Page 27 of Cage's Downfall

Then my eyes landed on my father, and my eyes didn’t well with tears. Nope my body failed me, and I broke down. The one thought running through my head was the argument even worth this? Money comes and goes. But my family, as fragile as it is- was all I had and I risked that all for some drug money.

Chapter 16

CAGE

The club was a president down and running in the black. Our earners weren’t coming through. We owed the Eighty Ones for a gun shipment. We owed the south street gangsters for a shipment of cocaine. We then owed the Midnight Ladies a monthly fee for running our dirty money through their rentals- though we hadn’t run any money through this month, we had a stock agreement that we paid, regardless of whether we ran money through or not. Basically kept their mouths shut.

On top of all that, our brothels had been shut down by the police. Our dock connection had retired, therefore causing us to not get our shipments. Our rental properties were currently vacant, needing renovations. Our growth houses had been raided, taking our harvest just before we cut it up.

I was starting to think Hawk had a heart attack on purpose just to avoid all this shit.

To say we were in the shit was an understatement. Then, there was the few deals the club members had made that also put us in the negative.

Sitting in the church boardroom, all eyes were on me because I somehow had to fix this shit.

Getting the growth houses operating again, wasn’t an option. Starting from scratch was a big upfront commitment.

The brothels needed to be relocated. We had the option of cleaning up them houses and renting them out. But again that took time.

Our rentals needed a ton of money to get them liveable. They had been trashed by the last renters.

The dock connection we needed to make but again, that wasn’t going to bring money in now. To get a shipment ready and shipped to us would be a three month turn around.

The only money we had coming in was Autumn’s cut of the steroid business. We hadn’t even been running drugs through the gyms because we didn’t have the stock. We had the cocaine but it was taken in a raid from one of our growth houses.

How the police even knew about those addresses, I didn’t fucking know.

“We need a new operation,” I muttered stating the fucking obvious. “Anyone got ideas?”

Silence.

Great.

“Is it as bad as I think it is?” Jacob said and my eyes went to him.

“The Eighty Ones will murder one of us if we don’t settle the bill. The South Street Gangsters want a war, so us not paying will result in one of us dying. Both will call a war over a debt not paid. The Midnight Ladies, well they’ll go to the fucking cops if they aren’t paid,” I laid it out straight.

Jacob nodded his head and grim tension coated the air.

Wild, Lit, Vod and the other few table members remained silent. No one having any ideas.

“I have an option,” Jacob spoke. “I know a way to clear the debts with the eighty ones, the south street gangsters and the midnight ladies.”

“Well, we are all fucking ears Jacob, tell us.” I said dryly, not expecting him to have an option I was going to like.

“We let Autumn bail us out.”

If I had been drinking, I would have choked. “Like fucking hell that will be happening.” I wasn’t letting my girlfriend, or at least I considered her to be my girlfriend, bail us out.

“Don’t let ya pride get in the way Cage.” Jacob scorched me with his eyes. “We aren’t letting people die over this. Autumn won’t care. We can pay her back.”

“You all want a girl to bail us out?” I looked around the table. “You want Autumn to bail us out of this mess?”

“We don’t have another option. We get the club earning again. We pay her back. And while we are waiting for our new operation to kick start, we just hold back on everything till we are earning.” Jacob was saying it like it was that simple.

“And what new operation would this be? Growth houses? Cause they keep getting raided as soon as we go to cut. Brothels? Cause they keep being shut down. Rentals? Cause we don’t have the money to renovate.” I laid out our operations. “So what is your operation plan?”

“First, we get Electric in,” Jacob said. Electric was an arsonist. “He will take care of the rentals. We cash in for the insurance. Then, we need another permeant earner.”

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