Ryker by Jeneveir Evans

Chapter 17

Struggling is hard because you never know what’s at the end of the tunnel.

~Don Rickles~

Ryker

October 17th, 1999

I laid awake a long time last night as I went over everything that had happened during the meeting. I’d had no plans of bringing up the possibility of a patch over with my men and myself. I wouldn’t have asked that. I’d been fucking ecstatic that they offered sanctuary for my family. That had been the most important thing I had wanted them to consider. For them to take it not one step, but two steps further, blew me away.

They were offering to come help me wipe out the debauched men of HRMC. I’d been dumbfounded when I’d heard the number of trained military men that were in the club. When Dog had commented on the exact number of those men, he had mentioned on the team. I had a feeling there was a story there. One I’m sure I’d get if I managed to live through the battle with King. Because if my men wanted to come to Arkansas and agreed to a patch over, my ass was damn well going to join ARMC.

For the first time in a long time, I felt hope. Hope that my men and I will be able to accomplish our goal. That we might actually come out winners on the other side.

I got up early and fixed a pot of coffee. After finding a stainless steel tumbler with a lid in one of the cabinets, I poured it full of brew and headed outside. Instead of sitting in one of the chairs on the porch, I decided to look around. Coffee in hand, I headed down the road toward the Clubhouse.

Damned if that building wasn’t nice. The entire Clubhouse was similar to a lodge. The main room, which I’d heard Bane call the Great Room, was huge. It was decked out like most MC clubs. It had the required bar, pool tables, tables and chairs scattered around, a large screen TV with comfortable furniture surrounding it, a jukebox, stage and dance floor.

The difference was that ARMC took things to a completely different level. Hell, the building had a dining room and a commercial sized kitchen, a movie theater, plus it had over forty bedrooms with attached bathrooms for the single men. That wasn’t counting the officers’ quarters. There were also several club girls, who were damn fine looking women, and each of them had their own rooms in the Clubhouse.

I laughed at what the comparison would be between ARMC and HRMC. It would amount to having the option of staying either at the Ritz or a No-Tell Motel.

I’d learned that almost all the men who had families had their own homes. I studied the houses as I walked past them. While it was obvious some were older, they were all very well maintained. Then there were some that were like Bane’s, pretty much brand new. All of them were beyond nice.

As I got close to a metal building on my left, the door opened and I saw that it was a gym. From the brief glimpse I got before the door closed, it looked like every machine was high end. Two of the men who had volunteered to blow up HRMC’s clubhouse, Cas and Ghost, walked out with two boys that I would guess were around fifteen. One favored Ghost. The other didn’t look like either of them. They called out a greeting as they walked past me toward the houses.

Next on my left was an eight bay garage. The doors of several bays were open. There were a few bikes parked inside and I saw a couple Prospects waxing two of them.

I continued my stroll down the road and situated on the right, behind the Clubhouse, was the outside rec area. There was a large playground for kids and off to one side sat a fairly good sized building that was roughly one hundred feet away from it. I had no clue what it could be, I made a mental note to ask. Closer to the Clubhouse were a couple of pavilions under which were several picnic tables. There were also picnic tables sitting on the grass out in the open. Off to one side of the tables was a horseshoe pit. Closer to the main building was a massive swimming pool with an outdoor kitchen off to one side.

I shook my head at the extravagance of it all. Bane had tried to tell me what it was like, but there was no way I could have pictured this. None. It was beyond comprehension that this was a biker compound.

I continued my journey around the front of the Clubhouse. The gate towers were massive. As I got closer to them, I saw that they were built out of steel and, if I had to guess, I’d say that they were thick enough to be bulletproof. I glanced at the windows and knew that they had to be bulletproof too. There’s no way that they didn’t make sure that the glass had the same structural integrity as the towers. A young man looked down at me and smiled. I jerked my chin at him.

“What do you think?” I heard a voice call from behind me.

I turned around and saw Dog walking toward me.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before. I was just thinking to myself that Bane didn’t do it justice when he tried to describe it to me. Dog, the compound is the nicest thing I’ve ever seen.”

A smile crossed Dog’s face. “That’s what we’ve always aimed for. We want the compound to have all the luxuries the men could want in a community.”

“Well you’ve definitely succeeded.”

“Want to take a look in the towers?”

“Yeah, gotta admit to being curious as fuck to see what’s inside them.”

I followed him to the door that faced the Clubhouse and he entered a code into the box on the wall. He pulled the door open and motioned me inside. I stepped inside an area that was partially used for storage. I tilted my head at the ramp that led to a hatch in the floor of the tower. I sent a puzzled look at Dog and he grinned at me. He started up the ramp and tapped on the door to the hatch. After it was lifted up, Dog went on up and I followed him. As I stepped onto the floor, the Prospect dropped the door back down immediately.

I saw the reason for the ramp. A German shepherd stuck his nose in my crotch as soon as I was in the room.

Dog chuckled and the Prospect said, “Bronx, come.” The dog made its way to the young man. “Sit.” As soon as the dog obeyed, the young man started rubbing the dog’s head and chest and murmured, “Good boy.”

“Doing double duty are you?” Dog asked the Prospect.

“Yeah, my next time on tower watch is when Mia and Jennie plan to have dinner for Ryker and his family.”

Dog nodded as if he understood the young man’s meaning. I didn’t have a clue about it myself. Why would Vip’s dinner for us make a difference to this man?

The closer I looked at the kid, the more I realized he looked like someone I knew. Damn, who was it? I knew it was going to drive me nuts if I didn’t figure it out. The Prospect glanced up and caught me staring.

“Sorry for staring, son, but you remind me of someone and I’m trying to figure out who,” I stated.

He jerked his chin at me. “You probably think I look like my father.”

“Who’s your dad?”

“He wasn’t ever my dad, but the man whose DNA I carry was called Serpent.”

My eyes widened in shock and I looked toward Dog for affirmation.

“Yeah, Vip only found out about Risky this year.”

“I bet that went over well,” I muttered.

“You have no idea,” Dog’s voice rumbled out.

I glanced back at the kid and asked, “Did Serpent not know about you?”

“Oh, the bastard knew. He gave my bitch of an egg donor the money to abort me and told her to get her ass out of his town.”

“Christ.” I winced. “Sorry, son. I know if Vip had known about you, you can bet your ass things would have been different.”

A genuine smile spread across his face. “Yeah, Vip is the greatest.”

“He is that for sure. I’m Ryker. I’ve known Viper since he patched into SoS.”

“I’m Risky. Glad to meet you.”

I tipped my head at him as I took in the monitors sitting on a bench desk that ran the entire length of the front of the tower. My eyebrows raised at what I was looking at. This shit was hi-tech.

“Dog, I think those two monitors go to the speaker system, but what are the other two connected to?” I inquired.

“One is for the FLIR camera and the other for the FLIR video camera.”

“Damn,” I breathed out. I looked at him and questioned, “Y’all got that kind of enemies?”

“Nah, Ry. We don’t usually. There’s some things that have gone down over the last twelve months that caused us to upgrade our security. When we did, we decided to go top of the line on everything.”

“So I see,” I murmured disbelievingly.

After they explained how the towers functioned, Dog and I left the structure and headed toward the Clubhouse.

“What do you think of what you’ve seen so far?”

“I think I’ve stepped into an alternate universe. I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever heard of another biker compound this nice or secure. I’m fucking impressed as hell.”

“Good. While you’re gone, know that we’ll take good care of your family. It’s up to you whether you want them to stay strictly on the compound or if they can go in and out.”

“Let me think about it. I would like to think my kids would listen and keep their asses down here, but I’m afraid if they get worried about me they might try to come home. I’m going to do my best to impress upon them that being here will actually benefit me.”

“Understand that. You just let us know and that’s what we’ll do.”

“Dog, I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of what you and the MC are doing for us. This is a life saver. And the invite to join the club, well...” I stopped and swallowed before I continued speaking. “I never expected it.”

“Ry. When I first met Viper, the man struck a chord with me. He’s a scary, fierce warrior, but underneath I could tell that he was a good, decent man. My regard for him has only grown. The man is uncanny in his skills and in how he can read people. There is only one other man that I have met that can read a man like he does and that man is Seer. He was the man in our meeting with long silver hair.

“But I believe that Viper has one over on Seer. Vip can see through a man’s bullshit faster than anyone I’ve ever met. I swear he looks into their soul and knows the caliber of a man or woman he is studying within moments. When Vip told me about you, initially a part of me wanted to think that maybe he was a little prejudiced since he’s known you for so long.

“I should have known better than to think that way. It wouldn’t matter who it is, if Vip didn’t like a man or thought he was bad, he’d let me know. He’s sung your praises from the moment he first heard your name mentioned in our meeting in March with Bane. That was the night we sent Bane to Spyder’s compound.

“That had me curious as hell about you. I had to see for myself if someone had gotten something over on Vip. I know now that they didn’t. I see in you what I saw in Vip when I first met him. If I didn’t feel that you would fit into the MC, the invitation would never have been extended. I don’t think that though, I’m sure you and Tor will do good here.

“I can’t make any promises about your men until we meet them, but I can say that Vip has told us what he knows about each of the men and he went to bat for them. That means something to all of us.”

“Vip’s a good man, one of the best I’ve ever met. Anytime I’ve ever needed anything, I knew all I had to do was call him and ask. It humbles me that he’s vouched for my men and me,” I responded. I’d always known about Vip’s ability to read people. I knew that since he had brought his family and men here, that it was in fact a good club to be in.

“I agree with you about Vip being a good man. He’s become a close friend since he and his men patched over. I feel like the honor was ours when they became members.”

“Did Vip say he noticed anything unusual about my men?”

“He knows that Brawn, Crusher and Rage all despise King. He said that he believes that T and Draven served in the Army together and that there’s more to the story with Taz. That the man hero worships you.”

“Christ. I can’t believe he picked up on that shit. I fucking hope no one else has managed to figure that out.”

“I think Vip’s just that good. I’ve only seen him question himself once and that was with Risky.”

“What’s the story there?”

“My son Beau and Vip’s sons, Reb and Pred, were in the same unit in the Army. It’s through them that I met Vip. Anyway, the boys told several of the men in their unit to look them up after they mustered out. Two showed up last year, Creed and Brick. They’re already patched members. A few months ago, six more men showed up. Risky was one of them.

“Before they got here, the boys told us about them. They were concerned about one man in particular. Risky. They said he was the greatest guy we’d ever meet and would always have a man’s back but he had one problem. He appeared to hate women. That shit’s a no-go here. This club reveres and respects our women. Doesn’t matter if they're our moms, Old Ladies, daughters, or club girls.

“We told our sons that we wouldn’t put up with any disrespect toward the women. That this man they liked so well might not be MC material. They were worked up about it. They thought out of all of them that Risky needed the club. When they got here, Vip immediately recognized Risky. I knew something was wrong with the way Vip was acting. He didn’t give me any information that night, he asked me to wait until the following day before he explained what had him upset.

“Needless to say I was shocked when I found out. But Vip was devastated. He was afraid that Risky might be too far gone in his hatred of women to work out here. I’m not sure how Risky survived what his bitch of an incubator put him through. Luckily, we figured out that Risky didn’t really hate all women, just his cunt of a mother.”

“Who was she?”

“Woman named Lilith.”

“Holy shit. I’ve met her. That woman was as crazy as a Bessie bug. I don’t remember most women, but this one stood out. One of the times I was at SoS’s compound, she got the men all riled up to take her. She wanted them to beat and fuck her in front of everyone. It made me sick to my stomach to see. Christ, I bet Vip went off his rocker when he found out.”

“You have no idea.”

“Yeah, I do. He did what I would have done. He killed the bitch and I would put good money down that he made sure the cunt suffered as much as humanly possible.”

Dog laughed. “Jesus. I swear you and Vip are kin.”

“Hell, Dog. Nowadays I believe anything’s possible.”

~***~