Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 132892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
“Not all of them,” Ruger said. “But we know Pipes is solid—he put his life on the line more than once for Painter on the inside. And Cord is solid with him. Until Marsh took over, we never had problem with them, and they aren’t Marsh’s people. What we have here is a good support club that got infected by a cancer. Cut out the cancer, we get the club back.”
“But to patch them over as Reapers?” Horse asked, skeptical. “That seems a little much.”
“Not right away,” Ruger said. “But we could give them a chance to redeem themselves, and take it from there. Make them provisional. It’s not a case of patching over the whole club—it’s shutting down the bad club and patching over the members worth saving. Could send a powerful message to any other support club in the area. Stay loyal and you’ll be rewarded. And despite this shit with Marsh, the bulk of the brothers stayed loyal. They’re just stuck in prison. Remember, not one of the fuckers testified against his brothers or the Reapers.”
“It could work,” Pic said slowly. “I mean, it’s different, but . . . I need to talk to Shade about this. It’s a bigger decision than we can make right here. You guys clear out, get ready for tonight while I talk to him. Regardless of what he says, we need to get out to the clubhouse and meet with the Nighthawks. Otherwise we’ll look weak.”
Men started to leave, and I stood to join them, but Pic motioned at me to stay. I locked the door behind the brothers as he picked up his phone.
“Shade, it’s Pic,” he said. “I’m putting you on speaker—want you to hear what’s been going on from Gage, who’s in the room with me.”
“Gage, I’ve been hearing about your work,” Shade said. He hadn’t been our national president for that long, but in that time he’d more than earned my respect. “Pic told me what happened in Ellensburg yesterday. Sorry to hear that Painter’s in so much trouble. Hate it when a brother goes back inside.”
“He’s a good man,” I said, and it was true. For years, Painter had seemed less like a brother and more like a dumbass kid, but he’d pulled through for all of us in the end. “Fucking sucks.”
“Coales will do everything he can,” he said. “And that goes for you, too. I hear you’re probably out of the woods on your charges.”
“Not yet, but it sounds like I will be.”
“Glad to hear it. Now, what’s the assessment with the Nighthawks?”
“Most of them are shit,” Picnic said. “At least, most of those on the outside. We know the originals—the men in prison long term—are good. So are a few who are still on the outside. Cord, for one. He was down to see Pipes in California when Painter and Pipes were on the inside together. Source of our information in the first place. Gage hasn’t had much chance to talk to him because the entire time he’s been here, he very carefully made himself out to be Marsh’s bitch. Cord and his boys have no respect for Marsh and his people, so they ignored Gage.”
“Guess that’s in his favor,” Shade said. “So tell me what you’re thinking.”
“So, it goes without saying that we have to get rid of the Nighthawks who were with Marsh,” Pic said. “The new ones and the traitors. That won’t be hard because they’re nothing—not real brothers at all. Just a collection of losers and followers who didn’t even prospect for real. But it does leave us in an interesting position in terms of men like Cord, not to mention the original brothers who are serving longer prison terms. We can’t let a club that’s betrayed us survive, but we also can’t leave a power vacuum. Not only that, there’s a lot of good men who call themselves Nighthawks who have nothing to do with this. Tough situation.”
“True enough,” Shade said. “You have any suggestions?”
“I want to kick out the crap and then patch the good men in as Reapers,” Picnic said. Shade didn’t answer for a minute.
“Your solution to them betraying us is bringing them into our club?” he asked. “Wanna run that by me again?”
“Okay, I know it sounds crazy,” Pic said. “But think it through—we got good men. Strong brothers. They held this territory for twenty years and the partnership worked. Then a big group of them went down and not one testified against us or each other. Marsh Jackson snuck in and took over while they were helpless, and if anything, we should have been covering their asses. Instead we allowed it to happen. That’s on us, Shade.”
I stared at my president, impressed. This was all in.
“I can see that,” Shade said slowly. “But you can’t seriously think I’ll authorize the creation of a new Reapers charter over the phone. Doesn’t work that way, bro. We both know this.”