“How the hell do we even get something like this down here?” I asked.
“Someone might have brought it in from the outside.”
“Sabotage?”
“I didn’t say that.” Josh was quick to point out. “It could have been as innocent as walking by an infected mushroom. Some of the powder might have been trapped on clothing, in hair, or on someone’s shoes when they came down here, just enough shook loose that it was able to start infecting the mushrooms you have growing. I don’t know who your grower is, but they should have known and been able to catch this quickly.”
“Our genius behind this operation took a ski trip and got himself killed. We thought we could handle growing them ourselves, but obviously there are things we weren’t aware of that are causing a major setback now.”
“I’ll see what I can do to salvage some of your crop down here. Do you have more of the plastic?”
“We do. I’ll send our guy down that helped me with it last time. He can show you where everything is.”
I leftJosh downstairs to deal with our shroom problem and made my way back up to confer with my VP. “Think it’s time to let Big Daddy in on the bullshit we have going down?”
“Yeah, put in a call to him. I talked to Rio, since he’s Prez of the West Texas Chapter, and they’ve been having their own issues with the assholes.”
“When did you do that?”
“While you were taking care of Hawk. They believe the Mojave Devils are trying to expand into their territory to aid the cartel too, but I don’t think they’re after the land for the same reasons there. They’re not aware of any precious mineral deposits on the land. We think it’s more about getting rid of the competition.”
As soon as I got in touch, Big Daddy assured me he would put the rest of the clubs on notice about the Mojave Devils and the Rivera Cartel. It was the best I could do for the other chapters while I worried about what was going on inside my own.
When I got back to the main gathering area in the clubhouse, all I wanted to do was wrap my woman up in my arms, check on Hawk, maybe grab some food, and then take a fucking nap. Unfortunately for me, that shit was not in the cards. The minute I stepped foot in the common area, my eyes tracked straight to Sammy and in doing so, Melissa as well. She was running her mouth to my woman, and I wasn’t having that shit. I double-timed it across the space and stepped between the women.
“What kind of shit are you lying about now, Lis?” I may have said that a little too loudly.
Sammy tugged on my arm and shook her head once then used her eyes to tell me quietly that there were little ears who heard me. Dammit.
“I swear to you, Travis, I was just telling Sammy that I was sorry for being mean to her when we met in the hospital. It was a mistake on my part, and she already knows why.”
“Mom was keeping secrets about her boyfriend,” Hawk said to me.
“Is that so, little man?”
“Yeah, she told me to keep it a secret too.” His lip poked out and wobbled a bit. “I didn’t want to lie. I’m sorry, Dad. You don’t hate me, do you?”
“Never, buddy. I could never hate you.” I glared up at Lis, though. “We’ll discuss that later,” I promised her. I’d be damned if she was going to train my boy to lie to me and make him feel like shit for it.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“Not good enough,” I muttered as I held my son to me. “Why don’t you go play with Ryan while he’s still hanging out with us?”
“Okay. I’m not in trouble?”
“Not this time. No more lying to me, though. Lies are what get people hurt and in trouble.”
“Yes, sir,” my boy said, and then, because he was smarter than I was at his age, he took off like lightning across the room toward his new friend.
“Why don’t you go take a load off, big guy. You look worn out.” I leaned down and kissed Sammy on the forehead.
“My parents are here,” I said as I clocked them coming in the clubhouse.
“Go say hi. I’ll be over here for a minute. Melissa and I weren’t done with our conversation before you interrupted and I was just about to tell her the secret to handling Uncle Josh.” That surprised me. It really had looked like Lis had been giving my woman a mouthful of attitude, but I supposed it could look the same as her bitching about her man doing something she didn’t like.
I gave my mom a hug, but she didn’t stick around to speak with me. Instead, she bee-lined for her grandson and wrapped him up in a big hug. I smiled as my dad ambled up to my side. “That your new woman over there with your son’s mom?”
“It is.”
