Page 3 of Bayou Knights
“We have our run coming up, status,” I bark.
“Frames arrived today. Paintings will be here tomorrow. Everything will be ready by Friday,” Ziggy says.
“Good. Ziggy, Trick, Stetson, and Cupid, you’re on the run. We need to up security around town, tourist season is coming. We’re going to get busy with the legitimate side, but we still need to keep an eye out for threats.Beast Vibes is trying to move in.I don’t want them here. They’ve been a thorn in our side for a long fucking time.I would say keep your wits, ride in twos.If you happen upon one, just watch. If they try something, you know what to do. Anyone got anything else?” I look around the room and everyone shakes their heads.
“Good. Get out,” I bang the gavel, and everyone leaves but Bones, my vice president.
“What’s up?” I turn in my seat to face him as I light up a smoke.
“Nothing. What’s up with you?”
“Nothing, why do you ask?”
“Just checking in,” he lies.
“Spit it out,” I hiss at him. He’s my best friend, but sometimes he can be an asshole.
“It’s been a year,” he murmurs so quietly, I almost don’t catch it.
“I’m very aware of that,” I growl.
“You have to take care of yourself,” he says.
“Am I not doing that?”
“You know what I mean. I hate having this conversation, but don’t you miss having a woman?”
“I’m sorry, you’re asking me if I miss a woman?” I snap at him. I don’t mean to, but sometimes you don’t get over your first love.She did rip out my heart and stomp all over it as well as run off with most of my money that she had access to before I could take her off the account.
“I am. You come to the clubhouse, you do the meetings, you talk to our clients, and you check on the businesses. But you never partake of the wet pussies out there that would take care of you.”
“For fucks sake, I don’t need a woman. My hand works just fine,” I say and then realize what I just said, which Bones laughs at.
“Fine. But someday you’re going to get an itch you can’t scratch,” he snorts.
“Maybe, but for now I’m perfectly fine being alone,” and I am, I think.
“Duly noted. I’m going to grab a beer before going home to my woman,” he says. Zoe, his woman, is a Godsend. She’s the perfect woman, just like I thought I had.But I was wrong, and it cost me a cool mil.
“Yep. I’m going to take off,” I say, giving him a middle finger salute before heading out of the clubhouse and getting on my bike.I love riding, have ever since I was old enough to get on one.My father started me at a young age, kind of makes sense since I grew up around the club. He was president before me, but he wanted to retire and spend time in Florida with my mom, laying around the beach or some shit.The men, my brothers, gladly accepted me as their new president.
Black Bridge, Louisiana is in the middle of nowhere and we’re the law here. The Black Bayou runs this town and always will.It’s near New Orleans, but still enough out of the way we don’t get too much traffic unless it’s tourist season.We own a bed and breakfast that caters to the people that find themselves here looking for gators.We do that, too, taking people out on airboats through the swamps looking for gators. Sometimes we catch one and grill it for the customers.That’s another business we run, a diner, that serves fresh gator daily along with burgers and fries, the best in the state if you ask me.But I’m biased.
I ride the windy road along the swamp to my home, nestled back in some trees, hidden from the road. It’s quiet out here and I like that. No one ever bothers me unless it’s urgent. Not even the brothers come out here unless it’s Bones or Ziggy.Ziggy is my son. I was young, sixteen when I became a father. Now my boy is twenty-one and a member of the brotherhood.
He’s my go-to man. He even came up with the idea on how we could move product better.It’s worked for years and brings us funds that support all of us.We sell high end paintings to different customers; one is the cartel.The way we hide the drugs is through fine art.We have a man that makes us authentic looking fakes, we frame them, behind the frames we hide the cocaine that we distribute.It’s fool proof. Pretty proud of that man.
I throw my keys on the table by the door and grab a beer out of the fridge, before sitting out on the deck listening to the crickets. Relaxing. Or it would be if Bones hadn’t gotten under my skin. Now I wonder why I even cared about that bitch. Or why I even mourned the relationship that never mattered to her.
I also wonder if there is room in my life for a woman.
CHAPTERTWO
Plum
I was right, I was all over the radio. Every station we turned to had my 9-1-1 call playing. It made me feel horrible and the fact that my son had to keep hearing it was just as bad.
I drove out of California and didn’t stop until I was somewhere in Texas before really stopping. I mean I stopped for gas and bathroom breaks, but I wanted to put space between me and my hell.
