Page 42 of Benga's Rise
I thumb in and hold the door. Pulling my phone, I type for a Prospect to take the dipshit Enforcers to the cafeteria and wait with them. “A Prospect will take you to the cafeteria. Presidents and your Officers, if you want them in here, swipe in.”
Tweedle-dee turns to his Brother. “I’ll meet you out front.”
I wait for Tweedle-dumb. Falcon, Mounty, Beacon, McCabe, Hade, Brinks, Jinx, Banks and Amos walk toward us. Tweedle-dumb nods to his Brother and turns back to me. I thumb in again and they swipe right behind me. Cort is standing at his spot with Badass right behind him. He’s still pissed.
“Help yourselves to food and drinks,” I tell them, noticing in a room full of Samoans and our Officers they’re not very big.
Our Officers acknowledge with, ‘Pres and Pres’s.’ When they sit, they grab food and waters.
Tweedle-dee does too and sits. “I find your Center, Ops and office’s impressive. I’d like to know how the Council Jordan spoke of works.”
Cort nods. “For our part, very well. You’d have to ask Major and Maverick their thoughts on it. Jordan gave you his. Raid explained how we got here from the city.” Cort explains, seeing Piston’s surprise. “We were pulled from our Enforcer shift to meet you, so we’re both wired. The gear we’re wearing is the standard Enforcer gear. You’ll see it in all four Clubs.”
“They’re also impressive, is there a reason for them?”
Cort looks at me. He’s done explaining. I pull my coat off, explaining the plating and Kevlar. When he reaches for it, his arm lowers not expecting the weight. “For us, they’re custom made as are our bikes and weapons.”
“All the bikes we saw are custom made?” Tweedle-dee is full of questions.
“Yes, we have stock at every Club for our Brothers that travel. They learn on our gear so we keep it consistent. When Ops is running, Major moves Brothers to where they’re needed by chopper. Having the gear there saves us the money of freighting it. They’re starting to order bikes from us, so it may not be a supply we need to keep up.”
Tweedle-dumb leans forward. “Do you supply other things?”
“Yes, guns, ammo, gear and office supplies. We own quite a few businesses as a Club and Cort owns dealerships and gun shops.”
Banks jumps in. “Credit Union and an IT company that sells specialty apps to Badass and regular ones to the public.”
“We’re short on time, but I’d like to hear more about the apps. Jordan said to ask Major. We can do that.” Tweedle-dee isn’t so bad.
I look at Cort. “Do you have any questions?” he asks.
“You all went to school or military? I’d like to know how this started and what I need to do to achieve something that would work like this for me. We have freight and security businesses, but you’re self-sufficient here.” Again Tweedle-dee is asking relevant questions.
“My father was in the Club. He was Crow’s top Enforcer. Raid, Hade, Jinx and Brinks were raised in the Club with me. Falcon might as well have been.” He smiles pointing our Brothers out as he names them. Falcon smiles. “McCabe is an ex-Sheriff detective from Ohio Badass and Mounty an ex-Sheriff detective too, but from Green Beret. Amos and Banks are our bonded accountant and investor.”
He walks back to his spot. “Our Club in the city was close to three hundred members. Most worked for the Security company. My father left me that business, so Security was what I used to fund growing the Club and spreading Badass as far as we could. I saw the need with guns and bikes, so I started those. When my father died, he left me other businesses that the Club is taking off my plate as we make the money to buy them. I’m not business admin, but Crow had us all in school or military and school to run what you see here.”
Jinx smiles. “He even picked our classes.”
Tweedle-dee laughs. “What classes?”
We go around the table and Jinx tells Cort’s too, making Cort smile. “We all have a different education, but it fits with what we’re doing. We’ll continue to pull in Officers as membership rises using the same reasoning Crow did.”
Tweedle-dee nods. “I’ll follow that reasoning as well. Is there anything you can tell me that I should avoid?”
Shit, that’s a question that can backfire. “Don’t surround yourself with Brothers that know everything. The ones that are willing to listen and learn is who you want at your back. You saw my Enforcers. They wouldn’t leave my side while I was their job. If we’re out and stop to eat, they would do the same thing without the order. My Officers are all Enforcers. Our education is different, but our training isn’t.”
He nods. “I see the difference in our Enforcers and know that I have Brothers that know everything.”
I shake my head. “Don’t send them here. It costs a fortune to retrain them if they don’t end up dead. You can email Falcon to help with apps. It costs, but it’s not anywhere close to the cost of training dead Brothers.”
Falcon steps in. “The cost is by the hour. Every app goes through Security before I even look at it. We use trainees to gather background. If it’s a Brother that passes for them, it goes to IT trainees to get more details. When it gets to me or Brinks, your clock starts ticking. That’s one app every fifteen to twenty minutes. We’ve gotten pretty good at the apps. Your cost is a hundred an hour. We don’t do minutes.”
Brinks leans forward. “If we get apps with no references, no trainers or not filled out completely, we throw them out. They’ll never make it in training if they can’t follow simple instructions. What we look for isn’t the best shot or the best rider. We're looking for good Brothers that follow orders and will keep their Brothers backs. Security is a team job, if they aren’t part of the team, they are no help to it.”
“Good job, Brinks, Falcon. They’re right. You need to send Brothers that are protective of you and their Club. If they’re out for themselves, they’re never going to protect you, your clients, or their Brother in the middle of chaos. Freedom could have killed Needle in two seconds. The Enforcers are taught by her but never backed down, making sure she was safe. She is a level five black belt in Krav Maga and all my Brothers know it. Their job is keeping the package safe at all costs. The Enforcers pointing guns were keepingNova’sback. That’s the training we teach here.”
Falcon nods. “A third of the class is gone because they didn’t listen. Freedom would have been justified in killing the first three we sent home. I know Mounty wanted to. You’d think the other Brothers would have listened after that.” He shakes his head. “I see two from the class being shot, but the rest should make it. There’s a pride in Badass that’s showing with them and they work well together.”
