Page 80 of Master's Rise
Chapter Eleven
Cort
The first. I will never have another first day in this building so I walk every floor feeling the energy flowing through me. My Brothers - lost, here and thinking of us, can still be felt. The feeling amazes me. Brothers coming and going acknowledge me. I throw them chin and keep walking. No one stops me, no one gets in my way. This is me walking with our past and future, with every step, I feel it growing. Our heart.
Stepping into my office, I laugh. Knee pads made it here. Two sets are on the shelf with three of my helmets. Everything else looks the same. My computer boots up and I pull my laptop over.
“They sync,” Web tells me walking in.
“Thanks. I hoped you’d have time.”
He looks away then back at me. “I’m using the help you sent. I’m actually not as busy and have time to think.”
“Oh, shit.” Every time he has time to think, he means learning about new shit.
He laughs. “This is good. Badass sent a bunch of information about running like we are. That’s where Major got the idea for two Clubs. The information they sent goes way beyond what he’s using. They have programs and procedures that we could use. One is an office chat like a text. People can ask their questions directly to the person that has the answers.”
No fucking way. “I am not answering questions all fucking day.”
He shakes his head, “Not you, Boss. The people in IT ask me or Jordan. HR goes to the HR guy. Training goes to the trainers or Hade. Falcon or Beacon get Security shit. Major and Jordan reach you.”
That doesn’t sound so bad. “Let’s think this through before we implement it. Hade, Falcon, Jinx and Brinks are Enforcers and Officers. Even you shouldn’t be answering to everyone. Your day would never end, Brother.”
He looks discouraged. I put my hand up. “How about Officers reach Officers and Brothers reach department heads under the Officers.”
His face lights up. “Yeah. That would work better. My second doesn’t need my experience to answer the questions we’d be getting. They run video from office to office like us but they meet with the other locations like that regularly. So the Brothers in the other Ops centers can meet weekly. It would give us problems before they are.”
He has eleven different ideas he wants to implement. Some saving money consolidating supplies, gun and ammo. His excitement has me smiling through most of our impromptu meet. My leader of geeks is feeling our past and future too. I agree to eight on his list right away. The three left we’ll table until we can talk to the Officers and get their take on them.
I have an hour but Falcon comes in. I shut my laptop and wait.
He sits and smiles. “Boss.”
“Falcon.”
With a deep breath, he shakes his head. “I came to tell you I fucked up again, but I need to tell you why. Maybe if I say it, it won’t be such an issue.”
I think Harmony is good for him. “That sounds right.”
“When Crow died, Billy stepped in and had us holding shit. Some was stupid, sometimes I needed more Brothers on Security and I’d get pissed. It leveled out until your dad and Jules died. He did the same thing but it lasted longer. The shit with Courtney never should have happened. Deacon was meeting the Guns for at least two months. Billy wanted why. I didn’t give a shit why. I wanted him out. If you knew then what was happening, you would have killed him yourself. I was the outsider, it was mentioned as a way to shut me up. Raid, Billy, Hade, even Jinx and Brinks grew up in the Club. I was pissed that Billy was calling the shots, or maybe it’s that I wasn’t. I don’t know. I didn’t see you keeping Courtney. I had no problem telling you about her, but I was pissed Deacon was still right in there. He was gaining support too.” He shakes his head like I want to. My Brother is miserable. All that shit happened for no reason.
“I didn’t realize it until Harmony showed me a video she took yesterday. I’m pissed at you for shit you didn’t know.Iwas the one with the intel. Having to win and prove I can do more or know more. I don’t know, Boss. I took it out on Seren, who has nothing to do with that anger. You don’t either. For years it’s been locked up and shows at the fucking dumbest times. Always competing to win something from you that doesn’t have anything to do with you. I don’t know how to change that.” His honesty and the reasons weigh on his face and in his eyes.
“Raid and Hade told me you had words with Billy about Deacon. They didn’t find all that out until the hospital. Me being me and not letting anyone in didn’t help any of us. When Crow died, Billy thought he’d be VP. Even started taking over jobs. I put Raid in but Billy was older than us. He thought Billy was smarter, but Billy was only smarter at being manipulative. I found out what was happening and stopped it. Billy is or was a Brother, but he was more like Deacon. He had the build, the power to be an Enforcer but he didn’t have the brains to be a leader. He couldn’t see the bigger picture and limited himself because of it. For him, it was stubbornness.”
Smiling I shake my head. “He was always jealous of Raid. Brinks too, he was elite when Billy wasn’t. He was jealous of you too. You came in and had a brain. I put you as SAA because of that. You took over Security and fought to help with the new businesses. You understood what we could gain by adding citizens to our Brotherhood family. People like Ant Irma never registered with him. When Web came in, I thought he’d blow a gasket. He didn’t get technology and had no use for it. Web was highly recommended from a Club in California. He even brought his own department with him. Billy hated the albinos and was jealous of Web too.”
He shakes his head and I nod. “I loved Billy but understood early on that he wasn’t the picture of Brotherhood I wanted my kids to grow into. He was a Brother and because we came up in the Club together, I gave him leeway. That cost me. I lost my Club, my Brothers and my connection to a community that opened its arms to us.”
He nods, but I’m not so sure he’ll likeallI have to say. “I don’t lay this all on Billy. Raid, Hade, You, Web, Amos. You all had the brains to be those leaders but deferred to Billy who didn’t. You all knew it too. Your anger at me for what I didn’t know isn’t anger, it’s guilt.”
He’s surprised, but I think it’s that I know, not that he doesn’t.
Standing up, I go to the windowed wall and look down at Ops. “This is our new beginning, Falcon, this is the place you dreamed of being. You’ve grown so much since you joined.” I turn, leaning on the window so I can see his eyes. “When shit is happening, I count on my Brothers to have my back. You’ve been around long enough to know I’m not easy. Drop the anger and guilt and take my back, Brother. I’m way more fun and make you laugh regularly.”
His head shake comes with a smile. “I will, Boss. Even with the anger, I’ve had your back.”
I give him a smile. “I see it here, I feel it here and I think you do too. I’ve made my share of mistakes. I had some great men as teachers and I’ve learned that every mistake is a lesson, every accomplishment is too. You always want more good, so you have to learn to balance the bad. Never repeat it, then move forward and look for that next accomplishment. Let’s call the past our lesson learned and move forward.”
