Rumor's Fury (The Chosen One's Book 2)

by Harlow Brown

  "I think it will be. She just needs a familiar face. Some shit has resurfaced from her past and she is in a tough spot."

  The waitress brought us our food and we all ate in silence. Other than the sound of screaming sirens racing down the road, it was peaceful.

  "Wonder what is going on that requires so many fire trucks?" Riddick asked outloud.

  "Well, I'd assume a fire, dipshit." Shooter said with a grin.

  Riddick just glared at him and then smiled and laughed, too. As we finished our meals, an officer came into the diner.

  "Boys, I don’t know how to say this, but your house is gone. It's a total loss. The fire fighters are there now still battling it, but it doesn't look promising."

  "Shit, Chief was still there!" Magnum exclaimed.

  We all threw down money on the table and got on our bikes to see what was left of the clubhouse and check on Chief. As we pulled up, the heat from the flames was almost enough that it knocked me off my bike seat. Sirens wailed, lights flashed, and people shouted orders. Chaos loomed in the air. The orders from the firemen, police officers, and paramedics all ran together. My instincts kicked in as I began to run to the blaze, but I was stopped, "Sorry fella's, can't go farther," the fire chief said.

  "Our friend is still in there, or was. We have to!"

  "Can't let you."

  We stood there helpless as they pushed us back away from the inferno. What seemed like hours passed. It was like minutes a child counts down for Christmas morning. It had to be the longest stretch of time in my life. The flames were eventually put out and all that remained was a smoking pile of rubble. The firemen came out and paced around for a bit. Then the news I hoped I would never hear came from the police chief, "I'm sorry, but there was one casualty. That’s all we have recovered." Everything went quiet as I saw the one person that gave me a fighting chance hauled out of the rubble in a body bag.

  "Who is the next of kin?" The officer asked.

  "Me." I said gruffly. "I'm the only one he had left."

  "I'll need you to come to the station with me."

  "Not yet. Not till we figure out what happened. We have a right to know. We also have a right to deal with the death of our friend and leader before we are pumped for information." Anger rolled off me in waves, and it took all I had to not bust his lip open.

  "Do we know anything?” I hear Magnum ask the fire chief.

  "All I can say at this time is it appears to be arson."

  "Jay!" We all screamed at the same time.

  "Who is this Jay?" The police asked.

  "This is one of those things we will discuss at the station. I’m not discussing anything any further with you right now. Chief was like my father and I will not hash out the details of club business with you moments after I hear that he is gone." The truth escaped from my mouth before I was able to register what was happening. I would no doubt have to do damage control over that statement.

  "Look, Fury, I understand you are upset. Here's my card. Call me when you're ready to talk."

  Shooter came to me, grabbed my shoulders, and turned me away from the wreckage. "Fury, let's head to the diner again, so we can call Whiskey and gather our thoughts. There isn't anything left for us to do here. It won't benefit us at all to stay and watch it smolder."

  "I’ll call Sax. I have a feeling he was right and Jay is behind this." Mag said in his most somber voice.

  The ride back to the diner was a blur. We rode hard and fast as we had urgent business to tend to. When we walked in the door the whole resturant stopped eating and stared at us. We motioned to the waitress that we were going to our normal spot. When we sat down I wasted no time, "We have to call Whiskey. I need his input on the next steps."

  "I say we hear what Whiskey has to say. He seems to have a level head on him. Mag, what did Sax say?"

  "He is headed this way. Apparently, he was about to ask a favor of us. His girl was assaulted by Jay and or Sully and needs protection while he handles things. More reason for this prick to meet his maker," Magnum said, head in his hands.

  I picked up my phone and called Whiskey. The rings seemed to go on for minutes, but I realized that it was just the stress of the situation.

  "Whiskey, hey man. Sorry it's so late but we got business. This isn't easy for me to tell you, so I won't beat around the bush. The clubhouse is gone. It was burned to the ground. We suspect Jay. Yeah, I know. The most difficult part is that Chief didn't make it out of the house alive. Our charter’s president is gone. Yeah, I will be, right after we get retribution on those pricks. Yeah, he's here now and we are going to talk to him. Seems he had a favor to ask of us anyhow. I'll call you back in a bit. Can you handle telling Briar and all the other chapters? This might get bloody. Tell them to be on standby. Thanks." I hung up the phone and met the eyes of a very empathetic Sax and a very scared and tortured Roxxi.

  "I don’t know which one of them hurt her, but they get to die at my hand. I need a hand though. I need somewhere to stay and keep her safe. Can we stay with you guys? Sully seems to think he can make her pay for some debt that her father owed and he's taking it out on her physically." Sax seethed.

  "Brother, we would absolutley have your back, if we had a place to go of our own. The clubhouse was torched tonight and worse, Chief didn’t make it out. Those two killed one of our men." I said to him with hate laced in my words.

  I thought for a moment and ran an idea by the guys. "What do you say about staying at Acres in Rudy? Charlie girl told me that it was big enough to house several. No one would know where it is and we should all be safe there."

  "Fury, we can't leave now. You still have to go to the cops tomorrow." Mag reminded me.

  "I'll handle the cops. You don’t worry about that. Just worry about you and the guys. I’ll call Whiskey back and make sure its cool that we come down there indefinitely. We find a motel tonight, and I’ll go to the cops shortly. Mag, Riddick, Shooter, if there is anything you need from your houses, I suggest you get it. We won’t be coming back here for a while. I'll have more info in the morning. It isn't safe for you to be at your houses tonight. Text me the address of the room you get. I have a date with a cop. Tomorrow we ride out. I feel sure that Whiskey and Charlie are fine with that, but I will finalize arrangements before I talk with the law."

  I left the table and went outside. I shouted at the sky and asked why. Why Chief? He was the only one that let me be me with no questions asked, ever. Not one time. Now I have to lay him down forever. I lit a smoke and gathered myself. Prepping for an interview with the cops always makes me nervous. Tonight is no different, especially knowing that I have to do damage control over the 'club business' statement I made earlier.

  I dialed the cop's number and he answered rather quickly, "Officer Canon speaking."

  "Uh, yeah, this is Fury. Can we meet up tonight and talk? I have business and an urgent matter to deal with out of town."

  "Sure, come on down. I'm still here."

  I hung up, got on the Indian, and rode hard all the way there. It was nice to hear and think of nothing. The only thing I felt and thought about was the cool air on my face. I heard the wind whizzing by my ears and at that moment, those were the only two things that mattered. It was a welcoming deafness and numbness. As I pulled into the police station, feeling started coming back and sounds filled my ears. I parked and stared at the seat. The enormity of the situation was hitting home hard now. I am going to talk to the cops about the murder of my best friend, father figure, and my president.

  I pushed those feelings aside, and made my way in to see Canon.

  "Fury, I am so sorry for your loss. It's always hard when we lose a loved one."

  "Look, I appreciate the condolences, but I'm really not in a good place and I need to get out of town."

  "That looks suspicious. I don’t really think that’s a good idea."

  "Luckily I don’t give two shits about what you think. I have club business and personal issues to tend to and had planned on leav
ing in the next few days, anyhow. Jay just expedited things for me."

  "Who is this Jay you speak of?"

  "He is a guy that we did business with. We all got together and had a poker game. Jay ended up talking smack to one of the girls that was there, and I put him in his place. He didn’t like it, and I booted his ass out the door. I took his money playing cards. Turns out his poker face is shit."

  "Well there's motive, now to find his alibi."

  "Now that we have nowhere to stay, we are heading to Arkansas to be with that chapter of the club. I just didn’t want you thinking we were running. This way we can still keep club business on task."

  "What kind of business?"

  "Not that it concerns you, but resturant."

  "Now Fury, that doesn't sound like a biker gang kind of business."

  "And it shouldn't. We are a club not a gang. We don't go around with dumb looking bandanas on our heads with the little corners flipped up, or go around with our pants saggin' around our knees, nor do we go around shooting up random people. Drive-by's ain't our style, they are for pussies too scared to look their targets in the eye. Look, I told you what you needed to know about Jay. When do you think we can have Chief's body sent to Arkansas? That is where we will bury him." I got straight to the point. I let him know that we were leaving and told him about Jay. Now I needed to get to the hotel so that I could try and get a couple hours sleep before our ride to Rudy tomorrow.

  "Well, I don’t really know. Seeing as you gave me a motive, this is now a murder investigation. He will likely be sent to the crime lab. I would say in a week or so. I can call you so you can make arrangements.""Tell you what, I have decided against a proper burial. I want him cremated and we will come back to PCB when the body is released. I'll make arrangements to have him cremated, so the crematory can get him directly from the crime lab. I never thought I would be discussing this with anyone. I was always supposed to be the one that died first. Damn it!" I yelled as rage took over and I slammed my fists on the desk.

  "Fury, go. Leave me your number and I will call you if we need anything. You have done enough tonight. Again, I am sorry for your loss." The officer said empathetically.

  I nodded my head in agreeance and headed out for the bike. I called Magnum and asked where they were staying. Once I got the name of the place, I headed there. I rode in a funky state, somewhere between pissed off and crushed. More pissed off at the fact that Chief is the one that gave this fucker a chance and said 'give him rope he will hang himself'. He did alright, and killed him in the process.

  I pulled up to the Clearwater Inn and turned off the bike. I called Whiskey and updated him on the situation.

  "Yeah, cops are up to speed. Thing is, now we have to discuss a resturant business at some point. I will bring it to church. Did you have a chance to ask Charlie girl if we could stay there for a while?"

  "Of course you can. This place is big enough to hold us all and start up our operations again, too. Leave tomorrow and we will see you soon. Fury?"

  "Yeah."

  "We’ll get him. The fucker will pay."

  "About that, Sax and Roxxi are coming too. Apparently some shady shit happened between Sully, Jay, and Roxxi. Sax asked us for help. I hope that’s okay."

  "Charlie could tell that something was off with Roxxi when she was in getting her tattoo. She will be fine with it. Be careful and see you tomorrow. Hey?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Torch this phone. Get a prepaid. Text me with your number. I'll do the same thing after I have your new number, tell the others too."

  As I thought about the events of the day, I lit a smoke. I had to pull myself together. I had revenge to get on the fucker that took my president from me, from this club.I snuffed out my cigarette and knocked on the door. Shooter opened it up for me and I made my way in.

  "Sax. Roxxi." I aknowledged them as I entered the room. "Guys, tomorrow we ride out to Rudy. I want to swing by the clubhouse one more time, you know to go through the rubble and make sure there ain't anything left. We leave early. Daybreak. Let's get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be long."

  Sax and Roxxi went to their room that ajoined ours. I took the couch and Mag and Shooter each took a bed. Riddick slept on the floor, prospecting sucked and I aimed to see it really sucked for him. Sleep eluded me so I laid there and thought. What would our business look like from here on? Would we be able to sustain this new location? Is there a calling for moonshine in Rudy? Would Rumor's ex be a problem that I had to deal with? Did Rumor even want anything with me now that he was back? As I asked myself these random and repetitive thoughts, minutes turned to hours. For hours now, I had been caught in a revolving door of questions. Questions with no answers.

  Startled, I jumped up and had my pistol drawn. I was just at the house digging through the soot and I heard a deep voice thunder behind me, "Watch your back." Suddenly, I was back in the bedroom with my brothers and was on the couch sitting up with my heart racing and gun pointed at some imaginary male voice. I had clearly dozed off. It was about five in the morning. If I left now I could go to the house and let the others sleep a few more hours.

  I got up and around in the dark. I found my boots and my cut. After slipping them on I went over to Mag and shook his shoulder.

  "Hey, I'm going to run to the house. You guys just sleep here til’ I get back. I just didn’t want you to flip out if you woke sooner than I got back."

  "No, I'll go with you. Give me a minute. You don't need to go alone. Not now."

  For someone that could be so carefree, stupid, and such a royal pain in the ass, he was also the one with the brains, at the moment.

  He got his cut and boots on and nudged Shooter. "Hey man, Fury and I are heading to the clubhouse to see if anything is salvagable."

  "Hang on and I'll go."

  "No, you stay here with Sax and Roxxi. No one can be alone at this point."

  “Riddick is here. I’m coming with you.” He said with finality.

  So much for not waking anyone. Now three of the six of us were awake.

  We got out the door and sat on our bikes.

  "What are you expecting to find?"

  "I don’t really know. I just don’t want looters, or anyone for that matter, taking anything that might be left."

  "Okay then, let's go find out what is left of our club."

  We rode out and made it to the reminants of the house in just a little bit. It was about six a.m. and the morning light was just starting to shine. The first peeks of lighter blues and yellows started busting through the dark sky.

  "You ready to get this over with?" I looked at Magnum.

  "I think you are the one that needs to answer that. You were the closest one to Chief and you are the one that lived here."

  "I don’t give damn about the stuff, what I care about is that nothing that isn’t supposed to be out, gets out, and if there is something salvagable of Chief's, I want to salvage it. That dude did a lot for me."

  He nudged his head in the general direction of the house. All that lay before us was a big gray pile of ash and rubble, some burned two by fours, and basement walls. We walked around kicking random piles of debris. We found picture frames, televisions with busted screens, unsalvageable furniture, and other appliances. As we walked around what should have been the bedrooms, I went to where I knew Chief's would have been, or would’ve been above. For whatever sick reason, I felt close to him here. I kicked around ashes and soot, found the metal of his bed frame and the unsteady, torched shell of his chest of drawers. Upon closer look, there was something lighter than the soot lying about. I went over and started digging around, causing the shell to colapse on my hand.

  "Fuck!" I yelled out. Partially out of pain, but mostly because it scared the shit out of me.

  "Dude, you okay?" Mag asked as he ran to where I was.

  "Yeah, I'm okay. Just didn’t expect to have my hand smashed.

  "What is that?" Mag asked out of curiousity.

  "I don’t know.
That’s what I was going after when the thing caved on me. It looks like a metal box." I reached for it.

  Upon reaching it, I realized it was one of those fireproof boxes.

  "Well, what is it?" Shooter asked.

  "You know those fireproof boxes that your grandma used to have to keep important documents in?"

  "I'll take your word for it. I wasn't particularly close to my grandparents."

  "Well, mine kept her mothers wedding ring and important documents in it."

  I grabbed the box and searched for the key, running my hand through ashes and broken boards. When I seemed to have sifted through all the remains of the chest of drawers I pulled back my now gray hand and tried to think like Chief.

  I had to think of some place that is so obvious that it is unlikely. Would he put it in the night stand by the bed? I looked and it wasn’t there, as it too had burned. I looked under his bed, or where it used to be. Now it was just the metal frame. I couldn’t find this key and it was pissing me off. Just when I thought that I would give up and take a torch to it to get it open, I spotted a slightly shiny thing. It was hard to see because it was a shiny object covered in dust and ash. I saw that it is an antique trinket holder. In it were a couple of random screws, a bolt, and a washer. Where it laid, there was a small key beside it. I knew that had to be the key to the fireproof box, so I put the key in my cut and hollered at Magnum and Shooter.

  "Found it. Let's get out of here. I don’t see anything else that needs saved do you?"

  We made our way back out to the bikes, but as we passed where church was held, Mag stopped abruptly. He bent down and picked up the gavel, or the remnants of it.

  "Here, I think this should go to you, seeing as you're next in line."

  That comment hit me like a linebacker. I wasn’t ready to be in control. I didn’t want this yet. I wanted my pres back. He was better suited for this than I. He was calm and collected. I am not.

  "Fury?" Mag asked as he held the charred gavel out for me to grab. "Fury." he said it again with more umph. "Legend!" he yelled finally to get me out of my deep thought. "Take the damned gavel. You are our new pres. Chief wouldn’t have chosen you as VP if you weren’t up for the task. Get out of your thick head and take the thing. You and you alone are the leader of this chapter now. We are under the reign of Fury now. Chief taught you all you needed to know."