Page 83 of Freak
“Planning what, exactly?” Zaxx asked, and something in his tone suggested he had an idea or two himself. In fact, after a beat, he threw one out. “Shit, you think they’re planning a coup?”
Badger answered by staring fixedly at Zaxx until the younger man fell back in his chair and said, “Fuck.”
Double A leaned in. “One thing in particular Gravy said was they wereembarrassedto have a mother charter doing town fairs and building shopping malls. That kicked the shit out of my radar right then. Mel, you were in that meeting. Do you remember?”
“Yeah. ‘Throwing cheeseball town fairs while the other charters do real work,’ is what he said.”
Thumper’s jaw went slack. “You think—holy shit. Kellen was our secretary and treasurer. He knows shit.”
Badger clapped sarcastically. “And Thumper catches up.”
That swipe, Thumper felt. He seemed to shrink in his chair.
“Chill the fuck out, Badge,” Mel warned. “You’re bein’ a real dick. Even more than usual.”
Their president glared at Mel. Mel glared right back.
Badge blinked first. “Yeah, okay. I think it’s clear as day that Montana is planning to break with us. The question is are they planning to break away from the Horde or try to kick us out of it.”
“We’re the mother charter,” Darwin pointed out. “The Night Horde MC started right here. Isaac’s old man founded the club! Who the fuck are these cocksuckers to disrespectourpatch?”
They all knew all of that, obviously, and they were all thinking the same thing anyway.
“We don’t know, yet, if that’s what they’re doing,” Showdown pointed out.
“Why else keep Kell alive?” Isaac asked. “And patch him in? He killed Maniac—a founding member of their charter. That’s a capital offense. So he must have given them something real good to turn his fortunes around like that.”
Slamming both fists suddenly into the table, Badger roared, “FUCK!”
Double A took over again. “I don’t see how it can be anything but real bad, but Show’s right—we don’t know enough. So we need to do some work and figure it out, and then figure out what we do about it.”
“We cannot have another goddamn war in this town.” Isaac, his fists clenched on the table before him, infused each syllable with as much emphasis as it could hold.
Mel thought at once about Abigail. She’d been safe from the Horde’s previous town-based horrors, tucked up in the hills, but now, with him, she was in and around town much more often. The idea that she could be less safe with him tried to dig in, but he grabbed it and snapped its neck. He’d never let her be hurt.
“And we won’t,” Len assured Isaac. “I will personally kill each one of those fuckers in their beds if I have to, but they are not coming anywhere near this town again.”
Damn straight. Mel would join Len in the bed-killing if it meant peace for Signal Bend and the people who called it home.
“They’re still a charter,” Bart said. “And we’re still guessing, with no evidence but some words said in anger and a choice we don’t understand. Dub’s right. We need to keep sharp but hold our shit together while we gather more intel.”
Badger considered for a few moments, then nodded. “Yeah, okay.Not one fucking wordof this leaves this room—and I mean our women, too. They can’t know anything more than they know right now about Montana. Bart, Dom, Len—you’re all three on intel. Get something we can act on, or find something that says we don’t have to. Get it fast. Otherwise, we act normal. Thanksgiving tomorrow at my place, the grand opening on Friday, and”—he made a flaccid twist of his hand, “all the holiday shit, like normal.” He shook his head, and added in a mutter like he was talking to himself, “Cheeseball town fairs. Fuck that fucker in the facehole.”
