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He shrugs a shoulder. “Varies. Each company pays a different amount. Every load is different.”
I can almost see Atomic’s eyes sparkle at this news. It’s perfect for the shit we have planned, all except the part where none of us are fucking truck drivers, nor do we have a goddamn truck between us to drive.
After about an hour of shooting the shit, Atomic deems this enough intel to bring it to the club and walks back toward the pickup. I follow him and climb inside as he starts the engine. He doesn’t shift the truck into Reverse or speak immediately. Instead, he sits quietly for a moment, staring straight ahead before he eventually turns to face me.
“We got some work to do on this, but think about how this could really boost our pockets. And then also think about the other clubs. We want to grow? This is a great fucking way to do that.”
“Moving drugs,” I murmur.
“Nationally.”
I consider calling my dad and asking him what he thinks about all of this. He’d have an opinion for sure. But it’s not his club to run anymore, and it would be considered going behind Atomic’s back if I did. But I need to know what someone else in the industry thinks about this. I don’t want to make a decision on this blindly.
“How much those trucks cost?” I ask.
“A lot,” he grunts.
A lot.
That tells me enough, I suppose. It tells me that it’s going to cost the club a fuckton of money, and we don’t even know if it’s going to be viable or if we even have enough contacts to transport shit nationally.
“I think that if you’re going to bring this to the club, it needs to be completely laid out. Because they need all the information. The bottom line of how much this truck is going to cost. How they’re going to get their CDLs, and then who we’re going to be transporting to and how much they’re going to give us. This is a big undertaking.”
Atomic nods his head a couple of times, then shifts the pickup into Reverse and begins to back out of his parking spot. Without a word, he drives back to the clubhouse, but I can’t handle the silence.
“Atomic?” I ask. “You thought of all that shit, right?”
He grunts. Which tells me that he didn’t think of all of it. Maybe he thought about some, but he was more excited about the possibility of what it could mean instead of truly thinking of logistics.
“It’s a good idea,” I say. “It’s not bad by any means. It just needs some work and number crunching. We’ll get it figured out. You want to boost the club like that, we’ll work toward it.”
“Yeah?” he asks. “I do. I want to be a goddamn legacy.”
“Then that’s exactly what the fuck we’ll be.”
And when I say those words, I mean them. That is what we’ll be. We’re the OG chapter of the Dark Horse MC, and that means something. We’re about to make it mean a fuck of a lot more, and I’m goddamn here for it, too.
When we make it back to the clubhouse, the sun is already on the rise. Atomic pulls the pickup into his spot, and I turn to face him. I watch him for a moment. I’ve known him since I was born. We ran around this clubhouse in diapers together. No way am I just going to ignore a dream of his, and no way am I going to make him do all of the work on a dream himself.
“How about I work on the cost of the truck and the CDL shit over the next couple of weeks while you get the trade shit and all that under control?”
Slowly, he turns his head, his eyes finding mine. He appears so unsure, so self-conscious. It’s an odd thing. I’ve never, not once, seen him look anything other than strong, cool, collected, and like a badass. Not even when we were kids. Atomic was a born leader. This was his fate—hands down.
“Let’s do this,” he says.
“We’re not going to create a legacy, brother,” I say. “We’re going to create a goddamn empire.”
And with that, I climb out of the truck and head for my bike. I think about going inside for a morning beer, but there is somewhere else I would rather be this morning. The sun is up, and I know that she is, too.
She’s probably baking something fucking amazing and thinking that I dipped out on her, maybe that I used her for a one-time fuck. This would have been the case if she were any other woman on earth, but there’s something about her, something that I’m not quite ready to just forget about yet.
Instead of heading straight to her place, I park my bike in front of the coffee shop that’s nearby the downtown area. I think about grabbing a muffin but decide against it. Glancing at my watch, I realize it’s close to lunch, so I decide to get her some food.
Except I don’t know what the fuck she eats.
But since I’m a man who does whatever the fuck he wants, I decide she can have a burger and fries today. So, as I’m walking toward the bakery, a coffee in hand, I dip into a diner and order two burgers and two fries.
Only once I have food and coffee do I make my way toward her bakery. Backing into the door, I use my body to open it, then slip inside and turn around to face the counter. What I see causes my entire fucking body to stiffen.
