Axel: Chapter 5

Sitting in Church, I’m looking at the offer we’ve made on the bar in Gravestone, and I’m not willing to up our offer any more than we have made. The owner can go fuck himself as far as I’m concerned.

Looking over at TwoCents, I can see he’s steaming about this too because we’ve been more than fair with the offer.

‘Sick of this, Pres, I think we should look for another bar we can take on. This owner is a slimy piece of shit at best.’

‘Agree with you, TwoCents. Let’s see what the brothers have to say, and we can start looking at other options.’ I respond, throwing the paperwork down.

Brothers start to trickle in for the meeting, giving nods as they take a seat. I notice Target on the door, taking everyone’s cellphones as they enter. I’m taking notes on how well he fits into the club and how reliable he is because I don’t think he’ll be a prospect more than the six months I spoke to him about that when he first agreed to give prospecting a chance.

PT walks in and sits next to me at the table, and once everyone quiets down, I smack the gavel, ‘Okay, meeting commencing, brothers, we have a problem. Silver, do you want to take this?’

‘Sure Pres,’ Silver sits up in his chair but leans his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together, ‘Last night at the club, Jewel was caught passing drugs to the man she has been giving free drinks to, Steve, we don’t know his last name as yet. Luckily Mia has sticky fingers and was able to lift the bag that Jewel had passed to him.’

Silver digs into his pocket and lays the bag of white powder on the table for all to see. ‘Specs is checking all the staff at the club once more to see if anything new comes up. What we need to discuss now is how we’re going to deal with this? Do we bring Jewel to the shed? Do we grab this Steve? Or do we watch them for more information?’

The room is in an uproar as the brothers are all snarling, cursing, threatening death in as many ways as you can think of. Much to my amusement, Brag wants us to buy an alligator to eat the fuckers.

Hammering the gavel, I shout, ‘QUIET, let’s sort this out, not shout and argue about it.’

Buzz speaks up, ‘The idea last night about getting Target and his Green Beret brother involved because they are unknowns is a good idea. Maybe they can overhear something or work out what is going on at the club.

‘We purchased Club Whisky when it was about fucked, and have built up a good customer base, mainly on the live bands and decent beer, but we’ll lose that pretty quickly if decent folk find out we have drugs being distributed in the place.

‘We got to stay clean, brothers. Now we’ve gone legit and trying to build businesses. We got to show we’re above the law.’

‘I agree, Buzz,’ Ruger states, then adds to the conversation. ‘Do you think Mia would have time to work behind the bar a couple of nights a week? She’s really observant, and if Target and Chaos, which is his bud, are hanging around, they can watch her back. She may just pick something up.’

‘I’m not sure about that, Ruger,’ I say, as this has me getting protective quickly.

‘Mia’s cool. She’s not a woman that reacts badly, I think she could do it, Pres, and she has a good relationship with Target as they have talked about Zara.’ Sting says, which surprises us as Sting doesn’t say much at all.

‘I’ll speak to Mia and Target after we’ve finished here, and then I’ll update you all,’ I look at TwoCents so he can open the next topic to discuss.

‘Our offer on the bar in Gravestone has been rejected for the third time. I honestly think we should now start looking for something else to invest in. The bar owner is a prick, and he’ll not get a better offer than we gave him. I think with the amount that we will need to put into the place, and we’re overly generous in the first place,’ TwoCents states.

‘Agree, we’ve given him three excellent offers, Pres. Let’s tell him to stick it. We can find other places to get businesses off the ground. Just looking at what Mia is planning with a coffee place tells me we have options. We just have to open our eyes to what’s available,’ Hammer says, then taps his fingers on the table. ‘Has anyone else heard that old man Jenkins is thinking of retiring? He may sell us his recovery and repair business. It would be worth looking at.’

‘No, I hadn’t heard, but I know Jenkins well. He was friends with my dad,’ I state. ‘Do you all want me to speak to him?’ Everyone agrees, so that is something else for me to sort out.

Hammer speaks once more. ‘Mia has some good ideas for this new coffee place. Turn it into a specialized coffee place. She has done a hell of a lot of research. We went over yesterday and took all measurements, and now we’re doing a blueprint. I’ll bring that to the table for you all to look at in a few days.’

‘Okay, let’s wrap it up then for now, and I’ll speak to Target, Mia, and Jenkins. We’ll have Church again in a few days when I have some answers, but if we can sort it sooner, I’ll send a group text and update you all, so keep a check on your cellphones.’ I slam the gavel down. ‘Meeting closed, shove off and get your jobs done.’

Walking over to the door, I see Target handing out cellphones to the brothers, but I slap his shoulder and nod for him to follow me.

Stepping into my office, I indicate he takes a seat. I settle behind my desk. ‘Target, we have a problem at the nightclub, and I think you’re the one that may be able to do some detective work for us.’

Target sits up, showing interest, ‘Okay, Pres, what do you want me to do?’

‘Last night, when we were at the club, Mia did some light finger work and picked up a bag of drugs from a man that Jewel, who’s been helping manage the place, has been giving free drinks to, that shows she’s selling or she’s using.

‘Also, the orders have shown that more is being purchased than is needed. But the stock shows it’s nowhere to be found, which shows that Jewel is also pocketing the orders.

‘I’d like you to ask your buddy to come over and work alongside you. Find out what’s going on. As you are both new, no one will recognize you, so it gives us an excellent opportunity to go into the club as customers and observe.

‘I’m also going to see if Mia will work behind the bar a couple of nights a week. She is excellent at spotting things that are not right, and you’ll be able to watch her back. It’s the only way I’ll allow her to do it.

‘So, what do you think? Will your buddy be interested in some covert work, do you think?’

‘I’ll think he’ll come over quickly. He’s been thinking of prospecting, but he’s waiting to see if I get my full patch after the six months as that’s what he’d want too. But he’s bored, not having any aims is not doing him any good, same as when I put myself on the streets, we need a purpose,’ Target is sitting bolt upright in his seat, and I can see his mind is working overtime, but he looks relaxed about it, even excited.

‘Okay then, you speak to him and get back to me ASAP.’ I state, then open the drawer, take out a prepay cell and hand it to Target, ‘Here’s a prepay for your buddy. Make sure he has some brother’s numbers. If anything goes wrong, he needs back up the same as you, so put Drag, Buzz, and Knuckles in as the minimum, but put them all in if you want.’ I say, then stand and show we’re done for now.

‘I’ll get back to you ASAP, Pres. I’ll contact him now.’ Target states as he walks away.

Entering PT’s office, he looks up as I lean on the chair with both hands in front of his desk. ‘I’ve spoken to Target. He’s gonna let me know about his buddy.’

‘That’s good Pres, did he think he would be interested?’

‘Yeah, he did. He thinks he needs a purpose. That’s the trouble when they leave the service. They get cut loose without a reason to keep going on. That’s why we have so many killin’ themselves or ending up homeless.’

‘Agree with you, Pres. I hope he comes over to us as he’ll be another good brother given time too.’

‘Do you have any information on Jenkins’ business, or am I going in blind?’

‘All I know, Pres, is that it turns over a good amount annually. It has a lot of promise, but old man Jenkins has had enough. Just see what he has to say, and we can put an offer in if it’s reasonable,’ PT says, then stands before walking over to me and slapping my shoulder before we both walk out of the office.

Seeing no sign of Mia in the common room, I check out the kitchen, but she’s not here either. I head up to her room as I know she sneaks up there to have some quiet time.

Knocking, I wait a moment and then knock again, ‘Mia, it’s just me, babe, need to have a word.’

‘Come in, Axel.’

Entering the bedroom, Mia is sitting in the one easy chair piled high with papers. It looks like plans.

‘What you doing, babe?’

‘I’m researching all the things needed to make this coffee house unique. Hammer is going to do the blueprint so we can see how things would fit in or if they would fit in, and then I can give you a detailed report on the place and the overall cost of upgrading.’

‘Great, it’ll help if we have as much information as possible before we get started with the place.’ I say, then sit on the end of the bed, ‘I wanted to ask if you’d be willing to do the club a big favor?’

‘Oh, what?’

‘Would you be willing to work at Club Whisky behind the bar a couple of nights a week? The aim being you watch for anything shady, especially with the women that work there.’ I rub my face and back of my neck, ‘Target is going to be hanging around as a customer, going to see if his buddy will come over and help him do some recon, see if they can find out anything about the drugs.’

‘Yes, I can do that, Axel, no problem at all. What nights do you want me to do?’

‘I’ll let you know when Target updates me on his buddy.’

‘His buddy is called Chaos, actually Vincent Styles. Only Chaos and Target are left of the team. They are close but were both lost when they were discharged.’ Mia informs me, and that’s when I realize that Sting was right. Mia and Target have become friends.

Nodding, I stand, and as I’m about to leave, I turn back to Mia, ‘Tomorrow, we’ll go out and have a ride on the bike, take a picnic and have some time out before we get deep with the nightclub problem. You okay with that, babe?’

‘Oh, for sure, I love being on a bike,’ Mia responds and has me smiling as I walk away.