Page 10 of Bastard

Riddick nodded his agreement.

Aces frowned. “I’ll talk to her. Her pop rides with White Night. Probably thinks we’re nice like them.” Then he silently nodded toward the door, asking Riddick to close it. After it clicked shut he lowered his voice. “Todd’s been pushing. Wants to run meetings out of the back room of the Pirate’s Booty.”

Pirate’s Booty was the strip club Todd insisted we needed as part of our business portfolio. Not to mention it was his favorite place to spend his downtime. “Meetings” was Todd-code for drugs and guns. “Legit business can’t mix with off-the-books.”

“I know. I’ve kept him happy for now, but I don’t know how much longer I can do it.”

I glanced at Riddick. His stony stare told me he’d take care of it. “We’ll sort it. Anything else?”

“New kid freaks me out. His road name shouldn’t be Knife. It should be Psycho.”

“I hear that’s a pretty common sentiment.” I wondered how many more times I would have this conversation. Probably everyone but the Chubbies was worried. All the Chubbies were one step away from being just like Knife.

“He’s not right,” Aces shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know why Todd brought him in.”

Riddick grunted. When we looked at him he shrugged. “What? You know what I’m thinking.”

Todd enjoys chaos. The more chaos the better, even if it got us all killed in the process. My stepfather was a piece of work. “Anyway, we’re aware of the issue and looking for solutions.”

Aces put his index finger against his temple. “A gun to the head is the only solution.” Then he shot me a look and started for the door. “Good to see you as always, brothers.”

Riddick watched him leave. I finished my bourbon, setting the glass back inside the cabinet.

“You ready?” Riddick rasped.

I paused in the doorway, giving my friend my best carefree smile. “I never keep the devil waiting.”

4

Todd Malone was a complicated man. He wasn’t my biological father—I didn’t know that man—but he gave me his last name. That was only odd to me because he took every opportunity to remind me I was a bastard. I think he got off on it. Seriously, I think sometimes the power trip of owning me got him a little hard. Where I got pleasure from accomplishing things, he derived it from perceiving himself as more powerful than someone else.

For the majority of my life the focus of most of that energy was on me. I was always an easy high. Oh, he was a hateful asshole to everyone, but if things didn’t go his way, I was always there to provide a temporary solution.

Todd sat across from me at his big, messy desk, balding significantly, so he shaved his head religiously, heavy grey eyebrows, a thick, long mustache, and a permanent shadow on his jaw. Like the hair was too thick for a razor to ever fully scrape away. His brown eyes had grown lighter over the years and the yellowish tint to them reminded me of a snake.

He sucked his teeth. “Where are we at with the Pythons?”

“Fully subdued. They took substantial losses at the party. Our follow up visit was successful. They don’t have the men, let alone the resources, to come back at us any time soon.” This wouldn’t normally be a question for me, but what Todd was really asking was if they had the money to regroup and come back at us any time soon.

Todd and the Chubbies were such old timers. His entire wardrobe was old t-shirts, old jeans, and worn boots. “This won’t be the end. The bigger we get the harder they all try to take us down.”

Todd was an asshole but he wasn’t stupid. He was smarter than I’d like, actually. It was part of what made my other job so hard. “You think the other clubs will form an alliance?”

“I do.”

I did as well, but I let him believe he was the brain in this conversation. “Is there a plan?”

He sucked his teeth again as he sat back in his chair. It rocked backward with a squeak. “Murder and Stretch are on it. What I need to know is if we can allocate some funds to them.”

Two of Todd’s closest friends. He was playing this one close. “Not a problem. I’ll get an estimate from Murder and move the money.”

“Good boy. How’s our new business venture going?” He said this with a partial sneer. He liked the money, but he hated having part of our ranks so involved in something that wasn’t under his control.

“We’ve hired five non-members to handle part of Sam’s security load. They will have zero contact with the club. Mostly administrative and planning, occasional additional muscle. I’ve currently got a team of ten Wrath’s rotating in and out of the security team so that no one is gone from the club too long.”

He nodded along as I spoke, like he was checking each word off a list of expected words. “This is an excellent opportunity, son. One of a kind, really.”

“The pay is excellent.”

---