Rod (29 page)

“I can’t really speak for them, but I can
bring your question to the attention of the president,” I say.

“I just don’t want our rival clubs to have
a war because of what your father did to the Fitzgerald family.”

“I can talk to Ronan and let you know what
he says.”

He smiles and extends his hand
forward.
 
I take it in mine and shake
it.
 
He looks happy at our little chat
and leaves promptly.

I hop back onto my bike once again
scanning the area for any threats.
 
Once
I satisfy my curiosity about anyone helping Red, I peel out of Hinton Heights
and head back to the Lair.

“Is Ronan here?” I ask in the club to no
one in particular.

“He’s on the mission to pick Sasha up from
school, but we don’t know how long that’s
gonna
last,” Jasmine tells me with a suspicious look on her face.

She grins widely and I ask, “Why do you
say that?”

“Well you know how Mrs. Fitzgerald feels
about Missy, don’t you?”

I nod to say yes and she says, “It’s
probably going to be a temporary situation if she ever catches wind of
this.
 
The last time I talked to Ronnie,
she told him how much she wanted to run Missy over with her car.”

“Should I talk to Trish about changing
things up with the schedule?” I ask.

“Yeah, that might prove to be a fantastic
idea,” she assures me.
 
“Beer?”

“Sure, why not?”

She slides a beer my way and I crack it
open to take a long cool drink.
 
Trish
walks in the door and Jasmine slides a beer in front of her.

“Thanks,” Trish tells her.

“What’s up baby doll?” I ask Trish.

She looks up at me brightly and says, “I
was just going to ask you the same thing.”

“I got this strange call yesterday.
 
It was Harry from the
Deathdealers
,
but I’m not even sure how he got my number.”

“Yeah?
 
What did he want?” she asks.

“You’re not
gonna
believe this, but he said that the remaining members of the club all talked and
they want me to run the show over there.”

She backs away slightly and asks, “What
did you tell him?”

“I told him that I didn’t want to get
involved.”

“Did he push the issue?”

“Not really, aside from trying to plead
his case.
 
Trust me, it all fell on deaf
ears.”

“Is that it?” she asks.

“No, he also asked if we could all call a
truce,” I tell her.
 
“He said that
there’s been a lot of serious fighting in the club recently.
 
One guy got stabbed.”

“He wants a truce after what they’ve
done?” she says with anger building up in her throat.

“It wasn’t
them, that
was all my father’s doing.
 
Aside from
that, I told him that I couldn’t make any decisions on behalf of the Dragons.
 
I said that the only thing I could do was to
offer his terms to our president and let him know what he says.”

“You know what I would do?” she asks
rhetorically.
 
“I’d go back to him and
tell him that under no circumstances could we even consider a truce with them
if they don’t clean house first.”

“That’s a great idea.
 
I’m not sure that your dad will go for it,
but if Harry and whoever is with him can get rid of the criminal element in the
club, it would be worth looking into a truce.”

“Just setup another meeting.
 
I’ll go with you next time to check him out.”

“You got it, babe.
 
Oh and there’s one more thing,” I tell her.

“Yeah?”

“It has come to my attention that your dad
is on the list to take Sasha back and forth to school today.
 
Is your mother aware of that?”

Jasmine is lending us her ears even though
she tries to play it off like she’s not listening.

“Oh, shit.
 
My mother would have a conniption fit if she knew about this,” she
says.
 
“I need to fix this as soon as my
dad gets back.”

“Yeah, I was sure you didn’t want any
problems between your mom and Missy.”

“My mom would probably clobber Missy,
without a doubt,” she tells me.

“Therein lies the problem,” I joke.
 
I look over to Jasmine and she offers me a
wink.

“I’m
gonna
step
outside where I can talk to Harry,” I tell her.
 
“You can come if you want to, it’s just too noisy in here for a call.”

She follows me outside as I dial the
number.

“Red?” I ask into the phone.

“Yeah?”

“It’s me, Rodney Vinton.”

“Hey Rod, have you reconsidered our
offer?”

“No thank you.
 
I’m just calling to set up another meeting so
we can discuss any possibility of the truce that you mentioned.”

“How about next Tuesday at two, same
place?” he offers.

“Yeah, sounds good.
 
My girlfriend wants to come along, too,” I
tell him.

“No problem, I’ll see you then,” he says
and I hang up the call.

“What did he say?” Trish asks me.

“He said that we could meet up at the same
place, next Tuesday at two,” I tell her.

“Alright, I’ll be ready.”

Ronan rides up on his hog and parks it in
the front of Dragon’s Lair.
 
He barges
inside and gets himself a beer and then heads for his office.

“You should probably wait to talk to him,
he doesn’t look like he’s in that good of a mood,” I tell her.
 
“Tread carefully.”

“I can handle my dad,” she tells me in
response.

She walks off to his office, knocks and
closes the door behind herself.
 
While
she’s inside, I begin texting her about how badly I want to see her naked.
 
I am relentless with my messages, hoping that
it will lighten her mood while she talks to her domineering father.

Fifteen minutes pass and she exits his
office, shutting the door behind herself.

“What happened?” I ask trying not to bust
out into laughter.

“I was really distracted there, thank you
very much!” she chides me.

“Did you talk to him?”

“Yeah, he said that I’ve got a point and
to take him off of the schedule before my mother finds out.”

“Good
good
, I
don’t think anyone wants to see your mother beating the shit out of Missy, no
matter how amusing it sounds.”

She gives me a half laugh as it appears
that she’s considering the thought.

Before Monday arrives, I already deal with
two calls from my father’s attorney.
 
He
desperately tries to get me to come to the dark side, but I vow to stay on the
side of the law.
 
I continually ask Mr.
Greenleaf to cease and desist with the calls, but he relents.

Tuesday is here and I ready Trish for our
meeting with Red.

“He’s a pretty harmless dude,” I tell
her.
 
“Nothing to worry about.”

“Good,” she says in response.

“Let’s hit it,” I tell her.
 

We walk out to our bikes and get on them,
revving them up for effect.

“You’re going to have to lead the way, I
have no idea where this place is,” she tells me.

“Follow me,” I tell her as I put my helmet
on.

We zip out onto the dirt roads and through
the winding streets to the paved roads.
 
We reach the Hinton Heights sign and make a few turns before we arrive
at Black’s Deli.

We park behind the place and I notice the
same familiar bike parked out back.
 
We
enter the place and Trish is on guard as she’s unsure of what to expect.

“He’s over there, the big guy with the
flaming red hair,” I whisper to her before we walk over to him.

“Let’s do this,” she says.

We walk over to Red’s table and sit on the
opposite side as him.
 
He puts his menu
down and looks at the both of us.

“This is my girlfriend, Trish,” I tell
him.
 
To her I say, “Sweetheart, this is
Red, also known as Harry Fletcher.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Harry tells her
accompanied by a smile.
 
In my head, I
knock his glasses off of his face for the flirtation.

“So, let’s get down to business.
 
Trish and I were talking about what you said
and she made a lot of sense.”

“What did Trish say?” he asks me as if
she’s not sitting here with us.

She pipes up, “I said that it wouldn’t
make any sense for us to consider a truce with you guys while you’re going
through what you called ‘civil unrest.’
 
Rodney tells me that there was a stabbing?”

“Two of the older members got into it and
one of them stabbed the other,” he states nonchalantly.

“It only makes sense for your club to
address the matter beforehand so you can come back to the table as a united
front,” I tell him.
 
Trish nods in
agreement.

“I guess that does make a lot of sense,”
he says with a glimmer of a smile he dedicates to Trish.

“We just don’t want any trouble down the line,”
Trish offers.

“Makes perfect sense.”

“We can certainly revisit the issue when
the time comes,” I offer.
 
“Just know
that nothing’s on the table as long as there is criminal behavior in the club.”

“Understood,” he says.
 
“A lot of the club’s older members are under
investigation because of the police attention.
 
Your father’s inner circle is all but gone at this point.
 
They’ve either run for the hills or are
staring at their own sentences in jail.”

“Is that right?” I ask.

“Yeah.
 
I guess they’re only loyal to a fault,” he tells us.
 
“It’s good, though.
 
It helps us weed out the bad seeds.”

“Alright, well, we look forward to hearing
from you again, Red.”

“It was great meeting you, Trish, and
we’ll be in touch,” he tells us.

We part ways as Trish and I walk to the
back of the deli to get on our bikes.
 
Before she places her helmet on her head, she asks, “Where to?”

“We should probably head back to the Lair
and talk to your dad about this,” I tell her.

“You’re right, let’s go,” she says putting
her helmet on and taking off.

We speed off from Black’s Deli to the
Dragon’s Lair where I can already see Ronan’s customized motorcycle out front.

We go inside and immediately find Ronan
standing at the bar getting another beer.

“Ronan, we need to talk,” I tell him.
 

“In my office,” he directs us.

Trish and I follow him to his office and
she shuts the door behind us once we’re inside.

“What’s this about?” he asks us.

“Last week I was contacted by a guy named
Red.
 
He’s part of what’s left of the
Deathdealers
.”

Ronan’s face reddens at the sound.

“What did he want?” he asks.

“At first, he said that the club is in a
disarray and asked me to come and be their leader,” I tell him.

“They wanted you to be their president?”
he asks in disbelief.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either,” I
tell him.

“What happened next?”

“I told him that I don’t want to get
involved.
 
He then suggested a truce.”

“Yeah?
 
What did you tell him?”

“I said that we should discuss it with our
president first because I don’t make decisions for the club,” I tell him.

“Yeah?”

“Trish said that he should clean house in
his club before we would even think about it.
 
They’ve got a lot of criminal activity still going down.”

“That’s smart.
 
She’s right.
 
We don’t want any hooligans in our club,” he tells us.

“I totally understand that.
 
So we’re waiting to hear back from him
again,” I tell him.

“I don’t like us being anywhere near the
Deathdealers
, but if this guy is on the up and up, then we
would consider forging a truce without their criminal elements.”