Man of Steel(22)

I didn’t lose any sleep over the shit I did these days, my conscience was clear. I don’t rush to judgment and I give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but once the proof is there and cannot be disputed then yes, I take matters into my own hands. And if my guys were honest with themselves they’d admit that it was for that very reason that they’d approached me in the first place. My reputation had always preceded me. I had more citations for going hard on a perp that it was a wonder the brass hadn’t fired my ass years before I quit. Now I don’t have to answer to anyone, I do shit my way and one Dwayne Smothers was a dead man walking. He was just not going to be dealt with by Cowboy, the bloodthirsty fuck.

“Who’s got tonight?” I took out my little electronic gadget that I used to keep track of shit. When we were running an Op, everything had to be in place, every detail seen to so that there were no missteps. Since Dwayne had let it be known that he was willing to kill Stephanie so she couldn’t testify we had had to amp up her security more than ever before. Jake had come in handy there, since we had no jurisdiction it wasn’t easy for us to get a man in the classroom with her, but Jake had planted one of his guys there for a little added support for our girl.

Jake has a lot more involvement with us than most people know and that’s just the way we like to keep it. He handles the arrest and jailing of whomever we plan to send up for whatever undercover we’re working behind bars. I don’t know what happened to turn the hard-nose cop, we never discussed the shit, but I’m just glad that we’d found each other.

Though Jake dealt more with gangs and drug trafficking, somehow our worlds always collided at some point. Fecal matter is still shit no matter what guise it wears and assholes always gravitate towards each other. He was doing his thing from behind the badge to clean up the streets and my guys and I were doing our bit from the backs of our bikes.





Chapter 13




I had everything outlined from start to finish on the screen as far as I could tell. There was a crew heading in from out of town to help with detail for the day of, and this weekend at Jake’s was supposed to be some sort of pow wow with the different chapters. We chose Jake’s or more like he chose his place because as he put it a group of rival MCs getting together in his town was not exactly his idea of peaceful.

This little get together was my idea. Again my law enforcement training was kicking in, but as far as I can see it made more sense for all of us to put our heads together and do what the fuck we do. It was past time that we cleaned up the image and public perception of bikers anyway.

When we first started doing our rides in support of victims of child abuse and domestic violence we had no idea that there would be others interested in getting onboard.

The guys had come to me with a small contingent of men who had gotten the idea when one of their nieces had suffered at the hands of a known sex offender out on bail or some shit. When the perp had made threats and the cops had had their heads up their asses the guy had come up with the idea of getting his small crew together for protection. That’s where the Hellions of Steel had been born. I know, pretty clichéd name for a crew but it fits.

By the time they recruited me they had already been on a few rides, but they realized that the shit was bigger than they expected. They needed organization and some kind of format. I came onboard first and foremost because they sold me on what it was they were trying to achieve and second because I was proud of these guys who’d been trying to come back from their criminal past.

Not that the fucks were on the straight and narrow, every so often I have to knock heads together when they slip up and do some shit they have no right doing now that they had legitimate outlets available to them. But I guess it was a pipe dream to expect them to go cold turkey. As long as they weren’t peddling drugs I was okay with whatever the fuck they got up to.

Now that the government had seen fit to legalize weed I had my hands full keeping their asses in check. There was already a grow in the works; my job was seeing to it that all the bylaws were followed to the letter. Other than that they had the bike shop business, and Lily had set up an online store where they sold shirts and other novelty items with the crew’s emblem.

One of the sisters was into jewelry making and that shit seemed to be doing pretty good too, so I had no worries about my boys falling back into a life of crime. Things were on an upward swing as far as I could tell. I kept a tight rein on their asses since they’d somehow designated me as their leader, maybe because I was older or maybe because of my experience.

Whatever it was it was a true testament to their growth that I appreciated their loyalty and friendships more than that of my former colleagues. These boys had come through the fire and were better men for it, I have to respect that. Now if I could get them to put aside their taste for blood all would be well in my little world.