Page 50 of Lucifer's Revenge
“Oh, I never thought of that.”
“Right, because it just happened, and they don’t have all the evidence gathered yet, you know, the fingerprints any hairs, whatever, and if anyone has a Ring camera that caught them entering.” He looked at her sadly. “Unfortunately, Richard only had photos of them leaving your home, not entering.”
“So they can spin it that I called them upset and they came over to be with me.”
“Correct. Did you notice that Bandit told Richard he wanted a copy of those photos, but not once did he tell Richard not to interfere. Between you and me, I would bet that Richard will be stalking all three of them in the coming days. More evidence to pile against them. I know it sounds frustrating right now, and as much as I want to deal out biker justice, I don’t want to go to jail for those assholes. It’s better to sit back, observe, gather information, and strike while the iron’s hot. I can guarantee that when you’re standing before them and they are dressed in darkgreen or orange prison garb, and you give your victim statement at their sentencing hearing, you will feel that you’ve gotten your revenge. Legally, and it will lock the door and throw the key after them. That’s sweet revenge, when they can’t walk amongst the normal people of society.” He shook his head and sighed. “They’ll have to follow the rules of the prison, when they couldn’t follow the simple rules that Starr put before Brenda, and that Sally not coming to her job was her breaking the rules of her employment.”
Lilith stared off into space as she nodded, and sipped her coffee. After several minutes, she looked at him and sighed heavily. “May I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“You can tell me it’s none of my business, but I noticed that some of the men hanging around the club had a‘Prospect’patch on the front of their vests. Why?”
“Oh, that’s easy. They’ve hung out with the club long enough that we all like them and feel that when the time comes, then they will strike for the club, and eventually gain their center patch.” He saw she nodded, then he gave her his signature scowl. “There’s also another reason for it.”
“What’s that?”
“You know we’re having the Halloween Bash in four weeks, right?”
“Yes, and you’re going to do a dress rehearsal in two weeks.”
“Correct, remind me to call Starr after this conversation. I haven’t told her about the dress rehearsal yet.”
“Okay,” she said with a nod. “The prospect patch?”
“Oh, you know that the Bash will be held in my new building. That’s mine, not the club’s, mine, just like the regular Hell’s Coffin bar is. The club uses it as a hangout because of the patch room. It’s also centrally located for all of us. With that being said, we had five hundred tickets printed, and they have all beensold. Not that it matters, but they sold for ten dollars each. They don’t get in if they don’t have a ticket.”
“Control the chaos.”
“Correct. Anyway, the way it will work is that the patch holders will be inside, the strikers will be manning the door, taking the tickets and turning people away if they don’t have one. The prospects will be doing the running. Bringing full beer kegs, taking the empties away, going upstairs for any bottles of alcohol needed, going to the coolers to bring out more beer. Don’t get me wrong, everything will be fully stocked, but five hundred people can drink a lot.”
“I can imagine. But that didn’t answer my question as to why they have a prospect patch now.”
“It means they belong to us. If any patch holder, striker, or wannabe from another club harasses them in any way, shape, or form, they deal with me. It’s a way to protect them from the other bikers. Not that I think the others that will attend are bad, but years ago, when I was just starting the club, I went to a function where one club thought because they wore a center patch, they controlledallclubs around them. When the actual president of this other club harassed one of my men, he was a striker at the time, I got into his face. He pulled a gun on me, and tried to tell me that he was in charge. The president of the club we were at, it was this new guy’s function, pulled his own gun and aimed it at back of the guy’s head. He told the asshole that they were in his house and if he couldn’t respect the rules of the house, then he was out.”
“Oh my, what happened?”
“Later, this might be where some of my revenge started, but about six months later, there was a group of bikers in here that said how they had been treated by the first guy who thought he owned everyone in the area. I listened to them, and after gathering information, I took it to Bandit. Does it make me abitch that I go to the cops? Probably in some people’s eyes, but I don’t see it that way. We’re a bunch of guys that want to ride motorcycles, and we have all our own lives outside the club. This guy, he wanted to be a one percenter, and take everything from his members.”
“What’s that mean? A one percenter?”
“There are one percent of bikers out there that are bad. I mean really, really bad.” He paused and shook his head. With his hand wrapped around her knee, he looked her dead in the eye. “If someone wanted to strike for that club, and had a girlfriend or was married, they had to share their woman with the entire club. The striker had no say in the matter. A life insurance policy was taken out on the guy, and the president was the beneficiary. The wife or family got nothing. If they owned a home, they had to sign the deed over to this guy. Oh, and in order to gain the privilege, his words, to wear his patch, then they had to kill someone to get the patch.”
“Holy shit, where is this guy now?”
“About six years ago, they went out of state to some big biker rally. There were fifteen members when they left here. Six returned alive, but were arrested and are doing life for murder, drug trafficking, and sex trafficking.”
Lilith felt her jaw drop and stared at him in shock. It took several attempts to clear her throat. “No.”
“No, what?”
“No, you’re not a bitch for protecting your men. We’ve been dating for a little over five months and I have never, not once, seen anyone disrespect you. Not a patch holder, a striker, a lady from the club, or a prospect. When I go to Hell’s Coffin to hang out, I get a sense of being with family while I’m there. If turning people like that club, or Brenda, or Sally, or that guy they’re hanging out with into the cops makes you a bitch, then I’m one right along with you. I believe in right and wrong, and in myeyes, I have never done anything to Sally to make her strike out like she did. She attacked me in my home, my personal space.”
“I know.” He moved on the couch to gather her in his arms, and as she snuggled into his chest, he sighed heavily. “You know, you’re staying here until this is done.” When she looked, he shook his head at her. “Think about it.”
“What’s there to think about? My house is destroyed.”
“Yes it is, I’m not saying that to be mean, I’m stating the truth. Now, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
