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“This better be fuckin’ good,” Brax growls, closing the door behind him when he realizes he’s the last to arrive.
“Apologize for dragging you all here so early,” Prez starts, lighting himself a smoke, and tossing the match into the ashtray before taking a toke. “Something's been brought to my attention that requires some urgency.”
I flick my eyes to Jessie, who’s focused hard on Prez. He knows what’s coming, I can tell by the worry on his face.
“We all know about the new threat. Turns out, Ivan Cooper’s silence over the past few weeks hasn’t been a sign of him backing off. He’s been scheming, laying low, and coming up with a legitimate way to screw us… Now it looks like he’s found it.” Prez reaches under the table and slams a cardboard tube onto the polished wood surface. And since it lands closer to me than anyone, I pop the top and pull out its contents. I roll out the pages on the table and study what looks like plans for a development.
“What’s this got to do with us?” I look back at him confused. That’s when he slaps another piece of paper on top of what’s already in front of me. One with the proposed site location, and I see a huge green circle drawn around the reservation site just beyond our boundary.
“That’s their land.” I say the words that are screaming inside my head.
“Maddy’s been keeping track on anything with Ivan’s name attached to it. He’s proposing that the state own the land, not the Indians, he wants to buy it and build on it. And that bastard knows what that would mean for the club.”
“They have lived there for hundreds of years. He can’t just roll into town and tell them that land ain’t theirs,” I shout out in frustration.
“Turns out he’s got a solid case. Mads hacked his lawyer's IP. There ain’t no written evidence of the land ever belonging to them, and they aren’t a federally recognized tribe. The State could claim it and move them on if they see it as being profitable,” Jessie adds, slumping back in his chair as if he’s all out of ideas. It’s worrying to see my best friend so deflated.
“We gotta stop this from happening.” I slam my palm at the table, this doesn’t just affect the club, the tribe will be homeless if their land is taken from them. And she will be taken from me.
“Well if anyone’s got any ideas, now’s the time to speak the fuck up.” Prez reaches forward to stub out his smoke.
“Supposing he proves the land is the State’s, what’s to stop us going in with a higher offer? We’ve wanted passage through the land for years,” Nyx suggests, and I look across to Thorne, our treasurer who shakes his head.
“Funds are stable but ain't no way we could afford that amount of land, not when we’re up against Ivan, and money ain’t an issue for him.”
“Then have Jessie's bitch get her hands dirty. She can tap into accounts, move money around, she proved that when she worked for the Bastards, right?” Squealer picks a bad time for his clever mouth to do its running, and Jessie is up on his feet and moving around the table to get to him. I quickly stand up and manage to block him before he makes it.
“Calm down, man, we need your head in this,” I remind him.
“Mads ain't doing anything that’s gonna get her put in jail, and don’t you ever mention Bastards and her name in the same fucking sentence again.” Jesse strains against me, his finger pointing at Squealer, and I don’t miss the look that Prez and Brax share with each other. Prez gets up from his seat and rests his hand on Jessie’s shoulder.
“And the club wouldn’t expect her to,” he assures him.
“One day, your cunt smart mouth is gonna drown itself in all the shit it spills,” Jessie warns Squealer, before backing down and getting back to his chair.
“There is one thing we could do.” Brax twists the tip of his knife into his armrest.
“Speak up,” Prez tips his chin at him.
“We could make peace with the Indians, offer them our resources and help them fight for their land. A legal battle would come off better if it was them who were making the appeal. Who knows, we may even get out of them what we’ve been trying for since we moved here.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Tac chuckles. “Those stubborn savages wouldn’t understand a fucking peace treaty if it slapped ‘em on their asses.”
“And what would you know about ‘em, Tac? You talked to any of them lately?” I ask him.
“Guess we won’t know till we ask?” Skid nods, impressed at Brax’s suggestion. He decided to let Brax keep the role as Road Captain since he came home. He’s busy with the garage, and his head still ain’t completely with us since all the shit happened to him with Carly and his fucked-up brother.
“Brax, you might be onto something.” Thorne’s clearly impressed by Brax’s suggestion too. “We could pull enough funds to help them with the legal side of stuff, Maddy could put some evidence together to back up their claim, even if we gotta plant it.”
“There’s just one fault in that plan, Thorne,” Tac reaches in his cut for his cigarettes, “those natives fuckin’ hate us.”
He has a point, but I ain’t about to let it stop me from keeping the girl where she belongs.
“I say we put it to a vote,” Jessie suggests, giving Squealer a death stare.
“Okay, all those in favor of making nice with the Indians,” Prez puts it to the table. Jessie nods his head, and so do Nyx and Brax.
“I can’t fuckin’ believe I’m agreeing to this.” Tac takes a deep breath before nodding his head too. Thorne agrees, then Screwy and Squealer.
