against himself—Pres had privately made his stance abundantly clear one last time before stepping away—the idea landed dead in the water. He would respect the democratic process, but that didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.
So, for now, Zed was scrambling to drum up extra repo and protection jobs, Squid was combing through their books to figure out if they could put off any bills or sell some assets, and Biff had been tasked with scouring internet auctions, classifieds, and coin store websites to watch for Double Eagles suddenly popping up. Torch was convinced the latter was just a huge fucking waste of time, but the table had also spoken when it came to divvying up responsibilities and Buddha hadn’t given him the proxy to abuse it for his own gain.
They were spreading themselves thin, too thin for comfort. But again, it wasn’t his personal call to make.
After the boys got the last bike on the truck and Mace went to work fastening them down, Gauge walked over and joined him for a smoke. “What’s on your mind, brother?”
“Fucking everything. This shit’s just—”
“A total clusterfuck?” Gauge finished for him with a smirk.
“Yeah.”
“You pissed about the Liv vote?”
Torch flicked his cigarette butt and rubbed his beard. “I wouldn’t say pissed, I just think we’re making this a lot harder on ourselves than it has to be. And I still can’t help thinking this was a Cora set-up and we’re making ourselves look like fucking idiots anyway.”
They’d talked about the possibility of Cora being behind the ambush, essentially setting himself up to collect almost double—three hundred and fifty grand to be exact—but most of them had written it off as not being the guy’s style. Torch wasn’t so sure.
Gauge blew out a lungful of smoke and frowned. “An ambush would be up Cora’s alley, but when’s he ever hidden behind masks and shit? He hasn’t built a brutal reputation by lurking in the shadows. I mean, he stands to gain, but the guy’s got millions.”
“I know. But how the fuck did these assholes find out about it then? Buddha swears Cora’s the only one who knew.”
“Yeah, but Buddha didn’t tell him where the coins were coming from. Biff called the seller after church, the guy said Buddha was his first call, he didn’t offer the coins to anybody else.”
“Did you check our bikes for trackers like I asked?”
Gauge nodded. “Yeah, they’re all clean. Pres went to the hospital for blood work, so I swung by there too.”
“They could’ve followed us out, it’s not like we were going that fast.”
“One of us would’ve noticed a tail,” Gauge pointed out. “I don’t think it was him, man. Cora’s not an idiot, he’d know we’d look at him first and he’s got maybe fifteen guys. Would he risk starting a war with an MC of over five hundred members between all the chapters? Robbing a president who needed the money to treat fucking cancer would end with a bloodbath for him, we’d wipe out his entire organization.”
“I get what you’re saying, brother, but it doesn’t add up. I asked Biff to try and get into the cameras on I-25, maybe he’ll spot the van somewhere and track it.”
“I doubt Biff’s got the skills, he only got a few weeks of hacking training with Liv before all that shit went down last year.”
“Yeah, well, you assholes won’t let me ask her to help out,” Torch huffed.
Gauge tensed his jaw and stared at him. “Tell you what, let’s do what we can to get the money together and see if Biff comes up with anything. We’ve got fourteen days, if we figure we’re fucked after ten, call another vote and I’ll back you up. We should have at least half the money by then, so it’s not like she’d be covering the whole thing. I can live with that. You know you’ve got Zed on your side too, and with Buddha’s proxy, it’ll be a majority.”
He shook his head. “Buddha wouldn’t—”
“Buddha’s out of commission, maybe for good. You need to fucking step up and do what you need to do, brother.”
“I’m heading back to the shop,” Mace called out.
“Alright, man, we’re coming,” Gauge replied. He turned back to Torch and poked him in the chest. “Figure your shit out and own it. There’s a reason you’ve been VP all these years.”
: 11 :
| LIVIA |
Over the course of the next week, it became abundantly clear there was more going on within the Serpents than Buddha’s