The three heads beat me here it looked like with their henchmen in tow. This shit was beginning to feel like a mafia sit-down or some fuck. “How’s the atmosphere Jake?” I took a sip of my beer and watched Lily across the yard yakking with Jackie and some other women that I didn’t know. Women are strange fucking creatures that way, they can meet and strike up conversations like long lost friends. Men not so much, especially not this bunch.
“They’re cool.” Long-winded fucker.
We walked over to get things moving since the guys were all sectioned off in their own groups. “Shamus, Jared, Slash.” I greeted each man with a pound and stood back to see who was gonna set shit off.
“”Blade.” Shamus was the eldest one here, as head of the Hellraisers he’s been doing this shit for a minute and he looked it. He was a true throwback to the bikers of old. With the foot long greying beard and the beer gut to go with it. He was getting up there in age but word was he was still the wrong motherfucker to mess with.
Jared probably had a few years on me. He led the Outlaws and though he was tatted up from head to toe with bulging muscles, he didn’t have that hard look to him yet. I think he used to be an attorney or some shit in his past life. It was left to be seen what, if anything he could bring to the table. That was whole purpose of this little get together after all; to pool our resources.
Slash, the head of the Invaders was in his late twenties and with his white blonde hair shaved close and his tats and piercings on full display, he was a cross between the other two. From my quick once over of the men they’d brought with them it seemed each crew had a theme. Wish the fuck I could get my boys to be this uniformed. Deke would probably kill me in my sleep if I tried to get him to wear anything other then leather and Stryder was a GQ model wanna be. So not happening.
“We doing this now or you guys need some time?”
“Nah I think we’re all ready.” Shamus spoke for the others and Jake nodded his head in the direction of the far side of the backyard where he had a table set up. I shook my head no when Deke and Stryder started to follow me. The others could have their shadows follow if they liked but this was my turf. I didn’t feel the need to flex my muscles, not yet anyway.
The boys weren’t too pleased but they stood down, though they stayed close. What the fuck am I? Their grandfather or some shit? I ignored them and headed over to the table where the others waited. I was the picture of relaxed, but I was ready for anything; just because these fuckers claimed they came in peace that didn’t mean I was about to let my guard down. The U.N. has been holding peace talks for fucking ever before two factions and that shit was in Nowheres land.
I sat back and waited for one of them to talk, after all they were the ones that needed to sell me on the idea of letting them in. My deal here today was to make sure that they understood what it would mean if we accepted them. I wasn’t power boating but I wasn’t about to play fast and loose with this shit either. Too much was at stake for me to be anything but hard with this shit.
Once again Shamus took the lead. “So what is it that you guys do anyway?”
“A lot.” What the fuck?
“I mean what exactly is it that you do on a day to day. We’ve only got the bare bones of the operation and if we’re gonna be getting on board we need to know just what it is that we’d be getting into.”
“Here’s the deal, this shit is serious. What we do is offer protection where it’s needed but there’s a lot more to it than that. We have our hands full with a whole slew of shit from security detail to relocation etc. etc. etc. Now the only reason I’m even contemplating letting you guys in the door is because we’re stretched thin. This thing has taken off and become huge. We’re getting request from states all over the map not to mention internationally. We try not to turn anyone away.
Sometimes there’s more than one complaint at a time and since I don’t believe in short changing one to take care of another, we could use the extra help. We don’t need it but we could use it. The other thing that you guys need to know.” Here I looked at each one of them with my ‘don’t fuck with me’ expression.
“We run this shit like the army, there’s no stone left unturned and every situation is handled with care from beginning to end. Any questions?”
I’ve got one. How do you choose who you help?” Slash sat forward with his elbows on the table.
“We don’t, they choose us. Here’s how it works, we get a call or email or what the fuck ever. The first thing we do is make sure it’s legit. With that we either do a background check or send a few guys out to scout the area. Once we’ve ascertained that we’re really needed a team heads out right away. Some cases are more serious then others, some might take days some weeks. Here’s where you guys come in. All of you have chapters in other states that can be deployed if need be. But understand anyone interested in joining us have to go through the training.