BANE: A Devils' Due MC Romance Novel (5 page)

Mason, Bear and Romeo were the first to arrive that morning.  They call themselves the
Three Musketeers
.  An idiotic tag. I know, but I guessed it was just like a fucking B-movie... it’s not meant to be taken seriously.  They’re a tight trio, so close that they could pass off as triplets.  They joined the club together... prospected together... got patched in together.  They’ve been an inseparable group... they’re probably licking the same cunt each and every night.

All of three of them are big, burly men.  Romeo was the smallest, 5’10” I think.  Mason and Bear are a few inches taller.  They’re all muscularly built, though.  They could easily frighten people with their imposing physiques.

They’re also very young.  Twenty-five or so, I believe, give or take a year or two.  They’re part of the
new generation
of Devils we recruited in 2010, after the club was almost wiped out by the
Hounds of Hell
invasion.  The old guys in the club - though there were only a handful of us left - never really liked the new breed, well, not as much as a brother should love a brother, at least.  For the more tenured members, the younger brothers were too brash, too irreverent, too disrespectful of tradition.

But what could we do?

Loco, one of the newer brothers, assumed the presidency, and he didn’t choose any of the old hands to be his VP and his sergeant-at-arms. 
Upgrading for the future
, he once joked.  But all jokes, as always is the case, are half-meant.

The trio sang a
happy birthday
song as soon as they walked through the door.  Bear was holding a bottle of Jim Beam with a blue candle stuck on top of the lid.  Romeo lit it up as they approached me on the bar while I was enjoying a mug of coffee.

“Happy fucking birthday, you Jurassic dickwad!” Romeo, the most vocal of the three, greeted.

Hell, yeah!  It was my birthday.  With everything that has happened in recent weeks, I actually forgot about it.  That nurse I banged last night was meant to be a birthday present for myself.

“My birthday’s yesterday, Romeo,” I told him.  “But thanks.”

“Jesus Christ, Bane!  You’re old!  Forty-two, is it?” he asked.

“Forty-one,” I corrected him.  I wasn’t
that
old by bikers’ standards.  Most MC members throughout the country were in their forties, as many of them joined their clubs after serving the army.  But with my club?  With more than half the membership composed of fucking millennials?  Yeah... forty-one was kinda ancient.

“Well, if it’s any consolation, life begins at forty... so they say,” Romeo said as he tapped my back.

“Fun-fucking-tastic,” I coldly replied as I tried to finish up my morning dose of caffeine.

Bear placed the Jim Beam in front of me.

“Whatcha’ waitin’ for, old man?  Blow the candle!” he yelled excitedly like a girl who just got her cherry popped.

“I appreciate the thought and the effort, bud, but seriously, that shit’s gonna ruin my cred,” I reasoned out.

“Well... if you say so,” he answered as he blew the candle himself.  “Happy birthday, Bane!”

Mason sat beside me.  He was the most level-headed of their group.  A good kid.  Smart, polite, kind.  Much like Trevor.  He’d be an officer soon.  He has what it takes to be one.

“How did it go?” he wanted to know.

“The rat’s dead,” I told him.  “The prospects just left a few minutes ago to clean up the mess.”

“Everything went smooth?  No hiccups?”

Hmmm.  I guessed that depended on how he defined the term
hiccup
.

“Nah, it went well,” I said instead.  There was no need to make matters more complicated than they already were.

“That’s good to hear, brother.  At least, that’s one problem out of the way.  Now, we just have to deal with what’s left.  Renzo did quite a number on us.  The info he gave the DEA?  They went down on us hard, Bane.  Really hard.  That shit’s gonna sting.”

“I know.  Twenty-two meth labs, gone just like that, huh?”

“Yeah, and then there’s the expected
blow back
from the Captolis.  Surely, they’d blame us for what went down.  Renzo
was
one of us, after all.”

“Veep’s planning to sit down with their patriarch soon.  He told me that much last night.  Hopefully, they’d get things sorted out and blood won’t have to spill.”

“I dunno, man... the Captolis... they’re a vicious lot.  It was always hard to make them listen... to make them understand.  The only language they’re good at is the lingo of a loaded gun.”

“Loco’s good with the patriarch, right?” I asked, hoping that Prez would have enough pull to make things right with the Italian crime family without having to wage war with them.

“True, but I don’t know how strong their friendship.  Besides, Prez is still in jail.”

“He should be posting bail soon.  Veep made arrangements with that biker-lawyer from SoCal.”

“Shakes?  The
Bastard?
  He’s in Wyoming?”

“Veep told me that much, yeah.”

“Good,” Mason said as he removed the candle from the bottle.  “Mind if I get the first shot?”

“Suit ‘yerself, brother,” I gave my permission.

He twisted the lid and poured some whiskey on his glass.  Just before he could take a sip, however, Romeo started screaming.  He was running out of the hallway where the rooms were.

Oh fuck!
  I didn’t even notice him go there.

“Holy shit, guys!” Romeo shouted while laughing.  “There’s a half-naked chick in Bane’s room... and she’s fucking young to be legal!”

Mason and Bear cheered as I shook my head in annoyance.

“Bane... you’re a fucking animal, brother!” Romeo continued.  “She’s like, what?  Sixteen?”

“I... have no idea,” I grunted.  His question made me realize that I didn’t really know her exact age.

“Picked her up at Playworld?” Bear joked as he proceeded to where Romeo was.  He wanted to take a peek at the girl in my room.

“No, I didn’t... and can ‘ya just leave the girl alone?” I stopped him.

“Yeah Bear, Romeo... come here and just join us for a drink,” Mason ordered them.  “What’s Bane’s is Bane’s.”

“Aw shucks!  I was just gonna take a lil’ look,” Bear whined as he went back to the bar.

“Just make sure she’ll keep her mouth shut,” Mason warned me.  “Being a sex offender?  Christ!  That sucks, brother.  I’d rather do time for manslaughter.”

“I didn’t, and I ain’t, doin’ her, alright?” I informed him. 

“Then why is she in your room?” Mason wanted to know.

“Because... she’s a fucking
guest
,” I tentatively answered.

“A guest?”

“Of the club’s.”

“I... I don’t get it, Bane.”

“She’s Renzo’s kid.”

My reply changed their mood dramatically.  They hushed up,
fucking finally
if I may add, as a terrible sense of disquietude filled the air around us.  Their eyes widened like they were about to pop out of their sockets. 

“She’s the rat’s kid?!” Romeo started to bawl.  “She’s the fucking rat’s kid?!  You’re banging the rat’s kid?!”

“I ain’t bangin’ her!” I maintained.  “How many fucking times do I have to tell ‘ya that?”

“Then what is the rat’s kid doing in your room, Bane?” Romeo asked as he began to, literally, pull his hair in agitation and anger.

“Where else can she stay?  Loco’s room?  That’s off-limits to everyone.  Ducky’s?  The graybeard’s practically deranged and his bed reeks of death.”

“Wait, wait, wait... I think we’re missing the point here,” Mason interrupted.  “Why is she here?”

“Because she ain’t got nowhere else to go?” I said.

“But you just offed his old man last night, and now, she’s in our clubhouse?  That’s so fucked up, brother.”  Mason couldn’t hide his worry.

“Renzo asked the club to take care of her until she finishes up her schooling,” I began to explain.  “Veep agreed.  Said it was a dying man’s wish and Renzo was still a brother when he asked for that favor.”

“Renzo is a rat!” Romeo screamed.

“Yeah, he is, but Veep hasn’t read him his
Final Rites
yet when he made his request.”

“And Trevor said yes just like that?” Mason wondered.

I just shrugged.

“This is gonna be messy,” Mason shook his head.  “This is gonna cause a lot of drama that will turn our house upside down.”

“Let’s just kill the damn bitch!” Romeo strongly suggested as he slammed his fist on the bar.

“Easy, Rome,” Mason reminded him. “No one’s killing anybody... not yet, at least.”

“Veep has decided,” I stated.  “The girl lives.  She’ll stay with us for four months, until summer when her school finishes.  Then she’ll leave.  Either that or we’ll kick her out.”

“Indeed.  Veep has decided and we must respect the hierarchy,” Mason agreed.  “But this shit... it won’t sit well with everybody... the rest of the brothers... the girls... hell, Loco might shoot her himself once he comes back.  This will divide the club, Bane.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said as I finished up my coffee.

“The last thing we need is another issue that will test our unity,” Mason added.

“Aye,” Bear responded.  Romeo settled down and expressed his agreement as well.

“Aye,” I was compelled to mutter just to put a damn period on the subject.

Everyone fell silent after that, as if we were all bracing for the worst. 

At the back of my mind, though, I couldn’t help but ask myself: were we just fretting over nothing? 

I mean... what kind of shit storm can a little girl possibly stir up?