Chapter Five: Framework
Numbers
“You lost, man. Face it. I know you don’t like to lose, Chalk, but I got one game in. Take heart in the fact you won the rest of the four games.” I held my finger up at him.
He pointed his cue stick over the pool table as I spoke.
I was at Wheelz playing pool with Chalk, who was whipping my ass. Hard. We were early for a clubhouse meeting to discuss who might have framed me. Dusk had fallen in Holbeck and the heat, thank god, had turned down a notch.
“You cheated. You must have. I never lose, and especially not to someone like you.” Chalk stuck his tongue out and glided around the table to place his cue stick back in its groove.
“You snubbing your nose at me? I’m a dark horse, and I know how to play pool. I beat most of the other guys. Don’t forget that,” I reminded him in jest.
He was right though, he normally didn’t lose to me. I caught him on an off day. Chalk could hit impossible shots and make you question your sanity. The man had enough tricks to last him a lifetime and he knew how to hustle people right out of their last dollars. No idea how he could do it all.
My claim to pool fame was when we ran a pool competition at Wheelz to raise money for a local charity and I shocked myself by winning quite a few games a while back.
“I hope you’re not talking about that pool competition,” he said cockily. “You were drunk half the time; you had the beer goggles on. Maybe that’s what helped you play better.”
“Worked though, didn’t it?” I laughed as I joined him in putting the cue stick back in its groove with the others.
Hawk came up behind me and slapped me on the back. “He beat you again? You should practice more, so you can at least be competitive,” he said in a mocking tone.
I pretended to clutch my heart. “Ouch, that hurt me. You can talk. You’ve been off your game lately.”
Hawk chuckled. “I’m off my pool game, but my darts are pretty good right now. Should have seen how I hit that bullseye the other day.”
“Small consolation huh?” I teased.
Bones came out from the bathroom and called everybody in, “Hey all, let’s head into the meeting room. Grab your beers, we got a lot to run through.” His face was serious as his eyes connected with mine.
I hustled a beer out of the club fridge.
Bones, Smoke, Hawk, Gunner, Bear, Maverick, Ink, Coyote and Chalk all walked into the meeting room and took up space around the table. Some of the boys clinked their beers together and grinned. The club was built on brotherhood, and we had a real sense of camaraderie amongst us.
Bones wrapped his knuckles on the table to start the meeting. “Hey, hey, hey. You know why I called you all here tonight.”
“Yep, those bastard Devil Riders, that’s why,” Smoke piped up.
Bones directed his attention to Smoke. “Which leads me to my next question. Do we think the Devil Riders were responsible for setting up Numbers? We still have the sticky situation that Snake left over with the cartel. We still owe them money.” Bones tossed the suspects to the floor.
Chalk spoke up, “I think it was Devil Riders for sure. Snake is trying to hit up the whole club. They want our turf. Why else? They were trying to deal at the casino and Snake is bitter as hell. Grenade is no better. I got my money on him.”
“Grenade is a traitor. What I need is more solid information to go on,” Bones reiterated. Anyone could hear the pain in his voice when he mentioned Snake and Grenade. Both of them walking out on the club was still a massive sore point.
I observed him as he rolled his shoulders back. Yep. He was still hung up on it. It was hard to get over when the person who betrayed you was still trying to dissolve your club. “I agree with Chalk, Snake or any affiliations with Snake would be my first go-to.” I backed him up on it as I leaned back in my chair. “How much do we owe the cartel and why?”
“That’s debatable,” Bones replied. “These undercover deals were originally speculation. Snake was attempting to cut a deal with them when he was here, and then I received a call, which is part of what I wanted to tell you about. Pills were being sold in Red Stone Casino, and I thought we had that cleared up. Snake went against my wishes and started distributing there under the Rebel Saints banner. According to the phone call I received last night, we owe them 50k.”
“Are you kidding? 50k? Why doesn’t the money transfer with Snake?” Hawk called out in an infuriated voice. The veins in his neck were pulsing with anger from the situation.
The whole room went to a silent shock as Bones dished out the new information to us.
Hawk raised his thick arms in despair. “If he was being a snake and dealing behind your back without the club’s knowledge, then he should be made to pay. Can’t you just tell them what’s going on?”
“No, it’s not that simple,” Bones replied. “You know that. The cartel could care less. They want their money. Snake is very much connected to them now. I want to take a stab in the dark that he’s probably the lead distributor in the region for them. They aren’t going to gun for him when they are making good money in partnership with him.”
I sat up in my seat. “Strange that I didn’t see that running through the books. He must have been pocketing the money directly. Our records weren’t reflecting additional income floating into the club.”