Ryker by Jeneveir Evans
Chapter 26
Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion - you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That’s how life is.
~Bobby McFerrin~
Ryker
October 26th, 1999
South Dakota
We all left at different times and in groups of two. Brawn and Draven rode together. This made the most logical sense seeing as how they were both still in Kings’ core group of men. Next up was Crusher and Rage. Both those boys went together everywhere. Where there was one, there would be the other. I wasn't sure if they fucked women in the same room or, hell, they might share them for all I knew. T and Taz rode down together, then there was Tor and me.
Tor and I were the first to pull into the park around four-fifteen p.m. We picked out a spot where the table was off to itself and shaded. Next in was T and Taz, followed by Crusher and Rage. Brawn and Draven were last. We’d decided for them to bring up the rear. They would know for sure if any of the rest of Kings’ minions were trying to follow any of us. I didn’t think they would, but I wasn’t banking on that to be true. It was better to be safe than sorry.
Once we were all at the table, I glanced around at each man. None looked like they had been in any altercations. That was always a good thing.
“Anything happen while we were gone?” I questioned.
Everyone but Draven and Brawn shook their heads.
“Drav, tell the rest of the guys what you found out.”
“I saw Lizard, Leech and Snow talking to King around ten-thirty Tuesday night. I could tell that King was giving them orders. There was too much head nodding for it to be anything else. Around midnight, Snow got up and went outside. I slipped out the back and made my way toward my junker. I heard Liz and Leech come out as I was slipping through the woods.
“They left the compound in the club’s truck. I gave them time to get past where I was, then I pulled onto the road without the headlights on. After they turned onto the main drag, I waited until they were around the curve before I pulled out. It didn’t take long before I had them in sight. They had something loaded in the vehicle but I couldn’t make out what it was.
“I followed them down Highway 21 until they turned off at an old poultry farm. There wasn’t anywhere to park until roughly a quarter of a mile past the farm. That’s where I pulled my truck onto a dirt path and waited until I saw them leave. Then I went on foot to the farm.
“The back chicken house has been cleaned up. Inside the door, closest to the dirt track leading to the houses, was a main room with a hallway that had three rooms off of both sides. The first two rooms on each side of the hallway had old mattresses in them. Oddly enough, King just replaced four mattresses for some of the men at the clubhouse. Continuing down the hallway, it opened into another large room. In the center was a drain. There was a water hose coming through the wall. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s where they are going to wash off victims.
“Past that area were another four rooms on each side of a hall. The hallway ended at an outside door of the chicken house. I opened the door and looked out. It looked like a new outhouse had been recently built. The outside area reeked strongly of lime. All the rooms but the first four had latches on them, no knobs. The entire place had running water and electricity.”
“Fucker has already got a holding facility built,” growled T.
“I agree,” I concurred. “Brawn, tell them about the vote at the last ‘secret’ meeting King called.”
“King didn’t get all his votes. Those of us who voted no said we needed more time to think. He gave us two to three weeks.”
“Apparently it doesn’t matter what he’s said. It looks like he’s going forward with it regardless,” Rage spit out. “I despise that motherfucker. Want him dead.”
“Gonna agree on this too,” I added. “Gotta question for all of you. After we get rid of King, what do you guys want to do? Stay together? Move away? Find another MC? What?”
“You don’t want to be Prez of HRMC once the trash has been removed?” Crusher quizzed.
“Nah. Gonna tell you like I did Brawn, we don’t know what kind of deals King has made with anyone. We keep the club going and we would be responsible for whatever agreements the bastard has made. I’m not doing that. Besides, I don’t want to be Prez.”
Five sets of eyes looked at me in disbelief.
“You don’t want to be our Prez?” T asked incredulously. “Then what the fuck we gonna do?”
“I want to know if you would be willing to move out of state?”
“Where?” Draven inquired.
“Arkansas.”
“Why there?” Taz looked puzzled at my answer.
“That’s where Bane lives.”
“You want to move to where your son is?” Taz uttered quietly.
“Yeah, Taz, I do. But there are some things that you all don’t know.”
“Like what?” he wondered out loud.
“For one, Bane is a member of an MC in Arkansas.”
I watched five sets of eyebrows raise.
“Which one?” T asked.
“Angel’s Rebellion.”
“Never heard of them,” he responded as the rest of the guys shook their heads showing they hadn’t either.
“Probably wouldn’t. They aren’t a nationwide MC. Single only. They are, however, a 1%’er club.”
“What do they run?” Rage questioned.
I replied, “All their businesses are legal.”
“What’s that mean exactly? How are they an outlaw club?” he pondered.
“They don’t have a problem taking matters into their own hands.”
“What you’re saying is that they aren’t adverse to getting blood on their hands?” Draven queried.
“Exactly.”
“You thinking they would let us patch over?” Rage asked.
“Yes. While the invitation has already been issued, they did say that they would have to meet you and there would be a background check done on you as well.”
“Why the background check?” Crusher questioned.
“This club isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen or heard about,” I told them. “It will literally blow your mind.”
“How’s that?”
Tor spoke up, “Never seen a compound like this in my life. It sits on over seven hundred acres. It has two ten-feet tall double chain link fences. The fences are about ten-feet apart. The top of the fencing is wrapped in razor wire. The Clubhouse is monstrous. There are over forty rooms for single men with their own bathrooms. There’s another ten for officers and guests. HRMC’s entire clubhouse would fit in their Great Room alone. There’s also twelve club girls. Fucking sexy women.”
I took over, “There are over forty members right now and seven Prospects. I think every man who has an Old Lady or a family has their own place on the compound. The club builds each Brother their own home once they have a family. Bane’s fucking house is huge and looks like it could be in a high class ritzy neighborhood. They have a gym, a movie theater, an outdoor rec area with a swimming pool. There is a garage to house your bikes.
“They own a garage, a construction business, a bar, a tattoo parlor, and they are about to open up a training academy. T, you and Draven would be all over that.”
“What do you mean?” Draven asked, puzzled.
“They have a team of men who are all former military or former law. These will be the men who will run the academy.”
“What courses would they be teaching?” T quizzed.
“I didn’t get very in depth with that, T. I do know that they have former Delta, Ranger, and SEALs in the club besides regular Army. You may have heard of one of the men. I was told he was the best in his field and he retired from the Army.”
“Who’s that?” Draven wanted to know.
“Goes by Boomer.”
“You’re shitting me?” Draven replied incredulously.
“Kid you not. Met the man.”
“Holy fucking shit. Ry, that man is a legend. He had a one hundred percent success rate. Fucker was charmed.”
“There are a few others there that you would know too. The main one being Viper.”
Stunned surprise showed on six of the men’s faces this time.
Brawn sputtered, “You’re telling me Vip is in this club?”
“Yeah, along with Reb, Pred, Jace, Rogue, Slade, Screw, Hatchet, Bambam, and Cotton.”
All of them knew the men I mentioned. They had met them either at Sturgis or when we went to the Spawns of Satan’s compound. Since SoS wasn’t that big, the eight of us had all stayed at Vip’s house in Kentucky.
“How did that happen?” Brawn asked, shock evident in his voice.
“You all knew that Vip and those mentioned managed to get away from SoS, what we didn’t know was where they went. Vip and I had a long talk and he apologized for not getting with me to let me know where they were now. They wanted to keep everything on the downlow and I can’t blame him.
“We do this, I want the same thing to take place. I don’t want others to know where we are. ARMC keeps to itself for the most part. They don’t go to Sturgis any longer. They decided to quit going a few years back because it seemed to mostly be hardcore outlaw clubs. Their intention was never to get into illegal businesses and they’ve kept it that way too.”
“What do you think about all we’ve said?” I queried.
“Ry, I have a question. You said something about a team. What does this team do?” T inquired.
I hesitated a second. I knew this was something that ARMC didn’t want getting out. It had the potential to bring other clubs, gangs, and mafia down on them.
“Ry, it’s rare for you to withhold shit from us. What’s got you doing it now?” he continued.
I raised my hand and stroked my beard as I decided whether to tell them.
“Brother, you not trust us?” his voice sounded upset.
“T, it’s not that. I do trust all of you, but if this got out, it’s possible that it could come back on ARMC hard. As in a shit load of people out to get them.”
T’s brows drew down at my reply. I could see he was trying to figure out what I meant.
“Only way others would be out to get them is if they are either stealing business from others, but you said all of theirs is legal, or they are stopping others from doing illegal shit.”
His gaze flew to mine as he thought out what could possibly cause blowback onto ARMC.
“They stopping drug runs?”
“I don’t think they are actively doing that. Know if they hear of one they would stop it.”
“Doubt it would be guns,” T mumbled to himself as he continued trying to figure it out.
Fuck. He was going to guess it. I shouldn’t have said a damn word about the team.
Only Draven beat him to it. He drew in a sharp breath and exclaimed, “Oh, fuck me. They’re going after traffickers, aren’t they?”
I grimaced. Son of a bitch. I hoped they could keep this shit to themselves. If not, I may have just unintentionally sent possible harm in ARMC’s direction.
“Holy shit,” T breathed out.
He looked at Draven and Draven returned his gaze. Then they both looked at me.
“I want in,” Draven stated.
“Same,” T remarked.
“Can’t promise anything to any of you. That will be up to Dog and Vip.”
“I take it Dog’s their Prez?” Brawn asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why Vip though?” he added.
“Vip’s the VP.”
“Damn,” he exclaimed.
“Gonna ask again, would you be willing to move and patch over?”
“Yeah,” T immediately responded.
“Already said I want in,” Draven said again.
Crusher and Rage looked at each other and nodded. They both looked at me and uttered, “We’ll go.”
“Already told Ry that I’d move,” Brawn uttered. “We talked about a little of this last night when I went over there after taking Madison to my sister’s.”
“You worried about Maddie?” Rage wanted to know.
“Guys, I left Trina, Bronte, Taron and Raiden in Arkansas. They aren’t coming back. Don’t trust King to not try to use them against me. Also, if King already has shit going on with the holding location, then he’s already involved with someone in the trafficking business.”
“Ry and I were talking about this shit and Ry pointed out that Madison is the perfect age to be taken,” Brawn said.
“Fucker would do it too,” T snarled. “Think it was smart to leave the rest of your family there.”
“Taz,” I looked at the young man who I’d supported his entire childhood. Not like what I would have liked to do, but at least I’d made damn sure his mom and him had money to survive on. “You haven’t said anything. What’s your thoughts on this? Is it something you aren’t willing to do because you’d be leaving your mom?”
He looked deep in thought. “I want to stay with you, but not sure what to do. I hate leaving Mom behind.”
“We could talk to her together if you want. See if she would want to move too.”
He cut his eyes to mine. “They’d let me bring Mom?”
“Yeah, they would. Screw, Hatchet and Slade all took their moms. Each of them was provided a house.”
“Then I’d like you to come with me to talk to Mom.”
I jerked my chin at him. “We’ll try to do that this week.”
“Alright.”
“One more thing I wanted to talk to you about. ARMC’s team is going to come help us out when we get a definitive plan set. I had an idea and we talked it through. They agreed that it would work and it would be the best way of dealing with King and his cronies.
“Got to let you know upfront, it will be violent. You all good with that?” I questioned.
“If it involves us taking out that motherfucker, then, yeah, I’m good with it,” Crusher replied.
“What he said,” Rage intoned.
“Don’t got a problem with it,” Draven stated.
“Nor I,” T murmured.
“You don’t even have to ask me that, Ry. You know how I feel,” Taz clarified.
“I’m good with it all too,” Brawn inserted. “As far as I’m concerned, the bastard should have been dead years ago.”
“Whatcha thinking, Ry?” T queried.
“The best time to take them out is when they are having a ‘secret’ meeting. Only thing is, we’ve got to figure out a way of having Brawn and Draven out of the clubhouse.”
“We blowing it?” Rage wanted to know. His smile showed his enthusiasm for his question.
“Not us, but Boomer’s team is.”
“Drav and I’ve talked about this too,” T uttered. “We came to the same conclusion about doing something while they were in a meeting. Think we know what we can do to get Drav and Brawn out of the clubhouse.”
“Let’s hear it,” I told both men as I watched them intently.
“We get a date when they are holding a meeting, a couple days before it, Drav can have an unexpected family emergency come up that will take him out of town. His was easy to think of. Brawn’s was a little harder. Since King is Brawn’s family, we can’t do the same thing with him, but what we’ve come up with will work. It’s something that hit me as I was literally sitting on the shitter one night after I ate something that didn’t agree with me.
“We can have Brawn be ‘sick’ and have to stay at his place on the john.”
“What if he has someone go to his trailer and check up on him? I’d almost bet King would do that too since Brawn’s place isn’t but a couple hundred yards behind the compound,” I stated.
“Easy. We’ll fix a bucket of rank shit from chickens, pigs and cows and right before the meeting, Brawn will let King know he can’t get off the crapper. Brawn can set the bucket in his shower and draw the shower curtain blocking the bucket from sight. Brawn can sit his ass on the throne and groan like he’s in pain. He might have to sit in a damn horrendous smelling room, but trust me, if it smells as bad as my place did when I was shitting my guts out the other night, whoever checks on Brawn will go back and let King know it’s legit.”
We all cracked up. It was juvenile as hell and it just might fucking work.
“Now we’ve just got to find a time when he’s having another meeting. We need to have enough notice so we can set everything into play. It will take ARMC’s men roughly eleven hours to get here. They’ll need time to set up.”
“How much time has he given you for the last couple of meetings?” I questioned Brawn and Draven.
“First one he called that same day, the second one we knew about a week in advance,” Brawn stated.
“Then we’ll fucking have to hope he gives plenty of notice. We don’t get it done then, that might be our only chance for that particular scenario,” I said.
“Think I can help make it work out. I’ll feel King out and see when he is planning on having the next one,” Brawn uttered.
“Sounds good. I want you all to think about what we’ve discussed, if any of you have any questions, get with me. If you come up with other ideas, same thing, get with me. Don’t talk about this shit around anyone but if you have to talk about it, I wouldn’t do it indoors either. Remember to be aware of your surroundings at all times and do your absolute best not to ride alone.”
After receiving affirmation from all the men, I concluded, “Let’s go to the titty bar and watch some women shake their tits and asses.”
I didn’t have to tell any of them a second time. They all hopped up and headed toward their bikes. As we rode to the strip club, I couldn’t help but think of the plan we’d come up with. It wasn’t elaborate by any means. In fact, it was downright laughable, So fucking laughable that I knew it would work.
~***~