Absolute silence descends over the table.
Someone whistles long and low.
“Bro.” Butcher’s eyes widen to half-dollar size. “That is fucked up. Are you sure?”
“From what I gathered, they searched their suite same as they searched the rest of the place. Found some questionable photos, maybe. I don’t know. Since they both claimed it was their room before the search started, cops arrested both of them.”
“Sway won’t have to worry about the cops,” Steer says. “Tawny will fucking eviscerate him with her bare hands if it’s true.”
Z lets out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know if it’s true or not. He’s been heavily involved with Stella and her films for years. But she’s well-past legal. I got no idea what they found. I’ve been up in their room like once since I took over.” He shudders. “Once was enough.”
“If it’s true,” Rock says. “The club needs to distance itself from him as much as possible, as soon as possible. We cannot have our club’s name attached to that in any way.”
“Distance?” Wrath sneers. “You mean end that motherfucker.”
“They send him to prison with a kiddie porn rap, he won’t last long,” Steer says.
“You’d be surprised.” I can’t help myself from speaking on this since I’d witnessed it firsthand. “Depending on where he ends up, he might be put in protective custody with all the other sickos. Ain’t like they tell you on television. They don’t always toss the pervs into gen pop for a dose of prison justice.”
“Well, we’ll decide what to do when we get there,” Z says.
“Everyone knows Sway and I got no love lost between us. And as sleazy of a motherfucker as he can be, I’ve never seen him…I don’t know.” Rock drops his gaze and shakes his head. “We’ll have to see how it plays out.”
“Thank fuck I’ve been making sure all our girls are double and triple verified.” Rooster presses his palms together prayer style and raises them toward the ceiling. “Ice’s too. All of our online content is legit.”
“I knew Anya’s parents,” Ice says. “She’s definitely legal. And I know she’s careful about anyone she works with.”
“Then, if they find anything, Sway’s responsible, and it shouldn’t come back on the club,” Rooster adds.
Suds raises his hand. “I got a real problem with y’all assuming Sway is guilty. We’ve shared a patch with him for a long time. Where’s the loyalty?”
“No one’s saying he’s guilty,” Z answers. “For fuck’s sake, I just sent Charlotte to meet up with the club’s lawyer to give him a hefty retainer. Got someone lined up to represent Tawny’s ass too. Club’s taking care of them.”
“But if we find he’s guilty by our code,” Rock adds, “he’s gotta go. End of discussion. That has always been a hard line.”
“Okay.” Suds sits back and nods. “That’s fair. Sorry, Z. I didn’t mean to question you.”
“It’s all right, brother.” Z wiggles his fingers in the air in a give-it-to-me gesture. “Everyone’s rattled after what went down today. I want my brothers to voice their concerns, whatever they are.”
“Any idea if upstate will be hit next?” Rav asks.
Rock shakes his head. “So far, Swan says all is quiet.”
“Malik says it’s business as usual at Crystal Ball when I checked in with him,” Dex says.
“That’s a good sign, right?” Murphy stabs his fingers against the table. “They were specifically looking at this charter. Not the whole Lost Kings organization?”
“It was local PD, so it seems that way. I had to call Priest and warn him so he didn’t roll up while this was going down.” Z groans. “That was a fun conversation.”
“Fuck,” Jigsaw grumbles. “Just what we need.”
“I managed to slip away and not show them my ID,” Ice says. “But they could’ve run my plate outside.”
“I avoided them too.” Pants raises his hand. “Talked to T-Bone before we sat down, and he says all is quiet at our clubhouse.”
“Not that I’m happy we’re a target,” Z says, “but it is good news if it’s this charter alone and not the whole organization being looked at.”
“What did the warrant say?” Dex asks.
“It was pretty vague. Charlotte argued with them for quite a while at the gate, so we could get things squared away in here,” Z answers.
I’ll have to thank Charlotte when I see her. That extra time allowed me to get my ass down to the bunker.
“Fucking Tiny and his unregistered weapon,” Steer moans. “I’m gonna strangle him when he gets out.”
“Drugs,” Teller says, nodding at Dex. “Meth and heroin supposedly. A lot of other legal word salad but Charlotte said that’s what it boiled down to.”
“Two things we’ve never been involved with?” Steer squints. “That’s fucking stupid.”
“What a lovely waste of tax-payer dollars,” someone else says.
“Maybe they just wanted to test out all their Rambo gear on the big, bad outlaw clubhouse.” Hustler waves his hands and arms in the air like he’s about to go Ghostbusting.