“Hold up... You’re telling me Billy the Butcher has a daughter?”
“Yeah, I told you about her. Parker and I met her when we went out to Billy’s place.”
“Nah, brother. You didn’t tell me shit.” Billy was the club’s cleaner, and he was incredible at his job, but the guy had always given me the creeps. Knowing the kind of mess he was about to encounter, he’d show up at the end of some big rival shootout in a pair of fucking khakis and a dress shirt.
Then, before getting to work, he’d put on an orange hazmat suit like the kind from some apocalyptic movie. Billy was so methodical and efficient about it, too. Just thinking about it had me rambling off, “So if Billy has a daughter, that means Billy had sex with someone. Ugghh. What kind of crazy-assed hooker would fuck the Butcher?”
“Oh, come on, brother. Billy’s not that bad,” Menace replied, trying to defend him.
“He’s a little off, and you know it.”
“Maybe, but Billy and who he screwed around with isn’t important right now,” Menace grumbled.
“The hell it’s not. We need to know the kind of crazy we’re dealing with here. A little crazy, kinda crazy, or batshit crazy. We gotta know that kind of stuff.”
“She’s not crazy.” Menace thought for a brief moment, then added, “At least, I don’t think she is.”
“Well, she hacked into Menace’s fucking computer and used what she found to request a meet. She’s either got a little crazy in her or she has balls of fucking steel.”
“He’s got a point there,” Hawk snickered. “Pretty ballsy move, if you ask me.”
“Yes, it was.” Viper shook his head, “Fuck, if she was anyone other than Billy’s daughter, I’d—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Axel leaned forward and interrupted him, “Well, she is, so like it or not, we can’t touch her. Might as well get that thought out of your head and decide what the hell we’re gonna do about all this.”
“Easier said than done.” Viper raked his hand over his goatee and gave it a hard tug. “We need to find out everything there is about this girl, and I mean everything.”
“I’ll see what I can come up with.”
Hawk was the Sinners’ sergeant-at-arms. It was his job to make sure things ran smoothly for the club, so I wasn’t surprised when he offered, “I could go to her place and check it out. See if this business of hers is legit, then we can decide our next move from there.”
“Yeah, we need to check it out, but I’m not sending you out there alone.”
“I’ll go with him,” I volunteered.
“Me too,” Rafe told him.
“Whatever you need, Prez,” Menace added. “Just say the word.”
“If we do this, I don’t want y’all fucking around. I need to know everything, from how she got this business off the ground to who she’s got on her payroll. I want you to see for yourselves how she moves her product and who’s moving it. Leave no stone left unturned.”
“Understood.”
“All right then, pack your bags, boys. I want you on the road first thing in the morning.”
With that, our brief meeting was adjourned. I still had a million questions but hoped I’d get all my answers the following morning when we met up with Billy’s daughter. I said my goodbyes, then left the conference room and started out to the parking lot. I’d just made it through the back door when Rafe came rushing up beside me. “Hey, man. What do you think about all this with Billy’s daughter?”
“Not sure what the hell to think.” I shook my head as I got on my bike. “Could be a good opportunity for us to branch out, or it could be something that might bite us in the ass. Won’t know until we see what’s really going on.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same.” He got on his Harley as he asked, “Where ya headed?”
“Figured I’d go on home.” My mind drifted to the night before, and I shook my head as I grumbled, “I had a late night last night. Think I’ll just crash early, and then I’ll be ready to roll out in the morning.”
“Sounds good.” Before starting his engine, he glanced over at me and smiled. “You know, one of these days, those late nights are gonna catch up with you.”
“I think you might be right.”
Rafe chuckled, then without saying anything more, whipped out of the club’s parking lot. I took that as my cue to head out myself, and it wasn’t long before I was on the highway out to my house. As much as I liked Nashville, I preferred living out in the country more, so I’d bought a barn-style home on the outskirts of the city. In comparison to my brother’s homes, it was a little out of the way, but every time I pulled up to that long drive next to my thirty acres of land, the extra miles were all but forgotten. When I got to the house, I took a minute to give things a once over, making sure all would be good while I was gone, then headed inside to grab a quick bite to eat.