the kitchen, and back into the much quieter warehouse. I wasn’t shocked to see Seth hiding out back there, too. He hadn’t been in the club long, but he was less of a social person, much like me.
“Running away, too?” I asked as I walked over and joined him at the table in the middle of the room. “This is why we need a legit clubhouse so we can just escape somewhere when Nicky packs the place.”
Seth snickered. “That’d be nice for sure, but then I’d probably never talk to anyone.”
“You and me both.” I crossed my arms. “Did you see anyone noteworthy out there?”
“A couple of guys. Some guy named Travis and a real thick, beefy guy named Kyran I think? Neither of ’em seemed like big brain types, but we’re a leaner group of individuals. I think we could use some real muscle, especially since we lost Stag. Texas and Bullseye can’t hold us down all alone.”
I side-glanced my own bicep. “I mean… I’m no slouch.”
Seth held up a hand with a laugh. “Nothing personal, man. Listen, we can take a punch collectively, but did you see that one guy that came with Luther when they raided us?” He didn’t have to get too into explaining him for a vision of the behemoth that joined Luther and the other Unchained Dogs when they came to bother us. He was stacked, damn near seven feet tall, and with enough muscle to lift a bus. “We need a guy like that.”
“That couldn’t hurt,” I replied. “I chatted up a couple guys, too. That one guy everyone seems to like, Joey, and some guy named Mario. Biking’s in his blood.”
Seth nodded. “That’s the fundamental we’re looking for.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I think he could be good. The prospect trail will tell.”
The door swung open and Nick’s head peeked in. He looked over at Seth and I sitting at the table and sighed. “How did I know I’d find you two hiding out back here?”
“You know what you get with us,” I quipped.
“Well, knock it off and get out here, we’re gonna nominate some prospects.”
He didn’t stick around to see if we listened or not, just left, and I looked across at Seth. “We each have a couple names, so I think we’re good.”
Seth chuckled. “No one can say we didn’t do our job.”
Together, we walked out of the warehouse and back into the bar. Everyone had been quieted and had packed in along the tables and was waiting. Nick climbed up on the bar, not without a little bit of waver, and held his arms out.
“Hey, everyone, I just want to thank you all for coming tonight!” All the patrons started to cheer or raise their glasses to Nick. “Tonight, we’re doing something we haven’t done since my old man was running the joint, and we opened prospecting for the Steel Knights. Ordinarily, I like for my members to come recommended, but if I’ve learned anything tonight, it’s that everyone in Hoppa is a worthy prospect!”
More hoots and hollers screamed out and I found myself scanning the crowd for Celia, but she was nowhere to be found. After a pass in both directions, I finally stopped trying to find her, figuring she must have gone home. It wasn’t all that surprising. She wasn’t there to see me regardless, so why would I give a damn if she stayed or left?
From the front of the crowd, one of the Steel Knights’ non-officered members, Derek “Small Fry” Myers, cupped his hands on either side of his mouth and shouted out, “Let’s get to nominatin’!”
People clapped along and cheered, and Nick held out his hands to quiet the crowd. “All right. Can I have all the members of the Steel Knights come stand behind the bar please?” Seth and I were already standing behind the bar, and another member, Jonathan “Jonesie” Jones, was sitting right at it and just hoisted himself up and over, and the rest of the members, Avery, Bucky, Texas, Small Fry, and Vil all walked around and packed in alongside us. “All right, gents, remember, prospects need a nomination and a second to qualify. Let’s hear your nominations.”
To my surprise, Seth’s hand was first in the air. “I have a nomination.”
Nick looked down at him. “Let’s hear it.”
He’d told me about the two guys he spoke with, Travis and Kyran, but he cleared his throat and said, “I nominate Colt Hardy.”
“Colt?” Nick called out, and a man excused his way through the crowd and stepped to the front. He was a bit shorter than Seth, and looked younger as well, but the resemblance between the two was uncanny. “Uh, there’s gotta be a relation here, right?”
“Yes,” Seth replied. “Colt’s my brother.”
Everyone shifted uncomfortably behind the bar. In the wake of what had happened with Colin, not to mention Nick’s preferential treatment of his kids, everyone was no doubt thinking a familial nomination was probably not the best idea.
“Uh, look...” Nick started, but before he could finish, Bucky’s hand went into the air.
“I second,” he said, and then looked up at Squared. “These boys are cut from the same cloth, Squared. Colt shows real promise.”
“Well, okay then,” Nick replied. “I’m holding you both to this one though.”
Seth offered a silent nod, compared to Bucky’s very boisterous, “Fine by me, Squared! I have another nomination. Joey Williamson.”
Half the members behind the bar started to hoot as Joey made his way from the back of the
bar near the pool table to the front. Avery, Vil, and Small Fry’s hands went into the air, and even though they didn’t need the numbers, I put mine up as well.
“I second,” Avery got out first.
“Third,” Vil said.
Small Fry followed with, “Fourth.”
And I rounded us out. “Fifth.”
Nick let out a whistle. “Well, Joey. Seems you’re liked around here! All right then!”
A few people near Joey tapped him on his shoulder to congratulate him.
“I have one,” I said with my hand in the air. “Mario Boone.”
Near the door to the bar, Mario was standing, and his eyes had widened with shock. Perhaps no one else really got the chance to talk to him throughout the night, but then Avery put his hand in the air and yelled, “I second.”
Mario walked over and stood with Colt and Joey, still with a surprised expression on. “Thank you,” he said.
Over the course of the next fifteen or so minutes, nominations continued until we had seven people standing in front of us. Along with Colt, Joey, and Mario, the rest of the members nominated a shorter, but stockier man named Karl Collier, with long blond hair falling down his back, a man named Marshall Roman, who had a purple heart patch sewn onto his jacket, and the two guys Seth had mentioned to me, Travis and Kyran.
“Well now, this looks like quite the array,” Nick said with a wide smile on his face. “Are there any other nominations, or is this it?” Directly behind Nick, Texas cleared his throat. Nick looked back over his shoulder at him. “Yes?”
“Uh, yeah. I do have one more nomination.” He took a deep breath in, held it for a few seconds, and then let it out. “I’d like to nominate Seneca Villetrio.”
A body shifted in the crowd, and then a woman side-stepped her way through the group. She had bronze skin, a short, black haircut with the right side of her head shaved and the rest brushed over and hanging down the left side of her head and a little in front of her face, and striking gray eyes.
“Whoa,” Avery whispered next to me. “She’s been here all night?”
I hadn’t even noticed. Apart from the couple of guys I’d spoken with, the only woman I noticed was Celia.