Page 36 of Minus

“Because she likes you, dumbass. Besides, I tried the other night and she walked out.”

“Because of me,” I yelled. “She walked out because of me. What makes you think she’ll listen to a damned word I say?”

“She agreed to meet with you, didn’t she? That’s gotta mean something, right?”

“Agreed? No. She demanded,” I corrected. “She called me before I even had a chance to call her.”

“That’s even better. See, I told you she’s crazy about you. I could see it from a mile away, and from the dopey look on your face, and considering how twisted up you are about this meeting tonight, you’re clearly still hung up on her.”

“Alright, enough about Cricket,” I said. “I’ll figure out what to say to her later. Right now, we need to focus on this meeting with Los Psychos and how we’re gonna play it.”

“We know for sure that Viper’s got the money?” Cutter asked.

“He says he does, and that he’ll give it all back if you’ll simply agree to meet with him,” I replied.

“Alone?” He asked.

“Those were his terms, but as you can imagine, your Sergeant at Arms wasn’t about to sign off on sending you alone into a potential ambush, and as much as I hate to agree with Clutch…”

Cutter smiled. “Alright, then what?”

“We agreed on a sit down in a public place, with a plus one for both parties.”

“Clutch is gonna want to be the one who’s there with me,” Cutter said.

“I know that, but I want it to be me. I’ll talk to Clutch,” I said.

“Have you thought about what it’ll be like with him once you’re the club president?”

“IfI agree to become president,” I corrected. “But why would I have issues with Clutch? He’s my best friend.”

“Well, he’s been here, working close with me for the past few years, and he’s already an officer. There’s a chance he may feel passed over. There’s also a chance that he’ll have trouble taking orders from someone who’s been his equal for so long.”

“The last person in the world I’m worried about is Clutch. In fact, the only two people I’m concerned about right now are you and Viper, so let’s get back to planning this meeting.”

Cutter and I worked out the details over the next half hour, and I texted Viper with the time and place of the meeting, to which he agreed. We were to meet the following day, at the Portland Saturday market. Viper would bring the money in exchange for five minutes of Cutter’s time. My plan was to have Clutch waiting nearby in a van, just in case Los Psychos had anything up their sleeve. Grover volunteered to ride along, which made it feel like the old days. I was confident Viper would have hidden backup too, so I wanted to be ready in case anything popped off. Truth be told, I didn’t feel good about any of it though, and I told Cutter so.

“What are you so worried about?” Cutter asked, smiling. “The whole thing sounds like a simple sit down to me. We’re doing it at a public place of our choosing, so we know it’s not an ambush.”

“If it’s simply a sit down, then why steal the cash to draw you out? Why not just ask for a meeting with you? And what the fuck was up with all the tough guy bullshit last night athis fucking wannabe nightclub?”

“I don’t know Minus, but this guy sounds like a punk to me,” Cutter said.

“The problem is, we still don’t know much about him at all. Clutch was able to find out a little, but there are big gaps in the details.

“Whatdowe know?” Cutter asked.

“He’s from Jalisco, and from what we can tell, he was a low-level guy who hooked up with Los Psychos while doing a six month stretch in a Mexican prison.”

“Makes sense,” Cutter said. “Los Psychos started out as a group of guys from Jalisco that met while in the Oregon state pen in the early 2000s. The prison system seems to be how they vet potential members. They’re a straight up street gang, who happen to ride from time-to-time. Nothing like our breed of biker.”

“From what Clutch told me, they’re a small club, but they’re gaining in numbers, both here and back in Mexico. We need to be careful. Viper is still making his bones here state side, and he’s got a lot to prove. This meeting is likely some sort of big play for him.”

“Well, that’s enough to know he’s dangerous, so you keep your eyes open, and try your best not to get us both killed,” Cutter said.

Minus

Ifelt likean idiot. Tomorrow I was going to have a sit down with one of the area’s most violent gangsters, and I was more nervous about dinner with a woman tonight. Then again, I wasn’t about to try and fool myself into thinking this was just some dinner with any ordinary woman. This was Cricket, and we had some serious shit to talk about. I knew everything I needed to tell her, but had no idea what I was gonna say, which was probably bad news for me, considering how bad I’d screwed things up last time we’d spoken.

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