Memphis: Chapter 1

Early the next morning, Memphis was in the office monitoring the new setup when one of the cameras showed there was movement in tunnel number five.

He watched the feed for a moment then frowned as he saw a doddering old man moving around the single still. He was adding wood underneath the still and then adding ingredients to the still itself. Memphis watched as he carefully measured and dumped in the ingredients. Then he sat down on the stool next to the still and lit the fire.

Memphis could see he knew what he was doing but then Memphis wondered who the hell the old man was and why he was there in the first place. Memphis left a note for Click as to what he saw was going on, then he got up and went to the tunnel.

With his weapon out, he made his way into the main area, checking for other intruders before he got to the doorway where the single still was being attended. He finally stepped through the doorway and raised his weapon, “Don’t move, old man.” He growled as he trained his gun on the still maker.

The old man looked up at him and snorted. “I ain’t armed young man, put that gun down.”

“No fucking way, old timer.” Memphis growled. “What the hell are you doing here and how the fuck did you get in here anyway?”

The old man just shook his head. “Son, I’ve been doing this for over fifty years. So what does it look like to you? I’m making shine, of course.” He chuckled. “Now, put that damn gun away before you shoot me or yourself, you damn fool.”

“I don’t fucking think so.” Memphis let a growl roll through his voice. “Now answer my damned question.” He then froze as he felt cold steel at the back of his head. Someone had sneaked up behind him and shoved a gun barrel into the back of his neck.

”You kiss your mama with that foul mouth?” a female voice asked. “I believe my grandpa asked you to lower your weapon. So, I suggest you do just that before I shoot you and your head explodes like a ripe melon all over the place. That would make a terrible mess and my grandpa likes this place clean when he’s making his shine.”

Memphis growled under his breath and lowered his gun very slowly, too slowly according to the woman behind him as he heard her cock her weapon. He raised his free hand and carefully holstered his gun.

Only then, did she push him forward and raise her gun at him. “Now the tables have turned, Mr. Pottymouth. So just who the heck are you and how did you know we were even here? We never saw anyone here before today and we’ve been here every three days for years.”

Memphis glared at her. “You don’t belong here. This place belongs to our MC and it has for the last seven years or so.”

The old man snorted. “Son, this land belonged to my family for a hundred years or more. I’ve been coming here for most of my life.”

“So you must be Alfredo Raggetti?” Memphis cocked his head to one side as he studied him.

“I am.” The old man nodded, glancing over at the woman who was lowering her weapon. “And this is my granddaughter Delaney.” Then he looked at Memphis and frowned. “Just how did you know my name, young man?”

Memphis scoffed. “Your grandson Raggo has been making trouble around here.”

Alfredo shook his head. “That doesn’t surprise me none. That boy was always stupid, always drawing our family into more misfortune. Have you seen anything of Alijala or Romano yet?”

“Not yet. I’m sure it won’t be long before they show up though.”

“Why would my brothers suddenly be interested in this old place?” Delaney asked.

Alfredo stared at Memphis for a moment then shrugged and told her, “They must have found your great grandfather’s book.” Shaking his head he admitted, “Damn it, I was hoping that book and those secrets would never be found. That was one secret that should have been forgotten and buried a long time ago.”

“What are you talking about Grandpa?” Delaney asked as she frowned at him.

“Laney, you know what your great granddaddy did for a living, right?” he asked her.

Delaney nodded.

He went on, “Well, when the FBI cracked down on the mob back in the twenties and thirties, he settled down and led a quiet life. At least on the surface he did, but he had many back door deals going on. Bootlegging was one of the things he had. With enough booze runners, he made a good living breaking the laws at the time. He raised holy hell and no one really knew what he was doing, but he stayed legal enough he could beat most of the charges the cops tried to lay on him. He called it deniability and the Feds couldn’t prove he was connected, so they couldn’t bust his ass. Then when he got older, he began to brag about stuff that the FBI couldn’t connect to him. About the things he did, right under their noses. When it couldn’t be proved by the evidence, everyone thought it was just the ramblings of an old man, but there was a grain of truth to his bragging.” He snorted. “There was one Marshal that sure had a hard on for him and he tried to bust him several times but the evidence just wasn’t there to make it stick.”

“Would that be Milo Kent?” Memphis raised a brow at him.

Alfredo nodded. “It would be indeed. Milo wasn’t the only Kent that tried his best to bust us. He passed this curse down to his son Michael and Michael passed it down to his son George. George tried his damn best to bust me twice. Two times, I went to jail, and when I got out, he tried to bust me a third time. After the second time, I went straight for all intents and purposes but that didn’t bother George too much, he kept on trying, like a hound dog with a scent trail. They couldn’t bust me on anything and eventually, he got his ass in hot water for harassment, but even then, that lawman wouldn’t quit. Then after that fiasco, he changed his focus to my son Barrett.” Shaking his head he admitted, “Barrett tried his best to follow in my dad’s footsteps and George busted him twice.”

“He’ll be out soon,” Delaney remarked. “But it won’t matter to either of them, they will just pick up where they left off. Dad isn’t going to go straight and he’ll be busted soon enough. Maybe this time, he’ll die in that damn prison.”

“Yeah, those Kents are like dogs with bones, they just can’t let it go. So they will be watching them real close.” Alfredo looked up at Memphis and explained, “You see sonny, Barrett raised his sons to continue the lawlessness. All three of his boys figure the law doesn’t apply to them. They all follow in their dad’s and great granddad’s footsteps.”

Memphis nodded. “So we’ve been finding out.”

“So what have you found so far, young man?” Alfredo asked.

“We’ve found his safe and the money inside it led the Marshals to link him to a string of bank robberies that were hundred years old. The safe was found in the clubhouse but it was inside the walls, carefully hidden.”

Alfredo nodded knowingly. “My dad always told us about banks far away that he’d hit but like I said, there was no evidence. Oh, we lived well enough, but he wasn’t a man to live large and in charge. He always had this look in his eyes though and no one knew what it meant. He was laughing on the inside while daring anyone to stop him. He thought no one was smart enough to do that. My dad had a hair trigger and most people around him knew it. He also had no patience and he didn’t suffer fools lightly. He always felt Milo Kent was a fool and he did his best to prove it to the world.” Snorting he admitted, “He pissed that lawman off so many times. But then Milo wouldn’t give up trying to prove that my old man was just a rotten to the core criminal.”

Memphis looked from him to the girl. “We never gave a shit about the Raggettis, why would we? Except for Raggo. He tried to do some real bad things to our club. He and his Dragons had it out for us and we could never figure out why. Not until recently. We discovered that it wasn’t us… it was our compound that he was really after. Damn, we’ve lived here for seven years and we never knew all of this was even here.” He motioned to the room around them. “Let alone still rooms, tunnels, hidden safes, doors inside of closets, hidden stuff under the floor boards and the list goes on.”

Delaney snorted. “Most people have lived in this area for longer than that and still don’t know this place is here. That was by design, my great grandpa made it that way on purpose. The rest of it, I never heard much about though.”

Alfredo nodded. “That’s where most of his income came from. He started them in Prohibition. He continued them long after it was over. The booze was his main money maker. Did you ever find his store rooms?”

Memphis stared at him. “Yes sir, we did.”

Alfredo froze. “You did? Are you sure?”

“We found one room full of whiskey casks.”

Alfredo shook his head. “My father had three of those rooms, not just one.”

Memphis stared at him as he realized this could be a lot bigger than they had previously thought as the man said storerooms as in more than one. So now, he wondered about the rest of what they’d found. “How many tunnels did he have in and out of the house?” Memphis asked.

Alfredo snorted. “He had maybe seven tunnels in and out.”

“Seven?” Memphis exclaimed. “We only found five.” He looked around at the room they were in. “Zeus is going to want to talk to you.”

“He, your boss?” Alfredo wanted to know.

“He’s our President, yeah,” Memphis replied. “He’s also my brother.”

Delaney rolled her eyes. “Well, if you think Vincent was trouble, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Alijala and Romano are ten times worse. If Vince called them, they will come after you.”

“If you found my dad’s book you found out about the real secret of this place,” Alfredo stated.

“The gold?” Memphis asked. “Yeah, we found out about that. Just how many books did your dad have anyway?”

Alfredo furrowed his brows in confusion. “Just the one that I know of.”

“Well, we found one here, while Raggo was given another one,” Memphis informed him.

Alfredo paused and looked over at Delaney, then back to Memphis. “Maybe I should talk to your president after all, son. Cause that don’t sound right. As far as I know, there was only one secret book. The other book could be a decoy or something.” He knelt down to put the fire out from under the still. Standing up, stared at Memphis. “Something isn’t right here.”

“You think?” Memphis snapped. “There’s a lot of shit not right here, old man. We have been finding one God damned surprise after a fucking ‘nother for weeks. And I think I should tell you, Raggo was injured and is in Marshal custody. Travis Kent collected him along with some other men from his MC that tried to take us out.”

“Is he still alive?” Delaney asked, as she looked angry.

“He was when he left here.” Memphis shrugged. “He was all shot up but his wounds weren’t life threatening. He did find out about the gold though.”

“That gold doesn’t belong to you men. You know that right?” Alfredo spoke up sharply.

Memphis snorted. “It doesn’t belong to you or your family either, old man.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Alfredo shook his head. “And I never wanted any part of it neither. But the Family that it does belong to might just want it back.”

“I’m not sure who that is really, but we’ll have to see about that.” Memphis shook his head. “Personally, I don’t know anyone in the mob that I would trust to turn it over to.”

Alfredo chuckled dryly. “I don’t know anyone that I would trust either. But for something like this, I would go straight to the top of the food chain. And sonny, I’m not sure you’d be able to get an appointment with that man.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Memphis stared at him.

“I believe I’ll wait and tell your president.” Alfredo grabbed his walking stick.

Delaney came over to him and offered him her arm.

“Let’s get this over with, Laney girl.” He sighed. “I have led a peaceful life for all these years and now, I gotta jump back into this mess again. I ain’t happy about that.”

Memphis motioned them forward.

All three of them began the long walk back through the tunnel and into the clubhouse.

When they arrived and stepped into the main room, Memphis wasn’t surprised to find a few of the brothers waiting for them, armed to the teeth.

Zeus and Diabolus were right in front and they had their weapons ready.

Memphis raised his arms as he called out, “Hold up brothers. I brought them here.”

“What the fuck is going on, Memphis?” Zeus growled. “Who the fuck are they and where the hell did you find them?”

“Geeze, do you all snap and swear like this?” Delaney asked with a sour expression on her face. “Obviously, you all never had a dang Mama, or she woulda taught you better.” She looked around to spot Lindy and Marty standing by the men. “You got some soap I can use? Cuz these guys need their mouths washed out but good.”