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The moon had disappeared and the red dawn was rising when they decided to stop at an all-night diner and get some breakfast before they turned direction and headed home.
Jack and Prosper had finished a feast of eggs, toast, home fries, corned-beef hash, cold, sweet juice, and hot, strong coffee. Now they leaned against their bikes and enjoyed a smoke.
Over breakfast they had discussed Dunlop tires, Vance and Hines staggered exhaust pipes, the Softail Fat Boy, and the goddamn weather. Jack seemed to be doing everything he could to steer away from talking about Maggie’s declining health and impending death.
Prosper remained fully engaged in the conversation, asking and answering questions, and good-naturedly giving Jack a boatload of shit when he said something Prosper didn’t agree with.
And in doing that, he gave his friend something he needed desperately … the normal. A respite from thinking about, talking about, and dealing with the shitty hand that life had thrown down.
Finally, Jack seemed to be relaxing, the tension in his shoulders had eased up, and the hard lines around his mouth had softened. But the hand from which he held the pack of cigarettes he was chain smoking was shaking.
“Talk to me, brother.” Prosper clapped his old friend on the shoulder.
“I need to make some serious bank, like yesterday.” Jack sighed. “There’s some new treatments that the doctors think might help Maggie. I got crap for insurance and it won’t cover it. These new treatments are ten grand a month, and that’s on top of the other shit we’re already paying out. The whole round of treatments will run a total of about a hundred grand and they want half of that up front.”
Then he paused and shook his head slightly. “I hit a convenience store about a month back. I only got five grand and was shitting my pants the whole time thinking about what might happen if I got caught and sent away. I would do the time standing on my head and whistling goddamn Dixie if it helped my woman out, but I can’t take that risk again, not for that shit amount of money. Five lousy grand ain’t worth the risk of going away and leaving her to die alone and the kids going into the system. But now that you’re here I figure you can watch out for her, take the kids if you need to.”
Here we go with the faulty fucking reasoning again. The more things change, the more they stay the same, Prosper thought to himself but instead said, “So now that I’m here, what? You gonna hit a goddamn bank?”
“Nah. Bank’s too hard. I’d need schematics and shit that I have no way of getting. But there’s an OTB a couple of miles out of town,” Jack said, matter-of-factly. “I know they don’t clean out their safe for deposit but once a week; they need to keep that green on hand for payouts,” Jack told him.
“Security system?” Prosper decided to go with it and find out exactly where Jack’s head was at.
“Old. It’s a dinosaur,” Jack said. “Trip lights, shit like that. I’ve already broken in a few times. I just set off the motion alarms by letting a few rodents go. Last time, the fat fuck on security duty didn’t even bother to go in and investigate; he just assumed it was the mice again, threw some light on the building to make it look good, then reset the alarm in between bites of his Big Mac.”
“And after?”
“There’s a bus station a few blocks away and old train tracks run behind the place. The tracks provide a perfect escape route. They’re grown over and there’s no lighting to speak of anywhere nearby. So, it would be just a quick quarter mile down and across those tracks and into an alleyway that leads to the bus station. I ‘ve already rented a locker. I plan on just slipping the duffle in the locker, leaving it for a few days, then when the heat is off, I’ll go get it.”
Prosper thought for a moment and conceded, “Okay, yeah, sounds like it could work, and you know I got your back as far as anything that’s gonna make the rest of Maggie’s life as comfortable as possible. And if there is even the slightest hope of extending it? Definitely down with that, brother.”
“I appreciate it, man.” Jack looked relieved.
“But the convenience store and that OTB is small-time shit, Jack. You’re gonna go through that money fast, what then? You know the chance of getting caught increases exponentially with each job. And you going away on a robbery charge is game over, man.”
Jack’s shoulders sagged. “Taking it day by day. And right now that’s all I got.”
“Nah, you got way more than that, my brother. You got me and I got hundreds of men wearing the HSMC patch. You sit down with those doctors of yours, figure out exactly what Maggie needs and how much it’s gonna take to give her a shot at getting well. Then you let me know. Once we get all the information tied up, I’ll be able to get you what you need.”
“Serious?” Jack squinted through a curl of smoke. His expression hopeful but guarded.
Prosper nodded. “Dead serious.”
“Poor choice of words, man,” Jack shot back, then he grinned. “Gallows humor.”
“There’s that sick, irreverent bastard I know.” Prosper grinned back. He was happy to see Jack’s goofy smile, even if for just a moment. It was a relief to know that his friend’s innate good humor hadn’t totally disappeared under that heavy mantle of sorrow he was carrying.
Prosper was determined to help Maggie out in any way he could, even if it meant moving the HSMC in a direction that was dangerous and unlawful, and promised to bring the club to a place from where there’d be no turning back. A place where his front man, Derringer Gage, had no trouble taking the lead and, in fact, had been chomping at the bit to explore.
Prosper spent the next few days putting together a complicated plan that, if successful, would be both highly illegal and extremely lucrative.
Then he made that call to Derringer.
About a week later, Jack had the doctors’ information about the cost of Maggie’s treatments, and Prosper had a plan. He had already reached out to Derringer, and together they formulated a course of action that would not only help Jack out, but also move the club in a direction Derringer had been advocating for. Then Prosper called upon him to make the trip down to finalize it all.
“Derringer … Jack. Jack … Derringer.” Prosper grunted out introductions and took the seat next to his second in command.
Jack nodded to Derringer and slid into the opposite side of the booth. He stuck out his hand. “Just want to say thank you, man.”
