Mason_ Inked Reapers MC(1)(83)
Lucas sat in Jayson’s chair at the helm of their table. Julio stood sipping a drink in his tailor made suit. “Mason, Tick. Hello, my friends.” He tipped his glass to us. “I hope you aren’t angry about what happened. Carmella wouldn’t stop jabbering on and on about getting rid of Bernardo. So, I killed two birds with one stone. I’m sorry I didn’t give you all of the information, but I thought having you in the dark would be best. So as not to tip off Carmella. You understand.” He frowned.
“Sure.” I nodded, but I didn’t understand anything. I didn’t give a shit who killed how and why, I just wanted to be done with the mess. “I get it. No problem.”
“Good. Then let’s get started. We are all here, yes?” he asked Lucas.
“Everyone who matters.” Lucas nodded.
“Where’s your VP?” Marcus asked.
“Don’t have one yet. Still working out everyone’s loyalties.” Lucas leaned back in his chair. “Some of the guys didn’t take nicely to my opening up the gates to the whorehouse and letting out the women. A handful of the girls stayed, on their own accord. Been promised good wages and a decent living. But the cost of it comes out of the clubs cut of the profit, so some of the guys are a bit pissed. Had to clean house a little.”
“These women were severely abused under Jayson’s ruling.” Julio waved his glass in the air, nearly spilling some of his drink. “Lucas made them good offers. The ones who left have been given enough money to make their way home. Or wherever they want to go.”
“You funded this?” I couldn’t help but ask. Why would Julio give a shit about some whores in the back of a MC clubhouse?
“Ah, no.” He laughed. “I’m not that generous, much to my mama’s dismay. No, it was taken from your cut of the last run.”
Marcus stiffened, but didn’t outright react. “Our cut? Why?”
“I don’t like you.” Julio shrugged. Marcus’s fists closed, but still he remained quiet.
“We only had you here as a courtesy.” Lucas leaned forward, his fingers steeped. “This is my club now. I don’t want the Reapers. Separate clubs. We stay out of your way and you stay out of ours.”
“What about the deal we made with Bernardo?” Marcus slapped his hand on the table.
“Died with Bernardo.” Lucas smiled. “You get to keep your club, your territory, but the cartel deal, that stays here. Now, if you’d rather go to war, blow up each other’s houses, tear apart our clubs, that’s fine, but the cartel deal stays here.”
Marcus looked back at me, like I should do something. What did he want me to do? I didn’t give a shit what happened now. The club going back to how it was in the beginning? Shit, sounded just fine to me. If he wanted guts and glory, he picked the wrong guy to bring to the meeting. Once look over at Tick and I knew he had the same mindset as me.
“This is bullshit. You overthrow your president and go back on deals made?”
“I didn’t overthrow anything. Jayson walked out on this club. That asshole is crazed, mumbling to himself over the past few days. He’s obsessed with finding Lucy, can’t see straight or think straight. When he walked out of here two days ago, everyone in the bar heard him say he didn’t give a shit about the club, he just needed get his hands around that girl’s neck.”
“He was probably drunk.” Marcus snorted. My hands gripped my knees hard. If he was missing, he could have trailed Lucy.
“Probably. Doesn’t change what he said, or that he went off the grid the next day. Won’t answer his cell. Abandoned his chair.” Lucas grinned. The man may have had a soft spot for Lucy, helping her the way he did, but he was all MC in that room. He was a lifer, not like me. I lost the hunger, probably long before Lucy walked into my life. But it took meeting her to see there was a life worth having outside the club.
“He didn’t abandon nothing,” Marcus yelled. “If he walks back in here, he’s got the chair.”
“He’s not going to be doing that.” Lucas narrowed his eyes. “Unless you know something we don’t.”
“He aint dead. He’s over in Springgrove holed up with that Lucy bitch.” My full attention snapped to Marcus. “He grabbed hold of her two days ago.”
“How the fuck do you know that?” I pounced on him, grabbing his cut and pulling backward. His chair flew out from under him, his back bounced off the floor.
“Fuck.” He coughed.