“If I go back to the MC instead of taking Aaron’s job offer, his plan no longer works, as he’ll have no way to pay you what you’re worth.”
“I’m thinking the best way for me to make sure Ice stays off the radar, is to retire her completely. I want to raise horses, and teach people to ride them, and maybe board other people’s horses for extra income, and do fantabulous adventure camps in the summer. One of my old identities with money is going to buy the place, and then hire Harmony to run the food shack. I’ll hire someone else for that, so I can be the general manager in reality.”
There had been stables at the private school my father had sent me to, and the horses were my refuge. Teenage girls can be cruel, but the horses were always there for me. I wanted to give that to other teens. I took a breath and plunged in with what I’d already done. “Gen found me some property not too far away from the road you used to live on. Someone bought your old house, but there are a few lots left, and you can buy one from the MC and we can have our dream home built.”
I’d learned the MC had bought a huge tract of land backing a little-used area of the Chickamauga Battlefield. They’d developed their land into a subdivision, which gave them a place for their wolves to run, as they could literally run out their back door into the forest. They didn’t offer the land to just anyone, but most of the core members lived there, the exception being Duke and Gen, since she was happy with her house and Duke had moved in with her.
Brain pulled me into his arms and held me several long moments before saying, “Okay, Buttercup. We’ll go look at the land with Gen in a few days. Do you have pictures?”
“I do,” I told him as I pulled away and reached for my tablet. “It already has horse fencing and an older barn. I can probably start with it as is, and then add buildings and activities as I go.”
I wanted a climbing wall and a zip line, and maybe a ropes course, for the summer camp.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Brain
Bikers don’t get emotional, so I walked into the clubhouse and to the back room for the meeting as if I’d been doing it all along. I accepted my Chattanooga patch back, and then glared at Duke as he seconded Bash’s motion for me to be voted in as VP, and then started the vote.
The vote was unanimous, and Bash cut the patch off his vest and handed it to me as he said, “Damn, it’s good to have you back. Is Harmony ready for the party tonight?”
I shook my head. “She thinks she is, but can any of our women ever be ready for their first RTMC party, when they haven’t been part of our world before?”
“She’ll be fine,” Duke assured me. “Gen and Bethany will take her under their wing, and I’m thinking with the three of them on the women’s splatterball team, we might should go practice our strategy.”
I shook my head. “I have one more piece of business.” I looked around the table and told them, “My woman prefers a taser over a firearm. I know the usual practice is to get to know someone before we vote them weapons privileges, but I need ya’ll to trust the opinions of myself, Duke, Gonzo, and Bash, and vote to give her permission for her taser, and/or her knife and pepper spray. She occasionally carries a gun, and is damned good with it, but I won’t ask for you to approve her for it on RTMC property, yet.”
Dawg looked at Gonzo and asked, “You’re okay with her having her toys here?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t elaborate, and no one asked him to. Duke took the vote, and they all voted in favor. I was afraid this’d be a sore point, because they hadn’t voted in favor for Gen at first, and it’d caused problems, but Duke’s smile told me he was happy with the outcome.
“Need to bring you up to speed on some things,” Dozer said, his voice gruff. “Bash is still in charge of the girls, and the operation is running as smooth as can be expected. We got nineteen now, and we’ve had to turn customers away on the weekends a few times, so we’re still recruitin’. We brought in a few shipments of foreign guns and made a tidy profit, but for a number of reasons, we voted to stop. One of the prospects already has his FFL. He owns a pawn shop and isn’t doing much with it, right now, and we’re in talks with him to expand his current business model with the club’s backing, if he gets voted in full patch.”
Right, because I’d screwed the pooch by leaving town before my license could be approved.
“Our relationship with local LEO went way down after McPherson disappeared,” Duke continued. “We’re trying to build it back, but the trust isn’t there. When we invite them to our parties, most of the ones who come seem to be here as investigators more than guests.”