Prodigal Son(34)

“Yeah, in some cases they can catch people who are too stupid to cover their tracks, but here’s the thing. You can grow legally in Colorado now. If you’re selling to a dispensary, it’s legit.”

Joker and Jimmy looked at one another.

Jimmy spoke first. “You know, it never occurred to me to do something legal.”

Joker still wasn’t convinced. “But won’t you lose all the profit to taxes and shit?”

“Absolutely not. A college buddy of mine has a medical marijuana business in California. He started with just a few plants and a single store. He now has a huge farm and a string of stores. We could make this work.”

“But where would we get the money to get started?” Jimmy asked, as if he was afraid of getting too excited about an idea that might not be feasible.

“Dude, I’m a business analyst. I can do this shit in my sleep. My parents left me some money, and I could get the license and cover the startup — for a percentage, of course.”

Joker looked like he was starting to get on board. “You sure you know enough to grow the stuff and get the business started?”

“Really? I’m insulted, Joker. Our bud was famous all over Arizona. Part of the key is marketing. You create a great name for the product, and I bet we would even have other dispensaries wanting to buy our weed. This will work, I guarantee it.”

Jimmy nearly jumped out of his chair. “We could call it Savage Bud, or something like that.”

“That’s the spirit,” I said, surprised to discover that I was actually getting excited about the prospect of starting a new venture.

“There’s one problem,” Joker said, looking me square in the eye. “The Sons will never do business like this with someone who’s not a member … or at least on his way to becoming one. You’ll have to become a prospect if this is gonna work.”

“Can’t you just make me a member? Give me the cut and call it a day?”

Jimmy shook his head. “No way. There’s no shortcut to becoming a full member. Everyone has to be a prospect for at least a year.”

“A year? That’s ridiculous.”

Joker agreed with Jimmy. “He’s right. It’s a year before you’re official, and no one ever moves up to prospect this quickly, but I’ll make an exception for you, both because you’re my son and because you may have the fuckin’ idea that gets us back in the money.”

I hadn’t really thought about trying to join the MC, but I’d had fun hanging out with the Sons the night before, and I’d sure enjoyed the ride up to Cripple Creek. Maybe I could take a longer leave of absence from work and actually do this thing — join the Savage Sons and start a new business. It would give me a chance to get to know Joker and Sable, and the change of scenery and of pace might be good for me.

“All right,” I said with a grin. “I’m in. Let’s do this thing, brothers.”

Jimmy ordered another round of shots, and I realized that my afternoon trip to Cripple Creek might turn into an all-nighter. We laughed, drank, and spent the rest of the day planning how Joker would announce me as a prospect and sell the other guys on the weed shop idea. He was sure he could get the Sons to vote me in, and he knew that everyone was so hard up for money that they’d welcome any plan to remedy that situation.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time and realized that a text message from Krystal had arrived about an hour before.

Looking forward to Friday ;-)

“Another benefit to staying in Denver,” I said under my breath as I tried to sober up enough to type out a coherent response.





Chapter 16


Krystal


Thursday, May 9, 2013

I picked up my black eyeliner and brought it to my face before I realized that my hands were shaking too badly for me to even put makeup on. I was completely fucked. I was furious, I was hurt, and I was gonna find a way to get even with the piece of shit I called my boyfriend. Bug wasn’t gonna know what hit him, but he was gonna be sorry.

I’d finished my shift the night before and met Bug at the clubhouse. He never wanted to go anywhere else, and by the time I’d gotten there, he was drunk. Every now and then, he got kinda happy drunk, less groping and more affectionate. Last night hadn’t been one of those times. A couple of months before, a new guy from the Fort Collins chapter of the Savage Sons had patched over, and Bug was putting on quite the show for Nate, making sure that the new blood respected the Denver V.P.

Careful not to appear flirtatious with Nate — even though he was pretty freaking hot — I’d gone straight to Bug’s side. Since I’d known from the beginning that he was shitfaced, I’d been careful not to drink very much so that I could get myself home safely. I was just marking time until Bug would let me leave. After I’d listened to Bug tell Nate what great blow jobs I gave, and after I interrupted his listing all the guys in the MC that I’d fucked, I’d had enough. I went to the ladies room, told Bug that I was leaving because I had an early class, collected my purse from beneath my barstool, and I’d headed out with a sigh of relief.