“Yeah. Maybe we keep a room or two for folks coming in to get tats done? It would add another business to our books and provide some more jobs,” I say, thinking out loud.
“Nerd?” Rio calls out. When he gives our president a chin lift, I bite back my grin. “Go ahead and check on available properties to see if anything fits the bill for this potential new venture. I’d rather renovate something that already exists instead of building brand new, but that’s an option as well.”
“Got it, pres,” Nerd replies.
“Rio?” Doc asks. When Rio nods at him, he says, “Been hearing some things about shit going on in our community and I think we need to be aware.”
“What’s going on?” Rio questions.
“Well, you know I donate time down at the clinic for those who are somewhat transient, right? Mostly homeless folks, but alsosome who live around here who can’t afford health insurance. There have been rumors circulating that some of those who used to be around aren’t any longer, plus, there’s been an increase in overdoses.”
“What the fuck?” I growl out. “What’s been said?”
“Okay, so the clinic itself has a program for those wanting to get clean from using opioids, where we prescribe suboxone in conjunction with support meetings through NA. That requires us to monitor them to make sure they’re not overdosing or underdosing,” Doc explains.
Before he can continue, Nerd asks, “You can underdose? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that, to be honest.”
Doc glances in his direction and says, “Underdosing means that the prescribed medication isn’t being taken correctly so the person isn’t getting the therapeutic dose. For example, it doesn’t do a bit of good if a patient is prescribed five hundred milligrams of something, but they only take half of that for whatever reason. Many will do that to try and stretch their meds out, which is one of the reasons the clinic is so important. The people in charge have busted their asses to get grants and shit to get samples from various pharmaceutical companies to make sure that patients aren’t doing that because it can have an adverse impact on their overall health.”
“People really do that?” BamBam asks.
“Brother, not everyone has health insurance for starters, but some of the stuff out there now has a helluva price tag,” Doc replies. “Anyhow, we’ve had about five patients who didn’t show up for their follow-up appointments and considering that they have been consistent with their treatment, it’s concerning. Sincesome of them are transient, it’s not like we can go knock on their door, and many don’t have families, which means they fall under the radar so to speak. As far as the overdoses, we’ve seen an uptick in various drugs being laced with synthetic Fentanyl, which isn’t regulated. Anyhow, it’s a concern and while I know we don’t dabble in the hard shit, we may need to make our presence known in case someone has decided to come onto our turf and set up some nefarious shit, like sex trafficking or drug trafficking.”
“Nefarious shit,” Chick says, snickering. “Only you, brother, only you.”
Doc scoffs. “Listen, asshole, what else would you call it? Honestly, the fact that someone thinks they can come into Kings territory and fuck with anyone in our community needs to find out really quickly that they were mistaken.”
“Fuck around and find out, eh?” I query, smirking.
Not that I don’t mind using my fists when the need calls for it, but the fact that it could put me out of commission at the shop is always in the back of my mind. Still, if what Doc’s heard is actually happening, then I hope wedoget involved. Shit’s been too quiet for quite some time.
“How did it go in Montana?” Nighthawk asks.
“Fuck, the old president really did the Kings as well as the new guys dirty, y’all,” Rio says. He fills us in on what they found when they went up with Rip and a few of his guys to offer some guidance. Even though Gemini and his cousins were in a club, it was all family oriented, so they got a crash course in doing things the Kings way. “But Issy is gonna be thrilled because they’re starting a breeding program for both bison and bulls. You knowdamn well she’s gonna want to take a trip to see if any are worth us getting because we need a few new bulls for the circuit.”
“How’d the prospect do?” I question. Mongrel went since he’s getting pretty damn close to patching into the club. He’s been one helluva prospect, that’s for sure, always willing to step up whenever asked, and often seeing things and doing them before one of us says a word.
“Pretty good,” Rio replies. “We got one other thing to discuss then we’ll call it for the day. Seems Rip’s prospect, Sphinx, may be heading down to us for a little bit of rehabilitation. Y’all may or may not remember, he was taken by those fucking Dragons… or Devils, depends on which day of the week it is apparently, and he did some things to betray the East Texas brothers.”
“Why the fuck aren’t they just sending him to the tombs?” BamBam asks.
“Because there are extenuating circumstances. The fucker lost an eye when he infiltrated their club to try and get a read on their plans,” Rio retorts. “Rip feels that his guys are not in the right headspace to handle that given that several of them are still pissed at what Gage did.”
“The problem is, Gage did it toourchapter, pres, so while I understand that some of the brothers who used to be here have a reason to be pissed, I don’t know how we can help a club brother we’ve never met,” BamBam states.
“That’s why we can help. We have no preconceived notions of him, so we can assess him from top to bottom. Ultimately, if we feel that he’s able to be rehabbed, then we’ll let Rip know and he’ll go from there,” Rio replies.
“Makes sense,” I mutter.
“Doc, can you get a list of the folks who’ve gone missing? Seems like a good thing to have our prospects check into,” Rio asks. “And BamBam, ask Marge and see if she’s heard anything since she’s right in town. We can start nosing around a bit because nobody’s coming into our town and fucking with our community.”
“Since I’m not giving you medical information, it won’t violate HIPAA laws,” Doc replies, “so yeah, I’ll get the list together.”
“Nobody fucks with the Kings!” BamBam shouts, which has all of us pounding the table.
“Good, now that we have a plan of sorts, let’s call this one. Once Doc gets me that list, I’ll get the three prospects on it. And, I’ll let Rip know we’ll see what we can do about rehabilitating his prospect. Don’t have a great feeling about it, but I’ve been wrong before, so we’ll see. Regardless, if he comes down, I’m gonna need either you, BamBam, or you, Gopher, on him at all times.” With that, he hits the gavel and we head to the bar.
It’s time for a few beers.
