Page 11 of Emergence: Prequel
MAESTRO
The anger that rode me at what had happened to Rosie had the pulse in my head beating in time with my heart. I’d never felt anger like this in my life.
Once I was assured the girls had gotten home safely, I could concentrate on what needed to be done to keep them that way.
Slamming open the clubhouse doors with the force of my anger got the attention of everyone who was waiting for me. Cash had sent out an emergency text earlier calling Church.
“Church,” I bellowed, stalking towards the room where we held Church and punching in the key code before storming to my seat and sitting down. Picking up the gavel, my hand clenched so hard around it my knuckles turned white.
Once everyone was seated, I slammed the gavel down on the table, “Church is in session—quiet down, fuckers.”
The entire room went silent. I wasn’t someone to lose my temper; in fact, I’d worked hard to keep a rein on it and that I was showing it had them paying attention.
“We have a situation. And I’ll understand if you don’t want to get involved as I haven’t formally made Stacey my Old Lady yet.”
Red snorted and rolled his eyes, “Son, we’ve all known she was yours for the last year and a bit. We’re just waiting for you to make it official. So, if that’s all that’s holding you back, then here.” He slapped a Property of Maestro cut on the tablewith Stacey stitched on the front. “Give this to her when you get home, and we’ll party later. I think we can all agree that she’s your Old Lady. Now, do you want to tell us what has you grinding your teeth?”
Taking a deep breath before answering, that cut sitting on the table in front of me changed much for how this would play out, “Rosie was attacked today at school and nearly raped. Some kid called Ford, Maura, and Opal got her out before she was. There were four of them, and I haven’t said anything to the girls other than I was proud of them, but I don’t think they’ve realised how bad it could have got if they hadn’t got away. Four football players against one guy and three girls who hardly weigh a thing.”
Wiping my hands down my face as nausea rose at the thought of anything like that happening to our girls.
“We’ve, as parents,” I waved my hand at Cash and Tinman, “agreed that they can’t go back to school until this is sorted because they will be targeted.”
“What’s the plan, Pres? We can’t beat up on kids,” Buck pointed out.
“No, we can’t,” I agreed. “But we can hit them where it hurts and that’s their pockets. Hard-Drive’s already done a quick dig, and their families don’t make their money legally. Their companies are fronts, but they deal in all sorts of things that we’d never have touched even when we were a one percent club.
“Their biggest earner is in the skin trade; anything goes—men, women, children, it doesn't matter to them. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that in my backyard. So far, it seems they don’t shit where they eat, but I have a feeling that will change once they get a look at the girls, especially as the one boy seems to have a real hard-on for Rosie.
“We’ll be going on a soft lockdown for now. Tomorrow, I want to go and see this Ford kid to say thanks and see what his home situation is like. From what I understand from the girls, it’s not good.
“Once our families are safe behind these walls, we’ll start unravelling their businesses. We have contacts in some of the alphabet agencies that would love to get their hands on this.
“We’ll mostly be working behind the scenes for now, unless for some reason we can’t any longer. Once they’re behind bars, we can take care of them. And I want to make damn sure they know it was because their boys couldn’t take no for an answer that landed them in prison. This isn’t going to be quick, and it’s going to get ugly, so, like I say, I’ll understand if you don’t vote for this.”
“What you going to do if the vote doesn’t go your way?” Duke, a quiet brother, asked curiously.
Staring at the men around the table, I’d known most of them my entire life. I’d been in shootouts with enemy MCs and had pulled some of them out of dangerous situations, and they’d done the same for me. They were my brothers, my family; the MC was my life, but Stacey and Rosie were my heart.
“I’ll be handing in my cut, resigning as President, and going after them myself.”
You could have heard a pin drop at the silence in the room.
“I’ll be going with him,” Cash replied, getting up from his chair and standing shoulder to shoulder with me.
That Cash would do that for me had me swallowing hard at the emotion that welled up. We were close—closer than I’d ever been to my blood brother, Chains. Chains had the same close relationship with Tinman. But I’d never have expected Cashto leave the brotherhood for me. I don’t think he realised the impact it made on me that he was willing to.
A cry went up at his words. Dad caught my eye, and he nodded and pointed to the gavel.
Picking it up, I banged it down on the table several times until there was silence again.
“Buck, start the vote on whether we go after these fuckers as a club or not.”
“It’s an aye from me,” Buck stated, pointing to the next brother as Cash recorded the votes in his black book.
When it was done, we waited. “Majority rules,” Cash stated, throwing his book down. “We’ll be going after these fuckers.”
The cheer could have lifted the rafters; it seemed that the brothers were getting bored not being shot at. Although most would be done online and with the Feds, I hoped we’d get some action.